Still puzzling over the solar hot water

At the start of the year I posted about us not understanding why the solar heat doesn't load the tank correctly. We still haven't managed to understand what is wrong. We have however got some thermometers which we attached to the three pipes and were able to tell a bit more from this.
We have emailed the installer again and also Akvaterm the supplier of the tank and the controller for loading the tank. It is frustrating because it means we are not getting the energy from the sun that we should.
Overall the system is great and the energy we do get from the sun is a useful boost to burning wood. It would be EVEN BETTER if we could get it to work properly though. The installation is a bit frustrating because the guy who installed it lives miles away so cannot just pop out to look at things. We have found 4 issues with it.
1) The pipes to the radiators were plumbed the wrong way round (so it took out from the cold end of the tank and put back in to the hot)
2) There was a leak in the solar circuit (and still is)
3) The heating controller isn't attached as per the Akvaterm instructions and was done incorrectly even for what the installer had intended
4) This issue we are looking at here where the solar energy is not loading correctly to the tank

This is some diagrams where I was trying to understand what the LK820 controller is doing.

This diagram shows how it should all be connected up. The heating on the right hand side isn't done quite like this as on here there is a 4 way valve that mixes from the top and middle puts back in the bottom to keep stratification, ours just takes from the top puts back to the bottom.

Strange things

The chickens LOVE eating rabbit poo. I feed it to them quite often. They also like horse poo.
One day we are hoping to make a covered area where we could have the rabbits and chickens both, so that the chickens could peck around under the cages and save us the effort of having to empty the poo trays every day.
Look how happy they are! They like the grass and hay that comes with the poo too.

Changing the car wheels

As it is Spring, at the weekend we decided it was time to change the wheels on the car. Doug does this (it is a man's job you know - said with a wry smile, as I say it to annoy my mum who occasionally said this despite thinking women can do ANYTHING - but she is not here to read it *looks sad*) but this time I asked him to show me how. I know in theory of course, but don't know the details for this car. I hope never to have to do it on the motorway in the middle of the night but as I do quite a long drive twice a week it is always a possibility - and there may not be a man about!

He learnt everything he knows about changing a wheel from when we were in Argentina. We were staying in Mendoza for a wedding and drove up in to the Andes for a day. We had a puncture on the way and some very kind local helped change the wheel. We felt a bit scared going off into the wilderness without a spare wheel, but did it anyway!

Spring

We had a spell of summer like weather (but better because the air temperature actually quite cool)
This has meant that animals are all moulting their winter coats.
This is from one grooming of Owen. He was still pretty fluffy afterwards, but much less itchy. There are white patches all over the field where he has been rolling.

Lovely weather for a walk by the lake

With amazing views

More baby rabbit

There is one litter that is 3 weeks old and another two which are 1 week old.
These are the 3 week old ones. Cute huh? If only we can keep them alive.

We have medicated the whole herd  (warren? flock?) with metoxyl which treats for Coccidiosis which is a protizoal disease which can affect the liver or intestines (it doesn't transfer to humans) and we plan on treating then again as the oldest babies are starting to come out of the nest and drink water - so probably in a weeks time. We will also vaccinate as we did the previous litters though that did not help and only 3 or the total 18 survived.
It is frustrating not really knowing what the problem is and why so many of the previous litters have died.
Here they are enjoying the grass. I made this wooden slatted bottom for the cage as we have had big problems with young rabbits escaping when in cages on the lawn and then the dog gets them - with only 3 there are not many to spare!

Strimming, strimming, strimming

At this time of year, there is a never ending need to strim stuff, as the brambles and nettles are springing into life along with the various other weeds.
Doug has just done the area where the hops should hopefully grow. This is their third? forth? year and we are hoping they will spring to life a bit better than previous years. The weeds tend to overpower them, so it was good to get an early start on keeping them under control, hopefully we can keep it up and give them a chance this year.

Easter break

It is lovely having a four day weekend instead of the normal boring two.
This is the coast of France from the plane. Light as we fly in now that the hour has changed.

Admiring the view from a hammock

 Drinking a beer admiring the view. Waiting for the bbq to cook

Trip up the Pic du Midi. Unfortunately, due to the broken toe, I can't ski but we can go up the Pic on our ski passes, so we took advantage of that, as during the summer it will cost 35 EUR.

In the cable car

In the cable car

The observatory - you can see this spire from our house

The view back in to the ski area

Panorama of the view

A while ago we did a tour and we could see really clearly from the other side of the valley where we went. Green - lifts up. Red - walking. Blue - the ski down.

There is a restaurant up there, but we took some (very tasty) sandwiches as it was fully booked.

We also did some exciting shopping in Point Vert which is the place we get animal food from and plants and various other things.

For Easter we had some very yummy lamb stew, which I have called 'Lamb odds and ends stew' as it was made with lambs neck, ribs, heart, liver and kidneys as well as aubergine, courgette, mushrooms and peppers. Doug wanted dumplings, but we didn't have any suet, so I made czech bread dumpling to go with it.

The dog has had a lovely brea. Plenty of exercise - though I can only hobble short distances we have been places she can run around, and visited various friends with dogs, which provides excitement and tires her out too.

BBQ pork ribs recipe

This isn't exactly a recipe, and it needn't be cooked in the BBQ.

It is more a reminder to me what I did as they came out very well.

Enough pork ribs for 2 people
200 ml apple juice
BBQ sauce (a 'squirt or two')
BBQ rub made from salt, cumin, paprika, salt, thyme, ginger, cinnamon and any other spices you chose and some sugar (about 2 tablespoons full)

Make a 'bubble' out of foil so that the ribs can sit in the foil in a baking tray and you can add some liquid without it escaping from round the ribs.
Add the ribs and the apple juice and a bit of salt to the foil and wrap it up so the ribs are contained in the foil with the juice and it is reasonably airtight, but the steam can escape a little.
Put on the BBQ or in the oven at something like 110 degrees C so that it just boils but isn't frazzled.
Cook for about an hour.
Carefully open the foil bubble and rub the spice/sugar mixture into the ribs and rewrap. Cook for a further 30 mins.
Remove the foil and add the BBQ sauce (you don't have to use BBQ sauce, but it generally adds some smoky more complex flavour). Now the ribs are in a baking tray. Cook for something like another further 30 mins on a hotter setting until the sauce is reduced to a thickish consistency.

Preparing to wrap in the foil bubble

Ready to eat

Not much left as sooooo delicious. We ate with bread and salad.

Happy Easter

Our Easter chick, at the moment he/she is the only one hatched, hopefully more will follow - though this one has been out of the shell for at least 12 hours and no sign of any more, so it is a worry!

Our Easter bunnies. They were born last Sunday to Blondie. We didn't have much luck keeping the last litters (3 litters, born to Blondie, Debbie and Bernardette ie all the females) alive as there are only 3 bunnies out of the original 18 remaining. We are trying a different medication on these ones. Fingers, and everything else crossed that this will work. It is very very sad seeing them dying and not being able to do anything about it. Plus there are fewer to eat that way.

Mushrooms

They sell these in the supermarket, and with a heroic self restraint I have resisted buying them because as Doug points out, we have mushrooms growing WILD.

However I couldn't resist any more. They are so COOL. You have to spray them with water every day and put them in the dark now and again and many many field mushrooms grow, AS IF BY MAGIC!

Shearing the sheep

We have two flocks of sheep, the Ouessant (which come from the Isle of Ushant - or l'ile de ouessant in French) and the 'meat sheep' which is a mixed flock of various breeds. The Ouessant are quite hardy as I guess life is hard on a small windy cold island. The other sheep we have found to be more susceptible to worms and various setbacks. Last year we lost quite a few of them to fly strike which is a gross thing where a certain type of fly lays its eggs on an animal and the maggots hatch and eat the animal alive.

It is hard to avoid this all together, but you can improve the chances of it not happening by shearing the sheep and applying a treatment which is similar to sheep dip but in smaller quantities. Because of the horrible experience last year (in early July) we have gone with shearing super early this year and applying crovect (which is nasty nasty chemical but surely better than the sheep being eaten alive). We are a bit worried now that the poor things will freeze to death as the forecast is for freezing a few evenings this week. Hopefully they will huddle for warmth!

The nearest sheep here is this flocks only lamb, then behind her is her mum, then her dad. The black one is her half sister or something like that.

The pink on the black sheep below is the crovect. In the first picture she had not been sheared, in this one she has.
That black 'sheep' at the top right is not a sheep!
The little white one sniffing Doug's foot, we just sheared a bit round the bum (which is called dagging) as we were worried she would get too cold. She is a funny, bit pathetic (but really cute), little thing whose mum died last year in the horrible fly strike incident while the lamb was still quite young She seems a bit retarded but very friendly. We will shear her properly in about a month, but having dagged her should keep her bum clean from sheep poo and make the flies less likely to go for her.

We will do the Ouessant flock in a few weeks.

Bedroom floor

Doug has finished laying the underfloor in the bedroom. It is very lovely!

Next he will do the ceiling, which means finishing the insulation around the window and putting in more metal bars to support the plasterboard then actually plasterboarding which will be tricky as the peak is over 3m high.
The electrician will also finish of various bits and then finally the floorboards can go down and some built in wardrobes, then we can move in.

Broken toe

In my previous post I mentioned that I had stubbed my toe rushing around to leave to go to the airport. I haven't blogged since then, which was two weeks ago, because I have broken my toe and somehow life has seemed a great effort sinc. It seems a bit pathetic, but doing anything is a pain and it has made me feel very tired.

It is the middle toe just in to the foot.

Two weeks in, I can't say it is a great deal less painful. Not agony but uncomfortable when walking which makes doing anything seem a lot more effort than normal.

The doctor said to strap the middle toe to the 2nd toe with surgical tape which I have been doing, sometimes it seems to make it feel better and sometimes more painful. He also said to come back in 3 or 4 weeks if it still hurt. We shall see.

German Pislner Beer

We have made several of these brupak beers. The kit has malt extract, hops, some speciality grain and yeast and you then need to add a further 1kg of sugar in some form which can be more malt or just sugar. We have been using sugar, but I think they would be better with more malt.
They are not the best kits in the world, but they are very convenient as I can bring them hand luggage and they don't take any boiling. You just have to soak the hops and grain in some boiled water 3 times then fill up the fermenter and add the yeast.

The bottling is always the big hassle and I also got round to doing that for one that Doug put on a few weeks ago. 

Unfortunately in my rush to tidy up so I could dash off for the flight, I managed to stub my toe on a huge and hard piece of kitchen work surface.

It is rather painful to walk on. Hopefully not more than bruising. 

Then to add insult to injury the stupid flight is 2 hours late anyway so I really needn't have rushed!

Banana loaf recipe

We had some old bananas and some DISGUSTING chocolate. The chocolate was 95% cocoa solids and that is clearly too much. I bought it thinking that dark chocolate is nice, so darker would be nicer, but it proves you can have too much of a good thing.
Doug tricked me in to tasting it even though he knew it was HORRIBLE - I should maybe have guessed from the maker who seems to be 'Gross' which is a good description of it.
However made in to icing by melting it and adding a bit of water and about the same weight of icing sugar as chocolate it made very nice icing.

We took a walk with the dog first to help justify eating cake

140g sugar
140g butter
140g self raising flour
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
2 or 3 bananas (depending on size) mashed with a fork
A handful of raisins/sultanas
1/2 tsp salt
Chocolate, lemon or orange icing

Turn the oven on at 180C
Cream butter and sugar together.
Mix the flour and the salt and the baking powder together in a bowl
Add the eggs and a bit of the flour mix
Then add the rest of the flour mix and stir it in
Add the banana and raisins and stir in
Line a 2lb bread tin with grease proof paper
Put the mix in to the tin and in to the oven
Cook for about 30 mins until a skewer comes out clean

Ice the cake

The bedroom floor

Now the downstairs living area is complete, Doug is working on the bedroom upstairs. He has put down insulation between the joists and put some sound damping stuff on the top of the joists and is now putting down the subfloor. He also had to cut in to one of the walls to find the joist that had been buried there by the hempcrete and plaster otherwise that bit of floor would have been unsupported. Not good as that is where the head of the bed will be.

Here he is doing a little dance to demonstrate how solid it is.

Here he is pointing out that the next thing after the subfloor is to finish the insulation round the front window and do all the plasterboard. This is going to be a big job as so much of the ceiling is out of easy reach and the plasterboard lift doesn't go that high.