Tag Archives: recycled plastic slates

Tuesday 18th August 2009 – I STILL HAVEN’T …

aspire recycled plastic slates roof lean to les guis virlet puy de dome france… finished this flaming roof, even though I’ve made quite a bit of progress.

The morning was fine and I added the extra rows of slates and then did some cementing up and then cemented in the top row of tiles as far as I had fitted them. No need for ferro-cement though as I managed to get a very good and close fit of the top row of tiles.

I also finished off the drainpipe for the house roof as you can see.

The afternoon was a completely different story.

39.9 degrees and a record 88.8 amp-hours of solar energy will tell you the reason why I didn’t make as much progress as I would have liked.

With the sun beating down directly onto the roof I could only do about 20 minutes at a time before I had to go and cool off in the shade. It wasn’t until the sun went off the roof at about 18:30 that I could have a good hour or so on it.

But this weather is absolutely superb if you don’t have any manual work to do. It’s just like the summers we used to have when we were kids. Apart from the little bit of cloud yesterday we’ve had no rain for 9 days and the temperature hasn’t been below 30 degrees for 10 days. In fact, even as I write, it’s 27 degrees IN MY ROOM here.

On Friday there’s a 30% chance of rainfall and then it’s back to the sun again. Will it ever end? I hope not!

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Monday 17th August 2009 – I’VE MADE MUCH MORE PROGRESS TODAY …

aspire recycled plastic slates les guis virlet puy de dome france… as you can see. There are now 12 rows of slates on the roof.

There is in fact 2m95 of roof, and each row of slates covers 17.5 cms, so 12 rows means that I’ve covered 2m10. 85cms to go means 5 rows, plus the topping-out row still to do.

You might be wondering why I’m not building up the back edge as I go along. The fact is that there is nothing particular underneath the back of the lean-to whereas my living accommodation is to the front. So I want to get that done as quickly as possible and can cut the slates to shape for the back edge once I’ve got my living bit covered.

After that I need to do the edging tiles, make some ferro-cement for the ridgepiece, and then fit the guttering as best as I can – depending upon whenever the bits come into stock at Brico Depot.

The postie came round this morning (bringing with her a big parcel that I’ve been waiting for for about 2 months and told me to get a move on as we are going to have a storm in the afternoon. It did in fact cloud right over at midday but the “storm” was about 6 raindrops. A storm in a teacup you might think.

At solar midday (about 14:10 round here) I happened to be in the house looking at the solar controller for the three panels that are currently connected up. And lo and behold! 19.4 amps! The highest I’ve ever had on any set-up. And 80.8 amp-hours in total (before the batteries topped out). In fact the solar charge in the house for the last few days has read 80.8, 64.5, 73.8, 83.3, 78.9, 68.0, 66.0. This is all pretty impressive.

And what else was pretty impressive was that at the Anglo-French group tonight there were more French-speakers than English-speakers. Only the second time that that has ever happened as far as I am aware.

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Sunday 16th August 2009 – IT DOESN’T LOOK …

aspire recycled plastic slates lean to les guis virlet puy de dome france… as if I’ve done very much today. And you are probably right too.

In fact there are a couple of good reasons why.

Firstly, the heat on the roof and the glare from the sun meant that I could only stay on there for short periods.

Secondly, I … errr …. didn’t wake up until 12.33 this afternoon.

And that was with an early night too. I’m trying to think of when it was that I last crashed out like that and I can’t honestly remember. But, whatever. It put paid to three hours of work on the roof this morning.

All in all, what with one thing and another, this weekend hasn’t been too successful in the whole scheme of things of getting my living accommodation sorted out. I suppose I shall just have to work a bit harder in the week to catch up.

And there’s a hint that the weather might change too. Seven days we’ve been in brilliant sunshine with not a drop of rain, but later in the afternoon the wind got up and a cloud (does anyone remember clouds?) came drifting over.

I’m in two minds about the rain though. I want to get the roof finished before it rains if I can, but I’ve run out of rainwater in my water butts and they could do with getting filled.

Mind you, it’s given me an opportunity to clean them out and they didn’t half need it.

With this surfeit of electricity that I’m having right now, I’ve got the hi-fi working again too, and Marillion has just come round. I really enjoy listening to Marillion but for some unknown reason, whether it’s Fish or Steve Hogarth singing, it always leaves me in a deep depression. I suppose I’ll be struggling with that for a week or so now.

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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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Friday 14th August 2009 – WE HAD A GOOD DAY TODAY.

kwikstage scaffolding damp proof membrane plywood les guis virlet puy de dome france Firstly we dismantled the scaffolding that was in the roof space.
Secondly we fitted the rafters.
Thirdly we took one of the rafters out and replaced it with another new one that we xylophened and painted
Fourthly we cemented the rafters in position
Fifthly we fitted some of the hardboard on the roof
Sixthly we went to Montlucon to get some more hardboard, the guttering (and why have they run out of guttering joints AGAIN? Tons of everything else but no blasted joints for the second time) and a few other bits and pieces
Seventhly we fitted the rest of the hardboard
Eighthly we fitted the damp-proof membrane (white this time as we’ve run out of black)

Terry piddled off after that (who can blame him? He’s worked hard) and I measured up, cut, xlophened and put the first coat of paint on the fascia boards.

Tomorrow I’ll be fitting the fascia boards, loosely attaching the guttering (in the absence of joints) and then starting the tiling. And in between all that I need to go to St Eloy for shopping.

And talking of Terry, I want you all to know how well I treat my workforce. Hottest day of the year so far (38.6 degrees and almost 84 amp-hours from the solar panels on the roof of the house). And so I treated him to a bottle of ice-cold coke. Yes, none of your 22 cents on a bottle of water – a whole 1 Euro 50 cents I spent today.

My generosity knows no bounds.

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Tuesday 11th August 2009 – I’VE BEEN PAINTING FOR MOST OF THE DAY.

With all of the slates off the roof, it seemed like the right thing to do. All of the beams and rafters that are still up there have had two coats of xylophene and one coat of LIDL wood treatment.

And they needed the xylophene too. One or two of them have some pretty big bug holes and galleries so they have been well-soaked in the stuff. They aren’t too badly damaged so it’s not worth replacing them. The xylophrene should do the job.

But it was pretty awkward painting them as they are too long to paint in one go, too short to do in two goes, there’s a central beam right where I want to put my chest when I’m lying full-length and a scaffolding just above my head. So I’ve been in some awkward positions and I’ve got aches in some places I didn’t even realise I had.

Three rafters are pretty bad though – the two outer ones and one of the inners. But I have about 20 here so I cut three to size and gave them two coats of xylophene and two coats of LIDL wood treatment.

All in all I used about 8 litres of xylophrene (good job Brico Depot had some 35-litre drums the other day) and 5 litres of the LIDL stuff. I always buy a few tins of it when I see it on offer and I’m glad I had a stock. I’m now down to just three so I’m hoping they’ll have some more pretty soon.

Tomorrow I’ll be fitting the new beams and cementing them in place ready to fit the plywood over the top. Then the damp-proof membrane and then the slates. No insulation and no laths either.

In other news, my potential customer came round. I thought that I could talk, but I’m an amateur by comparison. Still, we have to be nice to our potential customers (something that a certain UK company might wish to take on board) and I’ll go round to inspect his premises once my roof is done.

And in other other news, I see that Aung San Sun Kyi is to continue in detention, much to the chagrin of the entire western world. Now I’m not going to get involved in the rights and wrongs of her case (although followers of my organ from many years back will recall my involvement with the myserious and exotic War War Soe who came dramatically into my life for a while in Belgium and who tried to get me to help her escape Burmese justice) but one thing that I have noticed is that not one single western source has mentioned exactly WHY it is that Aung San Sun Kyi is so detested by the Burmese Authorities.

And so I hasten to put the matter straight for the record, so that in the words of the late, great FE Smith,even if you are none-the-wiser, you will certainly be better-informed.

The fact is that Aung San’s father was a former Burmese general prior to World War II. He mysteriously disappeared and later fetched up in, of all places, Japan, where the Japanese feted him and honoured him, lavished loads of money on him and so on. He then went back to Burma.

In 1941 when the Japanese colonial expansion got into top gear there was a revolution in Burma. And who should be leading this revolution, but Aung San’s father. He invited the Japanese into Burma to help with the “liberation” and of course it is no surprise that they duly obliged.

I’m not going into the horrors of the Japanese “liberation” (see “occupation” or “colonialisation”) of Burma as they are fully-recorded in all kinds of other places, but most people lay them fairly and squarely at the feet of Aung San’s father.

it’s no surprise therefore that the establishment of Burma is deeply suspicious of Aung San’s motives and cannot understand why it should be that she is calling herself as a “true democrat”. To give you some idea, just imagine what westerners would say if a child of Adolf Hitler were to stand for election as a Communist in Germany.

LIke I say, I’m not going to get into the rights and wrongs of what is happening in Burma right now, but it’s important that both sides have an equal opportunity to have their views aired, something that is sadly lacking in the west these days.

And on the same day that a 90 year old German is convicted of war crimes dating from World War II and jailed for life, the hypocrisy of the western world in criticising Burma for dealing with its own World War II legacy in its own fashion is quite simply staggering.

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Monday 10th August 2009 I WAS HAVING A …

kwikstage scaffolding lean to roof les guis virlet puy de dome france… quiet leisurely breakfast this morning when a car pulled up outside. “A bit too early for the postie” I thought so I wandered off to see who it was. And lo and behold! It was Terry.

“Come on, let’s have this roof off” he exclaimed, so before I could even begin to tell him about my change of plan we were ripping the slates off. Ahhh well!

I uncovered an ants’ nest (I wondered where all these ants had been marching to – now I know) but Terry won the prize, uncovering a mice nest, complete with mice. These were summarily evicted too. We uprooted a couple of rotten chevrons (most of them are fine and they will be staying put) and then we put up the scaffolding.

After lunch we xylophened the wood on the end of the main roof and then painted it with the LIDL wood preservative. Tons of the stuff went on.
“This won’t ever rot again” I suggested.
“It’ll rot sooner or later” said Terry.
“Well, as long as it doesn’t do it before I’m dead” I said
“No problem there” said Terry, brandishing a hammer.

>We edged off the wood with tiles just as I had done on the other side and then piddled off to Simon’s to see about his electricity. He had his kids there, a lad of 12 and a girl of 8. And Strawberry Moose made another friend as you can expect.

And at the Anglo-French group, Nathalie made a welcome return. It was nice to see her after all of this while. And next week, as the venue at St Eloy is closed, Amandine wants to invite us round to her house at Moureuille.

I forgot to mention too that Terry brought me round my new toy. A bargain pack of Hitachi battery-powered drill, torch and – wait for it – battery-powered SDS drill. I’ve been after one of those for years and Screwfix had them on special offer. So I’ve treated myself. I can think of a million uses for one of those.

And talking of Screwfix, Terry’s had to nip to the UK to pick up his latest purchases so I’m on my own for a couple of days again. But don’t worry – he’s left me plenty to do.

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Monday 3rd August 2009 – AT FIRST GLANCE …

kwikstage scaffolding solar panels les guis virlet puy de dome france… this photo doesn’t look much different than some of the others that have been on this site just recently.

But if you look carefully you’ll notice a couple of changes. Firstly we now have 6 solar panels on the roof. All 780 watts-worth of power, and seeing as I have been living quite comfortably with just 150 watts for two years then you will see what a dramatic leap forwards this represents.

And when the wind turbine is installed this will be even more dramatic. I might even wire the fridge up again!

Secondly, all the tiling has been finished around the chimney. With Terry and I performing contortions over and around the chimney we managed to get everything on and sealed up.

Furthermore you’ll notice that the scaffolding appears to have shrunk. In fact I’ve dismantled the very top layer as there’s now no need to go onto the roof. My plan for tomorrow is to finish cementing under the eaves and while that is drying, point the stone wall round the far side.

When the cementing under the eaves has dried I’ll be painting the rendering under the eaves, fitting the fascia panel and guttering. And then continuing to paint the rendering downwards as I dismantle the scaffolding. It’ll be nice to get the scaffolding out of my verandah so I can close the door again.

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Sunday 2nd August 2009 – LOOK WHAT I’M HAVING FOR TEA!

new potatoes grown les guis virlet puy de dome franceYes, new potatoes! And grown with my own fair hands too.

In fact there’s a story behind these potatoes. Readers of my blog in its previous incarnation will recall the sad passing-away of my good friend Liz.

On my way to her funeral I stopped off at a Pound Shop (Anyone who knew Liz would know that she would have appreciated that!) and one of the things that they had on offer was a pack of 12 well-advanced seed potatoes for a quid. So they duly found their way into my garden, and then into my oven.

And right delicious they were too. I’ve been having lettuce from my garden for a few days but today I’m starting on the spuds. Tomorrow it will also be the peas, beans and carrots, with courgettes planned for later in the week.

This morning I had a telehone call that disturbed me from my reverie. It was Francois who wanted to come and inspect the work. And at 10:00 too! On a Sunday! So I hauled myself out of my pit, breakfasted, and showed him round. He pointed out a few faults (he’s a professional roofing carpenter) and I had to agree with him.

Mind you, this is the first roof I’ve ever done and Terry has only ever done one before so it’s only to be expected. Francois also reminded me of the chantier at his house on Thursday – emptying the library before his house goes up for sale. But it’s doubtful that I’ll be there. I’ve far too much on right now.

Once he’d gone I slated the side of the rafters where I painted yesterday. That should keep the weather out nicely. And after lunch I started to cement under the eaves. My cementing is awful and I bet I dropped more on the floor that I stuck to the walls but after a bit of practice it started to hod together – which is a major advance for me. I’ll finish it off tomorrow night.

Once it’s dried off properly I can start to paint the front of the house and won’t that be progress?

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Thursday 30th July 2009 – THE HOUSE ROOF IS ALMOST FINISHED …

ASPIRE RECYCLED PLASTIC ROOFING SLATES les guis virlet puy de dome france… as you can see in the pic. The only part that remains to be done is the bit to the side of the chimney and seeing as we have to get up to there to treat the woodwork (we are very generous) and put slates down the sides, that bit can wait til we have the scaffolding around there.

The aluminium troughs you see on the roof are the mountings for the framework for the solar panels and we should be fitting them tomorrow if all goes well. 800 watts near enough if all goes well and with that I shall be certainly ready for action. And if Terry is feeling up to it we may even have a go at putting the wind turbine up too.


By the way, do you like the ridge tiles? They are the ordinary plastic slates scored down the middle with the groove filled with contact adhesive. They were screwed onto the front of the roof with the stainless steel screws and silicone-backed washers and left for a few minutes to catch the sun. Once the sun had caught them they were easy to bend over the apex and screw onto the back of the house. Those silicone-backed washers were quite a find, I can tell you.

After Terry had gone I noticed that the water I had in the black plastic container covered with an old caravan window had reached 35 degrees. Cue the 12-volt shower (not the OUSA Executive Committee – the xylophrene for disposing of nasty little pests will take care of them) and I had a gorgeous scrub of my dirty bits. Following that I crashed out for an hour (it’s wearing me out all this work) and then tidied up my room so I now can sit comfortably in it.

In other news, Gilles came round this morning and had a guided tour of the works. He’s just finished renovating his cottage at La Cellette and he’s organising a barbecue for a week on Friday for all of us. I like Gilles and he did help me out when a solar panel needed fixing after a gale that we had in the winter so I shall be delighted to go.

This is an isolated rural area here with houses few and far between yet I’ve engaged in much more socialising and made many more friends than I ever did when I lived in Brussels.

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Wednesday 29th July 2009 – NO PHOTOS TODAY, PEOPLE.

And it’s hardly surprising. Terry was round early and we got on the roof and carried on slating. This required some intricate work around the roof windows and I surprised myself by being prepared for such an eventuality with some stainless steel screws and silicone-backed washers.

After lunch we were back up there to carry on but by now it was 35 degrees and everything on the roof was so hot that it was agonising to pick anything up. No use in working so at 14:30 we called it a day.

Terry went home to his good lady and I took a book and a drink into the comfort and safety of the water room. Once the sun moved from out of direct line with the roof I got back up on the scaffolding and painted the underneath of the eaves with xylophrene, a product that protects wood against dry rot, wet rot and nasty little pests (that’ll stop members of OUSA’s Executive Committee visiting me) and then with some of the brown wood preservative.

During all of this I had a visit from Tijas and his mum and so a guided tour was organised.

After all of that I was exhausted and it took me all of my best efforts to cook some food. I’m going to have to find myself a willing assistant for that kind of thing.

In other news, you simply cannot believe how craven the UK has become. Refusing to disclose the torture undergone by a British subject by the Americans in Cuba, on the grounds that the USA won’t share any more secrets with the Brits. Terry and I had a chat the other day about how pathetic the UK is becoming. Most Brits believe that it is still a significant world power yet as these events go to show, the UK is nothing more than an insignificant offshore island and a mere puppet of Great Satan. HIgh time all of the Brits grew up and had a good look around them. But with 24-hour drinking and 500 channels on the TV all showing “Corrie” and Big Bother, it just goes to prove that 99% of the population of the UK is totally brain-dead.

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was all about bread and circuses, and I don’t see much difference.

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Tuesday 28th July 2009 – AT FIRST GLANCE ….

aspire recycled plastic roofing slates les guis virlet puy de dome france … this photo doesn’t look any different from that of yesterday. However, if you look closely you can see that we have put some slates on the roof.

10 rows in fact.

As soon as Terry came round we cracked on with it but as the day wore on we came across a problem of a different and most unexpected kind.


It was a blinding hot summer’s day and the heat was intense. And here we were, handling black slates made from recycled plastic whilst leaning on a black rubberised sheet of damp-proof membrane. By early afternoon Terry had resorted to gloves to handle the slates and I, leaning on top of the damp-proof membrane, had resorted to building a ladder-bridge to keep my body off the roasting surface. You can see the ladder on the left of the roof.

Clearly we couldn’t continue like that and by 16:00 we were obliged to call it a day.Terry plans to be round earlier tomorrow and we can bash on with the slating before it gets too hot and hopefully we can fit the base of the framework for the solar panels. It will be nice to have electricity in here again. But first I have to invent some kind of gauge to measure angles from the horizontal.

After Terry left I had resolved to paint the underside of the plywood but as it was so hot and promises to be so tomorrow I did a load of washing instead. And with constant interruptions for an endless series of phone calls and visits from Claude and Tijas I didn’t manage to get anything else done.

It just leaves me more to do tomorrow, I suppose.

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Monday 27th July 2009 – WE’RE CRACKING ON WITH THIS ROOF!

kwikstage scaffolding spire plastic recycled slates roof les guis virlet puy de dome franceIf you look very closely you will see that we’ve put on all of the plywood, the damp-proof membrane and we’ve fitted the windows in the roof.

Terry came round for 09:00 and we cracked straight on with it. A brief pause for lunch after we’d done the plywood, which was awkward getting around the chimney and it’s a good job I can wield a hammer with my left hand as well as I can with my right … "that’s not difficult" – ed …

Putting the membrane on was easier than I would have thought, and the windows were comparatively straightforward.

It was grey and overcast for all of the day so I remember telling Terry “as soon as we’ve put this last screw in the final window I reckon it’s going to p155 down”.

I was wrong. We had to wait about 20 seconds for the downpour. And quite pleasant it was too, watching the rain stream off the membrane and off the windows. But it was clear that there would be no more work done outside today so even though it was only about 15:30 (I told you we’d worked hard) Terry went home.

I had a coffee and then swept up inside the house and piled all the broken slates onto a tarpaulin. You might womder why I’m keeping them, but in fact I’m moving my vegetable plots this winter and there will be some permanent pathways. Slugs don’t like sliding on slate, so I’m told, and seeing as they are decimating my crops right now, I’m going to have to do something to stop them next year. So slate it is.

All we have to do now is
1) slate the front of the house
2 fit the brackets for the solar panels and mount them (that will be exciting – I should sell tickets for that) and wire them up
3) bend the ridge tiles to shape and fit them
4)move part of the scaffolding round to the side to extend that which is already there.
5) bend the edging tiles to shape and fit them
6) fix the wind turbine to the wall and wire it in
7) remove the tiles from the lean-to where I live, put the scaffolding on the flat roof underneath there and then bend the edging tiles to shape and fit them
8) dismantle the scaffolding.
9 replace all of the wood and the tiles on the lean-to.

When that’s done we can start on the barn.

In other news, the annual game of “10 Green Bottles” is now under way as a member of the Open University Students Association Executive Committee hands in his hat.
“Ill-health”, we are told.
“That’s right” he replied. “I’m sick of the b*gg*rs”

We are going to start a sweepstake for the name of the next EC member to depart.

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Saturday 25th JULY 2009 – I WAS GOING TO SHOW YOU ALL ….

kwikstage scaffolding plywood les guis virlet puy de dome france… a photo of the front of the house with the insulation on, but we didn’t have time to take a photo of it.

I was up early this morning and while waiting for Terry I did some tidying up in the barn. I have to record this as me tidying up in the barn is a pretty rare event,

First thing that Terry and I did after he arrived was to thread 4 strands of 6mm cable through a 25mm flexible conduit (for the two solar arrays that will be on the roof) and 2 strands of 6mm cable through some 25mm flexible conduit for the wind turbine that will be on the apex of the roof. Then we cut a channel through the wall, fastened the conduit in and cemented it down. So that’s the wiring organised.

Dave turned up some time through the performance and if two pairs of hands are a vast improvement on one, then three pairs of hands are an even greater improvement. We had the insulation on in no time and without stopping fastened down the battening and had half the plywood on by 17:00. That was some impressive work and we can be proud of what we accomplished today.

Tomorrow Terry is having a day off and taking Liz to the chainsaw-carving. We have to keep Liz happy as our supplies of food depend upon it and the food is too good to miss out on. I’m going to have one of those rare days where I’m going to sit around the house and do absolutely nothing at all. I think I’ve earned it.

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Friday 24th July 2009 – WE WERE LUCKY WITH THE WEATHER TODAY

kwikstage scaffolding aspire recycled slates les guis virlet puy de dome franceMostly cool and overcast, with just the occasional passing shower. A good day for working on the roof and so with no misadventures and without any excitement we finished the slating of the back of the roof.

By 16:00 it was all done and as it wasn’t worth starting anything fresh we called it a night.

We had plenty of visitors though. Liz passed by to check up on us, followed by Claude and then by Dave (or Mr Blobby as those of you who followed this blog over from its previous home will remember) who drove over from La Chatre to check up on us, and finally by Tijas.

Despite my reference earlier to “a passing shower”, no-one from the Open University Students Association Executive Committee came here.

Dave acompanied us, not to the police station but to Terry and Liz’s where he was introduced to Liz’s cooking and was then given a guided tour over the Viaduc des Fades.

I’m back at home for now as I have so much to do and in any case Terry and Liz deserve some peace and quiet.

Tomorrow we are starting on the front of the roof. This will be easier to do but we have to fit the two windows and the brackets for the solar panels so I doubt if it will be quicker.

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