Dübener Heide Natural Park, Germany
18th July - 22nd august 2006
Placement report
I will report all the different activities undertaken during this programme,
what I've learnt from it, and how I've experienced it in general.
WOLFEN: youth project
The main activity undertaken at the beginning of the placement was for the
youth project in the town of Wolfen. Local young German people were building
a Saxon house with traditional methods. We provided them with the material
necessary to the building of the house; mainly pine tree and birch. This involved
going to the forest, usually with peter Kaiser or Axel, and selecting the
right trees. The forester indicates which trees can be taken by circling them
in yellow (or orange not sure). So once we'd selected a tree, peter or axel
cut its base with a chainsaw. The logs needed to be 4.50m long, so we measured
it and made it the right length before putting in the pick up, and delivering
it to Wolfen.
The willow was easier to handle, and we just had to get rid of the twigs before
taking it to Wolfen.
Our other main task in Wolfen was to make a bread oven. First we built a base
made of rocks, then put a layer of clay. We made the clay mixing soil and
water, and also used it to make bricks that were to be used later for the
oven.
We also helped on the house, putting the birch on the roof.
I really enjoyed working at Wolfen. I liked the atmosphere there, how everybody
was working together and helping each other. I usually like doing things on
my own, and there it was all about teamwork. And I realise how important it
is to be able to work with people, when you have a common goal. Like there
was no way we could have build a house like that, but they couldn't have build
it if we hadn't brought them all the wood. So when I saw the house finished
and everybody was celebrating, I was glad I had contributed to it, as a member
of a team. I'm glad I did all this manual work at Wolfen, and in the forest.
It was also the first I did outdoors work like that and it was interesting
to learn something elsewhere then in lectures.
Wood sculpture festival
On the week end of the 30th July was a wood sculpture festival in tornau,
organised by Wolfgang Koppe. He's a wood sculptor and a painter. We met him
about two days before the festival started, and he showed us all his work
and his studio. I was truly amazed by what he could do. Then we had to choose
a log of wood.. And start a sculpture! Which was quite interesting knowing
that none of us was really into woodcarving. The boys were given a massive
log and Ros and I chose a smaller one, from a cherry tree. We decided to make
a face imprint in the wood, but it sound much easier when we talked about
it then when we actually had to start with the tools.
The festival was getting closer, and I was starting to think that there was
no way I could carve anything in that piece of cherry wood! Eventually the
festival started, and all you could hear was the sound of dozens of chainsaws,
because most of the sculptors were making their piece of art exclusively with
it. And it was really impressive to see how many details these artists could
get with the chainsaw. It's interesting because I always regarded it as a
something you use to cut down trees, never as an art tool.
We got to talk to one the artist, Sebastien. He told us what it was for him
to be a professional wood carver, and he helped us with our sculpture. I soon
quit on our sculpture though (Ros was much more patient then me, and did a
good job with the nose, while I felt I was hopeless with the mouth), and spent
the rest of the festival seeing how the different artists were getting on
with their sculpture. The boys (i.e. mike and Joe) were really passionate
about their sculpture, and they finished it on time. It was funny to see how
they were explaining what it was to the people passing by, and to see people's
reaction. Some of them were sceptical, but most of them were amused and were
making comments on it. I'm really proud of what they did! By the end of the
weekend, all the sculptures were finished and they were all beautiful (apart
from the one who won the first prize), and you would never say they had been
done with chainsaws. The festival finished with all the artists (and us) on
the stage, and Julie, a girl who came from England for the festival, won a
special prize!
I found that festival interesting; not only because of the things I've seen,
or people I've met there. I think it was easy for us to go to that festival
with a negative attitude. It's easy to think, well, I'm studying environmental
science, why should I bother with a wood carving festival? It won't help at
all with my studies and I'm not that much of an artistic person anyway, bla
bla… And I must have thought that at some point. But seeing the boys
being so involved in their work, not giving up (I thought they would), and
actually showing it off and talking to people about it, well I realised they
had something else that I obviously lacked. Not carving skills, just daring
doing something completely different, and not being afraid. And that's quite
important in science, allowing yourself to be creative and think differently,
that's how you progress and find the best ideas.
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Making The Bread Oven
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Grampus People!
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Meadow survey
We were asked to do a survey for a man, Roland (don't remember his profession,
just his first name..) , about the different plant species on a meadow. We
had no directions, so we had to plan how to do the survey by ourselves. Mike
took the lead and decided how to proceed (which is good because I would probably
have done it in a less rigorous, scientific way). We first made a map of the
meadow, and grilled that map, each intersection of line corresponding to a
point were we could possibly throw the quadrate. Then we numbered all the
intersections, and chose a number randomly. After that we had to go to where
the point on the map corresponded on the meadow, and throw the quadrate from
there. We didn't have any, so we made it with four sticks and some cello tape
(needless to say it broke the first we threw it). Then we had to record and
identify all the different species of plant we could find in different quadrates.
We had some of Roland and Peter's books to help us. We found it easier to
work in pairs. Each was searching in a different book and then we could cross
our findings, and see if we had come up with the same species, and then discussed
it if we hadn't. We did about 12 different quadrates. We then gave our results
back to Roland, made a nice graph and a table.
Doing that survey was helpful for me, as it is something I can be asked to
do as part of my course. And it was much more interesting, because of the
variety of species recorded, then doing it on the lawn right behind our building
at uni.
Environmental friendly farmer..
We had the opportunity to meet a farmer who uses biogas as a source of energy
in his farm. He showed us around his farm, told us some facts about it (about
the production of milk, number of employees, etc..). Then he told us about
how he produces the energy needed to the farm. The heat is produced from the
combustion of wood, which comes from a forest that he own. He then explained
the process of production of biogas; how silage and grain are mixed in fermentors
(two of them, each having a capacity of 1000m3), and how the biogas resulting
from the fermentation fuels the generators, which provide the electricity
needed. There are two generators, for a total production of 330Kv/day. He
only needs to use a bit of fuel to start the generator then the biogas does
it. He saves money by producing his own energy, because it would cost him10cts/
Kv to buy it. But he also makes money on it, because he uses only 10% of the
energy produced, and he can sell the rest.
The installation of the system to produce biogas cost 500,000 euros, but he
had a financial help of 16,000 euros. So in the end, it was a good thing money
wise to install biogas in his farm. And you could tell it was a good business
for him, he looked like a happy farmer :.
I always thought that green energies had no future in agriculture because
most farmers don't want to invest in new energy producing systems, and because
it isn't that profitable to them on the long term. I thought a profitable
business meant damaging the environment. It seems to be somewhat different
in Germany. The fact that the government helps financially, and that energy
is about twice as expensive as in some other European countries must provide
a good incentive for farmers to switch to biogas.
I found that visit really interesting, and I'm quite curious to find out more
about how much biogas in farming is develop in other countries. (And why it
isn't more developed yet).
And also...
*We spent a day with forestry people. We helped them to clear away some places
in the forest, and get rid of some branches that could prevent cars from passing
through paths. We used tools I had never seen before like that curved saw
with an extensible handle, to reach very high up branches. That day allowed
me to better appreciate all the work that the management of a forest involves.
*We worked on the charcoal queen's (alias herbal witch) back garden. The charcoal
queen is elected every year, wanders around to put charcoal on men's cheeks
and kiss them. This year queen was elected during the wood carving festival,
and that's where we first met her. She wanted the boys sculpture in her garden,
so we carried it there, and gave her a hand in her garden. It's a herbal garden,
and each part of the garden gathered herbs used to cure different things (heart,
back pain, for woman..), and there were lots of them. I'm not really into
gardening though, so it's a good thing the next day Ros and I helped her doing
a walnut and parsley spread (I kept the recipe) instead of weeding piles of
soil.
*We helped to the construction of a bird hotel thing.
*And helped Axel to prune the willow trees, so they can grow better.
I might forget some other work we've done, as I didn't really keep a diary
for the whole five weeks…
Other activities
We had a van to our disposition all the time, which allowed us to go out of Pressel and discover the cities around and far away!
Some of the cities we visited are Torgau, Bad Duben, Gilenberg, Wittenberg,
and Leipzig. We saw quite loads of museum now that I think of it, not all
of them we could understand.
We spent a whole day in Berlin with the Scottish group (another group of people
that were in the neighbouring city of Pressel for about 3 weeks). We didn't
want to be in the touristy Berlin, so we asked a man on his bicycle to take
us somewhere else, and so we were taken for a ride through Berlin. It was
quite a funny way to discover a city! We arrived in a more alternative part
of Berlin and I quite liked spending some time there.
We went to Saxon Switzerland Natural Park for a day with the Scottish group. We first went to the park centre, and learnt more about the natural park and its history. We did some hiking, and the landscape was beautiful there. We went back another weekend, just the 6 of us, and I keep a great memory of that day. The rock formation was really impressive, because of the erosion of the sandstone mountains.
We had our evenings off so we could sometimes go for a walk nearby the hotel
we were staying in. It was very pleasant just to step out and have a walk
through the fields and the forest. I saw some dears (the first one I had ever
seen), and lots of birds that the boys were really good at identifying.
We went beaver watching one night behind Wolfgang's house (the artist of the
festival), because he told us that they were some in some little stream. So
we stayed there one evening for about half an hour and we saw one (well I
didn't see much of it, more the waves it was making).
We went swimming several times in a lake not far away from Pressel, rented
small boats in another lake, went to visitors centres, walked a lot, and well,
I enjoyed myself a lot!
That placement was a truly great experience, and I really had a good time
in Germany. I'm glad I met Ros, James, Mike and Joe on the placement, I really
enjoyed sharing these five weeks with them. It was interesting because we
were all very different I think, because of our different courses and even
our interests, and I would never have had the opportunity to meet them otherwise;
and I learnt quite a lot just by being with them.
Theses five weeks were rewarding because it gave me a more precise idea of
what type of work I enjoy doing and what I'm really interested in.
Thanks a lot for everything,
Marie-Gabrielle MARTY :