Tag Archives: barn

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

caliburn caravan chassis trailer les guis virlet puy de dome france… and so I heaved myself out of my stinking pit quite early in order to catch up on what I should have done yesterday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But I wish it would stop perishing raining.

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Thursday 10th June 2010 – Look what I’m having for tea!

home grown strawberries les guis virlet puy de dome franceYes, strawberries. The first of the year, and all grown with my own fair hands too in my own garden.

Unfortunately there aren’t not all that many. It looks as if the local wildlife has been helping itself to them but nevertheless there were five left, and these, together with some soya cream, is a sure sign that summer is here at last.

Or is it?

rain fall in wheelbarrow les guis virlet puy de dome franceIt was raining again this morning and although it stopped for several hours, at about 18:00 it started up again in earnest and it’s still chucking it down now.

A quick look inside the wheelbarrow will tell you everything that you need to know about the amount of rainfall that we’ve had this last couple of days. Remember that this was empty just a couple of days ago when we were shovelling all of these stones around.

Liz came round this morning with my beans and vegan cheese and that’s good news. There are also some tins of curry and so it’s back to my Saturday night ritual again. We had quite a chat and it was a shame that she had to go.

And after that I carried on with the tidying up outside. Now that I have a hardstanding (or a wetstanding, or a notwithstanding) I’m moving over there everything that was propped up against the side of the barn. In a couple of weeks we’ll be putting up a scaffolding against the barn in order to do the barn roof, and I’ve been waiting years to do this. For many reasons actually – not the least being that I can finally move the solar panels off the roof of the Luton transit and onto the wall of the barn.

I’m tidying up a few other things too so I’m clearly not well. And when it clouded over at about 17:50 I called it a day and came up here. In fact I crashed out for half an hour.

In other news, I see that the new Conservative Government is planning to remodel University education. The Minister has considered several University models, including major part-time suppliers, ans has decided to try to remodel things on the lines of that well-known supplier of distance education, the … errrr … University of London.

As I said a few years ago when they set up a committee to consider part-time degree education and it consisted of staff from that other well-known supplier of distance education the … errrr … North Staffordshire University, the days of the Open University having any kind of significance and playing any kind of major role in shaping Government policy, these are long-gone. The OU has lost its relevance and has received yet another kick in the teeth.

Increasing prices and tuition fees brought an angry response from the National Union of Students. But of course they are a small-minded militant body made up of kids still wet behind the ears. So where was the response from the Open University Students’ Association – that body of 180,000 grown-up and mature students? The answer is of course “nowhere”. Either no-one considered the OUSA to have any relevance (which is a damning indictment of OUSA) or else whatever OUSA did say was considered to be not worth reporting (which is a damning indictment of OUSA).

It seems that OUSA has outlived its relevance too. But we all knew that, and a long time ago. A couple of years ago when the Labour government considered the idea of increasing costs and reducing subsidies, the response of that grown-up and august body of mature students was to … errr … sign a petition! I mean! We did things like that in Primary School when we were 10 and 11. Was that really the best that OUSA could come up with?

I once worked in a multinational multi-government organisation and we used to receive petitions from all kinds of people in all walks of life, on a regular basis. And do you know what we did with the petitions that we received? Well, we never bought any toilet paper, that’s for sure. That’s how petitions are treated in organisations such as that.

And the strawberries were delicious!

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Monday 7th June 2010 – I had another gardening day today.

bean frame raised beds les guis virlet puy de dome franceYou can see in the photo that I’ve rediscovered my bean and pea frame, so seeing as I now have three pea plants and four bean plants ( and isn’t that disappointing?) I put it up so that they will have something to cling to. When I saw the lack of beans and peas this year then I needed something to cling to for support, but I hadn’t recovered the frame then.

The radishes I planted a couple of weeks ago are going berserk and the spinach is now coming up. maybe things are putting in a late burst.

I’ve sown another row of carrots in place too, and transplanted the first showing of cauliflower and the second showing of broccoli. The cucumber plants I planted in the small cloche and to do that I had to take out the trays of herbs. They are on the window ledge of the house for now.

herb garden verandah planters les guis virlet puy de dome franceYou might recall that I brought my herbs back from Brussels and planted them in a trough. I had some more in small pots and so I made up another trough and those herbs have gone into there. I’m putting them in troughs so that in winter I can take them indoors.

The mint I left in a pot and planted the pot in the trough for the simple reason that mint goes berserk and spreads everywhere if you don’t contain it.

The soil in the trough by the way is 50% compost from LIDL, 50% soil from when I dug out the earth beichstuhl and a dusting of wood ashes to give it all some potash.

So that was the afternoon. In the morning I was computing and before lunch I did a load of washing – the first for ages down here but you might recall that I did a few loads in Brussels when I was there and Liz kindly did a few loads for me while I was helping Terry.

This evening was the Anglo-French Group. Mark prepared a good game for us and we had some fun. We were somewhat divided into two groups though – some of us working upstairs and the others talking and smoking downstairs.

So tomorrow now that the garden is done for this week I’ll carry on moving stuff from the side of the barn. I want to get all of that stuff moved as soon as possible.

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Friday 4th June 2010 – I needn’t have worried …

… about getting up for 09:00. At about 06:15 some kind of rodent on the roof decided to try to scratch away at the tiles to try to get in. And so there I was, lying in bed quietly reading a book until 08:00 when the alarm went off.

Then it was off to Marianne’s and off to pick up the Foreign-language library. The people in whose shed it’s stored are selling up and so the library needed to be moved. Marianne had the key but when we got there, the owners of the shed had put this huge whacking great padlock on the door.

It totally amazes me the people who spend probably tens of quid on these enormous heavy-duty anti-theft anti-everything padlocks, and then use a hasp and staple that is fixed to the door and doorframe with woodscrews rather than coachbolts. So 30 seconds later we were inside the shed and moving the books.

We’ve put the books in the garage of a neighbour for now – a little old lady in her 80s. This lady was telling us how her garden had gone to pot and she had had some professionals in to sort it out for her but there was lots that needed doing. I mentioned that I had a friend in the business and described what he did.
“Petit bricolage? Isn’t that the kind of person that goes around doing little odd jobs for single elderly ladies?” she enquired.
I can see that I’m going to have to start charging Terry 10% commission! But seriously the best way to develop the kind of business that Terry is doing is to talk, talk and talk.

Marianne made lunch and then I came back here and ran Caliburn a few times up and down the lane at the back to tamp down the track. But it was far too hot to work – it’s been a gorgeous day – and so I stayed up here until 17:00.

I’ve now started to move stuff from around the outside of the barn and put it on the hardstanding. I need to make the space to put the scaffolding for when we do the roof. That’s going to be pretty imminent.

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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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Saturday 18th July 2009 – TERRY AND LIZ HAVE THIS WHACKING GREAT BARN …

owl barn liz terry messenger sauret besserve puy de dome france… and it’s home to a couple of owls. Whenever you open the barn door first thing in the morning they fly out of the air vent. And after a couple of days trying, I finally managed to snap one as it fled.

You’ve no idea just how impressive it is to see them take to the air.

Terry came up in his own car this morning as he wanted to leave at lunchtime. Unfortunately the days when you were allowed to chain your workforce to the workplace are long gone and so I had little say in the matter.

Whatever happened to the days when employees were happy to work 24 hours per day seven days per week with just a crust of bread to keep them going? A sign of the times, I’m afraid.

concreting roof joints les guis virlet puy de dome franceBut we managed to do all of the concreting and cementing none the less and that was a good sign.

An even better sign was that the batteries and the rainwater held out. We used 5 bags of cement, about 120 litres of gravel and about half the sand, which shows you how much we saved by mixing the concrete ourselves, and we even repaired the chimney.

wood treatment roof les guis virlet puy de dome franceAfter Terry went I had a pause for a couple of hours and then painted all of the old woodwork on the roof and then started to tidy up the barn.

I’m feeling a bit homesick so I’m staying here tonight even though I don’t have any electricity to speak of as we took down the wind turbine and the solar panels on the house and I forgot about that. I’d better hurry up and finish my posting before the battery on my laptop goes flat and I run out of

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