Happy new year everyone, thats it for another year : )
Today is day 2 of being a non smoker, yesterday was hard work, but today is a little better, i had purchased a electronic cig to help me along if things got difficult, but that was about 6 months ago, leaving it stood doing nothing doesn’t seem to have done it much good and it doesn’t seem to be working, we popped out today and got some lozengers : )
The weather as been quite bad lately, last week we got snowed in at a friends house for 4 days, really strange for this area, normally we never see snow, and on the rare occasion we do it never sticks.
So with a hectic social calender for the festive season we have decided to leave work on the château until the new year and enjoy a well earned break.
We don’t have anymore holiday workers due until the new year, so its Christmas at Colin and Janice’s 24/25 and if the weather is fine we may spend the 26/27 finishing their roof, then we have a party to go to on the 28th, then Kevin and Patricia’s for the new year.
So on that note I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and wish you all the best for the new year.
Chris
Wilmer, our pot bellied pig
Ive had a lot of work to do the last few days, work on the internet I mean, so not done as much on the castle as i would have liked.
Wilmer our pot bellied pig who follows me everywhere came to work with me today, unfortunately she isn’t much help, she is content to lye on the bridge in the sun or sit and watch me working.
Our Pygmy goats, Billy, Milly and Cher have moved out YIPPEE…..
I’m a little sad to see them go, but i wont miss the smell of Billy. It was difficult as sometimes we are away for a few days and although we have someone who feeds the animals while we are away, the goats have been getting out with the moat being dry.
The B Brothers (one of our neighbours) was getting sick of them eating their flowers.
We delivered them to their new home yesterday, Marion, a English woman who lives about 15mins from us as them, she as all kinds of animals and a couple of big fields for them to run around in.
Its great to be able to leave the front door of the castle open while I’m working, in the past if i did that i would soon smell that tell tale smell that Billy was near.
So now its just the three cats and Wilmer the pot bellied pig. I’m trying to talk Rachael in to 100 chickens, but thats another story!
Well, not much done on the castle this week as ive had internet work to do, I had plastered one of the walls in the bathroom, but the plaster that i used that we thought was a 2 hrs drying time, set in 15mins so it was a rush but i got it done, then the other day Rachael (who is fluent French) came in and Read the plaster sack, turns out its not plaster, its plasterboard Glue! so thats why it set in 15mins, anyway it dried OK : ), then I plastered one of the bigger walls the other day, with plaster this time, much easier : )
Just a quick update showing the progress on the ground floor of the first section of the castle, sorry its a little dark, Ill make sure the next one is better.
People keep asking me to upload some videos so here is the first.
When i first bought the castle I used to come up and spend hours here just looking around, for months and months every time i came here I would find something new, a face carved in to the stone, a coat of arms etc to name but a few. Even now we still find things regular.
The window sill in the bedroom downstairs in the first section was made up of some rotten wood with stones and general dust and muck underneath, we had been discussing how we would like it, I suggested putting a stone paved window sill, Rachael preferred a oak sill, so, yesterday I set about removing all the old timber and stones etc to get back to the stone wall in order to put the new sill in.
As I shoveled the stone and muck out after removing the wood i felt a flat surface under the spade, i thought it may have been tilled at some point with the old terracota tiles, as i removed more I realized it was all one piece of stone, when i cleared it and brushed it off there was a bonny medieval stone sink, what a bonny item.
Well Tom our holiday worker went back today, we dropped him off at the station this morning at 7.30am, He as been a great help and a good laugh, I have to say he is one of the best workers we have had, he gets stuck in and picks things up quickly. We have made some great progress this last couple of weeks, we now have a concrete floor on the ground floor, we have unearthed the septic tank and put a trench in ready for the pipes for the new bathroom, and the bathroom structure is up and plaster boarded, I did start plastering it but the plaster i was using had gone off, so instead of two hours setting time it was setting within a few minutes, its a good job i started with a small wall.
Thanks Tom and Bon Voyage
Well we recently attended the european highland games, not that we are avid followers, it just happens to be held in Bressuire our nearest town, the toss the caber event was going well, nail biting as only 2 of the many contenders had got through, then disaster struck! one buy snapped a caber so they had to stop the event and give everyone a clear pass to the final the following day as they der not continue as they had no spare cabers.
Well after sampling some tasty organic veg at a recent BBQ at one of our friends house, we have decided we would like to dedicate a large portion of our back field to a organic vegetable garden.
I must admit this is something i know very little about, I will have to do some research, but if anyone as any helpfull suggestions or knows a good source of information please let us know.
I thought it best to start the planning now in preparation for next year, we will start off with a small section and take it from there, any of you gardening buffs interested in getting involved please see the Working Holidays page. Your help would be greatly appreciated.