Reroof

At the end of the mill on the eastern end is a two storey extension.  On the ground floor is a piggery which is accessed from the garden while the upper threshing room is just beyond the mill room up a few steps and it was previously used to refine and weigh out the flour.  

Our intention is to convert this room into a lounge, kids playroom and occasional 

spare bedroom.  Firstly the leaky and rotten roof needed changing.

The weather forecast a few weeks back looked good so on the Monday morning, we started removing tiles and the very rotten tongue and groove that was sitting on the joists. Al had a few scary moments and felt more comfortable once he could rope himself to some strong beams.

As the week progressed we checked removed and replaced around 10 of the joists which were rotten.  Thankfully only those that were wet from the leaking tiles were really rotten.  We also cut into a beam and cross braced it in order to be able to fit a wood burning stove in the future snug.  We gave everything two coats of wood preserver.

By Thursday we managed to finish the waterproof membrane and batten along the beams and across the joists on which the new canal tiles will be placed.  We were relieved to get a waterproof layer onto the roof before any wet weather came in and we could get the tiles completed at a more leisurely pace now it was at least watertight. 

We had decided to use the traditional hand made canal tiles of this area  (aparently the tiles are made by shaping the clay over the thigh of a virgin!) to improve the look of the extension but we wanted to futureproof the roof so we used modern hooked under tiles with reclaimed cover tiles to keep the originality.  Furthermore we used steel hooks to keep the cover tiles from moving.

The tiling was started 10 days ago and it was not a speedy job, the tiles themselves needed lifting onto the scaffold one by one and then up onto the roof.   

Starting at one edge of the roof, we installed the tiles row by row going up and down the roof.  The edge tiles needed to be mortared on to hold them securely in place and where the roof arrives at the main house roof at the top, the masonry of the top of the house wall needed to be chopped out and the final tile slipping underneath and mortered in place.  

We finished yesterday morning with a big sigh of relief just before a huge rain storm!

Terra cotta floor: about time......

After renovating the mill room 18 months ago, we did the majority of the flooring with reclaimed terra cotta tiles but had stopped short of finishing the room and had been living with some wooden boards temporarily covering the soil and sand underneath. The hall, cloakroom, bathroom and kitchen were also waiting to be tiled.

Bee took the kids back to see Great Granny for a week so Al stayed back to try to progress with the task.  

The first section was laying the tiles on a bed of damp sand and lime.  The tiles are soaked for 24 hours before laying on the mix and then tapped in with a mallet. This is the traditional method used in this area for centuries. 

Then the hallway was done by gluing the tiles with modern high performance tile glue and a space was left for a built in door mat.

The glueing method is a little quicker but still very slow as each tile is irregular and needs to be measured, cleaned and laid in batches by width.  

The bathroom is nearing completion and once the kitchen is finished, we will grout the while lot with a fine sand and lime mortar and then apply several layers of warm linseed oil and terebenthine.  Big job but it already transforms the place.

Coriander and chick peas

Some self-seeded coriander in the polytunnel inconveniently sprung up in the walkway over the winter but has now gone to seed, dried and is ready for picking.

Our coriander supply for curries for the year is now safely harvested!

We tried growing chick peas for the first time this year. After sowing them late due to the wet soil the plants did really well so we are about to pick some to eat as fresh peas and dry the rest to store for the winter.

The plants are attractive but we have read a warning about the leaves giving off malic acid and the pods concealing a small but nasty barb so harvesting them should be interesting - especially since each pod only contains 1-3 peas. We could be here a while.......

Sunflowers

This year our main veg patch was planted with only 3 crops  - sunflowers and maize and fodder beet for the pigs. Since it was underwater three times last year we couldn't risk our veg getting another dunking. The sunflowers are destined for the chickens once the heads have dried.If you look carefully you can see Scarlett hiding before she selected a bouquet for the kitchen table.....

Our new veg patch (the "airstrip" as it's now called) is alongside the main veg patch but on a ridge so we are hoping less prone to flooding.

The beans are on support canes on the left, a swathe of butternuts and pumpkins down the middle (keeping the weeds down as they sprawl across the whole airstrip!), tomatoes, carrots, French beans, chickpeas then potatoes down the right. Looks like a jungle but we know where everything is.....

"I'll just go a weed a row in the airstrip" is now a half-day task as the rows are so long!

The polytunnel is rammed this time of year - tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, chilis, gherkins and cucumbers. 

When it hits 50 degrees it's time to evacuate and leave the horrible spiders that weave webs between the plants in peace!

Natural swimming

Work continues on the swimming lake, Al has been all over collecting plants to transplant into the planting areas ; lily pads, yellow iris, bull rushes and water mint mostly but he is looking for more.   

All these are good for oxygenating and purifying the water to reduce the growth of algae and they were freebies from neighboring wetland and ponds.  

We also built a pontoon near the garden gate so it it easier to jump in and out without slithering around in the muddy banks.  

Despite the temperature not getting above 23 degrees, Al has been swimming regularly when it is really hot but not all the family are yet convinced!

Fingers beware

A month or two ago Al decided he didn't have enough tractor toys so he acquired a circular saw from an old standing engine and stripped the hopper off a tractor mounted fertilizer spreader to mount it onto. 

After adding a transfer box and driveshaft from an old finger mower and lots of fiddling and mucking about, hey presto a tractor driven circular saw.  

It was used properly for the first time today and while it won't win any health and safety awards, it goes through dry acacia wood like a dream.

Hay the end

We finished hay making this afternoon and for once it wasn't under the menace of gathering storm clouds although the 30 degrees made it unpleasantly hot work.  The rain of a few nights ago didn't affect us too badly.  Around 200 bales went into the barn (you can barely crawl under the roof beams the stack is so high) 

and another 100 are waiting on the ground for a buyer who will hopefully take them directly off the field tomorrow.

Apart from the wheel on the mower dropping off in the hay on day one, the machinery worked fine and our new baler started behaving itself; today it only made two missed bales in 100 which is pretty acceptable for a 200€ machine.  The hay is very high quality and the smell coming off the barn is something to behold

Tomorrow is a bank holiday here so the project is to build a pontoon on the near side of the lake in this photo. The temperature is slowly climbing and we'll soon be able to swim (22 degrees and rising)

Hay making continued

Thus far all goes well, the hay is top quality and although there is less quantity than we hoped for in some fields (mostly due to the sheep being put onto it until relatively late) it is fantastic quality. 

These photos were taken yesterday late afternoon after the seemingly inevitable equipment breakdown.  This time it was the wheel that the hay cutter rides-on which had a huge bulge on the side so off Al went to the tractor shop to get a new tyre. once reassembled, the wheel, axle and bearings fell to bits in the cut hay.  After a lot of sacre bleus etc, all the bits were found, put back together with handfuls of grease, hope and prayer and the machine finished the job.

Al has since run the hay bob over it twice; once late yesterday and once this morning and in places it is already dry enough to put into rows for baling.

Last minute update, Al got caught in a rain shower while raking the corners back in tonight.  Bl***dy weather forecasts!

Hay making and ragwort (jacobskreuz)

We checked the weather forecast this evening and we have solid sunshine and 25-30 degree temperatures forecast for the next 6 days so there is no putting it off, we must start the next section of hay making tomorrow.

The grass is up to shoulder height in places;

The previous period went quite well, we cut our sloping field and a couple of fields that a neighbour kindly donated.  In total we made 400 quite light bales (average 15 kgs) which were stored in the top of the barn.  The hay was in perfect condition and smelled just like hay should.

We have recently been looking out for a plant called ragwort which is poisonous to horses causing serious liver problems and can even lead to death.  We have therefore both been walking the fields pulling it out so in order to be able to say we have done everything we can to horse owners that might buy our hay.

Al gathered this bunch in our 2 acre field this evening

Geese

Last year we adopted two geese supposedly a couple called Horace and Dorace; after waiting and waiting alas no eggs appeared.  What we suspected turned out to be true and they were indeed two boys so they were henceforth known as Horace and Boris.  So we purchased two female goslings and had kept them seperate from the boys up to today as they didn't have adult feathers to keep them waterproof. Today they were released for the first time and they seemed to get on fine during their first swimming lessons and they were welcomed by the boys.

Yesterday Al caught his first Ragondin in his humane trap and swiftly dispatched it with an air rifle shot

Wild Chanterelles

Picked these yesterday - this is the third batch.  We have eaten one batch in risottos and omelettes, dried one batch and these will be dried today.  It takes about 2 hours in an oven at 65degrees to dry the sliced washed mushrooms then to rehydrate soak in hot water for 30 mins, yum