Category: Autumn 2008

More drizzle

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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.

Categories: Autumn 2008, The Project

More ballast

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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.

Categories: Autumn 2008, The Project

Wall Capping

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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.

Categories: Autumn 2008, The Project

Early start

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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.

Categories: Autumn 2008, The Project

Egg window and rainbow

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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.

 

 

Categories: Autumn 2008, The Project

Fete at Seix – Ugly Cow Competition

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I wandered over to the Auberge to put some meat in their freezer first thing and Freddy told me about a fete in Seix, down the valley. When I told Breezy plans for the day changed. The fete is to do with bringing down the animals from the mountains for the winter. They have a prize for the ugliest cow and all manner of other awards to dish out. It starts at 11am so we planned to get there about 12.

First off we did go up to the barn and just wandered about sharing ideas and talking about plans for different areas. We have settled on a tree near the grange to build a platform in, it is easily accessible and will be a bit of a test to see what reaction we get from locals if they find it.

Got down to Seix just after 12 having got a couple of supplies from the garage en route. Everyone was grabbing food and wine and settling down to long tables in the square. We were not sure what the score was as to paying and how it all worked generally. There were some stalls which were starting to pack up but there was a great buzz about the place. Need to find out more at some stage and also find out when things are happening. While we were there we did find out that there is a flower festival the next weekend so we may go to that. This time we wont be late.

Table feastTable feast    Can you see BreezyCan you see Breezy

On the way back through Pont de la Taule we spied Lee’s car so stopped to see how he was getting on and invite him over for dinner. He was quite excited having passed his hunting exam; a multi guess paper in French with topics covering history, animal recognition, the law, and everything to do with la chase. There is also a practical which he passed as well.

We were going to do some work on the barn in the afternoon but having had our sandwiches at the gite it started to rain. So Scrabble and reading books for the afternoon took priority.

In the evening were off to Clive and Gizelle’s for dinner and catch up. Among other things we discovered the reason for the lack of ballast delivery; the lorry is broken, well actually mort; so we need to make other plans. A great evening with fab food.

Categories: Autumn 2008, The Project

Small jobs

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Woke up to pouring rain. Al chased Clive re ballast delivery but not sure it will arrive today. By the time we got to the barn it was dry and the day gradually improved with it actually being really hot until we sat down for lunch and the sun went in!!!

 

 

A day of doing lots of little bits and pieces. I put the last coat of varnish on the bathroom floor while Al tidied up the annex which like the barn was getting to be a real dumping ground and hard to find anything we wanted.

We spent the rest of the morning building a stand for the composting toilet base to sit on to make it easier to maintain, then we were able to place the base in situ. Managed to find an easy hole for the vent to go out of which involved just a few rocks to move rather than drilling a hole through 60cms of stone, not much choice really!

The afternoon was setting the final joists in the annex so they are all just ready for floorboards as soon as we have a roof.

We managed to remove some fairly large slabs from the outhouse so we decided to use the largest one as a front doorstep for the outbuilding. Al tweaked the front with a grinder so that is will fit snuggly to the building.

A big tidy up in the inside of the barn and then home just before the rain began.

Final little job was putting a gate latch on the annex door which we are forever trying to prop open. It should make a difference.

We have Ekke and Cecile for supper so in need of a shower, some food prep and a glass of wine before they arrive.

Categories: Autumn 2008, The Project

Digging and visitors

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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

Categories: Autumn 2008, The Project

Mc Donalds; would you believe it?

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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.

Categories: Autumn 2008, The Project