La Darnoire

We finally have sunshine. We have truthfully not seen the sun for an entire week; so obviously the solar thermal panel pump has been idle all this time. The good news is that the bathroom tiling is now complete. The overflowing ditches are now no longer overflowing, and mopping-up operations have commenced in those towns worst hit. Our neighbour’s parents were affected; their garage was submerged in 1.2 metres of water. Fortunately the car wasn’t in there; the garage was used as a storage space for junk. Which is now, of course, what it is.

This fairly lengthy post was written on the 2nd June. However, it has only been published today; the 1st July, for reasons you’ll discover shortly.

We’ve been finding out what it must be like to live in India. During the monsoon season. With the exception of the heat, of course. It has rained rather a lot recently; in fact it rained solidly for some 36 hours before stopping for a brief respite. Then it started again. Of course the rivers are all in flood, and a lot of roads are impassable. Apparently the river levels are at their highest ever recorded.

As we’re on a somewhat elevated piece of land, we’re not at any risk of flooding. However, the water table has now intersected the soil surface in many areas. Including inside the barn. Obviously the splishy-splashy bit is in a small area which we have not yet fully excavated for the lime concrete floor. Where the floor has been laid, it’s fine. The pond had started backing up into the garden, so I went out in the downpour to examine the overflow pipe where it exits into the ditch. It had become blocked with leaves and growing ivy; and once this obstruction had been cleared, it started gushing strongly. The pond took two days to reach its normal “full” level; because it is currently receiving all the rainwater from half of the house roof area as well as the treated greywater from the reedbed.
LSS thinks her garden is now probably beyond saving, so she’s Not a Happy Bunny.

The road to the Aged FIL is completely submerged. At the moment, when we need to go to his house, we’re having to use the tractor.
But the worst thing about the weather is not, as you may think, the quantity of water.
No.
Our connection to the Internet went down on Monday 30th May. So we have no telephone, and no emails. And as mobile reception here is poor to say the least, we’re pretty much cut off from the world. LSS took the tractor to the Aged FIL’s house where she used his telephone to report the problem to Orange. She also dug out one of the Aged FIL’s old radios so we can at least listen to some news. Although it’s a bit irritating at the moment because the main topic of conversation on all the stations is football, which neither of us like.

The poor hens are looking decidedly bedraggled. Two of them have taken the opportunity to become broody, so we’ve constructed two separate nest boxes for them. One of them is fine with the idea, but the other one kept leaving her nest to go outside. She then couldn’t remember where her nest was; so ended up sitting in one of the normal nests. We’ve now enclosed the two birds completely so they can’t get out even if they wanted to. And we’ve put ten eggs under each.

No work can be done outside, of course. But the shower has now finally been installed. It has been tested, and works fine. Even the drainage, which was concerning me slightly, is able to evacuate the water if the shower is at full flow. The only work now remaining in the bathroom is to install the last tiles at the tap-end of the bath, and then grout this area. Then the painting can be done, and we can finally mark the bathroom as completed.

The deerskin which I tanned has now dried, which is surprising due to the dampness of the air. Mind you, it has not turned out quite as I expected. It is rather stiff, and also nearly completely transparent. Once the Internet connection is restored I will have to do some research on why this has occurred; and if it is possible to salvage it. I suppose it’s still usable; after all, I just wanted to use a piece of it to make some soles for my planned moccasins.

Unfortunately the newest Mrs. Bunny died. Luckily the kits were four weeks old when this occurred, so they were already eating solid food. All ten seem to be doing fine.

And we now have a new post-box. This was not actually planned. You see, last week our neighbour (the one with the gîte) came past to get some eggs. On his way through the village, he had had an altercation with another motorist; because he had not realised the other motorist had a right-of-way. It all stems from a rather silly French rule, called “Priorité à droite” which I understand as follows: if a vehicle is approaching an intersection from your right, he has right of way; unless his road is marked with a “Give Way” or “Stop” sign. So even if you’re travelling on a main road, a vehicle could quite easily exit a side road right in front of you; and it’s up to you to stop and let him out.
If you live in a country which drives on the left, think of it this way: any vehicle joining your road from the left has the right of way. Unless they happen to have a “Give Way” or “Stop” sign. But it’s your responsibility to look into this side road to see if there are any of these signs!

Anyway, although our neighbour raised his hand in apology, the other motorist developed that condition known as road rage. He obviously knew who our neighbour was; and followed him. Whilst our neighbour was here chatting to me, the other motorist had stopped at the entrance to the gîte, and was systematically destroying our neighbour’s post-box. It was completely smashed. So obviously this was reported to the post office, and a couple of days later they not only replaced his post-box with the latest style, but changed ours as well. The only down-side of this is that the key to the new version of post-box is huge; even bigger than our house door key.
The other motorist was driving a light-blue Citroen C5. If we find out who it is, I’ll let you know.

In other news, there are currently lots of strikes in France in protest at the proposed new labour laws. At the moment the CGT union has been blockading petrol refineries; so at petrol stations there are signs prohibiting the filling of jerrycans. Of course, as this is France, this means that there are queues of pensioners with their car boots full of 5-litre plastic jerrycans which they proceed to fill; in order to avoid the horrendous consequences of having their lawnmowers run out of petrol. And this means motorists who DO need petrol urgently may well find themselves stuck, because the petrol station tanks have run dry. Which is what happened to one of the Aged FIL’s carers. So she didn’t turn up to feed him lunch. In fact she had to abandon her car and get a lift home.

Fortunately LSS has not been affected at this point; although she does a lot of driving in the course of her work giving English lessons, the petrol stations she has visited have not had fuel shortages. Yet. Elsewhere in the country things have not been quite as good.

For a while now, we have been receiving weekly kitchen food scraps for our hens from the mother of one of LSS’s pupils. “We don’t like waste,” she said. “In fact we’ve been to Africa, and seen how there is a shortage of food in some places. So we’re very careful – especially the children – not to waste food.”
Thank goodness for that. I would hate to see what they would be throwing away if they were not especially careful. You see, today’s kitchen scraps bucket contained – in addition to potato peelings – a ripe tomato, a generous helping of rice, two half-baguettes, a merguez sausage, an ordinary sausage, two hard-boiled eggs, a pork chop, and an entire beef-steak. In the past the bucket has contained slabs of chocolate; cakes; two complete duck breasts; over 1kg of roast pork; and on one occasion an entire roast chicken. We’ve rescued apples and nectarines, oranges and tangerines. And once an entire pineapple. Of course the hens didn’t eat these. We did.

Today LSS once again telephoned Orange using the Aged FIL’s phone to tell them about our continuing lack of telephone and Internet. Their automated system said that yes, there was a problem with our line. They would be dispatching an engineer, and the line would be reconnected by the 11th; in other words in 9 days’ time! In the interim, they’ve offered us a 4G box as a substitute to be able to access the Internet. Of course, where we live it’s difficult to even get a GSM signal, let alone 3G. So a 4G box would be as much use as a chocolate teapot.

We therefore visited Friend E in the village, taking the laptop along. She let us use her Internet connection. Because of the poor mobile reception where we live, I had previously set up my mobile so that any voice messages are sent to me via email. And when I checked my emails, there was a voice message from Orange saying the problem was now affecting several persons, and it would be resolved tomorrow at the latest. So which is it? Left hand, this is right hand, how do you do?

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[Update 03/06: Visiting Friend E again, I received a text message on my mobile, saying we would be reconnected by the 6th. So we now have three possible re-connection dates: the 3rd – which is today and therefore increasingly unlikely; the 6th; and the 11th.]
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[Update 04/06: As suspected, we were not reconnected on the 3rd. We once again visited Friend E, where LSS telephoned Orange to get an update. We were told that this was a general problem. We were just one of those affected by an outage affecting an entire area; and some people had been without a telephone since the 18th May. Or in other words, stop complaining. The new possible re-connection date is now the 7th.]
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[Update 06/06: Well, the second date has come and gone. Still no telephone or Internet. Two dates to go…]
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[Update 07/06: Nope. Still not connected.]
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[Update 08/06: We once again visited Friend E in the village, where LSS once again called Orange to get a progress report.
“What? Your telephone isn’t working? There was a general problem in your area. But it was resolved on Monday 6th!”
“Well it’s certainly not resolved. We still have no phone and no internet.”
“Oh, it must be a problem with YOUR line then. It will be resolved within 48 hours.”
“So that’s by Friday 10th then?”
“That’s correct.”

We’re not holding our breath. Anyone want to sell us a satellite dish?]
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[Update 09/06: I received a text message on my mobile, saying we would be reconnected by 18:00 today.]
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[Update 10/06: We weren’t.]
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[Update 11/06: Guess what? Correct. Still no telephone or Internet. In the morning we again visited Friend E. She works at a local school, and has given us her spare house keys so that we can use her Internet if she’s not there, which is rather decent of her. Aside from the current Internet debacle, we normally see her at least once a week, and when visiting us she always brings a home-baked cake or muffins. She loves baking, and this is unfortunately evident by her size. We give her some eggs fairly frequently; apart from the baking, her young son likes to have boiled eggs for breakfast on Sundays. In return, she insisted on paying for one of the youngest hens, so as a result we named the hen after her.

Anyway, LSS tried yet again to contact Orange, without success. When she eventually got through to their automated system, a voice said (in French) “Thank you for calling Orange. Good-bye.” <click>
She tried again several times, and when she finally managed to get through, the same thing happened again. Later in the afternoon LSS tried yet again. This time, she was able to speak to somebody. Of course it was a call centre somewhere in North Africa. She was told that this was a general problem, and we were just one of those affected by an outage affecting an entire area.
“You’re just reading from a script of random answers, aren’t you?” asked LSS. “You see, we were told initially that this was a general problem. Then we were told this general problem had been resolved, so it was a problem with our line. Now you’re saying it’s a general problem again.”
“Um, er….”
“We’re paying for a service which we’re just not getting.”
“Oh, you will receive some compensation.”
“That’s not good enough. Look, it’s not YOUR fault. But Orange needs to sort this out. We live in the countryside; mobile reception is poor, my father’s ill in bed, and without the phone we can’t be contacted. If anything happens to my father which could have been prevented by us being contactable, I shall be getting a lawyer and taking your derrières to court.”
“We can send you a 4G box in the interim.”
“I’m sure the ducks in the pond would love to play with it.”
“?”
“Did I not just tell you that mobile reception here was poor? We have several friends who have 4G boxes – and even in some areas of Paris it just doesn’t work.”
“Oh. Right. Well, we will contact you with an update.”
“How?”
“We have your mobile number, we’ll call you on that.”
“Were you not listening? I can only use my mobile when I’m in town. Use your imagination. Put yourself in my position for a moment. Imagine that you live in the middle of the countryside. Your mobile doesn’t work, because there’s no signal. And there’s a problem with your land-line, so that doesn’t work either. What are you going to do?”
“Oh. Yes, I do understand. Maybe we can send you a text message.”

I’ve asked a friend in the UK to research satellite Internet service providers. Our plan now is to get another telephone installed; an old-fashioned analogue type rather than an Internet phone. We’ll use a different company for Internet access; perhaps via satellite. Then we can get rid of this current setup.
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[Update 14/06: LSS again called Orange from Friend E’s. “There’s a problem in your area; it will be resolved within 48 hours.”
“Oh yes. Well, you may think this strange, but I don’t believe you. I’ve heard that twice this month already,” LSS replied.
“No you haven’t!”
“Yes I have. On the 2nd of June, and again on the 8th.”
“No, really. You’ll be reconnected in 48 hours. Really you will. Truly, honestly, cross my heart and hope to work for Orange.”
“Right, I’ll be calling you back in 48 hours then.”
“(Incomprehensible muttering)”
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[Update 16/06: 48 hours later…. and LSS called Orange from Friend E’s. This time we’ve been promised that we’ll be reconnected by tomorrow midnight. So I guess we’ll be calling them again on Saturday morning.]
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[Update 18/06: Well, goodness gracious me. Guess what earth-shattering event happened at midnight last night? At precisely midnight, the little flashing red light on the Orange livebox continued flashing red. I did not see this event, as I was fast asleep at the time.
We again went to Friend E where LSS called Orange. This time she asked to speak to a manager, but was told this was not possible, as Orange’s procedures do not allow it. Instead, the <start sarcasm> very helpful telephone person </end sarcasm> arranged that a manager will be calling LSS on Monday. At 21:00. On her mobile. So on Monday night LSS will have to drive into the village where she can receive a signal on her mobile.
This is going to be the last update for this particular post. Otherwise it will turn into a book in its own right. This afternoon I am going to be taking the laptop to the gîte next door where I will hide behind a bush and use their wi-fi to do some Internet research on satellite dishes, and then sign up for a satellite Internet service. If you are reading this post, you may take it for granted that we finally re-appeared in the online world.]
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I think one could expect this sort of service in a third-world country. But in Europe? I’m starting to think that the France of today IS a third-world country.

But we don’t have any alternatives; what used to be France Telecom is now Orange. Although I had suggested switching to Bouygues Telecom, LSS said that this would not help, because they would just go through Orange, who are the sole suppliers of the infrastructure. And the reason that this is such a problem for us is that the telephone itself is essential in case the Aged FIL pushes his emergency button. And how would we contact the emergency services if there was a fire or medical problem? The telephone line is also the gateway to the Internet. These days everything is done online; from supplying one’s electricity reading, to checking one’s bank account and filling in tax forms. LSS also needs to be able to access a company’s website to fill in timesheets for her English lessons. I need to liaise with a publisher and printer because my next book is due out on the 15th. Submissions of proofs and all that malarkey is done electronically nowadays. Yes, we could copy everything onto the laptop and use that at Friend E’s house, but it’s a right pain in the proverbial. However, if access to the Internet is not restored by the middle of next week, this is probably what we’ll have to do.*
*We did.

Anyway, as we were able to access the Internet at the friend’s house, we had a look at the local news. The nearby town of Salbris has been hard hit by the overflowing river, and lots of houses are flooded. There is also no drinking water available because sewers have overflowed and contaminated the town supply. I’m pleased that we made the decision to go for a dry composting toilet and a 49m deep borehole.

Stormy weather…

Last Sunday the wind decimated the horsefly traps. I had to retrieve them from the bottom of the garden where they had ended up. And last night the same thing happened. They were attached to their hanging poles with fishing line which seemed to be no match for the occasional Sologne weather. I am now going to use steel fishing trace.

Then one day last week I went to use the tractor. I intended taking it to the other farmhouse so I could take off the transport box and install the brushcutter, ready for LSS to start cutting the grass and weeds around here. Due to the rain, the grass is now waist-high in places. Well, I discovered that some bumblebees had made a nest in an inaccessible place in the engine. I had to drive with the cabin door open because they were very unhappy bumblebees indeed. Bumblebees can certainly sting; unlike ordinary bees their sting does not have a barb, so they can use it repeatedly. Fortunately they don’t normally sting humans unless their nest is threatened. Which, of course, it was. So although I wasn’t stung, I regret I had no option but to spray them with insecticide when I returned with the brushcutter attached. LSS is not partial to stings.

Due to the overcast skies, we’ve had to resort to lighting the boiler stove in the evenings, in order to heat the water in the thermal store. We did have one sunny day; and of course that was the day that the solar controller expired. It’s a little electronic circuit board which turns on the pump when the temperature difference between the solar panel and the thermal store is greater than 8 degrees. It was purchased from REUK, the Renewable Energy website. So I ordered another one; plus one spare. Unfortunately the replacement doesn’t work – the quality of workmanship seems to have gone down since the manufacture of the first one. So I won’t be buying from REUK again. Instead I ordered a differential temperature controller from Ebay. It’s proudly made in China by Will-Hi, the same company that produced the other temperature gauges on our control panel. Which are all still working fine. Until it arrives I’ve installed a manual switch. If I notice the solar panel temperature is exceeding 70 degrees, I switch the pump on.

Then we discovered that the bath was once again draining rather slowly, so I again had to flush the greywater pipe with the hosepipe. This time I not only flushed the pipe, but also cleaned the sump and the little bilge pump. I think matters will improve once the washing machine is installed in the bathroom, as the hot soapy water should keep the waste pipe a bit cleaner.

I’ve made some biltong with about 1kg of the deer meat. We were invited to dinner at our neighbours this week, and we took some along for them to taste. They were very impressed. Then yesterday the neighbour’s father turned up. He visits us once every two weeks or so to get some eggs. When he arrived, I was in the middle of scraping the deerskin which I am in the process of tanning; so I had to explain the procedure, and why I wanted to make leather (for the soles of my future mocassins). He seemed quite bemused by it, and obviously thinks we are totally mad.

The shower is now completely tiled … … and I have moved on to the bath surround. This is much easier because the walls are at least flat and straight! However, I regret there is bad news as far as the shower is concerned. With difficulty, I carried in the heavy sheet of 8mm thick tempered glass which will form one wall of the Italian-style shower, and fitted it into the supporting brackets which I had installed.

As I suspected, the upper corner of the glass did not quite fit because of the copper water pipes which run along the wall in that area. I needed to trim off about 2cm from this corner. As I had foreseen this, I had purchased a small diamond-impregnated cutting wheel for my Dremel. With a water spray bottle in one hand, and the Dremel in the other, I commenced cutting. Very gently, I may add.

I was half-way through, when all of a sudden there was a loud “BANG” and the entire glass sheet shattered into a million pieces. Fortunately I was wearing safety goggles, but bits of glass went everywhere. It took me an hour to sweep up the pieces. LSS was horrified when she got home; and is now completely opposed to glass shower screens. Instead we’re going to use a sheet of 8mm polycarbonate. At least that won’t break, although the down-side is that it scratches fairly easily.

Over the past week I have caught a grand total of 12 mice in traps upstairs. Hopefully that’s the lot, although the traps will remain in place just in case there’s any relatives I’ve missed.

The peas have taken off quite nicely in the garden. The first year, we used a roll of 2m high thick-wire fencing to give them a frame up which to climb. Although it worked well as far as the peas were concerned, installing and dismantling a 2m high fence some 10m in length was a horrible job. For the second year, I installed some poles, and tied string between them. Although much easier to install and dismantle, it was a lot of work. So this year, I constructed some proper frames. Using the same fencing wire as the first year, but installed in wooden panels. Very easy to put up (and presumably take down). We’ll see how they stand up to windy conditions. So far, so good.

The potatoes are also growing nicely; as are the radishes and lettuces. Beetroot, turnips, sweetcorn, carrots and parsnips have not yet made an appearance though. The polytunnel has produced some tomatoes which have now been planted out, and I believe there are some melons and watermelons in there as well.

During a storm last week, our Orange Internet box died. Fortunately I still have a couple of ADSL routers so was able to reconfigure one of them. Internet access was restored. However, we were without a telephone for four days until a new Orange box arrived.

Monday this week was yet another Bank Holiday. We took the day off, and visited an equestrian event at Lamotte Beuvron, where we watched some polo, and a rather strange sport called Horseball.

On Friday Friend M invited us to dinner. We took some biltong for her to try. She quite liked it but her daughter wasn’t too keen.

Then yesterday we again went to Lamotte Beuvron to see the Agricultural show. The main reason for going was to see the reportedly heaviest bull in the world. Called Fêtard, it’s from a farm in our region, and tips the scales at 1,950kg. (French article)

Of course it wasn’t there. We were informed it was otherwise occupied, and would only be in Lamotte on Sunday (today). And as the weather forecast is for torrential rain, guess who won’t be going! Actually I don’t think many people will be going today. Because the torrential rain has actually materialized. LSS estimates we’ve had some 50mm of rain today.

The road leading to the Aged FIL has now been repaired. Due to all the daily traffic, it had developed a tremendous amount of potholes. There’s the carer who gives him breakfast, followed by the washer. Then there’s the carer who gives him lunch, and the carer who gives him dinner. Not to mention the nurse who visits regularly, and the doctor on occasion. And of course LSS uses the road several times a week. Last year LSS had 39 tons of sand/gravel delivered, and spread this out over the road surface with a scraper blade mounted to the tractor. Unfortunately the repairs didn’t last very long, so she contacted a local contractor for a quote. The quote was presented and accepted on the Aged FIL’s behalf; and all the potholes have now been filled with crushed limestone. Hopefully it lasts, because it was expensive! And as a large proportion of the Aged FIL’s pension is going into the coffers of EDF, he won’t be able to afford to pay for road repairs every year. To assist in prolonging the lifespan of the road, I have installed a “20 speed limit” sign at the entrance to his farm. Not that I have high hopes that anybody will obey it, of course.

And finally, today was bunny-sexing day for the older Mrs. Bunny’s March litter. There are two females and one male; so these have now been separated. And we have now finally been able to count the number of little ones making up the young Mrs. Bunny’s first litter. There are ten. Of course they’re not easy to photograph; since their eyes opened they’re hopping around all over the place. They’re all tiny; about ten centimetres in length.

 

Well, that was unexpected. We received a telephone call from Mr. T this morning at around 08h30. We haven’t seen him since February. He wanted to know if we were in, because he was bringing us a present. When he arrived some five minutes later, he opened the rear doors of his van. Reclining stiffly on a couple of sheets of cardboard was Bambi’s late uncle.

Unfortunately a collision between the van and Bambi’s uncle occurred when Mr. T left work this morning. The van was undamaged, unlike the aforementioned animal. Mr. T didn’t want it, so thought of us. We therefore spent the morning skinning and butchering the carcass, and our freezer is now so full there isn’t room for a mouse. Not that we would want to freeze mice, of course. The cat prefers them unfrozen.

The shower tiling is progressing. That’s probably the most suitable word to use, progressing. One wall is done. The problems I’ve been experiencing are due to the wall not being perfectly smooth and straight, so I’ve had no end of fun getting the tiles straight and level. And LSS specifically wanted a row of small mosaic tiles half-way up the wall. Mosaics are easy to lay IF the wall is straight and smooth. If it isn’t, you get the tile cement bubbling up between the individual tiles. And it looked horrible; the individual mosaics were angled any which way. So I had to take them all off again. However, I then came up with a cunning plan. I installed them on a strip of tile backing board, and once they’d set in place, installed the entire thing on the wall. Now it looks much better. I’m so glad I purchased an electric diamond-wheel tile cutter for the floor tiles. It has come in very handy for these wall tiles as well. You see, to match the floor, I have decided to use a running bond pattern. Also, the particular width of this shower requires that every row has a half-tile.

Next week, the other wall. This one should be a bit better as it appears to be straighter than the first. And although I won’t need a half-tile every row, I’ll still need some!

I’ve also been using the wood chipper once again. I had a large pile of branches to dispose of; and the area under the hen perches very definitely needed cleaning out and fresh material added. All the old nitrogen-rich stuff from under the perches went into a corner of the garden where LSS intends planting parsnips. We didn’t get any parsnips last year; they just refused to grow. So obviously this meant no parsnip wine either. Speaking of parsnip wine, the latest batch of beer is now ready. It’s a clone of a Belgian Triple called Carmeliet. Well, I think this is my Best. Beer. Ever. I’ll definitely be doing this one again.

I’ve also now bottled the most recent batch of sloe wine. However, the bad news is that we’ve now run out of empty wine bottles.

At one point last week we were down to 12 hens. April was not a good month for the chickens. In fact on the 26th we lost two. One was found dead under the perch, and I had to put the other one down because it was in a pitiful state. It had not been looking too well for a couple of days, and its condition was not improving. It may have been egg-bound. So on the 30th, we bought three new hens; one black, and two grey. We’re back to 15 again, not including George.

Cat has started bringing little friends home. It’s definitely spring, because the ticks are out in force. Although she’s given a spot-on treatment every month, this doesn’t last the entire month as far as ticks are concerned. We’re particularly careful because Lyme disease is becoming more prevalent in France.

We were invited for an aperitif at our “new” neighbour, Mr. K. We took a bottle of our home-brewed cider along, and they really enjoyed it. Of course they knew we had hens, so they expressed an interest in possibly buying some eggs. Unfortunately I think demand will always outstrip supply as far as this is concerned; because we certainly don’t want to have hundreds of hens!

Another leaning oak tree has now been processed, and is in firewood-sized pieces in the wood shed. We’re actually using less wood now, because the sun is making more of an appearance. In fact we’ve had solar-heated water this week, except for one cloudy day when we lit the boiler stove to give the temperature a bit of a boost.

I’ve also changed the engine oil in the tractor. It takes 13 litres, in case you were wondering.

This week I finally re-potted my bonsai. I only have three left from an initial collection of eleven; two black pines and a birch. The others unfortunately died a couple of years ago due to a particularly harsh winter. I’m using cat litter for the bonsai soil; it’s simply baked granules of clay which is ideal because it needs to be well-drained. Luckily Cat hasn’t noticed.

We appear to have some suicidal mice on the premises. For the rabbits, I installed a gutter at the rear of the cages so that their urine would not just drop to the ground at the base of the workshop wall. The gutter drains into a simple plastic bucket, which is emptied onto the compost heap when full. Well, it had been emptied. But the next morning there were two dead mice in the bucket. Fast forward two days; and another two dead mice. Well, between the rabbit bucket and the cat, at least the mouse population is being kept in check.

And as I’ve just mentioned bunnies, the good news is that the new Mrs. Bunny has had her litter. We’re not sure how many there are, because they’re not all out of the nest yet. But we’ve seen glimpses of three so far.

And finally, we went out for a dinner last Thursday, to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. How time flies!

Wildlife diary: Well, there is good news and bad news. I had previously mentioned that Mrs Duck had returned, and started a nest in the reeds next to the pond. Well, the good news was that two days ago there were a total of 13 eggs in the nest. The bad news is that today there aren’t any. I have no idea what happened to them; but they’ve completely disappeared. Not even an eggshell remained. It could have been a marten.

We saw the Aged FIL’s neighbour a couple of weeks ago. He’s not Greek, but he came bearing gifts. You see, he works at a place which sells, inter alia, animal feed. Several sacks of bunny food had reached their best-before date, so they were consigned to the dustbin. Like us, he abhors waste, so he rescued the sacks and brought them here. The bunnies were delighted.

I am still in the weekly process of sorting out the Aged FIL’s workshop. The scrap metal pile has now reached tremendous proportions. Today I discovered a 5kg bucket of calcium carbide. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it. It’s normally used for making acetylene, which goes bang. Or for fuelling miners’ carbide lamps. But as the Aged FIL doesn’t have a mine, I can’t see that he would have used it for that.

The “cupboard” door in the bathroom has now been made and fitted.Behind the door is a space between the pantry and the roof. It’s fairly small, and currently only houses the VMC (extractor fan unit). Access to this place is not easy, so I doubt we’ll be using it for storing anything else. Although I intend making a rope ladder so at least we can get up there if necessary; a stepladder is difficult because there isn’t room to get it close enough to the wall.

Actually, something strange happened when I was varnishing the cupboard door. There I was, in my workshop, whistling away whilst wielding the paintbrush, when I heard a “frrrt-frrrt-frrrt-frrrt” and something landed on my shoulder. Of course I jumped. And whatever it was departed as swiftly as it had arrived. As soon as I saw it departing I realised what it was – a tree sparrow. Why it thought I was a tree I have no idea.

On Monday afternoon last week I had a fairly unpleasant experience; my second kidney stone. I last had one in 1996, so knew the symptoms. LSS was visiting a friend at the time, and when she returned, took me to the doctor. It wasn’t our usual doctor, but a locum. He diagnosed (surprise) a kidney stone, and gave me a prescription for painkillers, a prescription for a local lab test, plus a prescription for further scans etc. etc. at the hospital in Romorantin. And, true to form, in the car on the way home (before I’d even taken any of the medication) the pain stopped as suddenly as it started. The lab results proved my (and his) diagnosis was correct. No further pain since then – so if it turns out to be an occurrence once every 20 years I suppose I can’t complain. At least I now have some extra-strength painkillers in the medicine cabinet should it happen again.

Further wood-cutting has taken place. I have felled and dismantled one of the leaning oak trees next to the road between the two farmhouses. One down, several more to go! And another aspen had fallen down into our neighbour’s field, so that has also been dealt with.

Friend M (ex-half of T&M) came around for dinner one evening last week, bringing her new boyfriend. He apparently works in IT, so I sympathised.
Then on Saturday we had a cousins’s reunion dinner. These of course were LSS’s cousins, on her father’s side. The occasion was a celebration of her one remaining aunt’s 84th birthday, so the Rugby Club Hall in Romorantin had been booked. There were cousins, cousins once removed, twice removed, three times forgotten etc. etc. Not really my scene. But at least I was seated next to JP’s son, whom I knew. You remember JP? Of ballon room fame?  They have a farm near Vierzon and occasionally stop by here to say hello and have a coffee. Anyway, we got back home at 2 a.m.

It will soon be oil-change time again. Let’s see, I have the tractor, a lawnmower, the motor tiller, the wood chipper, another lawnmower, and a generator to service. So I trotted off to the supermarket and came back with 30 litres of oil. Some price investigation had revealed that the price per litre was actually less when buying it in 5-litre containers at the supermarket, rather than in 25-litre or even 250-litre drums at the local agricultural supply store. I’ve ordered the tractor oil filters online.

And finally, this week I’ve been busy bottling wines. The raspberry wine yielded 27 bottles. The blackberry wine turned out 18 bottles. And I’ve now run out of corks so the bottling of the sloe wine will have to wait until I can get some more. A swift stock-take revealed that we now have a total of 157 bottles of various home-brewed wines and cider in store. That’s not counting the beer. Well, at least we won’t need to buy anything to drink when the upcoming economic crash occurs.

We still have a mouse problem upstairs. Unfortunately they are now ignoring the live trap, the bucket-of-water trap, and the mousetraps. At night we can hear the little blighters gnawing and squeaking. I think they’re trying to gnaw through one of the oak rafters. So LSS bought some glue traps as well. Success! Three less mice this week. There are unfortunately still more where they came from. I’ve no idea what they’re eating, as there is no longer any food stored upstairs (we used to use the upstairs area for drying old bread for the hens).

I’m still tanning bunny skins. I’m trying to process two per week. I currently have a cardboard box with 53 tanned pelts; two of which have been reserved for my bunny-skin moccasins.

Friend V from Paris took a few days leave, and stayed with us. We put her to work gathering grass and plants for the rabbits. She also cooked a rather nice chilli con carne. This was in payment for the work I did on her car. You see, the last time she was here she mentioned that when her car had its last service, the mechanic recommended she change the front brake pads. Silly me, I told her it was a fairly easy job, and that I’d done this work on LSS’s Hyundai a year or two ago. So she said if she bought the pads, could I fit them? So that’s what I did. And yes, it was a fairly easy job.

Last Sunday we went to Poulaines, because there was a car-boot sale and donkey fair. Of course, as soon as we arrived, it rained. So we cowered in the village church until the rain stopped, then looked around the car-boot sale. The rain started again and we returned to the church. Upon the next cessation in dampness we went and had a look at the rather miserable-looking donkeys, before returning to the church for the next downpour. Note the ZZ-Top lookalike… When the rain finally stopped we dashed out for a bite to eat, and then decided to call it a day and come home. So I can’t really tell you what Poulaines is like, but I can tell you that the church needs a coat of paint and some plaster repairs to the ceiling.

The electricity consumption measurements have now been completed. As I expected, the solar panel battery bank will be able to power the borehole pump, 12V transformer, and the reedbed sump pump without any trouble. Even if we have four consecutive days without any sun at all, the batteries will still be more than 50% charged. But it can’t run the server though, which is a pity.

Speaking of servers, unfortunately LSS’s LCD computer monitor has started flickering rather badly, so I replaced it with the one from the server upstairs. This means we no longer have a spare, so I suppose we need to think about getting a replacement. However, all the modern ones seem to have either HDMI or DVI connections; the old VGA connector seems to be quite rare.

The woodshed tarpaulins have now been replaced, with the exception of one. The old ones are torn in places. I also made up some short bungee cords to tie the new ones in place; it’s now a lot easier to access the wood.

We’re down to 14 hens again. One of the older hens went to the chop (we identified her as the egg-eater, and since her demise we have not had any eggs eaten.) Then unfortunately one of our two new hens seems to have had a heart attack; we found her dead in the chicken run.

The pallet-wood bath panel has now been varnished and put in place, and I have installed the backing boards ready for the tiling. I made the bath panel in three parts; two are fixed in place and the third is removable so that there is access to the plumbing if required.
In other news, we’ve both now had our customary haircuts, ready for the summer. If we get a summer, that is. I sprayed the peach trees in the garden with a copper sulphate solution to try and prevent the peach leaf curl disease this year. So, of course, it rained, washing off all the copper sulphate. Fortunately we have lots of the stuff; we discovered a 25kg bag in one of the Aged FIL’s outbuildings. Here it’s called bouillie bordelaise, or Bordeaux mixture.

The last batch of beer has now been bottled. 41 bottles! Now we need to wait a month before we can try it. In the photo below I haven’t put the labels on the bottles yet.
I have also been splitting firewood this week. The first aspen has been reduced to firewood-sized pieces; but next week I need to bring back two oak trees. Then there are a further two fallen aspens which need to be dealt with – and I have noticed that there are a few more small trees which have fallen over in the area we call Soggy Bottom. When I have finished with this lot the wood sheds should be full again!

The fake wasp nests have now been re-installed under the eaves of the house, so that once the weather warms up we should not be bothered by these little pests. I’ve also repaired and reinstalled the horsefly traps.

On Saturday the Aged FIL did not get breakfast. The washer telephoned LSS at around 09h30, saying she couldn’t get in because the door was still locked. LSS shot off to the other house to open the door. Several angry phone calls later, she discovered that the carer had actually turned up to feed him (I was going to say “get him up and feed him” but this is no longer strictly true because he now eats all his meals from the comfort of his bed), but couldn’t get in because the door was locked, and the key was not in its usual hiding place. One of the previous carers had forgotten to put it back, and left it on the kitchen table. And Saturday’s carer did actually look up LSS’s contact number in her little handbook, and tried to telephone. The problem was that the contact number she had been given was not ours. It was actually the Aged FIL’s. And because he dislikes the telephone, it is not, as one would think, next to his bed. It is in the kitchen. With the ringer volume set to zero. Still, at least he got lunch. And due to his usual somnolent state he didn’t realise he hadn’t had breakfast.

Wildlife Diary:
Last Saturday we saw a bat on the barn door during the daylight hours. It seemed fine but had obviously got itself a bit lost. Upon our approach, it slid into a crack in the wooden panel, and was gone the next day. In the evenings there are at least six wheeling erratically above the pond. And, the cherry on top of this week’s Wildlife Diary, is the appearance of two Eurasian Hoopoes. LSS heard a rather strange call one afternoon and told me to listen. “Hoop hoop hoop hoop”, it went. “Strange,” I said, “It sounds a bit like a hoopoe. But I don’t think you get them here. Maybe it’s a dyslexic pigeon.” Well, it wasn’t a dyslexic pigeon. It suddenly appeared in the garden, where it inserted its long beak into a suitable hole and emerged with a huge mole cricket, which it proceeded to eat with obvious enjoyment. It then repeated the exercise several times, each time with success. Yesterday afternoon it returned, but this time it brought a friend. It’s the first time we’ve seen these birds.

Today marks the start of year 5 in France. Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun? We’ve a long way to go yet until the house is complete, but it’s certainly comfortable enough. Of course, the reason it’s taking so much time is that I’m doing all the construction work myself. It could probably have been finished by now if we had paid others to do the work. However this would not only have been more expensive, but I’m not sure whether the end result would have been satisfactory. We’ve noticed that nowadays, the concept of having pride in your work seems to have disappeared.

Did I mention that we have two new hens? Black ones this time. Well, it will soon be time to start refreshing the flock. One of the oldest hens has stopped laying, so is destined for the pot. And Mrs. Bunny has produced her fifth litter; we’re not too sure yet how many there are, but we suspect there are two. Which is not much considering why we are keeping bunnies in the first place. We have one young female left from Mrs. Bunny’s previous litter, and we think it may be time to refresh the bunny population as well. This female will become the new Mrs. Bunny, and I’m afraid the old Mrs. Bunny will become a stew once her current litter is old enough.

The bathroom shelf unit is now complete. It’s not yet painted, but that will happen at one point. I’ve now moved my attention to making a panel for the side of the bath, also out of pallet wood. I think it will look rather nice if it’s varnished instead of painted.

Friend V will be arriving this weekend for a few days. She’s very good at gathering sloes or blackberries. Unfortunately there aren’t any at this time of year, so instead we’ll put her to work at gathering grass and plants for the bunnies to eat.

And as a Year 5 anniversary present (no, not really) M&O brought us a piece of boar.

It looks a bit different to the photo shown in the post of the 21st!

It’s been a fairly busy few weeks since my last post! I started doing some preparatory work for the future solar panel installation. I had purchased a small plug-in power monitor, and have been measuring the electricity consumption of the various items which could be run from the battery bank. This should tell me whether the initial installation will be sufficient for all of them, or whether some will need to remain on mains electricity for the time being. So far I have measured:
– The borehole pump. 0.11 kWh per day.
– The 12V transformer (running all the temperature gauges, central heating pump, and solar thermal panel pump). 0.29 kWh per day.
– Server. Ooh. Ouch. 1.93 kWh per day. Unfortunately it seems that this consumes too much power to run off the 650Ah battery bank in its current format.
Oh, and in case you were wondering why I don’t run the 12V items straight off the battery bank instead of converting the 12V battery power up to 220V AC and then transforming it back down again, the simple answer is: because of the distance between the battery bank and the 12V items. We’re talking some 25 metres of wiring. Voltage losses in a DC circuit would mean that I would need to run cables each having a cross-sectional area of 25mm2. This is the typical size of a vehicle battery cable. And a 50 metre length of this size cable would be horribly expensive.

We had a tremendous amount of rain a couple of weeks ago. When I was upstairs, I noticed a small puddle of water on the floor. This was traced to the point where one of the solar thermal panel pipes entered through a hole drilled in a roof tile. I had sealed around the pipe with some roofing sealant; but unfortunately this had dried and broken into little pieces, allowing rainwater to trickle through. Of course this meant I had to set up the scaffolding and roof ladder in order to access the problem area. Whilst I was up there, I also noticed that the insulation I had used on the copper piping between the panel and the roof tiles had completely perished. Obviously it’s not meant for outdoor use. I replaced it with another piece of pipe insulation, but this time wrapped the entire thing with duct tape, so it should last longer this time! I then re-sealed the holes in the tiles, this time using a bituminous mastic which remains flexible.

The next batch of beer is now fermenting away in the corner of the kitchen. This is an attempt at a clone of a Carmeliet Belgian Triple. I have enough ingredients to make two batches, should the first prove to be any good! In my last post, I mentioned we had obtained 20 litres of apple brandy. Well, as an experiment, I poured a gallon of this into a demi-john, and added some pieces of oak. These had been carefully baked in the oven, and then charred with a propane torch. After having been immersed for a few weeks, the oak sticks have now been removed, and they have turned the previously clear spirit into a lovely whisky colour. This needs to be left for a few more weeks before any tasting can commence. This is apparently a faster alternative to placing the apple brandy into oak casks for several years.

LSS has managed to re-organize the barn by sorting through some of the stuff which is still in removal boxes. The result is that half of the remaining dirt floor is now clear, ready for the next batch of limecrete. Once the weather warms up sufficiently, of course! Last week we paid a visit to the local quarry, returning with a trailer-load of sand. We’ll probably also need more gravel before the barn floor is complete.

The floor-to-ceiling bathroom cupboard is taking shape. Actually, it’s more of a shelving unit, because it won’t have a door. The entire thing is being made of pallet wood, and is looking rather nice. I’ll take a photo when it’s finished.

Speaking of bathrooms, we noticed the bath was starting to empty rather slowly. Obviously the wastewater pipes were becoming clogged with gunk. Now because we have a greywater reedbed, we can’t just pour drain cleaner down there! After some research, I found a greener alternative; namely sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and white vinegar. Some of this was poured down the plughole, followed by very hot water. Yes, but. Although it produced lots of foam, this did not have the miraculous effect I was hoping for. The process probably needs to be repeated several times. Fortunately when installing the waste pipes, I had made provision for this sort of thing. There is a push-fit T-connector where the waste pipe exits the kitchen, and it was a simple matter to undo this connector, and push the garden hose down the pipe. Turning it on flushed lots of nasty-looking debris into the sump filter. I’m pleased to report the bath is now draining rapidly again.

I’ve been cutting more wood, which has been stacked in the woodshed. It does take rather a lot of time. There’s also still quite a bit of wood (roofing timbers from the burned-down garage) at the Aged FIL which needs to be brought back here and cut into pieces. There are still two aspens which need to be cut up into firewood-sized chunks. And a couple of large oak branches which are overhanging the road between the two farmhouses.

Not much has changed regarding the Aged FIL. He developed an abscess on one of his feet, so the doctor has been visiting a bit more frequently. The abscess has apparently provided him with an excellent excuse not to get out of bed at all, so he now not only gets breakfast in bed, but lunch and dinner as well.

Unfortunately one of our hens has discovered that eggs are edible. We’ve been getting more and more broken eggs lately, and it seems one or two of the other hens are starting to copy her. This is Not A Good Thing. It’s not always practical to visit the chicken coop at fifteen-minute intervals, so we purchased some roll-away nest trays online. The idea of these is that as soon as it is laid, the egg rolls into a collecting tray at the front. This tray is covered with a clear plastic lid. However, despite the apparent good reviews of these items, there is a design flaw. The tray is not really long enough. LSS found one hen perched on the tray, with her head reaching down inside to get to the delicious morsel it contained. Annoyed, LSS disappeared into the workshop, emerging armed with a hacksaw and some small pieces of wood. She ruthlessly modified the trays, and the planks of wood have increased the length of the plastic lids. This temporary fix means that the eggs are now safely out of reach of even the longest necks. I think I need to redesign the nest-boxes though. One more thing for my To-Do list.

Yesterday saw the final hunt of this season. The hunters were moderately successful this time, and bagged a mid-sized boar. M&O will probably pay us a visit this week to bring us a piece of meat. Of course, I’m only in the photo to give you an idea of the size of the beast.

LSS has received a form from the tax office. This is to do with our permis de construire (building permit) regarding the work on the barn. You see, once the work has been completed, the tax office need to be notified so that they can re-assess the charge of taxe d’habitation (housing tax) which is based on the liveable floor area of the building. (A dirt floor is apparently not considered a “liveable floor area”). Well, as we have not notified them that the work is finished, they have assumed that the work must have been completed by now anyway. LSS sent the form back with the “Date of completion” box filled in as “2017?”. If they don’t believe us, they’re welcome to send an inspector round.

Wildlife diary: Mrs Duck has returned to the pond together with the two males. She has started a nest in the reeds, and this currently contains one egg. Hopefully she has more success this year. Mind you, the nest is only a few centimetres above the pond water level; and as the pond is not yet at full capacity, if it rains a lot her nest will be underwater. Silly duck.
And the blue tit is once again wanting to visit the lounge, because it looks like it is a potential location for a nice and cosy nest. It keeps tapping on the window requesting entry. However, this time it is not alone. A pair of tree sparrows noticed this activity, and now they ALSO want to come in.

So, the live trap arrived for the creature living upstairs. This was deployed straight away, using a piece of bread with a smear of peanut butter as the bait. The following morning, the trap was sprung!
But empty.
And the bait had been eaten.
I reset it with some fresh bait.

The following morning, the same thing – an empty trap, and no bait. This mouse must be called Houdini! Being extremely annoyed, I purchased a different type of trap, a Big Cheese trap. When it arrived, I placed it upstairs, as well as three ordinary mousetraps – all baited with peanut butter.
Success! It was not a dormouse after all, but a whole family of mice. To date I have caught ten of them – on one occasion three in the Big Cheese trap. But there are still scratching noises in the ceiling, so I’ll keep going.

As I said in my previous post, we were indeed given a cockerel. We named him George. He is extremely happy here. In my last post I was slightly optimistic about the time he would start crowing. It’s actually 03h30; but thankfully the double glazing muffles the sound, so he’s safe from the stewpot for a while.

The toilet walls have now been finished, and the ceiling is in place. Decorating has not yet occurred, of course, but it’s definitely an improvement! Unfortunately the rather small size of the room means it’s almost impossible to take a photograph of the end result. With regard to the infrared light I installed – the jury is still out. I think it gives the illusion of warmth rather than putting out any actual heat. But it’s better than nothing.
I also treated myself to a small urinal, which drains into the external Separett Ejektortank. However, it soon became apparent that there was a problem with odour; as urea decomposes, ammonia is released. This gas rises to the highest point in the system, which in this case happened to be the urinal. I resolved this by making a small duckbill valve from a length of bicycle inner tube, and attaching this valve to the end of the pipe in the Ejektortank. Problem solved.

I am currently working with some pallet wood. I have dismantled quite a few pallets, and the planks have been planed and cut to width. They are now being glued together to form wider boards, from which I will construct a bathroom cupboard. I will also be using the planks to create panelling around the bath. It’s not a straightforward job!

One Thursday last month, Neighbour J telephoned. She had seen in the newspaper that Monsieur le Bouilleur de Cru would be in the area. (This was not his name, but his occupation. He is the person who, once a year, travels around with a mobile distillery). LSS telephoned him late on that Friday afternoon, and was horrified to discover that he was only in the area for two days, ending that very evening! So things proceeded in a bit of a rush. You see, we had three 120-litre plastic barrels of fermented apples, and had been waiting for this day to arrive. It just arrived a bit too quickly for comfort. Loading these barrels onto the trailer was a pain in the … back. It was getting dark. And it was raining. And cold. And we also had to run around finding suitable containers for the alcohol we were hoping would be the result. Anyway, we shot off to the nearby village where he was temporarily based. We found him installed next to the garden refuse dump. Useful, I suppose, as all the leftovers from the distillation process could simply be added to the composting pile of vegetation. We arrived just before 18h00, and encountered a large tent, erected next to a caravan. The entire tent was filled with clouds of delicious-smelling steam, and contained a much larger version of one of these: It was also extremely noisy, with the powerful gas-powered boiler going full blast. Mind you, it was nice and warm in there!

Monsieur le Bouilleur de Cru unceremoniously removed the lids from our three barrels, and plunged his arm deep into the fermented apple mash, grabbing a handful. Closing his eyes, he sniffed the pulp. He pronounced each of the barrels acceptable, but apparently the third barrel was the most acceptable of the lot.
We were informed that we didn’t have to wait but could return later. “However,” he warned, “I shut down at 20h00. So be back before then or else.”

We rushed back home to put the hens to bed, and add more wood to the boiler stove. We didn’t have much time to do anything else, let alone have supper; and were back at the distiller with minutes to spare. As we were his last customers, he was starting to relax a bit, and we discussed distilling. I did notice he was starting to lean rather heavily against the caravan doorframe; obviously as a result of breathing in the fragrant steam all day.

“Apple brandy is all very well,” he said. “But pear brandy is much better. Only Williams pears, mind you. The others aren’t much good. Here, have a taste of this.” He disappeared into the caravan and rummaged in a cupboard, emerging with an unlabelled bottle and a small glass. We duly had a taste. Very nice it was too, smelling strongly of pears. We made appreciative noises. Pleased with his receptive audience, he had another glassful himself. “Ah, that’s the right stuff. I don’t drink, you see. But I do add some to my coffee every morning. Although it’s not the best eau de vie, you know.”
“Really?” We asked.
“Oh no. The best one is – wait a minute.”
Carefully negotiating his way through the caravan door, he disappeared once more into the cupboard, emerging with another bottle of clear liquid, identical to the first. He reverently pulled out the cork, poured some into the glass, and took a deep sniff before remembering we were there. He offered it to us to taste. He was right, this one was better; it had a real taste of plums.
“Ah, plum brandy!” We exclaimed.
“Wrong!” He said in triumph. “It’s made from sloes! But the secret is not in the fruit. It’s the crushed stones which give it this marvellous taste!” Just to make sure, he had another glassful, before regretfully replacing the cork.
The end result was that we came away with 20 litres of apple brandy.
It was an interesting experience, but I don’t think we’ll repeat it due to the work involved. Besides, 20 litres of apple brandy will last us a very, very long time! After all that, we ended up having dinner at 22h00.

The good news is that we now have the double-glazed French door for the barn. Due to the size of this thing (2.4 metres wide by 2.15 metres high) we had to hire a large van at the local supermarket. We then went to BricoDepot in Orleans to get the door. And of course, more lime. Fifteen 35kg bags of lime to be exact. Which should be sufficient to finish the barn floor once the weather warms up a bit.

The bad news is the ignition switch on the ST1100 appears to have died. I had to move the bike to one side of the garage so that the French door could be stored there. Unfortunately the bike wouldn’t start, so I had to manually push its nearly 300kg weight around by manpower alone. One more thing to fix…. and the Renault 5 needs its carburettor to be cleaned. Always something!

We have also now met our new neighbour. One of the adjoining farms had been sold last year. Mr. K. dropped in to tell us that one of “our” trees had been blown down into his field during a recent storm, so if we wanted the wood we had his permission to access his property. He drives a green Land Rover Defender, so we discussed Land Rovers for a while. I was delighted to discover that he also speaks fairly good English. It turned out that he is a notaire (solicitor) and lives in Paris; the farm next door is his weekend getaway. So cutting the fallen tree into firewood-sized chunks took me a few days’ work. It’s an aspen. And as luck would have it, we have found another three aspens which have been blown down. It’s not the best firewood, as it burns rather quickly; but hey – it’s free. And I haven’t had to cut down any healthy trees.

I’ve also started replacing the tarpaulins in front of the wood sheds with more heavy-duty ones. The previous tarpaulins lasted two years but because of the wind they have become rather tattered.

Otherwise, we’re waiting for the weather to improve. It’s been raining rather a lot recently. The advantage is that the pond is once again nearly full.

The year did not start too well for our hens. Actually December wasn’t that great either. We’re now down to 14. In December one of the younger ones developed what I can only describe as a sneeze. Although she was still eating, every so often she would stand still, and sneeze. Not a little feminine “‘choo!” sneeze, but a full-bodied “CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!”

Later that day there was a bit of a commotion in the hen-pen so I went over to have a look. Sneezy hen was now on her back, with her wings going flap-flap-flap-flap. As I reached her, she expired.
An autopsy revealed nothing unusual, so she went into the freezer.

Then this month we lost one of our four originals. She’d been looking a bit off-colour for a day or so, so we separated her from the others. Unfortunately we found her dead the next morning. This one received a ceremonious burial, as we thought it was probably safer not to eat it.
We intend getting another four hens in February, as we’ve had the oldest for nearly three years now. And we may soon be getting a cockerel; one of LSS’s pupils has offered us one. Although if it starts waking us up at 4 a.m. it will end up in the pot.

On New Year’s Day we went to visit neighbour J to have the customary “Galette des Rois” – a cake with a little ceramic object hidden in it. The person who gets the object is King or Queen for the day, and has to wear a silly paper hat. The only way to eat this cake, is carefully – because dentists are generally closed on New Year’s Day. We took advantage of the visit to take Mrs Bunny along to visit Neighbour J’s Mister Bunny, thus starting the next batch of rabbit stews and bunny-skin slippers. Speaking of which, I have found a template for making moccasins, so I’ll be constructing some before too long. I may even post a photo!

We think there’s a garden dormouse living in the ceiling. In the evenings there’s a “scratch-scratch-scratch” as it nibbles on its nuts. Cat is most annoyed – she can hear it, but can’t catch it. I’ve ordered a live trap, and will see if we have success with that. We’ve tried mousetraps without success – they appear to be too small. Rat-traps simply have their bait removed without being tripped; which is why we think it’s a dormouse. I considered making my own live trap from a length of pvc pipe, but in the end decided to just buy one. When I was at University, a friend and I earned a bit of money during the holidays by surveying the small mammal population of a local forest reserve, and we used live traps for this. If I remember correctly, the bait was a mixture of oats, peanut butter, and candle-wax. I’m not going to go to all the effort to make that sort of bait for our dormouse; a piece of bread smeared with peanut butter should do the trick.

On the 6th January our neighbour (the one with the gîte) had planned on emptying his pond. I went along at various times during the day to see how it was progressing. His intention was to see what sort of fish he had, and how many. Several helpers dragged a long net through the nearly-empty reservoir, and another person in full pond-wading gear scooped the fish into large plastic buckets. It turned out he had gudgeon, some perch, and a few carp. The pike which he had previously introduced had simply disappeared; maybe they were eaten by herons. Interestingly we found that there were quite a few freshwater mussels in his pond, each around 15cm in length.

The captured fish were transferred into holding tanks ready for reintroduction to the pond once it had been refilled with sufficient water from his borehole.

As for us, we don’t think we’re making sufficient use of our own pond as far as a food source is concerned. Gudgeon are all right to eat, although there is a lot of effort involved in cleaning sufficient quantities for a fry-up. Neither of us are particularly keen on eating carp – there are too many small bones even if one gets rid of the initial muddy taste. So we’re considering introducing some brown trout and/or large-mouth bass. Tilapia would have been great, but they would not survive our winters.

The toilet walls are still not finished, as I’ve been busy with various other tasks and repairs. But the bathroom is now at least fully enclosed, and we’ve splashed out on the luxury of an electrically-heated towel rail. Although it’s sold as a bathroom heater, it is primarily to dry the towels, because up until now we’ve been hanging them in the kitchen. Where they certainly get dry, but also tend to acquire the smell of whatever cooking happens to take place.

Although we have the shower and shower glass, it has not been installed yet. I still need to do the tiling. Another sticking point is that I will have to construct a support bar for the shower glass. The custom size of the shower (1m x 1.2m) means that commercially available support bars – even if you are fortunate enough to find one – are simply not long enough. Fortunately the Aged FIL’s stock of welding rods includes some for stainless steel welding, so I may try that if I can find some suitable tubing.

Even though the bathroom is not fully complete, I’ve already obtained most of the materials for the next project; a 320 Watt solar panel installation. These panels will not be placed on the house roof, but rather on a frame behind the workshop. That way, we don’t need planning permission, and they’ll be easier to keep clean. The idea is that they will power the borehole pump and the 12-volt thermal store installation. However, LSS has banned me from proceeding with the solar panel installation until the toilet walls have been finished. Fair enough, I suppose.

Another thing I have been considering is a way of heating the toilet cubicle. My original plan for the toilet and bathroom was to use central heating radiators, which would get their hot water from the thermal store. I had installed a radiator in the bedroom as a test. However, although this radiator does get warm and at least removes the chill from the air (which is fine for the bedroom – you don’t want the room too hot), we’ve found that the thermal store water is not really hot enough to be able to heat the room. We thus obtained a separate gas heater for the bathroom. But as for the toilet, I’m going to try something different. I’ll be installing a ceramic light socket on one wall, and fitting a 100-watt infrared bulb – the sort that is normally used to keep poultry chicks warm. I’ll report back on how it works. As for the rest of the barn, this will be a large open-plan area. And I intend building a thermal mass rocket stove to take care of that.

We’ve had some success with the Moley infestation I described in my last post. We had a mole near the reedbed, and another in the front courtyard. Both of these were successfully caught, but within 24 hours their vacant tunnels were inhabited by two new moles. One of these was also successfully caught, but unfortunately we then had a severe frost. I say unfortunately because although Moley Number Four triggered the trap, the frozen ground prevented the trap from fully closing. We are now unable to open the polytunnel door because of the frozen molehills surrounding it. I’m sure it’s doing it on purpose.

We’ve also had our first snowfall of the year. It didn’t last for too long though. Mind you, one can see where the insulation has been installed in the roof of the house. The snow has melted on the uninsulated part of the barn, but the rest of the roof is still white.

I haven’t mentioned the Aged FIL for a while. Well, there’s not much to report. He still spends the majority of his time in bed, looking at the ceiling. LSS did manage to arrange for an optometrist to do a house call, with the result that the Aged FIL will be getting new spectacles. At least his ceiling will be a bit more in focus. As for me, I’ve made a start on sorting out his workshop. Generally on Sundays, LSS takes him his weekly shopping, and I accompany her with a large galvanized bucket. Whilst she’s putting the food away, I fill this bucket by the simple expedient of sweeping everything on his workbench into it. I then bring it back to my own workshop where I sort it out.
“Scrap metal.”
“Dustbin.”
“Dustbin.”
“Scrap metal.”
“Ah, a Facom spanner. Keep that.”
“Scrap metal.”
“Ooh, a possibly useful tool….. except for the fact that it’s broken. Scrap metal.”
This man never threw anything away. And I mean anything. I found packets and packets of used incandescent lightbulbs. All with burnt-out filaments. Mind you, I have found some useful things; some waterproof military metal first-aid boxes. Plus a couple of metal ammo boxes.

His workbench is now nearly clear. Now I can access all the stuff on the floor underneath. Then there are the cupboards. Then the various piles of junk in the corners….. I can see this is going to take a while.