Doug being chased by savage pigs

Ok they are not savage, they are cute funny pigs.
There is no real point to this post, it was just a very funny sight Doug running round and round and being chased by the pigs (he had a cup of food for them to distract them while we moved their fence)

Is it falling down?

The carpenter noticed that the support for this roof is leaning somewhat. The insurance guy did too.

The beam on the other side is rather perched on the soil rather than looking properly supported by anything

We are a bit concerned it is getting more squint and that the beam will just slide of f the soil, so we have marked a line on it with the spirit level to monitor it (and we don't spend long standing under it...)
It has prompted us to think seriously about what we should do with the barn as it has various other structural issues.

Beam supported in shonky way after someone chopped through it

Another beam randomly chopped through so a door could be added

Most beams are fine but these key ones rotted at ends

Wall seriously leaning in (tape is on wall at each end)

We are looking in to the relative costs (and benefits) of
1.) Having it taken down and then building some more purpose built things (eg garage, storage shed, pig shed, stables etc)
2.) Having it repaired so it is safe and then using for some of these purposes

Seems a shame if it had to go as it was obviously a lovely old building before it was butchered and neglected but it is not very useful if we don't feel it is safe.

Wood pile update

We have been beavering away at the woodpile and have now got it down to the floor over nearly half the area.
Doug saw the snake disappearing in to what is left this morning! In to the wood on the right of the picture near the top of that pile. So we need to keep at it... it seems likely it is the one we saw in the house as M. Le Serpent thinks we don't have many snakes around (from looking for shed skins and snake poo)

This shows the wood we have removed

All this and a bit more

Taken from the other end - this shows all of it

At the bottom of the pile there as a lot of wood dust and bits that have rotted off the logs - more than 10 wheelbarrows full!. We had a big bonfire to get rid of it and will need to have a couple more before it is finished. We managed to smoke out the whole valley. But we don't feel bad about it as the neighbors do the same from time to time.

Doesn't show the amount of smoke generated

Good wildlife

There is a lot of wildlife we feel is too much and is encrouching (snakes, ants, flies etc) but there is some very interesting stuff around too.
There are hundreds of little lizards who hang out on all the walls. People who have been here a while find them quite boring but we still say 'lizard!' in excitement every time we see one.

Lizard on one of our fences

Perhaps more interestingly we see a lot of big birds from the house. We are not really sure what they are but they are ENORMOUS. Today we saw a smaller one attacking one of the bigger ones. Not sure why.

Taken from our front door - coming in for attack

Taken from our front door - attack!!

Also from the front door - what is it?

Closer view - Golden Eagle?

We saw 30 large birds circling opposite just before these ones flew close. But not sure if they were the same type, we suspect not as behaving a bit different - we think they were vultures but that this is not.
We also see a lot of deer but haven't managed to get a photo yet and we had a very brief glimpse of some wild boar in the wood above the house.

EDIT - Apparently the big bird is a Eurasian Griffon Vulture and the one mobbing it is a Common Buzzard

Are they ready to eat yet?

The potatoes have sprouted. Perhaps not quite ready yet. There are 3 rows of them each with a different variety.
Doug is a potato expert and even did a training course at Dundee tech (or somewhere like that - Dundee anyway) and worked 'Potato Roguing' some summers while at University. I think the rows might have been a bit further apart than ours as there is no need to walk between the rows to see them all here...

Are they ready to eat yet?

Thursdays are 'Pig Measuring Day'.
You can estimate the weight of a pig by measuring round under it's 'armpits' and its length from between the ears to tail. There are then a number of different formula which give you a guestimate of the weight.
This helps you know when they are likely to reach the weight you plan to slaughter them at.
The weights aren't very accurate as they frisk around and try to nibble you while you are measuring them...
We aren't exactly sure of their final weight yet, we need to do a bit more research but we expect it to be when they are around 6 months old.

Boy Pig
Date	Age	Girth	Length	W=G*G*L*69.3 (live weight)	Growth
17/05/2012	2 months, 3 weeks	0.74	0.85	32.26
24/05/2012	3 months, 0 weeks	0.77	0.88	36.16	3.90
31/05/2012	3 months, 1 weeks	0.79	0.89	38.49	2.34
07/06/2012	3 months, 2 weeks	0.83	0.92	43.92	5.43
14/06/2012	3 months, 3 weeks	0.86	0.99	50.74	6.82

Gurrl Pig
Date	Age	Girth	Length	W=G*G*L*69.3 (live weight)	Growth
17/05/2012	2 months, 3 weeks	0.74	0.90	34.15
24/05/2012	3 months, 0 weeks	0.77	0.95	39.03	4.88
31/05/2012	3 months, 1 weeks	0.83	0.94	44.88	5.84
07/06/2012	3 months, 2 weeks	0.83	1.04	49.65	4.77
14/06/2012	3 months, 3 weeks	0.87	1.06	55.60	5.95

You have WHAT?! In your WHERE?!

Yes! We have SNAKES in our ATTIC!
Or technically in the first floor, it was built to be inhabited but has not been for some time.
Before you panic and refuse ever to visit us it is not as bad as it sounds (honest)
We were of course rather put out when we saw them mating up there one day - we thought the scrabbling was from mice. So we went to the Mairie (town hall) and asked what they thought we should do. They were very kind and sypathetic (we need to get round to taking them some chocolates) and called 'M. Le Serpent' who came round immédiatement to have a look. It seems it is a grass snake who are, in his words, 'aussi dangereux que d'un papillon' or as dangerous as a butterfly. I guess I have never seen a grass snake before because I imagined they were about 15cm long, but this one is quite normal for an adult at a bit over a meter.

He said that it is very unlikely to come downstairs (they are very shy) and checked that he couldn't see any way it could do so. His advice was that we clear round the house and it will go away of it's own accord because they don't like being in uncovered areas. The biggest part of doing this is clearing the big jumble of 'weird wood' that is in the covered area between the house and the bread oven. We have been at it for some time now and have reduced it from giant to just a bit big. A few more days solid work should see it cleared. We have found some cast skins in there so looks like the snake man might be right that they are spending time in there.

We have moved a bit already at this point

Wood already removed when the previous photo taken

Doug at work

After several days - still a lot to do

We have also scythed and strimmed round the whole house and removed a lot of weeds and bushes. There is still a lot more work to do there also. We are thinking of getting a more macho strimmer to make it easier.
In addition we spend time upstairs stamping every day so it is a less quiet nice place to live for wildlife...


We weren't going to mention it because we don't want it to put anyone off visiting, but we are spending a lot of our time at the moment on 'de-snaking' so felt we needed to mention it...! Don't let the lack of hot water or shower put you off either :)