Boys Toys

I’ve started on converting my oil storeroom into a work room.  The earth floor has been replaced with concrete and next up was replacing the Perspex sheet I’d put in a few years ago to block the hole in the wall, with a real window.  I didn’t want to go upwards as there was already a lintel there and I didn't want to go down as the hole in the wall is only a couple of feet off the ground as it is.   Eventually I found a window of the right depth that tipped inwards rather than swing open.  It was however wider than the original hole.

No problem, I thought; I’ll just get out my trusty angle grinder and cut through the concrete blocks.  After an hour I stopped and assessed how far I’d got.  The cutter disc had been glowing red and I’d donned my hard hat to protect my head from the hot pieces of disc and brick that were flying about.  I was also wearing goggles and had my arms protected too.  I had only managed to cut a groove of about a millimetre or two depth on each side!  This was going to take ages.

Enter knights in shining armour, both male and female.  Friends said, “we have a proper stone-cutting angle grinder” and what’s more, B said he would do the cutting as well.  I’m really pleased he did as I’m not convinced I would have had the strength to control the cutter safely. 

Comparison picture!!

Even with the proper cutter it took a good hour to cut through; goodness knows what had been done to these concrete blocks, I think they must have been designed to be bomb proof.

But before long the window was in place and the foam filling in the gaps was left to set.

Next day I trimmed away the excess foam and am now cementing in the gaps.  Outside there is a bit more work to do as the edges and windowsill need rebuilding.  This will take a little while as I can only do it in the morning before the sun gets there and it also needs to be built up.  I think I’m going to need to rig up some shuttering but at least I can get on with the inside here it is cool enough to work.

So next up, I will be learning how to apply doublage – plaster and polystyrene panels.

A Little Maintenance

I’ve come to the conclusion that plans are never meant to run smoothly; take today for instance, it was marked as the day to break up the soil in the five-hectare field. To do this I have what I believe the French call a ‘herse a peigne de vibro’ – a vibrating comb harrow.

The problems started yesterday. I decided that as I was unlikely to use the plough for a while, I’d clean it and than put it back in the storage area and hitch up the harrow. Sounds pretty easy and usually it is; however this time I managed to put it somewhere uneven and it twisted as I tried to unhitch it. It twisted so much that I couldn’t re-hitch it; everything I tried just made matters worse.

Thankfully Regis was at his place and he agreed to come round after he’d finished work and help me sort it out. This he did; it’s amazing how more useful it is to be in two places at once. Between me moving the tractor and raising and lowering the linkage and Regis pushing and placing the props for the plough we got it straight and unhitched.


Regis then took the harrow out to check the ground was ready to work, which after the wonderful weather we’ve had for the last few weeks, it was. He then checked over the harrow and pointed out that a lot of the tines were worn and needed replacing. All my farming equipment is second (at least) hand.


I thought I would have to replace the whole of the spring tine totally forgetting that farming can be quite green in many ways. Replace, reuse, repair, they are the bye words in farming, at least with older equipment. Each of the tines is fitted with a shoe that can be replaced when worn and even better, these shoes are reversible.


So instead of being out on the field today I’m reversing or changing shoes. I thought that it wouldn’t take too long but…

I do think I was a bit naive setting about this with only a spanner. After an hour and quite a few bruises I gave up and set off for the local farm suppliers where I finally bought that decent socket set I’ve been promising myself and while I was there, a decent pipe wrench too. Oh what a difference, a little leverage goes a long way.



P.S. I’m covered in grease, I ache, I’m bruised and cut and over 100€ poorer after buying tools and parts, but all 30 shoes have either been reversed or replaced and I feel really chuffed with myself. Time for a sog in front of the TV :-)

Picture Catch-Up

First a couple more pictures of the flooding this morning – the little brook that runs along the bottom of the slight valley just couldn’t cope so water meadows were the order of the day.


There is a mega storm forecast for early tomorrow morning too so more rain plus 70 mph winds – oh joy, I think I’ll keep the shutters bolted, thankfully there are no longer any tall rotten trees to fall on the house. There are also warnings of power/telephone failures due to trees falling on lines.


So what have I been doing during this last week of blog silence? It’s been lots of little things and time-consuming things. I did some baking as I had lemons to use up and the bananas I’d just bought had been in far to cold a place and when I got them home and they warmed up they went soft. So I now have lemon cake and banana cake. If anyone is wondering, there is no added colouring in the lemon cake, just free-ranging chicken eggs.


Time has also been spent going to the tree nursery, ordering and then two trips collecting the next batch of saplings. There are only 166 this time and I’m really hoping that having ploughed the ground I should be able to plant much more quickly than last years.


A rainy day earlier on and I decided to fit the oak workbench. It didn’t need a lot of work, battens on the wall and the other workbench cut back to give it room. Once I got started I realised that I had to cut out a section for some pipes; that was tough going, while the workbench might be made out of bits of oak, they are solid bits of oak, really tough and the bench its self is really heavy. So here’s just a selection of the tools.


The circular saw is on the floor having already trimmed most of the workbench by the sink. It could only get to about 4” from the wall, and then it was the turn of the jigsaw. That got to about an inch from the wall and then it was the handsaw. Having got that done, I set about the small cut-out for the pipes. Thankfully I had a corded drill as my battery one would never have had enough power to drill the guide hole through the worktop. The jigsaw took out the bulk but it still needed rasping and that felt like it took forever especially as despite my very careful measuring I hadn’t realised that the two walls weren’t at right angles.

Why I thought this corner would be a right angle when the other corner that gave so much problems putting up the corner cupboards wasn’t I don’t know. So a little trimming and a little bodging and it finally fitted and had its first coat of oil, just don’t ask how long it took, I really don’t want to think about that.

Ill Again

It's getting beyond a joke; I have yet another head cold so nothing much is getting done at the present. I was hoping to regail you with pictures of my newly tiled workbench and wall but I can't see properly to finish it at the moment.

So currently I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself. I think it calls for a whisky and green ginger wine to make me feel better. Hopefully I'll be posting those pictures soon.

The Wood-Fired Cooker

With my continuing colds and the deterioration of the weather here, I decided it was time to light the ESSE. This is the first time I will have cooked using wood, barbeques apart, and the first time I’ve burnt plum wood. My neighbour had a lot of problems getting plum wood to burn although Ann and Regis use it all the time with no problems and have a blazing fire.

So it was with great trepidation I lit the first fire; it barely caught. It did produce a lot of smoke to start with, which was great as I took the opportunity to check there were no leaks in the chimneystack where it goes through the loft.

The basic building here can be a bit ‘interesting’. The chimneystack is a stack of hollow square bricks. Fine so far but the path from the kitchen to the roof is not vertical so my chimney has a curve in it. Add to that, when I went into the loft area on moving in, I discovered that the exhausts for both the extractor hood and the propane water heater just passed through the kitchen ceiling and vented into the loft! Hence why I wanted to check out the integrity of the chimneystack.

All was fine and I went back down to keep an eye on the fire. I reasoned that I needed to build up an ash bed. My neighbour who had the problems with the plum wood insisted you don’t need one but somewhere in the depths of my mind I have the recollection that wood fires need an ash base while coal fires don’t.

After about 4 hours the fire finally caught properly and the oven temperature gauge began to rise. Encouraged by this I started some bread. I still couldn’t get the oven into the hot zone but did manage to bake 3 large loaves and some buns.

By now it was evening and the next test presented its self. Could the fire last overnight? I added a few logs and closed all the dampers and went to bed.

Yesterday when I got up the cooker was cool but there was still a good glow in the ashes so I added more wood, opened up the dampers and waited. After about an hour I had a good blaze going again and this time the cooker heated to the top of the hot zone.

Time for more baking and yesterday it was buckwheat pancakes (because I had the flour and it let me see how well the ‘hot’ hotplate worked); some spice biscuits and some gingernuts. All were great, cooking times are a bit hit and miss, generally baking seems to be quicker. I’ve also put a casserole in the slow oven that’s looking good and should be perfect by tonight – the original slow cooker.

So I’m really happy with it, not only do I have hot water all day, it has a back boiler, I have a source of heat in the kitchen, I can cook more or less whenever I want (the other cooker is electric and takes quite a time to warm up as well as being expensive) and it keeps my cup of tea warm too. And if all the above wasn’t enough it can iron too, I think I’m in love!

A Quiet Wednesday

It didn’t rain today but after the 17mm we had yesterday the ground was far to wet to work today. The sky also remained overcast all day so it became a day of bits and pieces mainly indoors.

While letting out the chickens this morning I glanced over to my saffron bed and here it is…my very first home-grown saffron. It looks like I’ll double the quantity tomorrow too! While it might be one of the most expensive items by weight around at the moment, I don’t think I’ll be making my fortune just yet.


Later on in the day I was on my way back to the chickens to give them some grain and found this little chap in the grass.



He was only 15cm, 6 inches long at the most, about the same size as the hedgehog I saw last year. I’m wondering now if the hedgehogs are a smaller variety here than in the UK or if I’ve seen juvenile ones each time. Once he’d noticed me photographing him, he headed off across the flowerbeds towards the pile of weeds for burning. As you can see, Patches was curious but she kept her distance so I suspect she’s had a prickled nose before now.


While I love my bonfires, I never just set light to a heap of stuff I’ve left around. I always start a new heap to burn so I don’t inadvertently roast one of these delightful slug catchers. I headed him off and placed him under the bay tree behind the house, whether he will hibernate in the leaves there or head back to the burning pile, I’ll find out when I have the next bonfire. In the meantime I must dig out my hedgehog book and see if there are any ideas for making somewhere for him to hibernate that doesn’t require me doing any construction work as I just don’t have time at the moment.

The rest of the day was spent doing the little things like putting bolts on doors and trying to re-fit the curtain pole on my bedroom. The walls here are a mixture of rubble, breezeblock, terracotta block and bad plaster and one of the rawlplugs holding up the curtain pole had pulled out of the wall taking a rather large piece of plaster with it. So while the filler was setting I even managed a trip to the tip to empty my trailer of all the rubbish in it. All in all a quiet but satisfying day.

More Wonderful Friends

Yesterday the promised rain came. I thought we might get away without it but by late morning the heaven opened and I got soaked. Never mind it was that wonderful fain that actually soaks into the ground rather than evaporates off the top or come down so hard it just runs over the surface. So it was an inside day after all.

Just after lunch D and S from the neighbouring village called in. They’d been to the local dechetterie (waste disposal site) and D had told S to bring his tool kit with him. I had one wall cupboard in the kitchen that wasn’t level. The screws are perfectly level so I thought it would just be a case of fiddling around with the level adjusting screws until it was right but with the arrival of guests and the summer work outside it had remained undone.

S spent a while trying to get the adjusters to bring it level but to no avail. The great thing about having three of us here working on it was that D and I could offer the cabinet up to the wall and S could get into a position to see exactly what was happening with the wall fixers – all designed to be completely concealed so you haven’t a chance to see what you are doing on your own.

Eventually the penny dropped; the wall plate has two screw holes to attach it to the wall. On the right hand plate, which was causing the problems, the screws were perfectly level but A and I had when putting it up originally managed to make the left hand screw hole position the right hand one resulting in the fixer being just to the left of where it needed to be. The cabinet was therefore hanging by the top rim and not the hanger on that side. One new screw hole later and it is now hanging beautifully an I will be able to put the final end piece on when I get back to the kitchen work.

Such a simple job in many respects but so much easier to do with a little help. Even so it took a couple of hours because it is so fiddly and I’m so grateful to D and S because it would have taken me ages to sort out on my own.

Is Victor Meldrew* in the House?

Either that or I'm morphing into him. My hot shower this morning wasn't - so cue quick chorus of 'I don't believe it'. No switches tripped on the distribution board so it looks like the immersion heater has given up after 3 months. I could try sending it back but I think that by the time I've gone through the hassle it will be cheaper to ask my sister to send me one direct from the UK.

Just what I need with less than 2 weeks to go until my children arrive - so I'm off to connect up the solar shower and hope the sun keeps shining.

I'm begining to wonder 'why me'?

* Victor Meldrew - One Foot in the Grave

PS. anyone else having difficulty pasting into blogger at the moment.

A’s Week

I’ve been a trifle sad today, I always am when I’ve had to take my children back to the airport but I’ve had a wonderful week catching up with 'A' again. He shares my love of the news and information and being a student has more time than me to read around. I also love having my children here because it brings me up to date with what they think is important in this world.

So we’ve had late nights talking about his year in Singapore and what he hopes to be taking next year and watching videos and the days have been filled with bits and pieces. Going out a few times and pottering round the farm the rest.

We spent a morning going to see the baler and hay turner and OK’ing them.

We spent a day mowing lawns and planting some stuff then 'A' clipped the hedge for me. It’s the first time it’s been fully clipped in well over a year. I tried back last year but it was just too much for me so I’m really grateful that he’s done it.

We’ve had the first of the alpine strawberries that are now fruiting prolifically; the coin is a one-euro coin.

We’ve also built and hung some of the wall units.

Now there is only the corner unit and it’s 2 adjoining ones to go. They would have been done but once the corner unit was built it was obvious that it can’t be fitted round the new electrics and I will have to buy some battens this week and fix it to the wall on those. 'A' has then spent time loading the finished cupboards and generally clearing spaces.

The rest of the time has been spent just ‘hanging out’ or whatever the current phrase may be. I count myself so lucky not only having wonderful children but also being able to spend time with them in what is a very restful situation.

Creeping Forwards

When I got back from Agen yesterday there was a message on the answer phone, the kitchen store had telephoned to say my stuff was there. They didn’t specify which stuff and I’ve learnt from past experiences not to get too excited. I was right to be laid back; it was the replacement leg for the unit that had arrived and not the missing unit. On the positive side though, the order for the missing unit was there in the book; if it has paperwork attached it will be done - just don’t ask when!

Still the trip into Villeneuve wasn’t a total waste, I found some more sandals, having worn out my last pair as if I’m not in my safety shoes (which are nearly worn out too) I’m in my walking sandals, and I filled the car with diesel – ouch. Long gone are the days when it cost fewer Euros than litres. On the national news the other day they were showing people who were filling up every day so it ‘only cost them a few euros’. I think they are only kidding themselves, I’d rather fill up and get the shock of how much it costs to encourage me to cut out unnecessary journeys than spend the money in dribs and drabs trying to convince myself that it’s not an expensive luxury.

Back at the farm I put in the last half row of potatoes and continued with a bit more ground preparation while it tried to drizzle. We’ve not had the thunderstorms and hail we were promised for today so that was good. I also started seeding the area in the grass I mutilated yesterday. I can only say started as the seed I had has only covered about a third of it so I will be getting some more when I’m next out.

Apart from that not much else got done, as I’ve been really tired. I’ve had a problem with one of my teeth and made an appointment with the dentist but there is a three-week wait. So I’ve survived the last week and a half on paracetamol but I think it’s leaving me rather out of it so I’m going to have to cut it right down and live with a bit of discomfort.

When I turned round from the computer this evening to see if it was dark enough that the chickens would have gone to bed I noticed the unusual lighting outside, it was a sort of yellow pink light. This picture gives a reasonable idea of what outside looked like – out of focus again because I can’t hold a camera steady to save my life.

I then tried to take a shot of the sunset its self. Well they say the camera never lies but it does really depend on the camera setting.

This first one is taken with the special sunset setting

It would have been quite a sunset if that was really what was there, I think I would be waiting for the end of the world to happen if I saw a sky like that!

In actuality it was closer to this, taken on the auto setting although there was a little bit more red in the sky but nothing like the earlier shot

Tuesday Came and Went

I’m trying to think what I did today; I’ve been busy all day but don’t feel I’ve achieved much.

The sky was a bit overcast this morning but I decided to risk putting the clothes I’d washed yesterday on the line. A good move, as the forecast rain hasn’t materialised. I also got another couple of loads washed and dried today too.

I then did a bit more on the kitchen. Last night/this morning I put the remaining doors on and eventually sorted out the misaligning false drawers, finishing at about 1 am. No wonder I didn’t want to get up today.

This morning’s task was to fix the worktop to the single unit by the cooker (not in this picture) and then try and decide what was going into each cupboard. Not too difficult but I still have problems when it comes to making decisions so I started off with the single unit. It was then that I noticed I’d put one of the cross pieces to support the worktop in the wrong way round. The nice wood coloured finishing strip was behind and the rough chipboard finish to the front. The draw front and the worktop would cover most of it but I knew it had to be changed so I found my hammer and the trusty piece of scrap wood I’d used to put the unit together and proceeded to wallop the unit apart. Gulp. Thankfully it came apart without any damage, the offending piece rotated and it’s all back together and ready for tiling.

In between time I had also been to the vet to get some more anti parasite stuff for the alpacas. I’d spent some time on Excel working out the dosages I need to give them and realised I only had half quantities. Everything is off label for alpacas and the dosages are usually greater than for horses or cows and is dependant on body weight. The vet didn’t have the strength I wanted so I’ve also had to make allowances for that. Once calculated I then did an Internet search and found someone else’s stated amounts and found to my relief they tallied with the result I got.

Since tomorrow will be dosing day, after I’d fed and cleaned out the alpacas I then set about re-arranging the hurdles to create the capture pen for tomorrow. I lure them in with their granules and close the gate behind them. The treatment tomorrow is oral not an injection which they had the last time (I wimped out) and is supposed to give a change of medication to increase the spectrum of parasites treated. Those few lines cover nearly an hour’s work.

The chickens have had their visits, they get 4-5 per day not counting just going up to watch them; one to let them out, one to feed them and pick up any eggs, one to pick up eggs laid later in the day, one or two to see if they’ve gone to bed and to lock them in for the night.

The dried washing has been folded and brought in and a bit more plaster has gone into a major hole in the wall behind where the sink has been fitted. Working late last night I spotted a fleeting shadow and was just in time to watch a mouse dive down the back of the sink and into the wall where the old pipe work has been cut away leaving the gaping hole. Just another thing to add to the unending to do list.

The major occurrence today though concerns Mr Tibbs. He turned up again today and was very vocal as his food dish was empty. No problem, I quickly got him some more and he ate. I then found out he has diarrhoea, no I’m not going into details. He’s not feverish or showing any other symptoms other than being rather thin. I do wonder what he’s been eating over the times he’s not here. He’s also come back with lots of cuts and scars round his neck and shoulders and on one cheek. The cheek could be rat inflicted but I’m wondering if the neck and shoulder wounds are from being attacked by a dog. The scars certainly weren’t there a week ago when I wormed and flea treated him. The diarrhoea could have been triggered by the treatment as well.

Whatever the cause, he’s been by my side the whole day, curling up on the cat mat in the kitchen while I worked there and sitting out in the sun while I dealt with the alpacas. He even followed Cid and me when I took a stroll round the chicken paddock – the chickens hadn’t gone to bed so I had to go out again later.

I sat down to write this and realised he wasn’t in the kitchen; this is where I found him

And at one point Cid settled on the opposite corner and wasn’t hissing at him as he usually does.

Now can anyone tell me why cats are so perverse that after 4 months of trying to persuade him to be an indoor cat he finally moves in when he has diarrhoea?

Kitchen Nil, Weather Won.

Not strictly true but why waste a good title – I find it hard enough to come up with subjects for e-mails, let alone a title for each blog.

Today it was dry, today it was warm, today the sun shone and today everything seemed possible.

Today started with the usual animal husbandry and I then went for a quick coffee with Ann to go over the MSA form that needs to be in by the end of the month. MSA is the body that covers the health insurance for me. The form was this years version of the one I filled out earlier showing what I was growing and on what area. It’s nothing to do with subsidies, the Common Agricultural Policy or PAC as it is here, this is just to assess what level of health insurance you pay. In the end, we decided that a trip to the office in Villeneuve would probably be the best bet.

I came home and got on with sowing some more seeds. Here the folklore says don’t plant things out before the 15^th of May to avoid the risk of a late frost. In fact, in the town by me, some plum growers have lost 80% of their crop due to one frost on the 11/12^th April. It is really quite a disaster coming on top of the harvest last year when hot dry weather was followed by a couple of weeks of rain, followed by sun again. The fruit split and rotted on the trees. Many growers lost half their harvest that way and then had a quarter of what they did harvest rejected during the drying process. So if you like your Agen prunes, (and believe me they taste nothing like the prunes in the UK, they are gorgeous), then stock up now, there could be a shortage.

Back to the planting, I reckon that by the time most of the things I’ve planted germinate I should have ground ready and the risk of frost will be gone so they can be transplanted out really quickly.

After lunch I made the trip down to Villeneuve and filed my form, one down, just the DPU, the form that will give me any subsidies due, to do. I think that’s about a weeks worth of work on it’s own as there is an accompanying booklet saying what our esteemed commissioners in Brussels have decided should be grown this year. There’s no way I’m going to understand all of it so I think I will be off to Agen to the Agriculture department there and see if they will help me. Last year they were wonderful and walked me round all the offices and date stamped all my forms as I had been sent down there on the afternoon of the last day for registration (I’d only agreed to plant the field with sunflowers that morning when the local co-operative rep came round to suggest it). I don’t intend to cut it that fine this year.

I did do a bit for the kitchen today; I was feeling so good that I decided to cut the work surface substrates. Measure, check, double check and then again for good luck. Then check measurements against those I’d got the other day, yes they matched so out to the garage to cut. Once I’ve posted this I will put the pieces in place. The one long piece will have to wait till Ann or someone comes round as there is no way I can lift the 2 metre 40 piece myself.

I finished off the outside work with a walk around the seeded pasture field. I was planning on running the topper over it tomorrow but the surface is still sodden in places and caked my boots. I wasn’t really expecting that as it’s southwest facing and slopes. I did however spring a hare and a bit further on I found the hollow where it had rested and another hollow next to that with droppings. No photograph though, I took my cup of tea (and Cid) for the walk and completely forgot to take the camera.

Oh So Slow

When I ordered my fuel oil yesterday, I was asked if it was urgent. I said no as I had a couple of days worth left. OK they said, how about tomorrow morning! I suppose if I were out of oil they would have tried to deliver that afternoon. Anyway I was up early and sure enough the tanker arrived at 8:30 so I now have a full tank and am 800€ poorer.

I’ve just looked back through my receipts and when I bought my first lot back in January 2007 it was 59.5 centimes a litre, today it was 89.5 centimes, that’s about a 50% increase over the year. Hopefully though that is enough fuel to cover my tractor usage over the summer and still leave me a bit of fuel for heating going into winter.

The slow part of today was of course the kitchen. All I wanted to do was put the doors and dummy drawers on the sink and corner unit. Three hours later and I’m still not there, the hinges for the door to the corner unit just wouldn’t click together and the door fell off every time I tried to open it. Eventually I took the bit of the hinge that is screwed to the unit off and tried to fit it to the other part of the hinge where I could see what was happening. It just wasn’t clipping in securely at the end; it was a fraction of a millimetre too small. Then I realised that the little arrow that was on all the other similar bits wasn’t on these. A quick sort through all the remaining bits and I found two hinges that again were very slightly different to all the rest. My guess is that these were from a different supplier. When I’d finally matched up the odd hinges with their latches the door decided to stay on. Now all I have to do is get the false drawers to the right height, none of the predrilled holes seems to put them in the correct place. Tomorrow I think, yes definitely tomorrow.

A Middling Monday

After I’d posted yesterday, Cid decided he would like to try out Snowy’s spot on the monitor. Snowy, not one to give up her position as top cat decided to jump onto the other monitor despite the top being covered with bits and pieces which went flying everywhere.

Today been a very middling sort of day today, nothing outstanding but progression has been made. The glossing of the work surfaces isn’t fully dry, as I found out kneeling on it, so my hand and knee prints will be there for posterity. It was dry enough that I could start filling the holes in the wall behind. I still need another coat of whitewash under the sink and to fill a couple of large holes there where the water pipes used to be. The holes are large and deep so will take a couple of goes to fill but as you can see, the shelf is there in the corner unit.

While pottering round on that and mixing chicken feed I had another go at bread making and I just had to show you the results. I’d followed up Debra’s tip about the bread flour in Netto’s and had got myself some multigrain flour. I decided to stretch it a bit, having read a lot of the tips on the Old Style forum of MoneySavingExpert and made up a 50:50 mix with plain flour, adding a teaspoon more yeast (the multigrain was a ready made mix), sugar, a tablespoon or so of olive oil and a touch of salt. Then it was a really good kneading and two rises. I don’t have any loaf tins but chucked it into a couple of cake tins and et voilà!

I hadn’t seen Mr Tibbs since last Tuesday when he finally came down from the loft but today he was back again and I just called to him from the kitchen and he came in, all be it very gingerly. There are four other cats who are not actually anti him being here but are a little jealous over me. After a quick bite of food, he climbed onto my lap so he has had his flea and worm treatment too. This afternoon he was on the patio when I went out to feed the alpacas and I was able to call to him and he came in via the front door. I still have food for him in a separate place to the other cats so that they don’t feel too threatened but it’s looking like he will soon be an inside cat. In fact, as I write this, he’s curled up on a cat bed in the kitchen.

Early post tonight as I need an early night so I can be up in case my oil delivery comes first thing. I’ve done well over the winter but now the tank is nigh on empty so it will be around 850 litres tomorrow – shudder, and the price is still rising. But while I can do without the heating I can’t do without my tractor yet. Just how long would it take a couple of donkeys to plough 5 hectares?

Rain Again

As the weather is not at its best I spent most of today either glossing the work surface or whitewashing part of the kitchen walls or collecting feed for the alpacas and chickens. Kitchen progress is slow but I would rather it was that than rush it and have problems later. All the cats have stayed in too and I really don’t blame them today.

During the late afternoon we had one of the torrential downpours I’m beginning to get use to. The rain comes down like a white sheet, 3 or 4 or more millimetre in 10 - 15 mins and today it contained hail as well. The Dordogne, to the north of me is on flood alert and some of the rivers there have already burst their banks and inundated the towns.

Here it’s just filling the ditches but ensuring that I can’t get onto the land to start working it. The rain is also heavy enough that it beats the surface flat so that when it dries there is a hard crust, which if allowed to dry, sets like concrete. The weather is due to change for the weekend when we’re forecast temperatures of up to 25°C so with luck I will be able to get outside and get going. This is a picture of my neighbour’s field just below the house.

The furrows where I’ve ploughed the new vegetable garden have successfully channelled all the water to the bottom end so I can see that I will have to sort out the drainage there before next year. At the top of the vegetable area is where I tried to cut a ditch with the plough as my first go at using a plough. It wasn’t very successful as again the ground was far to wet and I couldn’t get any grip but even so it has diverted the majority of the water into the ditch and kept it away from the pump house. The ditches do channel away an amazing amount of water; this is the main ditch that collects the majority of the water from my little valley and it’s been running like this for the last week.

No News is Good News

So what have I been doing the last few days? Well after my Dordogne trip on Wednesday, I’d come home to find a note on the doorstep from my friends S & C who were down for a week with C’s brother M. As I’d been out they had invited me round for after dinner drinks, or in my case, after locking up the chickens drinks to catch up on news. It was a lovely end to a very enjoyable day.

Thursday I was out gallivanting again, this time to the Lot where another friend, SD, was holidaying and had invited me for lunch. I’d met SD on an alpaca judges training day back in the UK before I’d come out here. We had a wonderful time talking about alpacas, home schooling and generally putting the world to rights. So good that we had no idea of the time until the church bells started ringing out for 7 pm and I had to set off back in order to feed the alpacas. Before leaving though, SD let me have some of the saxifrages and sempervivums she had in her garden for me to propagate. I have a vague idea of planting a living roof sometime in the future and am going to start growing some plugs.

Friday was the day my car went to the garage to get the ABS sensor fixed. The sensor had decided to start working again on the way back from C & S’s and didn’t come on once on the trip over to SD, but I wasn’t going to risk having it fail again as you can guarantee it would fail at the most critical moment. I’d arranged for C, S & M to come over and see how the work was progressing in the kitchen and when they telephoned to confirm a time I was able to forewarn them that their help was going to be required.

As I said in the earlier post, all the screws were out between the sink and the corner unit. I spent quite a while Friday morning trying to get the corner unit out. First I found yet another screw holding the two units together but after removing that, the two were definitely independent. I tried sliding it out, nothing happened. I got a torch and looked under the unit; a waste pipe had been plumbed in round one of the legs of the corner unit and there was no way I could lift it out – a job for C & M.

To cut a long story a bit shorter, C & M couldn’t lift it either, the pipe had been put in so tightly the leg wouldn’t pass through the gap and had to be dismantled. Even so, where the electric point for the cooker and the tap for the dishwasher had been put, stopped the unit from being pulled out. Eventually they took a hammer to the side of the unit and got it off, I’d glued it but not with loads of glue, just a bit to act more like loctite.

The shelf was then put in, with required cut-out to miss the plumbing and electrics and the unit side re-assembled.

Did I panic during this; well I was a bit worried until S told me that M was a kitchen fitter by trade!

So I am now on the next bit, not progressing as fast as I thought I would. I’ve not got pre-formed work surfaces but a sort of compressed chipboard onto which I will put the tiles I’m going to use as the work surface. M suggested that 2 coats of gloss paint would be an excellent idea to protect the chipboard around the sink unit from absorbing any spilt water and then disintegrating.

After I’ve done that, I’ll do my best to squidge silicon sealant into every gap possible and then I’ll get on with cutting the worktops for the other units. It might be taking a bit of time, but I’m getting there, so many, many thanks to C, M & S, hopefully by the time you are back again I’ll have a complete kitchen to show you.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Yes in just 24 hours, the world looks really different.

Toiday started early for me with Hazel bringing in a fast food snack a good couple of hours before I wanted to wake up. This snack was fast enough to get away from her so then she and Cid played chase the mouse round and round the bedroom. I gave up trying to sleep and got up, had a cuppa and read the blogs posted over night. Three quarters of an hour later she finally caught it again so had breakfast and I went back to bed.

The day finally started and it was lovely and sunny and the cold wind had gone. The temperature made it to the high teens by the afternoon, which cheered me, no end. First thing on the agenda was a trip to the garage; I got there but the boss man was away and not due back for half to three quarters of an hour.

No time to do anything at the house so I went round to see how Ann was doing with the dog fencing she’s putting in and to discuss what time I would help her out with the Vide Grenier (it literally translate to empty attic, in other words a car boot) over the weekend. Ann started off by catching and sterilising the 30 or so feral cats and kittens in her tiny village. Now there are thankfully only a few that move into the village and she feeds the sterilised strays but she does also get given kittens found left by the rubbish bins or found in barns too. The money from the Vide Greniers goes a little way to reimbursing her costs.

Back to the garage and the boss man is there. He will look at the car in the afternoon and if it requires a part he will order it and I can bring the car back later in the week. So back home again and as the weather is so lovely it’s time to get the ride-on mower out and see what it’s like after its repair and service. It was oh so much better, no clunking and it felt tight. I was able to whip round the lawn extension – mowing it last week with the walk behind was worth it, and I even had time to do a bit of the front lawn and round the house.

Another cuppa and then it was back to the garage. I left the car there and started on the 9-kilometre walk back to the house. About halfway back I telephoned Eric to arrange a lift back to pick up the car in the evening and he came out and collected me on this trip as well, which was lovely of him. While the weather was lovely and I had had a lovely three quarters of an hour walk, it was nice not to have to do the rest of the walk in the heat especially as I had forgotten any sunscreen. I then showed Eric what needed to be done to put the chickens to bed, as he will be doing that for me this week if I’m not back from my trips in time.

We had only just got round to the chickens when the plumber and electrician appeared, so the final lagging of the pipes and the fitting of the overflow has been done, which means that the first major chunk of updating work has now been completed. The thermostat on the immersion has been turned up – it was just about possible to keep your hand under the hot water in the morning, by the evening the tank was only luke warm. When they had finished I mentioned the stuck screw and that too has been removed. The use of the screwdriver and bit that had been used to put it in and that they were able to lift the sink just enough to get a straight line access to the screw and the job was done.

The shelf isn’t in yet though as they only finished just in time for me to walk round to Eric’s to get my lift to the garage to pick up the car. The verdict on it is that the right rear sensor is faulty so as he thought the brakes are fine, just no ABS. So I will be driving like we used to have to drive cars; be in a suitable gear, anticipate and use progressive braking and lift off and reapply should the wheels lock. The car will go in to have the new sensor fitted on Friday.

While the workmen were here, I took advantage of the lack of wind a managed to burn some of the tree prunings that have been clogging up the front lawn. By the end of the day I was really smoky and it was so nice to be able to get into the shower to get clean – I’d thought to put the immersion on for a couple of hours to make sure the water was hot. Talk about simple luxuries.

I then settled down to watch another episode of ‘Allo ‘Allo for a good giggle and nearly forgot to lock up the chickens. On my way back through the kitchen I saw a slight movement to the right and was just in time to see a cat shape slink past the curtain and into the room that leads to the loft stairs. I called to Mr Tibbs and then walked round and peeked the other side of the curtain. For the first time he had stopped when I called, even though this was also the first time I’d seen him inside the house. The door to the loft has been open for months but if he’s been down, and I’m sure he will have been, he’s only done it when I’m not around or asleep. I told him I’d get some food and went to get it, I turned round and he had followed me back into the kitchen. I put the food down and started to stroke him, eventually sitting on the floor with my legs curled under me. He ate a few pieces of food and then came and curled up against me so I could stroke him. I decided to try something, I lifted him and straightened out my legs and put him on my lap. He didn’t panic at all but just curled up and purred. He is a cat that just wants to be loved.

His coat is now silky although he is still quite skinny and practically all the scabs round his neck, head and in front of his ears have now gone. He, along with the other cats is due the next dose of Stronghold so I hope that he will soon be free of the lasts scabs before long.