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