Guzet

Snow was forecast for friday but in the event it stopped in the Luchonais Pyrenees and never reached the Couserans. 10cm had fallen in the mountains a few days before and with the clear cold weather we decided on an outing. Susie and Sheri completed a circuit around Guzet on foot, Whilst Paula and I skinned up from the Col de la Trappe. 

We met on the summit of Picou for lunch. Before decending to meet Andy who has just had a hip replacement at the café in Guzet.

We even managed to get caught on the station webcam, by the fence preparing for lunch.

A trio of woollen scarves

The first a scarf for me made from homespun and odds and ends.

another with the same draft different yarns...the wool for the warp proved too fragile so I had to end the weaving early - hence the short length!

And another, this time with a stronger cotton warp.

Cap de Bouriex

A walk up Cap de Bouriex today in the old snow. We seemed to be the only ones there, but just below the final summit cone we were joined by a family of wild boar.

 

Chocolate and orange entremet

This year's showstopper cake - 3 days in the making. Genoise sponge soaked in orange liquer syrup, feuilletine and praline, set orange curd, dark chocolate mousse, choclate mirror glaze and pistachios.

More double weave experiments

759 ends to thread and sley

Another experiment with double cloth overlaying different weave structures, this time huck lace over a pointed draft twill - both in cotton. 8/2 for the twill and finer 16/2 for the lace both set at 10 ends/cm (25 epi). The two cloths are joined at intervals in the weave. This didn't work at first so I had to add two more treadles to the draft and cut and re thread about 40 warp ends. Fortunately, the tension wasn't affected noticeable.

After washing, the lace structure has appeared, revealing the colours of the twill below, perhaps not quite as clearly as I had hoped. A very dark cotton or the lace may have helped and next time perhaps more blurred transitions between the colours underneath - maybe an echo weave.

Details of the lace structure (still wet and un-ironed!).

The finished cloth

The twill on the reverse.

 

Bateman scarves

Storm Daragh brought strong winds and snow here. A test for the roof and a break from building for me. Finally finished weaving the Bateman boulevards scarves, just fringes and finishing to do.

Roof works complete

The abutment flashing against Alain's house was not the nightmare I had feared and in the end went up fairly easily and the rendering above looks pretty neat now.

Susie and I managed to haul the last sheets onto the roof with just the two of us. The ridge however was a nightmare to fit as the roof is too steep and slippery to stand astride the ridge. So the only possibility was to be on a rope from one side or other, but with each section of ridge 2m long it was almost impossible for the rope not to squash the piece of  ridge I was trying to position and fix, or the rope to be in the way. Eventually after a day of cursing it was done.

Verges and eaves followed and yesterday the gutters to the rear. Rheinink gutters have a monopoly here, which is a pain as they have to be soldered with expensive equipment. As I've reused the old gutters they're a bit mishapen too, so I ll probably silicon and rivet the sections together when the weather is dryer.

The front gutter will be more difficult as the eaves steps as the building gets wider. It ll have to wait as rain wind and snow are forecast next week. Windows and doors have been ordered, but it ll probably next spring before they arrive.

 

Works on the gable end nearly finished (including the new window) and hopefully the parts arrive tomorrow to allow me to finish the ridge and verge. Maybe by the end of the week things will be watertight.

Roof on!

Work progressed non-stop last week as there was a short weather window at the weekend. On Wednesday I discovered that the roofing supplier Joris Ide had sent the ridge and ridge liner bent to the wrong angle and omitted several keys components.  After frantic phone calls a resupply was promised for Friday. Calls went out for much needed help to lift the panels onto the roof. Things were looking pretty desperate as almost everyone I knew was going to be away that weekend...then Pete Booth came to the rescue! He promised to come with three workaways (Alex, Kat and Rob). Together with Sheri, Michiel and John we had a chance!

At 10.00 we started. I d pre drilled about Two thirds of the panels but there still some prep to do before we could start lifting. I d worked out the sequence of installation and at about 12 we got the first set of three panels up. The scaffolding went up and down many times and it was hard work, but by the end of the day we had 20 of the 24 panels up.  Pete and his helpers thankfully promised to return on Sunday morning to get the last 4 placed. 

The last one was the most complicated and early in the morning I built a sledge that we hauled up the roof carrying the last panel before finally tipping it into place.

 

More supply problems when I discovered Joris Ide had sent the wrong profile fillers for the ridge and I was about 150 stitchers screws short. The company is a shit show! Supply of the profile fillers might take a week or more, so today before the deluge I fitted the flashings against the neighbours house and tried my best to wrap the ridge up. Hopefully it will survive the coming wind, rain and possibly snow!

Latest progress

The remaining purlins were installed (heavy) and then the balcony structure erected. Impending rain led to hastily applied plastic covers, finished in the nick of time! 

Today brief dry spells allowed for building the stone walls between the trusses...2/3 finished. The roof fabricator supplied the ridge pieces at the wrong angle...hoping for a speedy re-supply to take advantage of a weather window later in the week.

Roof progress

Two days of effort with Michiel's help and the roof structure is progressing.

The wall was lowered and levelled, shuttered for concrete and some reinforcement laid. Today I mixed and poured the concrete which took 5 hours as it had to be lifted bucket by bucket. Then against the forecast the heavens opened! Fortunately I got everything covered over just in time.

The sandwich panels for the roof have arrived!

 

Progress

After demolishing the blockwork at the rear of the first floor, I had to create an oak frame to eventually support the roof trusses and hold a pair of glazed double doors and two windows. The green oak is beefy and f***ing heavy. Each of the 3 beams weighs about 150 kgs. Ropes, pulleys and the tractor were required to move the 4.5m long beams to the rear of the barn, then crowbars and brute force to drag them into position once the mortice and tenons had been cut.

 

 

After all the demolition some construction begins

 

More progress and a sorry time for Bam-bam

It's been a tough few days getting the huge roof  beams down in the barn. I must have dismantled and re-erected the scaffolding fifty times and a combination of saws, crowbars, ropes and chainsaws have been called into action to cut them into pieces and then carefully lower them to the ground.  At 9m long some of them are ridiculously heavy even when cut into four or five pieces.

Next I have the balcony roof to get down whilst the dry(ish) weather holds.

Poor Bam-bam who somehow survived weeks of blue-tongue virus is lame and has been recovering from a huge abcess on his foot. It seemed to be getting better after treatment, but has returned again. Whilst treating him today I found abcesses on both his knees...the poor boy has been on anti-biotics and anti-inflammatories for months, his wool is falling out and he is thin as a rake. He may have to be euthanised as his immune system is completely shot. It's so sad seeing him suffering so terribly.

 

Anna and Dan have been staying with us for the week and Dan helped me getting some of the heavier rafters down. I should be onto the beams soon.

A European wildcat on the camera trap - heavier set and with a thicker tail than a domestic cat and with very distinctive markings.

 

Wildboars - a young mother and three young of about three years old (stripes barely visible now they're nearly adults).

Roof stripping finally starts

 

It's been a long hot humid/wet summer. 

We've lost four sheep, three to FCO (Donnie, Hopi and Puffle) and one to Piroplasmosis (Valentine). At least another four sheep have had FCO and are recovering. Bam-bam had a long form of the virus lasting over two weeks and his recovery is slow. The vaccine doesn't offer any of the sheep protection until late September.

All the kingpost trusses for the barn have been built and disassembled. There's a few days of pointing to do before I can start removing the old roof. Two weeks of rain are forecast so it might have to wait.