Tag Archives: pionsat

Monday 2nd August 2010 – We talked about the rain.

And I can tell you with complete confidence that in the 18 hours from about 14:15 to 08:15 this morning we had a total of 42mm. Now that is not all that far short of a record, and it gives you some kind of an idea of what kind of weather we had just now.

The morning was dark and miserable – at about 10:00 I was getting a total of about 2 amps of my charging system, a right winter’s day type of charge. Mind you this afternoon it brightened up considerably and it was quite warm. But it didn’t last and as I was leaving Pionsat after the Anglo-French group meeting we were having torrential rainstorms again.

sunset rainstorm heavy cloud les guis virlet puy de dome franceAs I turned up the lane to here I noticed the sun setting between two heavy rain clouds and so I quickly took a pic. I didn’t have much time to set up and what with the driving rain it’s not come out as well as it might.

But it’s impressive just the same and I’m getting to like this new Nikon D5000 camera. And that’s just as well, considering the money that I spent on buying it. I’d be disappointed with anything else.

We managed to get a load of work done on the roof today in between the rainstorms. All of the chevrons are on and they are bricked in and cemented into position. It looks quite impressive. Tomorrow we can add the laths and the voltige and put the tiles back on, that is if the weather lets us. It’s looking pretty ominous outside there right now.

roof collapsed lean-to fitting new beams flooring les guis virlet puy de dome franceAfter we knocked off on this roof Terry came to give me a hand in this lean-to for 10 minutes, for which I was grateful. We took out the collapsed beam and fitted the new one, and then fitted the other new one into the beam hangers against the wall.

After Terry left I had a root around upstairs in the barn and came across some 25mm planks. They are now fitted and you can see the hole in the floor where the stairs will come in from downstairs.

Once the floor was fitted I roofed the place over with a pile of corrugated iron sheet that I have found over the years in various places. I have some others but they are underneath firewood, gravel, hardcore and the like, preventing that from being infiltrated by weeds. I looked out for a tarpaulin but the only one I could find was a 6×4 meter and I don’t want to waste that. I’ll have to buy another 4×2 metre that should do, and I’ll need a thin piece of 25mm to fit against the wall.

And I was carried away doing that and so almost missed the start of the Anglo-French Group meeting tonight. That shows you how keen I was.

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Sunday 1st August 2010 – Blimey!

This weather is totally crazy.

When I woke up ( at ….errrr ….. 11:33 this morning, and my excuse was that I was having a really good dream about a new house that I had bought) the weather was beautiful. So I had a leisurely breakfast and messed about a bit on the computer before deciding to go to the brocante at Pionsat.

But a flaming phone call interrupted me and I was there discussing the Palestine question with someone and it was gone 14:00 when I left. Bright sunshine when I left, and in the 5kms it takes to drive to Pionsat the heavens opened with a deluge. In the village square all the stallholders had gone due to the rain and that was that.

By the time I checked the stats at 31:45 we had had 22mm of rain and it’s still bucketing down. Thunder and lightning and all sorts. It had better clear up if we are going to have another go on that roof tomorrow.

In other news, I noticed a little giveaway phrase in a press report about the situation in Afghanistan. Hidden in all of the rhetoric is the little phrase that NATO “hopes to reverse the Taliban’s momentum”. Translated into English that means that the Taliban is advancing in Afghanistan and NATO hopes to push its forces back. Now if the Taliban is advancing, it means that NATO is retreating, so what a giveaway this phrase actually is.

But then again I’ve been saying for a couple of years that the Taliban has had NATO on the run and that Khazi’s writ doesn’t run any wider than the gates of his palace in Kabulseye (and only then with American permission).

To make matters worse, the Dutch pulled out of Afghanistan today. Not that the Dutch forces amount to much – who will ever forget the craven way that the Dutch Army, who had been sent to defend the town of Srebenica and its population, surrendered it to the Serbs and then stood by idly as the Serbs massacred the population – but it’s a sign that the Coalition of the Willing is becoming less and less Willing as the war marches on. What with the Germans also likely to pull out before the end of the year and the Poles and Canadians to be the next to run away, the Septics and the Brits are going to be left with the oeufs all over the visage. And with more and more countries pulling out, the likelihood of persuading more and more countries to take over so that the Septics can secure all of the mineral rights in Afghanistan will be less and less. It will mean that more and more Brits will be dying so that more and more Americans can become richer and richer.

July 2010 was the second-most-deadly month for NATO forces in Afghanistan. And when was the most deadly month for them? Why, June 2010 of course. But of course nothing of this is surprising. For every innocent child that NATO kills you have half a dozen people shouting for revenge. And Afghans and other tribesmen (“tribespersons please” – ed) are much more likely to pick up a gun and go to war that your average North American or British Couch Potato.

And how long has this war been going on? 8 and a half years? And instead of things getting better and better they are getting worse and worse. The Brits and Septics have been dragged into the very bloodbath that they promised that they would avoid. But then again, the way of dealing with a group of freedom fighters, most of whom were Saudi Arabians, led by a Saudi and financed by a Saudi company, leading to an invasion of … errrr …. Afghanistan was something that mystified almost everyone on the planet.

The funniest thing about all of this is that when the Russians invaded Afghanistan the Afghans fought the Russians off – armed by weapons supplied by the west. The Russians had the right to feel aggrieved by that. And 20 years or so later here are the Afghans fighting off the might of the west with no help from anybody at all. No wonder the Russians are p155ing themselves laughing.

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Saturday 31st July 2010 – Tomorrow the world!

tryffid squash plant greenhouse les guis virlet puy de dome franceI can’t get into the greenhouse for the moment because this monster is in the way. It’s supposed to be a squash plant and it does indeed look as if it’s quite a squash in the greenhouse.

That’s especially the case seeing as yonder tryffid is being backed up by another one of its ilk as well as a rogue tomato seed that fell onto the floor and is now likewise threatening to take over the world. It’s quite impressive in there.

tomato plants mega cloche puy de dome franceI actually have piles of tomatoes ripening in the mega-cloche, as well as peppers and chili but these are the plants that I bought at the St Gervais d’Auvergne plant fair. The ones I planted aren’t doing much. The brassica are doing well but the one surviving pea plant has turned brown and died.

Elsewhere in the garden the beans are going berserk (especially those I planted the other day), the spuds have gone wild and the carrots are doing the biz. The onions are now swelling at long last and the garlic is dying off so that will be ready to lift in early course.

Today is Saturday and just for a change there was a brocante at St Priest les Champs. It’s not natural to have a brocante on a Saturday – it’s like your body clock is all wrong when you have other things to do. But not to worry – it’s Pionsat’s brocante tomorrow. I’m still looking for a milk churn, and Liz saw one at St Priest today and rang me up to tell me about it. I went round there chaud-pied, as they say around here to have a look but it was only 15 litres and that isn’t big enough.

I’m also after a car CD player so I can build a unit to play all of my CDs around the house, and that’s not as easy as it sounds either.

Nothing of any use at Carrefour or at Lidl so it’s been a bit of a non-day today. But they were selling tubs of sorbet at LIDL for €0.89 and they looked ever so enticing and after all it has been quite a while since I had an ice-cream …..

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Sunday 25th July 2010 – Coming back …

red sunset font nanaud pionsat puy de dome france… from Liz and Terry’s this evening, I was just crossing over the Font Nanaud as the sun was setting. I stopped and took a few photos, as is my wont, and while most of them turned out quite well, this one is in fact quite spectacular.

I had to take it on a very fast shutter so as to avoid any blur or interference and the colours have come out perfectly, which is quite a surprise. I’m impressed with this.

I’d been round there this evening to organise our radio programme for the next few weeks. We will be talking about this auto-entrepreneur system but seeing as we only have enough information for three weeks we will also be doing something about playing football in the region. I reckon that there are loads of expats living in the area dying to integrate and not sure how – and football is a universal language.

So that’s what I was doing this morning and in the early part of the afternoon – preparation. later on I went to the brocante at Youx – quite a big one too as it happens. I bought something that indicated on it that it was 12-volt current in and 230 volt current out at 80 watts – ideal for Caliburn. But it wasn’t half a Stone-Age appliance. We started off at €10 but I got it knocked down to €3 in the end.

At Terry’s we had a play with it. We put 12 volts into it – and got nothing out. And Terry doubts that it is what it says that it is on the label. It’s not like any inverter he has ever seen.

So I dunno. I’ll add it to the stuff to be played with at a later date.

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Tuesday 13th July 2010 – Some people have all the luck

rosemary gorges de la sioule pouzol puy de dome franceTerry had a job to do this morning and he needed a hand, so seeing as I owe him God knows how many days’ work I went along to help.

And where we ended up was at a house right on the edge of the Gorges de la Sioule – the cleft in the Combrailles that runs from South-West to North-East.

The view is certainly spectacular from here, that’s for sure and I wouldn’t mind a little field right up there at the back to build my log cabin.

rainwater harvesting home made rainwater filter les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnd back home I started work on part one of the patent water filter system (and I would have done part two too but Terry forgot the puzzolane). Part one consists of a length of 40mm downspout, a reduction plate from 40mm to 100mm, a length of 100mm pipe, another reduction plate back to 40mm, a section from an old stainless steel mesh kitchen strainer and another length of 40mm pipe into the water butts. This first filter takes the place of the sump (the stones and the like sink to the bottom of the 100mm pipe) and the mesh filter inside the water butt.

verandah lean to rainwater harvesting home made rainwater filter les guis virlet puy de dome franceYou can see what I mean in the photo just here. Filter n°1 is the one on the right-hand side. The mesh is to the left of the filter so anything that I don’t want to drop into the tank will stay in the section of 100mm pipe – the grey stuff.

To the left of filter n°1 is another grey section of 100mm pipe. That will be filter n°2. It’s constructed in the same way as filter n°1 except that it will be filled with puzzolane and there will be stainless steel mesh at either end. The purpose of that will be to to keep the puzzolane in the section of 100mm pipe and that will be the water filter.

I’m eventually going to make up two sections of these so that I can change them and clean them. Cleaning by the way will be quite easy – you just put a pressure hose to blow backwards and that will move all of the debris out.

Of course the idea of using puzzolane is not new. The Romans were the first recorded users of puzzolane for filtration purposes (they also used it as a base for Roman concrete) but nature makes quite good use of it too – Volvic water from just down the road from here uses natural puzzolane seams to naturally filter the water that rises up from the water table. That’s ground water of course – and I’m using rain water so I bet mine will be cleaner than theirs.

Tonight I went into Pionsat for the annual fireworks display. And that was nothing much to write home about although it is nice to go out. But it did remind me of Guy Fawkes’ Night 1980 when I was a taxi driver in Crewe. There was a company in Crewe at that time called “Dial A Car” and they had two vehicles, a Vauxhall Victor Transcontinental Estate that was driven by one driver, and he had only one speed and that was “flat out everywhere”. The other car was an absolutely ancient and derelict Ford Zephyr. That night around Crewe these two cars became affectionately known as “Dial A Rocket” and “Dial A Banger”.

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Tuesday 6th July 2010 – Simon came …

simon roberts terry messenger kwikstage scaffolding barn roof les guis virlet puy de dome france… round this morning to see what we were up to and he was soon enlisted in the struggle. Between the three of us we had the scaffolding up in no time. As we found last year when Dave Boustead came for a couple of days, an extra pair of hands can make a considerable difference to the speed at which you can work.

Just one row of scaffolding (3 metres height) was sufficient to reach the roof on this side of the barn

simon roberts terry messenger stripping barn roof slates les guis virlet puy de dome franceOnce the scaffolding was up, we all set to work and had a really good go at stripping all of the tiles off the roof. They didn’t need much, it has to be said, and thanks to Simon who stayed around for a while, we had that job finished well before lunch.

We discovered all kinds of things in these roof spaces, including the most beautiful birds’ nest wedged into the woodwork of the place. Someone had taken ages to build that.

simon roberts terry messenger stripping barn roof slates les guis virlet puy de dome franceThere were also the usual suspects – a mouse nest and some ant nests – sheltering in the roof under the tiles but Terry struck gold yet again. This time he disturbed a sleeping bat. Simon also found wasps nest, the inhabitants of which took a great exception to being ejected from their home and Simon was forced onto the defensive.

And that wasn’t all either. There were also several trees growing in the barn roof and a couple of those were impressive. They looked as if they had been there for years

simon roberts terry messenger stripping barn roof slates chevrons les guis virlet puy de dome franceOnce the tiles were off we took off all of the laths. We were of course planning to change the chevrons too but they look in really good condition for the most part. One or two are perished, one has dry rot and one or two ends have gone but the rest are very good. One or two look like they are just out of the sawmill.

A few ends have been cut and replaced too and so we reckon that this side of the roof has been repaired once in the past.

Tomorrow we’ll be fitting the laths and starting on  fitting the sheets.

This evening I was speaking at a meeting on eco-construction. There were only 10 or so people there but as usual it’s quality not quantity. One or two people were very interested in my project and they may well be coming to visit me next week. I shall have to get moving.

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Sunday 4th July 2010 – Even though it was Sunday today …

xylophene wood treatment chevrons barn roof les guis virlet puy de dome france… I’ve been working today. Yes, it does occasionally happen.

In this photo you can see the huge stack of wood that I treated with xylophene wood treatment – the stuff that kills all of the nasty beasties.

In fact it didn’t take all that long to do – not if you line all the bits up adjacent to each other and attack them with a paint roller soaked in the stuff (that’s what the black container is for). All you do is to whallop the stuff on, turn the wood on its side and do the next side and then keep on going until all of the sides and all of the pieces are done.

Before that I was up a ladder repositioning a gutter mounting bracket and then taking down the mast for the wind turbine – that’s going to be mounted elsewhere as you know. And I took the opportunity to hunt down a spare blade (and that wasn’t easy either) to replace the one that broke a while ago.

Lieneke came around for a chat too – she’s going to talk to Terry about some work. And once she had gone it was shower-time, and we aren’t talking about the Open University Students Association either. 36°C the water was at 18;20 when I knocked off and so I took full advantage. After all, I missed the swimming baths yesterday.

This morning though I didn’t do too much. After all it is Sunday. 2 telephone calls one after the other summoned me from my reverie at some ungodly hour … “you mean 10:10” – ed …  and after breakfast I entered the stats onto the computer, something I hadn’t done since March and there was a lot of catching up to do.

And talking of stats, on the 1st of July I started a new record book as the old one is now full. August 2007 I started keeping records and there were just four items that I recorded. Today there are about 35 entries that I need to make each evening. But filling the first book is definitely progress.

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Thursday 1st July 2010 – I mentioned yesterday …

roofing sheets barn roof les guis virlet puy de dome france… 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'”.

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Monday 28th June 2010 – Today’s pic …

new carpentry woodwork roofing sheets barn roof les guis virlet puy de dome france… 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”.

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

karl hagen lapeyrouse puy de dome france… 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.

strawberry moose karl hagen lapeyrouse puy de dome franceHein’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.

karl hagen lapeyrouse puy de dome franceThey 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!

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Sunday 13th June 2010 – Sunday is a day of rest …

eco fair pontaumur puy de dome france… but not for me today – I had things to do.

One of the things was to go to Pontaumur for an Eco-building fair. But that was pretty much a waste of time. There were about 30 stands, of which about 25 were trying to get people to sign up for this “Become a Solar Energy Producer and Sell to the Electricity Board” scam.

If you’ve ever experienced this scam – with the cold canvassing phone calls and the harassment in every shopping centre, then you’ll know what I mean. It’s what double glazing was in the 1970s, cavity wall insulation was in the 1980s, financial planning was in the 1990s. Nothing more than a means of the disreputable sharks looking out for poor helpless minnows to swallow.

Think about it for a minute – on a good day (and I mean a good day) I can create 4KwH of electricity. Selling all of that to the EDF will get me 4x€0.55 – ie just over €2. Say that I can do that on 50 days per year, that’s €100 per year. The cost of my set-up here was about €6000 – so it will take me 60 years to get my money back. But I’m using for the most part cheap analogue equipment. Going over to new digital equipment you can add another €3000 easily to that.

And I installed my system myself. How much would the labour charges be for someone else to do it? And then what will be the return on the investment? And when the resale price falls from 0.55 to 0.45 later this year, then what?

Solar (or wind) energy is never ever going to be cost-effective at today’s rates and today’s prices. No-one is ever going to get rich from selling it back to the central supplier here in Europe. There are going to be thousands of disappointed customers in five years time, just like there were with Endowment mortgages, because greedy people who have seen nothing but the Pound signs  will have been suckered in by a bunch of sharks.

Renewable energy is a lifestyle choice and not much else – that is, until the retail price of energy is adjusted to reflect its true cost. And then, of course, it will be totally different.

However I did meet Christiane there – I met her 2 weeks ago at the Plant Fair too – and I also found someone to talk to about a system of lagoons for dealing with my waste water. So that’s back on the agenda.

Before that however I went to the Authors’ Fair at Pionsat to chat to Marianne. Bill was there too.

Later round at Terry’s we took the broyer off the tractor and with a winch and ramps we went to put it in the back of his van. But either the van has shrunk or the broyer has grown since we last measured it and now it won’t fit.

We’re having no luck at all with this blasted tractor-moving.

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Saturday 12th June 2010 – Long Distance Runaround

Well … errr … Yes. No wonder I’m feeling Fragile “That’s quite enough of that” – ed. 

american mikado 2-8-2 steam locomotive 141 R 420 montlucon allier franceAnd I bet you never ever imagined that there would be a steam locomotive involved in today’s rubbish either. Especially not a North American “Mikado” 2-8-2, but nevertheless, here you are.

And in case you are wondering all about it, I’ll tell you more of this anon.

Just for a change for a Saturday I woke up early “lucky Early” – ed and after breakfast I went to fetch the two spare wheels for the caravans.

And I know that they are here in my barn. I remember very well having a blow-out on each of the two caravans when I brought them down here and changing the wheels at the side of the road. And I know exactly where I put the wheels with flat tyres when I arrived here too.

But the way things are around here, if they aren’t in their proper place then I’m well and truly snookered.

In the end I turned over the four piles of tyres but they weren’t in any of them and that has really got me puzzled now. But no matter – off to Liz and Terry’s to get the two off the trailer. And I really didn’t want to do that as I need those two to stay inflated so that I can move the other caravan chassis around but it really can’t be helped.

viaduc des fades gorges de la sioule puy de dome franceThe trailer wasn’t there of course, it was out on a chantier with the scaffolding and so I had to go around there to liberate the wheels.

This chantier is taking place at the old railway house at the Viaduc des Fades, about which I have written a great deal in the past and there’s an excellent view of the Viaduc from there. As you might expect, his calls for a photo.

So having liberated the wheels, it was off to Commentry to the tyre place. And it was indeed the guy who I had met at the autocross back in 2008 and who reckons he can source all kinds of unusual tyres. So having posed the question, he replied “well, I’ve switched the computer off now. Come back Monday afternoon and I’ll order them. We might have them by Tuesday night”.

But Tuesday morning the tractor needs to be on site so that’s no good. Off to St Eloy les Mines to the new tyre place. And the only 13-inch tyres that he had were “reinforced” – not even “commercial van”. And there he was, insisting that they would be good enough. I don’t like the guy at that place and I never did and I’m not putting any old tyres on that trailer just for the sake of it.

So off to Pionsat to referee this challenge match. And the pitch all overgrown and full of weeds and two players practising their golf on it.
“When’s this match taking place then?”
“September” Matthieu replied.

Ahhh well.

But in for a penny, in for a pound. I had an unexpected couple of hours of freedom and an urgent task to undertake so I went chaud-pied to Montlucon to the tyre place at the back of Carrefour – he who had done me proud with tyres for Caliburn in December.
“What’s it for?” he asked
“A caravan chassis that I’ve converted into a trailer for carrying heavy loads. The existing tyres just collapsed under the load”
“What kind of load will it be carrying? A tonne?”
“At the very least” I replied

So a rummage down at the back of his storeroom produced three 10-ply steel radial commercial van tyres. “These will do you fine” he replied.

Downside is that I can’t have them fitted until Monday as he is full to the brim. But that gives us Monday afternoon to play about with them.

He is also having a sale on tyres for Caliburn – buy two and get the second half-price. And I need two to go on the front as I don’t want to wear out my snow tyres. These will set me back €216 which is a far cry from the €272 that I was quoted back in December. All of this is working out expensive.

So then I realised that I hadn’t done all my shopping (I’d bumped into Bill in Carrefour and while we were waiting for the tyre place in St Eloy les Mines to open, we went for a coffee) so off I popped to the Intermarche at the back of LIDL.

rotary snowplough allier franceThe parking borders on to the railway line and there was a crowd of people gathered around the fence peering through it. It seems that it’s some kind of Open Day at the railway roundhouse and there were several old and interesting objects on view.

One of the things that caught my eye was this delightful rotary snowplough. It’s not a patch on the rotary snowplough that I saw at Chama in the Rocky Mountains in 2002 of course, but it’s quite impressive for around here.

french sncf diesel railcar montlucon allier franceFrance’s railway – the SNCF, or Société Nationale des Chemins-de-Fer Français – underwent a huge modernisation programme in the 1950s and 1960s just the same as most Western countries. Steam locomotives were retired from service and diesels took over.

Everyone who travelled around France in the 1960s and 1970s will remember the typical red-and-cream diesel multiple-units and railcars that replaced the steam shuttles and it was nice to see a couple of them on display here.

american mikado 2-8-2 steam locomotive 141 R 420 montlucon allier francePride of place, however, has to go to the Mikado. It’s a 2-8-2 in Anglophone notification, although the French, who count the axles not the wheels, would call it a 1-4-1.

It’s one of the R class – number 420 in fact, and was built by Baldwins in the USA just after the war as part of the “Marshall Plan” to re-equip the European rail network after the ravages of World War II. France ordered 1340 of these (to give you an idea of how much of the French railway network was destroyed during the war) but only received 1323.

american mikado 2-8-2 steam locomotive 141 R 420 montlucon allier franceThe other 17 are lying at the bottom of the sea off the coast of Newfoundland, due to the ship that was transporting them – the Belpamela from Norway, sinking in a heavy storm on April 11, 1947.

The type remained in service with the SNCF until as late as October 19th 1975 when R.1187 performed its last duty.

R.420 had been stored by the SNCF but was put up for sale in June 1976. Luckily it fell into the hands of a preservation group in Clermont Ferrand.

american mikado 2-8-2 steam locomotive 141 R 420 montlucon allier franceIt is one of the 12 survivors of the class, although the fate of three of these is hanging in the balance since the company that was restoring them went bankrupt.

It underwent a full restoration and was passed fit for rail service in March 1982. Today, it’s the equivalent of the British “Flying Scotsman”, performing steam excursions.

As an interesting aside, in July 1987 the locomotive was officially classed as a French Historic Monument.

Tonight was the cheerleaders or majorettes competition in St Eloy les Mines and I was planning on attending. Piles of girls in skimpy costumes chucking sticks about and sometimes even catching them – but after today’s exertions I don’t think that I could stand the strain.

I hope Terry is grateful for all the sacrifices that I’m making on his behalf  so that we can get his show on the road! Missing out on a display of girls in skimpy clothing is not something I would do lightly.

And in other more depressing news, here, in the comfort and safety of my own attic, I have been flaming well stung on the leg by a perishing blasted wasp!

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Thursday 3rd June 2010 – I went outside this morning …

water source spring hardstanding les guis virlet puy de dome france… and had another look at that damp patch. I went to have a dance in it and sure enough a whole pile of water welled up in my footprints.

I have mixed emotions about this. I’d like the new hardstanding to dry out as quickly as possible so that I can use it, but on the other hand I can see the advantages of digging out my own well.

So I dunno. Bernard reckons that it might be 8 days before it’s safe to drive onto the hardstanding – to give it time to settle and to tamp down, but this damp patch he reckons will take much longer. I’ll be interested to see what it’s like in a fortnight.

But I was right about this morning. I had a nice leisurely breakfast, did some work on the computer and spent most of the afternoon in the garden planting. I’ve more veg coming through but it’s still weeks behind down there. Mind you we had a good hot windy day with the wind now blowing from the east. I’ve done some tidying up as well and I can now get into the barn for a change.

And talking of the barn it won’t be long before we start on that roof. At least all of the stuff that’s lying around in the way can be put on the new hardstanding.

Tomorrow I have an early start. I need to be in Pionsat at …errrr…. 09:00. No idea how I’m going to manage that.

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Tuesday 25th May 2010 – What amazing weather.

Indeed.

This morning was bright and sunny – it was really beautiful and we were heading for another warmest day of the year. The drive down to Gerzat to record our radio programme was hot and sweaty just like an August day and the temperature down there was 31 degrees.

When we left there it had risen to 32 degrees but by the time we hit the motorway to come back there were these huge and onimous grey clouds streaming in from the west at a rapid rate of knots

All of a sudden the temperature plummeted. From 32 degrees it dropped to just 14 degrees in a matter of minutes and as we climbed up into the Combrailles it started to rain intermittently.

After I rescued Caliburn from St Gervais d’Auvergne I drove back here and the skies started to clear.

steam on road rainstorm hanging cloud font nanaud pionsat puy de dome franceBut suddenly it would cloud over again, we’d have the most tremendous rainstorm and then the clouds would depart leaving us in bright sunshine.

The temperature would rise back into the low 30s almost immediately and the heat would cause all of the roads and the vegetation to steam – just like in this pic near the top of the Font Nanaud on the road between St Gervais d’Auvergne and Pionsat.

Despite what it looks like, it isn’t a hanging cloud.

Back here at home though (just 10 kms from the Font) things had clearly been much more dramatic. 17mm of rainfall had fallen and my water butts were full again.

It cleared up in late afternoon but for the last hour or so it’s been raining heavily, and aren’t my plants grateful for that?

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

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Thursday 13th May 2010 – "And what kind of time do you call this?" …. ed

6 a side football tournament pionsat puy de dome franceYes, didn’t I say something about an early night? The weather was grey, depressing and miserable and so I wasn’t expecting much but 39 teams turned out for this football tournament. And so it went on until just now – in fact it was 01:20 when I returned home.

And I’m absolutely worn out too because I ended up refereeing the major part of the matches. I have to earn my corn now! I made a few mistakes but I suppose it’s a good sign when you realise it.

Another thing as well – at 15:00 when it all started I was leaping over the barrier onto the pitch. By the time the final came around at 00:50 I was crawling under it on all fours.

Tomorrow is Friday and I ought to be working but I’m tired and exhausted so I’m going for a “Saturday” day tomorrow – a gentle lie-in and then a shopping afternoon. And quite right too seeing as Saturday I should be working on this furniture removal thingy so I need to build up my strength.

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