Tag Archives: mouse in the roof

Thursday 23rd October 2014 – AT LAST …

… it looks as if there has been some progress in here. For a start, the desk is completely cleared and there’s nothing on there except what should be on there.

Everywhere else in the attic has been atended to now and so by the time I finished this evening, all that remains is to take out everything that needs to be moved. And then I’m hoping to see some difference in here because, to be honest, as I have been saying for the last week, ther doesn’t look much difference (except on the desk as I metioned yesterday).

And, as you might expect, I’ve been finding stuff that I’ve long since given up for lost although there are a few things that I know should be up here and I’ve yet to discover

Mind you, I didn’t feel much like it this morning. i’m still being troubled by a mouse or something in the roof and for a couple of hours it was scratching away, keeping me awake when I was trying to gt off to sleep. That was really annoying.

I also had one of these vague telephone conversations with one of the radio companies that broadcasts Radio Anglais. It’s always difficult dealing with this particular radio station, for a whole variety of reasons, and today was no exception.

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Tuesday 11th September 2012 – IT’S RAINING!!!!!

First time for 10 days as it happens, and aren’t the plants (and Yours Truly) grateful for it?

I woke up at about 05:00 due to the mouse in the roof doing his usual clog-dance, and I could hear a pitter-patter of rain on the skylights here.

That was it until lunchtime when we had a another quick 5 minutes or so, but this evening at about 22:00 we had a torrential downpour and wasn’t it pleasant to hear the water cascading into my water butts?

What was even nicer was that on the lean-to the water was cascading down the roof, into the guttering and out of the hole where it’s supposed to go. I can’t wait to install the water butts and to start collecting all of this.

collapsed lean-to repairing stone wall les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnd so I went back out on my wall, but I’m not convinced at all about what I’m doing.

Although I made some progress today, it’s definitely not going to be finished by the weekend, much to my dismay, and not by a long way either. It’s taking ages.

The problem is that all of the sand-mud mortar behind the large cracks has totally flaked away so it all needs to be raked out completely.

This means that some of the stones are loose so they need to be prised out, something that causes the wall to sag a little where you’ve just cemented – because you start from the top and work down, of course.

You then need to find a slightly larger stone which you then hammer into the gap until it’s solid – which causes the bit of wall that you’ve just done to rise up – and then wedge in with loose stones, and cement it in.

And then of course, the bit that you did earlier that you moved about just now needs re-cementing.

And this is how it goes – it’s taking ages, but then again if it had been so easy it would have been done properly long ago.

Then of course I need to keep raking away all of the sand and cement that falls out.

mean, it’s not as if it’s difficult – just time-consuming. So I’ve no idea when it might be finished.

The Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival started in Fredericton today so I clearly won’t be going to that.

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Tuesday 27th March 2012 – I DIDN’T DO …

… anything like as much as I wanted to in the garden today. And there is a variety of reasons for this.

  1. it took longer than I was expecting to dig over the first raised bed that I needed to clear.
  2. the framework of the bed needed some repair – and so I had to sort that out
  3. I found some crops growing in there – leeks I think from some seed that I might have planted last year. Only baby leeks but leeks none-the-less, and so they needed careful handling.

And if that’s not enough to be going on with, I’ve been “revisiting” the sites that I have already cleared of nettles and brambles. Each time that I see something new growing, I pull it up.

I also am slowly advancing around the garden area as I clear it from generic weeds such as the aforementioned nettles ad brambles. I’m making huge progress with that and it’s all looking very good, but it’s taking my time to do and distracting me from clearing the raised beds.

Anyway, one of the raised beds is clear and it has garlic growing in it. Only another three to do this week – shallots, onions and leeks are destined for those.

But in something of a record for recent times, I knocked off work at … errrr …. 19:42. It’s been a long time since I’ve been out working that late, and enjoying what I’m doing as well.

Talking of records though, this morning though Liz and I were recording the Radio Anglais sessions at Marcillat-en-Combraille for Radio Tartasse. We’ve finished talking rubbish … "sez you" – ed … and so we’ll have to think of a new subject for May’s programmes.

I had a bad night’s sleep last night though.

There’s evidently a mouse or two that have been hibernating in the wall of the house – finding their way in by means of the place where there was no plasterboarding in the bedroom. Of course I fixed that a few months ago and now that the mice have awoken, they can’t get out of the wall and so go running around inside trying to find a way out.

So at 04:00 I was rudely awakened and had to listen to them clog-dancing around the ceiling for hours.

I wish that they would hurry up and starve to death or something.

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Sunday 30th October 2011 – THE CLOCKS …

… went back today and so I was looking for a good long lie in.

But the best-made plans of mice and men and all of that, for the rodent who lives in the roof started doing his clog dance at 07:00 and that was that.

Mind you, it’s an ill-wind that doesn’t blow anybody any good, because I had a good morning on the computer. I’ve uploaded the match report for the football last night,  and I’ve also brought the Radio Anglais website up-to-date, and I’m pleased with all of that.

This afternoon I went to the brocante at St Gervais d’Auvergne but I won’t be going there again. It was mostly rubbish, and way over-priced as well. I shan’t waste my time again. I don’t know what gets into the heads of some of these people.

Afterwards I went round to Liz and Terry’s to help Terry load his van, and Liz had made tea again. I’m really getting spoilt these days. 

And that reminds me of the two women arguing
“your son is spoilt”
“no he isn’t”
“yes he is”
“no he isn’t”
“well, please yourself then, but go and see what that steam roller has done to him”.

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Thursday 24th June 2010 – So as I said last night …

kwikstage scaffolding barn roof les guis virlet puy de dome france… we finished the erection and we started on the stripping.

We had enough scaffolding left over to do another three bays and so it goes right round the corner and halfway along the short wall where I’ve done the car parking. In fact, we reckon that with another half-a-dozen 3-metre uprights, some more planks and some 4-foot cross pieces we could even do a full half-size of my barn – a run of about 23 metres.

kwikstage scaffolding stripping barn roof chevrons les guis virlet puy de dome franceSo once we had the scaffolding up we ripped off the slates – not that they needed much help from us, it has to be said, and then had a go at the laths. The laths were mostly in reasonable condition but we ripped them all off on this one side, but some of the chevrons are horrible and I’m surprised that they have lasted.

But stripping off the roof revealed the usual mouse nest complete with mice, and this time the added excitement was due to uncovering a pair of wasp nests. And they weren’t too pleased either.

Tomorrow we’ll take off the chevrons on the roof this side, and see how far we get fitting the new timber. Saturday we are chantiering, Sunday we are preparing our radio programme so it won’t be until Monday that we can start putting the roof covering back. I bet you any money that we’ll have torrential downpours all through the weekend.

frog barn les guis virlet puy de dome franceWhile I was wandering around checking on what had been left out I came across this beastie. He was clearly hopping mad at the work that we were doing and he didn’t like the broken slates at all. In fact at one stage he was trying to climb up the scaffolding pole but he was experiencing something of a difficulty getting his leg over.

He’s clearly an armed serviceman type of amphibian (“a frogperson?” – ed) in his camouflage clothing.

And that reminds me from back in the mid-2000s when I went to Cosford Air Force base with a friend. Standing guard on the gate was an airman in full camouflage kit – with a high-visibility jacket. Why didn’t he just take off the camouflage gear?

But I’m not going to be up long. I’m aching all over, partly due to this heavy cold that I’ve managed to catch and partly due to climbing around all over roofs. Mind you, I did manage my first solar shower today (well, a solar hair wash actually) as my hair was full of dust from the old slates.

And I was thinking too. Last year when we did the house roof it was glorious weather for most of the time and my boulangere had gone on holiday. This year we are starting the barn roof, a full two weeks earlier than last year’s house roof, yet we are now having glorious weather and my boulangere has gone on holiday.

I suppose that must mean something, but I’m blowed if I know what.

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