Tag Archives: fox

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

rainwater harvesting les guis virlet puy de dome france… 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.

rainwater harvesting home made water filter les guis puy de dome franceI 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.

animal les guis virlet puy de dome franceBut 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.

-2

Friday 17th September 2010 – I had a visitor today

fox les guis virlet puy de dome franceI wonder if he is the same one who came around here earlier in the year.

This time he didn’t stop for food and he didn’t stop to have a play around, he was just sitting down in the field. As soon as he heard me he was off, but this time I had the camera ready.

Mind you, he’ll need to be good. The hunting season has started already and I hate hunters. They are the scum of the earth. It’s no joke being woken up at 07:30 in the morning by the sound of a shotgun blast. If I had my way I would arm the wildlife and set them after the hunters – see how they like it.

I keep on telling Rhys – the American Constitution has been misinterpreted for years. What it actually says is that “Every American Shall Have The Right To Arm Bears”. That’s much more like it.

pointing stone wall les guis virlet puy de dome franceMeanwhile, here’s a pic of where I got up to yesterday with the pointing. I’ve done half of that row now. Today I did another quarter and I finished off by gouging out the loose sand for the final panel at that level.

Once I’ve pointed that I’ll have to stop as I will have run out of ladder. The other half of this one is the piece that is transformed into the roof ladder and Terry has that which he is using on someone’s roof.

But that’s not too much of a worry – In another 2 weeks I shall be in Canada living the Life of Reilly and before then there is something really important that I need to attend to which requires my absence from here for a day or two. It’s all go, isn’t it? So it’s not really worth starting on more if I’m not able to finish it off. When I come back it will be mid-November (gulp) and I’ll be ready for more encouragement from Ms Stephenson.

In other news, the other day Bill lent me a book on French railways, published by the SNCF. One section talks about viaducts but as you might imagine, in any publication by the SNCF about viaducts, the Viaduc des Fades is conspicuous by its absence, despite it being the highest railway bridge in the world when it was built, being currently the second-highest, and being the highest railway bridge in France, as well as being built using pioneering techniques. Knowing the French like I do and with all of their national pride, it’s hard to understand why they don’t talk about it. Probably because they are ashamed about their handling of the viaduct and don’t want to call attention to themselves.

But his book does talk about the 141R class of locomotives, the type that passed through Montlucon in the summer. I’ll extract some notes.

But here’s a puzzle for you. What is the significance of the 141? And why are some other locomotives of the 130 class, or maybe the 250 class? Or even the 031 class?

It suddenly struck me the other week when I was writing about it – can you remember?

-3

Wednesday 9th June 2010 – Those of you with long memories …

… will recall the 11th of September 2008 when I had a whopping 48mm of rain in one day.

But that was an exceptional case – most of that fell in a brief half-hour period as the result of an incredible storm. Nothing that we have had since has ever come close.

caliburn parking harstanding flooding les guis virlet puy de dome franceThat is, until today. When it rained and rained and rained for the entire day non-stop. This horrible drenching rain that soaks absolutely everything and I don’t think that it’s ever going to stop.

And when I took the stats at 22:00 as usual I recorded 36.5mm of rain in that 24-hour period. And that’s the most rain that’s fallen here (apart from 11th September 2008) by a country mile.

My hardstanding has a river running down it right now as water cascades from just about everywhere in the neighbourhood. The whole of the ground is like a sponge.

Clearly working outside was impossible so after lunch I did some work in the bedroom but knocked off early as it was far too dark to see anything.

The weather really was that depressing.

fox les guis virlet puy de dome franceBut I did go down the garden to check up on all the plants, and my attention was drawn to some movement in the field.

We get to see plenty of wildlife here, deer and all that kind of thing. But I never normally have the camera with me. But today I did, quite luckily, and I was able to stand and watch, and reel off a pile of shots as a small fox played “pouncy pussy” with an object in the field.

fox les guis virlet puy de dome franceSo absorbed was it with what it was doing that it didn’t notice me there so I watched, getting soaking wet in the process, as it rounded up and then captured its latest meal.   I really don’t know who was the more absorbed, me or the fox. But it was interesting all the same.

I think that foxes are beautiful and I just don’t know why it is that people want to hunt and kill them. And in my book, huntsmen who dress up in ridiculous garments and set a pack of dogs on an animal like this and tear it to bits as a public spectacle are on roughly the same social level as paedophiles if you ask me.

I think that they are all thoroughly sick in the head.

-1