Wild boar!

A three hour stroll through the woods after a day at Pont and then signing for the ruin at the Notaires. Close to Bauch I came upon an area of broom and could hear pigs! I waited and it wasn't long before a good sized wild boar poked its head out and eyeballed me. We stared at each other for about 20 seconds...then I clapped my hands and it ran off with about 10 other by the sounds of commotion and panic in the undergrowth. I made for the cover of an abandoned piece of farm machinery - just in case! It was one of those days, earlier I spooked a herd of Roe deer

Animals, garlic and a spoon.

All day at Pont, bedroom 2 is now just waiting for second fix joinery and decorating, bedroom 3 should be in the same state tomorrow.

Home in time to enjoy the evening. The chickens are finally settling down and tonight for the first time the cockerel went into the chicken house by himself (last two nights I've had to catch him!).

My grey hens

The sheep are happy as the grass is growing fast...

There are eight, one is hiding!

...as is the garlic.

I also made my first "find" here during excavations...a french pewter spoon which after some cleaning and polishing looks very fine.

Chickens and Walls

After working to improve security on the chicken run yesterday, this morning I was up early to buy chickens. 4 grey hens and a chestnut rooster. No eggs yet.

As the weather was glorious I decided to work at home (next week it will rain so I'll press on with the inside works at Pont). I sign for the ruin on Tuesday, but decided to make a start on the back wall. It has a bit of a bow where the pressure of soil has pushed the wall inwards so it needed knocking down for a few feet and rebuilding. Also I needed to make holes the new floor joists. The knocking down went quickly...but so did the rebuilding by 4.30 I'd finished. Like most old stone buildings here, the walls are effectively dry stone walls with a little bit of clay soil in the middle of it. The roof and careful pointing should keep it waterproof.

Starting the knocking down - many stones had to be abandoned as they're too heavy to lift

All rebuilt

Ready for a concrete topping

Holes for the beams

Of course it needs small stones wedging in the wall face, a concrete topping and some pointing, but the skills I gained building the barn a few years all came flooding back.

Toasty

Another amazing warm cloudless day today (30 degrees in the sun). Spent most of the day plastering at Pont. 2 bedrooms are now ready for painting. I ran out of plaster before I could start the landing so continued with some more pointing in the last bedroom. At 3.00 I headed for home.

The sun doesn't set until 7.00 so I topped field 6 with the tractor and topper, strimmed the front garden and then pottered about in the garden. Spring is sprung and everything is starting to grow...time to sharpen the scythe!

No Morels Yet

Lungwort

Wood Anenome

A warm sunny day today. So after the usual chores, I weeded the strawberry bed - then after discovering several mushrooms decided to go off in search of Morels. Still too early I think, but there were plenty of flowers.

The sheep are enjoying the sun.

Work resumes at Pont tomorrow.

Devon

Another week with Susie and the kids in Devon. Some fantastic weather, a weekend having a huge tidy-up in the garden, some paid work doing DIY for Dominic and Bridget. Some hunting around the charity shops, a bit of seat re-covering and DIY table building and we have a new dining room!

Spring flowers

I dug over the vegetable garden in the heat of the early evening - more hungry mouths to feed this season! Just 2 spring cabbages left in the fresh food larder.
The lovely weather has brought out the first flowers in the woods around Quelebu.

The barn, the woodshed, the workshop and the house on the horizon, fields 1, 2 and 3 below and the lavoire I excavated a few years ago at the bottom.

Pont progress

The stairs

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 4

After several long days at Pont, the plasterboarding and insulation in the attic is at last (98%) finished. The back of work in the attic is at last broken and in a few weeks it should all be finished and the 4 bed property with barn and double garage on the market. Just in time to start the build at Quelebu!

The good weather continues

Hot

Field 7

Another amazingly warm and sunny day. Good weather is forecast all this week.

In shorts and a vest top I worked all day in the fields, replacing the plastic tread-in fence posts in fields 3 and 6 with timber ones. I then used the plastic ones to fence 7 for the first time. I'll let the sheep at it this week.

I finished up with digging over one of the small vegetable patches where I'll plant some garlic.

Ski

At last a day on the slopes! I missed the day after the big snowfall so today was on the pistes at Guzet. Mostly up and down the blacks on Freychet, before the heat and crowds turned me away at lunchtime.

After my recent bout of flu which required antibiotics (for the first time in about 12 years) I now seem to have another mild infection and my tonsils are the size of golf balls!

Spent the afternoon in the sun mucking out the sheep, fetching hay and straw from the barn in the tractor and moving more rocks from around the ruin.

Enfin une journée sur les pistes! J'ai manqué la journée après la neige est tombé donc aujourd'hui je restais sur les pistes à Guzet. Plusiers fois dans les pistes noires de Freychet, avant le chaleur et toutes le monde m'a rentrée.

J'ai pris l'après dans le soliel nettoyant la grange, ramenant du foin et de la paille avec le tracteur, et portant les cailloux au tour de la ruine.

Mmmm

Clear skies and plenty of snow - time for a ski tour I think!

Éclaircies et beaucoup de la neige - ski de rando?

Better late than never!