At the beginning there was Paul. He had the idea, the vision, the drive, the commitment. He set the standards and led the way. No one else could do what he did, work with him, even. He couldn’t tolerate it. I could never have imagined myself taking charge, stepping in his shoes, no matter how much I loved our project, I had none of the necessary skills, not by a long shot. We even talked about it: If he were to have a fatal accident, what should I do? Sell the farm and keep the little house for the kids and holidays to remember their father by. But once he had marked out the path in his inimitable way, he went away leaving me to «manage the rest ». It took me less than 48h to accept my new role of full responsibility. It was the most natural thing in the world to take charge. It was like his death imbibed me with his vision and it became my own.
Since then, so many wonderful people have spent time on this farm, rolled up their sleeves, contributed ideas and created wonderful memories. They are all part of the Kerolivier family. Being able to document their special input here gives me the opportunity to acknowledge their contribution and let them know (once again) how much I appreciate their part in this story. I’m so proud of us all.
Between us we have constructed walls, animal shelters, a hemp and lime bathroom and composting toilet, planted a forest garden, created wildlife ponds, made cider, beer and other alcohol from our own produce, cut, transported and stacked endless amounts of firewood, serviced and repaired old clapped out vehicles…all the things he could do and more, one man of a million talents.
…and how many hours have we spent putting the world to rights, discussing, politics, metaphysics and more over coffee as I used to with him?
Often we had scarcely adequate technical skills to support our enthusiasm but we learned to ignore imagined limits. Unique pasts bring unique experience: KM spent years in the circus as a trapeze artist, looking after horses and lions, which has proved useful for herding highland cattle, snake charming and trimming the high branches.
LG grew up in Zim with a father prospecting for gold and her bush crafting skills were put to use building a splendid camp out of hemp, lime and sticks and fences out of branches to «keep the elephants out ».
HP, the next door neighbour dairy farmer, supported me every day from the get go over 16 years with my cattle and my hay and my numerous plights and without him none of this would have been possible after Paul’s death.
MS spent his career working on oil rigs and his persistence, mending and welding skills gave 1st aid to our Unimog, MF 35 tractor and hayturner.
We’ve had natural healers, herb and “witchcraft” practitioners share their deeper knowledge and skills to benefit our wellbeing and we have made cow horn dung from our own cows. We then spread the resulting biodynamic potions on our land in a state of exhilaration and with remarkable effect on the quality of that year’s produce.
My former pride and joy, a mechanically sophisticated wood gasification heating system had been poorly installed by a local certified heating expert at great expense ten years earlier and finally ground to a halt in its own carbon deposits after a few years running on unsuitable factory settings. A young engineer with genial tendencies resurrected the system, spending hours and weekends working away freeing up all the mortified parts and calibrating the ventilation so we can all celebrate Christmas together in a warm house.
We have had friends of friends come over from New Zealand who fenced the apple orchard in one rainy month of October so that our Kune Kune pigs could move in the following spring.
We have also had many an impromptu music evening, singing to our heart’s content among friends.
More recently, the farm has hosted Scout camps and cow pat Bingo.
In the summer of 2024 a film shoot came to the farm for « Testament of a murdered Woman », a short film directed by a local young Breton film maker by the name of Zacharie Pain, released in 2025:
Official Trailers:
https://www.google.fr/search?q=testameent+of+a+murdered+woman&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-fr&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:97314ce7,vid:Nxe9NCzfyI4,st:0
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIB-B9Wtx8r/?igsh=MTBldnc4NzNhYmx0cA==
Between us, we speak a variety of languages and frequently all in the same sentence. We are proud to be an “integrated expat community”.
