Roof progress

Progress on the roof is slow. Partially because of other things we are doing and partially because the cleaning/grinding is turning out to be a bigger job than we hoped (shocker!). Some of the wood is very eaten away and dusty and it is taking a long time to get it back to sound wood. This seems to be more of a problem in what will be our bedroom (which is a later extension) than in the main part of the house.
Something else that slowed us a bit is that we ordered a scaffold so Doug can reach the higher parts of the rafters and the ridge pole with the angle grinder. It was delivered a few days later than they said and then turned out to be bent. We are waiting for it to be picked up and replaced. In the mean time we have borrowed one (of much higher quality than the one we have bought!) from a kind neighbour.

The scaffold

A dud bit

Closer up

It doesn't really show in a photo, but this bit is all crumbly

The further beam is the really dude one. You can see the
wall is a bit damp. Could be due to chimney having no cap
the roofer is meant to be doing one soon. The closer beam
doesn't do anything and we are not sure why it is there. Possibly
we can replace the function of the dud one with it. Roofer needs
to look at it.

Cold and frosty morning

Look at the frost on their backs! They must be really well
insulated - unlike our house!

The seemingly incessant rain has finally stopped and now it is really really REALLY cold! Last night was forecast to be -7, the thermometer outside read a minimum of -2, but it is very close to the single glazed window. Probably reality was somewhere in between the two. Tonight is meant to be even colder.
No frost damage - yet.

Frosty view

More frosty view

Goodbye lambs

6 lambs have now been sent to the abattoir.
We caught them a couple of days in advance as it is stressful running around the field desperately trying to catch the little bleeders on the day they are meant to be going. The sheep are reasonably easy to catch, but the lambs are much more wary.
A friend of ours has a bearded collie (also called Poppy confusingly), she is getting on a bit and has not been trained as a sheep dog, but we thought she would have the instinct, so her owner brought her along to see if it made it any easier.
She was amazing! Admittedly if we hadn't been in a small area and we had wanted the sheep taken in a particular direction it might have been a different story! She singled out a single lamb and just followed it until it stopped running (which wasn't long at all) and hunkered down, then she kept them pinned in place just by staring at them until we came and grabbed the lamb. Awesome. No action shots unfortunately - it was too high action.

In the field. Poppy and Poppy on the left

Kirsty is planning on 'One woman and her dog' next year

All 6 safely in the barn

We then drove them off to the abattoir. We wanted to have them all butchered (cut in to chops, joints etc) by the abattoir, but the butcher there is fully booked until the Christmas week. They said though that they could send them to a butcher in Lourdes (The coop des Gaves) who could do it then we could collect from there.
Too late we discovered that this means we cannot get the skins back. It seems if we butcher them ourselves they they get tagged as a 'familial' or family killing but if they are going to a butcher they are down as something different and you can only get the skin for familial abattage. No point arguing although it seems highly illogical! In some ways just as well as curing them is a big job and we need to dedicate ourselves to the insulation. We will still get the innards for haggis making.

First Sourdough Loaf

The sourdough starter seemed a bit more active so we made our first loaf. It took 36 hours to do both rises. I knocked it back after 12 - at which point I can't say it had really doubled in size, but it had grown a bit at least. Over the next 24 hours it rose to pretty much double in size.

350g bread flour. I used country flour which is very light brown

100g sourdough starter

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Some warm water

1 lb loaf tin

Put the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl.

Pour in the sourdough starter (amount need not be exact)

Mix lightly and add enough water to make a dough.

Kneed for 10 mins.

Shape in to a sphere and put in a covered bowl to rise.

When it has doubled in size knock back and reshape and put in to the tin to rise again.

Once doubled in size bake in a very hot oven for about 30 mins. You can turn the heat down a little after 20 mins if it is browning too much.

I think it came out pretty well for a first go. It was firmish, but very very tasty with a nice sour taste and somehow a fuller taste than a lot of bread. We scoffed the whole loaf pretty fast!

Snow and the view

You can see we have had a fair amount of snow. It falls on the fields and the animals are unhappy in the morning - not being able to get at the grass. But most of it melts by evening.
The ski area was going to have a special early off piste open day today but unfortunately it was cancelled due to too much snow (!) and the avalanche risk. It sounded good and we are hoping they will either run the bus during the season or at least do another day. The plan was to open the bottom stage of the cable car so you could ski either back to the bottom of it, or you could go right down the valley to Artigue from where there would be a free bus running back up, every hour. But still it is good there is so much snow suddenly. A few weeks ago we were worried they would not be able to open end of November as planned but now it looks good for the 30th.

Potato Scone Recipe

We needed something to go with fried leftover haggis for breakfast. What better than another Scottish delicacy, potato scones?

220g mashed potato

60g plain flour

15 g butter

Salt to season

Warm the mashed potato if it is cold

Add the butter and stir until melted

Add the salt to taste (you may not need more if you are using leftovers) then add the flour and mix well. It should be a soft squishy dough that holds together well.

Divide in to two pieces and roll each out to a circle bit less than 1 cm thick around 15 cm in diameter.

Fry at a medium heat until brown on both sides, turn occasionally. Should take about 3 mins a side. Better to have the pan too cool than too hot.

Divide in to quarters and serve with fried egg, fried haggis, fried anything you like really. Scrambled egg is good too.

Slow Roasted Cockerel Recipe

We recently killed two more roosters. One is now in the freezer, the other we cooked after giving it a day to 'rest' which apparently lets the rigor mortise go away.

We also decided to cook this one slower than the first one we did for more tender meat. Particularly the legs were a bit tough.

1 chicken (approx 1.5-2kg)

1 lemon

1 onion

4 cloves of galic

A glass of beer or wine

Deep ovenproof dish that the chicken fits in. Ideally with a lid, but foil is fine.

Put the chicken in to the dish and salt all over

Cut the lemon and onion in the quarters and skin the garlic cloves and scatter round the sides

Season with pepper and mixed herbs

Pour the glass of beer or wine around the chicken and put the lid on

Cook for 3 hours in a 150°C oven. Check occasionally and top up the liquid if it is going to boil dry. You want enough left in the bottom at the end to make a nice sauce - but it will taste watery if there is too much.
Remove the lid and cook for a further 30 mins at 200°C

Serve with roast veg and potatoes with the cooking liquid spooned over as gravy. The meat should be tender and falling off the bone. The sauce should have a pleasant lemony tang.

Haggis Recipe

1 sheep’s pluck (liver, heart, lungs - if no lungs then add same weight as liver in minced lamb/mutton. You can use all mince if you don’t have the offal). It will lose about 25% of its weight when you cook it, but you need to weigh it went cooked to accurately calculate the rest of the ingredients.

The rest of the ingredients are given for 1kg of pluck (when cooked) so scale accordingly:

350g of pinhead oats (eg if pluck weighs 500g then 250g)

240g suet (or replace with 85% lard 15% flour)

2 medium onions

2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground pepper

2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp mixed herbs

1 tsp ground nutmeg 

1 tsp paprika

1 tbsp cider vinegar (or lemon juice or other vinegar)

Approx 600ml liquid (ideally the water from cooking the pluck - see below)

Simmer the pluck in about 2 liters of liquid for 2 hours. Top up if looking dry. You want to get to something less than a liter (depending on pluck size) when it is cooked to avoid wasting too much of the flavour. Or you can pressure cook for an hour with less liquid.

Finely chop the onions and fry gently until soft.

Mince or finely chop the pluck. Easier if you wait for it to cool. It needs to be small bits, but doesn't matter too much as it all kind of turns to mush with the liquid later.

Mix the minced pluck with everthing else in a large bowl.

Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

The mixture should be definately wettish, but not liquid. The grains will absorb water as it cooks.

Traditionally haggis is cooked in a sheeps stomach. However we didn't get this back from the abattoir, plus it is difficult to just how much to fill them to avoid bursting.

If using trays or a bowl then cover with tin foil and steam in a pan or in a cook in a bain marie in the oven for about 3 hours or pressure cook for 1 hour. If using the stomach you simmer for about two hours. I would think you might want a slightly wetter mixture if using a steaming method as I would imagine some liquid would get through the stomach.

You can now freeze or refrigerate. Heat through thoroughly before eating by steaming or cooking in the oven on a low heat. Perhaps an hour.

Traditionally served with tatties and neeps - potato and turnip - both mashed. We didn't have any turnip so we had it with marrow instead. Pretty tasty if you roast for a while in the open to dry it out then mash with butter, salt and pepper.

The pluck boiled and cooled

Chopped roughly

Minced

Finely chopped onions

Damp mixture

Ready for cooking

Steaming on the stove

On the plate

Eggs in Purgatory Recipe

For 2 people

1 onion

4 cloves garlic

1 mild chili or pepper

1 tin tomatoes

2 eggs

Some chorizo - however much you fancy

Chop the onion and chili/pepper and grate the garlic in to a pan with some oil and fry gently until the onion is soft but not brown. Chop and add the tomatoes and cook for 30 mins on a low heat until the mixture is less wet. If you make a hole in the middle it should vaguely hold its shape. Add the chorizo and stir.

Pour the mixture in to two ovenproof bowls the mix should be a couple of cm deep.  

Make a hole in the center of each bowl and crack an egg into it.

Cook in a hot oven for 10-15 mins until the egg yolk is as you want it.

Serve with bread and butter.

Il pleut, il pleut, il pleut

It feels like it has been raining pretty much non stop FOR EVER. With short interludes of sleet and wind for light entertainment. It is amazing, looking at the animals, how happy they are in the horrible weather. I wouldn't be happy living outside all the time even if I had a big wooly jumper on!
Perhaps the chickens could be a bit peeved with the damp, they are living in a swamp and the poor things never really dry out. Although they seem happy enough.
It is getting a bit trying how muddy everything is and how cold the house it and how hard it is to dry laundry moan moan the mud the wet moan the water is coming down the chimney moan the cold moan moan - although I feel I shouldn't complain too much as one of our friends doesn't even have a washing machine at the moment as the batteries on their solar power (they are off grid) have rather given up the ghost, and there isn't much sun going on anyway.

The heating and laundry drying system

Cockerels two and three

We killed our first cockerel a little while ago. Today we 'did' two and three. We thought it would be more efficient to do two at once as we could pluck one each and everything was sterilised ready for the gutting etc of the 2nd one. 

We had a bit of fun managing to catch number three as he must have guessed what we had in store for him. Super fun in the driving sleet.

This time we decided to kill them by hanging them up by their feet over somewhere we didn't mind the blood draining and chopping of their heads with secateurs - or rather big loppers we use for taking branches of trees. We thought it would be quick, it was, but I cannot say I recommend it. They did die pretty quickly when we made the first chop, but unfortunately the loppers (we tried a different pair on each) didn't manage to cut through their necks and there was rather a lot of blood sprayed around as they twitched wildly after death and over us as we were still trying to sever the heads. The rope we tied them up with will never be the same again. At least they died quicker this time.

We are letting the meat rest in the fridge for 36 hours before cooking to see what difference that makes to the meat. Some people on the internet suggest that the meat will be less chewy if you give the rigour mortise time to go away before cooking. We will shrink wrap and freeze the one we don't eat now.

Wildlife camera

We have had thousands and thousands of photos. Most are triggered by raindrops or something moving in the wind, but we have had a few of good/interesting ones.

Poppy pointing

A hunters dog passing through

Light dusting of snow on the ground

All gone a few hours later

Magnificent deer

Marans Egg

We got our first egg from the marans chickens we hatched earlier in the year.
The colour is meant to get darker when they get in to their stride then paler towards the end of the year.
The gasconne chickens (there are 4 of them) have stepped up production from 1 egg a day to 2 recently - although there were none today. I feel bad complaining about the number of eggs we get though - one of our friends had all her chickens massacered by the dreaded fox. V sad :( and a nasty clean up job.

Eggs from - Gasconne chicken, Marans chicken, the supermarket

Sourdough drop scones (pancakes)

Our sourdough hasn't exactly sprung in to life, I started it 8 days ago, it bubbles and is a bit active, but it is meant to double in size when you feed it before you make bread with it.
Each day we get nearly a cup of left over goop created when we take out half and replace it with new flour and water. We can't make anything as challenging and in need of rising as bread so I have been experimenting with different drop scone recipes. I attempted crumpets, but they just didn't come out right. I think I might need to make some with normal yeast to check I can remember how to do it.

No egg
300g sourdough starter (100% - the starter is being fed equal weights of flour and water)
Approx 3 tbl spns plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp sugar

With egg
300g sourdough starter
Approx 8 tbl spns plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp sugar
1 egg

Mix the flour and sugar (and egg if applicable) together in a bowl. The mixture should be runny enough that it would spread out slowly if you put a spoonful of it in the pan but not so runny it would run all over the place.
Leave it a few minutes then stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

Drop on to a hot and buttered frying pan. They should end up about 1cm thick, if they are thicker than that you can add a bit of milk, if they are thinner then add a bit more flour before you make the next ones.
Bubbles should rise to the surface, turn the pancake when the bottom is cooked but the top is still wet.
You can cook them in an egg ring to give a more even shape and perhaps a bit thicker.

Is winter here?

The trees around the house are still quite autumnal looking with a lot of lovely colours. However we had the first snow a couple of days ago and it has been pretty cold. It only just settled in the garden, but just above us at Labassère it settled more convincingly

Doug was busy grinding as I went around checking all the animals seemed to be warm enough. I also let the water out of an extra pipe we have added to the pump with the intention of getting water up to the higher fields. Doug who installed the pipe, gave me detailed instructions on what he wanted doing, but failed to mention the tap was on. I separated two parts of the pipe as instructed and was drenched in a tidal wave. How not to make your wife happy...

It's an alien!

We drove up to La Mongie (the ski area) today to see how the snow up there is going. There is a webcam, but we fancied seeing it in person and having a nice walk too. Poppy had fun in the snow as always.

h

Ginger Cake Recipe

350g plain flour

175g golden syrup - or simlar sugar syrup

100g white or light brown sugar

75g demerara sugar

1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

5 tsp powdered ginger

75g butter

200ml milk

2 eggs

Optional - some chopped fruit such as stem ginger and mixed peel 60g. It will tend to sink to the bottom though but can still be nice!

7 inch round cake tin or 1lb loaf tin lined with paper

Preheat oven to 150C

Melt the butter, syrup and sugar gently in a sauce pan

Put everything else in to a bowl

Add the milk and eggs to the butter/sugar mixture and stir

Add about half the liquid mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir until the mix is smooth.

Add the rest of the liquid bit by bit, mixing as you go to keep the cake smooth.

Pour in to the tin and bake for approx 50 mins then cover with tin foil (if it looks to brown on too sooner, cover sooner) and cook for a further 20 minutes - more or less - until a skewer comes out clean.

Ice with lemon icing. Juice a lemon then add icing sugar until is right consistency maybe 250g. It can be runny or stiff as you prefer. I like it reasonably runny and just put it on top and let it run down the sides. A little zest in the icing is nice too. 

English Muffin Recipe

300g strong white (bread) flour

7g sachet of yeast (or 2 tsp)

6g or a bit less than 2 tsp salt

15g sugar

15g soft butter or marge

1 egg

15g semolina

15g sugar

170ml milk (warmed a little if you want a quick rise, otherwise from fridge is fine)

Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir around a bit.

Add the butter and egg and stir in a little. Add the milk and mix to a dough. It should be like bread doughsoft but not runny, add a little more milk if it is too hard or won't come together.

Kneed the dough for 10 mins until it is smooth and shiny. Shape in to a ball and leave in a covered bowl to rise until it is doubled in size. About an hour in a warm kitchen or longer if cooler.

Sprinkle semolina on to a work surface and tip the risen dough on to it. Roll out until it is big enough to cut out eight 9cm circles (or more or less depending on the size of your cutter). The dough should be about 1 to 1.5 cm thick. Cut out the circles with a round pastry cutter. Reroll the remaining dough and cut two or three more 9cm circles.

Spread a bit more semolina and make sure both sides have of the muffins have some on then leave to rise for about 30 mins standing in the semolina to stop them sticking.

Heat a flat griddle or heavy frying pan or any frying pan really) at a low heat and put as many muffins in the pan as will fit without them touching. They should cook slowly and take about 6-8 mins per side. Turn them occasionally to check how they are doing. The semolina should stop them sticking, so no need for oil. If they are browning too fast then turn the heat down as they will not be cooked through. 

Top and bottom should be a nice mid brown colour and the muffins feel lighter and the sides less squishy when they are cooked. They should rise as they cook and then will squish down a bit when you turn them.

Courgette and Tomato Soup Recipe

I don't really weigh the courgette, but this is a rough idea of proportions. It is a nicer colour if you use yellow courgettes or peel the green ones - red and green mixed together make brown.

2 onions

4 cloves garlic

1.5 kg courgette or marrow. Peeled and seeded if big and old

1 tin tomatoes or 5 (ish depending on size) fresh tomatoes

1 pint chicken stock (or more or less, can be from cubes or 'real')

Any other left over veg eg some potatoes that have been in the veg rack for a fee months...

A bit of tabasco or chilli oil (optional)

Chop then fry the onions and garlic (just bung garlic in whole - you are going to liquidise) until soft - about 15 mins

Add the chopped courgette and any other veg you are using and fry for a further 15 mins

Add the tomatoes and stock and simmer with the lid on until all veg are soft. An hour perhaps.

Liquidise and eat!

I fell off

We had our 2nd riding lesson today, i drew the short straw and was on Daisy - just joking - she is very lovely but much less experienced than Owen. She cantered quite easily but was a bit uncontrollable, then when I aimed her at a jump (only about the third time she has been over one) we were all a bit unbalanced with the kicking to keep her in canter, then she decided to duck out sideways, I tried to keep her on course but lost balance and swung round her neck - at which point I decided it was better to step gracefully from her (kind of...) rather than try to get myself back on board by putting on the reins which I felt was hardly going to encourage her that jumping is fun. We didn't do very well at going sideways in the ground work, but practice makes perfect. Like Owen.

A mad cooking day

Recently our bread maker broke so I have been trying to make friends with our rather basic gas oven - I was using the bread maker for cakes as well as bread - and kneading the pizza dough. If I am in the mood I enjoy kneading, but the bread maker is a lot less effort.

Yesterday I made 2 loaves of bread, 15 english muffins and a ginger cake. As well as courgette soup courgette jam and lemonade.

Sour Dough Starter

We made a sour dough starter when we were in Chamonix. But we didn't get on with it very well as we weren't patient enough to let the bread rise long enough and we didn't really use it often enough. Perhaps the bread shop was too close!
We made that one with old brewing yeast, I am not sure it was ideal for bread anyway. I have just put on a new one. I am following the process here. I also found this site interesting.

Basically add 50g of white bread flour and 50g of warm water to a jar and stir, then every 24 hours for a further 3 days add a further 50g of flour and 50g of warm water and stir. At some point the mixture should start bubbling as it springs in to life.

From then on you either keep the starter in the fridge and feed it maybe once a week or keep it warm if you want to bake more often and feed it every day. To feed it you remove 50% of the mixture (and bake with it or save it in the fridge for baking with later) and add 100g of flour and 100g of water and stir. You can scale up the size of the starter according to your baking needs.

Will update on how our new pet goes, hopefully better than last time.

Work on the roof

Now the velux are in we are still waiting for the roofer to come and fix some leaks (he says soon for that) as well as install two new A frames to support the roof when we remove the stairs structure (not until December or January he says).
Despite that we are able to get on with working towards getting the insulation done. The first thing to do is to remove all the old and crumbly bits of wood where past damp or insect damage has make the outside crumbly. We are doing this with a wire brush on the angle grinder (by 'we' I obviously mean Doug - I have been driving around buying masks and overalls and sprayers as well as emptying out the trailer which was full still of the wall from upstairs).

Crumbly surface and loose bark need removing

Capricorn beetle damage. Look at the size of the holes! They
can eat a piece of wood away quite quickly - apparently they
don't eat the hard core of the wood - so quickly anyway.

Once this is finished (in a week or two) we need to spray the beams with an evil concoction called Xylothene and then we will be ready to install the insulation.
We have finally settled on wood fiber insulation and ordered it. It was a hard decision as it is more expensive than the alternatives. However we decided that in view of how hot the upstairs gets with the black slates sucking the heat in, we would splash out for it to keep the bedrooms cool. Wood fiber is meant to have a good 'decrement delay'. This means that even though it has similar insulation qualities according to common measures (eg u value) as fiber glass or rock wool, per thickness, the heat in summer is slower to get from one side to the other. This is related to thermal mass and how stone walls keep the inside of the house cool. It is also meant to cope with getting damp well and continue to insulate - this is bound to happen in windy rain storms.
It will be interesting to see how it works out! Very important we install it well with not a single tiny gap to get the benefit.
We have been reading about how to install the insulation once we get it. The general idea is to attach it to our rafters and then use a metal framework in front of it to attach plaster board to. In the UK I think this is often done with wood but in France they mostly use metal. In the systems we prefer the metal is attached to the rafters with plastic to avoid thermal bridging.
We have also been reading about vapour and air barriers. Riveting stuff. Our current plan is to install the plasterboard carefully with tape and airtight seals everywhere something pierces it (eg wires, beams, walls) and use it as an air barrier. So it will stop warm damp air from the house from getting out in to the insulation and roof space where it can cause beams and wood to rot over time. The roof is also well ventilated with the vents we have had installed so if damp does get in it should dry. The final part then is that we will probably paint with a vapour barrier paint to stop any damp in the internal air soaking through the plasterboard. We may not bother with this though given the ventilation above the insulation.
We spent some time fretting about whether we should have a vapour permeable but air tight-ish layer outside the insulation - like you wear a windproof over a wool jumper, but we decided it was unnecessary as wood fiber is reasonably air tight itself. More like a windstopper fleece perhaps!

We are very excited as it feels like we have really started work now. It may get worse before it gets better... dust EVERYWHERE is fun.

Sheep

Harris seems to be doing well back in the field. He is looking a bit cleaner with some nice rain to wash him off. We haven't seen him 'doing the business' since we first put him in there, but hopefully he is being romantic with his ladies at night or something. Or maybe they are all pregnant already.
The sheep with a rash seem to be getting better without it getting more than a little worse. Not a definite recovery yet, but they are still acting normal so no need for panic at the moment.

Soon some of the sheep will be going to the abattoir. Not this one though.