Still puzzling over the solar hot water

At the start of the year I posted about us not understanding why the solar heat doesn't load the tank correctly. We still haven't managed to understand what is wrong. We have however got some thermometers which we attached to the three pipes and were able to tell a bit more from this.
We have emailed the installer again and also Akvaterm the supplier of the tank and the controller for loading the tank. It is frustrating because it means we are not getting the energy from the sun that we should.
Overall the system is great and the energy we do get from the sun is a useful boost to burning wood. It would be EVEN BETTER if we could get it to work properly though. The installation is a bit frustrating because the guy who installed it lives miles away so cannot just pop out to look at things. We have found 4 issues with it.
1) The pipes to the radiators were plumbed the wrong way round (so it took out from the cold end of the tank and put back in to the hot)
2) There was a leak in the solar circuit (and still is)
3) The heating controller isn't attached as per the Akvaterm instructions and was done incorrectly even for what the installer had intended
4) This issue we are looking at here where the solar energy is not loading correctly to the tank

This is some diagrams where I was trying to understand what the LK820 controller is doing.

This diagram shows how it should all be connected up. The heating on the right hand side isn't done quite like this as on here there is a 4 way valve that mixes from the top and middle puts back in the bottom to keep stratification, ours just takes from the top puts back to the bottom.

Strange things

The chickens LOVE eating rabbit poo. I feed it to them quite often. They also like horse poo.
One day we are hoping to make a covered area where we could have the rabbits and chickens both, so that the chickens could peck around under the cages and save us the effort of having to empty the poo trays every day.
Look how happy they are! They like the grass and hay that comes with the poo too.

Changing the car wheels

As it is Spring, at the weekend we decided it was time to change the wheels on the car. Doug does this (it is a man's job you know - said with a wry smile, as I say it to annoy my mum who occasionally said this despite thinking women can do ANYTHING - but she is not here to read it *looks sad*) but this time I asked him to show me how. I know in theory of course, but don't know the details for this car. I hope never to have to do it on the motorway in the middle of the night but as I do quite a long drive twice a week it is always a possibility - and there may not be a man about!

He learnt everything he knows about changing a wheel from when we were in Argentina. We were staying in Mendoza for a wedding and drove up in to the Andes for a day. We had a puncture on the way and some very kind local helped change the wheel. We felt a bit scared going off into the wilderness without a spare wheel, but did it anyway!

Spring

We had a spell of summer like weather (but better because the air temperature actually quite cool)
This has meant that animals are all moulting their winter coats.
This is from one grooming of Owen. He was still pretty fluffy afterwards, but much less itchy. There are white patches all over the field where he has been rolling.

Lovely weather for a walk by the lake

With amazing views

More baby rabbit

There is one litter that is 3 weeks old and another two which are 1 week old.
These are the 3 week old ones. Cute huh? If only we can keep them alive.

We have medicated the whole herd  (warren? flock?) with metoxyl which treats for Coccidiosis which is a protizoal disease which can affect the liver or intestines (it doesn't transfer to humans) and we plan on treating then again as the oldest babies are starting to come out of the nest and drink water - so probably in a weeks time. We will also vaccinate as we did the previous litters though that did not help and only 3 or the total 18 survived.
It is frustrating not really knowing what the problem is and why so many of the previous litters have died.
Here they are enjoying the grass. I made this wooden slatted bottom for the cage as we have had big problems with young rabbits escaping when in cages on the lawn and then the dog gets them - with only 3 there are not many to spare!

Strimming, strimming, strimming

At this time of year, there is a never ending need to strim stuff, as the brambles and nettles are springing into life along with the various other weeds.
Doug has just done the area where the hops should hopefully grow. This is their third? forth? year and we are hoping they will spring to life a bit better than previous years. The weeds tend to overpower them, so it was good to get an early start on keeping them under control, hopefully we can keep it up and give them a chance this year.

Easter break

It is lovely having a four day weekend instead of the normal boring two.
This is the coast of France from the plane. Light as we fly in now that the hour has changed.

Admiring the view from a hammock

 Drinking a beer admiring the view. Waiting for the bbq to cook

Trip up the Pic du Midi. Unfortunately, due to the broken toe, I can't ski but we can go up the Pic on our ski passes, so we took advantage of that, as during the summer it will cost 35 EUR.

In the cable car

In the cable car

The observatory - you can see this spire from our house

The view back in to the ski area

Panorama of the view

A while ago we did a tour and we could see really clearly from the other side of the valley where we went. Green - lifts up. Red - walking. Blue - the ski down.

There is a restaurant up there, but we took some (very tasty) sandwiches as it was fully booked.

We also did some exciting shopping in Point Vert which is the place we get animal food from and plants and various other things.

For Easter we had some very yummy lamb stew, which I have called 'Lamb odds and ends stew' as it was made with lambs neck, ribs, heart, liver and kidneys as well as aubergine, courgette, mushrooms and peppers. Doug wanted dumplings, but we didn't have any suet, so I made czech bread dumpling to go with it.

The dog has had a lovely brea. Plenty of exercise - though I can only hobble short distances we have been places she can run around, and visited various friends with dogs, which provides excitement and tires her out too.