Another day on the roof

Doug and I spent the day concreting the top of the walls around the wooden beams. We used lime concrete so that the wood can 'breathe' - we weren't quite sure whether we could use just normal concrete or not. Everything advises using lime concrete for old stone walls otherwise wood within them (ends of beams etc) will get damp and rot. We thought better safe than sorry. We did a 3 to 1 mix of melange (gravel and sand mixed by the quarry) and lime by volume (writing it down here so I remember for next time!)

I hate concreting and there is so much more to go before we are finished - pretty much the whole floor of the house, the garage and the area under this roof!

The roofer got all the 'paper' on to the main part of the roof (there is a small sloping area on the far side of te chinmney too) which means it is all waterproof again. Sambuca (the cat) will be pleased!

Look at the roof!

Ok, so its not *quite* finished yet, but it is progressing well and looks like a roof already!

Slight delay on Friday as we went skiing with the roofer - much more fun! Lots of nice new snow, maybe it was better the day before, but not too shabby - first time we had been skiing for quite a few weeks. It is not long until the season ends, time flies when you are... insulating... or something...

Piggies are still here

After the not so great experience of letting the piggies out for the first time we have been nervous about letting them out again. They have been locked in their pig house and we have been spending plenty of time with them to get them used to us. We decided this morning that they were ready to venture forth again.

Although we don't give meat animals names, they have to get kind of descriptive tags to make it easier to know who we are talking about, this pair had to be Pinky and Perky. They are both girls. Perky has a sore rear leg, we are not sure what happened, it was fine when she was doing a runner but the next morning it was not right. We were happy when we let them out that it seemed better, maybe the less earth was less slidey and easier for her.

We intended to let just Pinky out, but then we decided they felt more secure together so we let them both venture forth. The first time we let them wander around for half an hour while we watched them and then put them away for a nap - lured back in to the house with food.

In the afternoon we let them out again and left them for a couple of hours on their own before putting them to bed for the night. 

We didn't feel they were quite ready for freedom yet as they are a bit jumpy. They touched the fence a couple of times and jumped back - which is a good thing, better than ploughing through! We were worried though that if we left them alone too long something would scare them in to running through the fence. Perhaps tomorrow they will be more relaxed and ready for full time freedom. I think they enjoyed themselves though, they ate some grass, they ate some chestnuts, they dug some holes, life is good!

Bunny babies

I haven't managed to get an accurate count, but I think there are seven or eight. They are growing some ginger fur (they were pink with no fur when born) but their eyes won't open for perhaps another week. 

I found one out of the nest this morning, I think they must have just been fed as it had a huge fat belly which I could see the white of the milk through. Apparently they can get dragged out if they are still feeding when the mother leaves. It was fine though and I put it back in to the nest with its sibblings. 

They have uncovered themselves at the moment in the warmth of the sun, hopefully they will be able to get the fur back over them when it gets colder this evening - we will check anyway. If you touch the nest they all reach their heads up and squeek madly. They are searching for a nipple, the mother rabbits feed the babies by standing over them and the babies reach up out of the nest - apparently - I haven't seen it as they only get nursed once or twice a day for a few minutes.

Pigs are here (ish)

We bought two piglets from Las Laous (http://www.laslaous.fr/) 

A pink one and a black one. 

We went to get them today in the pouring rain, sleet, then snow. Getting there and back went smoothly. We took Poppy for a nice walk on the way had a chat with the owners then drove home. 

We have revarnished and added some zinc to the top of the pig house and positioned it in the woods with two electric fences round it. One electric wire and the other sheep mesh.

We put the pigs in their new home, on letting the first one out the cage they had travelled in, it busted through the first electric fence, busted through the second electric fence and trotted off up the path with me desperately trying to keep it in sight. It bust through the fence round the cows and sheep and set off down the field then bust out the other side of that fence and kept going. I headed it off from going in to the woods a couple of times but couldn't get anywhere near it. Until it leapt on to a bramble thicket and started burrowing in, that gave me just enough time to catch it up, dive in after it and catch it by the back legs. Pulling it out was tricky as it struggled and screamed, but I was very determined and managed to hang on until Doug came and helped. Then we had a long LONG slog with a screaming struggling piglet back up to the enclosure.

They are now in the dog cage, in the pig house within two electric fences - with food and water. Hopefully that will contain them for the night and we can consider what best to do in the morning.

By the time we finished this was the view. You have to imagine sleet driving sideways in to you while you look at it.

Will they be there in the morning? Only time will tell...

Poppy is useful!

We often complain to Poppy that she is the only animal on the farm who is not useful. After two years she was determined to show us to be wrong.

Two quail have escaped recently. One we kept seeing for a while then stopped. The other we had not seen since it winged off in to the distance a few days ago. Yesterday Poppy found this second one in the bit of the house that is being reroofed. It flew off, with Poppy in hot pursuit, and landed in a large bramble patch a couple of hundred meters down the hill. Poppy won't normally go in to brambles - she is a princess you know - but this time she dived in and came out with the quail in her mouth. She came running straight to us without even being called and placed the still alive quail in to Doug's hand. We have put it back in the cage with the others and she seems fine, just a couple of feathers ruffled.

Poppy got a lot of treats!

Ginger has had her babies

Ginger had her babies overnight. I only knew there is something in there because the hay and fur twitched a little from time to time.

I haven't dug them out the nest to have a look on the basis that either they are ok or they are not, and it wouldn't help them to be exposed to the cold air either way. I stuck a finger in and it felt pretty warm, the nest she has made looks good with a lot of fur in it, so fingers crossed and hope for the best. 

It was impressively stormy, windy and wet last night, so a good time to have chosen to be born! 

You can kind of see the nest in the back right of the box.

We voted

We voted in the French local elections, it was a bit tricky as we didn't (and still don't) really understand what is going on. You don't vote for individuals, but rather for a whole list of people. As far as we could tell, in Pouzac the two lists were not associated with political parties. We had no idea either whether the 'lists' views were left or right or whatever, their pamphlets were nearly identical and said they were going to look after the school, make the town safer and encourage village life or things to that effect.

Sadly we can only vote in local elections and not presidential elections. It doesn't seem quite fair as these decisions affect us too. We go on being allowed to vote in the UK for 15 years (in the borough we were last resident in, so probably Southwark or possibly Camden) but after that not anywhere. French expats in the UK can vote in France forever.

There are around 800 voters in Pouzac so we felt our vote could actually make a bit of a difference - there are something like 150,000 in Camden.

Snow - and Ginger is building a nest

Ginger is the rabbit that we think/hope is finally pregnant. We have had her almost a year and she has been mated several times, but has failed to get pregnant each time. She has just started building a nest, initially not in the nest box, but I moved the nest box to where she was building the nest and she has added to it in there. She is spending more time running around with stuff in her mouth than she is actually building, but first time mothers often don't get it quite right apparantly.

Unfortunately the lovely warm spring weather has given way to winter again and we have snow (not much, but still...), hardly ideal conditions for bald little rabbit babies whose mothers don't lie with them, but just visit to feed them once a day.

However we are pleased she seems to be finally pregnant and apparantly most first litters don't make it anyway, but hopefully she will get pregnant again, and the weather will be better next time.

Quail eggs

One of the quail has started laying. The others are too busy pecking each other to death! 

Despite issues with the quail we have just acquired 41 eggs with the thought that we will eat any of them we manage to hatch, at about 8 weeks old so we don't need to keep them long enough to become such a bother. I was reading somewhere that 60% is a good hatch rate, we got about 4% last time, so hopefully we will do better this time!

Poppy has finished with the cone

12 days after being spayed, Poppy has had the stitches taken out and doesn't need to wear the cone any more. Hurrah! We were getting bored of having the cone rammed in to the back of our legs all the time. There is still a big scar on each side of her, but they will disappear with time.

Summer kitchen roof - all gone

The old roof of the summer kitchen is now gone

The walls looked a bit shonky when the roof was there, but appears even more crumbly and ruin like with no roof. Hopefully will all come back together when the new roof goes on. The roofer says the tops of the walls are good and solid and it will all be fine - although the chimney isn't very well supported so he will have to be a bit imaginative holding up that end of the ridge pole.
That ugly great pylon should be being replaced shortly too. The replacement will be shorter and in line with where the house and summer kitchen join. 

Weeds weeds weeds

It sometimes feels like we are under siege from the weeds. If we turn our back on an area of the land for more than about 5 minutes it will be engulfed. There are three that feel to be particularly encroaching, brambles, nettles and bracken. All three can be dealt with by regular cuttings, but there is so much area to be covered, it is not possible to do it all by hand. The animals do help, but they cannot do under fence lines, none of them eat bracken (just as well as it is poisonous) and they are not very good at clearing an area already engulfed - although the cows do quite a good job of forcing their way in to things.

Apparently bracken is more likely to be killed by being crushed rather than cut, so we will try that this year in the orchard. We are getting some more pigs who will live in the woods and hopefully crush the bracken there.

The brambles grow so fast it is scary, even over the winter they are green and growing very slowly. We have cut and fed some too the cows which they seemed to enjoy. The fields are slowly developing a few more patches of them as the animals fail to keep up with growth. The fences get engulfed and dragged down if you don't keep an eye on it. I recently went round one of the fields with shears and cut them off the whole fence line. Doug can now go round with the strimmer - if you don't cut the brambles of the fence first you can't see where the wire is and it gets cut through. Ideally we need to go round every field twice a year like this. It is something like 1.5km round that one field, not sure how far round all the fields. Pretty tiring! Maybe one day when the house is finished we will manage it all. 

The nettles, animals will eat them if they can stamp them down a bit and they aren't as numerous as the bracken or as destructive as the brambles but they can make accessing certain places in the summer very painful. We tried eating them, but they are a bit weird and hairy so we haven't bothered again. I may try making nettle pasta at some point. I have heard of people cutting and drying them for winter animal feed. We have also made some fertiliser by letting them sit and fooster in a bucket of water.

More pigs

Our pork supplies are still reasonably healthy, but we will be running low by the end of the year, so we have decided it is time to get some more piglets.
We have found some that are 1/2 noir de bigorre, 1/4 large white, 1/4 piétrain. The noir is a local breed which is slow growing and very fatty. The other two are leaner and faster growing. They will be ready to leave their mum in about a month. We plan on them going in the chestnut woods to try to keep down the bracken, brambles and tree saplings which are starting to get out of control up there...

Spring planting

We have planted some things already, but now the weather is nice and it seems like the winter will end, we have got round to planning what we will plant where. We have a spreadsheet and have decided how we will rotate what is in the beds.

Unfortunately we didn't do much of the work in the autumn and winter that we should have to prepare the potager for spring (mainly mulching to stop weeds and composting). We did do bits and pieces such as take up the old wood chips (thanks Aidan!) and putting compost and manure on to some beds and mulching (with black plastic) some others but not nearly as much as we should have!

I have planted two varieties of potato (Smirtima - very early and Charlotte - early), garlic, onion and lettuce. In the autumn we planted broad beans, peas and mangetoute which all escaped the winter deer feast and are doing well. There is a lot more to be planted this month and next - which means a lot of digging. Much easier than last year, but not as easy as if we had done what we should have before. Maybe next year...
The seeds are all organised by month they need to be planted in and we are just about to order a few more things - although we have plenty left from last year. We have stored a few seeds from last year and hope to increase this too.

Spring?

It has felt well and truly like spring here for over a week. We have been having wonderful sunny weather - which makes a nice change after the months of rain and wind that came before.
All the animals are shedding their winter coats, possibly a bit premature, but they must be roasting.
There is blossom on the mirabelle (small red and yellow plums) trees.

Green buds on the elderflowers

The crocus have been and gone and now the daffodils are out

We have three lambs now (we hope for eleven in total). This is the first born and is a girl, we don't know the sex of the other two yet. She is very cute with a little white dot on her head.

On a less happy note, the rising hormones or something seems to have driven the chickens and quail mad. The quail keep pecking each other and have had to be separated in to three cages, one has died. It is hard to pinpoint the culprits, but often it seems to be the males pecking the females. No idea why, the internet seems to suggest quail can be rather pecky, but didn't have specific ideas why. There will need to be a bit of culling I think.

We had three cockerels remaining as we had not got round to killing the two we are not keeping. But then yesterday, I found one dead, with a big hole in the back of it's head. It was still in the enclosure and the fence was one, there were feathers everywhere and a lot had been pulled out of its back. Foxes don't kill like that, there is a faint possibility it was a crow, but most likely it was one of the two other cockerels - neither seem to have a mark on them. Unfortunately it was the one we planned to keep that got killed so we need to chose which one of the remaining two to keep, and kill the other. 

Fortunately I found him not long after he died and was able to pluck and gut him so we didn't lose out there. Just looks slightly more battered than normal.

Despite this upset the chickens are laying well. We are planning on moving them over a little bit out of the water run off from the barn roof and in to the shade and shelter of the ruined sheep fold.

New roof for the outdoor kitchen

The roofer has started work on the new roof on the outdoor kitchen. Doug will be helping him to keep the cost down a little.

First lamb of 2014

Jura has had a lamb, the first of the season. This is her second lamb, she has chosen nice warm weather for it. We don't know yet if it is a boy or a girl, it will probably be a while before she lets us near it - although she is quite friendly normally. Sometimes you can tell from a distance by whether they stand or crouch to pee.

It is teeny tiny, you can just see it feeding here, in the center of the picture with mum facing us. I expect the others in this flock will follow over the next month. The other flock will lamb later this year as Harris, the ram, was out of action for a while after being caught in the electric fence. I expect it will be April before they start.

Tarte au Citron Recipe

You can use any pastry for this, but I use a quite floury short crust with no sugar as I think the lemon curd is sweet enough and the pastry can be rolled quite thin. The meringue on the top is also and it is just as delicious without. You can make one large tarte and service slices or mini ones. You will need to work out how much pastry and lemon meringue you need through trial and error!

Makes approx 10 x 10cm diameter tartes

For the pastry

200g flour 

90 g salted butter (or add a little salt)

Dash of cold water

Lemon Curd - see recipe here

Meringue (optional)

2 egg whites

100g caster sugar

Make the pastry by crumbing the flour and butter and then adding enough water to make it just come together. Don't kneed or work the pastry. Rest the pastry in the fridge for 30 mins (or more)

For this recipe you want quite a runny meringue. Beat the eggs until they are a bit stiff but not yet standing in peaks. Add half the sugar and beat a little more, again you don't want peaks just a creamy white mixture. Add the rest of th sugar and stir in with a spoon.

Divide the pastry in to 10 pieces and roll each one out to slightly larger than one of your tins. It should be very thin, 2mm perhaps and it should not crumble (if they do use slightly more water next time), you should be able to pick the pieces up and place them in the tin. Press the pastry well in to the tin and trim the excess.

Fill half full with lemon curd (a bit fuller if you aren't using meringue, the curd expands as it heats) and carefully spead a little meringue on top, it should be a thing layer just covering all the surface.

Cook at 160C until e top of the meringue is brown - of if not using the meringue until the curd is slightly set but still wobby - 20 to 30 mins.

If not using meringue top with a sprinkle of caster or icing sugar.

Cheese Soufflé Recipe

Serves 4 (or 2 really greedy people!)

50g butter

50g flour

300ml milk

Salt

3 tsp mustard

100g cheese (cheddar or something strong)

4 eggs, separated

15cm soufflé dish
Butter and grated Parmesan cheese to coat the dish.

Make a white sauce by heating the butter in a pan and stirring in the flour, then add the milk and continue to heat while stirring until the sauce thickens.
Leave to cool for a few moments.
Coat the inside of the dish with butter and then add some grated parmesan cheese. Tip it around so the cheese gets stuck in the butter all over the dish.
Beat the egg whites until they are stiff and stand in peaks.
Stir the salt, mustard and cheese in to the white sauce.
Stir some of the egg white mixture in to the white sauce, then pour the white sauce in to the egg whites and carefully mix - you don't want to knock out the air.
Pour the mixture in to the dish and cook at 180°C for approx 30 mins until brown on top. It should still be a bit wobbly.

Bread and Butter Pudding Recipe

Serves 3 or 4

Enough bread to make two layers in your tin - if you are using thin sliced bread then enough for 3 layers

2 eggs

200ml cream

50ml milk

A handful of sultanas

A few drops of vanilla (optional)

Pinch of salt

Brown sugar to top

Mix the egg and cream together and stir in the salt.

Butter a 20cm square ceramic dish (or metal will do) 

Butter the slices of bread generously. Cut each in to quarters.

Create a layer of bread in your dish. Sprinkle sultanas over. Cover with another layer of bread (repeat if you are doing 3 layers).

Pour over the egg/cream (custard) mixture and squish all over the top with a fork to soak the bread.

Pour over the milk and squish a bit more, then sprinkle over the sugar.

Cook at 160C for about 20 mins or until hot through and the custard mix has thickened a bit. Don't overcook as you will curdle the custard.

Put under the grill for a few moments so the sugar goes crispy.

It got scoffed really fast!

Fruit Loaf Recipe

400g flour

2 tsp quick yeast

250ml water (more or less)

1 egg

1 tsp salt
200g sultanas
50g mixed peel
2 tsp mixed spice

Mix everything but the water in a bowl. Add enough water to create a soft dough. Kneed for 10 mins by hand (or less with a mixer).
Leave in the bowl to double in size (a few hours) then reshape and put in to a tin and allow to rise until doubled in size again.
Cook in a hot oven for 30 mins

Home Made Pasta (easy version)

My previous pasta recipe uses just the egg yolks. It is easier to use the whole eggs. I believe the pasta will be stronger with just yolks and you would be better using just the yolks if you are using less than the best eggs

Serves 2

2 eggs

Approx 350g pasta flour

Put the eggs in a bowl and add 300g of the flour and mix until the dough comes together (speed 2 on a kitchenaid with the flat beater!). It is probably quite wet - unless the eggs were tiny. Add more flour slowly kneeding or mixing as you do until you get a reasonably firm dough that is not overly sticky. It is hard to describe, but you don't want it to crumble as you roll it (too dry) or stick to itself and everything else (too wet). It is a good idea to do a few times by hand so you know what it should feel and look like.

When you have the correct consistancy you can change to a dough hook of you are using a mixer or kneed for 10 mins by hand.

When you finish the dough should spring back if you poke it.

Roll out with a rolling pin (hard work!) or with a pasta machine if you are lucky enough to have one.

But in to strips of whatever thickness you fancy...

Lemon Drizzle Cake Recipe

For the cake

225g self raising flour (or plain flour + 2 tsp baking powder)

150g butter

200g sugar

4 eggs

50ml milk

Zest of 2 lemons

Salt

For the drizzle

Juice of 2 lemons

80g caster sugar

Cream butter and sugar together until pale and creamy

Add 2 eggs and beat a little bit more

Slowly add the flour, salt and the remaining eggs and milk stirring gently as you do.

Pour the mixture in to a buttered 1lb loaf tin and cook at 160C for about 40 mins until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave the cake in the tin and stab all over with a skewer. Mix together the lemon juice and caster sugar and spoon over the still warm cake. It should flow in to the little holes and as the cake cools make a sugary crust. 

Carrot Cake Recipe

50g walnuts

250g carrots

250g plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

175g butter

175g brown sugar (cane sugar perhaps)

3 eggs

1 tsp salt (unless using salted butter in which case less)

1 tsp mixed spice (four spice)

1 tsp ginger

Zest of an orange, or some mixed peel chopped finely

8 inch round cake tin

Cream butter and sugar together

Mix the salt and spices with the flour

Add an egg to the butter/sugar mix and stir, add some flour then another egg, then a bit more flour, the remaining agg and then the remaining flour. Stir gently with each addition.

Add the nuts, zest/peel and carrot and stir in gently.

Put in to the cake tin and cook at about 180C for 40 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

Ice with cream cheese icing

For the icing:
50g butter (softened - In winter I melt it in a pan on very low heat, don't let it get hot)
50g icing sugar
150g cream cheese.
Add orange zest if you fancy.

If you didn't melt the butter then stir it until really soft. Mix in the cream cheese. Mix in the icing sugar. Then spread over the top of the cake.

Bunny bunny bunny

We have acquired yet another rabbit!

This one is a boy, we arranged to borrow him because we thought Bunny Boy wasn't doing the job (although it now turns out he is). In the end he has been given to us, so now we have 2 males and 3 females. A bit of an unbalanced herd (warren?) but never mind. 

He is a good chunky boy who should make nice chubby babies who looks very like Mrs Robinson and similar to Bernardette. He seems to be settling in to his new life on the lawn. We have mated him with Bernardette which was very quick but I am sure he enjoyed anyway - not so sure if she did.

I have palpitated Ginger who was mated two weeks ago to Bunny Boy and this time I am sure I can feel kits inside her. We will see for sure sure in a couple of weeks. Hopefully the weather will be warm then and she will be a better mother than Mrs Robinson - although apparently first litters often don't survive. It is too traumatic!

New toy!

Look what Doug gave me for my birthday!!

I was sensibly waiting until the house is done and we have a lovely new kitchen to put it in (by which time we wouldn't have the money of course!) but as we just worked out that very best case we will have the downstairs just about finished in 18 months time I got depressed, so here it is, a lovely new toy to cheer me up!

Doug is not really impressed that it just mixes things and yet is so expensive. But I LOVE it, look how pretty and shiny it is. My bro is giving me a pasta making attachment for it. Very exciting too. Why isn't it here yet I wonder!

A friend's husband was astonished that Doug could get away with getting me a household appliance for my birthday, she had to explain a kitchenaid is different - her birthday is soon and she had visions of getting a hoover or something...

I am thinking about a series of recipes for the kitchenaid - just to make sure I use it you know!

Guest pictures

Rob and Sarah have been staying. Doug went skiing with them off the top of the Pic du Midi (I stayed at home to look after the dog and have fun cooking various things Kim brought round - pigs blood, pigs heads, sheep guts - yum!)

Amazing view

Sarah took some sweet photos of the sheep and cows and the view from the top of our land

Morcilla (spanish black pudding)

This recipe has less cream than most 'authentic' recipes because I find them a bit rich. You can use up to 500ml (300 more than I have put in the recipe).

You can also replace the apples with 400g of raisins and the 200g of breadcrumbs with 150g of rice. Depends what you have in the house - and what you think will taste best!

2l pigs blood

200g breadcrumbs

150g cooked rice

4tsp pepper (black and/or white)

3 tsp nutmeg

6 tsp smoked paprika (or smoked mild chilli) you can use unsmoked but it is not as nice

5 cloves ground up

5 tsp salt

The following spices are optional - perhaps increase others if you don't use

2 tsp chilli powder

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp ginger

250ml sweet sherry

2 apples peeled, cored and cut in to small bits

500g onion (2 large) chopped reasonably finely

1 garlic clove

3 tsp dark sugar

300g back fat or belly bacon cut in to small chunks.

200ml single cream

Fry the onions (ideally in lard) on a low heat until they are cooked and transulcent but not brown. Add the apple and fry for a few minutes more. You don't want the apples to turn to mush so don't overdo it.

While you let the onions and apple cool a bit add all the other ingredients to the blood and mix well.

Add the onions and apples and stir some more.

Fry a little bit of the mixture - which will be very sloppy - and taste to check the seasoning. Overall it will taste better when cooked properly as everything blends together more, but check the salt and spices and adjust if necessary.

Fill sausage skins with the mixture. To do this, cut the skin in to manageable lengths. Perhaps 50cm, then tie off one end with string. Use a funnel (or make a funnel from a plastic bottle - cut the bottom off and use the top bit) to fill the skins with a ladle. You may have to poke your finger or the end of a wooden spoon down from time to time to help lumps move through. Slide the end of the skin off the ladle and tie off with another bit of string. Try to get rid of all the air as you do this and don't pack too tight as they expand slightly while cooking.

Cook in a large pan of hot water - you need to maintain about 80C throughout. They are done when the liquid comes out brown not red if you prick with a needle. You can prick also while they are cooking if there are any air bubbles to let the air out.

Poppy has been spayed

We were wondering about having puppies with her one day, but it couldn't be practical until the house is done (several years) so in the end we decided to have her spayed. She seems to be on heat for quite a long time and it is hard work never letting her off the lead or going anywhere there might be male dogs for all that time. Then there was the phantom pregnancy...

She is in a sorry state now, she is eating but doesn't want to move around, I guess it hurts. It is quite worrying as it takes a lot to stop her bouncing around, hard to know whether it is normal or not. Not panicking for now as she is eating. She has a giant cone on that keeps smacking off things when she does anything - but that didn't stop her running around when she had one before. Hopefully she will perk up after a bit of a rest in front of the fire today. 

We have to take her back in 12 days to have the stitches out, the poor thing has to wear the cone until then.

Yay! A frames are done!!

It is so exciting! The roofer has finished the two new A frames and Doug has lime cemented the walls back together around the four feet (as well as filling some gaps in the end of the roof).
Doug worked with the roofer on some parts of the installation that were a two man job and we got a discount for the work as it saved him having to hire someone to help! Perhaps it is Doug's new career!
The two new ones are the paler coloured ones, we plan on staining them to similar to the old ones - which are oak, the news ones are Douglas Fir.

A bit of a strange view - it is a 360 taken with a setting on the camera so the two ends join together. You can see where Doug has repaired the wall in three places and a fourth that still needs doing. The repair will be covered over with hempcrete when we one day get on to doing that so the finish is a bit 'rustic'

We still need to clean up and finish the surface of the new beams, the plan is to wire brush them with the angle grinder, Doug has done an experimental bit, as you can see it makes the grain stand out nicely - and has a finish similar to the existing beams.