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!

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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.

This years jelly

Apple and Chillie with a bit more 'kick' than previous years.

Legs are a bit stiff after yesterday.

Pic de la Lesse, Pic des Trois Comtes, Pic de Puntussan

Etang Garbet

An early start in dense cloud from about 6km upstream from Aulus les Bains this morning. By the time I reached the Etang Garbet I had climbed above the cloud but it chased me up the mountain. At the Etang Bleu everything was frozen and I left the path behind as I struck up across the mountainside to reach Pic de la Lesse.

The view of the route ahead from Pic de la Lesse - On the right Pic de Puntussan, in the middle Pic des Trois Comtes (partly hidden behind an unnamed pic on the ridge climbed on the way).

Some pleasant scrambling (in the sun briefly) lead to Pic des Trois Comtes and by 2.00 I was on the top of Pic de Puntussan. There was plenty of snow on the ground and a fair bit of verglas on the rocks. On the Pic the cloud finally engulfed me.

Atmosheric conditions produced a Brocken Spectre.

The long descent in difficult pathless terrain, zero visibility and light snow then heavy rain proved very difficult and several times I had to reascend steep slopes and ravins to keep on track. By 5.30 I was still high on the mountain and not certain of my position and benightment seemed a distinct possibilty. Eventually after 4 hours of exhausting descent through rocks, bilberry and tussuck grass I reached a path (the first since early morning) and as twilight fell I reached the top of the Cascade d'Ars. (NOTE : I would not recommend this route either in ascent or descent and certainly not in poor visibilty).

I just managed to descend to the good piste before dark and a long trudge back to Aulus and then the 6km back to the car in pitch darkness saw me safely down. A long and trying 11 hour day with over 2200m of ascent and about 23km in all.

Thatching

After breaking my balls all summer to build the barn and re-roof the house in less than 10 weeks, some of you may be wondering what has happened to the thatching or rather the thatchers? Well you and me both! After managing to be ready for the agreed 'start date' of mid-September, this has been pushed back to early October, then mid-October and the latest is first week of November! Meantime winter approaches and I freeze my nuts off living in a house with only felt for a roof and no insulation. If the snow arrives early I'm done for.

The staircase for the barn was poured today (concrete steps on top of stonework). The living room curtains are 3/4 finished (one more to make) and this years batch of Apple and Chillie Jelly is ready for boiling and bottling.

The autumn high pressure continues with crystal clear skies, so tomorrow another day in the mountains probably Puntussan and the Pic des Trois Comtes.

Pic de la Pale

A longish day in the mountains today, we planned to climb Mont Valier from the Col de la Pause via the Port d'Aula but ended up stopping just short at the Pic de la Pale and found a nice knife edge ridge to a little peak with stunning views.

In the video clips below, Dommy talks to his camera about what kind of person would run along the ridge before I join him on the summit, then we head back to the Col and lunch.

Cascade d'Ars, Etang Guzet

On Tuesday a local walk and a huge trawl of mushrooms - enough to make wild mushroom risotto and yesterday a middle mountain walk to the Cascade d'Ars...

...and the Etang Guzet amidst fantastic autumn colours.

Pic Seron (2)

Dommy and Jon are here for the week and as the weather was beautiful today we did a mountain walk, completing a circuit above Guzet including an ascent of Pic Seron. The Etang d'Aube was a surreal washing-up liquid green.

The jinx is lifted

Now the Judds are safely out of french airspace the weather improves and the day dawns clear. Here's the view you never saw - photo taken this morning.

Wendy and Matthew visit.

Wendy and Matthew having been staying for a few days after their holiday on the Canal du Midi. The 'Judd jinx' manifested itself as bad weather, and despite staying here for three days they sadly only got glimpses of the view. Nethertheless, we didn't let the bad weather spoil the time together and we went to Foix, the Riviere souterraine de Labouiche (Europes longest underground river), St Lizier and few scenic walks and drives nearer home. Although they left this morning it's still raining!

Chateau de Foix

Autumn

Today had an autumnal feel to it. The leaves are beginning to turn, I harvested the maize and carrots (a mouse beat me to about half of them!) and although it's still warm the day was cloudy and in the late afternoon a thunderstorm. As the roofs are finished, I began work on the stairs to the barn - digging out the clay and then assembling the stonework. It doesn't have to carry any load or be watertight so it's fairly easy compared to the barn walls.

We have a good apple crop this year so the pigs get plenty to eat. The field had some parasol mushrooms in it today so I had plenty to eat too.

Recent works

The house at Pont de la Taule now has electricity and some lighting too...yippee!
Fields 3 and 4 have been invaded by ground thistles which have smothered the brambles and allowed grass to start growing...hurrah!
The roof has had it's final stones placed on the very top of the gables...huzzah!
The chimney is rendered and has a new hat...tophole!


The table has new lights over it which don't dazzle you and give you third degrees burns...magnifico!
A blog reader dropped in to see me...bonzer!
The front door is now red...halleluja!
The rayburn now has a light over it so I can see to cook...brilliant!
I have curtains in the living room to keep it warm at night...cool!

Boeuf

For the past few days I've been working at the house at Pont de la Taule. The electricity is due to be connected tomorrow and I needed to install a fuse board and earth. This morning field No 2 got its autumn 'short back and sides' then for lunch I went to Massat where there was a steer roast - free for all the inhabitants of the Canton. The boeuf was enormous, enough to feed the 500 or more people who showed up. Most had come with plates, cutlery and copious side dishes. I turned up with two slabs of buttered bread! The cow sandwich was delicious. Met up with Justin and Emily and a few friends.

And for dinner tonight? Boeuf Bourgignon.

Morning Alpenglow

Snow

The clouds stayed low today, but Pic de Lasirouge showed itself briefly...here's the view from the house.

Cold spell

Temperatures have dropped, this morning 6 degrees. There's a decent dump of snow above 2000m and over the next few days snow is forecast down to 900m (I live at 800m). The thatchers are now due in about 3 weeks time so things could turn cold in the house. Today I brought some logs into the house and lit the Rayburn for the first time this autumn.

Books

Yesterday was another big clear up day with a bonfire and trips to the dump plus some farmwork.

Today it's been overcast and drizzly, in fact it never seemed to get light. So I built two sets of matching bookshelves (one in each corner of the bedroom). At last I can get rid of the bookcase at the top of stairs which robbed the bedroom of light and space. Also I can now bring all my books into the house (some were in the workshop). It's great to have space back in the bedroom.

End in sight

A beautiful day today. The sun shone but it was never too hot (perhaps 20) and with the fantastic clearness that occurs as autumn approaches. A big clear up in the morning, stacking wood, loading rubble into the trailer and stacking the old roof sheets - then finishing the roof battens. No jarring power tools just me a saw and a hammer - bliss. Three or four more days of mostly leadwork and the roof is ready.

Snake!!

The weather dawned clear and Meteo France revised it's forecast to thunderstorms in the afternoon and then rain and strong winds tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. The tarpaulins are pretty ropey in strong winds, so I decided to attempt to fit the ply for the lead gutter to the last gable, then strip the roof and insulation and fix the new felt and battens today - hoping that the rain would hold off until the evening.

Halfway through stripping the insulation, as I tore out a big piece of fibreglass (vile, horrible stuff, should be banned), I realised there was a snake in it! A black and yellow Western Whip Snake - Mrs Whippy I think, perhaps 3 feet long. I don't know who was more shocked! She slid onto the ridge beam. Everytime I tried to reach her with a long stick she disappeared into the recesses of the roof between felt and ceiling boarding. Hopefully she found a way out - otherwise I might have company tonight, a duvet being the next best thing to glassfibre.

Just as the roof was ready for felting the black clouds rolled in and the thunder started. In a race against the weather I managed to staple the felt to the roof (rather haphazardly) before the heavens opened, though with strong winds and the felt flapping around, I didn't manage to escape some water ingress. Eventually the rain eased and working in wet weather gear I refixed the felt and every other batten before nightfall.

Chimney flashing

After three weeks of good weather it's going to be showery tomorrow. Today I built the solution to the chimney flashing problem. It was one of those jobs where there was nowhere to stand, no room to swing the hammer, nothing to support the required construction and impossible to measure for the piece of wood or ply you needed to cut. English expletives echoed across the Pyrenees but the job is done. The flashings will require a bit of lead burning - it's been a while since I did any, but Claude says he has an Oxy-Acetylene torch so hopefully I can get it done later this week.

Angle grinder grinds to a halt

My Ryobi angle grinder which has worked it's guts out cutting the Aleu microgranite of the hearth, chopping through the wall for the rayburn chimney and all the work on the barn and house gables cutting slabs, blocks and concrete has died - or at least the bearing has gone, fortunately just as the last slab was cut! Hopefully it can be repaired.

The dell printer also packed up but I've managed to mend it.

The Bosch drill thats been back to Bosch twice already is also knackered but I'm gonna give up on that one - Bosch isn't the same since they started fabricating in Hungary.

Play of light

A tremendous view this evening with light playing on the mountains.

Mont Rouch

A magnificent day on Mont Rouch. It has a reputation for being a tough day out. 2000m of ascent from the nearest access in France, the barest trace of a path (not actually true) and unremittingly steep all the way. Plus it's higher than Mont Valier and Pic Certescan, in fact the highest Peak in the Couserans.

Yes it was a tough day, about 8 hours including lunch - but in fact Mont Rouch is a fantastic mountain and deserves to be better known (it's rarely climbed). The views are immense and interesting as it stands on a southerly kink in the chain, so the views are often of the spanish side of the neighbouring frontier peaks. The walk is scenic and the terrain varied with some lovely ridge scrambling.

I climbed from Salau, following the Ravine de Leziou, before crossing Les Clots de Dessus and gaining the Crete du Laquet which was followed to the French summit (2888m) in about 3 hrs 45 mins. A scramble across the 150 deep notch put me on the Spanish summit (2888m) and lunch before more scrambling took me to the Point Geodesic (2848m). A steep descent to the Col de Servi completed the horseshoe and little before Pic de Moustiry I scrambled down to the scree slopes which descended steeply to Les Clots de Dessus once more. Amazingly I saw one other person, the restauranteur from Col de Latrape with his dog which managed to follow him just - here he is on the French summit viewed from the Spanish summit.

Windows and chimneys

Yesterday I finished the third gable and opened up the last one. It's difficult to do much until I work out how to flash around the chimney. The thatcher is looking at it at the moment (via e-mail).
So today I installed a tiny window for the mezzanine bedroom and to allow some cross ventilation in the main bedroom, now I've lost the dormer.

It took all day to bash through the foot thick concrete filled concrete cellular blocks which make up the wall...and now the house is full of concrete dust (again). When the last gable is finished I'll render this wall - I've always hated the blockwork but knew it would have to wait.
Tomorrow, weather permitting Mont Rouch.

Cows

Another beautiful day. Third gable coming along nicely, some more scything of ferns and the cows have arrived.

Pic des Trois Seigneurs

View along the ridge of descent to Trois Seigneurs (the peak on the right)

Etang d'Arbu

My promised day off arrived and the day dawned clear. So off to Pic des Trois Seigneurs. Though only modest in height it has the reputation for the most spectacular views because it stands north of the main chain. It didn't disappoint. Just under 2 hours and I'd climbed the 1000m to it's summit and with not a cloud in the sky I absorbed the view for an hour whilst taking brunch. Descent was via the long ridge leading to the Port de Lhers.

Looks like the thatchers will be a couple of weeks late starting due to delays on other jobs, so I can take things a bit easier and take advantage of the good weather with a few more walks over the coming weeks.