First couple of days back

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Flew out to Carcasonne on Saturday and were met by Von, Andie’s sister at the airport. Von and Mark had been looking after Vinnie, our VW van since the spring, a quick cuppa and catch up before heading off to Mirepoix to stay there the night rather than arriving at the grange in the dark and sorting ourselves out. At Limoux we called at the supermarket and stocked up with a few days food on the way.

Mirepoix is a fabulous small town with a lovely centre of old oak framed buildings around a central square. There was a fete of some kind with fairground stalls and live music so we snuck down a quiet side street for moules frittes.

Having caught up on emails in the morning and showered we set off for Salau. En route we called at the Auberge to collect our new satellite. The intention being to set up satellite broadband at the grange. Rain and drizzle with low cloud so we set about organising ourselves and discovering what we had left where. There is always an air of anticipation when we get back “what state is it going to be in?” All good and still secure. Though there is a new leak in the roof of the main barn. The outhouse was infestation free though we have a family of Loire living in a plastic bag of work gloves in the tool store. Fresh prawns and aioli, followed by baked trout for supper.

Monday was more of the same weather so we set about using some of the stock of off cut wood to make some shelves. One above the door of the outhouse and a couple on the mezzanine. Smoothing and sealing wood in the morning and constructing and installing in the afternoon. It’s amazing how much difference it makes having somewhere other than the floor to put things. Made us thing about what else we need to find, make, buy or acquire. A door mat for one. Early door we set off for the Auberge for a drink and to tap Freddie for some hints on satellite setup. Roast chicken dinner with mustard and fresh sage from the garden stuffed under the skin, yummy.

shelf above doorshelf above door  shelves on mezzanineshelves on mezzanine

Tuesday and its not raining. The cloud is low but water is not falling out of the heavens. I read the instruction manual (looked at the pictures) for the satellite installation over coffee. Anything I was unsure about I asked Breezy as the instructions were all in French. First off we needed to find something to mount the dish on. In the absence of the proper mount we whacked a post in the ground and used that, then meticulously followed the pictures until hey presto we were connected to the word wide web. It’s amazing, no mobile signal, no water, no mains electric, and you stick up a dish and run it off solar (currently cheating using a generator) and you are connected to the web. The inverter for the solar should arrive Wednesday.
 
 

We were so amazed that it only took the morning I left Breezy sorting emails and went weeding.

Weeding done including the veggie patch and we turned our efforts onto creating a terrace out the front of the outhouse.

Beef stew and baked potatoes for tea tonight after getting the generator running and uploading this. Absolutely amazing!!!

 

Categories: Autumn 2009, The Project

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