South aspect of mill showing the sluice mechanism
North side of mill with exit canal
Kids running back to the barn from the well
South side of the mill showing arrival canal
North west corner of mill
Kids making friends with local wildlife
Monday, June 6, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
D-Day is fast approaching
We are now a little over a week away from the big move over to our beloved moulin, our move is 90% done already and the plans for the renovation are rapidly taking shape.
In terms of the move, Al and Derek (what a friend!) drove two rental trucks over to the moulin and deposited in the barn most of the furniture, contents of the garage, scaffolding, Vespa and multitude of other stuff representing 13 years of the usual accumulations. There were masses of belongings but amazingly most of it fitted in the vans and in our big trailer. It was a very slow 11 hour drive over to the Gers but it all went smoothly and saved us a fortune in removal company costs. Al and Derek also got in a little fly fishing in a beautiful river called the Neste as a reward for their toil but as usual caught zilch while watching the locals haul out 6/7 handsome brown trout each!
We are now living on a sofa, garden furniture and 3 mattresses on the floor along with a seriously reduced kitchen and the kids toys so we really hope that it will all go in the trailer when we set off next weekend - otherwise the "Scouts de Cluses" will get a doorstep delivery! Its amazing how little you actually need to live quite happily.
The renovation plans are also coming along nicely. We have recently signed off a quote to install a heating system (we thought this might be useful) which includes old-style radiators and a hi-tech wood burning boiler. This needs loading twice a day and will feed the heat into an accumulator tank (a large tank of water) which gives out hot water/heating over the following 12 hours. To avoid loading this beast in the summer we are adding a bank of solar thermal panels that will charge up the accumulator tank in the summer months to provide us with loads of hot water (to wash our visitors....). Hopefully with free solar energy and enough wood to keep us going for years, we are doing our bit for the environment and effectively heating the house with very low emissions. Wood is the best natural converter of solar energy into a source of heat and all the carbon released during burning it efficiently = what was captured while the wood was growing. By having wood on site and avoiding transportation carbon emissions then it is a carbon neutral source of heat (so we heard!)
We are also about to sign off a quote for double glazed windows and some electrical improvements. The electrics had already been re-done but not in the as-yet undeveloped mill rooms (future lounge) and one bedroom so we are having some modifications done to that system at the same time. The plug sockets & switches are all at shoulder height on the ground floor - when we queried this quirk the vendour nonchalently replied " in case of flooding". Makes sense I guess!
Another big job which will be the first major task is the complete renovation of the existing kitchen which will also be our living area until the mill & threshing rooms are renovated. We will install a new kitchen (perhaps recycled) and reclaimed terra cotta floortiles, lime plastering and ceilings. We will also take out the existing fireplace (not original), sandblast the huge oak beams and install an antique wood burning cooker as the centrepiece of the room. All this in a schedule of 3 weeks!
As you can probably gather, we are pretty excited about finally getting started after all the planning!
We must mention the wonderful friends we have here in Chamonix. We are more than a tad melancholy about leaving the lovely people we have had the luck to call our friends here in Chamonix over the last decade or so. We had a leaving BBQ last weekend and various other leaving lunches and booze-ups are happening and it is very tough to say goodbye to so many friends. We have however been spurred on by the encouragement and interest our friends have shown in our new venture - hopefully they will be able to come and see first-hand what its all about and we hope we will get lots of visits in the coming years from the Chamonix crew.
One final point - it snowed at our house on Wednesday! 27 degrees and beautiful sunshine on Sunday for our BBQ, 2 degrees and snowing on Wednesday. This is one of the reasons why self sufficiency in this area is near impossible. Here is a photo from the bedroom - the kids tried to tell us it was snowing v early in the morning but we didn't believe them till they yanked the curtains open!
But amazingly every cloud has a silver lining and in the snow/rain it is usually easier to catch fish. I bagged this beauty at the Gaillands lake between our house and Chamonix. Its bigger that it looks in the photo.....
In terms of the move, Al and Derek (what a friend!) drove two rental trucks over to the moulin and deposited in the barn most of the furniture, contents of the garage, scaffolding, Vespa and multitude of other stuff representing 13 years of the usual accumulations. There were masses of belongings but amazingly most of it fitted in the vans and in our big trailer. It was a very slow 11 hour drive over to the Gers but it all went smoothly and saved us a fortune in removal company costs. Al and Derek also got in a little fly fishing in a beautiful river called the Neste as a reward for their toil but as usual caught zilch while watching the locals haul out 6/7 handsome brown trout each!
We are now living on a sofa, garden furniture and 3 mattresses on the floor along with a seriously reduced kitchen and the kids toys so we really hope that it will all go in the trailer when we set off next weekend - otherwise the "Scouts de Cluses" will get a doorstep delivery! Its amazing how little you actually need to live quite happily.
The renovation plans are also coming along nicely. We have recently signed off a quote to install a heating system (we thought this might be useful) which includes old-style radiators and a hi-tech wood burning boiler. This needs loading twice a day and will feed the heat into an accumulator tank (a large tank of water) which gives out hot water/heating over the following 12 hours. To avoid loading this beast in the summer we are adding a bank of solar thermal panels that will charge up the accumulator tank in the summer months to provide us with loads of hot water (to wash our visitors....). Hopefully with free solar energy and enough wood to keep us going for years, we are doing our bit for the environment and effectively heating the house with very low emissions. Wood is the best natural converter of solar energy into a source of heat and all the carbon released during burning it efficiently = what was captured while the wood was growing. By having wood on site and avoiding transportation carbon emissions then it is a carbon neutral source of heat (so we heard!)
We are also about to sign off a quote for double glazed windows and some electrical improvements. The electrics had already been re-done but not in the as-yet undeveloped mill rooms (future lounge) and one bedroom so we are having some modifications done to that system at the same time. The plug sockets & switches are all at shoulder height on the ground floor - when we queried this quirk the vendour nonchalently replied " in case of flooding". Makes sense I guess!
Another big job which will be the first major task is the complete renovation of the existing kitchen which will also be our living area until the mill & threshing rooms are renovated. We will install a new kitchen (perhaps recycled) and reclaimed terra cotta floortiles, lime plastering and ceilings. We will also take out the existing fireplace (not original), sandblast the huge oak beams and install an antique wood burning cooker as the centrepiece of the room. All this in a schedule of 3 weeks!
As you can probably gather, we are pretty excited about finally getting started after all the planning!
We must mention the wonderful friends we have here in Chamonix. We are more than a tad melancholy about leaving the lovely people we have had the luck to call our friends here in Chamonix over the last decade or so. We had a leaving BBQ last weekend and various other leaving lunches and booze-ups are happening and it is very tough to say goodbye to so many friends. We have however been spurred on by the encouragement and interest our friends have shown in our new venture - hopefully they will be able to come and see first-hand what its all about and we hope we will get lots of visits in the coming years from the Chamonix crew.
One final point - it snowed at our house on Wednesday! 27 degrees and beautiful sunshine on Sunday for our BBQ, 2 degrees and snowing on Wednesday. This is one of the reasons why self sufficiency in this area is near impossible. Here is a photo from the bedroom - the kids tried to tell us it was snowing v early in the morning but we didn't believe them till they yanked the curtains open!
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