Tractor!

Here is Pete with his new toy. She is actually about my age (50+), but goes fine once started. Getting her started is another matter, requiring jump leads from a hard-revving car and a squirts of 'easy start'. But she has been sitting in our barn getting cold and a bit wet all through the winter... Hopefully once the battery is thoroughly re-charged and all damp dried out she will only need a bit of help to get going. The topper on the back is a fantastic piece of kit and mows the long grass like a dream, so hopefully the grass will be less long in the future.

So - suggestions please for a name for this venerable bit of agricultural history!

Got the BBQ built and finished off today and photos of same put on gite site. Photo a bit one-sided; but have not finished fence on the right yet - gotta go with what we've got! We also finished and hung the gates at the bottom of the garden - divides the tidy bit from the rest of the land - photo below. Again, the garden need some work, but hopefully we will have some time to do it now - just need the weather to be a bit kinder.

Gruesome photo!

I managed to shut my finger in the car door yesterday - so I ended up with ten stitches, the six shown below and another four on the other side of this finger. I have to go back to the doctors today for a tetanus shot....

As you can imagine, I said a few things like 'damn' and 'blast' etc. Luckily the lady in the bike shop (we had just picked up our bikes, having had new tyres fitted) didn't understand the actual words, although I'm sure she was in no doubt as to their content.
Pete just drove me up to the doctor's cabinet, and he stitched it up on the spot, during his lunch hour, saving us from a drive into Carhaix hospital and possibly a longish wait to be seen. Once again I cannot fault the French health system!


Luckily we are just going through a 'snag' list now in the gîte, finishing off the little bits that have got missed on the way. Here is the latest picture of the outside - better now the grass has grown back outside the front.

late lamb and new chickens

At last Dolly has had her lamb - here is Friday (running out of name ideas), a young man who is not going to go short of calories!He was born last evening while we were having dinner. I noticed Dolly looked a bit restless before we went in for dinner, and there was Friday when we went to check afterwards. Nice to get a live lamb after the fright dolly gave us two weeks ago, getting hypocalcaemic, and us having to call the vet out. Intravenous calcium & steroids got her up and about very quickly, but the vet thought we may lose the lamb. These ouessants are tougher than you think!
Our new potager looks a bit bare still, but doubtless the weeds will soon green it over... We had to fence it to keep the hens off, then thread willow twigs through the wire to stop the hens squeezing through. Note greenhouse in rear - no glazing as yet - we are working on panels of polythene, but tomatoes may be a bit late this year.
Finally a picture of some of our new hens. We have quite a colourful flock now, with some of the original white sussex, including Iggy the cockerel, some 'poulets rouges' (the brown ones) and some 'cendres' (the grey ones - 'cendres' means 'ashes'). Just Baa Baa to lamb now - she's usually the last.

found sheep cartoons...

Whilst clearing out the bedroom of the gite (to make room for the bed), I came across these cartoons that we had commissioned way back when pete was selling machine knitting wool. I cannot remember the name of the artist (suggestions gratefully received), but they amuse me greatly; especially the park bench one...Talking of sheep, Dolly & Baa Baa are still awaiting a happy event, as we forgot to supply them with a suitor till december last year. Watch this space for late lamb pictures.
Gite coming on OK - seems an endless job of finishing off now. Had to saw off a dodgy plumbing joint today - will need replacing, as no amount of car body filler was going to stem the leak (what, ME? bodge a joint??) caused by a squidged washer. The upstairs is essentially finished. Pete has a half days work under the stairs swearing at the electrics circuits etc (don't ask) and I have yet to plumb in the downstairs shower room. And we have loads of stuff and tools and rubbish to clear out and find a home elsewhere for. Garden still needs work before taking photos is possible, but the weather has been so appalling that we would be paddling to mow the grass.

But - have finally got round to getting a potager set up. Lots of seeds planted, but not much showing as yet. We are looking forward to a home-grown spanish omelette soon - our own eggs and potatoes, with a home grown salad. Fruit trees all in flower too, we are hoping the recent hail, rain & wind doesn't ruin the crop this year.