Cladding the inside of the roof

The roofer has lent us his compressed air powered nail gun so we can attach the 'volige' (wood paneling) to the underside of the new roof. It has been a bit nerve wracking doing it (for me, not Doug) as the ladder and scaffold need to be very high to reach the top of the roof! It is going a bit slowly as we had to go and buy some new tools (orbital sander for the beam and SDS drill).

You can't really see it here, but the finish on the wood is rough, kind of rustic. It is quite pale at the moment, but I imagine it will darken with time as it is pine.

Sexing rabbits

I have tried a few times to sex the baby rabbits. There are good instructions on the internet, but I could never get the 'bits' to pop out like they are meant to,

I have finally got the hang of it! Or maybe it is just easier now the babies are bigger.

The white one on the very right here is female and the one in the middle that looks like it has a moustache is male. I haven't bothered doing them all as it doesn't really matter as ALL will be eaten regardless of sex.

First litter of rabbits weaned

Ginger's babies were weaned on Tuesday. Apparently this is a risky time for baby rabbits as they are prone to stomach infections and more susceptible to disease generally as their mothers milk is helping their immune system. We left them with her until 8 weeks which is quite long, it is possible she had weaned them already. So far they are all fine and still growing. In only a few weeks we can try the first one! They will still be pretty small (around 1kg live and maybe only 500g ready to cook). They grow quite slowly as we feed them mainly grass rather than pellets - but we are still planning on sampling one. We have been waiting so long! Awwwww look how cute they are.

Eating quail

We didn't do really well with the quail we hatched. We startd with 42 eggs, 13 hatched and 6 survived. We have just killed and eaten 3 of the 6. One because it had been badly pecked, the other two because they kept pecking the others. One was very small (the one that got pecked) but the other two were a good size - and delicious.

We have bought an additional 12 (9 females and 3 males) from our riding instructors neighbour. He just keeps them as pets, but has more than a hundred. Our riding instructor assured him we were not going to eat them! We did not lie!

We are hoping they can get on well enough to produce some fertilised eggs so we can try again hatching them. We will see. We seem to have problems when thy reach maturity, the males start prcking the females on the head. It is normals if they do it a little bit and the females often have a bald patch, but they seem to go way overboard and nearly peck their heads off.

Maybe eating the culpits will be a warning to the others :)

I just roasted them for about 15 mins with a bit of salt and oil on them. You can fry them a bit to brown the skin more before roasting them - but I never bother.

Chickens have hatched!

We did not expect them too as the plug for the incubator got knocked out of the wall and they were totally cold when we noticed. We warmed them back up and kept them going, just in case, while we collected some new eggs. But it turns out we don't need the new eggs and can just eat them as 14 out of the 20 original eggs have hatched! The last one to hatch is a bit scruffy looking, but the rest all look fine.

Beatrix had babies!

Beatrix has been with us over a week. Yesterday she was in one of the cages on the lawn and I noticed she was picking the grass, rather than eating it, and carrying it in to the bedroom area in the special way they use when making a nest. So I quickly moved her back in to one of the concrete hutches as the ones on the lawn aren't a great place to be having babies. 

A few hours later she had made a nest and had some babies in it! A surprise as she wasn't meant to be pregnant when we got her! She didn't have them in the nest box, but never mind. We are not sure how many there are, or how it is going to go as she is still very nervous from moving home.

We now have four rabbits with  babies! From drought to flood!

View from the kitchen window

No it is not meant to be a photo of a lot of weeds! It is Hainoa, currently residing, with Islay, just outside the kitchen (at the back of the house). What a cool view!

Quick soda pizza

Base

125g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

30g cold butter

Salt

Some water

Topping

Chopped tomato

Grated cheese

Other things eg ham and quail egg

Put the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl.

Add the butter and rub in to the flour.

Add enough water to make a soft dough. Mix just enough to bring it together, don't kneed.

Roll out to about 20cm diameter circle and place on a baking tray (or pizza stone)

Add the toppings (tomato, then cheese, then other things) and bake in a hot oven for about 15 mins until the base is brown and the cheese bubbling. 

It is softer than a 'normal' pizza, but tasty and quick - good quick lunch!

Insulation is done (nearly! not quite!)

There is still a little bit to do, but we can't do it until the roofer strengthens one corner (where water has been getting in) and makes a repair to the ridge pole. It doesn't go in to the wall at one end, so he needs to make a little ledge to support the end of it.

It is frustrating being nearly done, but not quite!

Make hay while the sun shines

We have a field that we call 'the hay field' so we thought we had better get on and make a bit of hay from it. The forcast says sunny for a few days so we decided it was time. It seems pretty early for hay, but the grass is seeding already.

We cut with scythes, and 'tedded' (ie spread out to dry) with a lawn rake. I am not sure which is harder work. It took us about two hours to scythe - which leaves it in neat rows and then an hour to spread it all out. Then we floofed it around one more during the day and then spent an hour this evening putting it back in to rows so it gets less damp with dew overnight. We did an area about 20m x 30m, which we worked out is about half of what we will need to keep the rabbits over the winter. 

Oh! I forgot to mention, we got up at 6.30 am to do this!

We will spread it out again tomorrow and floof it, and probably gather it all in on Friday. We will store it loose, not bailed. A lot of work doing it by hand. We asked one of the neighbours if they would be able to make hay for us, but they said the land was too steep. 

I would guess that the amount of hay we will have made is less than one of the big bales - which cost about 25 EUR. so we are not doing it for the money, but because we find it interesting... and kind of fun... ish.

We have thought about, and are still thinking about, how we could automate a bit, but it gets very expensive. A scythe (also called sickle) mower would make the cutting a lot quicker - they have a wide bar with two sets of teeth, one of which move relative to one another, cutting the grass. You are looking at something near a grand for one. You can get things called two wheel tractors, which are like the drive unit of the sickle mower to which you can add various attachments. This would be more expensive, but you can get tedding and various other attachments such as trailers for it too. Mini bailers for two wheel tractors do exist, but are just crazy expensive. I imagine they are expensive to maintain and run too. When you add it all up, it is not worth it for the hay, but there would be other   advantages to having a sickle mower. It would be good for the fields and keep weeds down if we cut them once in a while (there are some weeds the animals don't eat, generally cutting them once a year massivly reduces them. We should do it with the scythes, but haven't yet (apart from some very small areas).

We killed the eggs!

We are pretty sure we have killed the eggs we put on to incubate a couple of weeks ago. The plug for the incubator got knocked out of the wall and it was the next day before we noticed. So they were well and truely cold. We have started collecting a new batch, but are continuing to incubate these in the mean time. We think a chicken is broody so we are going to put a few under her too.

Things aren't going too well with hatchlings this year. Only 6 of the quail have survived. Only 15 hatched and some were pretty weedy and have not made it. Shame! When the incubator is free again perhaps we will try again. Our riding instructor has a neighbour who has loads of quail apparently.

Too many rabbits!

Well maybe not quite yet, and certainly not too many to eat yet as we are still waiting for the babies to be big enough (another month at least), but we have been given another rabbit. She is Bernardette's mum, her owner just has too many and didn't want to eat her as she is a bit old at a year and a half - he was talking of setting her free, I don't suppose she would have lasted long. We thought it would be madness to turn down a free rabbit as we can always eat her (I think older rabbit like that should still be excellent stewed), but we are planning on breeding her for now. She is a bit of a nervous wreck at the moment but hopefully will calm down, she had a stressful day travelling yesterday. She is called Beatrix.

Mrs Robinson's babies are still alive today. I still haven't looked closely, I can see the nest heaving from a distance and there appear to be quite a few in there.

Horse dentist

Time for the annual dental visit! Both had points on their teeth - which are normal - that the dentist ground down. Neither horse was thrilled by this, but who can blame them!
Owen apparently has wolf teeth but they are not causing a problem (they sound a bit like wisdom teeth for horses, noone knows what they are for and they can be uncomfortable sometimes).
You can't really see in the photo, but the dentist has a special head collar with an attachment which goes in the horses mouth and holds it open for him to work. It also has handles on so you can control a little how much the horse throws its head around. He’s a good dentist and manages the horses without having to sedate them.

This is the cross country course at the equestrian center. We have done some of the jumps once in a lesson. You can also see the new foal and her mum in the middle of the picture. It is very cute!

We went for a nice ride afterwards and had a picnic up in the woods between the equestrian center and our house. Poppy came too. I got off and walked her on the lead along the road as she can't be trusted not to dart in front of a quarry lorry.

Third time lucky?

Mrs Robinson has just had her third litter. The previous two she has made a mess of and have all died - a few she ate, and the rest of cold and starvation, traumatic! In both cases she had them scattered around the floor of the cage rather than in a nice warm nest. Both other times she took against the nest box and tried to chuck it out her cage. This time I put it in really early - and at the same time as I moved her from a cage on the lawn in to the bunny palace, so it was in there when she moved in.

She has had the litter in a nest in the nest box, so it is going much better than previous times. Either she has been talking to the other bunnies, or she heard that she is for the 'clonk' if it doesn't work out this time, or perhaps it is the warmer weather. She is a nice big rabbit, so we are hoping it will go well. I haven't looked in the nest closely, as I don't want to upset her, but I can see from a distance that there is movement in there and she is eating away happily (on grass not baby bunnies!) All she has to do now is feed them!

Chicken and Mushroom Pie Recipe

Serves 4-6 people

5 chicken thighs (bone in, skin optional - I like skin on and I leave most of it in the pie)

1 onion

1 clove garlic

200ml chicken stock (you can make from the thigh bones as described below or stock cube or whatever...)

100ml milk, or 50ml milk and 50ml wine

200g mushrooms

2 tblsp plain flour

Egg for glazing

Pastry (flaky, shortcrust or puff - homemade or bought - I used Paul Hollywood's flaky pastry recipe - but all butter no lard)

To cover dish 8x25cm or thereabouts (I used 175 g of flour)

It is best if you prepare the chicken the day before as you can use the bones for stock - otherwise you can use stock cubes or other stock you have.

Put the chicken breasts skin side down in a frying pan and fry until darkish brown.

Turn over, cover and continue to cook until cooked through (30 mins maybe).

Leave to cool a bit then remove the bones and and flabby bits of skin.

To make stock use a small pan and just cover the bones with water and boil for a couple of hours. You only want about 200ml of stock so let it reduce down as it cooks.

Chop onions and garlic and fry gently in oil until starting to brown. Add the flour to the onions and stir. Then add the stock and the milk/wine mixture (or just milk if not using wine). Stir and add the whole lot to the chicken meat along with the mushrooms (cut up if they are big). The mixture should be quite liquidy with the sauce being the texture of thick cream once you have brought it to the boil.

Bring to a boil stirring so you don't get lumps and simmer for about 10 mins.

Put in to the pie dish and cover with the pastry. Brush with the egg, cut some air holes and bake at 180C for about an hour until the pastry is cooked and brown.

Serve with mashed potatoes and veg.

Yay scaffold is down!

This photo doesn't do it justice (the grass is out of control!)

We now need to clad the inside of the roof, then we will finish the insulation upstairs in the house, then put a concrete floor in this area and plumbing for a sink. Eventually we will re-render and paint the front and re-point the walls inside as well (but after various other work on the inside of the house).

After all that our intention is to dig out and concrete (with some insulation under) the garage, then install the hot water and heating system (wood gasification boiler and solar pv? thermal?) in there along with a temporary toilet and shower. But more on that plan later when we have worked it out more.

Two years on

We have been here two years. It feels like forever and no time at all. We have made progress in some things and learnt soooo much, but in other ways (the house arrrrgg) we haven't got very far - although we are making progress now. You can see in the picture at the head of the blog that the cherry was in blossom then. This year they have been and gone already. Winter started early and spring has arrived very very early too. The weather is fairly up and down, which I suppose is normal for spring. It has been raining and raining (but not very cold) ans I think this is just a brief sunny interlude before more rain. Lovely and sunny today, as it was the day we arrived, which was nice as we had people to lunch, and a neighbour popped round too.

Sticky Toffee Pudding Recipe

I hope the owner of this recipe doesn't mind me putting it on here. i am keen not to lose it as it is so delicious! I need to check with the friend who gave it to me who to credit...

The Pudding

50g margarine or butter

75g soft brown flour

125g self raising flour (or plain and half tsp baking powder)

1 tsp baking powder

125g chopped dates

Wizz together fir 10 seconds

Add 300ml boiling water and 1tsp instant coffee and wizz for further 5 seconds

Pour in to a greased 8 inch dish and bake at 180C for 30 to 40 mins (until skewer comes out clean)

The Sauce (goes well with icecream too)

300mls double cream

175g soft brown sugar

125g butter

Melt in a pan and bring to boil, then simmer for 2 mins.

Earthquake

We had quite a big earthquake in the 29th of April. It was 4.7 on the richter scale apparently.

http://www.franceseisme.fr/nseisme.php?IdSei=502

It didn't last long but was scary while it did. I was just thinking of running outside as surely something was going to collapse if it intensified any more, when it ended.

Apparently there was an earthquake in 1660 which 'devastated' Bagnères de Bigorre.