Tour of Cirque de Campuls

A glorious day out in the mountains. I had a late start (after a late night finishing the plumbing) but by 10.20 was on the hill heading for the cabane de Campuls. It was icy as climbed into the cirque above the cabane and soon put on my crampons. They stayed on my boots for the whole day.
The Etang d'Ayes was frozen and I continued to climb up to the smaller Etang de Bellonguere where I caught the first of the sun. The icy crystals were sparkling and the combination of warm sun and cold air magnificent.
From here I followed a vague ridge steeply upwards to the east before striking south along the ridge to the corniced summit of Pic de la eyre Blanque (2176m). The snow here was hard as ice and great care was needed as only the tips of my crampon oints could penetrate the snow and give me grip. Good practice of "french crampon technique". After lunch on the summit I contemplated descending to the cabane d'Eycheil where I stayed with Susie, Jasper and Ruby last spring - but the snow here was soft and balling up under my boots. So instead I stayed on the ridge and descended northwards to Tuc de la Seube and then Col de Auedole, before the descent on GR10 back to the car.

My only company the whole day was an Isard.

Moo

Yesterday evening a visit from escaped cows.

A change of tack today to escape plumbing for a short while. Infilling the window openings in the flank of the front dormer (weatherproofing is more important right now and I won't have the time to build the windows for some time), sealing around the frames and a bit of tidying in the fields.

Tomorrow a day in the hills as the weather is set fair.

I f***ing hate pumbing

The never ending torture that is plumbing continues. Three delayed action leaks (24 hours after filling the pipework) all in the same run of pipework and each one occurring about 3 hours after the preceding was one fixed, have driven me to the point of despair. The water dripping from the first woke me at 5am this morning, water everywhere. I'm beginning to wonder if I have a bad batch of solder. In which case the last 3 days work will have to be dismantled and completely redone. The entire trip will have been a waste of time.

I need a day in the mountains as far away from plumbing as is humanly possible.

Windows, walls and tractors

A beautiful day with clear skies, cool air and hot sun. In the morning I added some new mouldings to the windows which had leaked in the storm in December. Then I put silicon between the timber beads and the glass and mastic between the frames and sub-frames. Hopefully that should sort it out!
After a quick lunch I pressed on with finishing the retaining wall and clearing the pile of rubble next to the new entrance. All finished but before i could take a picture John and Nat arrived.

Nat had managed to get his little tractor stuck in one of the fields below Pinsou - the engine wouldn't start and it sounded terminal to me. About 100m of rope and a pulley were required to pull it out with John's landrover. I was middleman relaying commands and retying the rope when required. Once on the road the job wasn't over as we had to get the tractor into the barn. John's landrover couldn't pull it up the muddy track, so I went to get my jimny which did the trick. The last manoeuvre required all our effort as we had to push the thing into the barn manually.

Back to Quelebu

Back to France and a flat battery in the car which was parked at the airport. No idea why as nothing was left on. After several futile attempts at pushing and bump starting the car single-handedly, I remembered that breakdown assistance is included with my french car insurance...what a relief!

Weather here lovely, though I think that may change in next few days. No worries though as I have plenty of indoor work to do on the house extension.

AVIVA insurance "taking the piss"

I've been driving since 1985 and never made an insurance claim, but do you think I can get a UK insurer to recognise this? In France I have 6 years no claims bonus (or a Coefficient de reduction-Majoration of 0.68). Because I haven't had insurance in the UK for more than 2 years, I now have 0 years no claims bonus.

I got an insurance quote and the broker said that the underwriter AVIVA would accept my French CRM provided I got the relevent documents from my insurers and had them translated into English, which I have spent the last 5 days doing. Now it transpires that AVIVA won't accept the statement of CRM, but must have a letter from the french insurer stating the number of years without a claim, they then want this letter translated into English by a certified translator, then the translation of the letter to be printed by the French Insurance Company on their headed paper, then the reprinted translated letter to be sent back to the translator to be officially stamped, then the stamped reprinted translation of the original letter to be sent to AVIVA in the UK for consideration as to whether or not they will accept it. I can guess what the answer will be.

If I had car insurance with AVIVA in the UK and decided to move to Iceland, I wonder if they would agree to translate all my car insurance documents into Icelandic and get them officially certified for me?

Pheasant Casserole

A lovely new recipe. Game is very reasonably priced these days because most people (in the UK at least) don't know what to do with it! A brace of pheasant is cheaper than a single chicken.

I marinated the pheasant in a mixture of olive oil, fresh ginger, orange juice, a little grated orange zest and tarragon leaves for 24 hours before making my traditional slow stew by browning the meat in a pan with some butter and lardons, deglazing the pan with some red wine, then adding some stock, carrots and a bay leaf before slow cooking it for 2 1/2 - 3 hours. An hour before it was ready I added some lightly fried whole shallots. I served it with roast potatoes, curly kale and carrots.

New Car

For the last year or so Dominic has been lending us his car when I was back in the UK and in need. Finally though, we have our own wheels - a 1974 Saab 95! A day of fiddling and it's all in working order except for the heater control (the broken cable for that is on order). Just need to find a passenger door wing mirror and a spare wheel.

Walk on the moor

A reasonably long walk (12.5 miles) on Dartmoor with Susie and Dominic yesterday. Rainy and windy all day with poor visibility but good to stretch the legs nevertheless. The River Dart was in spate and we watched some kayakers tackling the river.

UK again

Back to blighty for Christmas. Whilst Jasper and Ruby were with their dad, Susie and I crept off to explore Salcombe with Anna, lots of swanky clothes shops which the girls loved!

Then a flying visit to see the Hewitts at Shenmore and a very blustery walk up table mountain.

The two days of rain striped away the snow around the house, but walk around Guzet Neige enabled us to have a good trot in the snow and an epic snowball fight lasting most of the day.

The following day the weather was warm and balmy so after a walk upto the airstrip at Joubac to admire the view and sunbath, there still time to squeeze a little bit of retaining wall building back at Quelebu.

Warm

Horray! The central heating is working. It was bloody frustrating as we had to fill and drain the system three times before we found all the leaks - only three leaks which wasn't bad considering the total number soldered joints. I still have a permanent cold water feed and all the hot water to plumb but that can wait. The house is warm and cosy and after the snow and torrential rain of the last few days. We found a xmas tree in the woods and with the Rayburn working we had a lovely pork roast last night. Today off for a bit of snow shoeing!

Susie, Jasper and Ruby arrived on Saturday. As did the snow which made for a nice xmas feel to the start of the holiday. The central heating isn't finished yet but hope to get it done in the next few days. We're keeping warm around the fire until the weather improves. Susie and Ruby added some decoration to the living room and the front door.

Doh!

All the radiators are connected to each other, but removing the old water cylinder today proved problematic.

First of all I couldn't empty it. I'd put a drain tap in the cylinder when I installed it but to connect a hose to the tap required several adapters and with them attached there just wasn't room for the hose without crimping it. Eventually I succeeded but not before several leaks into the kitchen below.

After dismantling all the connections I was ready to remove the cylinder, but then I remembered the cupboard in which it sits needed to be dismantled to get the tank out (I'd forgotten I had to do this when I installed it). Once out, the header tanks (feed and expansion and cold water) had to be separated from the cylinder (it's a combination cylinder but I want to reuse the header tanks). Some careful sawing and voila. Needless to say after a trip to St Girons to get more pipework and fittings, and re-assembling the cupboard there isn't gonna be time to get all the central heating working before Susie, jasper and Ruby arrive on Saturday!

A big clean up tomorrow, some essential small jobs, washing, chopping firewood and shopping. There's snow forecast for Saturday - we'll just have to keep the fire going as I can't light the rayburn until it's plumbed in or I'll damage the back boiler.

Race against time

All morning fetching plumbing supplies then working late into the night plumbing in the radiators. Slow work, but I've started at the difficult end where I have to join into existing network. Hopefully things will go quicker tomorrow.

Getting there

All the radiators hung, lots of little tidying up jobs done...tomorrow pipework!!

Another long day (aren't they all?) and the dining room floor is ready for varnishing.

Flooring

Got the kitchen tiled last night and have now started on the oak flooring. Nail gun problems so have resorted to good old hammer and punch.

Early this morning...

Progress

It's been a busy few days since my last post. Besides trips to fetch plasterboard with Ian, another to collect the new water cylinder and radiators, and yet another to give Justin some urgent advice with his latest construction project and see Emily and the twins, work has been progressing here.

The construction of an attic to house the feed and expansion tank, infilling the last piece of first floor (Susie's walk in wardrobe), patching the hole in the living room floor where the stairs used to land, studwork, plasterboarding, hanging two new bedroom doors, screeding the kitchen floor (1/2 tonne) ready for ceramic floor tiling and working out some of the electrics! Oak flooring to be collected on Thursday, once that's down I can start on the central heating - at last.

A dusting of snow

Field clearing and studwork today.

Works resume

Back to the continuing Indian summer in the Pyrenees (26 in the sun today) but work has now switched to indoors. Next week the central heating, but first all the necessary preparation work. Today I installed the rayburn - knocking through the wall to connect the chimney and positioning it on the plinth I cast before leaving for Totnes.

Osteopath

The diagnosis is that fortunately I haven't ruptured a disc. I have put a torsional twist into my pelvis. The junction where the two halves of the pelvis join at the pubic bone was visibly misaligned and had to be popped back. The twist has knotted up my lower back/sacrum and various muscle groups that run from there to the groin (Psoas, etc) which have been irritating adjacent nerves. Hopefully, now the twist is gone things should get better.

Roof finished!

Still trying to take things easy...but I have managed to finish the slating and with the help of nathaniel (a neighbour) finished the cover beads to the lead flashings where new and old meet.

Busy preparing for the next stage of works - the central heating!

Recovery

A slow return to light duties as my back slowly recovers...still very sore and requiring painkillers and hot water bottles at night.

Some guttering, some internal studwork and a little leadwork.

The weather is still warm and sunny, but it's getting colder in the evenings and the fire is now regulary lit.

Ow

Last roof 4/5ths complete. I could have finished it today but by mid-day I'd ran out of lead. I pressed on with finishing the guttering and then clearing some of the soil bank beside the timber extension which had collapsed in the rain and was impeding the ladder.
I felt a small twinge in my back from the shovelling so decided to call it a day. In the shower I reached for the shampoo bottle at my feet and slipped a disc! The pain was so intense I nearly passed out. Somehow I managed to make it upstairs to bed but the pain all night has been like nothing I've ever known often inducing nausea, despite pain relief. John and Sandrine my neighbours are beings stars - bringing me food, calling the doctor and fetching medication.

So frustrating that after all the building, I've been stopped by a shampoo bottle! 3 hours more on the roof would see the slating finished.

22 hours after the event now and I've managed to stand up. The ridiculously intense pain is thankfully subsiding a little.