10am start with Clive, Murray, Breezy and me. Breezy graded slate and cleaned them up for Clive to attach to the roof. Clive also sorted out the gutters and felt so that we could crack on Monday morning. Murray and I went on slate finding missions. Clive kindly donated his personal stash to our roof. They need replacing but without them we would not be able to progress. Clive is passionate about what he does, and I marvel sometimes at the devotion he gives to our project. My parents visited mid afternoon while the place was still in sun. They had an adventure finding us. Having parked at the beginning of the piste and walked up. “How much further” & “Have we passed it”. I keep forgetting that we are over 1000m altitude and walking up hill is an effort. Cracked open a bottle of rose wine!! Saturday night we spent at Clive and Giselle’s for food and rugby. Fantastic food and England beat France. All three kids had face paint on. Tri colours on one side and St George’s cross on the other. So, now gotta watch the final next weekend. There’s a birthday bash for a local, Patrick on Friday and we are planning a bit if a picnic do at the barn on Saturday so rugby in the bar on Saturday night sounds good to me.

Definite progress  Laughter

Breezy took a trip into St Girons for 6cm nails required for the large slates. 40 mins each way just to buy nails. Should have sorted that in advance. First emergency run of the month. We did get some other stuff at the same time but the nails were the initiator. Today the scrubbing of slate starts. Having graded it into piles of similar length; each slate needs the bottom third cleaning with a wire brush. Planked (sarked) the rest of the roof in poplar, as it is naturally resistant to rot and termites. By the end of the day part of the annex was slated. Clive usually recons on an hour to slate a metre square. That’s a bit depressing as we have 140 to do Breezy and I then went down to St Girons to meet my folks for dinner and arranged a rendezvous for Saturday at the barn..

The poplar planking for the roof went on the front as well as gutters. Even the first layer of felt and some slate!! It looks like we could have the beginnings of a roof. Biggest concern is if we have enough slate for the front roof viewable from the track? Need to get on to locals for more old slate!

   Murray 

Today is the day we cap the walls. A double ring of steel reinforcement runs around all the walls in a trough created by building up the walls on the facing sides. Clive is on the cement mixer creating concrete which is bucketed all around the walls to a depth of 10-15cm. Murray is learning French all day but Giselle is helping again. Hans and I try to keep up with Clive by getting rid of concrete as fast as he can make it. Giselle buckets it up and passes them over the walls and Breezy is spreading it out and tamping it in. By 1pm all is done and the weather is changing. We just got all the walls covered when the heavens opened. Lunch was had under a tarpaulin and we retired to the bar for a celebration at 3pm as no more could be done. In the evening we got a text from my parents to say they are flying out the next night. Fantastic!!

Van returned safely, Vinnie all healthy so back to normal. Mum and Dad left today via Carcassone, looking forward to hearing about it. Not sun but no rain all day until 7pm when we had just reached the bar!!! A day of getting things done, or so it felt like. We had Gizelle on site today, nice to have some female company and someone my own size!!! well actually smaller than me would you believe it? Probably not but true!!! Walls built up, “jambe de force” constructed and cemented in. These just need to be nailed with old authentic nails. Steel reinforcement around the walls, entwined and ready for capping tomorrow. Me up and down the hill all day shovelling, gravel and delivering water. Muddy as!!! Visit from Pierre who insists on helping us tomorrow, which will be a useful extra pair of hands for capping day. All set for a big day tomorrow weather permitting.

Hoping of better weather was wasted, it was a foul day!!! I headed off to get the hire van, to my horror a HUGE van with new rear window…eek must plan route home to involve no parking and no reversing!!! Mission accomplished!!! Phew. Parked the van at the end of the track not going up there with that huge thing…..and wandered up the 4X4 to crack on with work. Hans was at home due to rain. Murray, Clive and Al were battling on with cementing, walls, etc. not ideal and even less ideal as the cement mixer had broken. By 3.30pm it was torrential, we were all drowned rats so packed up and headed back at 4pm. Hot bath before we headed out to meet M&D for supps at St Lizier. They had had a good day in spite of the weather, a drive into Bethmale valley, lunch and a wander in St Girons and reading on the balcony!!!

The morning was spent trying to sort out Vinnie. Patrick very kindly gave us a lift down to Vinnie to hand the keys over to the garage tow service and then gave us a lift home. Now we will wait and see what AGF say? Mum and Dad arrived at about 11.30 after a lovely drive over from St Girons via Alos, we have yet to do it, but it is meant to be lovely. We had a coffee at the bar, which was busy with the chase and other folk. Then we headed up in Patrick’s 4X4 to show Mum and Dad the Bergerie. Not great weather but not raining and even better that we could see the cascades even if we could not see the top of the mountains. Al and I had had a trial run re getting Mum up the hill in the trailer with the muck truck and all padded out for her it worked a treat. I was very pleased that we got up to the back of the bergerie so that Mum could see it all in action. We also managed to get Mum inside the bergerie too. We had a snack picnic lunch at the back with a bottle of rose, local cheeses and wild boar salami which all went down really well. We sent Mum and Dad off for another mountain drive in the pm while we tried to sort out the van!!!! Nothing went to plan and good old Patrick lent us hiss car to get to St Girions to meet M&D for supper a their hotel. A lovely night, with everyone on great form and a band playing too. We left in sheeting rain to head back to Salau and hope for better weather….

^{A rest day. And boy does my body need one. Started with a lie in, scrambled egg breakfast and a trip to St Girons. Picked up another half ton of cement to go with the ten ton of ballast arriving on Monday then an amble round the market. Followed that with food shopping for the week, lunch and then unloading the cement up at the grange (so missed the rugby). Siesta and then a drive down to St Girons for a meal with Breezy’s folks. The van broke down just short of Seix. After a short re plan Breezy’s folks came up to Seix and we abandoned the van by the road and got a lift with a local lass Cecile. Dinner was lovely. Sort out the van tomorrow?}

^{Two weeks to go and we have a skeleton of a roof. By all accounts it will happen. I am knackered and seriously need a day off labour. Breezy seems to be coping better but she has a brave face. Slowly dismantling the dry stone wall at the back of the pad in order to rebuild the top of the walls of the building. Seems a shame but we have priorities to consider and we can rebuild a wall later but we need a roof. On going wars on site over tape measures. Clive always has one and everyone else mislays theirs; turned into an ongoing joke. Similar with favourite hammers and trowels. Everyone briefed to bring their own hammers and trowels from now on and there is a stash of measures on entry, Had to get one out of Murray’s pocket this evening on exit otherwise they will all end up at his place. The truss frames look fab. Walls are coming on. Should be ready to cap the walls on Tuesday and sarking the roof Wednesday with poplar (volage) or planking for those building numpties.}

^{Photos of the truss in place and the final parts being fitted “les jambes de force”. Once these are in place the weight of the roof is spread into the walls and the acro props can be removed.}

Jambes de force  Looking good!!!  Hans in action

^{After a grotty forecast for today the sky had patches of blue when we woke up. Murray had French lessons today so we were down to Breezy, Hans, Clive and myself. By the end of the day we achieved a complete roof structure and also fettled about a third of the walls up to the wall plate. By that I mean; the walls are all uneven so having taken a level of the ridge beam, all the walls need building up to meet the roof. Bearing in mind that they are not entirely straight and have been held together with earth and gravity it means collecting rocks, dismantling down to something solid and then building them up using concrete as glue. We are both sore. Hands and backs. Currently running a bath for Breezy and then a back massage using my elbows, as my hands will not do that at the moment. Tomorrow we are all going to be on the walls. Missed Murray today as he makes a good victim.}

^{All the leaves have started turning and each day the colours get more beautiful.}

Wall fettling  Autumn Colours