Up early as it was the weekly St Girons day and lists were huge.

A quick brekky, sun shining again which was good news and off we trundled.  We dropped the strimmer in for a service as it is not running very well so makes things much harder work than they should be. then on to Le Forgue to load 10 sheets of 1.20mx 2.50m plasterboard on to the roof rack and collected a few more odds and ends.

On to get the muck truck wheels and trailer wheels inflated before a quick trip to Bricolage for garden stuff.

Whirlwind continued with washing chucked in the laundrette, collected salad plants and plants from gamme vert, re collected the clean washing, bought phone cards and then finally on to Carrefour for a big food shop and all before 10.30am!!! We both hate shopping so the quicker the better.

Slight mishap on the way back with a wing mirror smash with another van, luckily we had the window open otherwise I think it would have smashed the drivers window as well. Nobody hurt so that was the main thing.

We passed Olivier (donkey man) on the way back who is bringing the donkeys up to graze, not with us for a while as they are opposite but at least they are on their way sometime, rumours were spreading that he was not grazing this year so very happy that they are.

We decided to tackle the heavy work before lunch, washing on the line, food in the fridge then 10 loads of lugging the huge sheets of plasterboard up the hill. Not the easiest of things to manoeuvre and took a couple of hours. As well as then having to wiggle them upstairs through a tight gap which was amusing again but we got a system going so it went quite quickly. Only another 20 odd to go….

A delicious lunch on the top terrace, fresh prawns and garlic dip and fresh French bread, perfecto.

We had to reassemble the muck truck back together. As much as I love this machine, definitely a design fault with getting wheels back on. Only way to do it is to deflate the tyres but not too much to squeeze them back over the middle tyres. Anyway, all done and serviced by Al so ready for use again.

A quick last load of things up from the van before planting the flowers into the bed on the top terrace and all the salad into the garden too, should have an abundance of salad soon to keep us going over the summer, lovely.

Final bits to do was chopping 29 baton lengths for the insulation and pre nailing them all for easy assembling skills later on.

Seem to have got loads done today, a quick wash up, hot showers and internet before we head to Clive and Giselle’s for supper.

Started the day with pouring rain. That continued for most of the time which gave us another opportunity to check out the weatherproofness of the roof. Low and behold, one of the previous leaks is still persistent and another two have appeared. Yet again I shall have to venture up there with a hammer, screwdrivers and a tube of mastic. Maybe we should have opted for new Spanish slates rather than the very authentic old reclaimed jigsaw.

We are starting to get some inquiries through for the chalet in Chamonix for the coming winter ski season. So following the usual internet and email session after breakfast we set about some small jobs like fitting a couple of kitchen unit doors and fettling another unit.

Then we set about sorting out all the wiring to go in the roof for lighting. The plan is to run all the lighting on 220-240v ac through an inverter off the battery. With the advent of low wattage GU10 bulbs we can use down lighters in the ceiling combined with some low wattage suspended lighting. In total I would like to get all the lighting in under 300w in total.

As shopping tomorrow in St Girons it was also a great opportunity to go through all the electrical stuff we have and make up a shopping list of whet we need to supplement it. Having brought over any surplus stuff from renovating the house in the UK and scavenged a substantial amount from Chamonix it is surprising how little extra kit we need at this stage.

Also with shopping tomorrow food stocks are low and so creative cookery was in order. I managed to make a sort of paella dish with random vegetables, loads of garlic, some lardons and whatever spices I could find. Throw in a couple of handfuls of rice and it was surprisingly tasty. Breezy even said that she would have it again; not that I could ever replicate it.

Rain swells the waterfalls opposite the barn

Not quite so sunny, though not cold. The whole of the morning we spent indoors rebuilding kitchen units which we salvaged from a chalet renovation in Chamonix over the winter.

In order to get them all down to the Pyrenees we had to take a hammer and persuade them to flat pack. I suspect that they were not designed to be taken apart and so it took a while to reconstruct them. Fortunately Breezy had been round with masking tape and labelled all the pieces so at least we knew which bits belonged to which unit.

It is surprising how big a kitchen you can fit into the back of a small van when you try hard enough.

After a sandwich for lunch we set about sorting out some storage issues in the outhouse with a little rack on the wall plus a few odd jobs like strimming grass, cabling, gardening and sorting out tools.

Hot duck salad for sups and an episode of Spooks.

After another very healthy breakfast, Breezy hit the internet while I washed up and then picked up the brushcutter to clear a pathway over to the van through the meadow. I only had to run away once from the swarm of horse flies that had built up on the way.

The frame that we made yesterday needed a little bit of tweaking to get it to fit snugly and then we set about making another two identical. By the end of the day we had 3 complete frames varnished and ready to pop into place. Think we shall wait to see if we can get some scaffold before wrestling with them on step ladders.

Early showers, bit of blogging and an omelette supper (forgot to buy pasta).

Another morning of wall to wall blue sky. After breakfast and a quick internet bout to sort out emails Breezy headed off down the valley to make a couple of phone calls while I potted some plants then got up on the roof before the slates got too hot to touch.

The torrential downpour and thunder storm revealed a couple of imperfections in the waterproofness of the roof. I have got the stage where I hate getting up there as trying to establish where the water is getting in is a bit like trying to pin the tail on a donkey. This time however I was rather pleased with myself. Having identified the leaky area I touched a small slate near the ridge and a load of water gushed out. After a bit of fettling and a quantity of mastic I am fairly confident that the problem is fixed.

The second leak, though not as spectacular was also fairly easy to fix.

Breezy got back having bumped into half the village for chats and sowed the parsley seeds we had been soaking. She had run into Fernandez who is repairing the piste between us and the village after there was a land slide while we were in Cuba. This involves blasting the rock face and also building a massive retaining wall between the piste and the river. Apparently there is a good chance the piste will close for a few days next month while the work is carried out.

A salad lunch after wrestling with insulation inside and in the afternoon we set about making the first of 3 frames for the Velux windows we fitted last year.

Beers down at the Auberge where we caught up with Rene and Anouk’s news. Clive turned up and so we have an invite to supper on Monday. Jean Claude (our neighbour) and the Mayor showed up as well.

Fantastic dinner of Barbecued marinated duck breast, spicy noodles and fresh broccoli out of the garden.

Before the sun hit the terrace we decided to weed the 2 flower beds there so we can get some plants in come Monday. Quick job and looks better already.

We had a big sort out of bags upstairs in the hope of finding the missing wallet with no luck so have cancelled UK cards and still need to cancel French cards a right old pain.

More glorious sunshine and hot very quickly.

A bit more strimming for me to do while Al tackled servicing the muck truck. 2 flat tyres need to get sorted on our trip to St Girons as things without the muck truck would be so much harder.

Bonkers weather going from 30 odd degrees one minute, 30 minutes later the most enormous hailstorm with huge hailstones pouring down. Outdoor showering in these conditions aint much fun!!!! But we were soaked by the time we had got from the main barn to the outbuilding so persevered with the shower.

Bangers and mash for supper with some more broccoli from the garden which is really yummy.

Relaxed with a film and watching the electrical storm going on outside which lasted for a good few hours, river rose rapidly and went a very brown colour.

Feel like we are almost sorted and ready to get going with this years projects.

Had a lie in still a bit jaded from our trip back from Cuba and woke at 930am, sun was shining and great to see the mountains first thing too. A leisurely breakfast under the parasol as it was really hot already before continuing on the getting sorted progress. Not quite as simple as most places to open up after a bit of time away….

Al set to sorting out the toilet which at the end of our last trip was not working properly and consequently stank, anyway without too much detail the problem is solved and working like a dream with no horrible smells, much better.

I tackled strimming the back terrace and up the the back terrace which was hot work, but gradually made good progress.

We are really pleased that we managed to plant some veggies on our one day trip here in May as we have had fresh rhubarb and broccoli from it already. Red cabbages, caulis, redcurrants and courgettes all looking OK too. So we are aiming to get some more things planted soon so we can have lots of goodies from the garden this summer.

We weeded the veggies patch and got some spinach, roquet and lettuce in plus some chives and parsley for the herb part of the garden.

All the garden furniture is now out and about on the various terraces which is fab and also means we have more space downstairs in all the chaos.

Had a lovely roast chuck, broccoli from the garden and marmite roasties for dinner perfecto.

An early start in Bonsal, Derbyshire in order to drop off a car in Wirksworth and then get to East Midlands Airport for 6am. Ken is a star and gave us a lift. Made the flight by the skin of our teeth to get to Carcasonne where we had left the van in the driveway of some friends.

Having collected the van in glorious sunshine we trundled our way through the French countryside to reach the barn. Stopped to stock up on food, fill up a gerry can with petrol and fill up water containers for drinking water.

The grass was waist deep at the barn so we picked up some food bags and waded our way up the hill to open everything up and start getting organised.

Breezy emptied out the outhouse where we live and brushed down the walls. It was quite damp from the winter so a good airing was needed. I set about reconnecting the batteries and getting the fridge going then picked up the strimmer to make some pathways for getting about.

Much easier getting sorted when the sun is shining hoorah. Had a simple fish dinner for supper with some cous cous and then to bed.