The wanderer returns......

Well today was a great day - Moke our 11 year old cat who disappeared in June when we first moved down here came home!

Well he doesn't win any awards for intelligence - Al spotted a cat in a field 1km from the mill on our way home - after squelching through the field we realised it was indeed Moke. 6 months on the run and he was only a few hundred metres from home all that time.

Apart from losing a few pounds (not a bad thing) he seems otherwise ok and has settled right back in.....we thought he was still hitching back to Chamonix! The mouse population had better take cover as we are now back upto 3 hunters patrolling the mill.....

Heating system

This is a post for the technophiles out there who may be slightly interested in the heating and hot water system we installed in the Moulin.  We suggest those who aren't into this to put the kettle on!

With the diminishing world supply of oil and gas controlled by distasteful companies and the prices climbing steadily into the stratosphere, we realised from the start that wood-fired heating with some solar input would be the way forward and once the capital investment was completed it would mean the only running cost would be our man-hours to cut logs.  This would be especially eco-friendly if the wood used was cut from the land around the property and luckily we have plenty of decent wood to burn so we started doing some more in- depth research into the subject.

Initially, we hoped to cook, wash and heat the house using a wood-fired cooking range with back boiler (for a radiator system) but we struggled to find any of these appliances that could get anywhere near the 25kW requirement to heat the house (this figure was established by our plumber Klaus by calculating all the heat loss from the various materials used in each room in the house) so we decided to put a wood-fired boiler in the barn which is very close to the house.

This also had three knock-on advantages in that the site of the proposed solar panels was around 10m closer to this position (meaning shorter tubes to connect them and hence a smaller and cheaper pump), secondly that the serious mess of 10 cubic metres of logs being burnt every winter would not come into our kitchen but stay in the barn and finally the dedicated boilers available are simply far more efficient than a hybrid machine that tries to achieve cooking/hot water heating/heating in one and such a machine would need to be burnt at 100% of its capacity to heat the house which would make the kitchen unbearably hot.

Having decided to go for a wood boiler (also known as biomass boiler) our plumber recommended a German company called Buderus (part of the BOSCH group) and in particular a new technology call wood gasification.  Effectively the wood is turned to gas at quite a high temperature as air is forced down onto the wood.  The flame is pushed down through a slot under the logs and the gasses burn again in a lower chamber reaching a temperature up to 1100 degrees C.  The boiler achieves 85% efficiency and very few cinders are produced (removal once a week is sufficient).  Here is a link to the sales docs in French (not available in English unfortunately) http://www.buderus.fr/files/200904271112190.Logano%20s121%20_%2066%20100%20100.02-08%20pdf.pdf

After researching the subject in depth, we learnt that in order to maximise the benefits of these boilers and to increase the ease of use, it is very useful to feed the heat produced into a massive water tank known as a heat store (we chose 1250L) which takes the massive amount of energy produced in the relatively quick burn period and stores it to be then used for the heating or hot water throughout the day.  Often the space heating and hot water in the house is required in the morning and evening whereas the boiler might only be lit once or twice a day.  Without a heat store, you have to keep the boiler burning slowly 24 hours a day which ruins the efficiency and quickly fills the chimney with soot and tar.  Heat stores are also fantastic for solar systems as they take heat in all day and make it available for your use in the evening or even 3 days later if you have a cloudy period.

The decision to add a large set of solar thermal panels (not to produce electricity just heat for the heat store) was influenced by three reasons - firstly in summer it is pretty disagreeable to have to light a wood boiler (it just gets super hot in the boiler room), the panels are large enough to contribute to winter heating by preheating the water in the tank and most importantly the French government gives grants to install solar systems (which includes the heat store tank which reduces the cost of that by 45%) which brings the total cost of the installations down by around 30% in total.  Rather than put them on the roof of the house which we found pretty ugly, we placed them on a concrete slab close to our car port.

The radiators circuit is supplied directly from the water in the tank itself in a closed loop.  This is pumped by a standard central heating pump controlled by a digital thermostat in the house (we were lucky enough to have spare cabling going from the fuse board to the boiler room during the rewire of the boiler room so these were used for the thermostat controller).

For the domestic hot water production we had the choice of two systems - firstly a tank in tank system where the hot water of the large heat store tank heats a second tank within the large tank or secondly a seperate heat exchanger outside the tank where when a tap is opened, a pump will take hot water from the heat store and run it past cold flowing water from the mains supply which instantaneously heats the cold supply and sends it into the hot taps in the house.  We chose the second solution because it is safer for potential legionella problems (large quantities of domestic hot water are not stored for long periods hence the push towards combi boilers that heat water instantaneously in the uk) and because the second solution does not hinder stratification of the water in the heat store.

Stratification is all about having very hot water at the top of the heat store (which is where you need it to supply the hot water or heating production) while the bottom of the tank might be cold or luke warm.  What you are trying to avoid is heating all the tank at the same time and waiting a long time while the whole 1250L goes from cold through luke warm to moderately warm water which will not really give you a good shower or warm the house up much.

This is the control panel on the instantaneous hot water exchange module;

And the position of the hot water module and central heating pump;

 All of the equipment except the wood burning boiler was supplied by Klaus the super efficient German plumber who we found on an internet forum and we are grateful for his exceptionally neat work, honest approach to delivering a top quality system and generally being a top man.  All the equipment was ordered from Germany and the quality is excellent.  Klaus prefers to order equipment that he knows he can fit with confidence that it won't fail and let the clients down.  Prior to the the current cold temperatures we are experiencing we thought we had over engineered the system but we now appreciate why Klaus suggested such a big boiler and a big heat store as we are enjoying living in a toasty warm house and with a system that is simple to use, efficient and eco-friendly.  

In terms of radiators, Klaus originally proposed some modern efficient radiators but this time, we decided that form would govern function and Al found that Acova the French company that makes towel rails also made their retro style radiators in central heating models so we increased the budget slightly and went for the lovely cast iron look. 

We are still in our first few months of using the new system (although we had the solar hot water working since mid September which was very efficient) and thus far it has proved very easy to use and the house is very warm.  Old stone houses like these are known for being draughty and cold but we have installed double glazing throughout the living rooms and kitchen and added thick curtains to all the single glazed bedrooms.  While we treated the roof beams in the loft, we also added 250mm of rock wool (essential for summer cooling as well as winter heat loss).  In the autumn, we used purely solar until quite late into the season and then went through a period of lighting once a day and burning one batch of logs and then letting it go out.  This was a bit painful as you go through tons of kindling and newspaper.  As the temperatures dropped and are now below zero at night (during the last 7 days) we are burning 24/7 and the boiler needs loading perhaps 3-4 times a day.  It is going through logs at a fair rate - we estimate approximately 10 cubic metres a winter which is a lot but we believe the trees on our land can cope with that production.  We hoped the solar would produce more heat in the winter but we intend to change the angle on the panels (currently set to maximise year round outputs) to maximise winter output and we hope this will improve further the contribution made by or solar system.

As we are refusing to purchase logs for this current winter, we are obliged to burn the log pile that the previous owner left behind which is of variable quality.  We are supplementing this with freshly cut Ash as this is the only tree that can be burnt green and luckily we have enough Ash to keep us going this winter.

We are gradually preparing wood stores for the next two winters and thinning out Alder copses we have growing on the wetter areas of the land.  Alder being part of the beech family should be a decent firewood once dried and handily, none of the trees are large enough to warrant splitting which saves man hours. We also have plenty of dead or sick wood to clear including a massive Poplar that needs felling before it drops on nearby power cables and plenty of Horse Chestnuts, Acacia, Cherry, and so on. A couple of hours work every few days soon cuts and stacks a lot of wood and luckily we have the tractor and trailer to move the wood back to the drying area on the end of the barn (under direct cover but open to the wind).

We would also like to thank Rob Gwillim at the Centre for Alternative Technologies in Wales who advised us on the planning of the system in a professional, knowledgeable and independent manner.

Little Donkey Little Donkey

We realised that a pre-Christmas blog post was called for because once the madness of Christmas starts then we would really struggle to even see a computer under the wrapping paper and Christmas dinner leftovers.  There is no baahumbug in this house though - we really love the festive period and are all looking forward to it - especially the kids as you can imagine.

Each time we write a blog post it is a struggle to cast our minds back to what we have achieved or tried to achieve since the last one because this is a whirlwind of excitement and adventure but here are a few extracts.

We finally "finished" our master bedroom (grand title for a room with four non-straight walls) and we are very happy with it.  The wallpapering went pretty well -  thanks to Ruth's expert tuition in Al's youth and the Toile de Jouy pattern works well covering the unevenness of the walls.  The parquet flooring we acquired from a car boot sale looks fab although it was a nightmare to fit - every time a plank split or the gap wouldn't close the phrase "It's ok, that bit will be under the bed!" was often heard..... and all we need now is a new bed more in keeping with the age and style of the room (we are thinking Georgian metal bed head etc)  Exposing the large beams, wood around the fireplace and lintels above the windows has turned out really nicely now they have a couple of coats of linseed oil and the original cupboard set into the stone wall has received a coat of dark grey/blue paint which seems to work well.

Before;

During:

Finished:

Al's dream of having a small trout lake has become reality as last weekend he went off with Ben to a trout farm in the Pyrenees to collect 50 small trout (150g and around 6 inches long) that were released into our small lake.  We haven't seen hide nor hair of them since so either the cat fish have eaten the lot or they are hiding at the bottom.  Al keeps chucking in their daily food ration (only until they are able to fend for themselves) but they have yet to appear in person.  The aim is to allow them to grow until they are worth eating  - we are planning a smoker next summer.

Bee gets all the glamorous jobs and has continued clearing out the barn by scraping 50 year old compacted cow dung from the stone floors.  Al decided it should burn (like they do in Tibet apparently) so he tried it in the wood fired boiler and within minutes the whole valley smelled of cheap cigars!  Needless to say that won't be tried again.

We have also got into the habit of taking the donkeys for a Sunday morning constitutional.  The kids love it and the donkeys are getting easier to handle and more relaxed in our company as a result. A walk up the lane also cleans out their hooves making the weekly hoof-picking much easier. Scarlett has nominated herself as manure-remover and seems to enjoy clearing out the donkeys' shed with a shovel twice her size. Who needs organised sport?!

Finally Christmas dinner is sorted as we slaughtered our first cockerel today at about 5 months old; just in time to roast it apparently.  As it was our first one we called upon our ever helpful neighbours Didier and Aline to avoid making the animal suffer unnecessarily.  We also saved the gizzards to roast with the bird and his liver (which might end up for the cats because one chicken liver a whole pate doth not make).  He is now trussed and in the fridge; chilling out before he gets pot roasted on Sunday - we are also lucky enough to say that virtually all the vegetables will come from our veg patch as well although the Lincolnshire sausages and English bacon are imported of course (how's that for a carbon footprint).

Happy Christmas and a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year to one and all.

MMMMMMMM bacon...........

While most neighbours pop round for a cuppa or invite you for an aperitif, today was destined to be a bit different .....we were invited round to witness the slaughter of a pig.  The event is clearly the highlight of the yearly calender for Didier and Aline and we felt privileged and a little nervous to be part of it even on a purely observational level.   This was not any old pig - 140kg of grunting squealing bacon....vegetarians and those of a delicate disposition need not read on.......

 

The preparations were impressive - a drum of water was boiling on a stove, butchery utensils, Bosch electric saw, hosepipe and various tethers, chains and ropes were lined up. The tractor crane was in position and the neighbours and friends on hand to assist were kitted out in wellies and overalls. One of the assistants who concerned himself with our welfare reminded us it wasn't a fun job and then proceeded to recollect an evidently-favourite story of a journalist who once came to film the killing who keeled over within the first few minutes.........great!

 

It was a cold day - imperative for the quick slaughter and processing of the carcass safe from attacks of blow flies.  Our neighbour who normally sports work clothing and slippers appeared in impeccably-white overalls, white wellies and butchers apron.

 

The pig was trussed whilst in the trailer then hoisted by its hind legs by the tractor crane. It's jaws were anchored by a cord to a buried chain bolt. A swift blow with a sledge hammer to the forehead and its throat was slit letting forth a literal jet of bright red blood which was caught in a bucket . Bizarrely this was not the part that fazed us - more the fact the pig squealed and writhed for 3-4 minutes afterwards. We wondered if a .22 shot to the head would be a more humane stunning method before the all important throat cutting?

 

The carcass was then hosed down and lowered into a trough of water at 81 degrees - after a few minutes, hand scrapers appeared and with apparent ease the coat was epilated.  A hook was used to rip the toenails clean off - that was probably the most grim moment for us - a real nail-scraping-the-blackboard moment.

 

The carcass was hung again to be gutted. All the innards were pulled out - surprisingly clean-looking, then the liver, heart and lungs. It was a very practical biology lesson. The intestines were cleaned out and preserved for sausage skin. Thanks again to Lisa and Jason for the recent gift of a sausage maker (they must by mind readers!)  The electric saw divided the carcass in half, the head was severed and the 2 halves were carried off into the scullery. Not before the hanging carcass had been admired by everyone and the layer of fat along the backbone measured and approved (no more than 2cm).

 

Everything got hosed down, the various buckets of intestine emptied, a strong coffee was served then off to get the kids from school. "So what did you do today Mummy?" might have been answered with  teeny white lie.....at least neither of us barfed or passed out!!!!

 

Donkeys

We finally got our first large animals - two guard donkeys who will be looking after our small flock of sheep (if the shepherd ever gets around to bringing them over)  Donkeys apparently have a pathological loathing for dogs and as the largest predator of sheep are usually hunting dogs or wild dogs, some protection is needed.

We completed the shelter, hay manger and water trough for a total outlay of zero euros (very satisfying) although the electric fencing cost quite a bit but it is a good investment.

The donkeys were delivered last week and have settled in well -they are very cute.  The kids have named them Sammy (female 20 yrs) and Lucy (female 8 yrs) after two of their friends from Chamonix.  They weigh about 150kg each but are quite small and therefore manageable - especially as we are equine novices. They are eating almost exclusively grass with the supplement of a little hay and the odd carrot.  They allowed us to pick out their hooves this morning (after a little coaxing) and they love to be groomed and cuddled.  No shin-kicks yet but it's early days!

Donkeys are very intelligent animals and they have become quite popular in France as working pets or just to keep the grass down.  We hope later on to get the kids riding them and perhaps use them for a little light labour in the fields or woods.

We opted for donkeys over a Patou (Pyreneen mountain dog) because to have a Patou as a sheep dog, it needs to be semi wild, never stroked or cuddled and live in with the sheep therefore we were concerned that wasn't compatible with two inquisitive children.

Setting out and gathering up

Major accomplishment in the last few days - we have ploughed our first field and we have to say - ploughing rocks.

It is incredibly satisfying to look back down a perfect straight furrow and see the turf of the meadow being turned neatly over.  Gradually the meadow makes way to cultivated land as man and machine go to work on the covering of the soil in the simplest most natural act. 

Our neighbour Didier came over to help set out the first ridge and furrow and to help get the depth right - if you go too deep the tractor wheels spin and too shallow is just pointless as the turf won't be buried.  Didier was itching to have a go so eventually Al had to concede the controls and he did a few runs up and down and then Bee finished it off yesterday.  A group effort you might say.

The tractor has performed impeccably and has totally won us over.  The plough blades were sharpened with an angle grinder prior to starting and now the previously rusty mould-boards have been replaced with bright steel which have received a covering of grease to keep them that way. 

Over the next few months the frost will get into the clod and turfs and kill off much of the grass and weeds and we will then help nature by harrowing the new plot in every way possible - with discs, spring tines and spikes which will gradually break the clods down into a fine seed bed to receive our young plants and seeds in the spring.

Also since the last post we have made steps forward on the fruit tree and soft fruit bush "investments" we had planned.  Most of the fruit trees already planted here are cherries, pears and plums with couple of peach trees and we needed to broaden the choice considerably.  The apples we have are not in great condition so new stock were the first to go in and so far we have planted 4 apple trees (two Granny Smith and two Gala) in the chicken run (apparently they co-habit well as the chickens enjoy eating many of the creepy crawlies that are attracted to apples), goji berries, rhubarb, strawberries and raspberries, one male and one female kiwi fruit (only 5 years to fruition!),  two black currant, one red currant and one white currant bush and a thorn less gooseberry variety.

An apricot tree is about to be planted today alongside the fig tree that Graham (Als Dad) planted in September.  We have plans to add lots more including olives, grapes and cider apples but this will happen when budget and time allows.   

We are also watching our chickens carefully at the moment as the chicks are now old enough to start showing distinguishing cockerel/hen features - when we know how many cocks we have we can start planning our weekly menu........

Less than the minimum wage......

We have just had a great visit from Lisette (Bee's sis), Rich and Charlie. We managed to almost finish the 3rd bedroom before they arrived (just flooring and one wall to wallpaper) and 3 bedrooms and a kitchen appears to be enough living space to survive in: although to be fair the kids spent most of their time in the garden herding cats, chickens and the dog. They all had a ride on the tractor which appears to be the highlight of a stay here - we have realised we will have to incorporate a "test drive" field in our land-allocation plan  - no offence guys!!!

We enjoyed lots of time outside in the very warm autumn we are enjoying and trips to a kids tree climbing centre which was a big hit.

But we have to dedicate this post to Rich who should have realised sooner his "holiday" wouldn't be one for sitting on his derriere doing nothing......Al and the plumber Klaus had been flummoxed by the boiler not working properly but Rich came to the rescue with his multimeter in hand.  He spotted a wiring problem, fixed it and we were able to get our wood-burning system fired up to provide us with heating and hot water when a couple of overcast days had left us with no solar-heated hot water (we were getting a bit whiffy!). He also wired up a new electrical system to the "hole" and the barn so we could do away with the scary treble-adaptor contraption that had been fizzing away and we can now run the sawmill off a new plug without frying the system.

Rich is a highly skilled electrical engineer but even the best can succomb to the odd error - see if you can spot what is wrong in this photo;

Not sure what was more funny - that the chair had become an integral part of the electrical system or that he had needed a chair to reach it  - he is very tall!  So the central heating system and hot water supply are now sorted. Hooray! Of course the outside temperature has now risen again to 20 degrees.......

It is amazing the amount of work you can extract from visitors in return for 5 minutes on a tractor - easy on the accelerator next time please;

We have made the 3rd bedroom habitable last week - we were sweeping rubble out of the door the day our visitors arrived but at least the creepy crawlies are now contained in the attic and we are airtight and watertight (5 panes of glass needed replacing). The walls took 3 coats of lime plaster to cover their imperfections and the ceiling 2 coats but now it looks like a stick of dynamite has gone off in a tin of white paint and the room is much lighter and seems much bigger already. We insecticided the 2 main beams and joists for beasties so hopefully what we have left will survive the capricorns and woodworm for the next decade. Al also boxed-in all the central heating pipework in the bedroom - on 3 out of 4 walls - and has now launched a new and exciting competition for the 1st person to find a straight or perpendicular wall in the house....having said that we are going with it - if we put in a straight wall or skirting it would look positively out of place!  Here is the work in progress;

We have also broadened the gene pool in the chicken run - we acquired a hen and 5 chicks in exchange for some plonk and preserves. The hen is now laying and the 5 chicks have taken up the newly-recognised Olympic sport of mincing around the perimeter of the run winding up the dog. One of the chicks has really hairy feet  - that is just plain weird we reckon.

While we're on the subject of trading we bagged some new flora for the veg patch this week. We raided our neighbour's garden for strawberry shoots for next summer and traded aubergine tapenade for some raspberry canes, goji plants and Jerusalem artichokes. A passing comment the other day made us think twice about buying fruit trees and plants from garden centres - it was a top tip that suggested rooting through garden centre skips at this time of year as they tend to bin what they don't sell. Genius. Top marks for saving money but zero marks for dignity! We haven't plucked up the courage yet to rummage through any skips but watch this space.....

Last weekend we went on a mission to get roof tiles and insulation for the extension onto the main house.  The current tiles are nasty looking mechanical ones which don't really go with the lovely hand made canal tiles on the main house.  We hauled home 297 new under-tiles (best to use modern under tiles with built in hooks and older tiles for the more visible covering part of the canal), all the roof insulation we need and a roll of waterproof membrane. No scrounge would be complete for us without acquiring a few preserving jars and kids toys at the same time! The tiles are neatly stacked outside the chicken coop awaiting the week we find free to replace the roof but we hope to do it during a dry patch this autumn so that we can carry on work inside during those wet and cold winter months ahead.

Finally this week we cut up all the wood that the previous owner had accumulated.  Thankfully the boiler takes 50cm logs which means a lot less cutting sawing and without having to cut a tree down we think we have one winters burning stacked outside the barn.  We plan to fell more trees in the next few weeks to start our ever rolling stockpile of firewood.

Dirty work!

The current project is the 3rd bedroom renovation; affectionately known by the kids as the "cobweb room" Having stripped the wallpaper and installed the electrics, we then poured a lightened concrete scree to get a level floor (there was about 10cms difference between the middle and the edges of the room)  We used a system with blown clay pellets instead of gravel in the mix which made it a bit lighter than normal concrete but it still felt heavy after the 100th bucket was pulled up to the second floor (thankfully we had an improvised pulley) and we poured the mix between metal rails we had set into mortar piles all set level and at the right height;

The end result is very satisfying and it felt like a big step forward - at least the floor is level even if the room isn't square....

We then sorted out the attic as the access was through this room.  There was no hatch into the attic so we had cut a large hole in the ceiling a while back to inspect the loft.  We have treated the roof beams with two coats of insecticide, repaired a few broken tiles in the roof while we were up there and added 240mm of rockwool to keep is toasty this winter.  Finally a new hatch has been installed so we can shut all that away.

We considered untreated raw sheepswool insulation which would be the ultimate eco friendly insulation as it was available locally and glass-wool is not great for the environment but we sacked it off (excuse the pun) as research showed that it is prone to mite infestation;  reducing our energy costs is important to our self sufficient aims so we allowed ourselves the luxury of man made loft insulation instead even though it ITCHES....

In the last few days we have been repairing the lathe and plaster ceiling and rubbing back the beautiful beams in the ceiling.  Not the cleanest of jobs.

We have also uncovered some beautiful beams around the fireplace and started lime plastering the worst of the holes in the walls in advance of a full repair job on the plaster. 

Wish us luck because we want to sleep in there in 2 weeks!  Piece of cake. Onwards.

30 degrees on the 3rd of October

Yikes it has only been a month!  Where has September gone?  Apologies to anyone who has looked for updates but it really has been non-stop.

We have had family visiting for the best part of 3 weeks (all of whom have left their mark in one way or the other and we really want to say THANK YOU).

Firstly, Uncle Richard and Great Aunt Simone who helped in many departments but notably with the electrical installation, building a composter, pruning and bottling yet more plums and pears.  Our store room is looking really full - if you like fruit that is!  We have also made beetroot chutney, sun dried tomatoes, home-made tommy k, fig jam and quince jelly.  Let's hope the shelves don't give way under the weight of all the jars!

Later, they were joined by Ruth and Graham - Als' Mum and Dad - who were their usual selves wanting to help in any conceivable way.  Graham's lifetime experience in the farming business was tapped into and we now have a proper plan of which field we will bring into cultivation and he was also busy with his brother planting, pruning, identifying plants and all those little jobs we would never get around to! Apologies for his occasional afternoon siesta being rudely cut short by a running hug from Scarlett after coming home from school......

Ruth got her hands dirty as usual with plastering the electrical conduits and she even created a new trapdoor from the threshing room to the pigsty by going through a rotten floor board - sorry Mum!  She also showed us the ropes when it comes to making quince jelly - yum yum.  Only Ruth would get a 30 inch wide preserving pan along with the usual load of Lincolnshire sausages, pork pies and haslet in her Easyjet luggage and still leave capacity for 200 fags and a bottle of Gordons.....

We have made major steps forward in so many departments it is hard to list them all, but basically the plumbing system is complete and we are now using solely solar heated water (we actually have too much power with the beautiful Indian summer!) and Al has built the chimney stack for the wood burning boiler but it is as yet too warm to test (although Klaus our German plumber has given it the seal of approval).  Thanks to Klaus for testing the radiators using the solar panels when it was 33 degrees outside!

The electrical system is finished and we can work even longer hours in the unfinished rooms as they now have lights! Fred our local spark has finished the system off after we did all the chasing out of the electrical conduits.  We even have a large projector lamp illuminating the mill workings below the mill room and the future dining room so that if one day we can fulfill our dream of glazing the floor in the milling room, we will be able to see the workings below our feet!

John and Kate the carpentry team have been back to fit us some windows and patio doors (a job which Al hates doing) and to fit a very complicated solid oak worktop in the kitchen - they did a great job.  The mill and threshing room are now sealed from the elements and secure for the first time and both rooms feel like the are on the road to being our main living spaces.  The work top looks fab now we have given it a coat of dark oak stain and 3 coats of bullet proof varnish. Time to test beetroot pickling on it....

The main priorities in terms of DIY are to finish insecticide-spraying and insulating the loft and to get the 3rd bedroom habitable as it will be our own bedroom/storeroom as we need to empty the barn of our belongings as there are definite signs of mice looking for their winter quarters!  Today we have poured a lightened concrete scree in the 3rd bedroom and we are having a late one tonight in an attempt to get it finished and finally have a decent level floor to work from.  Here is what it looked like a few weeks ago; tempting though it was to keep the ivy motif wallpaper it had to go...

Bee has been mega busy in the vegetable patch with masses of beetroot, French beans, turnips, lettuces etc being brought in every day.  The season is so long here that we have just put in another 15 lettuce plants to keep the supply up.  Only some of the brassicas are a bit slow coming on because they suffered with  flea beetle infestation that has proven hard to eradicate, but we have stuck to organic methods despite the temptation to nuke them!  Scarlett has been hard at work hand-removing slugs and snails but she has stopped feeding them to the chickens as snails are her friends.

In terms of livestock, the kids are in fine form and both back at school and starting to make good friends and enjoying it.  It was a little tough at first as they are now in different buildings within the same school but still see each other in break times.  Fresh deliveries of sand in the trailer have become their after-school sandpit haven and toys in their bedroom are no competition to hammering nails into any old bit of wood they can find. They are still loving life on a small holding and a ride on the tractor or an egg hunt keeps them occupied when the combine harvesters in neighbouring fields are on a break! 

We still have the two adult chickens and the two healthy chicks from the brood of 3 are doing well.   They are kind of half grown to adult size and are very independent except they still like sleeping under Mum's wing at night.  The cockerel is a proper lad - he likes to spend the days with the hens; entertaining them in his own special way and then he likes to fly out of the coop at dusk to get a proper nights roosting in and recharge his batteries.  Talk about not taking the rough with the smooth.  Did you know chicken eat mice?  We didn't until today when the red hen was discovered with the back half of a mouse hanging out of her beak which she promptly swallowed.  We are looking for some more layers to add to our brood as we feel we need to widen the gene pool in the near future and we would like to start eating our own chicken at some point..

We are hoping to acquire 4 organic ewes and their lambs in the next few weeks - they are of the Castillion breed from the Pyrenees and we would slaughter two lambs this winter and maintain an ongoing flock of 6 breeding adults.  The problem of getting them tupped (pregnant) is sorted as the friendly local shepherd Francois is happy to lend us a ram for a month each year.  We met Francois through his parents Jean and Marie Claire with whom, Simone and Richard were lodged during their visit.  The deal was done over and exchange of eggs, organic lentils and fresh figs!  We need to work on some electric fencing to move them around one of our fields which has the greenest and most inviting grass a ewe could ever hope for; the life or Riley awaits them - up to the point when they end up in our oven.  We promise not to name them "Mint Sauce" or similar.

We have also been doing the rounds of countless boot sales and "vide greniers" which have turned up some bargains.  We have purchased loads of Kilner jars for preserving our produce, 2 different loads of parquet flooring for bargain prices except we had to lift it, transport it, clean and treat it for woodworm.  What we do in the name of originality!

All in all it has been a wonderful, if tiring month but it just gets better and better at the Moulin de Faget!

Other stuff

What else have we been up to you may wonder - well lots of varied jobs actually and not all the stuff we expected to be doing;

Fruit; we have had a bumper fruit crop of peaches, plums, pears, tomatoes and apples that we have spent many a hot evening processing them for the kilner jars.  We are constantly on the look out for second hand jars (they are very pricey new) and the we have been to more "brocante/vide grenier" (car boots) than you can shake a stick at.  We have haggled and negotiated and now our store room is rapidly filling up.  The tomatoes have become pizza/pasta sauce made with garlic and fresh basil (we aren't into tinned tomatoes) and the fruit has been bottled with cider and cinnamon or simply poached for the best stuff like the peaches off our own trees.  We intend to prune well this autumn (with Al's Dad's guidance) and start a proper care programme for the trees so we expect less fruit but of a higher quality next year.  We will also be planting strawberries and other soft fruits for next summer.

Kitchen DIY;  the €150 kitchen is nearly there but we await delivery of oak worktops and the splash back tiles need to be fitted but otherwise we are done.  It has been a slog with two coats of paint and a coat of mat varnish to protect the drawers and cupboards but we are happy.

Reclaimed Terra Cotta floor; We have sourced some very cheap reclaim terra cotta tiles that have just been dug up from a farm  house kitchen a few miles away.  They now need scrubbing and laying over the top of the ghastly kitchen, hallway and bathroom tiles on the ground floor.  We'll need to treat them with several coats of warmed linseed oil with turps in it to protect them but the should look very pretty and more in keeping with the style of our mill.  Only around 1000 to do!

Solar system; Klaus the plumber has nearly finished the heating system and we have Houston control centre in our store room.  The solar system is also in place and we hired a digger for another day for filling in the trenches and moving earth around.  Al also pumped out (yuk) and removed the grease trap sited just in front of the septic tank and now feels he is a qualified sewage engineer as our system now meets the legal requirements for septic tanks (we had to do this within one year of buying the place).

While the digger was on site, we also dug a shallow trench where the new chicken run is going (around 75metres long and backing on to the chicken shed) in order to bury the chicken wire into the ground around 30cms (to stop the foxes digging their way in; like The Great Escape in reverse).  It is a work in progress but the wire and posts are in and another layer of wire needs to go on the top half of the poles and an pair of electric fence wires (again anti fox) installing all the way round.  We are going for a low fence and clipping the chickens wings as this area will also become our future apple orchard (planting expected in November)  and we don't want it to look like a prison.  The pressure is on though as the chicks are getting ready to see the outside world.

Ultimate boys toy

Despite having the hay cut 6 weeks ago and relatively dry weather, the grass is going pretty mad so we have just had to buy a tractor and loads of dangerous looking implements to run with it; Al is officially very happy!

The tractor is a 1963 Massey Ferguson 65 which is the quintessential little red tractor from story books, cartoons and kids films.   We have also purchased a broyeur (topper for cutting grass), a small (2 soc) plough and acquired for free a disc harrow, a spike harrow (found covered in briars in our field), a log carrying frame and a fertiliser spreader (left behind by previous owner).  Our neighbours Didier and Aline are also happy to lend us some other implements for the use of some of ours.

As our knowledge of tractors is quite limited - mostly from car repairs and a bit of common sense - we purchased a tractor based on recommendations from friends and neighbours and the 65 has a Perkins engine which means it is an easy starter and solid - the last thing you need is a tractor that is difficult to start.  Its reputation seems to be true and since we got it home and we have had no serious trouble so far.  Al is currently waiting for some araldite to set on the glass fuel filler as he found a fuel leak and traced it to that.  We are also looking for a second hand starter motor as it is a bit sticky and needs several attempts to kick the old girl to life.

As you can imagine the kids are pretty impressed with it and their ultimate treat is a ride on it.  Ben has even been promoted to steering while sitting on daddy's knees.

We tried using the first implement today - the grass cutter and all has gone well.  It isn't that easy to do detail but at 150cms wide, it is a whole lot quicker than our old push along petrol mover (by about 100cms).  We are yet to try the plough but that is another skill all together so we may take some guidance from Jacques the friendly farmer (who cut our hay) and make sure we don't break anything or dig up the telephone line etc. 

The topper:

 The Plough:

 The Disc Harrow (Cover Crop):

 The (slightly battered) Fertiliser Spreader and Frame: