Mountains and digging

The beautiful weather continues with temperatures peaking at 29 degrees in the afternoon. A trip to the mountains was in order!

As is often the case when I plan a day off, I overslept! I had planned to climbed Mail de Bulard by the North ridge but as I didn't wake up until 8.00 I needed a plan B. I headed for Pla de Lau (the starting point for Mont Valier) and left the car at 9.40. Mont Valier wasn't my objective though, instead I headed on GR10 climbing towards Tuc du Coucou. I stormed passed several walkers and one lady said "vous avez un moteur?", "oui, mon coeur" I replied. I had the bit between my teeth!

A little before Tuc du Coucou I turned left heading for Port de l'Esque. It was hot and so wanting a little breeze I left the path and climbed by a steep gulley to gain the ridge just after Cap de Raspe. Spooking some Isards on the way.

There was a light breeze and a fantastic view of the wall formed by Pic d'Orle, Pic des Cingles and Mail de Bulard.

I followed the ridge Southwards and at Pale des Aigles, a vulture flew overhead!

Continuing on the ridge over Tuc de Portillou (2427m) with great views towards Mont Valier.

Ahead, Pic de Barlonguere and Pic de Cornave were still holding snow.

The air was clear, the sun warm and views impressive!

After Tuc de Portillou the ridge becomes increasingly narrow and exposed, and the section before Port de Cornave requires great care as the exposure is great and the rock poor! Did I really solo this in winter with a big pack after climbing the Couloir de Cornave 14 years or so ago?

Looking back along the ridge towards Tuc de Portillou

The the port I descended directly to Cabane de Trinque, and from there followed the path which descends via Peyrelade to Pla de Lau. The steep path through the woods was treacherous as the path was buried under about a foot of dry beech leaves. The leaves masked roots, rocks, holds and were also very slippery - not great for aching legs and knees. 6 hours for the trip and only 1500m of height gain, but enough after the strenuous last few days.

Today I've been digging out the barn floor, there's 15-20cm of stiff clay and rocks to dig out. 8 hours of digging today and I'm only about 70% of the way through! A visit from Ian broke the day.

Digger day!

Hedge finally finished. 

Jeanmarc came at 10.30 with the digger. He started by taking out the three chestnut stumps. They'd been felled 20 years ago but were each over a meter across. The first one popped out without a problem but the other two took about an hour and half, with a lot of cursing and swearing. Each weighed about a tonne and was a ball about 4 feet in diameter. The rest of the work was then fairly straight forward.

You can see a couple of the stumps in this picture from 2007. the small one on the right popped out but the big one behind the fence on the left of the barn has another one the same size behind it, and they were the difficult ones to get out.

He left at 4 and the rest of the digging will have to wait until the spring but I was very glad that he managed to squeeze today's effort in at short notice. Alas he wasn't able to bring the aggregate for the concrete floor, So I'll have to try to get it delivered early next week, then transport it bit by bit to the barn or make 10 trips to St Girons!

First there's there the barn floor to dig out and the door way to finish....it got bashed by the digger during stump removal so will need some more work.

The old outside loo will need some steps (it's a metre above the ground now)

doorway now walk through-able, prop put back as a precaution

Another glorious sunny day. After removing the props and shutters I spent the morning filling in the last of the stonewall, moving more stones and excavating a little deeper in the doorway. Not much more to do now until the excavations are made around the barn.

In the afternoon I set to more hedge laying, exhausted after wielding the chainsaw all day. Still a 12m stretch to lay and quite a bit of clearing up not to mention more fires!

First rays of sun on the fresh snow on Valier

Should be able to take away the props tomorrow morning...just in time as the digger arrives tomorrow!

Snow, hedges and concrete

Heavy rain over night which manifested itself as snow on the frontier mountains and in the morning there was no electricity! 

I pressed on with hedge laying eventually finishing the left hand side of the chemin by the end of the day. The ErDF arrived to look at connecting the barn to the mains, but as it is 38m from the nearest pole I have to make another application for an extension of the grid (30m is the limit) - it will probably add £3k to the price.

After a trip to get the relevant forms from the Mairie, I shuttered the reveals of the doorway in the barn and filled them with concrete. 

The difference in the ground levels between inside and outside is only apparent from outside. 

La belle France

Flight times have changed so rather than arriving at lunchtime, I now arrive after dark, which feels strange. Weather is beautiful and mild (29 in the sun yesterday) and the only sounds are dry leaves rustling and acorns, hazelnuts and chestnuts falling.

It's another trip with lots to achieve (are there any other?). After servicing the septic tank, it was straight on with making the last opening in the barn. It's a bit like a giant game of jack straws except with 20kg rocks! Pull out the wrong stone and there can be a seemingly unending collapse. One can't make the whole opening in one go or the whole barn might end up as a pile of rocks, so it's slow work, building in frames, propping and reinforcing as you go.

Meetings with the plasterer for Gilbert's barn conversion at La Trappe today, ErDF (electricity board) tomorrow, Jean-Christophe later in the week (a planning permission for another house) and (at last) the Notaire for the sale of the house at Pont next Wednesday. Hopefully Jeanmarc Sentenac will be able to do terrassement around the barn next weekend and next week I'm planning on casting the ground floor slab in the barn...phew!

Eastbourne

Tits at Yarner

Autumn colours from the house

A quick trip to Eastbourne on Tuesday/Wednesday. A dingy (but cheap) hotel on the seafront broke the travelling but a very nice curry in the town was a compensation.

Susie and Ruby went to the Brighton University open day, Ruby wants to do the illustration degree there, whilst I headed to Hastings for work related meetings. We met up again at the end of the day at Willow's home before the long drive back.

Off to Quélébu for more gite works today (Saturday).

Autumnal photos from a walk in North Woods

Leaves in the River Dart #1

Leaves in the River Dart #2

Foxglove

Lightning visit

A few days back in france, to meet with the ErDF (electricity board) who had to cancel and Jean-Marc Sentenac who can hopefully do some excavation around the barn, dig the services trenches and eventually put in the septic tank. He's very busy and I'll be lucky if he can do the excavation work around the barn this year...I might have to hire a digger and do it myself.

Most of my short stay (even the nights) was taken up with Architecture work in the UK, where a project I'm running has been slipping further and further into the red and despite my constant warnings heads have remained firmly in the sand. It wasn't until the contractor issued his draft final account on Friday that "the shit hit the fan". It's been an incredibly stressful time.

Still I grabbed a couple of spare hours and finished demolishing most of the barn stair, burnt the 7 big bonfires, dismantled the chicken coop and took down some fencing.

Staircase mostly gone

 wall getting bigger!

All done for this trip

Getting the window frame into the existing oak lintel in window no 2 was a bastard and then halfway through rebuilding the wall above window no 1 the heavens opened - I'd just made a barrow load of mortar so had to continue until it was all used and was soaked through. Today was finishing off, a major clear up of stones and starting the demolition of the stairs.

What to do with the mountain of stone from making the openings and the demolished stair? A wall 5 feet thick which I'll eventually top with soil and plant. There's still half the stair to demolish and a doorway to make so it'll probably be another foot higher.

The partially demolished stair, revealing the little window I carefully protected when I built the stair.

Finally the hippies who set up their caravan camp in the woods just up the road last spring, returned this afternoon with another caravan and a friend also with a caravan! My heart sank (they have been a nuisance with several marauding wild dogs which they spend most their time shouting expletives at). However, after a few hours they departed - I guess they took what they wanted from the old caravan which has broken windows and have abandoned it together with all the pots, pans, rubbish, gas bottles, etc. for someone else to deal with, usually the Mairie....which means all the inhabitants of the commune foot the bill. (This has happened several times since I've lived here). I have no problem with people living in the woods if they leave it as they find it...but I have zero tolerance for these polluters.

Back again soon to make a door opening, organise some excavations and a temporary electricity supply.

Hedges and mushrooms

Today dawned clear and I watched the rising sun bathe the mountains in light. 

In the field I also watched a couple of roe stags (a young male still red and a much older three point grey male) sparring. I filmed the exchange and a little later the young male was back again.

I spent until 2pm laying the hedge on the other side of the chemin leading to the barn. 

The next section to the barn is mostly quite dense now so I may just top it rather than lay it, which should be quicker.

After a quick lunch I headed to Oust for some shopping and on the way back stopped in for a long chat with Minsou. When she asked what I was having for tea, I replied chicken and mushrooms. She laughed when I said I hadn't picked them yet, but it only took 15 mins to collect an assortment when I got home!

Barn progress

A very long day working on the barn. Lintels finally up on the first window and internal reveals done.

Then it was onto the second window which needed the old frame taken out, the cill lowered and width slightly reduced. The old frame was built in and offered support to the walls on either side (dry stone construction, no mortar) so when it came out there was rather a lot of wall to rebuild. All done by 7.30pm.

Snow and hedgelaying

After a rain, hail and thunder storm last night, this morning dawned clear with a dusting of snow on Mont Valier...winter is coming.

In the morning more work on the inside of the new window in the barn, its slow work rebuilding the reveals and supports for the lintels, hopefully after tomorrow I will have the interior lintels placed.

The rest of the day was spent hedge laying. First section complete.

There are four huge bonfires of branches piled up and two giant stacks of spars about 3m long. What I've done is about 20% of the total that needs doing. Next I'll tackle the already thinned out section against the garage/woodstore.