Happy Birthday Doug!!

Doug is 21 (for the 19th time)
We went with Lorna to the Auberge du col de Bayrede for lunch
The view is amazing (the weather was variable but generally a bit nicer than it looks here)

Doug and Poppy and the view

We had a set menu with. Doug and I had Garbure for starter, this is a local soup/stew which we had not come across before. Unfortunately there is no photo as I was too busy eating it, it was delicious.

Pretty places

Lorna had a rest after lunch and we went for a walk with Poppy. It poured in rain while we were eating (sitting outside but under shelter) but kindly cleared up for this.

We had quite a quiet evening but it was exciting never the less. We had our first meal consisting only of our own produce. Eggs, potatoes, beans (green and fire tongue), sweetcorn (the first we picked) and of course BEER!

The first sweetcorn from the garden

Onion

Some of the onions have been a bit battered in the rain, but some have come out very pretty (and tasty). We may not be quite self sufficent in onions yet however.

Moving the pigs

The poor pigs have been a bit neglected recently what with the chickens and the sheep taking up a fair bit of time as well as various weeding, planting, pruning and chipping tasks. They had been on the same plot for quite a while and had very thoroughly cleared it of all vegetation.

We have been intending to move them to the châtaigneraie (sweet chestnut grove) for a while so that they could eat last years chestnuts before new ones fall as well as clearing some of the bracken.
We finally got round to doing this. They are in an enclosure that only covers a fraction of the total grove, perhaps 10% or something, but it will be a start.
The plan was that they would follow the food bucket up, but girl pig was very unsure about leaving the old area even though the fence was down. While we were trying to persuade her forward boy pig rushed out.

Luckly Lorna was standing by the new enclosure and he rushed up there (presumably people mean food) and she was able to get him in no problems.

Eventually girl pig decided to follow the food and joined him.

Then it was time for the tricky bit - moving the house.
Actually it turned out not to be so bad as we managed to lower a couple of bits of fence and it was possible to take it up the road/track/path that goes through the woods (I just got a splinter in my finger in first photo, I am not worrying about a broken nail as it appears). Having done it before we were also able to get it balanced correctly on the barrow first time.

Puuuush, puuuuuull

House delivery, where do you want it?

Here looks good

Job well done

Visit from Lorna

 Lorna as mentioned in her blog passed the 'fit to fly' test (air is a bit thinner on aeroplanes) and arrived at Toulouse airport.

Is it dangerous to take a photo while driving?

She has been put to work as all visitors are, and is doing a sterling job weeding (also well as helping move the pigs). Luckily the weather is very nice.

 We have allowed some time off to go to the market, Payolle and Col d'Aspin.

Payolle with cows

Pic du Midi from Col d'Aspin

Poppy scarf

View from Col d'Aspin

Martha with clouds

Lorna at Col d'Aspin

Cocker cock

The cockerel didn't learn to crow properly, but he sure did do it LOUD.
So we had to get rid of him. We were going to put him in the pot, but we decided to get some more chickens from the same guy (despite mistake with sexing which is apparently normal as it is hard to tell when they are young) and when I emailed him he offered to swap the two cockerels for hens. He couldn't give us the hens for a couple of weeks because he had an illness in the flock and wanted to wait until treatment had definitely been successful. We were going to wait and take the cockerels back at the same time. But with the crowing getting louder and earlier each morning we had to do an emergency trip to offload them. This is where they are now living... or maybe he put them straight in the pot as he lives in a small town and I don't imagine the neighbours enjoying the noise.

On a slightly different but related (in my mind) topic we had some quail for dinner the other night. We didn't have to kill them or gut them but they did have heads on and stared at me until I chopped them off, minced them up and fed them to Poppy.

So have made one small step closer to slaughter from being unable to buy the rabbit with head on (although I must admit I didn't notice they had their heads when I bought them)

All hail the fridge!

I never thought I would get so excited about kitchen appliances (although I did like our fridge in Camden and the cooker too). Darty (nation wide company who do electrical goods of all sorts, the dishwasher and printer came from them too) made it up the newly trimmed drive and delivered our super new Samsung American style fridge freezer (with ice maker and water dispenser when we get them plumbed in).

Hay!

The hay man popped round while we were in the middle of clearing the drive to allow for the fridge delivery to see if it was convenient to deliver the hay today. Although the drive was strewn in bits we had chopped off but not yet removed we said it would be fine to do it in the afternoon. We thought it would motivate us clean up all the bit, although he did say his tractor would just drive over them fine anyway.
He brought us one extra free so that was 11 bales. He drove them on a big trailer to the bottom of the drive then brought them up one at a time on the forks of the tractor. He was able to position them quite precisely at the entrance to the hay barn so although they are pretty heavy (80kg? 100kg?) we were able to roll them in to place pretty easily. Hot dusty work though.

Turning at the top of the drive

Going down to the hay barn entrance

Getting a bale in through the door

Coming up to the hay barn entrance with the next one

Waiting for the next bale. Nearly done!

 We have no idea how much the sheep will eat but hopefully we have plenty now.