Owner: Près du Puits URL:http://presdupuitsinmorocco.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:23:12 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Our blog is about our life in the Moroccan countryside, in an traditional adobe house we've built ourselves. The title "Près du Puits", is French for "Near the Well". We post pictures, recipes, and stories about the traditional wa Site statistics:Click here
The dogs of Ouled Mgatel 2008-03-08 01:56:00 You've certainly noticed them in our photos. The dogs are part of our life here. At first, however, I didn't like dogs, and Fred neither. But, you see, the dogs here are nothing like French dogs (or English dogs, or American dogs, I suppose...). They don't rub themselves against you. Nobody talks to them, except for telling them "go away !". Nobody touches them. They never go into the houses. They're not big babies. But instead:1. They bark every time a stranger approaches the house (and that "stranger" can be the neighbor's little boy...) They are guard dogs, they live in packs, and their job is to protect the farm. They are really great for doing this, they can feel people a hundred miles away. Well, at night, it can be very annoying, all those concerts of barking !2. They are always VER
Joyeux anniversaire 2008-03-07 04:36:00 One of them was born on the 6th of March, the other on a 8th... I'm writing this post on the 7th, so nobody will be jealous !With those wild flowers of my garden, I wish a happy birthday to both of my grand-mothers who are, I was told, faithful readers of this blog.
It's not completely over yet... 2008-03-04 04:04:00 ... but we did some good work!We now have a real kitchen, all white and clean. Well, there are still a couple of things left to do, but it's pretty, isn't it? The kitchen, covered with white and black soap And here's our dining room, freshly whitewashed. We're really proud ! And, last but not least, the garden which, hopefully, will soon be wonderful. We sowed and planted a lot of stuff, mint, parsley, coriander, melons, orange trees, lemon trees, zucchinis... We apparently did quite bad with the seeds, but Abdelali, the son of Mohammed, our neighbor, came and repaired the damages we cause with big blows of hoe. It turned out we didn't dig enough, and the roots of the plants would have been very small. Read more:completely
Making olive oil 2008-02-26 04:35:00 The neighbors invited us for lunch. We were sitting on the bench, waiting for the potatoes tajine and the eggs the women prepared for us, when Mohammed came in the room, all covered with some black and sticky substance. He told us that he was olives, so we got back to our house, got the camera, and there we were, taking dozens of photographs of the mill, of the workers, and of the mule.Mohammed's farmWe took these photographs before the rain... it explains the wonderful sun on the pics.The millMohammed uses his mill for his own olives, but he also leases it to other farmers. That was the case that day.The olives were harvested in November. Then they were put in big bags with some salt. Apparently, they can wait there as long as you want, they can be any time.1. The mule grinds
We won't go hungry (2) 2008-02-24 08:47:00 The neighbors treat us every day... Bread, vegetables, and hot tajines... How lucky we are ! Last week, we had:- a wonderful dish, but we forgot how it's called... It made with couscous, a herb called mallow (baqula in Moroccan Arabic), and olive oil.- some couscous, that had been prepared in great quantity that day. A young boy in a village a few miles away from here died, and our neighbor Mohammed paid a visit to his grieving family. The custom, in that case, is to bring along vegetables and couscous, to help the family, that receives numerous visitors, and has to feed them all.- finally, 15 pounds of green peas, brought by a man we didn't know, and who has been welcomed very loudly and aggressively by the dogs... He turned out the son of a man we once gave a ride to Fez, and who wanted
The earth under our feet 2008-02-20 08:43:00 It's been raining for two days now, and apparently it's not gonna stop. Here, it makes people happy. Last year there was a big draught, and hopefully this year seems to be more generous for the The workers told us that "That'not water that's falling from the sky, but money, a lot of it".When it will stop raining, the farmers will put some nitrogen (some kind of fertilizer) in the fields. Yeah, it's polluting, of course, but it will make the vegetables and the wheat very strong. After this, more water won't necessary until summer.The rain changes the landscape. Within a week, the wheat will grow of something like 5 inches. New leaves appear on the trees every day.But what is the most striking here is the earth. There's a lot of clay in it, and with the water, it sticks to your shoes.Here's
It's coming... 2008-02-17 15:45:00 Everybody here has been waiting for it to come for weeks...But the cold wind blowing from the west - it's called gharbi, from the west - tells us that it's not far from here.turkeys bravely facing the gharbiThe rain! It's coming!
A ladybug on our medlar tree 2008-02-15 08:48:00 The other day at the market we bough two trees, a lemon tree and a medlar tree. We planted them in our garden, which for the moment is not much of a garden unfortunatly... I'll post some pictures of it later, when it will be cleaned and dug.A few minutes after we planted it, a ladybug, the first I saw since I arrived here, flew onto the trunk of the medlar tree.The lemon tree and the medlar tree quietly waiting to be planted
Sardine Tajine 2008-02-14 07:17:00 Last week, Bachir asked us to bring some sardines from Fez. But we forgot. So, since we were at the souk on Tuesday, we bought some. The fish, from Al Hoceima, on the Mediterranean coast, was very fresh.And then, between the construction of a door and , Bachir made us a tajine.The workers/keepers/cooks at workI have to reassure you, it's true that Fouad's jacket seems very dirty - well, actually it is, since a few seconds before the photograph was taken he was doing this:Fouad, preparing the adobe coating with water,a special kind of earth, and strawAnyway, the dish was very good, and very easy to make. Once you put the dish on the fire, don't touch it, it cooks by its own and doesn't need to be stirred.Sardine TajineServes 42 pounds of sardines, scaled and cleaned3 tomatoes, cut in thin l
Tuesday Souk 2008-02-13 10:31:00 This town was at the beginning a small village, where was held a big market every week.Today, the souk brings together on Tuesday
s local producers as well as big traders from the cities.Arrival at the market.People come from all the area in those small trucks.Here you can buy furniture...... and all kind of second-hand stuff as well.Scrub palm, which leaves are very resistant, is used for making mats, baskets...... and also for making bardâa, pack-saddles for donkeys or jennys (this Arabic word gave the French word "barda", an informal term for luggage)This is a seyer, which is for cleaning the wheat from its chaff. Those sieves are for the flour.The gerouet serve for carrying the water from the well. There are made of tyres.And of course, you can find all kind of colored things.
Buying wood 2008-02-06 14:05:00 When you build a house, you need materials. In Europe, you go to a store like Castorama (well, that's in France... I don't know about the UK or elsewhere...). In Morocco we go there:the storeOn the other side, it's not so charming.Sidi Boujida, an excrescence of the city of FezWe've built our house mainly with traditional materials of the region of Fez. Among these, reeds and eucalytus have been very useful. That's what we're buying today. We'll show you later what we'll do with all that stuff.Reeds.They're used to build floors, roofs, furniture, and a lot of other things.Eucalyptus.There are different kinds of eucalyptus in Morocco. This tree grows quickly and is cheap.It is used for floors and frameworks.So, let's fasten tightly the wood to the car, because the road home will be kind of Read more:Buying
It's spring 2008-02-06 03:25:00 Field of flowers in the hamlet opposite ours:View from behind our house. All that green is wheat. And of course you recognize the olive trees.And in the meantime, it's under construction in our house.We're currently building:- a wooden staircase inside the house, because we don't like anymore the one on the outside.- a wall to fill the hole left by the destruction of that staircase.-a fully equiped kitchen. Yes, you'll see.Of course I'm taking a lot of pictures, to show you how all of this can be done only with adobe, a few pieces of wood and some nails...
Far from the well 2008-02-02 10:31:00 Really far from the well! We've spent the week in Casablanca.The view from our hotel room:That sure changes us from the country.In Casablanca, houses look like this:Or like this:If your sight is good, you can read the names of the "Restaurant Peau de Vache" (""Cow skin restaurant") and of the "Bar Sans Pareil" (more difficult to translate... I'd say "Bar without parallel"... ) Both must be some really classy places.
We won't go hungry... 2008-01-25 09:51:00 ... that's for sure.Every day since we arrived people bring us food.It began with Bachir giving us some whey from his cow.And then his mom cooked a tagine with chickpeas and green beans.Dounia helped me to plant mint in our garden...... and afterwards she handed me two eggs she had kept in the pocket of her apron. The big one is a turkey egg.Of course, the neighbors bring us home-made bread every day.If we don't know what to do with all that bread, there 's somebody that's always hungry.
A tour of the house 2008-01-24 08:13:00 Some of you have been waiting for this for a long time... and here it is, the guided tour of our house. Well, I have to warn you, it is not comprehensive, and it is not always very presentable.So, what do we begin with? Oh yes, its pretty behind.On the left, the water tank, and it the middle, the bathroom.I took this photograph on a foggy day.From the terrace on the second floor, the view is amazing.So, do you wanna come in? Watch it, it's a mess!The kitchen and the living room.The kitchen. It looks like camping right now, but soon it's going to be all white and pretty.The stove. The big crack on the wall shows that the house works more than us!The door leading to the bathroom.The bathroom. Soon all that grey concrete will be covered with white tadelekt.That's all for today. But there are
No title 2008-01-22 05:00:00 This morning our house was covered by a beautiful fog.In the foreground, you can see our olive trees, which seem young but which are in fact some old branches we planted two years ago, and the road leading to the house.And then the fog went away.
A child's life in Ouled Mgatel 2008-03-14 06:03:00 Hayat, 5 years old, little shepherdess In Ouled Mgatel, child
ren have a playground as big as the farm... There are always strange things all covered in mud, stuff to break into small pieces, hens to chase, lambs to cuddle, a little brother or a cousin ready to hear fantastic stories.But children have to work too, and when they're very young. Hayat, 5, is sometimes a charming and mysterious little shepherdess. Sometimes, she is the keeper of her baby sister, that her mother put on her back and attaches with a scarf. Soon, she'll also have to get water from the well, help her cousins in the kitchen... and, which sounds a lot less fun, go to school !Hayat and Samir with their father AbdelftahLittle Samir never looks happy when you look at him... but he is, believe me ! In the background, the
Our purification plant 2008-03-18 16:28:00 We've begun the construction of our purification plant. Well, purification not really, but phytopurification, that is, purification through plants. We'll explain everything about it later. And station, huh... in fact, the workers call it "the eggs".That's why. Fouad, Bachir, and Aziz in their eggsWe'll do the technical explanations later, since it's already late. I leave you with this picture of the construction, and I let you decide what role plays the donkey in all this.
Fez invaded by the countryside 2008-03-15 13:16:00 In a street of Fez, near the American Center, a field of fava beans...... just in front of a very official-looking building, which turns out to be, according a young passer-by, the service of fraud regulation. Read more:countryside
Internet in Ouled Mgatel... it's really hapenning ! 2008-03-27 11:40:00 After the water-treatment plant, the new technologies are literally invading Ouled Mgatel, 30 inhabitants. Yes, it is 2008 here too.The other day we plugged our satellite modem, just in case, you never know, there was some reception. Imagine this: there was reception. And there still is.The proof:There is some signal, but the internet connection doesn't work. For now. We asked for information in Fez, and they told us that in 2 months it should be OK.It can sound kind of surrealist, because there is no telephone here, and the electricity was installed by the electrical company only two years ago, and that if you want to come and see us, you'll have to drive on a very bad road for more than 2 miles.But it is real. There is a new telephonic company in Morocco, and they're going to launch thei Read more:Internet
Small changes 2008-03-22 11:38:00 After two days spent in bed, sick... when I finally got out of my bedroom, things were a little different.The color of the sky had changed.An orange-tree had been planted in the patio, and it was in bloom.The dog Lisa had discovered our water treatment ponds... and she rather liked the water.Inside the house, the fridge had finally taken its place on the brand-new floor of the kitchen.Thank you so much Fred, Bachir, Aziz, and Fouad ! Read more:Small
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Cleaning the water... and making plants very happy 2008-03-20 11:34:00 Our water
-treatment system is finished. .Here, in Ouled Emgatel, there's no running water. The inhabitants use the well. But we're French, and we're used to running water so... we've installed it. The water has to be brought here. We pay a man from a village a few miles away to bring us, every two weeks or so, a tank of water from a big well near the river. Which he does with his tractor. We put this water in our tank, and that' it, we can shower and everything. We still need three different filters, which make this water drinkable.By the well... well, yeah, but with a tank !Someday, we hope, we'll build a well.As for the waste water, we don't have much of it anyway, thanks to our dry toilets . These are in fact composting dry toilets, and it's really working.The filters we've built recent Read more:Cleaning
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A newcomer in Ouled Mgatel 2008-03-28 11:43:00 And we don't know how she came here!We found this little turtle in a crate of plants that we brought back from Meknes two weeks ago. Did climb her way into the crate? No, she can't be that good a climber . Did one of our friend put it here, to make a joke? No, it sounds unlikely. Or maybe, was she buried in one of the flower-pots, sleeping until the end of her hibernation? Probably, because, as soon as we found her, she only wanted to hide under a rock or dive into the hay.We built her a little house, and now she just stays there.The turtle doesn't like parsley...or maybe she's too shy, and doesn't want to be in the picture !Too late, I was faster.
The eyes in the sky 2008-04-04 07:54:00 We're so happy to live by those very old olive trees.On the ground, it's not bad either at this period of the year.OK, we've planted these ones.But not these ones, they were born in the middle of our field of fava beans.Sometimes beauty falls from the sky (yeah, and sometimes we put some dirty plastic gloves, without thinking that it will spoil the photo)
It grows real fast - thanks to the Moroccan sun 2008-04-03 07:50:00 There's no TV in Ouled Mgatel - well, actually, our neighbors do have televisions... and they watch it a lot. But there's something which is a thousand times better than watching tv: watching our plants grow - as for our neighbors, they've done this every day since they were born, so I understand that TV is fun to them.We know everything by heart, and we detect the smallest change, like the arrival of this little squash:Let's go check that the baby cucumbers are doing fine under the morning sun...... and look how much they've grown, on the evening of the same day ! They've even been joined by a third seedling.Wow, all this makes us a little dizzy...Let's go see the zucchinis. There's one that already grown up, and stylish.It looks down on the coriander, that can't wait to get some height t Read more:Moroccan
It looks like Kentucky, doesn't it? 2008-03-29 07:47:00 Well, according to Fred at least...And actually, we have no idea, we've never been there. But that's the impression the wheat fields give us at this time of year.The wheat grows along the walls of our house, and sometimes the clouds seem to touch the ground. Read more:Kentucky
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