Indoor picnic and pizza progress

Sunday saw the annual village picnic take place at the "salle de fetes". Depressingly a morning of never ending rain resulted in a very poor turnout and the picnic had to take place indoors. It was a great event though and somehow we managed to sit next to the Mayor and his wife. The bonus of sitting next them was that when I had finished my bottle of wine, I then helped them finish theirs which was a far nicer tipple than mine. The kids all had a great time as well, running riot and getting wet.

I have been pushing on with pizza oven mark 2. Friday is the key turning point on the project when we lift the oven base into place and I can start work on the brick igloo. This one is slightly bigger than mine so should be a little more challenging. That's not to say mine wasn't challenging though.

Hard slog on Saturday

I've been busy over the last few months scrimping and saving every penny I could so that I could knock another project on the head. On Wednesday I took delivery of another 10 tonnes of gravel and then Saturday morning, 8 tonnes of sand and 15 large sacks of cement turned up. As if there wasn't enough going on, we also took delivery of 18 months worth of fire wood on Saturday as well.

Saturday afternoon, phase 1 of my concrete mission was put into action. Having spent a couple of days with Louise digging out over a foot of saw dust from the log shed, the coast was clear to put in a concrete floor. Those of you thinking this is a little extreme for a log shed need to appreciate how much wood we have been writing off due to the damp coming up through the floor.

To kick the job off, I had 2 enthusiastic children helping on the mixing front. The novelty of mixing concrete rapidly faded by about the 10th load, but Josh did come back and help for the final push to the finish. Thirteen sacks of cement, 39 mixer loads of concrete and a fair number of trips back and forth to the log shed saw the job completed in about 4 hours.

I am unfortunately suffering greatly from the ware and tare on my body. My wellies were rubbing away at my calves and, combined with splashes of sand and cement, I am now modelling some enormous blisters on both legs. Even sleeping last night was a painful experience.

Hopefully next weekends mission will be to concrete the floor in the garage, preferably this time with slightly less injuries.

Mon Premiere Semaine a College

My first day at college was very good I was given my year group and my main teacher and learnt my way around the school and the food was better than the last school. Second day I started to do lessons and the where alright. Third day was harder because of so much homework. Last day of the week lots of work and homework but all in all it was a good week.

Last Day of the Holidays!!!

Andrew is almost breathing a sigh of relief and the kids are moaning!!! It is finally the last day of the holidays!!! Josh starts 'college' tomorrow, Kirsty is back to CM1 and Peter is moving to the 'big' school for his last year of nursery. Next year he will start big school proper!!! Scary!! The weather was decidedly miserable this morning but the kids enjoyed themselves playing on the computer and watching television. A nice laid back morning. Once dressed, we loaded them in the car for a big adventure!! After a lunch at Mcdonalds, healthy salads had by all of course, we walked through the hedge to the bowling alley. Peter bounced all the way there. Kirsty was busy bragging that it was her second go and Josh was smiling as it was his first time!! The kids had a fantastic time and good fun was had by all. Let's hope that the first day back at school goes just as well. Good luck guys, we love you. xx

Working again

We've been lucky enough to have Steve and Laura here for the last week which has meant that my normal inability to get motivated has been kicked into touch. The major missions for the week have all revolved around stone walls.

First up was the gable end of the house where, having replaced the main roof timbers, there were some gaping holes left in the end of the wall. With much lumping and grunting, numerous lumps of rock and buckets of cement were transported up the ladder to the top of the scaffold where, with a minimum amount of skill, they were used to fill the gaps around the beams.

Mission 2 was to rebuild the back wall of the barn. This has been on my priority list since we first took ownership of the house however it only became apparent how much of a priority it was as we started to remove the loose stones and rubble. One of the main floor joists was precariously balanced on some loose stones with just a small amount of mud holding them in place. Higher up the wall the internal face was leaning over a foot into thin air and needed to be dismantled. This revealed that the main A frame holding the roof up was, and still is, balanced on another loose pile of stones with just mud holding them in place. I hope to rectify this next week when I've got some more sand and cement in.