Tag Archives: joan of arc

Sunday 1st September 2013 – NOW ISN’T THIS A LOVELY …

pointe au lac trois rivieres quebec… place to stop and eat your morning bagel? This is a place called Pointe au Lac just outside Trois Rivieres and the lac concerned, Lac St PIerre, isn’t actually a lake at all but a widening of the St Lawrence.

Just up the road a little is one of the earliest water mills in the whole of Canada, dating to the early 17th Century, and I’m going for a visit there in due course, but let me eat my bagel first and while I do, I’ll tell you abaout my parking space last night.

I didn’t see the sign that said two hours parking only and any longer than that involves all kinds of diabolical punishments, none of which happened, and I didn’t see the sign that said “long stay parking around the back of the service station” either which was a shame, because it would have been much quieter than were I was sleeping. However the noise didn’t disturb me for most of my stay – I must have been tired.

moulin seigneurial de tonnancour pointe au lac trois rivieresSo now I’ve eaten my bagel we can go to the moulin. It’s actually two mills in one, with two water wheels. One wheel powers the corn-grinding apparatus and the other, a later addition, powers a sawmill and in the sun it all looks beautiful.

But Pointe-au-Lac is a surprising community. Not only is there the mill but an addiction centre for drugs, alcohol and gambling, a friary with a high school that burnt down (like everything else in Quebec – there is a great deal or arson about in the province) in 1994 and a church in the graveyard of which there is someone resting ready for the resurraction (he’ll have a long wait) and someone else who claimed to be the son of Noah, presumably by his second wife, Joan of Arc.

I had a leisurely drive along the St Lawrence as far as St Anne de la Perade and then turned inland as I had a little mission to undertake.

st christine d'auvergne quebec. We had a few moments of light hilarity when a local estate agent in my neck of the woods in France advertised a property for sale in St Christine d’Auvergne, thinking that it was the one along the banks of the Sioule. However, despite its name, it is actually in Quebec and so here’s a photo of it just to prove that it does exist.

From there I went to visit a local hydro-electric plant and it was such an extraordinary spot that I decided that I would spend the night there.

And you’ll all have to wait until tomorrow to see the photo.

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Friday 16th March 2012 – I HAVE HARDLY …

… been outside today.

I’ve been a busy boy inside – piles of paperwork that all needs completing by Tuesday and so there’s no time like the present to do it even though I’m not really in the mood.

Apart from that, I had to change the batteries over in the outside temperature gauge and that meant moving the dustbins with the sawdust and the kindling. And while I was doing that I cause a huge pile of wood to fall over that was propped up there and so all of that had to be repositioned.

Such is the exciting life that I lead.

But in other news, the dump load was registering off the end of the temperature gauge as early as 14:00 and there was that much power going through the dump load controller that the heat sink was positively boiling – and I had a few papers and a plastic fuse holder sitting on top.

I’m surprised that the whole thing didn’t go up like Joan of Arc like the brazier did yesterday.

This dump load is clearly to small for summertime use – it needs more than 25 litres of water. But if I do that, then there will be not enough useful heat in the winter.

What I need is two tanks therefore, each with its own water heater element.

But the overload controller only handles 60 amps, and each water heater element is rated at 500 watts, which (at 13 volts) is about 40 amps or so, and so it won’t handle two elements. And anyway, imagine how hot the heat sink would be.

The clue for this might well be twofold, and as I don’t know the implications of what I’m talking about, I’ll write it here and invite comments.

Basically, I could have two elements and have them both wired to the battery circuit, but have them wired via relays that are powered from the overload controller. After all, the relays that would drive the heater elements need just enough power to overcome the resistance of the spring, namely a few milli-amps or so. That way the heat sink wouldn’t be so hot.

But a refinement of this is to have the second relay wired to a heat switch that is attached to the side of the water tank that is heated by element number one.

If the switch were set to close at, say 65°C, then when the water in the tank is heated to that temperature and the heat switch detected it, it would switch on the second relay to heat the element in tank 2.

What would happen then though would be that the current would be split 50/50 between the two elements, so that would mean that the temperature in tank 1 would continue to rise as the temperature in tank 2 was continuing to warm up.

So supposing I had another heat switch on the side of tank 1 – this time a switch that opened at say 70°C and wired to the element in this tank. When the water in tank 1 reached 70°C the switch would open and this would cut off the supply to the element in tank 1 and stop the temperature rising.

Without heat the temperature in tank 1 would slowly fall and when it fell to 65°C it would cut the supply to tank 2 and restart the heat at tank 1.

This all sounds thoroughly complicated to me, but that’s the way that it would have to work. I just wish I knew enough to work out what the pitfalls would be in all of this.    

Tomorrow I’m going to be heading to Montlucon if I’m up early. I need a bulk shopping session seeing as how I haven’t been there since January, and I need a pile of stuff from Brico Depot.

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Thursday 15th March 2012 – MY HANDS ARE …

… all tingling like heck

Yes, I’ve spent the afternoon pulling up stinging nettles.

I’m actually quite immune to them and having lived with Nerina for many years plunging my hands into a bed of stinging nettles and pulling them up doesn’t cause me much of a problem.

But about 30 minutes later my hands start to tingle and then I notice it, I can tell you.

So being awoken by the alarm – for the first time for ages – I went a-computing for a couple of hours this morning. And then outside in the glorious sunshine, because it really was nice again today.

The farmer was working in the field next to here and so I waited uintil he went, and then dropped a lighted match into the garden refuse that was on the site of where the greenhouse will be. That lot went up like Joan of Arc, with it being so dry, and within an hour it had all effectively burnt itself out.

I’ve never had a garden fire go up as well as that one before.

Where I had the fire yesterday, I raked that out levelled it all off. That involved putting the big leftover peices into the brazier that I bought a while ago and much to my surprise, that all caught alight straight away as well.

I then moved the pieces of the greenhouse (the frame and the windows) down to there so that they are now close to where they are supposed to be, for me to assemble when I’ve dug over the plot where the greenhouse will be going.

After lunch, with the weather being so nice, I did another load of washing. Water at 68°C in the dump load as well – that ought to get it clean and just to be on the safe side I did the wash cycle for 30 minutes.

It’s not made any impression on the leftover dirty clothes from last time – what I washed today were all clothes that had accumulated in this last week. 

But that little tabletop washing machine that I bought for €10 from a brocante over three years is worth its weight in gold.

A full cycle of machine, if you can call it that because I have to do the filling and switching by hand, uses just 0.14 of a KwH of electricity and you can’t knock that.

While the machine was going on, that was when I was pulling up stinging nettles.

I had the bits for the greenhouse laid out bewteen the barn and the house and once they had been moved, I could see millions (and I mean millions) of stinging nettles and their tracks forming, ready to burst into life.

Consequently I spend two hours pulling them up and piling them up ready for burning.

I’ve even cleaned down the side of the house there opposite the barn.

All in all, it’s made quite a difference although there is still too much rubbish, as always.

Final thing was to check the solar-heated water in the black plastic tank. 31.5°C at 18:45, with it having reached 36°C at one time during the afternoon. But 5 litres of hot water out of the dump load brought the temperature back up to 36.5°C and I had another solar shower with it.

I’m all clean now and that makes me feel so much better as well. And with clean clothes too, I’m starting to become civilised once more. I hate the winter where having a shower and having clean clothes are something of a luxury, and I look forward to spring when things start to happen, such as solar hot water and washing and so on.

And spring seems to be here with a vengeance right now, doesn’t it?

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Saturday 3rd July 2010 – Today was really decided for me.

You may remember that last night I was undecided about what to do today and so while musing over the problem with a coffee this morning, the phone rang. Nada had been wanting to come round and see Pooh Corner for a while and could she come this afternoon?

I told her to come this evening instead and I legged it into Commentry where I bought all of the stuff I needed to finish off the guttering, the stuff I needed to make the puzzolane water filter (except the puzzolane), a pile of stuff from the cheapo shop (including a load of those clip-together storage bins at €1 for 3) and then back here and a quick tidy up.

While the tidying up was in progress we had a huge thunderstorm that presented us with 5mm of rain and flattened my potatoes (but at least it soaked all of the plants which is a good thing) and then Nada came round for her visit.

virlet crossroads puy de dome franceThis evening was the annual walk around Virlet to get to know the commune and Nada came with me for the walk – it turns out that she knows the Mayor’s wife. Going for a tramp in the woods was out of the question due to the thunderstorm and the fact that we wouldn’t have caught him anyway

Instead, we visited the highlights of the village – namely the church that blew down in the hurricane in 1999, the old house that is on the point of falling down, and the cemetery which is of course right in the dead centre of the village.

Virlet is of course a very healthy village – so much so that they employ a man to go round the cemetery at closing time to tell the deceased to go back to sleep. It’s a huge cemetery for such a small village and an American tourist said “do people die here often then?”
The cemetery keeper replied “no – just the once like everywhere else”
The wall is quite high too and our American visitor wanted to know why they bothered to put a wall around it. The keeper replied that it was because people were dying to get in.
And I was impressed with the cemetery keeper. He told me that his job carried a great deal of responsibility – he had 500 people under him.  
One thing that he did try to tell me was to reserve my plot. There were no English people buried in there (not that I am English but let’s not spoil this story by introducing facts into it). He did say that there was a Scots grave in the cemetery. So I wandered off to have a look, and there it was – “Here lies Jock MacTavish, a loyal father and a devoted husband”. Now isn’t that just like the Scots to bury three men in one grave?

One of the issues with burials here is the cost – it isn’t cheap. You can now get burials done on the instalment plan – they bury your left arm the first month, the right arm the second month et cetera. And I did ask the keeper what happens if you miss an instalment. “Well”, he replied “we simply dig them up”.

On leaving the cemetery this old guy was struggling his best to catch up with us.
“How old are you?” asked the cemetery keeper
“I’m 102 years old” he replied
“Well, it’s hardly worth your while going home then, is it?”

strawberry moose village fete virlet puy de dome franceBecause of the inclement weather, they decided to abandon the idea of lighting up the bonfire. Instead, we all went into the village hall for drinks and cakes and to have a good chat. It’s just a shame that there weren’t more of us.

You can’t have a village fête without inviting Strawberry Moose. He is very popular and took advantage of the occasion to have a photo opportunity with some more new friends. He’s always up for that.

bonfire feu de joie village fete virlet puy de dome franceA little later we decided that regardless of the weather we would indeed all go outside and have a go at lighting the bonfire after all. Perhaps the wine played something of a part in this decision.

I tried to encourage the deputy mayoress to play the leading role in my new production of “Joan of Arc” but she wasn’t having it. Shame. Everyone else thought that it would be a good idea.

We had a good time talking and telling jokes, all that kind of thing. It really was a nice friendly gathering and represents the best of French village life – something that you probably won’t understand if you have never taken part in it. And at midnight, with dogs and children all long-since asleep we all called it a night.

Tomorrow I’m going to have to make up for this by painting the wood for next week and doing the gutttering. I shall have to get my finger out.

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Monday 1st March 2010 – Dydd Gwyl Dewi!

future car parking les guis virlet puy de dome franceWe celebrated St David’s Day by having a work-in here. Just Terry, Liz and Yours Truly but of course it’s quality that counts, not quantity.

As you know, I’m looking for a place to park the Escort and the Passat (and also the Sankey trailer) so that they can get access down to the fallen tree and the collapsed house. I have a patch of waste ground that has old trees, stones, rocks, brambles, thistles as well as rusty beer cans and hibernating lizards and so we set to clear it out so I can move everything down here.

liz messenger garden fire les guis virlet puy de dome franceThis led to one of the biggest fires I’ve see down here (in fact it’s still burning even now) and the space is totally clear of rubbish and I can start moving the cars down there tomorrow. I was a little disappointed in Liz who refused to play the starring role in my production of “Joan of Arc” but there you are.

I’m ever so impressed with what we accomplished today.

I needed the heating on again tonight as the temperature has fallen again. But it’s the wood-burning stove doing the business right now. Liz has found someone who does the compressed blocks of wood and he’s given me a couple to try. I need to saw them in half though – they are too big to go through the hole in the stove.

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Friday 5th February 2010 – Well, we’ve done it now!

This afternoon we signed the compromis for these houses in Montaigut. Mind you, it’s not all plain sailing as you might imagine with anything involving me. Firstly the houses are situated in a historic area (in fact,just round the corner is the blacksmith’s where Joan of Arc had her spurs made) and so the town has the right to match any offer made on any property in that area. Mind you the town is flat broke so that’s unlikely to happen but I bet they’ll soon find the money if they get to hear that there might be a possibility that I might be moving in there.

Secondly the properties have already been sold elsewhere. However the guy can’t get a loan (and looking at them, it’s no surprise) and so he has renounced his offer, but nevertheless he needs to give his formal agreement.

Nothing is ever straightforward, is it?

Completion is set to be the end of April so the major plan currently is
1) finish Terry and Liz’s kitchen on rainy days
2) point the outside wall of their house on dry days
3) change my barn roof
4) go to Brussels and have a blitz on my apartment in Jette and put it on the market.
5) come back and start on these houses

So that’s the plan for the next three months anyway. You can see what I mean about being busy.

les guis virlet puy de dome franceTalking of being busy though, I’ve finished insulating this cupboard space, put the horizontals in and now I’ve started to plasterboard it. It won’t take at all long to finish now and when I’ve done that I can put some shelves in there to store anything that needs to be kept clean and tidy.

And whule we are on the subject, Terry and I have been discussing my lighting. Terry is refusing to get involved in my electricity ( well, he is an electrician and he does have his professional pride) and he is quite impressed with these 12-volt LEDs that I’m using (and they had a few more on sale in LIDL today). So much so that he agrees with me that a mains (230-volt) lighting circuit is pretty redundant. So what am I now going to do with all these light bulbs that I’ve been collecting? But I’m not all that bothered. It’s saved me a lot of work and it is rather unnecessary.

And who was Joan of Arc? Why of course, she was the wife of Noah.

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