Life in France

A not every day story of normal people trying to live their dream in France starting at the beginning and ending?

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Chestnut jigsaw puzzle

Things are back to normal at chez peasant, i am working again the germs have gone and i am trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle in chestnut. The pieces are variable in length, width and can even taper. Somehow i have to make them fit the width of the room without wasting too much! I have managed to sort out some pieces that may do the first row and have discovered that one of the walls runs out by 9cm, that has completely screwed up my calculations! the other wall runs out by 7cm over 3m so that isn't quite so bad. Why didn't we opt to put a standard parquet flooring down rather than lay a traditional floor? It would have been so much easier, but hey that is what restoration is all about i suppose. Just to continue the "firsts" theme, this is the first wooden floor that i have laid so i expect a few swear words, nothing new there then! I only have 20sq. metres to lay in this room then eventually i have another room to do at 19sq. metres hopefully by then i might have sort of idea of what i am supposed to be doing!! When it is all down should i stain it? just clear varnish it? will it be too light if i don't stain it? should i fill in the knot holes? arrghhh i am going to retire to the cellar and try the plum brandy i made last year......... got people coming to dinner tonight so have to get the lamb ready......... I need to cut some more wood....my head hurts........the cats want feeding and the sun is coming out....
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Thursday, January 25, 2007

Peeping Over THe Edge

As i tentatively peer over the parapet into the real world again i feel much better. The pills & potions from le medicin seem to have done the trick. However, i seem to have been transported into another season! last Saturday it was 18° and very hot as i was playing lumberjacks with luscious and we cut down 6 trees. The chainsaw threw a wobbly and refused to cut them into log size pieces so we had to sort of balance them on the trailer and get them up to the house. They are about 10' lengths, it was bloody hard work and we were both knackered at the end of it. I have now sharpened the chain on the saw and it sort of cut the wood into logs yesterday, at least some of it that is. In the meantime winter appears to have arrived with a vengeance, the temperature fell to -5° tuesday night and we awoke to find ourselves snowed in by about a metre of snow. The farmer has very kindly been up with the tractor and cleared our road for us right down to the barn where the car is parked. That was good of him wasn't it? Managed to get out today as sun shining but road is still a bit iffy, a friend about 5km away can't get out as the hill is to steep for his car and it is very icy so we are going to rescue him this afternoon. Missy willow the older cat had to go to the vets, she has a type of cat flu and is not feeling to well, she now has antibiotics to take and had a jab of something or other at the vets + a thermometer shoved up her bum!! I am extremely glad that i am not a cat... Off to prepare for rescue..cheers......sun now out and the solar system has kicked in, but still -1°.....taaa raaaa
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Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Cheering Myself Up

I have finally given up and last night went to see the doctor. That should keep you happy eh R.J? Luscious took me down and after the usual blood pressure thingy and listeningto my chest she pronounced that perhaps i wasn't in the best of health. I now have more medication to take, in fact enough to keep a third world country going, evidently although the worst of the Flu has gone the after effects like the sweating and the sore throat and coughing are not so easy to shift. I have to take 3 tablets in the morning with water, followed by some 1000mgram horse size tablets for something else + 1000mgram horse size tablet of paracetomol. I am not sure if she is trying to kill off the infection or me! On top off all of that i have a cough medicine to take three times a day which is codiene based..no wonder i don't feel much like doing anything but hopefully things will now start to get better. To cheer myself up i dug out this old photo from August 2003 just as we were taking off the old roof to start ripping the house to bits. It makes me feel better knowing just how much things have changed since then.Not least that we are no longer living in a caravan! i crawl back to my bed....
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Sunday, January 14, 2007

At least the cats are happy....

Hi R.J & Ally, thanks for your kind wishes and i will be taking up the advice relating to the toddies as soon as i can face alchohol again! I am just soooo drained at the moment it is a struggle just to get up have a wash and even take a leak without having to take a rest! Yesterday i sat on the balcony in the sunshine with a magazine looking for all the world like an OAP at a retirement home near the beach. Sat on chair with blanket over legs, t-shirt,sweatshirt,gilet, coat and thermal hat. It was 21° in the sun but i was just warm enough, i did manage at one stage to unzip my coat but that was it! I have no energy at all, i am taking balancing drinks but they don't seem to be doing any good! I don't do ill and i hate feeling like this i just want it too go away....... sulk..better try & put some more wood on the fire and take a leak, that will crease me for a couple of hours......
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Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Roof Ends & Tranquility

At last i have finished with the dreaded scafolding. It has been an experience i do not want to repeat in a hurry. I prefer to keep my feet on the ground and with this in mind my next job is to lay the new chestnut flooring in the biggest bedroom. A complex job as the wood is cut in the traditional way to maximise the wood usage from the tree. This means that although the lengths are more or less the same give or take 6 or 7 cms they are widely different in width so it is a bit like putting a jigsaw puzzle together to make sure that i arrive at the far wall with the right pieces! Oh what fun eh? At this rate we will be in danger of having two rooms ready for rent this year, now that would be a welcome source of revenue as the restuarant luscious works at have indicated that they may lay her off for three months as business is not good at this time of year. They think she would be entitled to 80% of her salary for the three months paid by the state so if that is true it is not all gloom. Meanwhile i sit here with umpteen layers of clothes on and a woolly hat as i feel awful, sweating hot then shivering cold, there must be a form of alcoholic remedy as the pills are just yeeeaargh! off to try and eat a bowl homemade tomato soup, certainly know how to live the high life here......
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Thursday, January 04, 2007

Angels on High

Let us try again, the post i made yesterday using the "new" blogger seems to have vanished! Happy New year to all those of you just passing through. New years day saw me up this scaffolding doing the repairs to the roof end that the builderman decided not too do! Now it may not look too high to you but to me it is extremely high. I do not like heights and this as it sways in the breeze is a long way up. I know it is as i can shake hands with the angels as they come floating past! I now have half of the repair done and rain and wind have stopped play so i have retired inside to start laying the new chestnut flooring in the second bedroom. The first bedroom is now all finished and ready for renting out this year. I think with a few pictures on the wall it looks superb but then i am biased as i have done the work along with luscious! All we need now are some paying guests...anyone?
2007 looks like it will be another good year for the peasant and luscious, look forward to seeing you here soon....cheers...
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