Tuesday, and Iain arrives for lunch.

Early breakfast and a short internet session to get on top of enquiries for the Chalet in Chamonix for the winter then work clothes.

We want to tidy up the terrace area before he arrives so the Mucktruck is out and shovels in hand. Having built another raised bed out the back of the barn we can dig out the last of the compost from under the terrace and dump it in the bed. There is little head room so it’s a case of rake it to the front and shovel it up. All done and pin geotextile fabric over to keep the weeds down.

Also dug the Jasmine in the bed between the two terraces having soaked the pot for a couple of hours. Looks great; let’s hope it survives the winter?

Picked and cleaned some salad for lunch before Breezy headed off down to the Auberge to meet her Father.

An afternoon of inspecting the works and Paella on the terrace for supper before Iain headed off back to the Auberge for the night.

Early start as normal for a shopping day but hard to get out of bed!!!! Sun shining and we headed down to do the usual chores.

• Laundry in.
• Nursery to visit where we found a lovely climbing Jasmine for the barn wall.
• Collect laundry.
• Al sorted stove bits.
• Breezy huge food shop.
• Phone calls made.

Had time for coffee with Anouk on the way back up then an hour to get unpacked etc. Donkeys have all now landed on our side of the fence so we have given up trying to keep them out of our small area!

Usual prawns and garlic dip in the sun before attacking a few jobs in the afternoon.

• Big bramble pick.
• Varnished new table top for outside.
• HUGE tidy up inside.

Just in time before Chris arrived to have a look at the back wall and see if it is something he can help us with for chanvre chaux.

Al and I just had time for a quick bit of food prep before Ian turned up which was a lovely surprise to see where we were at with the DIY. Lee turned up shortly afterwards as we had invited him for supper. A few beers and nibbles before Ian left.

Al cracked on and made great chicken fajitas which we managed to eat outside by candlelight with the outside fire going. Great to catch up with Lee who we have not seen so much of as he is now more UK based. Next time hope we can get some hiking in together with him.

Left the washing up till the morning and hit the sack.

Alarm is back on and I started mixing lime mortar as soon as we finished breakfast while Breezy cleared up and did a quick email check. Unplug and move the fridge; then we are both attacking the walls with pointing trowels. The last little bits of pointing always take longer than expected. All those awkward angles and bits that have to be done left handed.

There were also a couple of fairly obvious cracks in the pointing upstairs above where the new window went in which needed filling. In hindsight we were pretty lucky that we did not loose more of the wall as the pointing inside seems to have stabilised the inside quite a lot.

That is it for pointing now as we have run out of white sand. Hurrah!!!

Odd jobs in the evening included sorting out a table top from a recycled piece of plywood, filling the new planting bed with compost from under the terrace and making up a 3rd raised bed for out the back.

Last chore for the day was to wire brush the pointing from the morning; taking excess mortar off to get the finish we wanted. All the mortar that was brushed off I quickly remixed to fill the big holes in the corners while Breezy jumped in the shower. My turn in the shower was cut short by visitors. Hans and Claire came up for a beer having walked their 3 dogs up to the waterfall.

Once they had taken a turn around the barn and the grounds we headed off to the bar to catch up with some locals. Alison and Peter were there as well as Jean Claude (our neighbour). Then Françoise and the Baker family turned up. A very social gathering and very varied conversation, mostly in French.

Omlette and salad supper as that is all we have left. Shopping day tomorrow.

No Alarm! Back in the land of donkeys with bells round their necks; we both slept soundly with only a couple of premature wakings due to the beasts outside. A leisurely breakfast before booting up the satellite internet and catching up with the blog and email enquiries for accommodation in the chalet this winter.

After lunch we went foraging for brambles which gave us an ice cream container full to supplement our fruit for breakfasts. There is something nice about free food.

The rest of the afternoon was devoted to getting organised again. Starting with a short list of things to be completed before Breezy’s Father arrives on Tuesday.

• Finish pointing the wall
• Finish cleaning the edges of the wooden floor upstairs
• Make a 3rd raised bed out the back
• Make a stable table top for outside (so that we don’t have to keep taking the trestle table in & out)
• Clear the compost from under the terrace & make good with geotextile fabric
• Strim the remaining bracken
• Food plan for the next week

Looks like tomorrow is back to pointing so in preparation we shifted everything away from the front wall of the barn to get access to the base of the wall which still needs filling. This also gave us access to the front window which once removed from the hole allowed Breezy to varnish the sill. The window went in last year and we never got round to it at the time. In doing it we also managed to finish a tin of varnish that was salvage from a skip giving us more room on the paint shelf in the workshop.

Last bit of finishing work before showering was to wire brush the woodwork around the new window in the gable end. A rotary brush on an old electric drill does a great job but does clart the user in fine dust. A couple of corks from Blanquette bottles screwed to the timber now stop the window opening too far onto the stone work and the window is complete.

Duck salad and an episode of All Creatures Great and Small before bed again.

Again, breakfast of fruit and yoghurt then straight to the mixing mortar. Had to disconnect the fridge and move it out the way as we are approaching the last section of wall requiring pointing. 2 mixes later and that is the lot.

I then mixed up some normal mortar and set about filling a couple of large holes in the small remaining section of wall with rocks while Breezy booted up the satellite internet to sort out Ski Breezy stuff for the coming winter in Chamonix.

After lunch we both finished a few odd jobs before brushing off the mortar from the morning.

The exciting bit was getting packs ready for our adventure tomorrow. We are setting an early alarm and heading for Cirque de Cagateille for a walk into Spain to Refugi de Certascan. An overnight there and then back via Tuc de Certascan and Etang Alet.

The pointing after breakfast seems to be working. 2 mixes and then find something else to do. Again we hit the internet to sort out Ski Breezy stuff and blogging etc.

Got hungry about 1pm so Breezy knocked up a fantastic chicken sandwich for us before we started clearing the terrace of rocks and building a small wall area between the 2 terraces. Once completed we then relocated the spare rocks around the back of the main barn.

Breezy spotted a rather nasty growth on the belly of one of the donkeys which caused us some alarm. We took a couple of photos of it to send to Olivier. Seems a little crazy that we communicate with Olivier through Anouk and Rene at the Auberge in Salau so we went down the valley to do some chores and get an email address off them so that we can send any concerns we have direct.

Back at the barn after coffee with Anouk and the pointing is ready to brush off. Showers for both and a shave for me before a quick email session and a hand of cards before sups.

Having learnt from experience, we started pointing straight after breakfast. Two mixes of mortar and all cleaned up by 11.30am.

Cup of tea, fire lit and internet booted up for some desk work. About an hour in some of the lights went off in the outhouse and something started beeping. Further investigation revealed that the inverter (12v to 230v) was making the noise and the solar controller had shut down the lights and the display had started flashing. There followed another hour of finding the manuals and trouble shooting.

It transpires that both the inverter and the solar controller have built in protection from the battery discharging too much. The battery is at 11.6v which seems to have triggered the noise and the flashing. I know that the weather has not been great recently and so not much charge gone into the battery but it surprises me that there has been such a voltage drop.

Remedy:

• Move an 85w solar panel from the main barn to supplement the 100w it currently has
• Run a long extension from the inverter in the main barn down to run the internet
• Make a candle holder out of an off cut of wood for some atmospheric lighting in the outhouse

Back on the internet and Breezy’s  touchpad on her computer is misbehaving. It is dragging stuff about and randomly opening things as the mouse passes over icons. Another hour of using system restore and messing about with computer settings before Breezy once again is smiling.

A couple of hours of chopping and sawing logs for the fire and a spot of gardening before wire brushing the mortar back to the stonework.

Showers, roast chicken and left over salads and another episode of Spooks before bed.

A quick breakfast and then on with the list of chores before the Baker clan arrive. Unfortunately it is overcast and not at all warm so we are gonna have to entertain indoors.

• Marinate the chicken and the pork
• Sort out the bulgar salad and the green salad
• Make up the sweet potato and beetroot salad
• Charge the fridge with drinks
• Move chairs around
• Cheese out of the fridge
• Sort out crockery and cutlery
• Clean the BBQ
• etc etc etc

Just enough time left over to check emails and have a cup of tea before they arrive. Everyone was on good form and the weather did not deter anyone from having nibbles and dips on the terrace only going inside once the meat was cooked.

The kids entertained themselves throwing pine cones for the dog and rolling down the hill.

Good food and company then a monster clear up before an episode of Spooks in the outhouse in the evening.