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!

Blackberry time again!

and hasn't that come round again quickly?

...but, they are not very numerous, and are all a bit on the small side.
There are lots that have shriveled before they have fully ripened, but this year it can't be due to drought! Perhaps there will be more later, but the ones I picked yesterday will have to be for jelly or blackberry liqueur (or mure as its known here in France), rather than the summer pudding that I am waiting to make!

However, thanks to the amazing weather we had in March, there are loads of sloes this year - not ripe yet, but there will be ample for making sloe gin this year.

Spoonfest 2012

Teamwork!

Robin Wood leading a team of some of his helpers to erect the display area for people to display their spoons.

Spoonfest was just one of the best weekends I have spent - worth going all the way to England for!. 

The venue, in Edale, was idyllic and the whole event was superbly organised and run.

 PILES of delectable wood, waiting to be carved.

 So much wood - not enough time!

all sorted and beautifully labelled - what temptation!

and the lovely people, who really made the event a joy:

Martin Hazell, who used to be drummer in the Ran Tan Band, having a go at the cherry wood.

 People ready to help and advise, share and compare,

 workshops and demonstrations...

and just quiet carving in company with others...
culminating in spoon club, where a circle of people started with a blank, a straight knife, a bowl knife and an axe.
Five minutes carving and pass the spoon to your left...
Much hilarity at first, but gradually quiet concentration as you were confronted, perhaps, with a shape or style never tried before...
Finally, after an hour, keeping the one you last received (photo to follow) - what a superb ending to an altogether superb weekend.
Many thanks to all, and can't wait till next year.

The Wall

- have just spent an afternoon finishing the short length of dry-stone wall in the back garden. This had been a pile of stone for a couple of years.   Now its a wall and a considerably smaller pile of stone.
Nearly put Pete's and my lights out lifting the capping stones into place.

I think we may use much of the remaining small bits of stone to pave the shady area between the wall and the workshop. Doubtless we will find a use somewhere for the larger bits of stone.
Doubtless there are those amongst my readers (you know who you are, Mr W!  :o))) who may criticize the building technique, but we're quite pleased!

more spoons for spoonfest

I am very excited about having bought my tickets for Spoonfest in August.

It also means that we will be going to Sheffield to see Fran & Jen, and see their newly-renovated house at last.
And their garden, AND their allotment.
Ryanair won't make it easy to help us stock the garden or allotment, but I am hoping to take a few plants over with us.
So, in preparation, I have been making lots of spoons, some of which I am going to bring over,

including these three, made of birch, of which I am quite pleased.

I shall also be bringing these two (below), a 'spoonula' and a cooking spoon, designed with a hook to prevent it falling into pots or bowls. These are also made of birch, both from the same bit of branch, and I am hoping that Jen will be able to find a use for them!

 Now to arrange for some decent weather...

home again and shattered

Friday at Guédelon, Florian et  Patrice are setting up the tool to guide the building of the domed roof (une voûte en coupole) of the ground floor tower chamber (la tour des essarteurs, angle sud-est). The stick has a hinged peg on its end, which sits in a hole in the lump of wood, exactly in the centre of the chamber, so it can be rotated and/or lifted, to gauge the distance to any part of the semi-circle dome being built - very neat.

Meanwhile we were continuing the outside part of the wall, with Melanie (in the hat) and Pascal, the maçon in charge of this tower.

At the end of the day, we took a look at the work going on on the top of la tour maîtresse which also gives superb views of the rest of the site. 

 This bit is not open to the public yet, so we were lucky to be able to go up there. 

 As a contrast to the medieval methods we are using, the new visitor centre in the distance (not visible to most visitors) is being constructed using good old 21st century breeze-block.

 The two horses that pull the carts, delivering materials around the site, get a rest and a chance to graze in a paddock at the end of the day. They only work a half-day each, so life is pretty cushy for them!

 View of la tour des essarteurs (where we were working) from la tour maîtresse . 

moi et Pascal (sun direct on my eyes)

Pascal in front of le logis seigneurial just about to go off for a long weekend, leaving us, the next day to mix the week's worth of coarse mortar or chaux de remplisssage used to infill the wall. No cement mixers here...

 Just an hour of back-breaking work

and finally a pile of mortar for the next week.

 So, this is hole the second

 and hole the third, that we managed to complete in two and a half days

 with all the accompanying infill behind.

Surprisingly, we really didn't want to leave!

sunshine!

At last the sun came out and Peter and I spent the day working as maçons. We made a hole...

... quite a deep hole, into which will be placed the échafaudage,  or scaffolding, as the tower rises. This is the right corner tower as you face the front of the château. The walls here are about a meter and a half + thick, so although we didn't increase the surface area much, there's lots of bulk!! (as they say - never mind the quality, feel the width) 

 This is for you, Fran - lovely ironwork! Even the nail-heads are decorated, and each is different.

End of the day - I was determined to get a picture of Pete.
Des res., centre france, will be completed in about 14 years.
Now, cream for the sunburn, ibuprofen for the aches and pains and curry & red wine cos I like it!