Dirty work!

The current project is the 3rd bedroom renovation; affectionately known by the kids as the "cobweb room" Having stripped the wallpaper and installed the electrics, we then poured a lightened concrete scree to get a level floor (there was about 10cms difference between the middle and the edges of the room)  We used a system with blown clay pellets instead of gravel in the mix which made it a bit lighter than normal concrete but it still felt heavy after the 100th bucket was pulled up to the second floor (thankfully we had an improvised pulley) and we poured the mix between metal rails we had set into mortar piles all set level and at the right height;

The end result is very satisfying and it felt like a big step forward - at least the floor is level even if the room isn't square....

We then sorted out the attic as the access was through this room.  There was no hatch into the attic so we had cut a large hole in the ceiling a while back to inspect the loft.  We have treated the roof beams with two coats of insecticide, repaired a few broken tiles in the roof while we were up there and added 240mm of rockwool to keep is toasty this winter.  Finally a new hatch has been installed so we can shut all that away.

We considered untreated raw sheepswool insulation which would be the ultimate eco friendly insulation as it was available locally and glass-wool is not great for the environment but we sacked it off (excuse the pun) as research showed that it is prone to mite infestation;  reducing our energy costs is important to our self sufficient aims so we allowed ourselves the luxury of man made loft insulation instead even though it ITCHES....

In the last few days we have been repairing the lathe and plaster ceiling and rubbing back the beautiful beams in the ceiling.  Not the cleanest of jobs.

We have also uncovered some beautiful beams around the fireplace and started lime plastering the worst of the holes in the walls in advance of a full repair job on the plaster. 

Wish us luck because we want to sleep in there in 2 weeks!  Piece of cake. Onwards.

30 degrees on the 3rd of October

Yikes it has only been a month!  Where has September gone?  Apologies to anyone who has looked for updates but it really has been non-stop.

We have had family visiting for the best part of 3 weeks (all of whom have left their mark in one way or the other and we really want to say THANK YOU).

Firstly, Uncle Richard and Great Aunt Simone who helped in many departments but notably with the electrical installation, building a composter, pruning and bottling yet more plums and pears.  Our store room is looking really full - if you like fruit that is!  We have also made beetroot chutney, sun dried tomatoes, home-made tommy k, fig jam and quince jelly.  Let's hope the shelves don't give way under the weight of all the jars!

Later, they were joined by Ruth and Graham - Als' Mum and Dad - who were their usual selves wanting to help in any conceivable way.  Graham's lifetime experience in the farming business was tapped into and we now have a proper plan of which field we will bring into cultivation and he was also busy with his brother planting, pruning, identifying plants and all those little jobs we would never get around to! Apologies for his occasional afternoon siesta being rudely cut short by a running hug from Scarlett after coming home from school......

Ruth got her hands dirty as usual with plastering the electrical conduits and she even created a new trapdoor from the threshing room to the pigsty by going through a rotten floor board - sorry Mum!  She also showed us the ropes when it comes to making quince jelly - yum yum.  Only Ruth would get a 30 inch wide preserving pan along with the usual load of Lincolnshire sausages, pork pies and haslet in her Easyjet luggage and still leave capacity for 200 fags and a bottle of Gordons.....

We have made major steps forward in so many departments it is hard to list them all, but basically the plumbing system is complete and we are now using solely solar heated water (we actually have too much power with the beautiful Indian summer!) and Al has built the chimney stack for the wood burning boiler but it is as yet too warm to test (although Klaus our German plumber has given it the seal of approval).  Thanks to Klaus for testing the radiators using the solar panels when it was 33 degrees outside!

The electrical system is finished and we can work even longer hours in the unfinished rooms as they now have lights! Fred our local spark has finished the system off after we did all the chasing out of the electrical conduits.  We even have a large projector lamp illuminating the mill workings below the mill room and the future dining room so that if one day we can fulfill our dream of glazing the floor in the milling room, we will be able to see the workings below our feet!

John and Kate the carpentry team have been back to fit us some windows and patio doors (a job which Al hates doing) and to fit a very complicated solid oak worktop in the kitchen - they did a great job.  The mill and threshing room are now sealed from the elements and secure for the first time and both rooms feel like the are on the road to being our main living spaces.  The work top looks fab now we have given it a coat of dark oak stain and 3 coats of bullet proof varnish. Time to test beetroot pickling on it....

The main priorities in terms of DIY are to finish insecticide-spraying and insulating the loft and to get the 3rd bedroom habitable as it will be our own bedroom/storeroom as we need to empty the barn of our belongings as there are definite signs of mice looking for their winter quarters!  Today we have poured a lightened concrete scree in the 3rd bedroom and we are having a late one tonight in an attempt to get it finished and finally have a decent level floor to work from.  Here is what it looked like a few weeks ago; tempting though it was to keep the ivy motif wallpaper it had to go...

Bee has been mega busy in the vegetable patch with masses of beetroot, French beans, turnips, lettuces etc being brought in every day.  The season is so long here that we have just put in another 15 lettuce plants to keep the supply up.  Only some of the brassicas are a bit slow coming on because they suffered with  flea beetle infestation that has proven hard to eradicate, but we have stuck to organic methods despite the temptation to nuke them!  Scarlett has been hard at work hand-removing slugs and snails but she has stopped feeding them to the chickens as snails are her friends.

In terms of livestock, the kids are in fine form and both back at school and starting to make good friends and enjoying it.  It was a little tough at first as they are now in different buildings within the same school but still see each other in break times.  Fresh deliveries of sand in the trailer have become their after-school sandpit haven and toys in their bedroom are no competition to hammering nails into any old bit of wood they can find. They are still loving life on a small holding and a ride on the tractor or an egg hunt keeps them occupied when the combine harvesters in neighbouring fields are on a break! 

We still have the two adult chickens and the two healthy chicks from the brood of 3 are doing well.   They are kind of half grown to adult size and are very independent except they still like sleeping under Mum's wing at night.  The cockerel is a proper lad - he likes to spend the days with the hens; entertaining them in his own special way and then he likes to fly out of the coop at dusk to get a proper nights roosting in and recharge his batteries.  Talk about not taking the rough with the smooth.  Did you know chicken eat mice?  We didn't until today when the red hen was discovered with the back half of a mouse hanging out of her beak which she promptly swallowed.  We are looking for some more layers to add to our brood as we feel we need to widen the gene pool in the near future and we would like to start eating our own chicken at some point..

We are hoping to acquire 4 organic ewes and their lambs in the next few weeks - they are of the Castillion breed from the Pyrenees and we would slaughter two lambs this winter and maintain an ongoing flock of 6 breeding adults.  The problem of getting them tupped (pregnant) is sorted as the friendly local shepherd Francois is happy to lend us a ram for a month each year.  We met Francois through his parents Jean and Marie Claire with whom, Simone and Richard were lodged during their visit.  The deal was done over and exchange of eggs, organic lentils and fresh figs!  We need to work on some electric fencing to move them around one of our fields which has the greenest and most inviting grass a ewe could ever hope for; the life or Riley awaits them - up to the point when they end up in our oven.  We promise not to name them "Mint Sauce" or similar.

We have also been doing the rounds of countless boot sales and "vide greniers" which have turned up some bargains.  We have purchased loads of Kilner jars for preserving our produce, 2 different loads of parquet flooring for bargain prices except we had to lift it, transport it, clean and treat it for woodworm.  What we do in the name of originality!

All in all it has been a wonderful, if tiring month but it just gets better and better at the Moulin de Faget!

Other stuff

What else have we been up to you may wonder - well lots of varied jobs actually and not all the stuff we expected to be doing;

Fruit; we have had a bumper fruit crop of peaches, plums, pears, tomatoes and apples that we have spent many a hot evening processing them for the kilner jars.  We are constantly on the look out for second hand jars (they are very pricey new) and the we have been to more "brocante/vide grenier" (car boots) than you can shake a stick at.  We have haggled and negotiated and now our store room is rapidly filling up.  The tomatoes have become pizza/pasta sauce made with garlic and fresh basil (we aren't into tinned tomatoes) and the fruit has been bottled with cider and cinnamon or simply poached for the best stuff like the peaches off our own trees.  We intend to prune well this autumn (with Al's Dad's guidance) and start a proper care programme for the trees so we expect less fruit but of a higher quality next year.  We will also be planting strawberries and other soft fruits for next summer.

Kitchen DIY;  the €150 kitchen is nearly there but we await delivery of oak worktops and the splash back tiles need to be fitted but otherwise we are done.  It has been a slog with two coats of paint and a coat of mat varnish to protect the drawers and cupboards but we are happy.

Reclaimed Terra Cotta floor; We have sourced some very cheap reclaim terra cotta tiles that have just been dug up from a farm  house kitchen a few miles away.  They now need scrubbing and laying over the top of the ghastly kitchen, hallway and bathroom tiles on the ground floor.  We'll need to treat them with several coats of warmed linseed oil with turps in it to protect them but the should look very pretty and more in keeping with the style of our mill.  Only around 1000 to do!

Solar system; Klaus the plumber has nearly finished the heating system and we have Houston control centre in our store room.  The solar system is also in place and we hired a digger for another day for filling in the trenches and moving earth around.  Al also pumped out (yuk) and removed the grease trap sited just in front of the septic tank and now feels he is a qualified sewage engineer as our system now meets the legal requirements for septic tanks (we had to do this within one year of buying the place).

While the digger was on site, we also dug a shallow trench where the new chicken run is going (around 75metres long and backing on to the chicken shed) in order to bury the chicken wire into the ground around 30cms (to stop the foxes digging their way in; like The Great Escape in reverse).  It is a work in progress but the wire and posts are in and another layer of wire needs to go on the top half of the poles and an pair of electric fence wires (again anti fox) installing all the way round.  We are going for a low fence and clipping the chickens wings as this area will also become our future apple orchard (planting expected in November)  and we don't want it to look like a prison.  The pressure is on though as the chicks are getting ready to see the outside world.

Ultimate boys toy

Despite having the hay cut 6 weeks ago and relatively dry weather, the grass is going pretty mad so we have just had to buy a tractor and loads of dangerous looking implements to run with it; Al is officially very happy!

The tractor is a 1963 Massey Ferguson 65 which is the quintessential little red tractor from story books, cartoons and kids films.   We have also purchased a broyeur (topper for cutting grass), a small (2 soc) plough and acquired for free a disc harrow, a spike harrow (found covered in briars in our field), a log carrying frame and a fertiliser spreader (left behind by previous owner).  Our neighbours Didier and Aline are also happy to lend us some other implements for the use of some of ours.

As our knowledge of tractors is quite limited - mostly from car repairs and a bit of common sense - we purchased a tractor based on recommendations from friends and neighbours and the 65 has a Perkins engine which means it is an easy starter and solid - the last thing you need is a tractor that is difficult to start.  Its reputation seems to be true and since we got it home and we have had no serious trouble so far.  Al is currently waiting for some araldite to set on the glass fuel filler as he found a fuel leak and traced it to that.  We are also looking for a second hand starter motor as it is a bit sticky and needs several attempts to kick the old girl to life.

As you can imagine the kids are pretty impressed with it and their ultimate treat is a ride on it.  Ben has even been promoted to steering while sitting on daddy's knees.

We tried using the first implement today - the grass cutter and all has gone well.  It isn't that easy to do detail but at 150cms wide, it is a whole lot quicker than our old push along petrol mover (by about 100cms).  We are yet to try the plough but that is another skill all together so we may take some guidance from Jacques the friendly farmer (who cut our hay) and make sure we don't break anything or dig up the telephone line etc. 

The topper:

 The Plough:

 The Disc Harrow (Cover Crop):

 The (slightly battered) Fertiliser Spreader and Frame:

Chicks born

As we previously posted, we brought the two hens from Chamonix and they settled straight in.  The cockerel that had survived Cooper's last visit was a lot happier to see us than we expected - no doubt his reaction was improved by the sight of two unplucked (excuse the pun) hens which trotted out of the transport box.  Before we set off for Wales around 5 weeks ago, the red hen was showing signs of being broody and when we got back she was well and truly settled on around 10 eggs.  Only 4 of them were still warm when we checked so we put the 4 eggs and her in solitory confinement and she made a lovely nest and settled down properly.

Yesterday we were just discussing how long we would give it and wondering if we should place an order for some more stock when Bee spotted Cooper taking a serious interest in the confinement pen and lo and behold the squeek of tiny chicks could be heard.  3 out of the 4 eggs hatched and the kids (especially Scarlett) were overjoyed.

Now we just have to keep them safe from dogs, cats, buzzards and foxes and of course cross fingers they are all female!

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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