Better picture of house plans

I posted a hand drawn version a little while ago, but it was a bit difficult to read.

I did finally make it to Gatwick

At 3am!

Stayed in the Bloc hotel as the Yotel was full.

Bit bigger, but for some reason similar purple lighting... Is it meant to be restful or something?

Most delayed flight yet?

It is going to be over three hours late arriving in to Toulouse to pick us up, and there is a massive storm raging... they currently claim it will be in to London at 2.30 am... euuurgh

Pictures of garage progress

Things went a bit slower than planned because the pump decided to melt on Monday. Fortunately one of the guys working with Doug know someone who does spare parts for pumps and it was fixed that day. 

We also spoke to the electrician on Monday and he thought it would be best if some of the wires went under the floor, and very kindly came and did it immediately on Tuesday morning. There was a slight frenzy to decide what cooker I wanted, as the total power of the oven and hobs needed to be known to know what wire to put in. I had suddenly had the idea we could possibly install the new cooker in the temporary accomodation (as we will be in there some time) to get the benefits of an electric oven instead of th annoying 'frazzle everything from the bottom' gas one we have now.

They are hoping to finish next week.

Flying trip to Scotland

Sorry everyone I didn't see. I was up for work and will probably be back! 

I flew in to Edinburgh and was in Stirling for 2 days. Amazing weather. I must say that my childhood memories (I was born and grew up in Scotland quite near Stirling) were full of sunshine, but not sure reality is always that.

The hotel

Healthy local food (I had smoked haddock for breakfast the other day and a meal in a local restaurant called Gabes - nice scallops)

The castle

View from the castle (with the Wallace monument in the distance)

View from the hotel

Castle from ground level

Chicks are hatching

Three out so far. There are something like 15 eggs, so hoping for more!

Ski rack

It is made from the remains of a day bed thing that was in the house when we bought it. We hoped to save it, but it was just too knackered. Bits of dowel have then been added and stained to match.

'Garage' progress

It was the garage, soon to be heating room and temporary living accomodation (with bedroom upstairs) eventually workshop and laundry room...

With less junk in here and sand on the floor we can really see that water comes in at the back of the house when it rains...

We have ordered some geotextile to help deal with that which I will explain when it arrives. It will involve relocating the septic tank at the back of the house and digging a trench all along the back. We are not doing what is often called a french drain but rather one called a fin drain - which should be less susceptible to getting clogged over time with sand and silt.

What you see above has been dug out down to what we discovered was a clay base. So the clay has been shaped to flow any water to the middle and front and there is a gravel drain from there through the lawn so any water that does get under the house is encouraged to leave.

There is then 5cm of gravel, covered with some mulch/textile (so the sand doesn't mix with the gravel) then sand. On top of that will be waterproof membrane, then insulation, then concrete. The waste water pipes will be in the concrete. We are desperately thinking if there needs to be anything else in the concrete!

There will be a shower (initially for our use - in the future just to wash the dog or other outdoors type things). There will also be plumbing for a sink and washing machine and in the short term a dishwasher. It is a lot to fit in and has taken a lot of thought.

Pipe work for the waste water in to the septic tank has started. The rest that goes under the concrete has also been done and tested but is removed at the moment until the floor is at the right stage for it to go back in for real (with more testing first).

It is quite a challenge to get sufficient drop on the various pipes to make this work. But Lots of work has gone in to it, and it is looking good now.

The insulation which will be under the floor is standing by. The floor will be quite a bit higher when all finished but there should just be room for the grey water heat reclaim pipe (ie device to recover heat from the waste water from the shower and return it to our tank) which is quite long.

Doug is feeling tired and a bit depressed with slow progress, but it looks amazing to me! Has taken so much thought to get all the plumbing there as well as all that digging work and shovelling gravel and sand.

Viili yogurt - yuck

My advice is, never buy viili yogurt. I feel I should give it more of a chance, but frankly it is foul.

It is a Finnish mesophilic (cultures at room temperature) yogurt culture that I thought would be ideal to make fresh yogurt in London (where we don't have a yogurt maker). 

I admit the reviews sounded a bit interesting describing it as 'stringy'. In my view it is pretty much like eating emulsion paint, but with a slightly more off milk flavour. The texture is the same and some of the solvent smell.

The picture can't capture the weirdness of the texture. It is pretty hard to get on a spoon and up to yout mouth kind of like it might be trying to spoon up spagetti - it doesn't stay on the spoon and kind of festoons of the side. That is not right for yogurt! Although now I read more it seems normal for Viili.

I will try it a few more times before abandoning it for the very nice Kefir based yogurt culture we have in France as drinking yoghurt, I just thought this might be thicker and therefore better as an eating yogurt. But no...

Flail mower

Finally we have managed to get the right hydraulic pipes delivered so we can use the flail mower for the mini digger - we have one for the tractor too - you can't have too much flail mower in the fight againt brambles, saplings and general weeds.

Most suspicious, which is good - don't want any animals ground up.

Mini digger in the house

This is what was the garage and will be our central heating room, laundry room and small workshop.

Doug and team have started digging out the floor in the garage so we can insulate then lay concrete and not reduce the head room too much. It is quite low in there so we don't want it any lower. 

Doug also dug up some concrete that used to be against the wall to the left of the photo with the hammer on the mini digger. Unfortunately one of the hydraulic hoses sprung a bit of a leak so there is more to be done in the garage still.

Less useful now it is Spring

I started making an old down jacket of mine that I ruined in to a jacket for the dog quite a few months ago. It didn't fit her very well before I started

I have almost finished it now although it needs a button or velcro or something at the waist. I am not sure she is really impressed as she keeps trying to bite it off. Ungrateful! I am sure she will apreciate when it is cold again.

Air traffic control strike

I am in London on a Thursday evening which is all wrong! I should be at home!

French air traffic control are striking so my flihgt was cancelled. I have a (very expensive) BA flight at the crack of dawn tomorrow instead. 

I hope the proposed strikes over the next 2 weeks do not happen!

Sad to leave

nIt is normally hard leaving Doug (and Poppy) at the end of the weekend, but today seemed harder than normal. Perhaps the longer stay over Easter and the idyllic weather. We did some skiing, went out for dinner, did some gardening, planned the house (again!) and played with the animals.

View I am driving away from

London is a whole different world! Which will be fine when I get there, but I feel sad now.

Roof insulation finished, what now?

The roof supports are sorted out and all the insulation is in place. Much quicker than the main house with more people working on it and a simpler layout of the roof (no A frames). Plus Doug is an expert now.

There are many cracks around the place that we look at and wonder if they are growing...

We seem to have come up with a lot of ideas for floor plans, here is the latest.

We have moved the boot room and pantry back to the middle of the house so the downstairs isn't so open plan.

Upstairs is the bottom of the picture. The garage has a temporary toilet so we can live in that end of the house (ie with the bedroom above too) while we do the rest of the house.

As work will now start on the garage we need to be finalising the plans really soon, to a certain extent anyway where plumbing etc will need to be put in place before we insulate the walls of the garage.

Purple sprouting

Not sure if we have a different variety to last year or what, but the purple sprouting is just sprouting now. I love it. The kale also has gone to seed and the flowers taste quite similar - but even better raw than purple sprouting does. I could just eat and eat it. Quite healthy depending how much butter goes on it! Went well with roast lamb for our easter dinner.

Easier egg vanilla ice cream recipe

This is the original http://laviealapetiteferme.blogspot.fr/2014/08/vanilla-ice-cream-recipe.html

But I get lazy about separating eggs... so here is an easier version. Tastes just as good I think - although people say the yolks make it have a silkier texture - can't say I notice the difference.

300ml proper full fat milk (from your Jersey cow - or 250ml normal milk and 50ml cream)

1 large egg

Vanilla

50g sugar (more or less to taste)

Put everything in a pan and put over a medium heat. Whisk as it heats until it reaches around 70C and looks like custard (it coats the back of a spoon). Pour in to an ice cream maker and follow the makers instructions. Should be delicious!