Cold and Snow

We have the horses in the barn, the sheep should be ok as they are so well insulated.

The rabbits are all under cover

the chickens have their chicken house and have always been fine before.

But we are fretting about the cows. The Highlands should be ok and have survived other cold wet weather - although this is more sustained than we have had since we got them. They have shelter under trees and out of the wind and were last seen huddling together for warmth. We have given them lots of hay, as having a full tummy of hay being digested is like central heating for them apparently. As there isn't any more room in the barn and they don't really lead well enough to get them in there we have to just hope they are hardy enough. Big worry!

This little piggy went to market...

... or at least hopefully both the little piggies will go to the abattoir on Wednesday morning (at 5am!!). Doug has been training them for many many weeks to get in to the trailer. It has only been in the last few days that it has looked like there is any chance of him getting them loaded - sadly I will be in London. At last they rush in when food comes, and were even seen taking a nap in there earlier today (out of the snow!)

This means that the big car is trapped at the moment as it is needed to stabilise the trailer - and with all the rain then snow the ground is so wet and muddy that we won't get the car up there again if we move it. The pigs have made a big mess of the path up in to the woods as we have had to keep them trapped there for the whole training time. We thought it would be days! It should recover come spring growth hopefully. Getting the car up there in the winter wet has made a mess of the track to the barn too. Fingers crossed that this is the last weekend I will see the pigs!

Two wheel tractor

We ordered a two wheel tractor ages ago, before Christmas, and it has FINALLY arrived. There was some issue with supply of the engine of something.

Our land is two steep for a real tractor, we did ask one of the neighbors if he would be able to make hay on it but he just laughed!

So we have bought what is called a two wheel tractor, it is like a rotvator but you can change the implements in it. We have got with it a flail mower (for generally mowing the fields to try to reduce brambles and weeds), a scythe mower (for cutting hay) and a trailer. Doug managed to get it all unpacked and in to the garage, but has not yet had time to unpack it all and put it together. Given the weather it hasn't seemed a priority!

You can't really see it, its handle bars are folded back on themsleves and somewhere there must be some wheels.

Bit of a detour!

Last night I was in Bordeaux! Reasonably briefly thankfully. 

The flight couldn't land in Toulouse because of high wind so after circling a bit we were diverted to Bordeaux. Where we sat on the runway for about an hour before returning to Toulouse for another go - apparently the wind had changed direction. There was talk of putting us on a bus back to Toulouse, so we were all thankful when we managed to fly.

Here is a photo from my lovely stay there. We didn't actually get off, but they have to put the stairs there when they are refueling apparently.

The drive home was a bit slow in the pouring rain and gusty wind. This morning it is snowing. I hope I don't get snowed in. I would hate to not make it to work (honestly Mr Boss!)

Moving the love bay

The 1st thing Doug and I bought together was a bay tree. Twenty years ago!

When we moved to France we moved it in with Aidan because it couldn't go in to storage with our other stuff. Aidan has inconsiderately moved in to a flat without a garden so we had to find it a new home - while we wait for someone to drive down to visit us in France.

I pressganged someone in to volunteering garden space and Aidan and I moved it last night.

Doug is convinced that our love depends on its survival, but I sincerly hope not. The poor thing has had a bit of a hard life and already come back from the dead once so maybe there is a chance. We have been trying to take a cutting for years buy bay trees seem very hard to take cuttings from. There is one that is still alive after around 3 years, but it has only grown 1 very small leaf in all that time.

Leaving Aidan's house

Nearly in its new home - needs moving in to the back garden though.

Nice (odd) pub near Aidan's new flat for a guiness afterwards

While Aidan had technically moved out of his house, he still had a load of pictures to move so we did them too in the van belonging to the 'car club' he has just joined.

Moving house

When in London I have been staying with Aidan. However he has inconsiderately moved out of his house in East Finchley

and in to a flat in Archway. I am moving in to our flat in Southwark in a couple of weeks. But for now I am staying in an apartment this week and maybe a hotel - or maybe the same apartment - next week. Despite the proximity of the railway it is actually quite quiet and I slept very well! 

Testing the soap

It is now 3 weeks since we made the soap. It has been on a rack drying and curing for that time.

Today we tried some for the first time. I found it to be exactly like soap! It wasn't a very foamy lather, but felt nice and creamy. I only tried it on my arms, just in case, and they seem just like normal after a shower. It is a bit of a worry because the caustic soda that goes in to soap is very... well... caustic... which you wouldn't want to be rubbing on yourself. But the saponification (chemical reaction that makes soap from alkali and fat which apparently an acid) seems to have happened.

The bar seemed nice and hard but not so hard you had to scrub to hard to get any off. 

We plan on making some more. Silicon molds would be easier.

Mrs Jacob died

We don't know why, Doug just found her dead in the morning. She is pretty old (about 9) and has had respiratory problems since before we got her. Shame though as we were planning on eating her at the end of this year (after giving her a chance to have twins again - she only had a single girl this year).

We were never terribly fond of her as she was mean to the other sheep and always led break outs. Hopefully whoever the new leader is will be more mellow. We may consider buying a replacement as some more lambs would be yummy!

Wood work

The door was all made from scratch like the shutters. It will probably stay wood coloured with a white surround, we thought of blue to match the shutters but that may be too much right beside the red tiles. Although very patriotic with the white too I suppose. The kitchen units (which will have a sink in that hole) are obviously not finished yet. The top of the work surface will be tiled in red with a red and white checked splash back. The unit will probably be white. Not sure what colour doors. Pale grey? Like the tiles. Then we could do the big door that colour too... It is so exciting!

Soda Bread Recipe

450g whole wheat flour

50g porridge oats

1tsp salt

2tsp baking powder

1tbsp honey

1tbsp black treacle

320ml milk

Mix together for just long enough to get everything all mixed together. The mixture should be quite sticky. Flour your hands and shape in to a round loaf. Cut a deep cross in to the top.

Bake at 220C for 30 mins then turn down to 170C for a further 30 mins

Netatmo weather station

Doug's Christmas present has FINALLY arrived.

It is a Netatmo weather station with a number of indoor sensors and a rain guage. We haven't set up the rain guage, but have 3 indoors and an outdoor sensor set up. They measure CO2 along with the normal weather station stuff of humidity, pressure and temperature. The master one also measures noise levels. The station can notify you about various conditions which might eventually allow us to link it in to heating control or other clever things.

There is also a weather map where you can see readings from lots of other stations. Only the external conditions not all the ones in the house.

I think the CO2 reading will be interesting. At the moment the house is quite well ventilated through none of the doors or windows fitting very tightly. However in the winter when we would freeze with a window open in the bedroom it can feel very fuggy and headache making. As we get the house better sealed with the hempcrete wall insulation, wood fiber and plasterboard on the inside of the roof and better windows we need to think about how we will ventilate but not lose too much heat. We are thinking we will install either single room heat recovery ventilators, or a single unit that does the whole house with duct work. At the moment we might be favoring the whole house solution because someone suggested a thing called a Canadian Well (may have other names too) where you run the air underground first to pre warm it in winter or cool it in summer. Still tinking about this - the underground pipe can get mouldy which is not great for air quality...

We also recently bought some scales that connect to the wifi and show nice (or depressing) graphs of your weight on a webpage or app.

Tiles and shutters

The tiles are down in the outdoors kitchen! There is still a bit of grouting to be done, but it looks good! It looks better in the daylight, and will look nicer still when evrything is cleaned up a bit. These photos were taken last night and the tiling has been finished today.

Also almost finished are some shutters for the window. They need painting before they can be all finished off and left outside in the rain. Eventually there will be a window inside them but we are going to leave with just shutters for now. Doug made them from some of the bundle of wood and bits you see in the photos from last weekend! Good aren't they? We are thinking of a bright blue (I wanted red but that has not passed approval)

Materials and plans

We spent the WHOLE weekend in the DIY shop (it felt like it anyway!)

Doug had his second drive on the motorway on the way to Pau where Leroy Merlin the giant DIY shop is. He overtook something this time which was exciting!

We bought some tools and wood to make shutters and a door for the storage part of the outdoor kitchen (the bread oven room as we call it).

We have also done a detailed design for the structure that will hold the sink along with what we need to buy - but we have not bought the wood yet. Perhaps they need writing up a bit clearer.

We have also talked about making some radical changes to the plans for the house. 

Again a tiny bit of work needed to make thm comprehensible. The main change is to have moved the pantry and stairs to the opposite end of the house and the bathroom from the front to back. The main problem we were trying to solve was the boot room being cramped in to a corner of the living room in our current thinking. We were also having problems laying out the living room to make the most of the view. The left is downstairs and the right upstairs. A better version coming soon!

I did make it to London

You will be pleased to hear I did eventually get to London on sunday night. four hours late, which meant I only got four hours sleep. Made Monday a lityle bit hard work!

Bad start to travel for the year...

I am going back to work tomorrow. The incoming flight is delayed by about 2hrs 30, so our flight will be delayed by the same - assuming nothing else goes wrong!

The upside is that I have had loads of time to catch up on blog posts...

I will miss Dog and my Doug!

Making Soap

I mentioned a while ago that we rendered lard to make soap. The lye arrived recently so we have given it a go. It is currently drying for 3 weeks before we can try it.

This is the recipe we used

600g lard

80g lye (sodium hydroxide)

228g water

1tblsp lavender oil

We used the cold process method. I won't go in to detail here as there are a lot of sites better qualifed than I to describe how to do it.

Basically though we warmed everything a bit and then mixed it all together and blended it with the stick bender for about 10 mins until it thickened a bit at which point we poured it in to moulds and left to set overnight. After which we popped the set soap out of the moulds and have left to set.

Lye is strongly caustic so lots of the instrutions involve how to handle it safely. Having read them all I expected a small explosion when I added the lye to the water. The water did heat up quite a lot, but nothing dramatic. Disappointment! But relief too!

Rabbit in white wine and mustard sauce

1 rabbit in portion size pieces (probably 5 or 6)

2 medium onions

1 glass white white

2 tsp french mustard (the grainy stuff)

200ml of cream

Flour

Oil for frying (lard is good)

A pan with a lid in which all the rabbit pieces can fit side by side

Mushrooms, carrots, whatever you fancy

Sprinkle salt on the rabbit pieces (you can do this in advance to give it a chance to soak in if you want)

Put pan on a medium heat. 

Put the flour on a plate and coat each piece of rabbit. Add the oil to the pan and then the rabbit pieces.

Turn when first side is brown and continue to cook until both sides browned.

Add the diced onions to the pan and fry for a further couple of minutes.

Add the glass of wine and put the lid on the pan.

Cook for about an hour (more if the rabbit is very old). Top up with water occasionally if it looks like getting dry. The rabbit should be tender and ready to come off the bones (but not quite falling off.

You can add carrot and/or mushrooms sometime during the cooking time if you are using.

Add the mustard and cream and continue to cook with the lid off until the sauce is a thick creamy consistancy.

I killed a rabbit!!

Doug has been the rabbit slaughterer up until now and I have stuck to chickens and quail. But I decided I needed to 'woman' up and do rabbits too - yes they are cute and fluffy, but they are still FOOD! We have a lot just coming up to slaughter size and it would be a long and lonely job for Doug to do them all on his own.

I klonked it with a stick - like chickens it is hard to be sure when it is actually dead ie whether all the struggling is just muscles twitching or the poor thing still struggling. Quail I kill by chopping the head clean off so there is no doubt...

It is dead already in these pictures.

Doug did one at the same time so he could show me what he does. I had also watched planty of you tube videos, so I was READY.

I didn't get pics of the gutting and skining you will be pleased to hear. Maybe next time!

I cooked them in a cream and mustard sauce, see seperate post for the recipe.

Winter Tires

We have put winter tires on the Panda. The Nissan has all terrain tires anyway (and the 4WD helps of course!)

There was a scary number of choices but these had good reviews for all round winter tires that are good driving long distances, in the wet as well as snow and frost. We bought new rims too as it makes it easier to change over.

Sprouts

I just cane across this pic I took on Christmas day of our sprouts, slightly variable in size. The one on the left is fairly normal sprout size. These came off the top of the sprout plants as the ones up the side stayed tiny. I wasn't sure if maybe I should have taken these top ones off sooner or something. Doug isn't keen on sprouts but said these ones were nice (with a load of butter!)