Still awaiting a delivery of ten tonnes of ballast so that we can crack on with the small outhouse roof. We have been tipping earth from digging out places behind the barn in a small walled area and today is the day that we dig out all the nettles and smooth it over.

An overcast day with no rain makes it not too hot for working outside so we set too. First off we lit the fire out the front to get rid of the rotten timbers from the outhouse, the nettles and brambles from the previous trip. Either the chainsaw is behaving or we are getting used to it’s starting up routine. Cut the timbers into more easily burnable chunks and stacked the fire up. Then up the back and systematically digging out nettles and adding them to the fire.

We had a couple of English visitors during the day about lunchtime. Dave and Wendy live near Castillon and were walking by and noticed the UK plates on the truck. Curiosity got the better of them and they wandered up. As it turns out I have probably met Dave before, his name is familiar and he pops back to the UK from time to time to work for the licensing authority for outdoor centres. He works with a load of people I know from my outdoor activity days. We chatted for a while and swapped contact details as they may have a contact for a local water diviner.

We had a visit from Lou Lou who lives just down the track and is usually up regularly from St Girons, we had not seen him since we arrived and were hoping that he was OK. He is always very keen to see what we are up to and give us some local advice which is always interesting.

Finished off the day planning where things were going to go in the bathroom so that we could crack on with the installation of the toilet. No sign of a delivery of ballast!

In the evening we got Freddy and Daniella over for a drink and catch up. We have not seen much of them to date as the bar is closed and they have been busy doing maintenance on the Auberge. Didn’t feel like eating much after so finished the soup. We did check the dates on all the meat in the fridge and decided that we should try and find someone with freezer space otherwise we need to each a load of mince, a chicken, some trout and half a dozen sausages by Saturday night. And we have already been invited to Clive and Gizelle’s for food on Saturday

Another shopping day. A bit of a slow morning with a lie in and then getting emails sorted and the right stuff on different laptops. First stop was fuel for the truck then on to La Forge for materials: insulation for under the concrete floor in the outhouse, guttering for the roof, pipe for the vent of the composting toilet, wire for the steel reinforcement for capping the walls, steel mess for the concrete floor, chalk for the chalk line for cutting lines on sarking, additional parquet flooring for the mezzanine, and a random assortment of fixings.

Them off to Mc Donalds for free WiFi to get the blog updated, send emails, sort out web updates for Ski Breezy receive emails etc etc…

Lee sent though a fantastic photo of the grange from the top of Mont Rouche. See the previous entry.

Then off to the supermarket for supplies for ten days, back the gite to unload food then to the grange to unload materials. Finished off by installing a pipe into the small outhouse for ducting hot air in via a hot box outside.

Finished the day with a bottle of rose at the grange and a chat about next steps. First time this trip. It was great to just stop and talk about plans and priorities. Days are so full and there is so much to do that it is great to just stop and dream and share; share ideas and create a common vision.

Shopping day is always a gauntlet run to get stuff done in the opening hours in France, very tiring but all in all a great day.

Floor boards, floorboards, floorboards…but now we have a first floor in the annex. We spent the vast majority of the day laying floor boards. The petrol lantern was brilliant and worked a treat in allowing us to see what we were meant to be doing!!!

 Al was chief chopper and measurer and I was chief hammerer!!! We got faster as the day went on and we managed to get the floor down and a coat of varnish on before the day was out.

Varnishing  Finished floor

Al did say half way through the day that after finishing the floors in the Slaughterhouse, next time he had to lay floor boards they would have to be huge….well I have to agree for the main floor in the barn big is definitely the way forward!!!

The next challenge was to keep the bats out so they did not sh*t  over the new floor. The old rug was  put up along with roofing felt to keep them out and we put cardboard in the windows. We hoped this would work and as we found out the next day it did BRILLIANT!!!

Homemade pizzas and Al cracked on with his OLS work, he had a lot to do by the morning so I read my book.

As it was Sunday we had a lie in and a leisurely morning with egg window for brekky, one of Al’s specialities…yummy delicious.

Ekke popped around so Al could help him with some rope work, hanging from the balcony etc. which he really appreciated and then we headed up to the barn.

The warm wind of yesterday had brought with it the rain overnight and on/off today as well.

We manged to get the front inside wall finished before the first shower which was good.

Then it was Christmas time…we opened the boxes with the toilet in them, all looks quite simple famous last words. We have a few decisions to make re where to put the toilet with regards to the floor joists and a couple of other factors but we are down to 2 places now.

Rain stopped so we battled on once again with the walls before having lunch upstairs along with the bats!!!

We then managed to hammer in the final few joists in the annex so that we can attack the floor boarding tomorrow all being well.

Rain stopped again so we finished the back wall and really are as far as we can go before before we get going with the cement mixer to finish off the walls and then we can get the poplar on and covered with felt and we have a watertight annex!!! That is the plan all being well.

Looks like the weather is passing so hoping for a sunny day tomorrow.

Back to the gite for lots of catch up stuff, and a leisurely night.

Catering tonight for Annie, Peter and Alison and pizza is on the menu so put a mix in the bread machine before we left the gite destined for the grange. Another day of fettling walls. Having got the framework for the roof in place the walls need building up to meet it before we can cap the top with reinforced concrete. Peter and Alison walked their dog up to see us midmorning so we took a tea break and caught up with them. Breezy has just about lost the plot with walls and rocks. I think another day and we will have it cracked.

An amazing day with a warm wind (which may mean it’s gonna rain tomorrow) and blue blue sky. The leaves are changing daily and the colours are fabulous.

 

On the way back we saw Olivier, the donkey man, who was very chatty and is now living in a yurt just down the valley from the grange. We declined an offer of a drink and said “next time”. Just as well we did because the pizza dough failed. Emergency calls to the UK to anyone with a bread machine to get a recipe. Second batch is going now so time to get cleaned up. Ekke just popped round to invite us to a music night near St Girons this evening. Unfortunately we have already made other plans. Amazingly social life in Salau seems to be really busy.

Spoke to Clive early to ask him if he could arrange a delivery of ballast for us. He has a contact with a 4×4 lorry who can deliver on site. He can’t get it over the bridge but can dump ten tonnes to just the other side. Should be plenty, and doesn’t go off, so that should be great. Also arranged to meet Clive and Gizelle for a drink early evening. Also spoke to Murray and arranged to borrow his mixer and muscles for a day when we get the ballast in. Picked up toilet at nine a.m. and went up to the grange. Another sunny day so we fastened all the roof joists together providing a stable frame to start sorting out the walls. The wall tops don’t meet the roof and are very loose, covered in beautiful ferns and sedum. They all need taking apart and weeding to provide a stable base to then start building them back up to meet the framework of the roof. As we are trying to be as economical as possible the joists (chevrons) are all surplus from the barn roof and are only just long enough so we had very little tolerance in nailing the frame together.

Repairing openings 

Unloaded the toilet into the barn but did not open the boxes. Save that delight for a rainy day. Then back down the valley to shower and change before heading off to Annie’s to collect the mixer and straight on to Clive’s for a drink. Left them with an invite to dinner the following Saturday.

Woke early and went straight up to the grange. The more time we spend putting a roof on the little out house the more we think that it would make a really cosy place to sleep. First off finished spragging the wall plates together. Although we had enough douglas fir left over to do the wall plates in one piece, we decided that if we used some smaller lengths joined together we could save one long length for a more deserving need. It also meant that we could use one of the longer lengths cut in half as floor joists inside the outhouse as a mezzanine. So that’s what we did next. This gave an added benefit of a high platform inside the building for sorting the wall tops out.

Wall plates in place and then the chevrons and it is starting to look like a building. Track down a cement mixer, a muscle bound oaf and a delivery of ballast and we should have the walls capped and ready for laying the poplar planking. May take a bit of time and effort though!

As we only have the gite for three weeks and have four weeks here, we are planning to stay at the grange (camping inside) for the last few days. The main barn has attracted loads of mice and bats, making it slightly less desirable. Heating will also be an issue as it’s big, has no heater and has loads of holes in the walls. So we are now thinking that the old shepherd’s hut could offer a far more appealing alternative. That is if we get the roof on and if we get the toilet installed in the main building and if we get to make a door? Let see how things go!

Got back to a note on the door from Cecile who has picked up the keys to the Mayor’s garage and so we can get the toilet. Unfortunately she was then out so we made arrangements to collect it the next morning.

First time I have been let lose on the blog this time…change in the weather the mist was low down on the mountains and there was a constant drizzle all morning. So we made a plan to go to the barn in the morning and then go to St Girons in the pm as we have loads of bits and pieces which need doing and a wet weather day is more of an incentive to traipse down the valley.

We sorted out the wood in the morning, checked nail stocks etc so we did not forget anything whilst in town.

On the way we saw Lee’s car at Pont de La Taule so we stopped and found the new place he has bought and is doing up, quite a project with loads of work, but will I am sure look great when finished.

A very successful pm in St Girons. We had a different trip to Maccy D’s  of all places….WHY? you may ask…free Wifi internet connection. So we spent a good hour or so catching up with work stuff and sorting out other bits and pieces. Then it was on to junk shops in search of an old door for the shepherds annex, no luck there but did pick up some cheap other bits we needed.

Into the centre of money, stamps, tobacco, phone shops, postcards etc. A trip to La Forgue and managed to get everything we wanted reinforcement, cement, nuts and bolts…who said married life was dull!!!! A quick cheeky stock up on food as it appears we are hosting some folk for dinner on Saturday.

We got back and had a quick turn around as Ekke and Cecile had kindly asked us over for dinner at their place in Salau. They are a lovely couple he is German  she is French and they have 3 boys between them. We turned up with a bottle to a warm slightly chaotic welcome as Ekke had been trying to fix a leak in the kitchen  sink which was taking longer than anticipated and Cecile got caught behind the sheep being taken down from the mountains for the winter. We had a FAB dinner, spicy vegetable broth with a semolina bread, cheese and home made cake.

Ekke and Cecile speak very clearly so understanding is fine but the kids speak so fast we do find out that we are missing a lot of it!!! All good practice. Cecile has been very helpful with sorting out storing the toilet and giving us plenty of local advice etc. so hopefully we can get them around for some dinner before we go and return their kindness.