a run in the woods

We took advantage today of  glorious sunshine to have a run round a local woodland area called Les Bois de Kerbescont. This area is owned by the municipality of Rostrenen, our local town, and we still have copies of an orienteering map made of the area, some years ago. This makes going off the paths a bit more interesting, although the map is really not as accurate as an orienteering map should be. (for those who don't orienteer, the wooded areas are mapped white, and open/field areas are yellow)

Being council land, hunting is forbidden (in principle), but when we arrived la chasse were there in force. This is France. The idea is that if you hear their hunting horns don't even think about going into the woods...
However it was nearly lunchtime so they were just going, having bagged three deer. No sensible Frenchman would spend good trencher-time out in the woods.

There is a glorious green lane running up one side, from the car parking area. It is flanked by beech and sweet chestnut trees, many of whom still have leaves on that havent really turned colour yet.

Lots of marrons lying about - will probably take another trip to collect some later this week, weather permitting.  The prickly outer shell is called un bogue

We walked and jogged right round the area, and my pictures really don't do it justice. It was a real joy to be out in the woods on such a lovely day, and of course, we had it all to ourselves!

Workshop - taking down the rotten beam

It has become obvious that the remaining tie beam in the workshop isn't really worth leaving in situ 

It is extremely rotten/insect-gnawed, and threatening to collapse under its own weight. Its also just a shade too low for Pete to get beneath it comfortably.

So...

having inserted a couple of extra A-frame ties onto the rafters a bit higher up to stop the place collapsing we strung-up the beam and cut it off. 

 Below you can see the beam mid-way to being gradually lowered

 And the extremely dusty and eaten conditio that much of it was in.

So now we have a workshop that feels much bigger, but unbelievably dusty.

Having swept up the worst of the muck, and left the doors open to let out the fumes from the chainsaw, we retreated to put all our clothes and ourselves in the wash!

Workshop - work continuing...

All the rendering and lime-washing is finished inside the workshop. 

Compare this corner with the first pic in my earlier blog: "Its been an interesting weekend - part 3" 

Definitely an improvement, and now the lovely stones that were used around the doorway can be seen clearly.

All the doors are now glazed, and this picture shows how the middle door is hinged onto one of the side doors, 

 to allow them to be fully opened and closed

 while still letting in as much light as possible.

 Looking good eh?

The steel straight edge on the floor is a hint of the next job to do: 

Pete is measuring out a 3:4:5 triangle to get a line down the centre of the floor perpendicular to the entrance...

as we have decided to tile the floor, because the concrete is producing so much dust. 

Better to do this now,  rather than after we start using the place and choke on the dust. So we did a quick dash up to BricoDepôt to buy 45 square meters of their cheapest floor tiles. 

However, the sunny, windless afternoon on Sunday demanded that we burn the last of the leylandii!

This is one of the very last lots of dry leylandii brashings that were still piled up after most of it was burnt earlier on this year.

And it went up with a satisfying crackle!
Now our neighbour, Yvon, can come and plough-up the field and re-seed it for us (in recompense for wrecking it to cut down his trees).
Should be lots of good grazing for the sheep next spring.

third door for the workshop

Fran kindly forwarded the parliament hinges we needed to enable to third door to swing back 180°. so here's Pete checking the diagonals having made up the door.

 Once the glue had hardened I got it hung...

and painted green.
It has yet to be glazed, but its possible to see what it will look like.

Its been an interesting weekend (part 3)

No more trips out, or parties today. We have finished clearing out the final corner of the workshop, and today we emptied, moved and defrosted one of the freezers. This will let us get to the next it of wall to be rendered, which is also where the freezers will go once it is all finished.

Took the time to re-start our freezer inventory (last one lost in computer disaster in March). This makes meal planning much easier and less finger-numbing.

 Et voila! next bit of wall rendered, ready to whitewash in a few days time -

 including small window space opened-out and glazed.

 PLUS, rebuilt the top of the wall opposite, which is now ready to be rendered and then whitewashed.

And raspberries for dinner! 

Picked about 700g tonight - we have had an amazing season for raspberries this year, non-stop raspberries from June to the present. There are kilos yet to come, and the autumn ones haven't started ripening yet!

Its been an interesting weekend (part 2)

After sailing on Friday, I really needed a quiet day with not too much food or alcohol...
Ha!
We had a long-standing invitation to a family gathering of Carol and Colins' neighbours. This used to be on the birthday of Albert, the doyen of the family, who sadly died last year. They are keeping the get-together going, as well as the yearly cider making, which will be at Toussaint this year. Family members come from Rennes, Paris, Nantes as well as more locally. Not sure how we got to be invited, but it seems to be an ongoing thing...

François and Martine (more neighbours) had recently renovated their four au pain (bread oven), which is a large structure at the bottom of their drive.  First firing in thirty years - time for a test-drive!

The oven was heated-up three times, over three days. Once the fire had died down, the ashes were raked out and the floor of the oven swept out as much as possible - this caused a problem as the broom-head kept igniting!
The local boulanger had been recruited to help make the bread dough, and loan the canvas-lined baskets in which to prove it.

Time to start loading the oven...
Using a wooden pelle each loaf was turned-out and slits cut on the top, before it was slid into the oven

everyone had a loaf to load...

 until finally a dish of water was slid into the oven. the last loaf was reserved..

to seal shut the metal door plate.

Opinions varied as to the time needed to cook the bread - some said 20 minutes, some 30, some 45 minutes. François reckoned 4 hours!

However, tractor-rides and aperitif-time rather took people's mind off the bread and it ended up rather longer in the oven that strictly necessary. A certain amount of scraping and cutting was required, but the bread inside its carbon-carapace was delicious!

everyone got a bit while it was still warm...

meanwhile, in the field, the pig continued to be turned on its spit in front of the barbecue. The spit is powered by the same motor that turns the apple-crusher for the cider making, just geared-down a bit.

The evening became more hilarious as we drank and ate and ate and drank - sang a bit, then ate some more. Pete and I staggered off in the early hours, once the tables had been cleared and the disco had started.
Fantastic evening!
Goodness knows how long it went on till...

Its been an interesting weekend (part 1)

Friday saw the 60th birthday of two friends, Marie-Edith and Chantal, who are also members of the Association pour le Grand Léjon. 

So they had their birthday celebration onboard. 

The sky was clear but the wind was out of the north-east, and fairly strong, which (as was explained to us) provokes a considerable swell at the south end of the bay of St Brieuc, with the tidal current running in the opposite direction and no shelter provided by the islands further up the west side of the bay. 

Suffice it to say, not many people retained their breakfast on the morning sail...

We put into St Quay which is well protected from the wind to let stomachs settle (but a long walk to the loo!).
Undoubtedly, riding at anchor in an east-facing bay would have spoilt most people's lunch.
And that, here in France, would never do.

Marie-Edith and Chantal provided us with a superb lunch, culminating in cake and Champagne.

They even managed to get the candles to light!

Hervé and Hélène sang the song Hervé had written in honour of their birthday, while the rest of us chilled out...

had a siesta...

or just chatted.

Finally we headed home, after some interesting maneuvering to pull the nose of the boat out against the wind to avoid hitting a large catamaran parked in front of us (see this in the first picture).

Pete is taking the motor from the annexe back on board, once we had got out of the harbour.

We had a delightful sail back, as the wind and waves had subsided considerably. No need for a motor, but not stomach-churning.

 Here Hervé is doing his ancient mariner impersonation - just lacks an albatross!

Till we eventually got back to Legué as the light was starting to go.
Absolutely knackering this sailing lark - sit around all day, eat a huge lunch, watch the scenery, hoist a few sails and end up exhausted, with a sunburned nose!

Renovating the workshop

This is the building as it was in 2003. It had originally been a workshop/garage for a tractor and other farm machinery. Earth floor, leaking and sagging roof, no doors - perfect place to store unwanted stuff indefinately!

We decided a few years ago that it would make a really good workshop. We had strengthened the roof trusses and made it waterproof a few years back (before the roof collapsed completely) and put in a couple of small skylight windows last year.

- but apart from that we only got round to doing more this year, starting with a massive clear-out.

Pete spent weeks laying a concrete floor, a couple of square meters at a time. This really pissed the moggies off, as they had been using the nice soft earth floor as a toilet. There were a couple of "offerings" on the last square of concrete to be laid, but then they got the message and went elsewhere.

Which is more than can be said for the swallows, who crapped all over the place this year - 

including on the newly-whitewashed cross-beam which happened to be under their second nest of the year. That lot have finally fledged, and next year they will have to look elsewhere for real-estate.

These pictures show the state of the place until recently. The freezers are on what was the only bit of concrete floor, and in the back corner is my collection of scrap metal, mainly saved from the garden and other outbuildings since we got the place.

We have gradually rendered the inside walls (using lime mortar) to the height of the side walls, and then whitewashed these, using lime. The planks are for hanging shelves/tools from, as the stonework is a nightmare to fix stuff onto, one it's rendered. I am just whitewashing straight onto the gable walls above the rendering, as there are fewer holes in the upper walls.

So the place is starting to look like it may one day be a nice place in which to work.
We have opened up the two holes in the wall at the top of the back gable, and these give a surprising amount of extra light (just visible behind the strip lights). I have glazed these, while leaving a bit of an air gap for ventilation (but will have to make it swallow-proof). 

All the other holes in the wall are blocked off, as they are either at roof-height for the lean-to at the back, or would open into the potting-shed lean-to.

So this leaves the doors. Back in 2005 we were given a set of old shower doors, made with toughened glass. These eventually came in useful here. The gap in the middle will be filled with a third door, hinged onto the right-hand door and able to be folded back 180 degrees. (we are waiting for hinges for this to be delivered). Quick lick of garden-paint brings them up a treat!

this is Pete just finishing fitting the top filler bar over the doors - needs painting to blend it in.

The outside of the building had changed a bit since 2003, with a bit of grass and a rampant wisteria that really needs pruning before it takes over the whole building! And look how big the ash trees behind have become - they were just tiny seedlings 10 years ago.

Things still to do: Finish the rendering, finish the wiring, insulate and board-out the roof, finish the doors, fit a small woodburing stove, build a workbench...
More photos to follow!