Casserole dish, bread recipe

500g strong white flour
370ml cold water
1 tsp bread yeast
2 tsp salt

Casserole dish to bake the bread in. This needs to have a lid and be big enough for the risen loaf. I use a flattish Le Creuset one which is I think 4l (but has a domed lid). The dish can be pottery or glass or metal, whatever you prefer. The purpose of it is to keep the steam generated in a small space with the bread as the bread starts to heat up and cook. A flatter dish is easier to get the bread in to - you are doing this when the dish is hot, so can be tricky.

Mix together the ingredients, no need to knead. The mixture should be quite wet for bread dough.
Leave overnight in a large bowl (it will rise to 3 or 4 times the initial volume) with clingfilm over the top. It should rise right up the bowl and have big bubbles in it, it won't maintain a round shape, but rather just fill the whole bowl as the mixture is quite soft, not exactly runny as it is far more gluteny than that.
In the morning put a few handfuls of flour on to the fixture and squish it down. You need the flour so it doesn't stick all over you hands, but also to thicken the mixture up a bit.
Shape the dough in to a ball and put on a piece of baking paper to rise. I do this in a bowl first then transfer it to a flat plate for a final rise - you are going to need to transfer it in to a super hot casserole dish and that is easier off a plate, but the bowl helps the quite runny bread dough not all flow out in to a too flat shape.
15 mins or so before you think the bread is ready to bake, put the casserole dish  in to the oven at 220C

After rising over night

Shaped and risen again

First part cooked before going back in the oven to brown

Beautiful finished loaf.

More chicks

We had a disaster with our first batch of eggs this year and just one hatched (out of 24). We put on a second batch who have now hatched. We got 10 this time which also isn't a great success rate - though clearly better. I decreased the humidity from 50% to 40% for this second batch as I cracked open a few of the eggs that failed in the first batch and the chicks had grown but died, probably at hatching because the egg hadn't dried out enough and they can't then get air as they hatch.

They look really cute sunning themselves.

It is possible that this second batch was a bit too dry so the third batch I have set the humidity to 45% and am weighing the eggs as we go along. You hope to get a 10-13% drop in weight over the 3 weeks.

Fixed the oven door

The handle fell off and it is screwed on to the door from inside so the door had to come apart (you can also clean the layers of glass inside while you are at it. I thought I could open it up by undoing two obvious screws on the front, but you need to NOT remove them as they hold the hinges on. Instead you want to take the whole door off so, I watched several youtube videos on how to do this. It seem that all (most at least) oven doors work the same so I didn't have to find the exact make and model thankfully as it is very old.
Here is the really grotty bit of glass out of the middle. I cleaned it all inside which was useful too - and good to know for the future as I have always vaguely wondered how to do it (but not enough to actually find out)

Beautiful. What a lovely well attached handle!

Planted a few things

This is a melon plant

A butternut squash - there are some more squash planted in some piles of horse and rabbit poo near the stables

These are potatoes planted a few weeks ago and starting to grow. The plastic thing in the middle of the bed is meant to scare the voles away. They eat the potatoes and the roots of lots of the other plants and are VERY annoying. We shall see come harvest time whether it made any difference.

I also planted some bean seeds and some tomato plants (we cheated and bought ready grown ones rather than doing it from seed. There is only so much time in the day!)

The strawberries are doing well as are some of the raspberries and the rhubarb. The other fruit bushes haven't got established yet.

You can see it has been quite dry. You can also see that the paths between the beds have grown so tall with grass you can barely get down them. We MUST strim soon!

This is more wood that Doug has cut near the veg garden and needs transporting down to the wood drying area

To celebrate we had this prawn pizza with borage and rocket from the garden

Cute huh?

We still don't know whether they are going to survive the sudden rabbit death that seems to inflict rabbits at our place. This was taken a few days ago when they were 4 weeks old.

These ones are 2 weeks old in this photo, again a few days ago. They have a very warm nest made mostly from horse hair.

We have ordered some new cages to enable them to eat the grass for us so hopefully they will survive to do their job of turning grass in to something we can eat!

Wood

Doug has been busy chopping up lots of wood around the property. Mostly it has fallen in various storms. We need quite a few cubic meters of wood to keep us warm each winter and they need to dry for a year or more depending on the type.

This is all new stuff that Doug has just chopped and moved here

This is a variety of ages of wood, mostly chopped by Doug

This is the small amount of remaining wood that we bought with the property.

We don't really know yet how much we will need to see us through the winter once the house is done with the underfloor heating and the new heating system.

Spatchcock rabbit and champagne

In the interests of celebrating 5 years in France a bit more we had a special bbq with a spatchcocked rabbit

and our favorite champagne that Janet very very kindly bought for us.

This rabbit was 3 months old. It escaped and Poppy caught it and slightly crunched it so it died. Well done Poppy! It was tender and delicious! This is younger than we normally eat them but we might change our ideas in the future.

Celebrating 5 years

We went to San Sebastian for the bank holiday weekend to celebrate 5 years in France. We have been a few times before and love it there. It is under 3 hours drive from us, the food and drink are amazing, there are two beaches right in the center of town. There is a nice hotel that takes the dog. What's not to like!

The hotel provide a comfy dog bed and even laid on lovely sun and a view

The hotel

Walk to the beach. Less than 10 mins from the hotel

Run on the beach

Throw it, throw it!

Lovely beach right in the town

Biggest bed in the world!

Yummy food

So much yummy food

Txakoli which is the local white wine. Very very very dry and slightly fizzy

La Vina which does the best desert in the WORLD! Basque custard cheese cake. I MUST find the recipe

The custard cheese cake, it is SOOOO amazing

Cool wellies huh?!

Beautiful clear water

This is the 2nd beach also in town

Fetching a ball

Yay!

Here you go

5 years in France!

We have been living in France for 5 years now. It is hard to believe, as in many ways, it seems like just yesterday we moved in and we still have so much to do it feels like we have achieved nothing sometimes.
However we have actually achieved quite a lot in the time when we go back and think about how some things where when we moved in.

Running hot water - When we moved in there was a deathtrap gas boiler but it took us months to make it work and it would only do hot water in to the (manky) bathroom. We eventually replaced it with an electric hot water tank that did manage hot water to the kitchen as well as the bathroom but quite a limited supply. We now have the uber shower with how water from solar and the wood burner (though some issues remain with the solar).

Water generally - When we first moved in some of the pipes had rusted through, so first thing we had to do was smash a hole in the wall (still there) so this could be fixed. We then had problems with the spring and the water collection system down there. Then the pump died. There is still plenty to do here but at least it mostly works now (though the pump is a bit temperamental despite not being very old) and sometimes just gives up.

Animals for food - We have learnt about chickens, rabbits, quail, sheep, pigs and COWS for meat and milk. We have milked the cows and made various charcuterie and killed and butchered chickens and rabbits that we raised ourselves. We built the pig house and have improved the water situation in various places as well as doing a lot of fencing. There is still plenty more to do here as the fencing is never ending and we could do with more animal shelters and project rabbit still has significant issues with the babies dying. All this has involved learning quite a bit about the bureaucracy round keeping farm animals in France.

Horses - We have learnt a lot about our horses and had lessons for quite a while (we would like to find the time to get back to that) which improved the bonding with them a lot and made Daisy much more comfortable to ride (better breaks, more control in transitions). We have learnt to cut their hooves ourselves and have built the stables for them. We still have more to do improving the land around the stables so it doesn't get horribly muddy in winter and making it easier to clean the poo off.

Poppy - Having a dog isn't as easy as you might think! We have put a lot of effort in to training her and she is well trained considering how manic and independent she is.

Pigs - Mentioned above in animals for food, but a lot of effort had to go in to fencing for the pigs as well as building their house so worth mentioning again. We have made hams, sausages, pork pies, black pudding, bacon and many other pork products.

Chickens - Also mentioned previously but we have improved what we have for them a lot. They have a well protected area with plenty of undergrowth that makes them very happy. Doug has improved the fence several times so it is more effective as there have been a few fox incidents. We have hatched quite a lot of chicks and raised and eaten them.

The garden - When we moved in this was just grass and weeds. We have put in the raised beds and gained some degree of control over the area as well as putting in a better path from the house and laying a concrete pad for a shed (currently a tent on there to keep tools dry). There is still plenty of work to do here too as we seem to have voles that are eating the roots of quite a few of the plants as well as most of the potatoes and some seeds like sweetcorn and beans. The raised beds will shortly need replacing plus pretty much every year the weeds get away from us at some point and obliterate some plant or other.

Wood supply - When we moved in we bought a few years worth of wood for burning from the previous owner (who cut and sold wood from the property). Doug has done a good job in the past few years of cutting more and has recently been cutting lots of it to length and is about to stack it all neatly. Wood has to be cut several years in advance of when you want it and stacked nicely so it dries properly. We don't want to fall behind on the preparation as that is the way to be cold in a few winters time! Or to have to buy wood which is difficult as it is so bulky and delivery up our drive isn't great.

Vermin - Shortly after we moved in we found 3 snakes mating in the upstairs. I was all for blocking it off and never going there again, but fortunately Doug was braver and tackled the problem so that we no longer see snakes - though we do occasionally see snake skins so they are still around but not living so much in our space. The cat and various different mouse traps have dealt with rodents in the house that kept us awake for the first few months we lived there - they sound HUGE in the night. We still have the voles in the potager to deal with and cutting back on moles elsewhere on the property would be good too. In the summer there is still a fly NIGHTMARE. We have just bought some net covers for the windows and doors and will try out this year some horse fly traps. The ticks we cannot really do anything about - though we now have things we can put on the cows and horses that kill them there and perhaps reduce the overall numbers. Vermin is a long section as the countryside is FULL of them!

The outdoor kitchen - We have cleared the wood out of what is now the outdoor kitchen - it was piled to the ceiling - and had a new roof in there and added a door to the little room as well as shutters and a sink and units. The walls and floor have all been refinished and it is a dream outdoors seating area. We are thinking about getting a wood burning stove out there to warm it a little on autumn/spring evenings.

Tools - We have bought soooo many new tools. Just mowing the grass takes lots and doing the house and the garden and EVERYTHING. It is hard to know what to buy when you first start and easy to make many mistakes.

The House - We have had the chimney breast at one end removed as well as both chimneys from the roof. We have insulated the roof on the whole building. We have had two new A frames added to support the roof for when the stair structure is removed. We have had the heating installed along with solar hot water. We have completed the (lovely) temporary living area so we can do the rest of the house in some degree of comfort. We have all new windows at one end of the house and upstairs. Doug particularly has learnt a lot about plumbing, tiling, leveling floors, putting up ceilings, putting down floors, mixing concrete, hempcrete insulation and all sorts of other things.

Learning French - Doug is doing a better job than me at this at the moment, but we have both learnt a lot, though sadly not really enough to have proper conversations yet.

Recreational activities - We have also spent plenty of time walking the dog, skiing, horse riding, cycling, visiting local places and markets and socialising.

Work - Many of the things mentioned Doug has done most of, but I have been busy working for the project too.

Cooking and preserving - We have always been keen on both these things but we have tried various new things such as tapping birch trees for sap, making various new fruit spirits, all grain brewing, black pudding, making sausage skins and various other curing adventures.


So, loads done, but even more loads still to do, including:
Finish the house
Finish the storage in the stables and area around the stables
More drainage on the drive
More fencing
Convert the old sheep fold the chickens live in in to a proper building with a roof for the chickens and rabbits to live in
Improve the water collection from the spring
Improve the pump situation (maybe a header tank above the house so we still get water when there is a power cut)
More drainage on the drive
Take out various trees above the drive and house that might cause issues
Make the garden round the house nice
Improve the bank below the house and above the garden
Build Rhoda's dream pergola/garden seating area in front of the house with seating that converts to a bed and fly netting so we can sleep out there in the summer
Outdoor lighting round the house
Build the garden shed with potting and seed starting areas as well as electricity ideally
Get power to the stables and better water supply
Do better at getting seeds going earlier which needs the potting shed building so we have somewhere warmish to germinate them
Improve water supply to higher fields
Improve the fence round the chickens so it is easier to keep upright and fox proof as well as get in and out to clean them out.
Work less!!
Do more skiing and other fun things