Water heater and hurrah for the internet

The water heater is quite tempremental and has been getting more and more difficult to light.

You light the pilot, wait a while and then turn the knob round before you can have hot water.

You might not remember, but the hacked out hole in the wall we did day 1 in the house because one of the water pipes had rusted through...

Last night it decided not to work. The pilot lit, but went out when Doug turned the knob round - it often doesn't work 1st time but now failed all the times.

He dismantled some parts and cleaned out air vents etc so the pilot burned a bit hotter.

Eventually he gave up in despair and went to bed.

This morning I had vague memories of school physics lessons about thermocouples and consulted the internet a bit. Which gave Doug the motivation to try some more dismantling. Eventually we managed to bend the tip of the thermocouple in to the pilot flame a bit more with the theory it would get hotter and be more likely to work. HurraaaaaaaAAAH now it works. 

The thermocouple is the narrower copper tube at the top of the picture slightly left of center.

Doug is now taking a well deserved shower. Fingers crossed it can manage to keep struggling on until we have new hot water and shower - currently scheduled for December-ish.

Electrics in the extension

The electrician is coming tomorrow to start the 1st fix electrics for the workshop (kitchen, living dining in during building work) and main bedroom which are the bit of the house we plan on living in while the rest of the house is done.

The wall insulation people are coming start of November and the heating fitters start of December. We keep thinking of more things we need to do before then.

I think this should make it totally clear to him!

There is a key that goes with it. Doug obviously is here for detailed locations etc.

Mushroom feast

This year has been good for mushrooms. We still haven't had lots of luck with cepes (the french are all obsessed with them) but loads of chanterelles (giroles in French although I thought chanterelle was French) and parasol too. Doug has collected and dried a good number and we have had quite a few to eat fresh too. The round white thing in the photo is part of the dehydrator.

New lamb

One of the sheep (Bella) just had a little boy lamb. Totally unexpected. No photo yet.

Bif has no bollocks!

The vet - or rather vets - have been and castrated Bif. We watched a video how to do it on youtube, but decided against doing it ourselves!

They also burnt of his horn buds with our gas powered horn disbudder. We had been unsure whether it was getting hot enough so had not done it. Benefit also that they did it under anasthetic.

The disbudder has a flame in it and gets hot, the end is a ring shape which fits over the little bud that will become horns

He was a bit sad afterwards but we cannot have a bull in the fields, it would be too dangerous and even without the crazy bull hormones he would be more dangerous with horns and it is much safer and less painful to burn the buds before they really start growing than it is to have the horns removed later. We wish Bluebell had been done as it is worrying when she tosses her head around. We are planning on trimming off the tips at least.

A few days later he is non the worse for it.

Wood

Although it is only early September recent weather and the slight autumnal look on some of the trees has tunes thoughts to winter, Doug has started building the wood at the end of the house up in preperation. It gives us a feeling of security.

Cute pictures

The milk that comes out for the first 3 days or so is called colostrum which is high in fat, protein and vitamins as well as some kind of nice healthy stomach bacteria.

The light isn't very good here, but you can kind of see the colostrum is really really yellow.

The gross yellow stuff is poo after eating the colostrum. It really stinks! The dog seems to love it though!

Lismore IS a girl

Bluebell has had her calf

I knew she was waiting for the very few days in this 2 week time period that I am in London!

Doug had a bit of a stressful morning with it. He didn't sleep to well because he was listening for noise from Bluebell who was looking imminent last night. 

Then when he went out to check this morning (just after 7) he thinks the calf had just been born. He went into the small field where Bluebell has been on her own for some time so we could keep an eye on her, to find her staring down onto the drive and mooing quietly but repeatedly. The little calf (who he thinks is a girl and will be called Lismore - I am worried that his sex identification was based on her having nipples. Boys have nipples too!!) had fallen down the bank and just missed the ditch. He carried her back round to the field. Was knackering apparently as she isn't big, but slimy and wriggling weakly. He then tried to get Bluebell up to a flat area on the field, but she wouldn't as she was standing convinced her calf was still over the edge of the field and wouldn't leave that area. Doug was worried about bonding as Buttercup and Big seemed to have a hard time of it but Bluebell started licking her straight away and the calf stood up and was looking for the teats to feed.

Weather is warm for today so hopefully all good and she will dry off well. She is half highland so has a decent amount of hair for the current coldish nights.

Easy apple pie

This is a thin cake with apples on the top. Yummy and easy. Best with cooking apples

8oz self raising flour 

4oz sugar

4oz butter

2 eggs

Enough milk to make a thickish mixture that spreads out a little on its own. Quite thin for a cake mix but not v runny

Put everything is a mixer and mix well

Put the mixture in to a flan dish

Cut 3 or 4 apples depending on size in to slices and over the top of the cake mix.

Sprinle with sugar

Serve hot or cold with custard or cream - or just on its own.

Work restarted on the house

Over the summer Doug has been focusing on the animals and land and his helpers had other work so progress on the house stopped.

Doug has restarted work this week. We hope to be able to move in to this temporary downstairs living area (is now the garage, and will eventually be a workshop and heating/laundry room) and the real bedroom upstairs from it sometime during the winter. It will have the new heating system in it and a shower supplied by this (solar hotwater and wood burner)

Currently work is progressing on getting the bottom of the walls prepared for the hempcreate (wall insulation) so that screed can be layed. It has been a fiddle to make sure that the whole inside of the wall will be insultated given how uneven the stones are. 

It will look like this

A - Wall

B - Insulation under floor (polystyrene sheets)

C - Concrete

D - Screed

E - Same as under the floor round the edges

F - Concrete with some insulation as the aggregate eg clay balls or cork. Needs to be an aggregate that can cope with damp.

G - Hempcrete (mixture of lime concrete and hemp)

E and F could have been the same thing. We discovered after we had the floor down that the hempcrete should not be inside the screed (ie where F is) because the screed is not breathable and would cause the hempcrete to rot so work is under way adding F at the same depth as the screed will be. It is a big job getting it level.

There was a slight accident while doing this with one of the pipes in the floor being drilled through. So it had to get dug out of the concrete. There is a silver lining that it will be easier to fit the shower tray with a little more play in that pipe. Luckly it wasn't as difficult as expected to dig it out.

Still waiting

Due date calculation is very imprecise and there are various theories. It was 9 months two days ago. We could be playing this watching game for some time still. I am far from expert, but I wouldn't think it is still weeks... Buttercup took nearly 10 days after I was convinced it was going to be any moment - although at that point I hadn't understood where pins are or what they look like when they have 'gone', now I think I do somewhat at least...

Udder is a bit bigger. Teats are not wrinkly, but I wouldn't call them 'strutted' either (which is where they stick out sideways because everything is so full)

Pins going but not gone? When I felt when she first stood up I couldn't feel the ligament at all, but after she walked around some it seemed to appear a bit...

I thought when she first stood up she was pushing as she stuck her tail out and arched her back, but I think she was just stretching after a good nights sleep. She is holding her tail high aome of the time.

Just before they give birth the 'baby bump' out the right hand side is meant to disappear as the calf moves in to the birth canal. I can't really tell what is happening with that though as it seems to change a lot depending on the size of her rumen (which is more to the left)

What a state!

The garden has got out of control again!

There is a lot of camomile flowers, courgette and beans ready though.

Sweetcorn looks to be doing well (although not very many germinated considering the number planted)

Garden shed (kind of)

We layed the concrete 2 years ago planning to build a garden shed on it in the potager. Then activity on the house and general business took over, plus we changed or plan of how we were going to cope with living in the house while renovating it.

We are keen to build something nice up there which will take time - that we need to spend on the house now. So in the mean time we need something to keep our tools and such dry in.

We are trying a temporary canvas shed. Hopefully it will do the job and in the future the frame can maybe be a polytunnel with suitable plastic covering.

The canvas should shrink to fit apparently...

Camping/caravanning trip

Amazing weather over the bank holiday (which is not a bank holiday in France). 

We went camping with a friend with a dinky fold up caravan to Payolle. I didn't get one of it folded up, but it folds right down to the line below the windows!

You can see our tent in the background

Dogs and BBQ. Poppy loves camping and wants to run around all night.

She wouldn't jump off the end of the pontoon. Boring!

Beautiful morning view

Proud owner of caravan

Snail dog (looks like she is carrying the caravan on her back?)

When will she give birth?

It is 9 months today since she was AI-ed, so could be any moment, or not for another couple of weeks.

Yes she pooed everywhere before I took the photo. Always happens.

Udder is pretty big. This is her 1st calf and she was flat 'chested' when she was impregnated.

Sorry Bluebell, not a flattering shot.

Teats still a little wrinkly.

We are looking here for the pins having gone. With Buttercup I didn't even know where I was looking, but I think now I do. They look looser to me, but by no means soft feeling where the ligament is.

Yesterday