Hot

After yesterdays blizzards in Andorra, today here was balmy and spring like with the temp in the sun a lovely 29 degrees. Spent the day tidying up wind blown trees (Sundays gales on the piste were even more ferocious here) and starting the terracing of field number 1 (in tee-shirt and shorts). Also managed to get out on the road bike for the first time - only to the village and back but enough to make sure everything worked properly. Tomorrow some logging then probably another day skiing on Thursday as there is no more snow on the horizon. The high pressure system which has been stuck over Spain for the past few months could be there for quite some time - there's talk of it staying for the whole of the summer bringing drought to Spain and Southern France!

Andorra

Got up before dawn on Saturday to drive to Andorra for a weekend of skiing with Justin, Emily, Pat, Kev and some other friends. It was already snowing when I left Quelebu - yippee! The driving conditions were pretty difficult when I reached Pas de la Casa (the Andorran frontier and a high pass) with a blizzard blowing but by the time I reached Arinsal and Pal, a little before 10.00, things were settling down to a bright, sunny, cold day. I skied all morning before meeting up with everyone else at lunchtime and finishing off the last few pistes I hadn't skied at the resort in the afternoon.

On Sunday we headed to Arcalis which is a beautiful resort with a real mountain ambiance, very little development in the way of shops, hotels, cafes, etc and some very nice skiing. The weather was cold and it deteriorated through the day until at about 4.00 a storm hit. We skied as long as we could, but with gusts of wind strong enough to blow you over when you were skiing (which it did twice), we decided enough was enough. We bid a retreat back to the chalet and following a game of scrabble (man we know how to party) J and E cooked an amazing spaghetti carbonara followed by dry run of a quiz that J is planning for his employees next week, which provided an hilarious and slightly drunken evening of entertainment.

More snow fell Sunday night, so this morning I couldn't resist one more ski run at Arcalis. I skinned up to the top of the resort (about 600m of ascent in 1hr 5mins) before descending in about 15 minutes back to the car. The run was unpisted and with wind blown spindift and fresh snow there was about 16" of powder at the steep top of the run and probably 6-9" lower down. Despite my tired legs from the ascent, I was really pleased to be able to ski the snow reasonably well and concentrate on technique (last season it would have defeated me).

Pic Girantes

After drinking a bit too much wine last night and waking late to a misty morning, I nearly didn't go walking today. Eventually I dragged myself out but didn't start walking until 11.15. The mist cleared, the sun shone and Girantes is only a short climb. Despite having to break in my new boots and stopping for lunch on the summit, I was up and back in under 3 hours. There's not a lot of snow about at the moment, though a little more is due tomorrow. From the summit I watched a sea of cloud rolling in from the west and this afternoon the temperature has dropped.

The view to the west from the summit

Back home

Back from a brief visit to the UK. The weather here is very spring like - warm and sunny, which makes me doubly glad to be home. Shortened the stock on my shotgun (after trying Tracey's shortened baretta and liking it), washed and hung the bacon which is now ready for eating, lit a bonfire which has been drying for at least a year and visited the neighbours. Some snow is forecast for Thursday and at the weekend I will be skiing - so perhaps a short walk in the mountains tomorrow? Now the pigs are gone I'm free to go away whenever I like.

Home slaughter

Slide show of the slaughter process (no photo's of shooting or sticking the pig but some fairly gruesome pictures of evisceration - not for the squeamish).

Sausages

Lots of sausage making today - about 3 dozen 'regular' sausages (three different mixes of my own design) and three types of saucisson sec (below) a couseran, a foie and a chorizo. These will hang for about 3 months drying, before they're ready to slice.

Also made 2 litres of pate and salted the belly for streaky bacon.

Two ronnies go to piggy heaven

Corbett was dispatched this afternoon. Things went smoother and quicker this time and we were all done inside three hours. The crane I used for lifting the barn beams came back into action and with the better weather (dry) we were able to do the whole thing outside. Also there were five of us (John and Sandrine came to help). Hannah, Saskia and Natasha came to watch the final skinning and evisceration. I thought they'd go pale and run a mile, but in fact they were all interested (although they all swear they won't eat the meat). As we disembowled the carcass I gave them an anatomy lesson (piece by piece removing the heart, lungs, kidney, liver, gall bladder, pancreas, stomach and intestines, bladder). Photos tomorrow!

After much earned beer and food, Emily and Justin left to go on their skiing holiday, John and Sandrine went home to prepare for butchering tomorrow and after some clearing up, I set to work on making Boudin (black pudding). A long job (I've just finished and its 2.30am). I have 6 black puddings (another 3 burst during cooking) and two 1 litre black pudding loafs (for slicing and frying). Mostly gifts for neighbours.

Tomorrow the bacon, final joints from the loins and saucisson sec.

Butchering

All day long butchering and all the meat is now in the fridge or freezer so I can relax a little though tomorrow we kill the other pig - then hopefully some cooking and eating!

Pig slaughter

Yesterday was slaughter day and what a day! In the morning M. Durand came over with a rifle to lend me to stun/kill the pig. In fact he had a choice of 2. A .22 rimfire rifle which I thought would do the job (most books recommend this) and also a 7mm with a magnum cartridge which would probably take its head off! I chose the .22

Then the rest of the morning was spent preparing. Ropes and pulleys, knives, bone saw, gas burner and bottle, hose pipe, meat hooks, plastic boxes, etc had be transported to the barn and set up.

Emily and Justin arrived at 1.30 and after carrying an old steel bath to the barn, filling it with hot water, setting the huge gas burner going beneath it and covering it with a lid, we had a quick lunch. The water has to be heated to 63 degrees to loosen the hairs on the pig and this needs to be done as soon as the pig is bled, we had to wait for the bath water to reach temperature. This took ages - until about 3.00pm. At this point it started to rain.

Next I had to kill one of the pigs - Barker the bigger of the two was easiest to separate and a small pile of food soon had him occupied. I shot him through the head and it was a instant, silent death - followed by the usual 'death throws'. (These are quite disturbing in animal of this size and seem to go on forever - but Emily said she was amazed how quick it was over compared to their previuos home kills). Quickly we had to transfer the pig to an inclined ladder lent against a wall with its head down, so I could stick it and collect the blood for black pudding. From being a moderate sized pig running around, now it was dead it seemed to suddenly grow to some vast hippopotamus. It was enormous and unbelievably heavy (in fact over 120kgs). We gaffer taped each pair of legs together at the trotters, so we could get a lifting pole between them, and some how managed to drag him onto the ladder. I stuck him. The blood ran for about 10 minutes and Emily collected it in a basin, all the while stirring and lifting out the strings. The testicles where also quickly removed to minimise any boar taint.

Next came the task of getting the hair off. To do this we had to lift him into the bath. After managing to winch his rear half off the floor, this suddenly seemed an impossibility (due to the pigs weight, size and sheer immovability). For a while we tried the method of basting him with the hot water poured from a jug and scraping - this might work for a relatively hairless pig but for a gascogne (which is more hairy than a gorilla) it was hopeless. Nothing for it, we had to get him in the bath. Some how we managed - the pig completely filled the bath and more. After about 4 mins the hair was coming off so we hauled him out the bath and began furiously scraping. Everything comes off (hair, mud and the outer layer of pigmented skin) and the pig is left pink(ish).

At this stage I suddenly became overcome by the enormity of the task. The pig is enormous, the scraping is filthy work and dreadfully slow, time stands still and it seems like you will never finish. The pig had to go back in the bath again, before we could get him 85% dehaired. The rain was absolutely torrential outside the barn ( I think the heaviest rain we've had here). The floor of the barn started to flood, outside was a quagmire. We'd been going three hours. It was getting dark, so I rigged up some lights with a chain of extension leads from the house. ( I had visions of the final scenes of Apocolypse Now). The hair on his front legs was stuck firm and there were still some difficult to get to parts to get the hair off. We decided that we should eviscerate (gut) him now and saw him in half, so he was more manageable to finish these areas and redip his front legs in the scalding water.

Off came his head and tail. Then after carefully gutting him, I sawed him into two, whilst Justin pulled the two halves apart. The evisceration would have been easier if we could have hung him upside down, but even without his head, he now stretched from floor to ceiling - so there wasn't enough room for the pulleys. Another hour of scraping, dipping, shaving and general clearing up of each of the two halves and we call it a night - it's past 7.30. Corbett will have to wait for another day. ( I give him a extra large feed and he doesn't seem to stressed, though I'm sure he'll pine for his lost companion).

We are exhausted, covered in mud, blood, hair, guts, etc, soaked from our brief journeys into the monsoon outside and starving. We retreat to the house, wash up and eat. Justin and Emily depart to feed their animals and I start the big clear up.

By 9.30 things are looking better, so I get to work on the offals - heart, lights, pancreas, liver and kidneys are removed, washed and put in the fridge. Then I have to separate the intestines, squeeze out all the contents, wash them thoroughly (running the tap through them), before turning them inside out and repeating the process, then putting them into brine to soak (these will be my sausage skins).

It's 12.30am and definitely time for bed. Tomorrow, I need to dispose of the organs I'm not using (stomach, spleen, bladder, etc) before dealing with the head and starting the butchering of the carcass.

Weather all change

This morning dawned clear and fine then at about 11.45 a storm blew in, in usual dramatic fashion: a wall of cloud with its base at about 1000m (enough to cut off most of the view) approached from the west at great speed (perhaps 50-60 mph) slowly cutting off the view from right to left and in the space of about 2 minutes visibilty was a few hundred metres and the air was full of hail driven by a strong gale. It's rained, sleeted and hailed all afternoon - most of which I spent at Justin and Emily's helping them out with some architectural and construction problems (in return for help with the pig slaughtering which will probably take place tomorrow).

Waiting

Spent the day making and installing oak bars and a chicken wire screen to the barn window to keep out cats, dogs, foxes, badgers, martins, weasels, etc., when the pig carcases are hanging in the barn. Tomorrow I'll probably make the door. I also installed a water butt to collect the rain water from the bathroom roof.

Sunny and warm in the morning and then clouds rolled in at about 1500m and it's been raining/snowing over the mountains all afternoon (probably the former). There's a strange feeling of expectancy at the moment...waiting to kill the pigs, waiting for snow, waiting for cold weather.

The burn on the roof of my mouth is just about healed, my cold is drying up nicely, but I hit my index finger with the hammer whilst fixing the chicken wire with some tiny staples, it's still throbbing and the nail is a nice blue colour. Why bother making staples the width of a finger? To hold them in place to be able to knock them in with the hammer, means you'll have to hit your thumb and finger as well as the staple. But then perhaps the fault lies with the idiot who buys them!

Mostly Weather

By Saturday morning there was a few centimeters of snow here, but it was wet and despite snow showers throughout the morning, by afternoon it was all melted. The mountains have a fresh covering of about 6" (15cm) of snow but its been warm today and I don't know how long it'll last. Decided not to rush out on my skis today (fresh snow + warm weather = avalanche risk level 3) plus I have a mild cold. Justin and Emily did venture out but had a poor time of it.
Spent the day in the sun moving logs from various piles in the fields/woods to the wood shed - slow laborious work as I had to carry it all in my arms. In the afternoon some R & R watching the mountains through binoculars. Weather is looking warm for the next few days, which is frustrating as I need a couple of days of cold weather to kill and butcher the pigs.

Hey-hey...it's snowing!

Moon

Today has been beautiful and with bright hot sunshine, tomorrow there'll be gales and then snow! Here's the new(ish) moon rising over Mont Valier.

Log splitting

Before the drizzle began in the mid-afternoon I had time to wander down to Philippe and Sophie's ruin, axe in hand (or rather maul) and split most of the beech logs. I'm sure I've talked about this before, but splitting big logs in the chill of a winter's morning is one of my favourite activities here. It might not be as 'fun' as skiing or climbing, but it's very satisfying just the same.

Also pruned the old apple trees which were more mistletoe than anything else - a few bits remain as I can't reach them.

Burnt

On New Years Eve at Justin and Emily's, I managed to badly burn the inside of my mouth on a hot potato (I was too polite/stupid to spit it out). A white, well cooked piece of the roof of my mouth about the size of a 10 pence piece rolled up and fell off after about a minute. The pain wasn't too bad for the first couple of days, but then started to increase and for the last couple of days I've been dosed up on paracetemol and sipping luke warm soup through a straw (OK the last bits an exaggeration). At last, today the pain is subsiding and the burn visibly healing. It certainly isn't polite to eat with your mouth open - but I reckon spitting out a mouthful of food from time to time (however tasty it is) is OK.

Busy, busy.

A warm day today so I spent it outside. As the pigs will be slaughtered in the next few weeks I've put them to work digging the last bit of next years vegetable patch (which meant moving some fence). I cleared some of the smaller trees crowding around my second ancient apple tree (in field No.2) which only seems to fruit every other year. Hopefully a bit more space and light will help it. Both the old apple trees need some hard pruning this winter.

Then over to Philippe and Sophie's ruin where I felled 2 large beech trees a few days ago. I de-limbed them and cut them to short lengths ready for splitting.

Finally, I did some clearing below the wood shed. It's an area I keep having a go at but like most of the land here its full of junk just under the surface - chainlink, chicken wire, general rubbish and the inevitable bits of old renault 4. Managed to clear it but only after putting a spade through a buried car windscreen (which shattered) and cutting some of the chainlink with wire cutters which I was unable to dig out .

A slip with the scissors

After sporting a 'mad professor' hair style for the past few months I decided it was time to give myself a haircut. All went well until I accidentally put a No. 2 guide on the clippers instead of a No. 5 when cutting the hair on the top of my head. Now I have an extremely short haircut - more 'mental assylum' than 'mad professor'!

Last few days

Picked up Sophie from the station on the 27th and spent the next couple of days at Guzet teaching her the basics of skiing. She picked it up pretty quickly and was soon pootling up and down the blue slopes. Yesterday we headed to Ax les Thermes for some skiing at a bigger resort with Justin and Emily - never skied there before and was pleasantly surprised (some fresh snow the night before helped) but by early afternoon it was absolutely heaving (ski hell). The piste started to break up exposing nasty rocks which left my skis in need of some serious attention.

An evening meal with Justin, Emily, Pat and Kev before heading for Massat for New Years Eve at the opening of a new bar (not really my thing). Got at home at 2.00am then up early again for a hastily planned snowshoing trip with Sandrine, Philippe and Sophie. We headed up towards Pic Cour Vic (where I ski-toured a few weeks ago) but actually went right at the col on to Pic de la Banque (2105m). Amazing views of Mont Valier from the top. Not really enough snow to ski up there anymore but there's more snow on its way. Click here to see more photos.

Couloir Faustins - the next challenge for the winter

Christmas dinner

After skiing on Christmas eve at Guzet the slopes were beginning to get a bit stony, so this year I didn't go skiing on Christmas day. Visits to neighbours and a spot of scything (in the sun) instead. In the evening I had arranged to have dinner with Justin and Emily, and took along a homemade xmas pudding.

Alas no sooner had I got there than Justin began to feel unwell (he had Oysters for lunch - which are as christmassy here as mince pies in the UK). Evidently one was off and he spent the rest of the night hugging the toilet bowl. Still the dinner was fantastic even if the company was somwhat diminished.

Today I finally managed to burn the piles of thinnings from the hedge laying - yippee!

Guzet

The local ski station - Guzet Neige - opened today. I went mid-morning to collect my season pass and practise. They only had a couple of pistes open (some others looked fine but I think they're saving them for the w/e or more snow which might just arrive tomorrow night). The place was deserted I think a dozen people at the most. Still, 4 hours skiing and I felt back to the level I reached last year so hopefully from here on in, my skiing improves!

Moon halo

After a couple of weeks of cold weather, it was decidedly warmer today - typical as the local ski station opens tomorrow!

Strange atmospheric conditions tonight created this strange ring around the moon, must be some kind of diffusion effect caused by ice crystals I think. Difficult to capture on a photo - if you can't see it in the image above it's about 10-12 times the diameter of the moon.

I'm burning birch on the Rayburn at the moment (usually burn ash or oak) it burns completely leaving almost no ash but gives out very little heat. So shall save the rest for the late spring!

The cold weather has also brought some rodents into the house. Some wood mice downstairs (which fell foul of my mouse traps) and this afternoon a tiny weeny mouse no more than 3 or 4cm long was scurrying around my feet as I sat at the computer quite oblivious of me. No loires...yet!

More ski practice

Yesterday morning an early start saw me skinning up Le Picou at Guzet at 9.00am. The cold days and nights meant the snow cannons had been working hard but without any pisting the slope was a near continous sheet of hard ice (ski crampons obligatoire!) - only the fringe retained any powder and that had a definite crust. My descent was apalling with several falls as I struggled to gain control and confidence. By the time I reached the bottom I was angry and frustrated with my poor performance.
So the skins went back on the skis and up I went again. Half way I met Penny, Andy and John, here to practice on their new ski-rando equipment. Leaving them at the col I reached the top again and had another go - where the sun had now touched the snow, conditions had eased a little, though everything was more variable (hard ice one minute crusty powder the next)...but at last I began to ski better and regain my confidence, carving my turns, and getting a rythmn going. Phew! I was beginning to think I'd forgotten how to ski!

Ski tour

Ski tour with Ian today - making the best of the first snow. Nice ascent in perfect weather up to the Col de Pause then through it and up towards Cour Vic until it was time to turn around and head for home. My descent was 'sketchy' in parts - but managed!

Ian is pleased with our first turns of the season

Skiing

First ski of the season today. Went to Guzet which had its first snow yesterday. Nothing had been pisted yet and the resort is officially closed but I skinned up to the top of Picou and then skied down the main run. Off piste is something I need to practice so today was good investment. I had planned to meet some friends there but couldn't find them - only saw one other person out on skis.

Snow!

Plenty today on the mountains and perhaps 1-2 cm here.

Gales

Gales and rain for most of today and tomorrow - hopes of more snow on the mountains didn't materialise today but maybe tomorrow? Hoping to grab a ski tour before high pressure sets in in the middle of next week.


This morning I built a vegetable and wine rack for the kitchen, interrupted only by a desperate call from Sandrine who was trying to get to the Christmas market at Salau to set up stall, but found her way blocked by two trees which had fallen in the gale. By the time I got there with my chainsaw someone else had beaten me to it. The rack is just waiting for a top (there's a tray balancing there at the moment) hopefully a friend will bring the necessary piece of beech worktop with him from Ikea when he visits on Friday.

In the afternoon I went to the christmas market before returning home to finish the rabbit pie and feed the pigs.

Rain, mud and rabbit pie

After another pointless attempt at burning the branches from the hedge laying, the rain started. Mostly horizontal rain and the pig sty now resembles a mud wrestling arena, no in fact it's more like a swimming pool that's had a nasty sewage leak. I braved the weather and mud to take photos.



Tonight rabbit pie. A classic recipe or 'receipt' as he prefers to call them, from W.M.W. Fowler's 1965 book 'Countrymans Cooking' (a great book recently reprinted - full of interesting ways to cook rooks, cormorants, etc). The rabbit is fried with onions then cooked in cider, before being deboned and put under the pastry with hard boiled eggs, bacon and mushrooms. Afraid the flash makes the pastry look a bit anaemic.

Hot

After the past few days of rain today was bright and sunny - positively balmy with the temperature reaching 31 in the sun! Fat chance of an early start to the ski season - in fact with high pressure over Spain there are no 'big dumps' of snow on the horizon, probably not this side of Christmas anyway.

With the good weather I felled the last few oaks and after making about 35 fence posts created a woven hazel enclosure around the barn. It will keep the pigs from pulling stones out of the barn walls - which they love to do - destructive little buggers.

I didn't finish until dark so I'll post long overdue photos Friday (oops forgot today).

Rain

Today it pissed down with rain all day. I usually go a bit cabin crazy when the weather is poor as I spend most my time outside, but after all the hedge laying a rest was good. Strong winds forced me to finish the stays on the shutters and tie the door on the barn shut, in the afternoon I baked a Madeira cake in the Rayburn which turned out perfectly - delicious. Also finished my UK tax return!



You'll have to wait for photos of recent works though.

I'm a fire starter...not

Yesterday evening and last night it rained. I went over to Claudes for l'apero with Claude, Susan, Yves, Patrick and Michelle. We talked a lot about bears in the Pyrenees and whether or not they ever inhabited the area around Aleu.

This morning dawned clear and sunny and I was able to finish the hedge laying and generally tidy up the path to the barn. Try as I might though, I couldn't burn the huge bonfires of twigs. I tried everything (firelighters, straw, even petrol!) but couldn't get enough heat to get it really going...really frustrating. Will try again tomorrow. Two smallish oaks very close to the barn to fell then all is done. A few days off in order, then I should start turning my attention to the house at Pont de la Taule again.

Hedging

The weather for the past few days has been glorious.
I am still hedge laying though the end is in sight - couple more days should do it. An enormous bonfire yesterday to start disposing of the twigs and branches which are too small for firewood, fencing or posts.
The guy digging out the parking area for Philippe kindly moved the huge felled chestnuts which encircle the barn with his digger - Photo tomorrow. He also dug out the pond a little (the pigs had all but filled it in) though now there's no water in it! I might have to shovel some gluppy clay back in to it.

Sun

Despite my tales of the cold and damp the sun shone all day today and there was a beautiful sunset. A day of more hedge laying.

Cold and damp

Its been cold and damp for the last few days and it's set to continue. Plenty of mud (sticky clay) which sticks to your boots, picks up leaves, then picks up more mud, which picks up more leaves, etc. Until you've got huge dustbin lids of crap on each foot. Philippe is having an area behind my house excavated for a parking area so there's extra mud about.

Pressing on with the hedge laying and have finished the render on the chimney over the lead flashings - not easy with the grit which passes for washed sand here!

10,000 hits

My blog has had more than 10,000 visits!

Fete des toits

My neighbours came over this afternoon for the Fete des toits - a placing of bouquets on the new roofs and some champagne!

Changing the colours

Today I made some new shutters from the larch left over from the workshop and barn, and gave quelebu a colour change. the blue just didn't look right with the thatch.

All done

Amazingly the weather stayed dry today and Tadeusz and the lads finished the roof of the barn. In the afternoon I helped them load the van and clear up before bidding them farewell and bon voyage. They've done a fabulous job.

You can see the evolution of the barn by clicking here and selecting 'slideshow'.

Winter approaches

Last window fitted, but some more finishing work internally to do tomorrow. The barn roof is ready for the ridge tiles to be grouted in place tomorrow (there was just enough reed to finish), then final redressing the day after.

The weather remains dry and cold (except in the sun when it's 26 degrees). Tomorrow a little warmer with a southerly wind arriving overnight, so hopefully the mortar won't freeze.

Barn update

Mission accomplished in Toulouse and by 1.00 all the new reed was adjacent to the barn - fortunately I think we now have enough. In the afternoon I fitted the new window to the barn and the mezzanine. Tomorrow the last window and finishing the hedges on one side of the path.

No more reed

-6 last night and everything frozen in the morning (although I was warm inside). Tadeusz, Szimon and Christof made themselves busy using up the last of the reed and finishing around the chimney. With no more reed, I chased the delivery company. Despite rumours that they had been unable to find us, it eventually transpired that the reed was still in Lyons about 1000km away! After getting very shitty with people on the phone (my french is improving) I eventually arranged for the shipment to brought to Toulouse overnight and the guardien of the depot there to open up for us and let us collect it tomorrow morning. Better than the Tuesday delivery I was originally offered!

First snows

Snowed last night and light flurries all day. Over 30cm at 2000m - I may be skiing soon!

I continued to work on the hedge and the thatchers worked all day too, despite the cold. The windows for the mezzanine and barn and hopefully the extra reed will arrive tomorrow.

Barn storming

Today it has rained and hailed for most of the day, tonight and tomorrow morning some snow is forecast here (it's down to about 1000m already), but then we have another good weather window which should hopefully be long enough to allow the thatchers to finish the roofs - provided we have enough reed!

Have laid about 40m of hedge so far, about 35-40% of the total, but it's delivered about 4 weeks worth of firewood (for 2010) so hopefully by the time I've finished I'll have completed the years wood collecting.

The house is warm and there's a roast chicken in the rayburn.

Magnifique!

Click on the image for a closer look

The roof is more or less finished and looking great. Today I helped Christof and Szimon move all the materials, tools and scaffolding to the barn whilst Tadeus worked like a demon 'finishing' the thatch. After all the recent hedge laying and the days in the mountains I'm feeling pretty exhausted and am looking forward to a long nights sleep in a warm house. Tomorrow the guys are back here working as there is a spell of poor weather later in the week and they want to make the most of the good weather now. I'm going to be cooking them a boeuf bourgignon as a thank you for their hardwork.

Mont Rouch (2)

Just got back from a three day trip into the mountains with my neighbour Sandrine. We'd originally planned a circuit staying in two different unmanned cabines but due to the heavier than expected snow in the mountains, we spent two nights at the cabane de leziou and climbed Mont Rouch on the second day instead. It was great to be up in the wilderness and Mont rouch was a fantastic ascent under snow and ice.

Roof progress

Thatch progressing a pace and house getting warmer

Thatch

Thatchers arrived yesterday having driven through the night and immediately erected the scaffold! Today they made a start and have already made excellent progress, getting reed on about a third of the front pitch and a backfill layer on the rear pitch. The weather is set fair for at least a week so hopefully the house roof will be completed before the next spell of poor weather. It's great to see the house with it's original thatched 'hat' at long last.

Meantime I've made a start with the laying the hedges to the barn.

There was an Englishman, a Frenchman and a Czech..

The Czech lorry driver returned this morning and I went to meet him at Castet. His lorry was 10 - 11m long, far too big to negotiate the corner in Castet d'Aleu. After greeting him in impecable Czech, I asked him how he was "Jak se mate?" Obviously thinking I spoke fluent Czech he immediately launched into a long response. I'm not too sure of the exact content but reading between the lines I think he said something like..."I waited here all bloody day yesterday and you didn't show up, so last night I had to sleep in my cab and it was f***ing freezing mate, to make matters worse I am travelling with my ex-wife's 60 year old father who has a 50% share in my truck, I hate him and he has terrible flatulance at night and he has the top bunk"...at which point I interupted him with "Mluvite Anglicky?" (do you speak English?). "No only Czech" he replied (in Czech of course). I think he then realised I didn't understand a word he was saying.

After some hopeless sign language in Franglais I returned home to fetch my trailer. I knew it would be too small for even 1 of the 18 bales of reed which I needed to collect, each of which was about 2.5m long by 1m diameter and weighing close to 300kg. After visits to locals I was unable to find a larger trailer at short notice but Paul in Aleu suggested I asked at the shop in Castet for directions to Monsieur Durand who had a lorry. I tracked him down and he came on his bicycle to look at the load to be shifted. He agreed to help.

The driver and I unloaded the lorry into a layby whilst he swore at his father-in-law who had the job of freewheeeling the lorry forward as we rolled the bales out of the back of the trailer. I bid 'Bonne Voyage' to the driver, ferried the ridge tiles and thatch fixings to Quelebu in my little trailer before returning to meet Monsieur Durand. Fortunately he had a forklift to go with his 1950's Saviem lorry (both about the same vintage). His lorry could just take 3 bales and managed between 5 and 15 mph on the steep hill upto Quelebu. It took until after dark (6.30) to shift the final load but at last they're all here. There's snow down to about 1200m at the moment and it was pretty cold today so I was glad to finish.

Chaume

Today I was in St Gaudens all day getting my car serviced - meantime the reed and fixings for the roof arrived with a Czech courier (4 days early). He didn't fancy the tight turn to Aleu so has retreated to St girons for the night. Tomorrow hopefully I can marshall him around the tight corner and help him unload the 18 bales of reed. A good chance to practice my Czech - Ahoj! Jak se mate? Mluvite anglicky? To je hrozne pocasi!

Climbing

After way too long I went rock climbing with Ian and Nina this afternoon at a crag near St G. Climbed 4 or 5 routes at 5b and just as we were getting back into the swing of things the heavens opened.

Bad weather for the next few days but the good news is that the thatchers will arrive Thursday pm with the reed arriving the next day - so hopefully I'll have a roof soon.