'Milking' Amaranth, plumbing and plodding

This magnificent beast of a plant is Amaranth. It has seeds which can be used for grinding into flour. They are tiny, the seeds. Can hardly been seen by the naked eye. It has been one of success stories here. Grown by moi aka Under Gardener from seed, repotted, planted out, thrived. Does a convenient droop of its leaves when it is thirsty, and stands proudly over all the other plants out front.

It is ready for harvesting. Uno problemo: Just How Does One Do That! It is upwardly pointing. An Idea made entertainment in my head. 'Milk' them. You know, like you would stroke the udder of a cow. Did I succeed? Well, sort of. I did get a yield of seed. Plus other things, like spiders and other creep crawlies. For more of that little experiment have a wander over to Jumbly Gardening, and look at 'How not to harvest Amaranth'. Being self sufficient is ever an ongoing learning curve here!
And here is Head Gardener home from the fields, putting his trusty (?) ancient rotovator to bed for the night after having spent a happy afternoon whizzing up and down the veg plot out back. Him and his trusty implement are managing wonderfully well at this task. Bless.



And so the plumber came this morning and left this trail of pipes.




And for the first time in all of its life the house will be plumbed. Not only with cold water, but with hot as well. It has been decided by Project Manager Hubs, that we are to have a boiler, having become enamoured by Ron's boiler in situ over the now blocked up with an apricot stone sink in the dining room.

Now I am happy with a kettle. Having lived with a kettle as my main hot water provider for many months, I have become perfectly happy with that means of heating water. It is simple. Fill the kettle. Plug it in. A few minutes later and hot water arrives.

I find a smidgeon of dismay arriving in my head when I observe these wires, pipes, and other various assorted electrical and plumbing detritus now festooning my house. Because it looks complicated. Filling a kettle is not. It is easy. And if the kettle decides never to work again, then all you do is go buy another one. But all those wiry and plasticky pipes and things look ssssooo complicated, but Project Manager Hubs says not to be so silly and 'You do want hot and cold water don't you!" he says, "And it means you can have a shower whenever you want...".

Mmmmmm.........uno showero? Mmmmmmmm.......washing my hair more than once every few weeks? Mmmmmmmmmm..........having proper girly type evenings when the armpits, feet and other neglected spots on the bod are given a good going over with nice smellies? Mmmmmmmm......lingering while naked without fear of planes and microlites overhead having a good look at what I am up to, which is a concern when I have occasionally braved Ron's boiler shower by the now blocked with an apricot stone sink.

If you were to see me at this precise moment, you would notice the teensiest little smile tickling the corners of my mouth. I may be changing my opinion about all those pipes and cables and things!

Meanwhile uno ploddo at my PC. Strewth, if I had known what a task it was going to be when I fiddled about with the entry page to my website, then decided to tweak other bits up as well, which led onto an almost complete re-write of the whole thing, I would have left it all alone in the first place! Well perhaps I wouldn't have, but Tech Team Guy Hubs decided to 'show me how to do this little thing' and 'oh this would be a good idea for you to do' then off he goes leaving me to sort out his instructions, most times suggesting I do an Internet search if I get stuck.

I have spent the last three weeks grappling with css code, which to PC bods would be no problem at all, but to me, quite frankly, it is mind blowingly difficult. Just to get drop down boxes, for crikey's sake. Yes, but then the format of the individual pages had to be changed, which meant the graphics had to be altered, which meant the colour-flow didn't work page to page, and so on.

My head has felt as tangled up as a ball of wool would be after a bunch of kittens has messed about with it. I wake up in the middle of the night with a line of code cruising through my non-asleep head. When I have spent ages interred in the lines of code, to hold a sensible conversation with me is not do-able. And yet the pages look far simpler than what they used to be! That's the irony. For all my hard work, the web site just looks more streamlined! Oh well, it should make the reading of it easier, and the navigation simpler.

Things I have learnt today: That it is great to be living the life of a camper when one knows that one will not be doing it forever!

So Hooray for the Plumber!
So Hooray for the Electrician!
So Hooray for the Builder!
And Hooray for Project Manager / Tech Team Guy Hubs for pushing me and the house along!

And off I go, to apply my very pickled brain back to the task of my website, wishing you happy moments in abundance and the ability to laugh when the happy moments are a bit far apart.

An Old Photo and The Little Cupboard

Through my email came this photo, posted over to me by Claudine, our neighbour across the road who lives at the Chambre d'hote. And it is of our house when the roof was still up. If you enlarge the photo you should be able to see the damaged roof tiles on the left hand side which would eventually lead to the collapse of that side of the roof. The side barn on the far left is totally obliviated by ivy, and to the far right you can just make out the tall barn, which juts out from the side wall of the house.

It has been a constant source of amazement to us that this house was left to deteriorate for so long. So many people have said that it was once a very pretty house, and several have made the comment that they thought about buying it themselves. But they didn't. Then we came along at the last moment, and hopefully have saved her. The hurricane in January would have brought the remaining roof down, and probably the walls as well, or damaged them beyond repair. She was in her last moments of life. Sometimes I think she still is! But that is only when I am tired, and the bills are high, and the task seems too enormous.

Today the builders turned up. It has been a day of making holes. We now have a hole for the kitchen sink waste pipe, and a hole in the pantry space for the electric and water pipes. Otherwise, all the plastic has been laid on the floors, and all the steel mesh put on top of it.

Labartere is on the up! Lester says that it is our responsibility to get her tidied up, for her history, and for the area. She is highly visible, and it will do justice to this pretty part of the world if she can be made to look attractive again. We will do our best.

Meanwhile, one of our first Big Discussions has been about the cupboard.

The Little Cupboard has become a project over which me and Hubs have tussled. The Little Cupboard is in fact not a cupboard as such, but a small smoking hole, used for smoking hams and things. The blackening of the wall is from the old chimney which fell down when the roof collapsed. Since it is gone, we are not going to replace it. The Little Cupboard has not gone. OK, so it might be a leaning over sideways, and is a bit ragged around the edges, but since it is still with us, I think it should stay put. Intactus. Hubs says it looks a mess. I say that with a bit of a rub down, and bit of oiling, the Little Cupboard will look lovely. Upon this we differ. He says he will have a brand new one made. I say NNNNNOOOOOO!

I haven't told him that I want the wall saved as well. Nearly all the downstairs walls are plastered, some of them with dried mud. We know this is so, because the dried mud reverts back to its original state of muddy mud when it gets wet. The walls have got wet. Well, without a roof, they would, wouldn't they! So that is how we know that some of the walls have been plastered with mud. Not to worry though. All will soon dry once the roof goes back on.

But all the walls which are plastered will stay plastered. The smoke blackened wall has no plaster of any type. It has some huge stones in it, and I think it looks great. With a bit of a hose down, and some good old fashioned scrubbing, I reckon that the wall will come up a treat. And so what if the blackened wall can't be made to look pristine. So what if the wall keeps some of its smoke stains from those hundreds of fires which used to drift their smoke over it. Doing a typical English-stye renovation would be the same as having bo-tox or a face-lift. Smooths out all those hard-earned wrinkles, taking away the character, the history, making the face look plastic, making the house look like a modern new-build. Yuk! So I keep doing face exercises to stop the face muscles from going too far south, and I try and keep the house from looking too done up!

Meanwhile, the sun is shining again, everything is putting on a spurt of growth because of the recent drop of rain, and we are eating tomatoes by the dozen, courgettes by the several, and not getting tired of either. Other bits and pieces of veg are coming through, but we got in a bit of tangle over succession planting, mostly due to the hot, dry summer we have had. So we have a gap in the salady stuff. Not to worry, though. Next year we will be more experienced.

So must close now, as I want to get another hour or so in on my web site before bed time. It has turned into a humungous task, but has been worthwhile.

Things I have learnt today: That doing something to the very best of one's ability gives one a great sense of personal achievement. That sometimes one can be put in the position of having to learn something new, which at first may seem un-doable. But that with patience and perseverance, that new thing can be learnt and be put to good use, which again expands one's sense of personal achievement. That one must keep stretching one's mind because an awake mind is a happy mind, providing it is given something to do. An awake mind with nothing to do will become a naughty mind, and start getting up to all sorts of nonsense thinking.
That the puddles on the plastic covered floor of the house from the recent rain soon dry when the sun shines.
That taking time to walk one's dog is good for the soul. That to sit by a river and spend a few moments watching the life of the river, is good for the soul.
That cleaning one's oven out helps make the gas jets flow better.
That helping oneself to one's very own sun-warmed tomatoes straight from the vines is quite, quite satisfying.
That its surprising how excited one can become when one hears a builders van approaching the back gates of the house. Because it signals another small step in the long journey of our house project.

Photo-shooting the house!

Just thought I would show you how we are getting on with our home. Or rather, how the builders are getting on. And here is the toilet and shower. OK! So actually toiletless and showerless at the moment, but the outlet holes have been made through the thick walls so that's a start. Have decided on separate loo and shower room downstairs, mostly because Lester has a man's fantasy of being able to sit on the loo doing jobbies without anyone else being present.

I think it is the chats on the two porta potties which have encouraged this requirement. I think it is very chummy for one of us to be sitting on the number one's loo and the other to be sitting on the number two's loo, having a conversation throughout our individual loo-sessions. Our two porta potties are in the same toilet compartment of the bedroom caravan, by the way.

I think he is fed up with lack of contemplation space. I think he is pining for loo-privacy. I think he deserves to be given the reward for his efforts in getting our house into shape by receiving the pleasure of solo loo-ings in the future.

Of course a wall will have to be built to enclose the loo and shower. Because as one sits on the loo this is the view one will have if the builders do not finish the floors, or get the roof on.

But Johnathen is getting a move on with the ceiling of the half barn and it is half way to being finished.

There was some discussion as to whether or not to put a wall mid-way along the space, but I stamped quite heavily on the idea, thinking that the space needs to be kept clear because we don't know what the long term use is to be of this space. But it is coming along at a goodly pace.

Which cannot be said for my oven at this particular moment. For some reason it has gone on a go-slow. A new gas bottle has been inserted, but no. It is taking hours to get dinner cooked, and we are starving, it being nearly two hours past lunch time. So I am off to see if it is still unwilling to work on a Sunday, and am repeating to myself lots of the Hope word: I hope the builders manage to get here this week, I hope that we get some more rain after having had a few bucketfulls already today but we could do with a few bucketfulls more, I hope that my dinner gets cooked sometime soon because the vino that Christian donated to me a few days ago and which Lester has just given me a glass of just now has started to go to my head it being a fifteen percent proof vino and is absoloooooootly delicious and like drinking nectar from the Gods not that I have even drunk nectar from the Gods but you know what I mean and my tummy is outraged that the fuel it has been given today is two pieces of toast, a piece or two of shop-bought cake because I went on strike with cake baking, one cup of tea, one cup of coffee, a couple of sips of water and a goodly slug of 15% Spanish vino.

I am now going to see if I am going to be fed today. I hope I will be. The wine is definitely having odd reactions on me........ tottering away to the kitchen, I send you blessings of the day.