More Clean-Up!

Behind the rough cut planks is a space about 10 feet. The original limestone wall was probably built in the 1800's. At one time those wall planks marched across the width of the space and enclosed a pigeon house. Also called a Pigeonnier, common in this area of France it is a small stand alone building often with a peaked roof. If you Google it you'll see how important the pigeon business was to the local commerce. No longer needed for communication or food the Pigeonniers are no longer in use but charming just the same.

This pigeon house lost it charm at least a century ago.

After the pigeons came the chickens. A ladder was built and the chickens climbed up each night and came down each morning... it must have been quite a chore to collect the eggs.

Here is the opposite end of the space... originally storage for feed and hay for the farm animals. Once there were no longer pigs, cows, horses and sheep it was mostly abandoned... an enormous empty space. In need of a lot of cleaning!

 Piles and stacks of scrap wood... and that plank wall came out. Large sections of the floor were beyond repair. About a third of those floor planks will be replaced... but that's is for another time.

And the wood kept coming out, the length of the barn is easily 70 feet. Nearly all the wood had dry rot or had been damaged by the Bore Beetle, a common enemy of wood in this area. Once all the wood was piled out in the field it was burned.
Next week the face of the barn will get a new coat of plaster, stay tuned!
And if you have thanks for reading...

Au revoir,