Beams relocated

The final pour took place yesterday after the last wall was rebuilt and the new doorway formed.

After a spot of pointing early in the morning, Yves came over and we discussed how I might transport the oaks beams from the house to the barn. He called his brother who has a '76 Toyota landcruiser truck (with a 1,000,000 km on the clock) but indestructable and ideal for off road transportation to see if he could help. Then I remembered that Philippe who has the sawmill at Biert (the next village) has a trailer which lifts and suspends a tree trunk underneath it for transporting to the mill. After a quick phone call, he agreed to hire it to me for the afternoon for 15 euros.

I collected the trailer with the suzuki and when Yves brother arrived we managed to stack the beams before lashing them together and hoisting them below the trailer. In two loads of about tonne each all the beams were transported down the steep field to the barn. This will save masses of manual work on Saturday as now we only have to lift the beams and not transport them too.

Potatoes are now ready but harvest will have to wait until after the barn raising. The french beans are progressing well too. The hard dry clay is forcing the onions/shallots onto the surface so a bit of soil breaking and raking was required. Sweetcorn is now about 18 inches high.

The bracken continues to grow at a foot a day despite all my scything. One of us will have to give up or die first and it's not going to be me!