Progress

Although it's been pretty fresh here of recent, the snow has kept it's distance and the rain has dried up for long enough to make a start on my Big-Boy Barbecue. It's probably no surprise that I still don't sleep much so I spend many a night hour contemplating how everything will look and, I am happy to say, I have the finished article in my head already.

I have spent this morning welding the two halve of my cut and shut together. Just in case there is any confusion as to what's going on, in the pictures the barbecue is stood on its end and the whole is in the bottom where the fire pit will eventually sit.

Madness I tell you, madness

Once again I have been bitten by the creativity bug. Having found this most amazing video on you tube of a team of guys building an enormous trailer mounted barbecue, I thought I've gotta have a piece of that. So the madness begins.

The vision in my head started to develop rapidly and then, by a complete stroke of luck, I found the main body of the beast on Leboncoin and it was just down the road. Fifty euros later and a slightly precarious trailer journey home, my vision started to become a reality with a 2000 litre old water tank. A few days later, and after placing an add on AngloInfo for a donor caravan or trailer, I became the proud owner of a slightly battered looking twin axled trailer. Unfortunately as I stripped back the woodwork, the trailer underneath was bordering on the point of being unsalvageable but after a nights sleep I am far more optimistic of it's potential.

If we're lucky, I may have the beast complete and ready to roll in time for our annual house party which is from 24th to the 27th of May this year. As always it will be open house all weekend and we shall be cooking up a storm whilst downing a few drinks. Would be really nice to see some people here but as always there is no obligation.

Snow? In March?

Gizmo & Foxy

Another trip to the refuge. This time we walked the St Bernard called Gizmo who has a poorly paw and a little dog called Foxey.

A bit of sunshine

It's amazing just how much a little bit of sunshine can brighten your day. We're in to week two of the school holidays and, as I'm sure you can imagine, the kids are bored and fighting. In order to kill a bit of time today and also do something good for the community, we took a trip to the dog refuge in Aunay. It didn't take long to appreciate why the girl in there was wearing ear defenders and, after some initial confusion about why we were there, the kids had a look round the pens and chose Cow-boy. No need to panic here as we're not getting another dog, just volunteering our dog walking services. He was quite a lively chap, similar looking to my sisters dog Bear, slightly undernourished and desperate to lead the way. After a 3 mile circuit Josh and Kirsty were ready to take another one out where as Peter said "never again". There is a monstrous Saint Bernard there but I think that might be a mission for another day when I don't have the kids with me.

With the warmer weather on our side I've been pottering around the garden pruning trees, digging over beds and clearing up fallen leaves. Best of all I got the lawn mowed on Sunday for the first time this year bringing the jungle back under control.

Uncle Kerry and Sylvie arrive next week for a few days and, if we're really lucky, they will have an infra-red camera with them that we can set up to monitor the owl boxes. It would be great to know if we are getting any activity yet. The breeding season for barn owls is any time of year when there is an abundance of food.