Come here... COME HERE... come HERE you little F***ER!!

Poppy's training is going well generally. Although if anything too exciting happens she may still be unable to obey. The thing we are having trouble with is 'come here'. Other commands if she doesn't do what you want, you can enforce, for example if you say sit and she just stares at you you can push her butt down. But by it's very nature 'come here' is a command you are making from a distance. She does come sometimes, but if there is anything more exciting going on - which can include cars, people, smells, butterflies, running like a mad thing and looking at the view - then you haven't got a chance. When walking she will rush off in to the distance having fun running and smelling and doing her own thing ignoring us for periods of time until she fancies saying hi.
All the books, the internet and the vet say 'you must have a solid recall' but they don't tell you HOW to achieve this.
We have today embarked upon a method called 'about turn walking'. The theory is that you stop issuing the 'come here' command for a while and let her do her own thing on walks, but when she heads off one way you go the other very fast with the theory that she basically doesn't want to lose you and will eventually start staying closer to see what you are up to.
You start off by letting her off the lead, she rushes off to do her thing and you head the opposite direction. Eventually she will get bored and look for you and come rushing past. When she does you set off back the way she just came etc and etc. With the theory that over time she is rushing off less and staying closer to see where you are going. Once you get to this stage you are meant to reintroduce the 'come here' but only using it when she is basically heading towards you anyway. Then a bit later you start using it when she isn't heading towards you but she isn't doing anything else much and so has no distractions to stop her coming. Then you progress to using it more and more by which time hopefully she isn't so far off and is paying better attention to what you are up to anyway.
The theory is that the whole process takes about a month at the end of which you should have a dog that doesn't rush away from you on walks and comes when called. Sounds hardwork (and this mornings starter session knackered Doug out) but it will be worth it if we have a dog which isn't a danger to herself and others at the end of it.

The piggies are back!

One of the neighbours came round leading the piggies with food in a bucket! Apparently he found then (from the smell of them in his cowshed) and phoned another neighbour who is one of the ones we visited today (also the one whose sheep were recently in our field). We must have passed close to where they were in our search for them but we didn't shout much there as our voices had run out. This neighbour owns the house next door but doesn't live there, he just farms a lot of land round it with cows so we didn't manage to visit him during the day.
They seemed v keen to get back in to their enclosure and happy to be back somewhere familiar. Although they also looked like they had had a happy day wallowing in cow shit.
Hopefully they will stay contained now, the electric fence had been off for quite a while and we have put it back on and cranked it up to max (well we can't actually do that but we would have if we could...)

Pigs have disappeared

Doug went up to feed then this morning and they were not in their enclosure. He found that some poles near the top of the fence were down.
We have spent much of the day searching for them and visiting the 3 nearest neighbours so that they can be on the lookout.
We find it suprising they have so thoroughly disappeared as the couple of times they have got out before they just snuffle off to the nearest bit of food. In this case with chestnuts everywhere that is not far at all. We probably covered a radius of more than a kilometer searching for them and they can hear us from a distance so we would expect them to come back to get their breakfast when they heard us.
We have heard stories of wild boar mating with domestic pigs and we wondered if the wild boar in fact knocked the fence down as it had fallen inwards.
Now all we can think of to do is spread some trails with their food to attract them home and wait to see if they turn up.
We are obviously quite upset as we have put a lot of work in to them and they are just about ready - perhaps they heard our plans for their future and have done a runner...

Snow!

Yesterday the forecast said it was going to go down to -5 overnight. It didn't, it was about 3 degrees at the coldest. Which did feel pretty cold first thing this morning. But no danger of the pump and pipes freezing. However it is good we have insulated them ready for when it does freeze.

It did snow in the mountains overnight though and we woke to a very white Pic du Midi. We thought it was time for Poppy to see snow for the first time (and we wanted to see it too...) so we went up to La Mongie - which is the ski area by the Midi.
She seemed to enjoy it

Practice run (Sausage Recipe)

We thought we should practice making sausages before the great pig slaughter day. The meat I bought wasn't quite as fatty as it should be, but they came out pretty tasty. I am writing it down so we remember :)
We are going to try again in the next few days with a more suitable cut of pork.

500g pork
10 leaves of sage (chopped)
A sprinkling of thyme
2 tsp salt
2 tsp white pepper
30g rusk
table spoon of water

Mince the pork with 6mm plate
Add all the other ingredients and mix
Stuff in to sausage skins (using super hand mincer)
Cook in the oven for 30 mins

Winterising

It rained a crazy amount overnight, the rain gauge reads up to 30mm and has a space above that which is probably another 20mm, this morning it was full to the brim, no way of telling how much had overflowed.

It cleared briefly and we could see snow on the hills opposite and a lot on the Pic du Midi. Fortunately we have bought stuff to insulate the outside pipes and pump with as it is forecast to be -5 overnight. I don't believe it will be, but we shall see and we have

We have now built a not very stylish but hopefully functional polystyrene box around the pump.

We have built up the earth around the water pipe inlet and waste outflow and put some polystyrene around higher up parts of that too. Again not stylish but eventually the water pipe will enter the house at a different place and we can do a better more permanent structure.

I gathered various produce that wouldn't survive the first frost. I made Green Tomato Chutney with the tomatoes and onions, and froze the french beans (about a kg). We still need to gather the peanuts and there are a few potatoes left in the ground.

We still need to insulate various things inside the house

Green Tomato Chutney Recipe

With the weather getting colder I have admitted the rest of the tomatoes are not going to ripen. They have been going a bit funny and some of them have been splitting and rotting with all the rain. I picked all the remaining ones to make green tomatoe chutney.

1 kg green tomatoes
0.4l malt vinager (or equivelent - you can't get malt vinager in France)
200g dark brown sugar (or white or whatever you prefer)
1 medium onion (I used a few small ones from the garden)
1 clove garlic
100g sultanas
20g glaced ginger chopped small
Spices (eg ginger, cumin, star anise, paprika, chili, cinamon was what I put in mine)

Finely chop the onion and garlic and fry until starting to brown.
Chop the tomatoes. I like the pieces quite small but they are fine bigger too.
Add everything to the onions and boil with the lid off until the chutney thickens and start to look like chutney.
Put in to jars (wash first in the dishwasher) and store for a few weeks before eating.

Insulation and other renovation things

As well as coming to fix the hole in the wall M.Cibat was here to discuss and measure for giving us a quote to insulate the roof and walls. In France you don't seem to get general builders, there are 'artisans' who all have a particular craft eg plumber, electrician etc. I am not sure who people hire to bring all the work together. In the UK both times we have had anything much done on a house we had a builder who we communicated with who then bought in other craftsmen where he could not do the job, he managed and paid them. M. Cibat (not sure if we know him well enough to call him Stephane yet as people are more formal in France) is a mason, but this also includes insulation work and laying concrete. It is sometimes a bit confusing to work out which type of artisan you need for a job. We want the chimney repointing and it doesn't seem to be the masons job or the roofers. One day we will find someone to do it I hope.

Anyway back to the insulation... with old stone walls you need to let them breathe so you should not paint them with anything waterproof or have anything waterproof right up against them, there needs to be an air gap to let them breathe. So to avoid damp between the wall and the insulation, the insulation needs to be breathable or far enough from the wall to leave a gap for ventilation . Reading english DIY sites it seems that in the UK people put wooden batons on the wall and then insulate between with something breathable and then put plasterboard on the front of the batons. Then they can skim and paint or wallpaper the wall. In France they either do this or more often they put insulation and then a thin wall of bricks like this. They call it 'doublage'

Looking around at new buildings, it appears that they build everything from these. The external walls - although I think actually the structure of the wall is 'agglos' which I think is breeze block - but they clad it inside and out with bricks like these for insulation - I presume there might be something more insulating between the agglos and the bricks. Our extension where the bedroom will be is probably constructed like this. They also use something that looks similar to build internal walls. I can't say I know much about wall construction in the UK - but it does seem to me that it is different here.
The roof construction and insulation is also a bit different. In the UK there is usually some kind of 'felt' or membrane between the slates and the batons on the roof. Whereas in France the slates are directly on the batons. The argument for having the felt is that if there is a leak in the slates the water is channeled off the roof. The argument for no felt is that the roof can breathe better and circulating air will dry it out (you will know about a leak through the tiles by it coming through the ceiling).


We spent more than two hours discussing (in French) the pros and cons firstly of internal vs expernal insulation for the walls. Then having decided on internal, of wood fiber vs rock wool (fibre de bois et laine de roche) and plaster board vs skinny bricks. We also discussed the finish of the walls. In France they don't have the concept of a plaster skim which is what we have had in our flats in London and then just painted. M. Cibat proposed one finish which would be something like the existing walls here

we asked if something smoother was possible. He showed us the smoothest finish which is something like this (and comes in a variety of very attractive colours)

when we said we wanted even smoother he said we needed 'stuc' but that it was very expensive. It seems that this is a plaster skim but almost noone in France does it. Someone has recommended a plasterer to us so we are going to get M. Cibat to finish the wall roughly and get a quote from the British plasterer.

So he has now gone off to do us a quote for

1. 20 cm of wood fiber insulation covered with plasterboard on the inside of the roof
2. Wood fiber with bricks on the walls covering the downstairs walls and right past the floor and covering the little bit of wall before the roof upstairs. This is except on the south ie front wall which will be 'pierres apparentes' (exposed stonework) and have no insulation.
3. Concreting the garage floor (with insulation under)
4. Making the hole for the new window

We also discussed with him what order the work would need to happen in.
This is a rough first version. I am sure there is lots of work we have yet to discover (Some tasks overlap)

1. Treat for woodworm etc any currently exposed wood and clean up beams (The Dream Team - that's us)
2. Lay concrete in garage (M. Cibat)
3. Install the wood burning stove, water tank and controls in the garage  (M. Dabat)
4. Demolition (The Dream Team)
5. Treat other wood for woodworm (The Dream Team)
6. Electrics and Plumbing first fix (M. Jeanson, M. Dabat)
7. The new window hole (M. Cibat, Mr Bennett)
8. The floor downstairs with the underfloor heating in it and insulation under it (M. Dabat)
9. New windows installed, velux etc (Mr Bennett)
10. Insulation of walls and roof (M.Cibat)
11. Internal walls (The Dream Team)
12. Electric points etc (M. Jeanson)
13. Finish plumbing (M. Dabat)
14. Plaster skim (??)
15. Tiling, painting etc (The Dream Team)
16. Install stoves in kitchen and living room (Simon Carmouze)
17. Remove and replace concrete render outside

This is quite different to what we have been thinking, as we had been hoping to do the upstairs and then the downstairs so we would have somewhere to live throughout. The change is that the new window will affect upstairs and downstairs and the insulation on the walls needs to be continuous from downstairs to upstairs which means the ceiling downstairs and the floor upstairs both need to be removed that the same time. The underfloor heating also comes earlier in the process as it comes before the roof insulation.

So we need to think of a new plan of how we are going to live while it is all being done.
My idea -

A Yurt

but it would be cheaper to rent somewhere unless we could rent it out afterwards as holiday accomodation. Some minor details how we would get water, electricity and waste disposal to it...

PANIC - Winter is coming!

The weather forecast seems to think winter is about to start with a number of nights at -3 and -4 and some snow from Saturday... but wait a minute! that is TOMORROW.
Scene with Rhoda and Doug running around waving arms shouting 'PANIC, PANIC puk puk, puk puk, pukaaaaaaak (surprised chicken noise)' and the dog starting on in surprise with thought bubble - 'What are they up to NOW, I really can't understand them'

The builder came back today to fill in the holes left by the mantelpiece coming out. As an extra bonus he cut a piece of board (chipboard? particle board? plywood? I don't know... wood anyway that he assures us is fine close to the hot stove pipe) to fit the hole in to upstairs above the stove. I think he took one look at us and decided we were incapable and that we were going to freeze to death over the winter if he didn't help. We would have managed it eventually, but he rushed in wielding a circular saw and had it done in about 3 minutes without ages spent measuring and debating and clamping wood to sawhorses for safety etc. Thanks M. Cibat!!

M. Cibat to the rescue!

Less drafts

Even more less drafts

We will put some insulation on top of the board and seal any gaps with magic foam. We will also block the hole at the bottom of the chimney stack. Not quite sure how we will do this yet. With Laine de Roche (rock wool) perhaps held in place with wood batons or something (but the wood needs to be clear of the chimney pipe).

We also need to do something about ensuring that the water pump doesn't freeze, the plan for this is a box made from polystyrene round the pump and fleece wrapped round the pipes.
There used to be some sand heaped up at the back of the house over where the pipe from the pump comes in to the house. We dug this away as we were concerned about damp, but now we are more concerned about freezing so we plan to dig the sand back for the time being until we come up with a neater solution.

Beaucoup d'oeufs

Well maybe not lots of eggs, but nearly enough.
There are now three chickens laying and we probably average two eggs a day. With the days getting shorter they probably only each lay five a week. But it is a big improvement and we have enough now that they don't seem so precious and we can use them for things like cakes.

Fullest the skelter has been with our own eggs

The pigs are due to go to the abatoir in just over a week. We will then be able to have our own ham and eggs... or bacon and eggs... once we make the bacon and ham or course.

Aaaargh what have we DONE

Scared Rhoda - Oh no what have we done we now have a giant hole in the living room wall and another in the ceiling so all the rain and wind can get in and freeze us to death over the winter.

Positive Rhoda - Don't worry. It is a good thing we had it done, now we know what is behind the wall and we know we need to put a new beam in to hold up some of the cross beams plus we can start some work on the walls to stop them crumbling away. Sure it is a temporary setback that there are 2 giant holes through the wall and that the room is rather less sealed from the elements than it was, but it is all going to be fiiiiiiiinnne. Swigs cheap rum energetically (the cheapest very strong booze available in the supermarket) and passes out.

I mentioned a while ago that the chimney breast in the kitchen is falling down and either needed to be taken down and rebuilt or just taken down. We decided just to have it taken down as we don't need it as we don't have an open fire (but keeping the chimney stack for the tube from the fire and any ventilation to go out).
The builder decided on Sunday that he could come and do it on Monday (I think the endless rain meant he had a break in a job he was doing), so we spent Sunday clearing things out of the kitchen/living room and putting up plastic sheeting to try to control the dust.

He rocked up Monday morning

Put up some more polythene

and some scaffold

A lot of stone was removed - not sure how many trailer fulls but quite a few (and dumped of the corner of the drive for when we try to extend the size of the turn)

We went for a little walk nearby to pass the time while our house was destroyed

View from near Col de Palomières towards Labassère 

Autumn crocus 

Doug and donkeys

When we got back the destruction was complete (although cleaning up was not)

Downstairs

Upstairs

Where the mantle piece had touched the wall there was now a big hole... right through... the builder has promised to come back on Friday and fill it in.

Outside looking in

Inside looking out

The builders then did do a good job of cleaning up after themselves, but that still left the whole of the room and most of the upstairs thick with dust.

We have been wiping and moping continuously for 24 hours now and it is starting to get a bit better.
The area round the fire is now even less attractive than it was before

There is rather a large hole in the ceiling (the chimney was huge) which we have roughly blocked for now, and as you can see there are also a number of beams that now end in midair.

On a slightly different subject - but related - seeing the insulation from the side where the holes are we started contemplating whether insulation would be better than the exposed stone we had been planning. The chimney destroying man also does insulation so he is going to do us a quote. He also helpfully told us there is someone in the social security office on Wednesday's who advises on tax benefits and grants available to people making their houses more energy efficient - we are planning on going along this week to try to find him.

The arguments for exposed stone are 1.) It allows the stones to breathe so you don't have damp trapped anywhere 2.) It looks nice 3.) The stone is a big heat sink which heats up as you have the heating on and radiates it back later 4.) You don't have the expense of insulation
The arguments against it are 1.) It isn't a good insulator so rooms are cold 2.) It is a lot of work to finish it nicely 3.) It is hard to keep rooms clean as debris comes off the wall 4.) The walls can breathe well because there is a gap between the insulation and the wall 5.) There is somewhere for wires and pipes to be hidden behind the insulation

If we decide to go with insulation we will roughly clean and patch up the wall behind the fire, otherwise we will need to do more to make it look nicer.

Walk in the rain

We had something like 60mm of rain in a 3 day period. It feels a miracle we haven't been washed away.
It seems that Lourdes almost has been (There isn't usually water on any of the parts shown here)

During a brief break in the rain (apart from light drizzle - but coming from Scotland that doesn't count) we went for a walk. We call it 'The Grape Walk' as there are some wild grapes at the side of the path. It doesn't involve driving so is a good walk to do on the spur of the moment. Last time we went the grapes were not ripe, and this time they were all shrivelled up. Maybe we will time it right next year.

It is looking very autumnal

Sweet chestnuts and leaves

View down the valley towards equestrian centre

Bracken

Man and dog

Smelling a deer (but failing to spot it I think - despite Doug pointing)

The neighbour's land

Autumn crocus

Holly berries

Mad running dog

When I was playing this video before uploading it Poppy came running over because she could hear Doug whistling, she was very confused about whether to come to the computer or Doug. What a clever dog :)

Sheep and more sheep

We recently moved our sheep again as they had pretty much finished the grass they were on - they let us know they weren't happy with it any more by busting out and making off over the field. We caught them at it and rounded them back up before they got far.

The grass IS greener on the other side

Happy in the new enclosure

Today Doug took the dog out for a bit of a run despite the insistent rain. I stayed in to do useful things (which is to say I was lazing around in my pyjamas). He hadn't been gone long when I looked out of the window and saw him gesticulating wildly. I opened the door to see what excitement was occurring. He was obviously a bit out of breath from coming up the hill fast and managed to get out 'there are sheep in the field puff pant'. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this as there are meant to be sheep in the field. I finally managed to understand there were OTHER sheep not ours in a different field. I quickly got dressed and went down for a look. There were about 50 sheep in the bottom field.

We wandered around them a bit wondering how to locate their owner when the neighbor drove up (we have met M. Neighbor but this was Mme. Neighbor whom we have not yet met) and screeched to a halt at the bottom of the drive. We had a bit of a chat with her about the difficulties of being a peasant farmer (paysanne is the word she used and other french people round here use to describe themselves - to mean smallholder I guess not peasant exactly) with such steep land etc. She then rounded up all 50 much easier than we manage 12 and took them off back home.

Tomato harvest

We will probably have had something like 5 times this number of tomatoes.

There are going to be a lot that have not ripened. The various old men who have told us we planted them too late were right (we did know this when we planted them but thought it was better to get some than none). The wet and colder weather are meaning some are rotting rather than ripening. The chickens have been getting a number of these and seem to enjoy them. The ones we have had are very tasty.