Tag Archives: les guis

Sunday 8th May 2011 – And just for a change …

… seeing as it was Sunday, I was up and breakfasted by 08:30. These days I can’t even manage that usually on a weekday when I’m supposed to be working, never mind a Sunday when I didn’t go to bed until 03:45.

Anyway, after watching a film on the DVD I set about attacking the huge pile of paperwork that’s been accumulating here for the past two years or so. Half of it has gone into the bin, most of the other half has been put tidily for now, and (most importantly) all of the bank statements that I can find for now have beeh filed away. One plan that I have is to spend 15 minutes each day on the Central France Paperwork Mountain until it’s all filed away. Mind you, with an average lifespan of just about 18 years left to me, I’m not sure that there will be enough time left.

All of that took me to, would you believe, 14:00 and so I had enough time to grab a butty before going off to St Marcel for the match against Beaune D’Allier. And having seen yesterday the world’s smallest centre-half, today I had the privilege of seeing the world’s narrowest football pitch. St Marcel were comprehensively beaten 4-2, but the standard of play (for a 1st Division match at level 7 of the French pyramid) was absolutely woeful. Pionsat’s 3rd XI, more renowned for their enthusiasm than their skill, could have spanked both these teams with plenty to spare.

And I manage to keep up my record of one moment of skill each year from the touchline. Another high chandelle – or “up-and-under” to the uninitiated, right over where I’m standing, and finding myself right underneath it, I wait until it’s dropped right down and then head it back into play. Three years running now that I’ve done that.

On the way home I have a little hunt around St Fargeol for the old railway station there but I’m not able to find it, and back home, with the solar water at 39°C (the sun now clearing the trees) I have a gorgeous solar shower. I quite enjoyed that.

With a coffee and a film I sit down on my room but the exertions of the day, particularly the late finish and early start, mean that the next thing that I know is that it’s 22:20 – yes, I’ve crashed out again, and I had so much to do this evening. Ahh well.

Saturday 7th May 2011 – Well, I’ve been a busy little bee today.

Yes, and I don’t normally do all that much on a Saturday either.

We started off at this meeting at the Maison Ducros-Maymat that is threatened with demolition. The mayor turned up to meet us as promised, but only 50 minutes late. He told us about the reasons for its demolition, which was sound logic as far as it went, but once we began to push back the barriers, his logic became more and more shaky. What was so funny about this was that one of my arguments is that all of the civic and social functions of the town ought to be regrouped around a focal point, like the town square. Dispersing them is really dispersing the soul of the town. Just at that moment two people, clearly out of breath, came up to us and asked “where is this restaurant – the Queue de Milan?” And so we explained that it was another 500 metres outside the town opposite the old railway station. It rather proved my point.

After that I headed out to St Julien la Geneste to the formal opening of this Gite. It was an old house that the Commune bought and has modernised into holiday accommodation.

It’s been excellently done, that’s for sure. And I was talking to the manager of the place and he was telling me that they need a web-site doing. So I’ll give him a quote and see what happens.

On the way back, Marianne and I went for a good drive around.

The first place that we visited was a little chapel situated on one of the highest points in the area. It’s the Eglise de Notre Dame des Blés – the Church of Our Lady of the Meadows and it was built as recently as 1959 as a site of pilgrimage.

There is, apparently a religious procession up here once a year, although I’ve not been able to tag along quite yet – I’ll add it onto my list of things to do.

But never mind the chapel for a moment – just look at the view!

It’s a shame that the weather wasn’t clearer because had there not been all of this haze the view right across to the Puy de Sancy would have been stunning. It’s not too bad as it is.

This is certainly one of the most spectacular viewpoints in the whole area without a doubt and I’ll have to come back another time.

You’ll know that I have an interest in abandoned railway lines and I’ve featured on these pages quite a bit about the abandoned Paris-Orleans railway extension between Montlucon and Gouttieres that opened as late as 1932 and closed as early as 1939.

We’d walked up to the Tunnel des Bouchards from the Pionsat direction a while ago, and so today we went to try to find our way up to the tunnel from the other direction.

That wasn’t at all possible given the time and the conditions. We need much more time to do this and to come back in February or March when there is no vegetation.

Back home again, Marianne and I had an informal meeting to plan our next line of attack about the Maison Ducros, and then went out to one of the other members of the Pionsat Patrimoine who was having internet issues – for which I diagnosed a new cable (which now works).

I managed 10 minutes to do a quick bit of shopping at the Intermarche and then it was off to Marcillat to watch their 1st XI take on Breuil, 2nd in the division. And much to my surprise, and that of everyone else in the crowd, Marcillat wom 3-1 even though they were under the cosh for much of the game. Mind you, this was a game at level 6 of the French pyramid – 1 level higher than Pionsat (although in a different part of the pyramid) but believe me, Pionsat’s 1st XI could have played both these teams at the same time and won the match with some to spare. The level of football in the Allier is way below that in the Puy-de-Dome.

Tomorrow, still no footy at Pionsat (what a waste of a weekend this is!) but according to Franck, the Pionsat trainer who was at the match this evening, there’s a match at St Marcel, about 5 miles from Pionsat (but in the Allier), kick-off at 15:00. I don’t recall ever having been to St Marcel 😉

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Friday 6th May 2011 – Some of the things …

… that I have to do around here! It’s not very easy. In fact it was quite a pantomime to drag the old caravan body out of the barn as I expected it might be. And as I also expected that it might, it did come out in bits as well, eventually.

Mind you it took some moving, with a hand-winch, a rope and a couple of stout chains and my estimate of having the Ford Cortina 2000E estate in there by knocking-off time – well, knocking-off time on Tuesday, maybe. We shall see.

Liz asked me the other day “are you lonely?” Too right, when you have a job like this to do. Wives and girlfriends do have their place occasionally, and had one such been here, then the Cortina would have been moved and the caravan body dragged out and the Cortina put in there by the close of play yesterday.

But then again, which wife or girlfriend would give up what she has for half of what I have? And in any case, as I know from bitter experience, he who travels fastest travels alone and it’s better to be on your own that be badly-accompanied. Had I still been living in a state of Holy Matrimony, I would still be driving a taxi or a bus around Crewe. I’ve come an awfully long way in the last 18 years, and I wouldn’t have got here in a taxi or a bus.

Anyway, enough of me reminiscing. The caravan body is out and it’s ready to be burned. Tomorrow I’m out at this house that they want to demolish (first I knew of this was a letter from the Mayor of Pionsat saying that the President of Pionsat-Patrimoine had nominated me ….. – pity he hadn’t told me about it) and then off to some fete or other that Marianne, the journalist from La Montagne, wants me to photograph. That’s followed at 19:00 (just for a change) by Marcillat’s 1st XI being thrashed by Breuil – there’s no match at Pionsat this weekend.

Sunday I’m busy, Monday I’m out in the evening so I can’t leave a fire unattended, and so it’s Tuesday for my fire and for putting the Cortina in the barn. That’s 3 full days for someone to come up with a major change of plan.

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Thursday 5th May 2011 – Considering that it’s only …

… the 5th of May today and there’s about 6 or 7 weeks to the apex of the year, I am proud to announce that nevertheless I’ve set a new record today for solar energy. In the house, bank one received 173 amp-hours and bank two received 166 amp-hours. That’s over 4 KwH of solar power and whichever way you look at it, that’s impressive for just 780 watts of generating capacity.

And so you can tell the kind of day that we had. Beautiful blue skies and not a cloud anywhere. The kind of day that you would expect the solar water heater to give me enough heat to have a shower, a shave and a coffee as well. But it isn’t to be because I’ve made some kind of error in my calculations. Looking for a place to install it in a hurry while I demolished the beichstuhl, I fastened upon a nice spot out of the way and in full sun, but shaded by the fence so that I can shower there in peace. But what I didn’t take into my calculations is that while in the spring the sun has no problem heating the water, we are having issues with leaf shading from the trees and the water is struggling to heat up to a respectable temperature.

There is a way round this. The heat eschanger is really hot – 50°C is no big deal at all – and so I could run the water in the solar heater through the heat exchanger so that the water would heat up through there, and I even have a suitable pump to do it. But I can’t get electricity down there to power the pump and Terry can’t find the hole saw that he has for cutting through the stone walls so that I can run a cable through. I’ll have to think of a plan B. Such as tipping some hot water out of the electric immersion heater into the solar tank.

Today was a paperwork day. I worked on the website first and then caught up with some paperwork that needed doing. I had a delivery from FEDEX and the contents of that required my attention too. I ended up having to go into Pionsat to the Post and to the Bank, and I’ve had to spend a shed-load of money today – errrr about €7,000 in fact. But it’s all going to be worth it in the long run.

Back from the town, it wasn’t worth starting in the barn and so I planted the tomato and aubergine plants that I bought 10 days ago, and thoroughly watered the garden. And despite having had 7mm of rain two days ago it was as dry as a bone and I used about 175 litres out of the dirty water butt that takes the rainfall off the barn roof. And if there had been more water there I would have used that too. It’s hard to believe just how dry the soil is.

Anyway tomorrow I’ll move the caravan body from the barn and burn it if I can, and then move the Ford Cortina 2000E estate and the Ford Escort van. I’ll be glad to have them in a secure place.

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Wednesday 4th May 2011 – I hope that you all …

… had a Happy Star Wars Day. Yes, May the Fourth be with you.

For me, it started early and I’ve no idea why but I was awake long before the alarm clock, and after a bad night as well where I didn’t sleep too much (teach me to crash out in the early evening). And after breakfast I spent some more time on the computer and my Newfoundland web pages.

Following that I went to move all of the stuff that’s on the edge of the public highway. The ancient rotavator and the Honda Melody scooter, those I moved with no trouble. The old cement mixer – the wheels on that were seized thanks to Claude tipping a load of cement all over them and not cleaning it off. And so in the end I had both wheels off, cleaned them up, greased the spindles and reassembled everything. And now it moves around quite easily.

After lunch I went to move the ride-on lawnmower but that was stuck in drive and there was no way to free it all off. In the end I dismantled all of the drive train and now that moves freely as well.

So with all of that out of the way it was time to move the Ford Cortina 2000E estate. After many trials and tribulations I managed to start it, but this blasted clutch won’t free off. In the end I chained the car to a tree and started it in gear to see if the sudden jolt would free the clutch. I considered two possibilities – that the subframe would rip out of the chassis mounts, or that the sudden jolt would pull down the tree.

Of course, I didn’t count upon the chain snapping, did I?

In the end I moved the car by hand-winching it about 50 yards and at 4 feet per pull it took forever – it was just before 19:00 when I knocked off.

Tomorrow I need to go to the bank in Pionsat and so when that is done I’ll be in a position to winch the old caravan body out of the barn. If I can get it round the corner and down the hill on my own I shall burn it and then I can get the Cortina inside and put the Ford Escort van across the doorway where I can dismantle it at my leisure.

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Tuesday 3rd May 2011 – What was so strange …

… about my posting last night was that the moment I pressed “send” there was a tremendous thunderclap outside and we had a storm – and I didn’t have any idea at all that one was brewing. We ended up with 7mm of rain and that’s about 80 litres of water in the water butts. I’m glad now that I worked on my day off.

And so this morning I needed to print off the papers for the radio programme and some other papers that I needed. Terry needed me to accompany him to the quarry for some intense negotiations, and that was effectively the morning sorted out.

At the radio station, they weren’t expecting us. According to the engineer, SMADC (the Societe Mixte pour l’Amenagedment et Developpement des Combrailles) are now not co-operating with the radio station. Nothing new there – the SMADC ceased to co-operate with us a long time ago – but I suspect some developments in this field in early course.

Back home I crashed out for a couple of hours yet again. I’m going to have to do something about this.

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Monday 2nd May 2011 – It was a bank holiday today …

… well, actually it wasn’t. But seeing as the Bank Holiday was Sunday I normally take the next day off. But not today though – I was busy.

After the usual couple of hours on the computer I made a start on the water butts again and they are finished for now – until the next revision. You can see the taps at the back of each of the butts and the drainage tap in the middle in case I need to drain the back one for cleaning purposes. But I’m not at all impressed with the quality of the Brico Depot tap connector – you can see how much it has kinked with just a simple tightening. I’m going to have to change that for something decent.

At the moment I have it switched so that it will just fill the rear tank. Then I can chack that for leaks, then switch it into the connecting system to check that for leaks, and then let it into the front tank.

I also made a new settling chamber and a puzzolane and sand filter chamber and they are in position screwed to the side of the verandah. The settling chamber is about 6 time bigger than the last one and uses 100mm pipe rather than 80mm and so there should be enough room in there even in a heavy rain to store the water as it percolates through the filter.

And in a departure from tradition, I’ve taken out the plastic bowl filter from inside the tank and replaced it with another internal settling chamber made of 100mm pipe. It is of course inside the rear tanks and sealed at the top and bottom, with a 40mm pipe from the filter that goes inside it. The water that passes through the filter falls into the internal settling chamber where any particle that manages to get that far can simply fall to the bottom, and the water will rise up inside the chamber and eventually overflow it into the tank.

What I shall do eventually, when I find my missing steel mesh (which could be anywhere) is to fill that full of sand and use it as a sand filter. It’s all complicated stuff.

But I wasn’t alone when I was working on the tanks – I had company.

I’ve no idea what it is as I’m useless at flora and fauna, but it lives in a burrow at the side of the barn and kept on popping its head out to eat some clover and so on.

If you have any ideas what it might be, let me know. But it was interesting anyway, and it wasn’t all that scared of a human presence.

It wasn’t the only bit of wildlife that I saw today either. The fox that loiters about around here was out and about hunting in the field next door. He’s a beautiful creature – I don’t know how it is that people can hunt animals like that. It really beats me.

Anyway, tomorrow we are recording, and I’m hoping that it rains so that I can try out the new tank system.

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Sunday 1st May 2011 – I forgot to mention yesterday …

… that it pays to study my website, and study it in depth too. And I’m not joking either. Long-term readers will recall that back in 2002 I went to Cheyenne in Wyoming. While I was there I went for a wander around a xeriscape project, and I told you all about it.

Anyway , while I was in the Auchan on Saturday it was the gardeners’ fair and they were having all kinds of spot-quizzes. And one of the questions was “what kind of plant is a xeriphile?” Of course, having been to a xeriscape site, Yours Truly knew the answer to this – he was the only one in the hypermarket who did, and he won a tray of 12 marigolds. And so don’t let anyone tell you that what I write about is a waste of time and effort. You might win a tray of 12 marigolds too.

Meanwhile, Sunday is a day of rest – or so it ought to be if you dodn’t get these stupid “you have just received an important message – please ring …”. If I ever find out who is behind that kind of message they won’t ever play football again, that’s for sure.

And so eventually I had breakfast, and then finished off the auto-entrepreneur sessions for the radio – which took me up to lunchtime. And then, with the water temperature on 50°C, a nice windy afternoon with bright sunshine, that was the cue for a load of washing. And I’m glad I did it too because now the two water butts are empty again. That means that tomorrow I can install the new improved system of connections and not have to worry too much about wasting any water, although with just about 50 litres in store I’m going to be struggling if it doesn’t rain by the weekend.

In the evening I went round to Terry and Liz’s to return the trailer, pick up my roof ladder, get Liz to show me how to change the ink cartridges in the printer (which is flaming complicated for such a simple task) and run through Tuesday’s radio programmes. But it’s not easy seeing as it’s the final day of Liz’s grandson being there – he and his mum and dad go home tomorrow.

So with a working printer and a roofing ladder I’m now back home. But for some reason I’m having that feeling – you know – the one that you have when you put your foot on a step and it isn’t there.

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Saturday 30th April 2011 – Well, it was all go at the footy tonight.

Firstly, Pionsat’s 3rd XI had a most unlikely 3-1 victory against a team much higher than them in the league. I’ve no idea what happened though as I wasn’t there to see it. I was there though in time to see the 2nd XI brushed aside 4-1. They are, I fear, doomed for relegation. Short of ideas up front, the defence was woeful – even more so than usual. The defence always was suspect but when they had a lightning-quick attack it usually compensated for it. But with illness, injury and suspension the attack has long gone.

I wasn’t at Pionsat for the 3rd XI game because I was at St Eloy to see the 1st XI take on Nord Combraille, and just for a change, thrash them 7-2 which is always very pleasant to stuff one of our local neighbours. It adds spice to some of these local derbies.

The Miners could only put out 10 players, which is astonishing for a 1st Division match, and while their attack was quite useful, the defence was way beyond woeful and at times passed into the comical.

In one four-minute spell (I counted it) we had –

a Pionsat cross from the by-line driven into the area to no-one in particular (there was no Pionsat player forward) cannon off a St Eloy defender tracking back and go into his own goal.
A high Pionsat cross from the by-line into the area to no-one in particular, and the keeper palmed it into his own net
A long high ball forward from Pionsat to no-one in particular- the keeper shouts “to me” to his centre half – the centre-half heads it backwards but with nothing like enough power – the keeper has to dive miles forward to gather it up, but he spills it – his forward momentum carries the ball quite some distance forward to an unmarked Nico who simply sidefoots it into an empty net.

All of that in four minutes!

I was in Montlucon this afternoon buying stuff for the water system. It cost me €100 more-or-less but it’s all good-quality stuff and that should keep it all in good condition and done up properly, with taps between the two tanks to isolate them, and a central tap to drain them.

But I had a brainwave. I was going to join them up using some pipe connectors and some transparent pipe, but fot the same money I bought one of those stainless steel flexible tap connectors That’s much more like it.

Yes, Brico Depot now selling bulkhead connectors make a whole load of things much more possible.

And now I’m off to bed. Nice clean clothes and nice clean bedding too – I was at the swimming baths this afternoon too.

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Friday 29th April 2011 – I finally got onto the greenhouse today.

Just for a change, the weather this afternoon was quite reasonable (well, mostly), and so after the customary couple of hours on the Newfoundland website I went and hunted down some wood.

The big thing though is that I don’t have enough. I’m building the front and back out of chevrons, and the two sides out of demi-chevrons. I need about 10 of each but I only have 6 chevrons and 4 demi-chevrons so I’ll have to go to the sawmill next week.

But with 5 of the chevrons I made the back of the greenhouse. It’s going to consist of two uprights 2m40 high and 3 cross-pieces 3m20 long. The cross-pieces will be let into the uprights at ground level and at 1m95- That makes about 1m88 for the windows, which are 1m875 tall.

The third cross-piece will be let in at the top and this leaves a run of about 38cms the whole length. I’ll be dividing that into 4 pieces (72×38) and buying some cheap glass to fit into there.

But making it out of chevrons is going to make it heavy so I’m going to have to take the pieces down to the greenhouse base and assemble it in situ. I don’t fancy my chances of assembling it and then having to carry it down there.

But learning from when I made the verandah, I need to prepare the uprights and then pre-drill them before I assemble the thing. Trying to manoeuvre it all into position and then drill it will be almost impossible. It was bad enough with the verandah and that was smaller as well as being made with just demi-chevrons. I’ll be joining the front, the sides and the back all together with stud iron (or threaded rod as they call it these days) as I doubt that there will be coach bolts long enough.

And tomorrow it’s shopping.

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Thursday 28th April 2011 – Well, today didn’t get off to a very good start.

No indeed. I heard all of the alarms go off at 08:00, but then the next thing that I remembered was looking at the time on the clock and it was 10:35. Ahh well.

But I didn’t miss anything though. We are back in the hanging clouds again and it’s just like winter with low clouds and damp and so on everywhere. It’s perked up the rainwater but that’s about all. I even had to turn the fridge off.

And due to the miserable wet weather I was back in the barn again after lunch. I’ve almost finished tidying up the parking place in there and I reckon that with about another hour’s work I could drag the caravan body out. But it won’t be moving soon as I need to move the Ford Cortina 2000E estate and to do that I need to move the trailer. But it’s nice to think that I can now see the wood rather than the trees.

It’s also nice to be able to get at my huge toolbox and find all my mechanics’ tools. Just like old friends they are. I’m looking forward to getting the Cortina into the barn so that I can make a start on it.

What was surprising though was the things that I found – loads of things I’d forgotten about, including the drawers with all the important Cortina bits – and I’ve not seen that since I dismantled my workshop in Crewe in April 1989. There was also an electric screwdriver from that era or maybe a little later – and it was still holding a charge, which astonished me.

I’m slowly making progress, slowly being the operative word. But I’ll get there in the end. Tomorrow it’s the Royal Wedding and so in keeping with the general contents of the event I’ve set aside the day to deal with the contents of the composting toilet. I think that it’s quite appropriate.

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Wednesday 27th April 2011 – The best-laid plans and all that …

… yes, I didn’t get very far with the greenhouse today.

This morning I dd the usual couple of hours on the website and then went outside to do battle. I’ve measured up everything and done my design, so I know how I’m going to build it, but the weather, which was pretty fair this morning, gradually deteriorated and by lunchtime we were having the showers, and I’m not talking about anything to do with OUSA either.

After lunch thr showers were persistent and it was clear that working outside was impossible and so I retired to the barn, where I spent all of the afternoon tidying up in there and making more room to store stuff. And it’s amazing what I found in there as well – tons of stuff. I also went through a couple of cardboard boxes from the garage at the old apartment and I’ve found all of my old songs that I wrote in the days when I used to be a rock star, and wasn’t that a long time ago?
“33 years” … ed

I also made another startling discovery in there, and that’s going to take someone by surprise. 1973 was a long time ago!

It’s still raining now, but I’m not worried. It will fill up the water butts and it’s not as if there isn’t anything else to do. Tomorrow’s programme depends on the weather.

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Tuesday 26th April 2011 – SO NOW …

… that we have the internet up and running again, I can tell you all about today’s little events, such as they are.

We’re back at work again now and I spent the first while working on the computer – carrying on with the Newfoundland web pages.

This is the kind of thing that will go on for ever, I imagine.

Later, I set about the garden. I’ve done more planting, some weeding and hoeing and I’ve also put the two raspberry bushes in – those that I bought two weeks ago.

But I don’t like the look of them. If I get anything at all from them I’ll really be lucky. But they stand more chance in the soil than they do if they aren’t in there, so let them have a go.

Tonorrow I’m going to make a start on building the greenhouse.

That’s the cue for a thunderstorm, isn’t it?

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Monday 25th April 2011 – DID YOU MISS …

… me last night when you were waiting for this entry to come on line?

If you did, you’ll have to improve your aim.

But seriously, we had a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon just as I sat down to read my e-mails. And the first flash of lightning, and that was that.

Rob came round a little later – “has your internet gone too?” It seems that the very first flash of lightning got the village’s internet relay box. How about that for a shot?

Anyway, we had to wait until Tuesday evening for it to come back on line.

Mind you, it isn’t as if you missed anything. With it being a Bank Holiday I had a day off and so I did nothing except read a book or two, watch a film or two, and work on the Newfoundland web pages.

But we had rain, all 4.5mm of it and now there’s about 100 litres of water in the water butts.

I’ve used too much cleaner in there though and so it’s rather more soapy than I would like. But I have 30 litres of clean water that I saved and so I can use that for cooking, and meanwhile keep on drawing off the water in the butt to use for washing, washing up and so on.

I started by drawing 30 litres out and saving it in a different container. That’s reduced the water in the butts of course and so as more rain falls (if it ever does) it has a good start on diluting the cleaner that remains.

It’s all trial and error around here.

I’m quite a trial and there’s error a-plenty!

Sunday 24th April 2011 – It has finally rained

We had 0.5mm of rain during the last 24 hours. Not a lot, but the first rain of significance for 20 days. The garden was pleased to see it, but the water butts weren’t. With all of the messing and mauling about, the plastic connections on the line that joins the two butts together has worked itself loose and the water leaked off out of the sides.

And so this morning instead of having my day off I had the butts stripped down yet again and sealing all of the plastic joints. And now there don’t seem to be any leaks, but I’m not vert happy with this. So what I’m going to do is to go to Montlucon on Tuesday, buy some more bulkhead fittings and connections, and couple them up with brass fastenings and proper reinforced plastic pipe. I’m also going to put a tap in between the two butts so I can switch off the connection and drain the tanks individually if I need to. That’s much more like it. The plastic joining kits are fine for water butts for watering plants and so on but for domestic use I need something much more solid.

And so once that was done I came back up here and watched a film – Our Man Flint, one of the films that I bought just recently.

I’ve not been out either. There’s been no footy and so I haven’t had any reason and I may as well stay here and relax for a change. It is a Bank Holiday after all

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EPIC HALL

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