A much warmer night’s sleep and we did not want to get out of bed.

As we had an open bag of cement we got the mixer going again and used it up, concrete around the door to the outhouse, around the vent pipe for the toilet and around one of the windows in the outhouse. We used the last little bit to secure the hot box into the ground so it will not go walk about!!! Cleaned up the mixer and tools; fitted a new door bolt on the annex; got the hot box installed and working; re did the joints on the vent pipe; fixed the leak in the main barn roof; packed the trailer away; cleaned out the Toyota and loaded the mixer up to take back to Annie’s house.

  Hot Box

After a sandwich lunch we started fixing brackets to a beach tree as the start of a platform before heading down the valley to return the mixer. Annie was in and we had a cuppa before returning to the barn in the dark. Lardons and pasta cooked indoors followed by a game of cards before bed.

We survived our first night in the barn, bat free too. Mind you we are keeping up the mossie net just in case the odd bat or mouse decides to visit us!!!

After a chilly nights sleep we rearranged bedding and got the fleece blanket out. Main priority was to get the toilet all connected up before meeting Ekke to go and see his house above Rouze and have a picnic. The toilet took some fettling as France is all metric and of course Canada (where the toilet was made) is all imperial. Once sorted, the toilet was well and truly christened before heading down to collect Ekke.

Ekke spent twenty years building the house which is just off the GR10 above Couflens. A twenty minute walk up the hill from the nearest road most of the materials were carried in by donkey. Ekke described it as very different and very different it is. What a fantastic and inspirational building it is. Ekke is rightly very proud of it and we both loved it too. Make of it what you will from the photos.

After a guided tour we sat down to a feast of a lunch and a glass of wine.

Breezy and I have talked about the house since on many occasion; incorporating some of the ideas into our project.

On the way back we swung by the skip. Ekke spied a velux window with broken glass; so that went in the truck along with an outside light, a switch or two and a pressure hose nozzle. Just as we were about to leave Olivier (donkey man) showed up and a wood burning stove came out of the skip and into his car. This I think is destined to be installed in his Yurt.

Another evening of star gazing, this time accompanied with smoked duck and cauliflower mash. It is so nice to be up at the barn, although very primitive, it feels great to be making progress with it.

Today is the day that we give up the luxury of the gite and move into the barn. Frantic packing of bags, loading the van and cleaning before a breakfast of egg window. Ekke called by and we made arrangements to hand over the gite at two pm which gave us time to start working on the concrete floor of the outhouse.

Fortunately Walter (the wheelbarrow) just fitted through the narrow door of the building so I mixed and fed Breezy with concrete while she shovelled it around and levelled the floor. Breezy went off down to the village for a final shower before meeting Ekke and handing the keys over while I carried on. En route Breezy met Alison and Peter who asked us over for a drink early evening, Olivier who gave her a bag of donkey milk products and also Anne and Jean who confirmed aperos  at their place in the evening too.

Concrete Floor  More floor Walter Mixing

Having finished the floor we used the surplus concrete to fit a doorstep outside the outhouse. Then we organised bedding and stuff for our first night before a glass of wine with Alison and Peter and then up the road to Annie and Jean’s. Annie gave us loads of slate last year when we were putting the roof on the main barn and we had a lovely evening with them and her brother chatting in French. Lots of lovely nibbles and flowing wine. We declined a meal after much wine and headed up the hill to the barn for soup and bed.

The sky was clear and the stars were amazing with absolutely no light pollution. WOW!!!

Happy Birthday Al and Happy 40^th Birthday Henry!!!

As we still needed a load of ballast we headed off early, down the valley to St Girons with the truck and trailer. It was another glorious day. Loaded up and procured a few bits and bobs before the stores closed at twelve. Collecting Freddy’s ladders en route we went straight up to the barn and over the bridge for the last time. With only a couple of inches clearance on either side of the Toyota we try to go across the bridge as little as possible. It is only a matter of time before we put a ding in the truck, however, reducing the distance between a ton of ballast and where it needs mixing is worth the risk. No dings yet and I managed to get the truck right up to the outhouse. While I shovelled out of the back, Breezy used the muck truck to ferry ballast up from the trailer which we had left near the bridge.

A late lunch of sandwiches in the sun. In the afternoon we set about putting up the vent pipe for the toilet. We used the flexible pipe supplied with the toilet to go through a convenient hole in the wall and then attached it to 100mm plastic to go up the outside of the building and clear the roof. The wind fan then screwed to the top.

Toilet Vent  Vent fitted

Another half hour was spent fitting the insulation for under the floor in the outhouse ready for concreting the next day.

As it was my birthday we shared a bottle of pink fizz with the warmth of the fire basket before heading back to the gite and roast chuck. Thanks Ken the fire basket is brilliant and had lots of use already and will we know get plenty more.

Blue sky, snow down to 1300m and chuffing freezing. Undeterred we went up the hill to the grange. It looked like chocolate box scenery from inside a warm vehicle. Outside however it was different. Having read the instructions for the toilet installation (scant) we bolted things to floors and cut tubes etc at the same time as identifying any extra items we need to buy to get the thing working. By noon there was nothing else to do but get ready for an assault on the roof of the outhouse. Everything was still frozen and surfaces were slippery.

Morning 

I got all the tools ready and Breezy dragged all the poplar out of the barn in an effort to keep warm. Having taken a chainsaw to the joists to level them all up the sun finally made an appearance over the mountains at 12:20 and fleeces came off for nailing the planks on the joists. This we kept up until the roof was covered and we had lunch sat on the roof in the sun at 3pm. A bit more chainsaw action cutting off the planks at either side and it looks like we have a roof (minus the slate). Covered that with a couple of tarps and then sorted out the insulation to go under the concrete floor inside.

 

Finally got a load of water from the river in preparation for the final concrete mixing session this trip. Gonna go get more ballast in the morning and, weather permitting, lay the floor. Then all we need is a door, windows, pointing up the walls, water, heating, lighting, carpet, fridge, cooker and a sofa and we have somewhere nice to stay while we work on the main building!!!

By the time we had finished gathering stuff in St Girons we headed back to the gite for our sandwiches. Still drizzle and cold.

Everything up at the grange was sodden. A failed attempt to get the truck up the hill to unload the ballast meant that I had to reverse it down again onto flat ground. In doing so one of the rear wheels sunk into a hole by a mole hill. It would not go up or down so out came the 2 ton chain hoist that Stevie gave us. One end on a strop on a tree and the other on the front of the truck and lots of pulling slowly got it out. Once out we set about indoor stuff thinking that if we are gonna get soaked shovelling ballast and muck trucking it up the hill we may as well do it just before we leave.

Inside we gathered all the bits of the toilet and tried to figure out what did what. With careful measuring we used Ekke’s jigsaw and cut a hole in the perfectly good floor we had laid in the annex to accept the toilet. While the generator was running we also cut a hole in the hot box we had made to accept a duct. About the only other preparation we could do for tomorrow was to get all the poplar boards down from upstairs in the barn ready for putting on the outhouse roof. The only thing left was to empty the truck and trailer in the rain.

Back at the gite we started to cook as Lee and Annie were coming over for supper. Intention was to do roast chuck but the bird was still frozen so changed plan to pork. Cecile had given us a recipe for a dessert we wanted to try. It’s a sort of short crust pastry tart so we gave it a whirl. Mix an egg with 100g sugar, add that to 250g self raising flour and rub in like you would for crumble, add 100ml of good olive oil to get a pasrty sort of consistency, throw on a load of sliced apple, glaze with apricot jam and throw it in an oven for half hour. Came out great! Had a fab evening with lots of laughter.

Grim weather today so off down the valley to get more ballast. Only thing left is the concrete floor in the outhouse. We have all the insulation and mesh etc so we may as well get it done. Should only take ½ a day of mixing but we will need 2 ton of ballast so we need 2 trips down the valley.

A few clouds around but huge patches of blue, so we went straight up to prepare for the capping of the walls. Make it sound grand and it does not seem like mixing concrete and pouring it on the walls. First we need water from the river, ballast from the trailer that we abandoned at the bridge yesterday. Then feed the reinforcement bar into the trough on the walls we made yesterday, tie all the bars together with wire to form two separate rings of steel round the top of the walls. Whack a few 10cm nails into the wall plates to tie them into the concrete and we are ready to turn ¾ of a ton of ballast and a few bags of cement into concrete to hold the walls of the building together. I was mixing and Breezy was pouring and finishing.

11.20am we took stock of where we were at and how much more material we had. We had serious doubts that we had enough to finish the job in one go, which is the ideal. Too late now for one of us to head off for more ballast, (as everywhere is shut 12-2), so all we could do was crack on and go down the valley after lunch. I was conscious of every slight spillage of ballast and concrete and Breezy was being as economical as possible.

By 2pm we had run out of ballast completely, run out of water and emptied a bag of cement so we had none left open. But we had completed the walls! We even had to go get more water from the river to clean all the buckets and tools etc.

Had lunch and then set to using Ekke’s jig saw, cutting holes in a perfectly good floor to fit a toilet and a hole in the end of the solar box we made to accept a pipe. Finished off moving slate down towards the outhouse and grading it as we stacked it, ready to go on the roof.

Opened a bottle of white to celebrate capping the walls, both exhausted.

An early start a bit of a shock to the system!!! Alarm went at 7am and we were out the door by 7.20am on our way  to St Girons as the ballast delivery had not arrived so we needed to go and collect it to be able to progress with the roof on the outbuilding.

I dozed on the way down and then we arrived at the gravel pit to meet the most unfriendliest man in the world and an hour later we were loaded up with over a ton of ballast in the trailer and the back of “The Beast”. A quick trip to Maccy D’s to get my website finally sorted they have retrieved the server after 3.5 weeks and all is up and working again, a huge relief and hoping it improves the old bookings.

I picked up a few bits and pieces from the supermarket and Al collected a few bits from Mr Bricolage.

We were back up the valley by 10.45am and managed to make lunch, get the washing out to dry etc before heading up to the barn. It was a glorious day so we were both quite motivated to get the walls prepared.

Al got the truck over the bridge and in true Nigel Mansell style got it right up to the outbuilding in one go, made life so much easier.

We got all the equipment out, fired up the cement mixer and got stuck in!!! Al mixing cement most of the time and me up on the walls getting rid of the cement and rocks, building up a trench for capping tomorrow if the weather holds.

Lunch in the sun, a rest for the back and then a final blast to finish off and we were done and dusted by 5pm so we were quite pleased. Did not manage to get the trailer up but have about 3 loads with the muck truck to get that up tomorrow, not too bad. Thanks Shirley and John, the muck truck is invaluable.

We headed back to the gite with aching limbs, and sat outside for a quick drinkie before cleaning up and getting shepherds pie in the oven for supper.

Sundays are great as it is egg window day. Get a thick bit of nice bread, cut a hole in the middle (best done by pushing a cup or something round into it on a hard surface so you get a perfectly round hole), lightly fry one side in a frying pan with a little olive oil, flip it over and break an egg in the hole, sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the egg and flip the whole thing over again after a short while to seal the other side of the egg. The trick is in the timing so that the egg is cooked, the bread is nicely browned and the yoke is still runny.

After breakfast we went in search of Francoise, the blind lady who gave us a load of old slates last year for the main barn roof. We had never met her or spoken to her before but Clive had told us that she was in the village for the weekend. We found her and chatted for about half an hour, gathering history and information about the barn and her family. We came away delighted and energised by our meeting and very privileged.

Then off to the barn again. Though it was foggy in Salau it turned out to be an inversion and by the time we climbed up to the barn we were above it all which gave very eerie scenes `of what seemed to be a sea of swirling, boiling cloud filling the valley below us.

 

Without ballast there is little we can do with the outbuilding so we turned our hands to other things. One idea that we want to play with is the idea of creating a solar hot box. Essentially a wooden box full of rocks with a glass sheet over the top, situated below a building. When the sun shines it heats the rocks in the box and you duct warmed up air into the building. So that’s what we did. I will write up a more detailed description later along with how successful or not it is in the eco friendly side of the blog. Ekke and Cecile called by to inspect the composting toilet and general progress. Ekke is a water treatment engineer and so the workings of the toilet were fascinating. He kept asking questions which we knew not the answers just saying “it should be in the manual but we have not read it yet”.

Lastly we started sorting out the slate left over from before in preparation for roofing the outhouse. Plan is to take the truck and trailer into St Girons to pick up ballast first thing tomorrow and crack on with the walls and roof.

Left the barn to a fantastic rainbow.