Tag Archives: bat

Wednesday 16th July 2014 – I’M DOING IT AGAIN.

It’s currently 03:30 on Thursday morning and I’m wide awake – not the lest inclination to go to sleep.

And I don’t understand why either because I haven’t had an idle day.

This morning I was up at the usual time and after breakfast cracked on with the website. Later, I went outside and, just as I feared, it seems that the little cement mixer that has done such valiant service here has given up the ghost. Switching on, the motor “pings” into action but the drive doesn’t engage (that’s not so unusual). Swinging the drum by hand, the usual method of working it, does nothing at all except to trip the 100-amp fuse that controls the battery. In other words, the 40-odd amps being generated by the solar panels plus 100 amps out of the batteries is apparently not enough to power a little 375-watt motor.

Clearly something isn’t right here and I’ll have to look into this.

lime mortar cementing under eaves les guis virlet puy de dome franceAfter lunch I mixed a bucket-load of lime mortar by hand and spent a delightful couple of hours up on the scaffolding smearing that everywhere. All of the sealing-in is now done and it makes a much better seal that the mess that was there beforehand.

When I had finished the cementing, I started to paint the wood treatment product all over the wood underneath the roof – the plywood, the battens and the chevrons. I’ve done half of it, and tomorrow I’ll finish the other half and do the second coat. Yes – I’m putting as much as possible on everywhere because I can’t imagine that I will ever be up here again so it will have to last at least another 30 years.

We had a glorious hot day today and the temperature in the 12-volt immersion heater running off the surplus solar energy had gone off the scale (over 70°C). In the solar shower the temperature was 36.5°C and that meant that I could have the first solar shower since I came back from Munich. That, in turn, meant disturbing a bat that had taken up residence there.

And that was that. And here I am. And I’ll probably still be here tomorrow night too.

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Monday 20th August 2012 – I WENT TO …

… sleep last night with the new electric fan still working. First time I’ve ever left the inverter running through the night.

It clearly did the trick as this morning as it was quite overcast and there was even a hint of rain.

I’d had a decent night’s sleep too for a change in this weather and I think that I might try this again tonight. And I’ll need it too because the weather warmed up substantially again this afternoon.

collapsed lean to repairing stone wall les guis virlet puy de dome franceAll this afternoon I’ve been working on the wall again.

7 buckets went into it today and substantial progress is being made, although you would hardly think so from looking at it.

Nevertheless in one corner I can actually now work off the floor and not on a ladder, and that should speed things up. You’ve no idea how uncomfortable it was working on either a too-short ladder or a too-long ladder.

I had a visitor too – the young guy who rents the field at the back of the house came to check up on it. We had a chat and it seems that his response to my working in his field is that “well, it’s your wall” – which is a nice pleasant change from how things used to be.

In fact he told me that he didn’t even mind my working there when his cows were there, although he did mention that they might knock me off my ladder

But I’m glad that I sorted that out anyway – for a start it means that I don’t have to move everything out of the field in the evening.

And later on this year, I might even put up the scaffolding at the back of the house and finish off tidying the roof, seeing as he doesn’t seem too bothered.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that in 2009 we did the back of the roof by me hanging on to an overhanging ladder that was anchored to the apex of the roof.

There’s a tiny window opening in the back wall and I’ve reached there, and peering in through the window it’s definitely true – the back wall has been built in two parts – the outer and the inner.

That makes me feel an awful lot better – if the outer does fall down, the inner will still be there. Mind you, after the amount of extra stones and mortar that has gone into this wall, there won’t half be a row if it does fall down.

Apart from that, this morning I was on the computer – not doing the web site but doing the radio programmes. I’m way behind with them after yesterday and I need to catch up.

And while I was typing this, another bat flew into my attic – teach me to leave the doors and windows open, won’t it? Luckily this one I managed to move on intact, not like the one from last year.

Makes a change from the bats in the belfry – they are always there as you know.

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Wednesday 6th July 2011 – If you look carefully ….

anemometer air 403 wind turbine barn les guis virlet puy de dome france… at the bottom of the wind turbine pole on the barn, you will notice a new addition. Yes, I have a new toy – a professional anemometer.

I’m in the process of major discussions about having a wind-turbine custom-made, and one of the questions I’ve been asked is to what are the wind speeds here. I’ve a little anemometer but that’s not up to all that much and so I reckoned it was about time I had the proper kit. I mean – I’m measuring everything else around here, but nevertheless, the cost of every other data recorder in total (excluding of course the charge controller data panels) doesn’t add up to the cost of this anemometer.

I hope I have my money’s worth.

And so this afternoon I made myself a handy bracket (and wasn’t that a good move, buying that L-profile aluminium strip) and mounted it up on the wind turbine pole. I’d ideally like it to be higher up there but there is a limit as to what I can do and where I can reach when I’m on my own around here.

Feeding the cable through the roof apex is not easy. I’m going to have a good look at that tomorrow, but that involves taking the ladder into the barn. And that won’t be easy either.

And so that was this afternoon, but this morning was rather awkward. because I had a nocturnal visitor. At 03:30 a bat flew into my attic through the tiny open window. It took me an hour to find it – moving everything around in my room (which now looks like a US drone missile has exploded in here) – and then another hour trying to coax it out of the room into the rest of the house where it can do what it likes.

But …. DISASTER. I trapped the thing in the doorframe and that, unfortunately, was that. I was terribly dismayed by that.

But even worse. I was asleep dreaming about a very good friend of mine – no longer with us. She always vowed that she would come back to this life as a bat and it didn’t occur to me until much later that this bat might have been her – coming back here for a look around. And now I’m in a thorough depression after all of that.

A friend rang me up a little later for some computer advice, and that depressed me too, for although it might well have been a normal time for someone normal, I’m a night owl anyway and in any case I was dealing with bats until dawn.

While I was working on the website, Dave (who follows the blog and comments on here every now and again) rang up – he wants the new additions to his website proof-reading.

In other news, I have today been appointed the Central France representative for a French company selling small-scale renewable energy equipment, and I’m in active discussions with an American company that wants a European agent for its d-i-y products in the Renewable Energy field.

Things might at last be moving here.

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Saturday 4th September 2010 – We are back where we left off in May.

fc pionsat st hilaire fcpsh st angel ligue de football league puy de dome franceBut never mind the footy for the moment – just look at the picture.

It’s not just streets ahead of what the old Pentax K100D could do – it’s on a totally different planet. ISO 3200 setting on RAW data with a shutter speed of 400 and automatic exposure and then the image reduced from 4200×3000 to 800×533 and it can churn out stuff like this.

This is definitely the way forward and as I said the other day, a decent (read “expensive”) lens makes a whole new world of difference. I’ll settle for this quality.

fc pionsat st hilaire fcpsh st angel ligue de football league puy de dome franceRemember that the floodlights are only cheap basic stuff, probably not even 250LUX. A proper professional football ground has a light output of 750LUX and that would give almost daylight-quality.

As for the match itself, this is Pionsat’s 3rd XI playing St Angel, and they started off the season with a 2-1 win. There were a couple of new lads playing for the side and they looked the business.

But before anyone gets too excited, the 2nd XI don’t have a game this weekend. Next weekend when all three teams are out you’ll see a different 3rd XI on the field and we’ll be back to the motley. But get the points in while you can.

At the moment the 3rd XI are top of the league, and that really is a moment to savour.

Today I’ve been working – in the morning on my Virlet website and later pointing the eastern wall. Three buckets of mortar went into it today. And I now know which are the animals that live in the holes in that wall. I threw a paintbrush full of water into one of the holes to flush out some loose sand and I flushed out a rather indignant bat. I’m not sure who was more surprised, me or him, but I threw another brush-load of water at him, he took the hint and piddled off, and I quickly filled in the hole before he came back.

But this pointing is ever so slow – it’s going to take me for ever.

Does anyone remember those green fruits on the tree in my garden – I posted an image of them a few months back. They are in fact damsons and so seeing as I didn’t have any strawberries to eat with my plain soya dessert this evening, I grabbed a handful and boiled them in some sugar and water and made a kind of syrup. I added some of that to the soya and it tasted really good. I like this idea of profiting as much as possible from what is available to eat here.

And in other news, talking football again, I see that next Sunday afternoon the referee for the 2nd Division match between Pontaumur and Chapdes Beaufort is a Mr E Hall of Pionsat.

God help them!

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Tuesday 6th July 2010 – Simon came …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday 8th September 2009 – IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY TODAY …

… and I really took advantage of it by going on this walk.

There isn’t all that much to see in La Cellette – a hamlet that receives its name due to there having been a religious hermit living here in Merovingian times.

church la cellette pionsat puy de dome franceMany years ago they actually discovered the cell in which he lived and it is still extant but it’s incorporated into the cellar of a private house and not available to the public, which is a shame.

But the views from up on the top of the hills behind the village were terrific – including this impressive long-hop of the towers of the churches of La Cellette and Pionsat.

abandoned paris orleans railway track bed montlucon gouttieres la cellette puy de dome franceThe railway is much more interesting.

It ran from Montlucon via Neris-Les-Bains and Pionsat to Gouttieres and hence to Clermont Ferrand and was the last major railway line to be opened in France (TGV tracks excluded of course),

Planned in the 1880s, construction started in 1913, was held up during the First World War and the line finally opened in 1931.

abandoned paris orleans railway track bed montlucon gouttieres la cellette puy de dome franceAll of this area was a railway bottleneck. A whole series of coal seams running from Lapeyrouse to Gouttieres had been discovered and developed, and coal trucks clogged up the rail network

As a result, they kept on building a series of railway lines to by-pass the congestion. Unfortunately each time they did this, they discovered yet another coal seam that they then exploited, leading to more coal trucks, which led to more congestion, which led to more by-passes.

abandoned paris orleans railway track bed montlucon gouttieres viaduc la cellette puy de dome franceBut not long after this line was opened, the coal seams exhausted and the infrastructure collapsed. The closed during World War II, reopened after a fashion once the war was over, but passenger traffic ceased shortly after, the last passenger train being a Paris-Neris “special” in 1957

The line beyond Pionsat, where we are walking, was abandoned quite quickly, but a goods service ran to Pionsat three times per week until 1973. How about that for a short-lived railway?

Of course it goes without saying that the earlier lines had all of the best routes, and the later lines ran over more and more difficult terrain. If you read what I wrote about the Waverley Line you’ll notice that I wax lyrically about the constant 1 in 75 gradient.

abandoned paris orleans railway tunnel les bouchards montlucon gouttieres la cellette puy de dome franceThat is a mere bagatelle compared to the long slog up from Pionsat to the tunnel that passes under the Font Nanaud. That tunnel, the Tunnel des Bouchards,

is 585 metres long and there are no rumours or conspiracy theories about it. No steam trains in working order ready to return to the rails when the oil runs out – no knights of King Arthur waiting to emerge when Drake bangs on his drum – just a protected site for a colony of rare bats.

It was a good day out today and I really enjoyed it.

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