Dejeuner à la Ferme

Doug's family came to visit, I have many more photos, but have not got round to uploading them yet. This one as kindly provided by Janet. It was lovely to see everyone and they were very helpful with milking, sausage making etc. Thanks Christopher specially! Poppy had a great time and should be exhausted for weeks - I am partially expecting to go home and fine Christopher has smuggled her back with him!

Safe journey home guys, and thanks for visiting!

Our ram Harris has died

We found Harris dead in the field today. We try to take animal deaths as inevitable part of having animals, but it is always sad as you feel you failed them, and there are some you get more fond of than others. Harris was one we really liked. Sadly he is the second sheep to die recently with Skye (who was also a favorite) dying a few weeks ago with similar symptoms. They both suddenly got thin. Then they had diarrhea, then they died. One of the others (Tara) is also suddenly thin so we took her to the vet. The vet tested red blood count and she had low red blood cells suggesting worms (although we had wormed her only a couple of weeks ago). The vet gave us a different wormer (which covers tapeworm, roundworm and liver fluke as far as I can tell). Hopefully that will fix the problem - we are not sure what worm she thinks it is. My reading suggests our current wormer doesn't cover tapeworm.

Window man came and measured

We are getting a bit stressed about the amount of stuff that has to happen before the 12th November when the hempcrete spraying people are coming.

We discovered recently that the windows need to go in BEFORE the hempcrete, not after as we initially thought. Fortunately the nice window guy says he can fit it in. They are not cheap, but should be very energy efficient as they are tight fitting and well insulated - they close with a number of points round the frame which pull the window tight against the surround. 

He came to do the detailed measuring today and hopefully will fit them in a couple of weeks time.

For this big opening here we have gone with all glass, in 3 panels (2 of which open). We did think about filling some of it in as it is only the workshop in the future. However we will be living here for who knows how many years and even in the future it will be nice to have the open aspect when caring for the chicks that will live here or doing the laundry or woodwork or filling the wood boiler (it is a multi purpose space!)

Stables are finished

Well, not actually finished yet. But very nearly. They just need some of the doors adjusting, gutters and some lining in some of the rooms (not all of them will be fully lined)

Buttercup has tried one of the stables out and says it was most comfortable. I was worried that they are too lovely and pristine to let dirty animals in. So she pooed on the wall just to christen them and get us past the lovely pristine phase...

Poached Pears Recipe

2 pears (or in our case 5 tiny pears)
400ml red wine (or enough to well cover the pears)
100g sugar (or more or less if you used more or less wine)
2 cloves
2 by leaves

Peel the pears and cut in the quarters removing the core
Put in the a pan with the wine and sugar and simmer for 15 mins.
Test the pears and if still hard keep cooking until soft.
Once cooked remove the pears and reduce the wine mixture down to a syrup.
Serve the syrup over the pears, ideally with ice cream

The pears I used here came of our tree some weeks ago and Doug refrigerated as we read that is how you are meant to ripen them. We may have left a little long as they had started to dry out on the thin bit. But they are pretty tasty and cook like this very well.

Screeding

I have spent two days of my holiday helping Doug and Co screeding the end of the house. This is the lovely smooth layer on top of the structural concrete and insulation.
It is about 2/3rds done now.

It has left the garden something of a mess. I think we need to say goodbye to it looking nice until well after the building work finishes (10 years???)

There was a tiny setback to proceedings when Doug and I spent a little time in Urgences (A&E) because Doug's knees got chemical burns from the cement (which is quite a strong alkali).

It was quite concerning when he came in for lunch and said his knees were a bit sore. When he looked at them they looked terrible, kind of blue/dark purple and bruised looking but frazzled too. Fortunately he washed them thoroughly with cold water, and then with some vitamin C (an acid) and the hospital say they will be fine. The internet suggested it could be very serious and to seek medical help. So we did. He has to go in every day to have them re-dressed - with lots of Vaseline (the gaffer tape is Doug's own addition). BE CAREFUL WITH CEMENT!

Windows

These are the windows which need replacing so we can live in the end of the house. We have just discovered that these ideally need replacing BEFORE the hempcrete which is happening on the 12th of November aaaargh.

These pictures are so M. Trey the window man can remember what we were talking about as he does us a rough estimate before coming and measuring in more detail.

Access - for Antoine

This entry is so that Antoine can see the access for spraying the chanvre-chaux and the storage around the house for the loads of lime and hemp that is required.

This is the part of the house to be sprayed (ground and 1st floor). Access is through that wide gap, there is no door at the moment,

This is it from the side (all windows and doors will be removed)

This area to the side of the house is about 10x10m and is right by the place to be sprayed

 Same area again

This area is about 20x5m in front of the house

 This is it from the other end

This is the access with the sharp corner. Our 4x4 has turning circle of 13.3m and can just make the turn in 1 (but it is a bit difficult as there is a drop one side and the hill the other)

Holiday. Hurrah.

I am on holiday for a week now.
We are not going anywhere as we need to stay at home and finish various things before the hempcrete (wall insulation) sprayer people come at the start of November.
There is the stable building to finish and lots of plumbing, removing windows and part of the floor as well as preparing for the actual spraying with guides to control the depth of the spray.
Here is lots of plumbing going on...

New lawn mower

Oh ok, not a lawn mower. It is Bluebell out for some grass.

She and Lismore have been living in the barn for a couple of weeks as she went a bit mad in the field and wouldn't let anyone near Lismore which made milking her a bit tricky.
It is a shame for them living in the barn, but better than her udder exploding or her getting mastitis because we can't manage to catch her to milk her.

Lismore giving grass a go. She doesn't think much of it compared to yummy mil.

Not sure who is more astonished by the other.

The barn is not so bad, cosy and warm with a huge supply of hay

What a mess EDF have made

We have been waiting for EDF to replace the electricity pylons to our house since we bought it. The existing supply has a problem with the earth which makes the supply fluctuate and the lights brighten and dim. The pylon right by the house is starting to lean and we have been a bit worried about it for years.
They finally appeared this week and have made a big old chaos putting in new pylons. They still need to do the wires on the new pylons and switch us over, and they have promised to flatten out the earth works they made to flatten a way for them to get the equipment in to put the pylons up.

These pictures fail to get across just how much of a mess it is. You can only just see the new wooden pylon at the end of the devastation, it is more attractive than the existing one. They have said they will remove the old ones, I really hope they do.

Stables!

We ordered some flat pack stables from the UK.
It is super exciting, they have been delivered and are in the process of being constructed.
They are looking really good. They have a tack room and a hay store as well as 2 stables and a large run in shelter. They are for the cows as well as the horses and are being constructed on a concrete pad which was already there.

Yay there is hot water again

Doug has fitted a giant electric heater for hot water. It ain't pretty, but it should do the job for the few months we need it and wasn't too expensive.

Here is a picture of the miracle, it is a little hard to appreciate as a photo... It is hot water coming out of the kitchen tap - which can now happen without having to crank a tetchy death trap boiler in to life, pretty exciting as washing up is not very efficient in cold water.

Hot water has given up the ghost

Why couldn't it wait a few more months??!??
We are trying to source a new thermocouple, but as the boiler is approx 2 hundred years old who knows if spares for it exist any more.

Plumbing and wiring

Before the hempcrete (the insulation) is sprayed on to the walls (week of 9th November) all the things that need to be hidden in the walls need putting in. Or as close to all of them as we can manage, it will be possible to channel out where we need things that we forgot or could not practically do in advance (for example pipes to take water in to the rest of the house).

The electrician has been and started the electrics. It is done a bit different to if we were using plasterboard as the plugs need fixing to the wall behind and to bring them to level with where the hempcrete and lime plaster will end up, they are screwed to bits of wood attached to the stone. This is because the hempcrete isn't strong enough just to set them in that.

The ventilation for the plumbing in this room is done (it vents out to the roof - this is so that airlocks don't form in the outflows and it vents to the roof so any smell goes outside). The pipes on the wall here will do the shower and sink as well as the temporary toilet which will be in the corner while we live in this room as we do the rest of the house. Pink lines on the floor show where there are pipes underneath.

 This is where the shower tray will go, with the outflow in the centre of the picture. The floor of the shower and the rest of the floor are going to be flush.
The pipe in the top right of the photo is for the grey (ie not toilet) water coming from the bathroom above. It will flow through a heat recover pipe, so that any heat from the water running away will be transferred in to incoming cold water to save energy.

The shower tray. It is pretty darn huge at 120 x 120 which doesn't really show here. This is with the intention that in the future it is for hosing down dirty things like the dog and a bit of space will be nice then as well as in the short term while it is our actual shower too.