Tag Archives: chantier communaux

Saturday 25th June 2011 – It’s been all go here today

karl hagen chantier communaux lapeyrouse puy de dome franceYes, I crawled out of the heaving pit rather late this morning, at about 10:30 to be precise, and it was off to Karl and Lou’s for their chantier. The girls spent the day painting the front of the house while Jean, Francois and I were building a woodshed at the back of the house.

There was the obligatory pause for lunch of course and I took advantage of the moment to take a photograph of all the attendees

fete des nouveaux arrivants marcillat en combraille allier franceI couldn’t stick around for long though because at 14:30 I had to piddle off to Marcillat en Combraille for this meeting. And now I know why they wanted me – apparently they didn’t have a translator and so Yours Truly was stuck with the task.

But it was well-worth going for I met a Dutch guy there who sells and hires out trailers. I’d talked to him a while back about car transporter trailers but he doesn’t do them, and so I made it clear that I had one that I might hire out if he says the magic words.
“Stop messing about Eric. You’ll be well-paid”
“Ahhh. So you know the magic words then!”

One thing led to another and it turns out that he plays music in a folk group of sorts. I mentioned my previous existence when I played bass guitar in a rock group and he’s going to pass my details on to a friend of his who plays in a folk rock group.

annual village walk virlet puy de dome franceLater this evening we were all round at Virlet where we were going to have our annual evening walk, exploring the highways and, more importantly, the byways of the commune. Just for a change the weather was good this year and the walk was enjoyable even though it was done at the pace of a route march.

This here is the old road into the village, long-since replaced by a more modern route and that down there on the right in the photo is an old well for the village

feu de joie virlet village bonfire puy de dome france Afterwards we had the traditional village bonfire – the feu de joie at the back of the church. There was a picnic too – the village had done us proud in this respect – and there was dancing to music provided by …. our friend with the trailer.

With the backdrop of the firework display at Montaigut en Combraille, it really was a most enjoyable evening and Jean, Elizabeth, Clotilde and Rosemary all certainly enjoyed it.

What with one thing and another it really was a good, enjoyable day and I’m off to bed quite happy for a change.

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Sunday 19th June 2011 – I’m going to bed in a sec.

eric hall renewable energy energies renouvelables francois carriat fete de barrot les guis virlet puy de dome franceYes, I had an early night for a change. But then again I needed it for I’ve been busy today at Francois’ event at Le Quartier today.

I met loads of interesting people, picked up loads of interesting ideas, and even sold some product, so it was definitely well worth while my going even though I smell of wood-smoke seeing as I was set up next to a guy selling woodstoves that he makes out of old gas cylinders.

strawberry moose eric hall renewable energy energies renouvelables francois carriat fete de barrot les guis virlet puy de dome franceStrawberry Moose was moose-napped again by a young admirer – he certainly has more luck than I do – and came back decorated with flowers. He liked that very much.

I met loads of friends too – too numerous to name – and I was reminded that there’s a chantier at Karl and Lou’s on Saturday.

It was quite a good event and my stall worked well but I didn’t stay for the dance and disco stuff – I feel much better curled uo with a glass of warm wincarnis at my age after my exertions just recently. And if a couple of these apparently-genuine enquiries come off I’ll be able to eat next week too.

In other news, another thing that I foretold has truly come to pass. Yes, the Septics are in talks with the Taliban. And who is surprised by this news, except the UK of course whose public position that “We will never negotiate with terrorists” (although in that case what the Good Friday Agreement is all about is a totaly mystery) is now in tatters and revealed as the farce it was always going to be.

The USA is pulling out of Afghanistan shortly and the whole basis of these negotiations with the Taliban is that the Yanks have no confidence that Khazi’s government will last 5 minutes after they have gone. The fact that Khazi’s writ runs no further than the walls of his palace is something that I have been saying for years – now it seems that the USA agrees with me.

And so what does this mean? It means that the west is fleeing from Afghanistan with its tail firmly between its legs. Not only did the Yanks lose all these people at the World Trade Centre, they have lost 4000 more in Afghanistan and the Brits almost 400 dead and for absolutely nothing at all, and as well as they they have stirred up a hornet’s nest of hatred that won’t die down in a lifetime.

The West’s campaign in Afghanistan has been a failure, and it’s been a failure since day one. Serve the badgers right as well.

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Thursday 24th June 2010 – So as I said last night …

kwikstage scaffolding barn roof les guis virlet puy de dome france… we finished the erection and we started on the stripping.

We had enough scaffolding left over to do another three bays and so it goes right round the corner and halfway along the short wall where I’ve done the car parking. In fact, we reckon that with another half-a-dozen 3-metre uprights, some more planks and some 4-foot cross pieces we could even do a full half-size of my barn – a run of about 23 metres.

kwikstage scaffolding stripping barn roof chevrons les guis virlet puy de dome franceSo once we had the scaffolding up we ripped off the slates – not that they needed much help from us, it has to be said, and then had a go at the laths. The laths were mostly in reasonable condition but we ripped them all off on this one side, but some of the chevrons are horrible and I’m surprised that they have lasted.

But stripping off the roof revealed the usual mouse nest complete with mice, and this time the added excitement was due to uncovering a pair of wasp nests. And they weren’t too pleased either.

Tomorrow we’ll take off the chevrons on the roof this side, and see how far we get fitting the new timber. Saturday we are chantiering, Sunday we are preparing our radio programme so it won’t be until Monday that we can start putting the roof covering back. I bet you any money that we’ll have torrential downpours all through the weekend.

frog barn les guis virlet puy de dome franceWhile I was wandering around checking on what had been left out I came across this beastie. He was clearly hopping mad at the work that we were doing and he didn’t like the broken slates at all. In fact at one stage he was trying to climb up the scaffolding pole but he was experiencing something of a difficulty getting his leg over.

He’s clearly an armed serviceman type of amphibian (“a frogperson?” – ed) in his camouflage clothing.

And that reminds me from back in the mid-2000s when I went to Cosford Air Force base with a friend. Standing guard on the gate was an airman in full camouflage kit – with a high-visibility jacket. Why didn’t he just take off the camouflage gear?

But I’m not going to be up long. I’m aching all over, partly due to this heavy cold that I’ve managed to catch and partly due to climbing around all over roofs. Mind you, I did manage my first solar shower today (well, a solar hair wash actually) as my hair was full of dust from the old slates.

And I was thinking too. Last year when we did the house roof it was glorious weather for most of the time and my boulangere had gone on holiday. This year we are starting the barn roof, a full two weeks earlier than last year’s house roof, yet we are now having glorious weather and my boulangere has gone on holiday.

I suppose that must mean something, but I’m blowed if I know what.

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Saturday 29th May 2010 – Errrr….

… quite!

Returning home this evening after the chantier I had a tremendous surprise

Those of you with long memories will recall that back in the winter 2008-9 I cleared a plot of land of old trees, weeds, brmables and the like ready to make a parking place for Caliburn and the trailer etc etc. But there were all kinds of rubbish stones and the like to move. And endless searches for diggers was fruitless. Eventually Bernard from the footy club told me of one and we made contact but since the guy’s visit here last week I’ve been waiting for him to get back to me.

parking place cleared les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnyway, when I returned home I found that he had been and gone, having dug out absolutely everything and a few more things besides.

It’s not exactly how I wanted it but habitual readers of this blog will have noticed that I have a tendency to vacillate. So, recognising my own failings more than anything else, I’m glad that he came to do it while I wasn’t here because it avoided me getting myself all confused and mixed up and he could get on with the job without me bothering him.

mini digger les guis virlet puy de dome franceBetter still, he’s left the digger here and he’s told me to go ahead and get the stones delivered as soon as possible – and then he’ll come back and do the laying. He’s also brought the football club’s heavy roller for compacting the stones and that has saved a whole pile of work.

So this time next week at the latest I’ll have a proper hardstanding to park some of my vehicles and I’m so impressed. I shudder to think of the cost of it all but it’s one of those things that I need to do, and the sooner the better if you ask me.

This is the most exciting thing that has happened to me since I’ve been here.

elizabeth mabit chantier communaux espinasse puy de dome franceAt the chantier there weren’t so many of us as in the past. It seems that the numbers of participants are falling off. But of course it isn’t quantity that counts, it’s quality and those who were here know each other very well and are quite good friends so that all helps considerably.

Some of the participants were involved in gardening and others such as Nan, Francois and myself, carried on with making this wooden toilet and shower block that we started last year. we had quite a production line going with Francois measuring and cutting and Nan and I fixing and nailing.

puy de dome franceWe had the work done in no time, including a pause for lunch and chat.

Towards the end of the afternoon we covered up the garden that the others had dug over. A length of breathable bio-membrane covered in woodchips Jean and I fetched the chips with the car and trailer and shovelled them onto the membrane and the others spread them out And just as we finished we had a downpour

It’s nice to work in the company of convivial and pleasant people, and it appears that I might have visitors on Wednesday afternoon

In other news, Dennis Hopper has died. This is desperate news for me and for many of my friends as he and Peter Fonda were our role models as teenagers and they inspired a whole generation of people such as ourselves. I’m going to watch Easy Rider again just now but it won’t ever be the same again.

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Friday 28th May 2010 – It further occurs to me …

greenhouse plants les guis virlet puy de dome france… that you haven’t seen inside the greenhouse at all so far this year and so that was worthy of a photo.

It’s a cheap greenhouse from LIDL that I bought last year and it came complete with detachable staging. €49.99 if I remember correctly and that was a good purchase as well.

Most of the seeds have been planted in soya dessert containers. I learnt that from last year and the year before that – planting in seed trays just swamped me out all at once and having 24 lettuce all ready at the same time with none following on was bad news. Doing things like this – a few at a time – ensure a decent succession of crop.

You’ll notice plastic spoons and plastic knives in the pots. I write in pencil on them the name of whatever is in the pot so I don’t forget. Real plastic tags are quite expensive whereas plastic spoons and knives cost me 50 cents for 20 at the local cheapo shop.

plants outside for hardening off megacloche les guis virlet puy de dome franceIn fact this isn’t everything – not by any means. It’s pretty crowded in the greenhouse as you can see and so a pile of stuff has been moved into the new mega-cloche where they can be hardened off ready for planting.

Some stuff, such as the borlotti beans (they are the only ones that have taken) and some more sprouts were even further-advanced than that and so they have already been planted in the appropriate raised bed.

I can see that I’m going to have to work hard to keep up with all of this succession planting. And I’m having to start weeding too. That’s a novelty, isn’t it?

Once I’d done the garden I did some more work in the bedroom and then at 18:00 I nipped into St Eloy les Mines for some shopping seeing as I’m out tomorrow at a chantier communal at Jean and Elizabeth’s. I met Julie and Rob in LIDL which was a surprise as normally I meet them at Brico Depot.

And I still didn’t get to the two new shops either. They both close at 18:30 and I had the privilege of having a door shut in my face on two occasions.

At the chantiers we have to bring along some food to share and so I cooked a huge aubergine and kidney bean chili, some of which I had for tea and the rest I’ll take tomorrow.

But it’ll upset the locals – it’s …errr… rather spicy.

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Saturday 15th August 2009 – I SAW THIS MOST MAGNIFICENT CLOUD …

anvil cloud thunderstorm clermont ferrand puy de dome france… on my way to Liz and Terry’s this evening. A finer example of an “anvil” cumulonimbus cloud you cannot hope to see.

It’s hovering just about over Clermont Ferrand so I reckon that the good citizens of that fair city are having a right pasting this evening, for “anvil” clouds are associated with heavy thunderstorms.

So what was I doing at Liz and Terry’s this evening? You may well ask.

In fact it all starts this morning at about 11.45. There I was casually nailing my fascia boards to the ends of the chevrons when suddenly Terry put in a dramatic appearance.

“There’s a damsel ( or was it a damson?) in distress at the Brico Depot in Montlucon” he announced

Of course, someone’s antlers pricked up at that. All his life he’s been in training for just this moment and despite one or two false starts
“Help help I’ve been tied to this tree and ravaged by the entire crew of the HMS Victory” cried a damsel in distress, tied to a tree in the forest.
“Well, it’s just not your lucky day, is it?” Strawberry Moose
, unbuckling his tunic.
he was well in form.

He leapt into Caliburn, his trusty steed (in the old days when I used to be a superhero all on my own and the job didn’t pay as well as it does now, some of the vehicles I owned were rather less than reputable and were more like rusty steeds, but certainly not Caliburn) and as his driver, I leapt in beside him and we chaud-pieded it to Montlucon.

This digital revolution and mobile communications has brought about some significant benefits and so on – but also a major disadvantage that as far as I know, everyone else has overlooked. In order to be a superhero you need to have your underpants on outside your trousers, and telephone boxes are the traditional places for superheroes to change their clothing.

But try finding a telephone box these days now that everyone has a mobile phone! Strawberry and I had to search for ages until we found a suitable telephone box to change in, and that’s in the Auvergne where mobile phone coverage is patchy at best. How is Superperson managing in the USA where telephone boxes are all but redundant?

Superheroes will have to find new venues in which to change.

Public toilets are likely to receive plenty of support, and I have indeed made use of just such a venue on a previous occasion. But these days you have to fight your way into a public toilet past the drug abusers, the cottagers, the cross-dressers (“Mabel, if you don’t let me wear your tights I’ll smash your ****ing face in!”) and the like.

Mind you, I did have a brother who almost always used to come out of a public toilet with his underpants on outside his trousers, but that was more to do with his status as being a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic rather than any superhero status he might (or might not) wish to claim.

So Strawberry Moose
, Caliburn and I duly arrived at Brico Depot and found Terry standing guard over a trolley with a pile of windows too large to go in the back of his car.
“Where’s Liz?” I asked
“Ohh, she’s going to take advantage of you while you’re here” he replied.
Now, I don’t know about you, but it’s a long time since anyone has ever said anything like that to me, and my surprise was quite clearly written all over my face.
“She wants to make use of Caliburn now you are all here by getting some more windows”
“Ahhhh” I replied, this time with disappointment all over my face.

Liz asked me if I could deliver the windows this evening.
“Might that involve some of your vegan chocolate cake?” I enquired.
“I’ll see what I can do” she replied.

And hence my visit to Liz and Terry’s this evening. And not only was there vegan chocolate cake, there was some vegetable curry with rice, and some vegan chocolate cake to bring home.

We have a system round here of chantiers communaux – where if anyone has a work project that needs many hands, we all do a blitz on their premises to get the job done. And whenever there’s a chantiers communaux at Liz and Terrys, you are usually trampled to death in the stampede, so well-known is Liz’s vegan chocolate cake.

And in other news, it was the hottest day of the year so far – almost 42 degrees – and I’ve fixed the fascia boards, tacked on the guttering (I can’t fix it on until the scaffolding is moved) and put on the first row of tiles.

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