The lights and the beams

Before

And now: We are lit up!

Temporary electrics have been put in and now the half barn is all electricked up. Can even plug something into a socket without having to run extension leads all over the place. And I know that it is not a palace, but this is where we are going to be living while the house is getting sorted. But not until next year. We still have to put chaux (lime plaster) in between the river stones from which the walls of the house are made, and we still have to save up the money for the tiles on the floor and the log fire. But: we have light! Yahoooo!

Sorry I haven't posted up a blog this week but the pace has been frenetic here. Last weekend I took hold of myself and made a daily task sheet of 'things to do', and wow! I have done a humungous lot of work on the redevelopment of my web site, as well as loads of other things this week. My halo is positively glowing, or that's what I think anyway! Just proves that organising one's self and setting some daily goals is very productive. Trouble is, that the blog has become a victim of my timetable, mostly because it takes ages to write, and other writing has taken precendence these last few days.

However, the builders have made grand progress this week, and here is Jean-Pierre on the left, and Jean-Louis on the right and these are the carpenters who are doing the roofing.

And this is what they have been doing:

Soon these beams, and the house beneath it, will not see the sky until the roof needs replacing or rebuilding again. Hopefully not our life time!

And the courtyard, looking to the right:

And the courtyard, looking to the left, with Gus posing in the middle:

All of this lot is going up onto the roof. It would seem that we might just get a roof on our house sometime soon!

Things I have learnt this week: that if one organises oneself then it is amazing how much gets done, plus the ecstatic feeling of having done so much puts one on so much of a 'high' that one forgets to get the 'end of the week' tiredness. Unless they have a newcomer who thinks it an outrage to be left in his kennel in the Hutto (Hut Office) while the rest of the team goes off together to the bedroom caravan.

This so enrages the newcomer that he shouts out his outrage on and off all night long. Not last night though. Hubs got fed up too, and launched a verbal tirade of outrage back at the newcomer, which so surprised the newcomer that he thought he had better go to sleep and stop causing a ruckus. Trouble was that Hubs woke himself up, and if he is awake, then he seems to like me to be awake as well so he can have someone to talk to. Bless. Not to worry, though, newcomer got some sleep, so at least one of us did. The other three didn't. Because if Hubs is awake, then I am awake, and if we are awake, then Bools doesn't have much chance of sleeping either. But, as I say, newcomer, did!

So: we have light in the half barn, and the roof is coming along at a pace. Although October, we are still in summer gear although there is a distinct autumnal feel to the air tonight. Nevertheless, it still feels like we are in summer.

OK, so time to be off. Have some sleep to catch up on, and hopefully our newcomer, Gus, feels the same.

With a bang and a clatter

With a bang and a clatter and a squeal of brakes and a plethora of French words shouted up to the Heavens, our top beams arrived.

Coughing its way across our back field came Dani's lorry, supposedly having been mended but whatever was wrong was nothing to do with the engine or exhaust because that was still as was: fuming and smelly.

Reversing, the lorry arrived at our back entrance, stopped, then upended its back and shed these huge long planks of wood, but in separate piles. Et voila! Our roof beams are here! But hope the wood will be OK. It send up a hell of a moan as it slithered off the lorry.

Message from Gus: Bonjour et bienvenue à mon blog. Je suis resté ici pendant trois jours, mais je n'ai dormi pas pendant la nuit avec Monsieur, Madame, et le grande chien dans l'autre caravane. Mois, j'ai dormi dans le Hut. Ce ne'est pas desiable pour moi. Je suis un chien francais, et je pense que je doit dormi dans l'autre caravane parceque je suis très malheureux ....

Now what's this! What is this dog doing! Saying that this is his blog, and then going on to complain that he has to sleep in the Hut while the rest of us sleep in the other caravan! Enough!

You will probably have to enlarge this photo, but in the middle is one of the huge number of wall lizards which share our home. When we arrived there weren't too many around, and they were very nervous and most times could only be seen from a distance. This was probably because of the large population of feral cats which inhabited the house before we arrived. Now they have fled, the wall lizards have started coming to life, and can be seen everywhere. Still shy, they scuttle away slower than what they once did, and take longer to do so: I think they are relaxing now they aren't being hunted by the cats. It's nice to see them around, the same as the bird population which is increasing, and is very good for the soul. Watching the lizards and birds go about the doings of their day is very calming.

"Et pour moi aussi. J'aime les lizards aussi......je voudrais jouer avec les lizards...." Gus, get off my blog!

Talking of birds, out front this morning, and there was hundreds of swifts parked up on the electric cables and in the nearby trees. It was heavy mist, so I think they weren't able to feed. An Internet search posted up the info that they normally sleep on the wing, and hardly ever 'park up'. Perhaps their sat-navs were confused by the weather, after all they have a long way to go - down to Africa which is thousands of miles away and they have to cross the Sahara, so perhaps they were taking time out. They normally fly at night apparently, so were either regrouping, or even perhaps wanting to come visit with us!

I feel very humbled by the swifts. Such small birds, and to travel so far, well.... I find them inspiring. They can live for up to sixteen years, and that is a huge amount of commuting to do between Africa and Europe. What courage for such small creatures.

Et voila! Mon photo!

Merci pour visiter mon blog, et au revoir pour le moment.

And with that, I think I will give in and say bye for now. Obviously Gus is settling in and Lester's hand has been patched and is now mending. Bools and Gus continue to argue, as any males together will do whether they be humans or doggies, especially when Fleur comes to visit. Both of them, it would seem, have the hots for her.

The rain has stopped, the main roof beams are here, and we are now four.

And Up Some More!

Sorry for not putting up a blog up for a few days, but it turned out to be one of those weeks which seemed to keep galloping along too fast for me to catch up. You know, when you feel as if you are still somewhere on Monday, but land up somehow on Friday!

Been a good week. Apart from a trot off to the vets with Bools, who has developed a lump in his throat. He romped about with great glee in the river on Tuesday, then Wednesday morning started getting a lump. Waited until Thursday, then off to the vets we went. He doesn't seem to have anything dreadfully wrong, but visiting the vets daily so they can keep an eye on him.

The builders have been here all week, bless them, working in temperatures which have been high again. Four months without rain! Crikey, it has been the best of summers for living in caravans and having a house rebuilt. We consider ourselves to be very lucky in regards the weather.

But onwards the roof build proceeds. Photo up top: Interior wall is up to top beam, and now finished.

Interior wall to the right needs finishing off but is mostly done.



And come inside for a quick visit to our hallway, which at the moment doubles up as a parking lot for wheelbarrows and other buildery detritus.

Before you go, here is the half barn with its side walls now clad in plasterboard. We are not in favour of too much of this boarding, but we felt the ceiling needed to be matched up with, hence the side wall. The room looks a bit like a long tunnel at the moment, but every time something is done to the space, then the shape of the space changes. Hubs keeps asking me where I am going to put the furniture, and all I can say is "Wait and see" because the space will tell me where everything is to go. I envisage quite a lot of shunting, pushing and shoving of the furniture before I am satisfied that it looks OK, but then women do like to do this sort of thing when putting together a home. Hubs said to me ages ago, that if a woman is not interested in her home then she is not interested in the relationship.

I have often times repeated this to him when I have purchased an item for the home which he considers useless and I find it a useful turn of phrase for explaining myself on these occasions.

Yippeee! Have finally caught up with the piles of tomatoes that we have been privileged to harvest this year, with the last bowl being turned into Tomato and Sweetcorn soup, but by accident rather than design! I relate my souping experience over on Foody-ing:Tomato and Sweetcorn soup (by accident!): 13th Sept 2009.

Message From Bools which I will have to translate for you: "I've been a bit sick. Got a lump in my throat and couldn't breath properly. I am being fussed over, but not today because my lump has gone down a bit. Do you have nice girl-dog who can come and stay with me for some fun and frolics. This would cheer me up. I would like to be a dad before I get much older....". That's enough of that! He can't be that ill if he can think of having a girfriend!

So signing off for the moment. Thanks for visiting, and see you soon.

Up she goes!

And this is Bools racing over our brand new step into and out of the half barn, so instead of a huge 'step up/ step down' which is good for the thighs but difficult when one is carrying a tray of tea and biscuits for the builders, I can now manage this task with a degree of dignity! Bools would have stopped and said 'hello' to you but he was in a rush. I'll see if he will spare the time for a photo-shoot next time.

And today the builders knocked down the bits of wall which were inconvenient to them and covered the exposed nudity of the top of the wall by a layer of concrete.

And continuing your tour of our house, we are now in the lounge and you are looking up at the bedroom wall with the doorway into the second room whose use is as yet undefined. They built this today. Instead of biscuits this morning, I gave them some homemade cake. Actually I had to use the figs up and made a fig-tart thingy. Perhaps it was the figs that got them moving today. I believe that they are good for the food transit system of our bods, and perhaps added extra zest to the lads endeavours.

And now we are in the food storage room, or 'cave' as in 'carv'. Bedroom door to the left, top roof beam at the top, planks of wood nothing to do with the roof so are only in situ while the builders need them to be, chimney pot in the middle, and hey presto! We are heading up to the sky!

More divi's (quotes) on the way: for tall barn roof, for fosse (for the loo), and tiling the floor of the half barn. We haven't got an endless pot of money, but we seem to have done very well on what we have got.

Things I have learnt today: that no matter how busy one is, one should make time for 'time-out'. Being head down with PC work, and veg-gardening, and domestic duties, while enjoyable and good for keeping the halo bright and shiny, it is ultimately tiring for my soul. This is what I learnt today after half an hour of fun-play with Bools down by the river.

And wishing my Mum well in her recovery from her hip operation, and my daughter well in her move from her old life into her new one. Blessings to them both, and to you too.

What are we doing today?

Kept on making out adjustments from our old UK lifestyle, that's what we are doing.

At this moment I am having a go at preserving tomatoes, which seems a lot of effort what with it involving kilner jars and steaming and oh, grumbly, grumbly, more mess. I am sitting outside the awning, the sun is shining, and you know what? I have the smidgeon of a one-ness with what I am doing, which means me and my head are engaged in the same task. Most often, when I am doing a task, my head is off doing its own thing, thoughts rolling round my head hither and thither while I carry on doing what I am doing. Today, we seem to be all together as I sit with legs akimbo prepping the tomatoes on the grass (? well there would be grass if it were to rain: just now the grass is hay. And dust.) in between my feet.

Hubs is tinkering about behind me in the tall barn. His Project Of The Day is to put a blade sharpener onto an old cutting bench. My idea. Last time he used the sharpener it was on the floor of the awning. He wouldn't let me post those photos, but now he has put the sharpener into a safer position, I'm going to slip this one in:

I have just had a sip of tomato pulp, the recipe as given to be my friend, Val. Not much of a recipe really, just 1Kg tomatoes, 1 spoonful of sugar, 1 spoonful of salt. And so why does it taste so much better that the tinned tomatoes bought from the supermarket. Hence: another small step in our desensitization from supermarket food to home-grown. Really, really, food really, really tastes so much better when it is grown and harvested from fresh, that is what I am discovering.

"That's bad luck. I've broken my drill." Hubs yells out. "I've got the bit stuck in it."
"Try some oil" I say.
"Can't. Haven't got any."
"Try some Olive Oil".
"Where is it?"
"In the kitchen caravan".
Where in the 'van?"
"In the cupboard".
"Where in the cupboard?"
So I have just gone and got it for him, which seemed the best thing to do. And now Hubs must be a happy chappy because I can hear the drill working. Must go and rescue my bottle of olive oil otherwise that will be lost forever. He has a tendency to put things away in odd places. Bless.
"I've mounted my gear!" Hubs yells out. Imagination does a quick flash, but sensibility returns. Project Sharpener has been a succeess. Now I can hear him sharpening up something. Hang on a minute while I go and do a photo shoot for you.

"Vera, I did a big boys job" he said, pride oozing from the top of his head down to his toes: better than spending all day playing games on the PC which is what the usual Sunday acivity consisted of back in the UK. Living life, that is what Hubs is doing now.

Now it is later on in the day, and I have a confession to make: my Preserving Tomatoes didn't get very far, just down into our tums. The tomatoes were just too tasty to boil up in a kilner jar, so I added a few bits of this and we had them for lunch! Methinks that the Preserving Tomatoes Project might fetch up as a 2010 project. I am a little nervous about handling hot kilner jars, especially in the close confines of the caravan. I can manage jam jars, but kilner jars seem beyond my handling skills at the moment. But there is always next year. And I should be in the kitchen in the house. Whooppeeee! More space. Less cluttered. More tidy? Probably not!

Family pow-wow sitting on the floor of the half barn this afternoon: we have decided to save money by filling in the holes in the wall of the half barn ourselves, and also tiling the floor. The money saved can go to the fosse. Now the veg growing season is slowing up we needed a project to carry us through to the end of the year, so this will be it. A bit of dissent amongst the pow-wow members over the colour of the tiles, but that was soon fixed by a cup of tea and a biscuit. There was a plate of biscuits but the pow-wow member with four legs decided to grab a couple before they were shared out. Said member was sent away in disgrace, leaving the other pow-wow members with less to nibble with their tea, but bonhommie restored. Third member made a return soon afterwards, so all in all it became a productive pow-wow meet although the colour of the tiles is still up for discussion.

Now we have come to the end of the day. Soon time for bed. It has been a grand day, with lots of activities which are good for the soul. And here is my desk:



....which is awash with pots of chutney and jam waiting to be found a home. Plus the desk itself is sticky, and the computer keyboard and the mouse, and everything else! The kitchen caravan is just as sticky. Which means that I, of course, am sticky as well!

Hope your Sunday was a good and productive day as well, and that you laughed as much as we did.

One Roof Beam, Two Roof Beams...

And while the floor of the half barn was receiving its top coat of cement, up went the first beam.

I'm afraid that I had a tear in my eye as I watched. In my heart there was much gladness. But my eyes were welling up. Oh not so anyone would notice, but they were there. I suppose I was being silly: it is just that it has been a bit of a long road.........


And then the second beam went up! Maybe before the end of the year she will have her bonnet!

And the waltzing storm clouds came....

.....and made her glow.....


....as they did me.

From over the hill they came, just before sunset....

.....which enabled them to have their underbelly tickled by the last of the sunlight..

..which rosied them up....


....and up!


And as the Day put herself to bed, she flirted with the Night, playing with the sunlight upon the clouds....


Until the Night said 'Enough!' Be away now, and rest, but yet still the Day continued to romp...


And after one last flurry of light, the Day consented to being done.


And as the Night captured the skies, the Day slid into rest.

...as indeed I do now! It is getting late. Boolie is sitting at the door of The Hut, keeping a look-out for things to bark at, Lester is already finished with the Day and has gone to bed, and now I must do the same.

Things I have learnt: That sky-watching is fascinating and awe inspiring and that one needs to take the time to do so when the Heavens are putting on a show.
That is also awe inspiring to watch the builders shimmying up and down the ladders but that one has to be discrete about paying too much attention to them. Unlike the Heavens, they are not particularly fussed about being watched!
That I have a love in my heart for this place.

There once was a time...

There once was a time when I had a house. With a roof. Now I have a roofless house, full of fresh air and sunshine.

This week the floors have been dug out, and the drainage stones laid. The house now looks the tidiest it has ever been, and probably the tidiest it will ever be.


Once I move in then a natural chaos will ensue.

But for the moment the house is pristine. And here is the view looking from what will be the downstairs bathroom along the hallway to the front door.

They took the front doors off this week. Presumable so they could get the machinery into the house. I miss the doors. Gave the house a sense of being a house rather than a shell.

However, inside the house is the tidiest space here. The half barn is full of insulation work stuff, the courtyard......

....before the floors were worked on,

...and after the floors were started. The courtyard now resembles a dustbowl!



But not to worry. A drop of rain and all will become green again.

There once was a time when I had a house with a roof, and central heating, and a proper toilet, and a shower, a bed with four legs, a kitchen with shelves and a proper cooker, and I could shut the door at night against the world.

There was once a time when I felt trapped by the way my life was.

I might not have any of the things I once upon a time had, but I have the makings of a floor in my roofless house, and the half barn is starting to look more and more like a space I will enjoy staying in. The veg plots are coming along, and I have written my first book, nearly finished my second, have started the third.

We have fresh air in abundance, and life in abundance.

Once upon a time I had a house with a roof and all the comforts therein. Now I don't.

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things I have learnt today. That when the sun is at its warmest then perhaps it is best to stay in the shade otherwise the heat might pickle one's brains.

Phew! What a week!

Our house continues to grow apace, but not necessarily in terms of building work. Mother nature also seems to be interested in adding certain touches to our home, including the two little finches which have been living in the middle apex of the house, and are often to be seen sitting watching our activities when we make our inspections. Bless them, I hope that their little family will be raised soon. Also, too, we now have the new addition of this upstairs garden.

Meanwhile at floor level, work starts on digging out the floors. We have a garden here too.

And out back the lorry with the wood for the roof of the main house waits to be unloaded.

And in the courtyard, a big pile of rubble and seventeen pallets of roof tiles.

Notice the little tree which is growing on the inside of the gateway, just behind the wheelbarrow - another little bit of unofficial garden.

Pneumatic drill hammering interspersed with silence as the young operator of the drill stops and catches his breath after the effort of trying to control a machine which seems to feel the need to do as it pleases.

Big digger grinding in and out with pallets of roof tiles twisting and swinging gaily as the digger lurches into the courtyard perilously close to the house, often times looking as if its cargo could capture sufficient momentum in its swing to give the walls of the house a mighty thwack.

Robustly a 4x4 sits and purrs by the side of the half barn, wearing a pretty hat of curls. The rolls of insulation that are to go in the roof of the halfbarn are keeping it warm until they are unloaded. Quickly this is done: it is causing a traffic jam. The digger wants to come through, and the wheelbarrow wants to go for its walk down to the increasing pile of rubble.

What this! Silence? Ah, lunch. Time to fall into sleepiness, and rest until work is resumed. For all the work which is happening here, there are still times when Labartere reminds us of how peaceful a place it is. No matter how much there is stripped out of her, and now the floors are coming up as well, she still seems to feel a courageous little house. There isn't much left of her but she still seems to feel as if she has a heart.

Things I have learnt this week. That sometimes life can feel like being on a roller coaster ride. That one should not put off until sometime in the future things one can do now.

In a muck again

"Look at the state of my wife's legs!"

Leaving you to dwell on those legs, HG turns his attentions to the wall the builders are rebuilding at the back of the house, with Bools in tow.

I, meanwhile, carry on getting in a muck. No, I am not growing leaves. Mould perhaps, due to camping conditions. But I have not, as yet, started sprouting green stuff. This muckiness is due to the project of the afternoon, which was strimming out front. With a safety visor on to protect my eyes of course, which is a devilish thing to have to wear as it is too big for me and keeps slipping about as I strim.



Things I have learnt today. That it is best to wear trousers to cover up one's legs when strimming, as the bits of green stuff tend to stick to the skin like glue as they dry and make the skin itch. That it is perfectly OK to say sorry to the several poppies which were inadvertantly decapitated because the safety visor considerably reduced my vision. Also to the hedge rose, which has now lost one branch. And also to the baby silver birch tree which I decapitated, but HG said it would grow again but will look forever stunted. He was not so calm about the three inch gash I sliced in the bark of one his fruit trees. As a result he has now banned me from going anywhere near his trees.

So, carrying on with 'things I have learnt today': That HG is only trying to preserve our future fruit harvest when he is instructing me as to where to strim only gashes in the bark of a tree tend to weaken it perhaps even to make it firewood fodder. That using arm swings to the count of fifty, and then changing arms, keeps the momentum flowing: this for both jog-walking and strimming. That it is better to walk forward when strimming, rather than backwards as this will reduce any tendency to fall backwards into a waiting pot hole. That if one does, not to worry as one can use the strimmer to get oneself back on one's feet quite quickly by using it as a walking stick. Of course it is better to switch it off, as the strimmer can do all sorts of interesting things when it's head is jammed into the ground. This may be the reason why HG feels the need to check up on me when I am using the strimmer. That after the bonhommie misfire of yesterday, it was nice to wave to the Swiss lady and the Swiss man as the drove past very slowly this afternoon, on their way home to their house in Geneva which is not by the lake but in the middle of the city slap bang up against a tall block of a building which is over one kilometer wide. That it was nice to wave them off with a smile as they went on their way. That I am glad we are here and not having to leave to go home, because we are home already.