Harvest time

Ok so we are bigging it up a little, but in our own little way we are now harvesting the vegetables we planted and the fruit trees on our land. Today Bee fought through the jungle of the veg patch to reveal some untidy tomatoes desperately in need of training up stakes and the onions that were being strangled by some kind of bind weed and ivy.  We are paying for 3 weeks away and loads of rain during our absence. 

The potatoes that we carefully denuded of colorado beetle (aparently more common here whereas their presence in a UK field is the equivalent to pest warfare) were so overgrown we decided the only course of action was to start eating them (the spuds not the beetles).

So for lunch today we had some pretty ugly but blindingly awesome ripe tomatoes and for dinner we had the same toms, newly dug new (ish) potatoes and some rather splendid ripe yellow pear-shaped cherry tomatoes that we planted as a trial. 

We have at least 8 pear trees of which a couple that have been cared for are producing enormous pears in abundance (we will pick them tomorrow) and the rest which been neglected are producing tiny but quite tasty fruit. 

The small pears are being shed at a rate of knots so "booze production" is written all over those.  We just discovered an elderberry today - must research elderberry wine!

Furthermore the plum trees are all bearing ripe fruit with some delicous tiny dark plums that will be eaten fresh, frozen or bottled and loads of yellow plums that we think are called mirabelles (as per the guy who donated us a bottle of mirabelle hooch in a Perrier bottle during one of those business meetings in the Alps).  We could never persuade anyone to drink it with us strangely!.

The few apple trees we have are bearing near ripe fruit but it is destined more for cooking or bottling as the skins are a bit rubbery.  We invested in a copper pan and preserving jars today - our 1st attempt at making jams, poaching fruit and juice-extraction will be happening soon!

Next year after some serious pruning and proper thinning out, the fruit trees should do a lot better. We are looking forward to Al's dad Graham coming out to the mill for the 1st time in the autumn for some much-needed advice on how and what to prune.

After tasting all the fruit today we have had at least 10 of our 5-a-day......

We're here!

We have been trying to post for 3 weeks since we left Chamonix but it has been non stop DIY, organising, meetings and hard labour and there haven't been enough hours in the day.  We moved in Friday night to an unfinished kitchen (almost there!) but the house is basically clean and with everything we need to survive.  Hey it can only get more luxurious from the current state of "posh camping".

We left Chamonix what seems like an age ago, completely laden with the car full, roofrack, roofbox and the trailer overflowing.   A very strange feeling came over us as we said goodbye for the last time to the stunning Chamonix valley but we had so much to look forward to.  There were 10 occupants of our own personal road train - 2 adults, 2 kids, 1 dog, 3 cats (drugged thankfully) and 2 chickens in their tailor made box.  Honestly we looked like a circus convoy and moved about as fast.

12 hours later we arrived, remarkably unscathed (the hens even laid eggs en route!) and checked in to our lovely gite we had rented for the first 3 weeks; a great move as we ended up not gaining access to the mill for a further week.  It has also been ideal to come home after a 14 hour day to a clean property to wash, eat and sleep in.

 It became clear that Monsieur Boubee was in no hurry to leave as the property seemed unchanged with not a packing box in sight and only 4 days from completing.  Cleaning had not entered the guys mind and there was loads of his rubbish everywhere.  To be fair over the last couple of weeks, various piles of wrecked cars, tangled metal, rubble and other detritus from 60 years of life here have been towed, dragged, incinerated or removed from the area so all we needed was a little faith!  We also inherited 3 semi-feral cats who Monsieur Boubee promised to take with him "if he could catch them". Thankfully they have been seen off by our cats. Despite some minor frayed nerves, we are on excellent terms with Boubee and he has even found time to harrow the rest of the veg patch.  He tended our potatoes and tomatoes he let us sow at Easter and has lovingly kept the pests at bay before we arrived. We do however think he is desperate for a major rain storm as he is itching to turn up and show us how to open the sluice gates.

The kids have been fantastic since we arrived in the Gers. It was hard for them starting a new school 3 weeks from the end of term but they have been really excited about all aspects of the move. Their new village school has only 65 pupils and is a 10 min drive away through the sunflower and corn fields. They are now resigned to Mummy and Daddy picking them up plastered in paint, dust, grease, bruises and sweat. They have of course been attracted only to to the rusty tools, broken glass, sticks to bash the apple trees and power tools lying around!

So what state was the mill in when we arrived?
It had water, electricity, a recently-emptied septic tank (phew) and colony of spiders/mice you only see in your nightmares...  Thankfully we haven't found any major disasters or unforeseen work needed other than a potential re-roof of the threshing room area of the house.

So what have we achieved so far?
As we expected, our self-sufficient dream has taken a back-seat as we strive to get the mill habitable and safe for the kids. We had a lot of c**p to clear out of the place. I gave up taking photos for the "Hall of Shame" with the amount of rubbish and filth that needed removing before we could even start the project.

Monsieur Boubee is a self-declared outdoor person and cannot claim a penchant for interior design or even a pride in his workmanship. This explains why he painted, decorated, tiled and grouted blindfolded. The bathrooms are functional (just) so just required a deep-clean. Long-dead rodent removal - unpleasant. Cobwebs - say no more. Bleaching floorboards - essential. We are still alive despite 2 night's sleep here!

The kitchen was our major priority as it is to be our principle living space before we renovate the mill room and threshing room. Our original plan was to retile the floor with rustic terracotta and knock out the old fireplace. After various artisans coming through and making suggestions we decided to live with the modern floor tiles and integrate the fireplace into our new kitchen.  This was the state 4 days ago;

Alistair spent a day sandblasting the old oak beams in the kitchen. 200 years of soot and grease had been hiding beautiful oak beams.

We decided to stay rustic for the kitchen so scoured the internet for a 2nd-hand kitchen to install. Having driven miles and rejected one kitchen, we had a look on the net at a McDonalds near Toulouse and happened upon a likely looking one a few miles away and to cut a very very long story short bagged ourselves a solid oak, "chapeau du gendarme"  kitchen for 150 euros. We always planned to have a painted country kitchen look and the paint will probably cost more than the kitchen.....Al threw himself into some very cunning carpentry and has made a 2nd hand kitchen look bespoke for the mill. Now we just have to finish cleaning & painting it....and wait for the white goods to arrive. Our delivery directions are very detailed and long-winded!

Klaus the plumber has been very busy installing the central heating system. We sourced cast iron style radiators and he has managed to plumb them in with some highly-impressive pipe-bending and drilling. The wood burning boiler came all the way from Poland and the solar panels are coming from Germany, meanwhile we need to start thinking about some wood for the winter.

New windows have arrived for the ground floor but we have had a change of heart (and finances!) so we are going to try and renovate the existing windows wherever possible as they are beautiful.

Those 5 hectares........ah yes we have a bit more land than we can manage at the moment. The gite-owner's cousin handily lives up the road and has 80 breeding heifers. After a brief introduction he and his son agreed to bale all the hay. We reckon he got 35 bales but it was humbling to watch them cut, rake and bale it and haul it away - something we hadn't planted. Everyone was happy and we had a few bales of our own hay for when we extend the menagerie and they owe us a big favour when we need it.

They already helped us by lifting the threshing machine into the barn loft with their tractor  - it had taken 6 of us to manhandle it out of the threshing room.

Animal head-count:
The dog is in heaven but has had a 2nd moult as it's so hot!

The 3 cats are now down to 2. Moke our 11 year-old tabby who survived 3 moves in the Chamonix valley (as well as falling down the loo as a kitten) escaped one night and never came back. We are hopeful he'll turn up somewhere.....the 2 Siamese are loving their new hunting ground.

The resident rooster is "taking care" of our 2 hardy Chamonix chickens. They are loving their new free-range existence but are becoming very cunning at hiding their eggs....

We also have several wild ducks who are very bold and come right up to the house to steal the chickens' grain. They don't appreciate being herded by Cooper.

The resident swallows nesting in the barn haven't been put off by us trekking our belongings in and out all day but have now left.

We ousted frogs from both the stopcock manhole and barn  - they are now canal residents (we think). Scarlett still prefers them as tadpoles.

Snails - we may be forced to start a snail farm as Scarlett keeps rounding them up  - she ragged herself climbing through a thorn bush today trying to extract the biggest snail we have ever seen. Gross.

Colorado beetle (Dorophores) have been munching our potato plants. The kids have the perfect size fingers to pull them off and then they are swiftly dispatched. The potatoes will be victorious!

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