Tag Archives: inspection pit

Wednesday 18th June 2014 – THE WEATHER BROKE TODAY …

… and we had the first serious rain today since I don’t know when. Round about 15:00 the heavens opened and that was that. No point in working outside in this weather so Terry called it a day – and I can’t say that I blamed him.

This morning though we cracked on and the pit is finished now. 6 rows of breeze blocks means that it’s about 1.30m high and that’s plenty for me to sit down comfortably and work underneath a car. And you’ve no idea how much I’m looking forward to not having to lie on my back on a cold concrete floor.I’ve been doing that for 45 years and I’m fed up.

We’ve cracked on with the shuttering too and that’s not far off being finished. We would have done that too had it not been for the rainstorm. I carried on doing a little bit of it during a break in the weather, and one thing that I forgot was how slippery plastic is when it’s wet. So slippery in fact that when I stepped back to check the level of the shuttering that I had just installed, I ended up half-in the pit. And I have the scratches to prove it.

Another thing that I learnt today was that after a heavy rainstorm there’s about 20 litres of water on the roof of the digger. And when you put the digger in forward motion, the water cascades down onto your lap.

Anyway, I’ve been in major discussion with the concrete company and they can fit me in on Friday afternoon at their convenience. Two loads of … gulp … 10 cubic metres of concrete in total. I didn’t realise that I had over 60M² to cover and I don’t have enough grillage for that. Consequently I need to nip into Montlucon early tomorrow morning for some more.

I saw the old woman, the mother of the Parisian who has a holiday home here. She parks her car sometimes where the cement mixer has to turn round so I warned her about his visit, and had the usual mouthful of abuse in exchange. All I can say is that it’s no wonder her two sons are so miserable if they’ve had to put up with her for 60 years. She gets right on my mammary glands as it is. Her husband died quite early, apparently, and I’m not surprised. Probably grateful for the peace and quiet. If I had been married to her, she would have had a smack in the mouth a long time ago.

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Tuesday 17th June 2014 – SO THERE I WAS …

… out of bed at 06:45, on the road at 07:00 and at Liz and Terry’s for 07:30.

And by 08:30 we were in the queue at the sous-prefecture at Riom. Ticket number 27 which meant that we only had to wait just over an hour – not like when I took Caliburn to be registered in 2009, had ticket 93 and had to wait until 11:50.

Anyway, the Jeep is now registered in France and we went off to the Carrefour to buy the number plates and have a coffee. On the way back we called at the insurance at St Gervais to pick up an updated insurance certificate, and then we went back to Liz and Terry’s and fitted the new plates.

After lunch we came back here and with Terry in the pit and me on the cement mixer, we fitted three rows of breeze blocks. There wasn’t much sun so I could only do the mix bucket by bucket, otherwise the mixer would stall, but we managed all the same and I’m impressed with this little 350-watt cement mixer. Not the quickest or biggest mixer but it mixes the stuff quicker than I can use it.

Tomorrow we’ll do the final row of blocks in the pit and then do the shuttering. That’s going to be exciting because it’s not a square – neither is it a rectangle and it isn’t an quadrilateral either.

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Saturday 14th June 2014 – I WAS UP EARLY AGAIN …

… this morning and after a quick breakfastI was on my way to Montlucon. I wasn’t there long and I was back home by 13:45.

Most of the time I was at Brico Depot, firstly cashing in the pallet that we had loaded with breeze blocks the other day. A lap around inside where I bumped into Christophe and his wife fron FC Pionsat St Hilaire, and I bought all of the fittings for the guttering at the back of the house (for when the cattle have gone from the field behind the house).

as well as that, I bought a submersible water pump. They were on offer at €20:00 and with a 7-metre lift and just 250 watts consumption, it will drain out the pit if it fills with water and also do any amount of pumping of water around here.

Outside, I picked up 8 sacks of cement. I don’t want to run short of that with everything that I have to do around here. As well as that, I bought 45 of these concrete cubes that we use for building pillars. These cubes have no bottom and no top, and you fit them over the metal reinforement that I’ve been buying, and infill with concrete. There you have some ready-made concrete pillars that will support any roof that I want to fit.

I went to Auchan and LIDL afterwards and then came home. Back here, I crashed out for a couple of hours. I had another really late night again last night. I’m still having difficulty sleeping, but I’m off to bed in a moment to see what good an early night will do me.

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Thursday 12th June 2014 – I CAN’T SHOW YOU …

… the photo of how far we got today in the pit. Just after Terry left, we had a thunderstorm and so I covered it up quickly – I don’t want it to turn into a swimming pool quite yet.

But we didn’t get much done today. Terry had things to do this morning and so didn’t come until 11:00. In the meantime I did some tidying up and sorting out of the stuff that we will be using as the work progresses.

We had the cement mixer running for 5 hours, working of the solar panels again and that’s impressive, as I’ve said before. We infilled the first row of breeze blocks and then added another rown on top, and started a third. That was when we ran out of cement.

We then went to the quarry at Montaigut for a trailer load of sand seeing as I’m almost out of that too. Once we had unloaded that, Terry went home seeing as the weather had now turned and there wasn’t much point in carrying on.

After that, I dragged the car transporter out of the undergrowth. Terry has his van Controle Technique tomorrow and I’ve been offered a job of work going to Montlucon to recover a car. The bad weather and thunderstorms didn’t put me off having a shower afterwards.

In the night I had another bad attack of cramp, one of rhe worst that I’ve ever had. And while I was crashed out on the sofa just now, I had another one. They didn’t half hurt.

And my tea tonight was off. I had to open a tin of something instead.

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Wednesday 11th June 2014 – THIS PLACE REALLY IS THE PITS

inspection pit les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnd it is too. This is the start of the inspection pit just outside here.metal

You can see how it’s being built. There’s the plastic lining and the breeze blocks that will be built up, with the reinforcing metalwork in the corners.

You’ll also notice the sink in the far corner. Anyone who has ever had an inspextion pit will tell you that even in the best circumstances an insection pit will be infiltrated by water and we were forever baling out the pit at Davenport Avenue in Crewe. This way, the water will sink into the sink and I can pump it out with one of those rotary pumps that you fit on an electric drill.

So Terry came round this morning and we went stright off to Montlucon and Brico Depot. A pallet of 70 breeze blocks went into the trailer, along with another 18 breeze blocks with the round corner-holes for fitting the reinforcing metalwork. 88 breeze blocks – cost €105. And isn’t that an improvement on €2.14 plus VAT of 20% per block?

Back here we unloaded the trailer. And I’ll tell you this – the Kubota is a marvellous tool for this. No messing about – we left the van and trailer at the top of the hill and ran a shuttle with the Kubota and Sankey trailer. Three trips and we had everything exactly where we wanted it. That’s better than carrying the blocks one at a time down the hill. It’s a superb little thing.

We lined the pit with the plastic and fitted the sink, and then Terry mixed the concrete while I was down in the pit tamping down the concrete and fitting the breeze blocks. And once more, the solar panels powered the little concrete mixer to perfection. It’s amazing what I can do here with my solar panels.

That took us up to 18:00 and so Terry went home and I tidied up, and emptied the beihstuhl. We’ll put some more concrete in tomorrow and then build up the walls.

However, that depends on the weather. We’re having a thunderstorm right now.

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Tuesday 10th June 2014 – I MIGHT HAVE GUESSED …

… and indeed, to such an extent, that I told Terry that it was bound to happen.

And I was right too!

It’s been a year or so since the farmer who rents the next-door field has been here to bring his cattle to graze in here. And so today, for the first time that we have deposited a pile of objects in the lane in front of his gate, guess what happens?

Yes – the aforementioned farmer brings his cattle. It’s absolutely typical.

So this morning I was up early and went to St Eloy to buy the breeze blocks, but I came back empty-handed. In Brico Depot they are €1:15 each and I was prepared to pay a little extra for the convenience, but when Cheze wanted over €800 for 300, then they can forget that. Terry and I will be off to Brico Depot tomorrow to buy a van-load.

digging inspection pit les guis virlet puy de dome franceSo this is what we have been doing today. And while it’s a little short of the Empire Pool, it took about 6 hours of digging out with the digger, a pick and a shovel.

It’s not actually a swimming pool, but an inspection pit. All of my life I’ve been working on cars by lying on my back in the mud underneath cars on jacks, on axle stands or even propped up on bricks. But now that I’m settled here and can’t see myself moving on from here, I am going to treat myself to better working conditions.

I’ve always promised myself a pit, and I’m going to have one.

And this is it.

We had the power barrow here today as the floor is about finished in the Sankey trailer but i had to nip into Pionsat to buy some petrol. And while I was there I had to help a couple of young Dutch girls who were confounded by the petrol pump. Any excuse to practise my Flemish.

After Terry left, I had another shower and called it a day. Until the farmer came round.

But here’s a thing. And who says it never pays to complain?

You remember the Brico Depot incident the other day involving the trailer? Well, I left a polite but firm not telling them what I thought about my experience. And today, I had a phone call from the manager, something that I never expected. He gave me the usual platitudes, even telling me that he had rung round a few other branches to see if anyone else had a trailer left over.

Anyway, the upshot of this is that he’ll put my name on a trailer whenever the next batch is issued, and you can’t say fairer than that.

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