Category Archives: Les Guis

Friday 2nd July 2010 – Up until about 21:00 this evening …

… the weather was magnificent. In fact it was far too magnificent to work.

This morning we put up a small scaffolding at the southern end of the barn and while Terry was drilling and screwing into the wall for the mounting brackets I was sawing and cutting scaffolding pipe to make a framework to mount the solar panels that are on the roof of the Luton Transit.

I’ll be fitting them permanently onto this end of the barn along with the wind turbine that we took down from the north end of the barn.

But we were defeated by that most unusual phenomenon – overheating batteries. When they went flat in the Hitachi SDS drill (and what a good purchase that was!) they were too hot to take a charge. Mind you, it was only 37°C today – the hottest of the year.

Not to be outdone however we started on the guttering of the barn as you can see. I told Terry that there are four classes of people in France

the peasants – the ones with the leaky roofs
the lower class – the ones with roofs that don’t leak
the middle class – the ones with guttering on their barn …

“What’s the fourth class?” asked Terry

“The ones with drains to take away the water!”

But having seen how dry the house walls have become since I put guttering up, then my barn will have it too. I’m sick and tired of being up to my neck in mud. But I’ll have to wait a bit for the drains though.

The chevrons are much too short for the roofing (I went for a long overhang) and so a fascia board is out of the question but they did have at Brico Depot yesterday some galvanised straps with the facility for a sliding attachment. If you bend the straps so that the sliders are at about 60° there’s still a good 9 inches or so on the straps and they fit nicely onto the chevrons and you can bolt the gutter mounts to them and they are then perfectly vertical.

We did what we could bearing in mind that we had no joints (moving the scaffolding out to give us clearance was fun) but by 15:00 it was no longer possible to work up there. The combination of a searing hot metal roof, blinding sunlight and tools too hot to touch made us call it a day.

I did a little some while later and then history was made by my not only having a solar shower (and this LIDL garden shower thing needs some attention) but a solar shave as well. And no surprise – the water temperature was a phenomenal 46°C

We had a barbecue round at Clare’s tonight. Esther hosted it and very kindly invited me, and of course Strawberry Moose met some of his admirers. James and Julianna drew some good pictures of him too.

But by 21:00 we were having thunder and lightning and we even had some rain. But nothing like as much as we need. And right now the sky is a clear cloudless starry night promising much more sun for tomorrow. I have to go to Commentry to look for joints and downpipe and then it’s a toss-up as to whether I come back to do the guttering or go for a swim.

We shall see.

-7

Thursday 1st July 2010 – I mentioned yesterday …

… that one side of the barn roof is finished. And so, here’s a pic that I took this morning not long after I woke up.

It’s quite impressive this roofing stuff isn’t it?

I’ve been quite busy today, although it might not seem much like it. I started off with a little gardening and then went into Pionsat for 11:00 to meet Max the secretary of Pionsat’s football club who had to sign a document or two for me.

Then it was back to gardening again and everything that is going to be planted this year is now planted and that is that.

That took me until 13:10 when I went chaud-pied into Montlucon. First stop was LIDL as they were selling some more 12-volt LEDs and at €3.99 too – I bought a pile of them. And then to Brico Depot for the guttering, the nails and stuff. No downpipes and no joints (it’s a rather familiar lament isn’t it?) but tons of other stuff, including a pile of drawers (not THAT kind of drawers, Rhys!). Yes, here I am planning to build myself a fitted wardrobe and a fitted kitchen and there they were with some end-of-range drawer kit – deep 40mm ones at €3.50 (you can’t even buy the sliders for that) and deep 60mm ones at €5.00. I now have 8 of each which is impressive.

Following that was my test d’effort. They put me on a running walkway thing for 7 minutes and attached a load of electrodes to me. I ran about 2.5km in that time (and in that heat too – it’s been glorious today) and the verdict is “very good condition for his age”. I sound like a horse or an old Ford Cortina.

I’d missed the post by then and so I had to drive all the way to Clermont Ferrand to deliver my file to the Referees’ Association, taking in a visit to the Auchan on the way. And I can’t find my satnav now – another thing I’ve mislaid.

But the highlight of the day had to be in the doctor’s this afternoon. He was helping me fill in the medical form –
“Sex?” he asked
“Put down ‘yes’ for that” I replied.
“Errrr … I think they wan’t you to put down ‘M’ or ‘F’ there” said the doctor.
“Okay – put down ‘M’ then” I said. “It’s been years since I’ve had an ‘F'”.

-2

Wednesday 30th June 2010 – We talked the other day …

… about a malfunctioning shower (and we aren’t talking about people from the Open University Students Association either) so I thought that you might like to see a pic of the current shower installation.

It’s an intake pipe wedged into a hollow brick (which acts as a weight when I throw it into the solar tank) and which is connected to the intake of an old caravan footpump that is fastened onto an old pallet.

The outlet is connected to a garden hose and that was what I used to shower myself with tonight. The water was a lovely 37°C too and it didn’t half feel good.

But as to why there’s a garden hose attachment on the outlet pipe is because a couple of weeks ago LIDL was having one of its usual sales and on offer was a garden shower that you connect to a hosepipe. Bill picked up one of those for me and I’m going to hunt it down tomorrow so I shall be all set up.

It really is nice having a decent shower, and I needed it too. Terry and I finished the roofing on the one side in record time. It’s amazing how quickly you can do things like that when you find a rhythm. It looks really good on the barn too, this metal sheeting. And now we have started to dismantle the scaffolding ready to put it up on the other side. That’s always a dirty job dismantling the scaffolding – there’s always tons of accumulated muck and dust that falls off it

And Grandma Parisian came for a nosey this evening – she couldn’t stop herself. “Blimey – you aren’t half courageux” she said. That’s the first time she’s spoken to me for years.

In other news, the US Government has banned interaction with its enemies – such as the Taliban etc. And you might be wondering why this is significant.

Astute readers with long memories will recall the Casablanca Conference of 1943, in which Roosevelt (an American again – isn’t this a surprise?) suddenly sprang on the world (and on his own allies with whom he had never discussed it) that the United Nations would not negotiate with the Axis powers and would only accept “Unconditional Surrender”.

What happened then of course was that a whole host of German resistants (or insurgents as we call them these days) who had been working hard from within to bring down the Nazis decided that seeing as the United Nations wouldn’t talk to them either if they took power, they gave up their struggle. This prolonged World War II by a couple of years – just because the Septics wouldn’t negotiate.

And here they are, doing the same thing in Afghanistan. If the Taliban (called the Mujahadeen when they were our friends fighting the Soviets) now decide that they want to talk peace terms they can’t because the Septics have outlawed any negotiations.

So they will still keep on fighting and prolong the war and the casualties.

You really can’t believe the Yanks. It was said of the Bourbon Kings of France that “they learnt nothing but forgot nothing” and you can say the same about the Americans. And we are only talking from 1943.

How can a nation be so totally stupid?

-6

Tuesday 29th June 2010 – No photo tonight, folks.

I haven’t really done anything to warrant one.

This morning with Terry having gone to mow a meadow, I profited by doing a big load of washing (this little tabletop washing machine that I bought in a brocante is proving its worth), watering all of the plants and doing some desultory tidying in the verandah.

This afternoon was in the Sauna or Black Hole of Calcutta otherwise known as Radio Arverne in Gerzat where we melted away while recording our programmes. And not just that – we had to record a trailer in French and I also had to translate part of the website into English. All for free, of course. No chance of turning our new-found popularity (we are being described, apparently, as “our favourite Anglophones”) into any of the Folding Stuff.

In other news, I see that an art exhibition in the Tate Gallery is hitting the headlines. This exhibition concerns a couple of means of transport being stripped of useful parts and lain on their sides for people to walk around and stare at. Now those of you that have been to visit me around here and other places in which I have lived will know that in my garden and my field I have several other means of transport stripped of useful parts and lying on their sides for people to walk around. And they have been called many different things by many different people, but “works of art” was never one of them.

And as my unmade bed on a bad day can match the best that Tracy Eminem can turn out, I’m getting rather fed up of my clearly well-developed artistic talents going unnoticed or being subjected to ridicule.

But seriously, I remember Whistler suing the art critic John Ruskin for saying that one of Whistler’s latest works was “flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face”. But if you look at these aeroplanes on their sides, or look at Tracy Eminen’s unmade bed, or look at anything that Richard Serra has ever churned out, then who is kidding whom? If anyone living in the Combrailles feels the urge to visit a gallery of Modern Art then they are quite welcome to come for a visit here.

And if they do, then perhaps they can explain to me the difference between what is on display and described as Modern Art in some of these high-ranking tourist traps, and all of the rubbish and junk that I have lying around here?

-7

Monday 28th June 2010 – Today’s pic …

… features the work that we have managed to do today. All of the horizontal laths are on and we have done about one quarter of the roof covering.

We could have done so much more too but we were beset by a whole series of interruptions.

Firstly I had to go to Pionsat just before lunchtime to have a document signed. “Come at about 11:45 and the notaire will fit you in between two clients”. So there I was at 11:45 and I was seen at 12:30! And the notaire took his time to witness my signature – clearly going for his money’s worth.

Back at the ranch Lieneke came round for a chat and a gossip. She brought us some fruit too. She needs some work doing on her house but her husband is getting to the age where he feels unsafe on a roof – hence Terry’s involvement.

Then we needed to sort out the sheets. They are in two sizes – one for each side – and of course the ones that we wanted were on the bottom as you might expect so we had to move all of the others.

Once we had got the sheets round to this side of the barn then they were not strong enough to support their own weight when hauling them up the scaffolding. After giving it much consideration, talking about making cradles and the like, I hit upon the idea of sliding them up a ladder (one of us can walk up in front pulling and the other walk up behind pushing as the sheet slides up the stringers), Terry added the idea of a sling and then we were in business.

The sheet sit quite nicely on the framework and the special screws with silicon washers do a good job. All in all it’s a good fitting but you struggle with the weight and height when there are just two of you.

It was 17:00 when we knocked off. The sky had greyed over and we were exhausted. And not long after Terry had left, Claude and Francoise came round!! They have indeed moved down south. Apparently their daughter had found a small house for them and so they rang up a furniture removal firm in that area. And it just so happened that there was an empty lorry in the region travelling light back home. A good deal was arranged and that was that.

I also had a quick flashback to yesterday evening when I was leaving Terry’s – he accompanied me to the door.

“are you being polite or are you making sure that I’ve gone?” I queried
“Well actually” said Terry “I’m making sure that you don’t nick anything on your way out”.

-5

Saturday 26th June 2010 – It was Karl and Lou’s chantier today …

… so Strawberry Moose and I went along to Lapeyrouse to see what was happening and to lend a hand.

Once again there weren’t all that many people there. The novelty of the idea is clearly wearing off as peoples’ own chantiers are completed. Liz and Terry, Clotilde, Francois, Jean, Hein (whom I met briefly for the first time at Kate’s the other day) and Yours Truly were the only attendees, and I was late arriving.

Hein’s wife and kids turned up later and of course Strawberry made a new friend. Good old Strawberry!

The girls (Lou, Liz and Clotilde) occupied themselves with painting 30 panels of OSB to put on the walls of the attic, while Jean and I put some guttering up to the side of the garage and connected a downpipe to the drain. I like working with Jean – he’s an old guy but very fit for his age and has a keen interest in woodwork and that kind of thing. We’ve done quite a few jobs together at various chantiers.

Terry, Francois and Hein spent the day working on the door to the barn. The previous owners had nailed it shut as the bottom had rotted off and the huge hinge had broken away, leading to a risk that the door might fall across the lane.

They unfastened it, removed it from the doorframe and lowered it onto some trestles. Once it was there they cut off the bottom part, screwed some new wood onto the frame, reinforced the frame, replaced the ironwork and then we all lifted it back into position.

In the photo just here you can see the work receiving close attention from the assembled multitudes. From left to right we have Karl, Jean (who is hiding Francois) Hein and Terry. Here they were refitting the stone that had the pivot hole for the lower hinge.

Back here the temperature in my room was an astonishing 30°C. But I am prepared for this kind of thing. I bought a heavy-duty in-car fan for just €3.99 the other day and I took off the cigarette lighter plug and replaced it with an American 110-volt plug (that’s what I use for my 12-volt circuits). It’s noisy but it doesn’t half blow the cool air around when you clip it into the frame of the open window.

A good move that!

+11

-5

Friday 25th June 2010 – If you compare this pic …

… with the pic from yesterday you’ll notice something of a change. In fact we’ve put the new woodwork on the roof.

Putting the chevrons onto the ends of the beams was exciting. The beams were so perished that there was little to nail to. All these years of exposure to the weather have taken their toll. The chevrons however went on quite easily but getting the old ones off was quite something else. I’m going to have to buy a bigger crowbar.

Some parts of the main woodwork have been attacked by the damp and by the beasties and so I’m going to have to treat them to some xylophene. In two places I’m going to have to put some strengthening pieces into take some of the weight. I think that I am just in time with this roof – it wouldn’t have held out for much longer.

Disposing of the old wood was quite easy as you can see. But it’s made something of a mess of my garlic bed

The original plan was to keep the old wood as it might be trimmed off to do for the shorter lengths that are required for the other side. But most of it is in a pretty poor state and there won’t be much to salvage. And I won’t be short of firewood either.

Seeing as it was Friday we knocked off earlier and just as Terry was leaving, Lieneke my Dutch neighbour came round. She was impressed with my new parking space and she was also impressed when I told her about Terry’s new business. She’s going to have a chat with her husband over the weekend and then have a chat with Terry on Monday. As I have said before, there are three secrets of success for the kind of business that Terry is undertaking with his homme a tout faire and they are “talk” “talk” and “talk”. Everyone around here has jobs that need doing but they don’t know how to go about them or they don’t know who to approach for advice and assistance.

Lieneke had the usual conducted tour of the premises and after that I set about having a solar shower seeing as the water in the bucket was a delightful 41°C. But the water pump in the new (well, new last year) shower kit has stopped. The impeller that pushes the water round is only an interference-fit (or push-fit) onto the shaft and it has worked its way loose. Cheap substandard Chinese rubbish. Whyever couldn’t they make a splined shaft? Is that really too difficult?

In the end today I went into reverse-technology mode.and dug up the old footpump-action pump out of the caravan and used that. It was quite nice being outside and showering but I’m fed up of these electric pumps – it’s the third one that has failed on me. Trying to find a decent reliable low-volume submersible 12-volt pump is proving to be quite difficult. I reckon that at the end of the day I’m going to go into even more reverse-energy mode and go for a gravity shower – that involves building a framework 2m high so I can put the bucket on that and then stand underneath it.

Tonight was a very important meeting, the AGM of the Pionsat Football Club. And it went totally out of my mind and I clean forgot about it..

-4

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

… 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.

So 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.

While 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.

-5

Wednesday 23rd June 2010 – I said the other day …

… that the scaffolding was back chez moi. Well, not only is it back but it’s now up at the barn – or at least most of it is.

This is what Terry and I have been spending most of the day doing. And it was hard work too. We haven’t quite finished but we’ll be erecting the bit down the short end and around the corner tomorrow and that’ll be one whole side of the barn covered.

It really is an impressive piece of kit and we can be well-pleased with our purchase. There are 8 bays of about 2.5m width and 6 metres high – about 120 square metres of the stuff.

Once my barn roof is done we will be hiring it out to all-comers and it will become another string to out income-generating bow. And I’ll be needing the income, bearing in mind how much I’ve spent on this house and barn this last 12 months.

Of course, today was the day that summer decided to return so we were erecting it in the sweltering heat. But we knocked off early as Terry wanted to go home and watch the footy. I dunno why though, as they didn’t come to see him when he was bad.

But Slovenia were unlucky not to equalise. If only they had played Scracanic and Sonofabic instead of Ivanic and Shagabic they might well have made Ingerlund suffer.

So tomorrow, once we’ve finished the erection, we can start on the stripping.

-9

Tuesday 22nd June 2010 – It was 19:04 when I knocked off this evening.

But I’ve been having a temendous amount of fun.

This afternoon I’ve been painting the woodwork for the barn roof with some xylophene – the stuff that kills all the beasties and so on that try to infest it. I’ve done about half so far – enough to do one side of the roof. That’ll do to get me started once we have the scaffolding.

It’s quite easy to spread the stuff on the wood too. It’s quite thin so it goes on really easily and quickly with a paint roller.

But this morning was even better. The starter had gone on Bill’s car and he has a similar car for spares so I went round there, took the starter off the scrap car and swapped it with the duff one. It took a while to do it as you have to move all kinds of hoses and filters and so on and I ended up covered to my armpits in old and dirty oil but it was just like old times when I had my taxis. Hardly a week went by without me having to change a starter or an alternator and strangely enough I used to enjoy it.

But the enthusiasm has started to fire up my imagination. When the roof is on the barn and I’ve disposed of the body off the caravan I’m going to set up a decent workshop in the barn. I’ll resurrect my old gas-welding gear, get some oxygen and acetylene bottles, buy an engine crane and rescue all my decent tools from Brussels.

And then I’m going to have some fun.

-11

Monday 21st June 2010 – Sometimes when you do house clearances …

… you strike it lucky – although it’s not all that often. Most of the stuff that Kate had to dispose of had already been disposed but she did keep a couple of things back for me, including this magnificent “foot forward” tandem, for which I’m extremely grateful.

It’s a home-made effort made up of bits of bike cobbled together and although the idea and the design look sound enough, the workmanship is somewhat rudimentary and it needs finishing.

But what is extraordinary about it is that I’ve been looking for a bakfiets for years and having a good look at this, I can see that parts of it actually started out as a bakfiets and so it will be a comparatively easy task to convert it back.

I could be on to something here.

But the move was exciting in more ways than one. Due to Guillaume’s van having broken down I was asked if I could deliver Rebecca’s stuff to her. But a constant change of plan meant that the boxes and so on for her were in and out of the van on numerous occasions before Karl and Lou ended up taking them. For most people this constant change of plan wasn’t an issue but for one person, who wasn’t even involved in the move and who spent most of his time standing around and watching, it was a total crisis. If it had been anyone that I had known, he would have had a smack in the mouth long before we had finished. I dunno how people put up with behaviour like this.

So I took my leave of Kate, which was disappointing because I quite like her and I wish that I had got to know her better, and I went off with Karl and Lou to look at their house. It’s a nice little place in Lapeyrouse. we’re having a chantier there on Saturday to help progress the work

. At the moment they are living in a caravan with a huge awning and I can safely say that it is the first time ever that I have seen a caravan awning with a fitted kitchen. Definitely a step up from the days of the camp camp.

This afternoon after unloading Caliburn I did some gardening. I’ve planted out a few more plants and I’ve done some more succession sowing.

Those of you who have been following my adventures will know that all of the water consumed on the premises is from the rain that falls on the verandah. It drops down a pipe into a sump that catches the stones and heavy rubbish and then backs up into a pipe that goes through a mesh filter into a 203-litre water butt with a tap for water out. The tap is situated about 10cms off the bottom to allow anything that falls into the tank (sticks, stones, leaves etc) to sink to the bottom.

There’s another 203-litre water butt that is connected to it. Of course all water destined for human consumption is boiled beforehand.

But an examination of the water butts the other day showed that the water in the “in and out” water butt is not as clean as I would like it to be whereas the tank in parallel is spotlessly clean because nothing ever drops into it – it’s all fed in by the connector pipe which is at 10cms off the bottom of the other tank.

That situation can be altered by feeding into the rearmost tank and drawing the water out of the front tank and it’s a modification that I’ve had in mind for a while.

But at Brico Depot on Saturday they had the bits I needed and so I cleaned the mesh filter, cleaned out the pipework, swapped the lids over and routed the rainwater pipe into the rear tank.

The bits that drop into the water will stay on the floor of the rear tank and the front tank should stay quite clean.

But there are two other mods that I can do. I’m going to build an in-line filter and fill it with puzzolane, the volcanic lava rock that has impressive water-filtering capabilities, and seal the two tanks so that nothing can creep in underneath the lids.

And this morning I went to the medical centre at St Eloy les Mines for my medical for this refereeing lark. I passed pretty much although I have to go to Montlucon for a test d’effort and an ECG. But the doctor told me that he thinks that my blood pressure is up.
“Well, so would yours be if this weather has done to your garlic what it’s been doing to mine”. But having to have a tetanus injection is exciting. I was given a prescription to go to the chemist’s to buy the injection, and then I have to go back to see the nurse to get her to give it to me.

Tomorrow Terry has another engagement so I’m going to do Bill’s starter for him.

-1

Sunday 20th June 2010 – The scaffolding is back here

Terry and Liz brought it round this afternoon. And it’s much more useful having a trailer to stick it all on so that you can just drag it round and leave it somewhere like this instead of having to maul it in and out of vans. That old caravan chassis is definitely the way to go.

And so is the hardstanding too. I wouldn’t have liked to have done this anywhere else around the place and there isn’t anywhere else really to leave it. The money I spent doing this hardstanding is money well spent if you ask me.

But the trailer didn’t half churn it up. That’s no surprise rally given the rain that we’ve had. I’ve been gradually flattening it by driving Caliburn, loaded with sacks of cement and so on, over the place where I can reach but the torrential rain is playing havoc with everything and it’s just like a running river. In the end we had to winch the trailer into position and I’ve had my money’s worth out of that winch too just recently.

We should all have gone for a wander around the brocante at Lapeyrouse after but the dreadful weather put paid to that. It’s rained on 14 consecutive days and then after a 2-day break it rained for 10 consecutive days before that. Of those 24 days, 11 days had rain of 10mm or more, and of those, 4 had more than 20 and another one reached 36.5mm. What can you say about weather like this?

And there is no end in sight.

Saturday 19th June 2010 – Now is the winter of our discount tents.

Well, it was something like that that Shakespeare (or Bacon) wrote in “Richard II” – and quite right too.

If you click on the pic to enlarge it you’ll see exactly what the weather was like today – miserable, grey and overcast. And in a desperate attempt to drum up business the local sports shop in Montlucon was having a tent demonstration. I suppose the idea is that you go and have a look and choose the one that has let in the least water.

The end of season sales are going to be exciting stuff – all these shops having bought all of this summer and camping gear and no-one will have bought anything. There will be tons of stuff on offer.

I also went to the tyre fitters to have Caliburn’s new tyres fitted. And seeing that I’ve spent so much money in there this last week he let me off the puncture repair from the other day which was nice of him. But I’m not too impressed with the scrapyard at Durdat.
“Have you got any 15-inch wheels for a Ford Transit?”
“No we haven’t” replied the manager
“Not even on that one there?” I said, indicating a late-1980s Transit that was partly dismantled down in the corner but still had its 4 wheels on.
“No. Sorry”.
You can’t even give money away to people these days. It’s too much trouble for someone to go down the yard with a trolley jack and a wheel brace. Of course in the good old days before Health and Safety you could go down the yard yourself with a trolley jack and a wheel brace but Central Government has put paid to that.

It’s quite ironic really – they talk about saving natural resources and energy and so do all that they can to encourage recycling, and then another Government department comes along and does its best to stop you recycling anything. Car scrapyards has been one of the earliest forms of recycling and is sooo environmentally-friendly yet they are doing away with it so that you have to buy new stuff thatnks to the arm-twisting that the Auto Lobby applies to politicians. I spend a lot of time in scrapyards – many things that I use in my Renewable Energy projects are from old cars – 12-volt clocks, cables, fuse boxes and the like and I don’t really know what I want until I go down a yard and have a nosey around.

But I digress.

I had no plans to but anything in Brico Depot and so the bill of over €160 took me by surprise. But it’s all useful stuff, including the huge drum of wood-treatment for the new barn roof timbers, 4 sacks of cement in case we need it for the roof and three sacks of chalk for me to do the end wall.

I drove off from LIDL with my two cartons of orange juice on the bonnet of Caliburn and when I got to the swimming baths at Neris les Bains there was one still on. How about that?

And I’m nice and clean now for a change, and talking of change I’ll be changing the bedding too so that I can make the most of it. Tomorrow I was supposed to help Katie at the brocante but she’s called it off – apparently they’ve announced a torrential downpour all day. But so that I wouldn’t be lonely, Bill rang me up. His car has broken down and if it’s not a simple repair he will need me to tow him back from St Eloy les Mines tomorrow.

Friday 18th June 2010 – One of the major advantages …

… of having a trailer is that you can buy a huge load of wood all at one go and move it back home without any problems.

It might have cost a fortune in tyres but I shudder to think of how many loads to Brico Depot, at 70kms per round trip, I would have had to have made instead of just one trip to the sawmill at St Gervais d’Auvergne.

The wood is much, much better quality than at Brico Depot, and about 60% of the price too. Mind you, he cottoned on that he had underquoted me so I replied “well I did try to tell you the other day”. And as a reward he heaped on a few more demi-chevrons.

I’ve had good value from the sawmill and I’ll be going back there again.

The trailer pulled nicely with this load on too. Although the trip back was slower, Caliburn never struggled at all, not even going over the Font Nanaud.

Once I’d unloaded the trailer I had to take it back to Terry’s. They have finished with the scaffolding on that chantier and it needs collecting. I’m busy now until Tuesday so Terry will take the trailer round there and load it up and then either he can bring it here next time he’s passing or I can collect it next time I’m passing.

It’s a really useful idea having a trailer.

And the weather? Only 4.5mm of rain today and I’m running out of dry clothes.

-2

Thursday 17th June 2010 – Today started off quite nicely …

… and so I heaved myself out of my stinking pit quite early in order to catch up on what I should have done yesterday.

And by the time I’d finished, I’d made substantial and real progress. Not only do we now have another trailer, I’ve even managed to put the bent one onto the new trailer, as you can see in the photo just here as I prepare to do a little moving about.

Taking the wheel off the bent trailer was comparatively straightforward and once I’d freed off the brakes on the new trailer (whose idea was it to leave it parked for 12 years with the handbrake on?) I could set about winching it out of the barn with the chain winch.

By the simple expedient of tying the body to the beams of the barn, the trailer came out of the barn without its body and I just shovelled up the debris and heaved it back into the barn again. I’ll tidy up another time.

All the loose wiring and gas pipes on the chassis were sorted out and then I had to position the trailer, swap the wheels around again and then winch the bent trailer onto the new trailer. I took all of the wheels off the bent trailer to stop it rolling around, put the good wheels and tyres onto the new chassis and then tied the bent trailer onto the new chassis so it won’t move at all.

That took me until 15:30 and I didn’t stop for lunch as the weather was changing and sure enough we had a torrential downpour. And with no trailerboard (mine was cannibalised for parts for the old trailer) I had to take the lighting board off the Sankey trailer – and that needed a total rewire. So I did all of that in the pouring rain. 15.5mm we’ve had, and it all fell in a four-hour spell this afternoon.

But soaking wet as I am (yet again) I can at least move the bent trailer and I have the other one to fetch my wood tomorrow for the barn roof, if the weather ever stops raining long enough for us to make a start.

I’ve always said I work much better under pressure and having to give Terry a hand to set his business up, I’ve accomplished far more this last three weeks back here that I ever would have done if I had been left to my own devices.

But I wish it would stop perishing raining.

EPIC HALL

The Poisoned Pen (or Poisoned Chalice, more like) – or my relentless struggle against reality