Whistle while you work!

Since we last posted, a years worth of weather has come and gone and as we write it is 25 degrees outside, bright sunshine but still cold enough overnight for a light frost to whiten the new grass and spring blossom on the peach trees.

February was a cold month - we had 3 inches of snow, temperatures as low as -18 Celsius and it lasted around 3 weeks.  We thought we had left all that behind in Chamonix but thankfully we were toasty warm in our house with the log-fired heating so it was only tough outside.  The mill leat froze to around 6 inches thick but no-one fancied skating except our resident ducks who seemed a little confused by their new ice rink.  The livestock seemed to be fine and we only had to feed them hay while the grass was covered in snow and break the ice on their water a couple of times a day.

 

During this cold snap, we started new renovation projects inside the house.  Firstly we replaced the entire structure for the mill room floor (while it was around -10C outside and almost that inside) as the old floor was solid oak 4 inch thick boards that were a bit rotten on the ends (they are now destined to eventually become a dining table).  We chiseled out slots in the stone walls and set new treated pine timbers onto concrete pads  and fitted cross members.  Because this floor hangs over the flowing mill stream (balancing on 3 inch wide timbers while 3 metres above a flowing stream was not in the job description!), we thoroughly insulated between the beams then placed a vapour barrier and agglomerate boards onto the beams to create a base to tile onto; when we eventually put down our reclaimed terra cotta floor;

Later in February we enjoyed a visit from Grandma and Grandpa (Graham and Ruth) who were a huge help with pruning fruit trees and burning gargantuan piles of branches (debris from firewood cutting) on 4 large bonfires that we kept burning almost all week.  The kids enjoyed a special campfire dinner of baked spuds in the embers with campfire songs led by Grandpa. Ging Gang Goolie etc...........

Granny (Els) came to visit shortly after and benefited from the higher temperatures (planting potatoes), the insatiable desire of the kids for their bedtime "Henrietta" stories and a Mother's Day trip round an agricultural fair looking at bulls the size of elephants and tractor parts that could bore the most geeky of tractor freaks (Al and Ben you know who you are).

March followed on with warm springtime temperatures of up to 20 degrees and we enjoyed bbq's outside with friends.  Strangely warm for early March but good for the heart and soul.  Later in March we had a period of rain when we came back inside to knock out the downstairs bathroom and start rebuilding it in a new format.  This was essential work to allow the conversion of the neighbouring mill room into our lounge.  Destruction felt good although Al hogged the sledge hammer. 

The warmer weather has brought everything back to life fairly rapidly and now at the end of March we have peach, cherry and apricot trees blossoming while the plums, various berries, rhubarb, soft fruits and apples are all budding nicely and of course the weeds are back on the old veg patch "en masse".

Despite itching to carry on with the interior renovation projects we have to concentrate on feeding ourselves for the rest of the year so we have started our spring sowing.  This involved turning our previously ploughed field (that had benefited from the heavy frosts to kill the turf) into something resembling a veg patch.  We started off by disc harrowing around 10 times in total - this chops up the clods, hopefully kills some of the young weeds that are already growing and breaks the ploughed land down to a fine tilth to favour the new seeds.  Disc harrowing comes a close second to ploughing on the tractor entertainment scale.

We then divided the plot into 4 rectangular beds (approx 15m x 45m) for four types of vegetables - potatoes and solinacae (tomatoes and the like), legumes (peas and beans etc), brassicas (cabbages and broccoli etc) and finally roots and onions.  These beds will be rotated every year to reduce the risk of disease build up and to aid fertility of the soil where needed.

We have now sown directly the following; seed potatoes (200 seeds with another 200 to plant in a few weeks), peas, broad beans, turnips, garlic, shallots, carrots, onions, parsnips, spring onions and red onion.  Inside we have tried to gain a head-start by sowing into pots (toilet roll inners to be precise) tomatoes, peppers, cabbages, melons, basil, sage, dill, various lettuce, sprouts and leeks for transplanting outside when they are established. The polytunnel isn't quite complete so all these pots are currently spread across the threshing room floor. Running the gauntlet across the rotten floorboards with a water sprayer is now part of our daily fitness regime!

As if cross-referencing all the gardening books wasn't complicated enough - when, how and where to plant everything etc - Al threw a spanner in the works and bought Bee a guide to planting according to the moon's cycle. We now have a loose system of planting when the locals plant, admiring the moon and using more loo roll than necessary to keep up with the loo roll inner demand for sowing.

We have a new addition to the family - Johnny the Scarecrow. He's like a cross-dressing Worzel/Aunt Sally as the kids couldn't agree on the gender.....

On the subject of pests, our local hunt offered their help to control the population of an animal called a ragondin which is a relative of the beaver. The locals fondly refer to them as wetland hares.  It is not native of this area and they dig large underground galleries which undermine river banks and eat masses of corn from the neighbouring fields.  They are also pretty dangerous to dogs and kids as they'll take fingers off in an instant with those long front teeth.

In a couple of weeks, the trappers caught 20 odd (one as large as 12kgs) and disposed of them for us.  All in exchange for a few jars of homemade pate (pork, not ragondin although we hear there is a restaurant nearby that turns them into pate and flogs it to Parisian delicatessens - urgh).

Talking of pate, while it was still quite cool in early March, we went off to a farm with our neighbours and selected a pig weighing a slight 140kg which we slaughtered on site. 2 beautiful hams are now curing as well as sides of bacon.  Joints and ribs stock the freezer, 24 jars of pate were made and we attempted to recreate Lincolnshire sausages.  The head, trotters and skin were all boiled up and made into another kind of pate - the kind that we generously gave away to neighbours and local hunters.  Hairy pigskin sprouting proud of jellied pate is not quite to our taste!  Although who knows we may be tucking into it next year along with everyone else - or maybe not.

Our "wild" livestock are enjoying the spring weather too - our trout in the lake are feasting on the tadpoles that are clinging to the banks for dear life. The resident ducks are pairing off (playing "touch-touche" according to the kids - tag in English!) although they have a hard life choosing whether to bathe in the lake or canal so flit between the two. The swallows are back to nest in the barn - they welcomed us here this time last year when we came to visit the mill with the kids. Lets hope they don't collide with the cockerel who still flies into the barn to roost at night.