lots of tawny mining bees around the bugle, this female is much larger and brighter than the male

A red squirrel hanging upside down to reach the blossom

 

Trials and tribulations of lambing

Lambing season is upon us and first up was Sasha who managed a straightforward birth of her male lamb Iggy without any intervention on Tuesday. A couple of days later Truffle had another boy overnight who we named Bonbon. But the following morning he'd vanished. We searched everywhere but probably a fox had jumped the electric fence and taken him...heartbreaking.

Yesterday Inkling had her first baby, another boy whowe named Nattie. This time we locked mother and baby in the bergerie overnight and will do the same again tonight. 

Today at about 12.30 Trudy's waters broke, but two hours later she still couldn't push the baby out. We called the vet but they had no one available to help. The lamb was normally presented (nose and front feet first) but Trudy was too small - this is her first baby. I called my friend Paul in the Mendips who also has sheep and he suggested sticking a couple up fingers up her bum, feeling for the back of the head and exerting a little downward pressure to pop the lambs head out. It worked a treat and once the head was out in a few minutes she managed to give birth to a little ewe. Mother and baby are safely in the barn.

Sasha and Iggy

Poor Truffle and her baby that was taken

Trudy and Pätchuli

Inkling and Nattie

Couple of captures from the camera trap

Red deer

Badgers

 

First lamb of the spring

 

Scorchio!

Beautiful weather this week, vegetable garden preparation underway

 

Weaving courses starting in May

 

Latest weave

A networked twill I designed in silk and merino

 

Update

The big poplar tree is now logged and stacked, a good part of winter's firewood in a single tree!

The short and difficult to find morel muchroom season is upon us and a couple of successful trips so far.

Ten years ago a huge project put the electrical cables between Biech and the Col de Boulogne underground because of the high number of power outages that were caused by trees falling on the line.  This required the creation of 2km of steep track through the woods carved out of the hillside.  To cross the river Enedis created a steel footbridge with the cables crossing beneath it - evidently the trees have had the last laugh.

 

Birthday Snowshoe and bear tracks

Outstanding weather for my birthday So susie and I put on our snowhoes and headed up Cap de Bouirex for lunch. Crazy hot and only a couple of skiers and a runner seen all day.

On the way down we crossed some fresh bear tracks in the snow, probably made earlier that morning!

 

Weaving barn building works complete

Back room for fleece processing and wool storage

Middle room for dyeing and small batch processing

Main teaching space awaiting the looms

 

Susie's 60th

Downstairs in the weaving barn was finished just intime for Susie's birthday. Family and friends came from far and wide for the party - about 50 in total!

 

Storm clear up

After over a week of storms and torrential rain the clear up begins. Two trees each about 30m down in separate fields....this one is a poplar which fell on the bailer, the other (less accessible) is an ash. There have been many landslides including one which has cut us off from saint girons which we narrowly missed being in! They have been working to clear it for three days...hopefully tomorrow the road will open.

In the mountains the snow is over 3m deep....the best for at least 5 years.

weaving barn progress

The end is in sight! One more day of chaux chanvre to go, then the second fix joinery (skirting boards and architraves) and final connections of plumbing can be done. 

There's still the floor to be tiled in the back room and some decorating to today but all should be ready for Susie's birthday party.

 

Works to the powerlines

Finally the rotten pole supporting the high tension electricity cables has been replaced, this time with  steel one. The last one has only been there 14 years and there are the sawn off remnants of two more previous to that. 

Five lorries were required, one with a crane/hole borer, one for the crew and equipment, one with an access boom to reach the cables, one to transport gravel and aggregate, one to transport the generator to maintain supply for everyone during the works plus a mini-excavator. Last time (2010) there was just a tractor which had everything needed. 

the equipment in 2010

One of five lorries required this time

After the passage of all the vehicles over three days (all of which were a little too wide for the road), torrential rain during the works and despite Enedis's best effort to clean up, the place is a mudbath. 

When they finally unhitched the cables from the old pole it fell over by itself.

Theworks were completed just in time as today we have snow.
 

Ground floor progress and a first trip out on the skis

 The race is on to finish the down stairs of the weaving barn for Susie's 60th birthday part on Feb 21. The plasterboarding is almost finished as are the elctrics and plumbing. The WC arrives next week and Ian Smith is going to skim the ceilings and walls in the front room in a couple of weeks - the rest of the walls I ll tape and joint, with thestone walls being chaux chanvred (lime and hemp rendered) by me once the plastering is finished.

front room ready for skimming

The back room which we'll use for washing the fleeces still needs to be tiled

WC and hot water tank

Also managed to get out on the skis for the first time in 12 months since fracturing my Meniscus. I skinned up 400m from Com de la Trappe and did half a dzen runs before skiing back down to the car. Conditions were hard and icy, but the knee didn't complain.