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.