Tag Archives: snow

Tuesday 28th January 2014 – I’VE PUT THE FIRST …

… piece of plaster board on the wall today. This is progress indeed.

Mind you,it took me long enough.

I had to go to the bank this morning braving the flurries of snow – they wanted some information off me – and then round to Bill’s house. It’s been a year since Bill left us and his estate needs to be finalised. Consequently it was the final call for people to buy anything that remains, before the house clearance people come.

Marianne’s son Pascal wanted a few things and there was some tidying up still to be done, so I helped Marianne do that and then gave Pascal a hand, and then took his stuff to a garage that he’s using to store stuff until he moves to his new apartment.

That took all of the morning but I wasn’t finished yet. When I was strapping something onto the roof I noticed that one of the brackets holding the solar panel to the underneath of the roofrack had sheared off. That needed fixing before I went too far and so there I was making a new bracket.

After lunch I fitted the two counter-battens and replaced one of the rails that I’ll be using to support a shelf. It seems that Brain of Britain has measured up for a 27mm rail but fitted a 40mm rail instead? No wonder it didn’t look level.

So having done that, I had to free all of the plasterboard from the stuff that had accumulated on top of it over the last year or so. And then, I could start on the plasterboarding.

And for tea tonight, I made a lentil and mushroom curry. There’s enough forthree more days which is just as well, because it was delicious.

-6

Monday 27th January 2014 – IT WAS THE WEATHER …

… that decided the programme for me today. I woke up in pitch darkness and quickly worked out that the reason for that was that it had snowed during the night and the roof windows were covered over.

But what a wake-up – this new telephone has an alarm that sounds like all of the cockerels in the whole wide world crowing at once. Ear-splitting isn’t the word to describe this.

So once the preliminaries were out of the way, I attacked the wall. And now, it’s all finished except for two counter-battens and I’ll fix them the next opportunity that I get.

It won’t be tomorrow though. I have to go out in the morning.

-2

Friday 24th January 2014 – NOW ABOUT THIS CONCRETING.

It didn’t get done today, and for a very good reason too in that this morning the temperature had plummeted and it was snowing.

Not heavily, and it was that wet snow that is more like rain, but whatever it was, it’s not at all the weather for concreting.

And I was late getting up as well – when I should have been getting up I was actually at an airport trying to catch a flight to Agadir. Struggling away with a huge suitcase through the check-in and the person with whom I was travelling – she had gone off into the departure lounge and had taken the tickets with her. I remember thinking that if they asked me for mine as I was going through the gate I wouldn’t half have some problems.

I was rather disappointed that I overslept like this. I had had an early night but it was interrupted by an attack of cramp again but it didn’t keep me awake that long.

So what did I do today then?

I do have a contingency plan for bad weather and this was what I put in to operation today.

When I fitted out the attic at the end of 2009 I didn’t do anything about the head of the stairs. There’s just the upright pillars and the horizontal beam that I fitted and the bits in the stud wall were filled with offcuts of polystyrene.

What I’ve been doing today is to put the battens on the outside wall. That’s all done now and I’ve started to add the insulation and the counter-battens. The insulation that I’m using is that modern expensive space-blanket stuff. That works best in a vacuum and the easiest way to do that is with battens and counter-battens.

When that’s done, I can start adding the plasterboard, fitting the definitive stair treads and risers and then do the ceiling.

I’m definitely in work mode these days.

-2

Thursday 21st November 2013 – FIRST TASK THIS MORNING …

… was to shovel a pile of snow off the solar panels. I was right about it being more persistent last night.

Second task was to move Caliburn. As you know, here I’m down the bottom of a slight hollow at the end of a dirt track and traction is not what it might be. If we have much more of this snow then I won’t be able to go anywhere, and I do have places to go and people to see.

That having been done, I can concentrate on breakfast, even if it was a mere 12.5°C up here in my garret. It was much colder outside, of course, and so I didn’t really fancy the idea too much, but the work doesn’t get done by itself.

So I attacked the lean-to again and cut up another pile of wood. Then, with dexterious use of a brush and shovel I cleaned quite a large extra of space. I then set to to tidy up all of the new wood – shelving, IKEA furniture and the like, and that left quite a nice little hole for the shelving unit. But herein lies a problem, to wit the shelves that I was planning on using were 4cms too high.

Not to be too put off by all of this, I emptied the little shelf unit in the wash room and put that in the lean-to and started to fill that up. I want to put all of the gardening stuff in there and so I went on my travels around the various parts of the barn, and I find that I have filled the shelf unit and there’s nothing like all of it in there.

Clearly this is going to call for some more reorganisation. What I shall probably end up doing is what I should have done first rather than last, and that is to build a custon set of shelving like I have done just about everywhere else that I’ve been working.

It really is a crazy notion to do it half-and-half like this. I can see me making another trip to the sawmill next week, assuming that the snow is going to stop.

-7

Wednesday 20th November 2013 – THE SNOW DIDN’T LAST LONG …

… this morning. It was mostly all gone by 10:00 and we were back in the dreary marshland again. It’s like to good old days, with mud up to my ears.

This morning I carried on in the barn and finally reached the far wall. That’s an achievement – there’s stuff there that I haven’t seen for probably 15 years, and when I get around to it, there will be a lot of stuff going down to the dechetterie.

After lunch, it was the turn of Rosemary to ring up for a chat. She has a courtesy car at the moment as hers is in at the garage, and she couldn’t work out how to put it into reverse. Having sorted that out, we had a good 20 minute natter on the phone.

A then had a couple of hours in the lean-to. I found a shelf unit when I was tidying in the barn, and it will just go nicely in the lean-to by the door, but I need to make some space of course. The best way to do that is to chop a pile of wood and while that didn’t seem to make any room at all in the lean-to, it certainly filled up the woodshed. I suppose that i’ll have to keep on chopping. But if I can get the shelf unit into there I can put all of the gardening stuff there so it’s out of the way where it should be.

This evening I made another aubergine and kidney been casserole without the kidney beans because i forgot them, and it’s snowing again outside. And the snow looks much more determined than it did yesterday evening, that’s for sure.

-9

Sunday 17th November 2013 – NO FOOTY … GRRRRRR!

And I checked before setting out, too. I rang up Fabien who has now taken over the running of FC Pionsat St Hilaire from Bernard, so I am given to understand, and he said at first that today’s 2nd XI match at Charensat was on. But shortly afterwards, he rang back to say that following a mid-morning pitch inspection, the game was off.

Seeing as it was Sunday, I wasn’t feeling too much like a 13:00 start anyway, especially as I didn’t crawl out of bed until abou 10:30. So that was the cue for a leisurely morning.

The afternoon gave me several possibilities – I could see if there were any clubs in the vicinity (Le Quartier, the Goatslayers, St Maurice etc) were playing, or whether Terjat or St Marcel’s matches were on, or else I could stay in and do the rock programmes for Radio Anglais. Common sense and logic suggested that I did the radio programmes and so for once, I took my own best advice (not like me, I know) and dashed out January’s rock music. So that’s out of the way.

This evening I was summoned to appear chez Liz and Terry so that Liz and I could do the rehearsals for our recordings on Friday, and I could have a quick glance at the Fiat Punto that has ground to a shuddering halt (might possibly be that a big end cap has come off, although it’s significant that it started to go wrong after a local garage changed the water punp – has someone dropped a bolt or a spanner down a waterway?)

Liz also sprung a surprise on me – could I help her translate some technical information about the work that is done in a casting foundry. That 18 months I spent in an in-depth study of the evidence of the Tay Bridge disaster, during which about 100 pages was spent in discussing foundry practice and principles, stood me in good stead here, that’s for sure. And I’m not really complaining because Liz also sprung on me an apple crumble and vegan custard together with a doggy bag to take home, as well as another supply of vegan cheese from the UK.

On the way there though, I noticed rather ominously that the sides of the Puy-de-Dome, the Mont Dore and the Puy de Sancy are well-covered in snow. Winter is drawing inexorably closer with every day.

I’m also having a little change of procedure about the bateries in the barn right now. As you know, the charge controller has packed up in there (the second in as many years) so I’m by-passing the charge controller with a flying lead with crocodile clips on each end. Anyway, the battery that I’m using is fully-charged and I don’t want to overcharge it by leaving it coupled up all day, but before all of these charge control issues there were three batteries that were, well, not too bad, and they gradually lost their charge in the absence of a charge conroller.

What I’m doing then is to charge up for just half an hour the battery that’s there, and then swap over the charge to the three precious ones. If we have a good week or so of decent weather it might actually put some charge in them. Who knows? But it’s worth a try.

-13

Thursday 26th September 2013 – DITCHED!

Yes, I’ve had an unpleasant encounter today.

baxter state park maineBut that wasn’t how the day started. In fact it started off rather well for a change, with the sun suddenly and dramatically bursting through the cleft in the hills just opposite last night’s spec.

THis has to be worth the price of the admission alone and I was glad that I came this way, that’s for sure, even if subsequent events were to suggest otherwise.

Anyway after a breakfast and a good walk around, I set off, and this was where I came undone.

ditched in Baxter State Park Maine. Blasted sewage pumping wagon wouldn’t pull over (as you can see by his tyre path) “there were overhanging branches” apparently, and having to swerve to take avoiding action, I ended up in the ditch.

So after a frank exchange of views, the driver arranged for a park warden to come along, and the park warden pulled me out. These wardens have the same powers as policemen and so, after studying the tyre tracks, more will apparently be said to the truck driver.

I could now get on my way and a little further down the road here I encountered the first snows of winter 2013. High up in the mountains yes, but first snows all the same and this is looking ominous for the winter, isn’t it? Snow already!

From here I followed the road version of the Appalachian Trail which, believe me, could match anything that I encountered on The Trans Labrador Highwayand ended up in the town of Greenville.

moose head lake greenville maineGreenville is the principal town on Moose Head Lake, and if you want to know why the lake is so called, look at the photo just here. Definitely a moose head, that.

I spent a while here walking around as it was really beautiful too, and for tonight, I’m off on the road to Skowhegan to see what turns up.

-2

Sunday 4th March 2012 – IT WAS SUNDAY TODAY …

… and despite me having another one of these “04:30 in the morning” sessions, it was 10:25 when I was up and about.

Just as well, though, because I had to have an early start.

FC Pionsat Sy Hilaire’s 1st XI was playing Clermont Fontaine du Bac’s 2nd XI today and that necessitated a drive almost to Aubière – and the kick-off was at 13:00. That meant an 11:30 start from here.

Finding the stadium was easy. Finding the entrance was something else. Eventually, after many trials and tribulations, I stumbled upon it – in the … errr …”rue du Fontaine du Bac”.

D’ohhhh!!!!

fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot clermnt fontaine du bac puy de dome franceThe opponents were a good strong attacking side, and Pionsat’s team was … errr … somewhat makeshift, especially in defence. Not one of the four established full-backs was out there today.

And Jerome, who usually tears up opposition defences, was on the bench (the only substitute as well) and Franck resisted all temptation to put him on the field in place of the one or two attacking midfielders who were clearly only there in body this afternoon.

He managed a brief 15-minute cameo when Cedric was forced to hobble off. It was no surprise that Pionsat lost 3-1, and it was something of a disappointment.

On the way back I stopped to fuel up at the Auchan at Clermont-Ferrand – and €1.42 per litre for the diesel. It’s ridiculous the cost of fuel right now, and it’s not going to let up.

It’s also raining – the first time for 8 days – and the wind has shifted direction and is blowing from the north-west. We’ve been promised snow again on Tuesday and by the looks of things it may well be here before that.

-1

Thursday 9th February 2012 – IT WASN’T QUITE …

… the stinker that I was expecting last night.

Here I was expecting some kind of phenomenal temperature and all we had was a measly -14.1°C.

A bagatelle.

But it was cold up here in my attic this morning though, 8°C when I woke up. And that’s not surprising that the temperature up here is falling slowly. This cold spell has lasted well over a week and shows no sign of letting up

So after breakfast it was down into the firewood and I’m at the stage of looking for larger kindling because that’s getting low up here. I’ve worked my way through a big pile this winter.

I’ve brought up a large IKEA bag full from out of the lean-to, and that’s making even more space in there, which is good news because I’m at the stage where I need to think about moving things out of the house to give me space to start working elsewhere. It’s beginning to get too crowded in here.

Most of the rest of the day was spent working on the ceiling again, and I’m making good progress, even though I did manage to fall off the trestle thing that I’m standing on. i’m not quite sure how I managed to do that.

But I did find time to rescue the two coffee percolator things and give them a really good clean. I tried the big one on the woodstove and although it took a while it made a decent cup of coffee.

For some unknown reason it took ages to cook the spaghetti though and I’m going to have to think of a way to do this better or to improve my technique.

But I can see why in North America they go for tin-roofed houses. Although it was freezing cold outside it was bright and sunny. And the intensity of the sun must have heated the tin roof of the barn sufficiently for at a certain moment all of the snow slid off the barn roof and fell with a crash to the floor.

And that does rather remind me of the British Trade Delegation to the Soviet Union in the late 1940s. Having been warned about the possibiity of eavesdroping and hidden microphones, they diligently searched the room for hidden wires. And sure enough, they found four wires stapled to the floor under the carpet. A pair of nail scissors took care of them.

Next morning, one of the members of the Trade Delegation engaged the babushka – the old lady who monitors the corridor in the hotel – in casual conversation.
“How are things?” he asked, practising his Russian.
“You won’t believe this” she said “but something really extraordinary happened last night. For no apparent reason, the chandelier in the room under yours came crashing down to the ground!”

-1

Thursday 20th January 2011 – Winter is back.

I woke up this morning to discover a smattering of snow, sub-zero temperatures and a hanging cloud. Just like it ought to be in January, methinks, although you would never have guessed if from the last few days when we’ve been having May-type weather.

First task was to clean out Caliburn and check him over as tomorrow we are going on a long journey. everything needs to be ship-shape inside. And while I was waiting for the man from Viking to come with a pile of cardboard boxes I packed a few tools and other bits and pieces that might come in handy, as well as some paperwork that I need.

After lunch I packed the computer bits and pieces that I want and some clothes and bedding and that kind of stuff. Not to mention some food. My long driving journeys include nibbling snacks all the way on the journey.

I’ve also been tidying up in the barn and in the lean-to where the wood is. I need to make quite a bit of space (which is always at a premium around here) for when I come back.

And that is that. I’m having an early night due to the fact that I’ll be making an early start tomorrow. And the next time I blog, I’ll be in another country, assuming that the snow lets me leave. How about that?

-1

Friday 24th December 2010 – MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

And hasn’t the year passed quickly? It hardly seems like a moment since I rushed over the finishing of the stairs up to my attic and then locked myself in.

heavy snowfall les guis virlet puy de dome franceSo this morning was another late start, due in the main by my being confused about the time. And the darkness of the room was due to the skylights being covered in snow. 24 hours late, yes indeed, but it got here in the end.

And once I was up and about I did a little more in my bedroom with putting up some more framework.

But I didn’t stick at it long and after lunch and a wash and shave it was picking my way gingerly through the snow and ice to Terry and Liz’s for Christmas Eve, which was very nice of them. Liz cooked a gorgeous Indian meal and then we had a listen to our radio programme.

And even though it’s me who says it, we sounded really good on the broadcast – exactly how I wanted it to be – all nice and informal and happy and partying.

At 22:30 I came home and it took me over 45 minutes – the roads were dreadful. But I was armed with a Christmas cake and a prezzy – it’s really nice having friends like Terry and Liz.

But if you are reading this before Christmas Day evening, you might want to listen to our radio programme as it’s being streamed at 23:00 Europe, 22:00 UK and 17:00 EST – go to
http://www.radioarverne.com
and click on the link “Arverne en Ligne”

-20

Saturday 18th December 2010 – MY PREDICTION ABOUT THE WEATHER …

… was pretty well near correct. At about 08:00 there was some sun but by the time I was up and about it had long since gone following a change of direction of the wind veering round from the west again, and we had clouds.

“Ahhh well” I sighed, and went out to chop a huge pile of wood.

The snow that I predicted arrived at round about 11:30 and it didn’t last long for – astonishingly – the wind veered round to a southerly and that pushed a Mediterranean weather front up. Not an Alpine afternoon like I would have liked, but a blue kind of hazy afternoon with a fair amount of sun – once I’d cleaned off all of the solar panels.

No point in going shopping – I’m well-snowed in here – and so I took the cue and went off to do the notes for our radio programme. Holiday lettings is January’s topic and there’s enough here to rival War and Peace.

So that’s where I’ve been all afternoon and evening – up here translating and transcribing notes and then writing the dialogue. It takes ages to do as well but I suppose it keeps me out of mischief.

Tomorrow morning I need to finish off the Christmas Special and then somehow work out how I can dig Caliburn up the hill. I need to go to Liz and Terry’s for our rehearsal. But unless we have a dramatic change to the weather I can see it being a long afternoon with a shovel and a pile of sand.

-2

Thursday 9th December 2010 – I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE WEATHER.


heavy snowfall les guis virlet puy de dome franceI woke up this morning … "DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH " – ed …to -2°C and a covering of snow everywhere.

And perishing cold it was too. It snookered my plans of digging up the chicory and blanching it – I needed a hammer and chisel to get into the soil.

So instead, after cutting a pile of wood, I started to wire up the wind turbine on the barn to some batteries I had lying around. I may as well try to make use of some of the wind that we might have.

But that was a perishing cold job too and by the time that lunch came around and I still hadn’t finished and I was frozen to the marrow I abandoned that idea too.

After lunch I made a start on moving some of the old slate that is in the bedroom. And after about 50 bucketfuls up and down stairs you can just about notice the difference. I had no idea how much there is in that room. I’ll be here until next Christmas trying to shift it all.

But at least I’ve shifted enough so that I can get the next load of insulation onto the wall. I can do that tomorrow if we still have sub-arctic temperatures.

-1

Sunday 28th November 2010 – WE DIDN’T HAVE SUCH AN EARLY START THIS MORNING …

… that is, if you don’t count having to get up for a gipsy’s at 07:00. In fact it was after 10:00 when I emerged definitively.

And that was strange too. I’d had an exciting dream beforehand, but when I went back to bed at 07:05 and back to sleep I started on another one ( and I can’t remember a thing about the first one now even though it was so exciting). But in this second one, I’d been stranded on a pier and had to swim for shore and after giving the girl at the reception desk a piece of my mind about telling me to go on it, and then walking through the town, I suddenly realised that I didn’t have my camera with me. I was panicking about this, thinking that I had left it in my car which had now been submerged, and so I remember urging myself to wake up so that I could get back my camera.

And wake up I did – right on cue – and to a gorgeous blue alpine winter’s day – the type that I like to have for recharging my batteries after about 10 days of badger all. But that didn’t last and by early afternoon we were back snowing again.

GRRRRRRR.

But I’ve sorted out my receipts and paperwork from Canada and done a little more desultory tidying up. And that was that. But then again, it is Sunday and I can have a day off once a week.

-3

Wednesday 24th November 2010 – WE HAD THE SECOND …

… snows of winter today.

A bit more than yesterday as well. And although it melted fairly rapidly we had quite a pasting early in the afternoon while I was on my way to Liz and Terry’s. That didn’t stay long either though but the temperature has now plummeted and I slid Caliburn on a patch of ice on the way home.

Winter is definitely here.

rutland WG 901 wind turbine attached to fence les guis virlet puy de dome franceI’ve finished off fitting the wind turbine to the fence and it’s now wired in. And of course we are never ever going to have a breath of wind ever again.

It’s a weird place to put the wind turbine that’s for sure but it’s destined to go on the end of the house once the pointing is finished. And in any case that alley between the house and the trees is something of a wind trap and it’s going to be interesting to see what we can produce from it.

Meanwhile, of course, the wind turbine is being “run-in” so it’s a good idea to mount it, especially seeing as how we haven’t had a drop of sun for about three days now.

home grown beetroot bottled les guis virlet puy de dome franceRound at Terry and Liz’s Liz showed me how to pickle my beetroot and I now have 5 jars of it simmering away. I also took along a few of my chilis to dry out but I seem to have forgotten them. I also gave Terry a hand to put up the scaffolding – he’s fitting windows into his barn roof and I have to sing for my supper.

Not that I’m complaining of course . We had an absolutely excellent stew with dumplings, complete with home-made bread.

Tomorrow if it’s fine I’ll pull up my onions and start to dry them. But if the weather is bad (and what are the odds on that?) I’ll work inside the house.

-2