December 21st, the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. It feels unreal, so mild that when the rain stopped at 4o’clock, I went out for a ride on my bike. Not far, only 10 miles, but enough to blow the cobwebs away. I didn’t need to wrap up like the michelin man and even when the rain restarted, it wasn’t cold! Can’t believe it’s nearly Christmas!

Kieran, who, by the way, did finish plumbing the dishwasher in last night (hooray!), started this morning by clearing some of the rubble in the grange into a sensible heap, using his beloved Dougal the digger. He and Nick then removed all the steel reinforcements that were still sticking out of what remains of the cuves, before someone does themselves an injury.

After lunch, the lads decided a lighter job was needed for the rest of the day. The plan is to make one of the bedrooms into a second bathroom, with a corridor running past it, leading to the new first floor above Nick’s workshop. This involves turning the window, which overlooks the grange, into a doorway; so that was the “lightweight” job selected for this afternoon. The bedroom in question is currently a general store room for anything and everything we haven’t housed elsewhere, as well as being where the computer is; in other words, a heap! Most of the stuff is now scattered around the rest of the house and everything on the first floor is covered in a generous layer of dust. My hands are filthy as I type, in spite of several washings! Guess what my job will be tomorrow;-( Still, I did, at last, find the grammar book I’ve been searching for since our arrival here!

We bought a second sledgehammer this morning, as well as a new handle to replace the one that was broken; Nick and Kieran then took turns smashing up the remains of the wine cuves. The whole of the grange floor is now covered in rubble, making it difficult to walk in there, if you should need to. Hopefully, Rob will soon come and remove it. It’s been raining fairly steadily for the last few days, so the tumble dryer is essential; access to it, however, is not easy; in fact it feels more like an obstacle course than anything else!

It’s the pruning season in the vineyards. One of our neighbours, Jean-Michel, owns about 30 hectares of vines around here, rather too much for one man to prune on his own, so he employs people to help him. The pruners, who aren’t just anyone with a pair of secateurs, but are specially trained and qualified, go through the vineyard and decide which stems to discard and which to leave for next year.  They cut the unwanted stems, but don’t remove any of the wood. Some vines have just one stem left in place for next year; others two; I don’t know what criteria dictate how many are left. Next another group of workers arrives, to remove the pruned growth. The people employed by Jean-Michel for this task are people with learning difficulties, who live in a home in a nearby village and who do this work from the end of November till mid-March; they seem to enjoy the work and Pedro, who I met, was especially keen to have his photo taken. It can’t be much fun, though, with the rain pouring down or if it’s very cold.

Kieran can’t abide washing up; he’s been moaning about the lack of a dishwasher since we arrived. We do have one; it’s just that it was buried somewhere in the grange and, besides, I consider a washing machine (currently in the kitchen) more important. So this evening, Kieran has been learning to be a plumber; fitting a water supply and drainage in the débaras (junk room). He and Nick have now moved the washing machine through there and I think they’re excavating the dishwasher as I type. I’ll go and see if I have to wash up tonight – hopefully not!:-)

If anyone is under the impression that moving to France and doing up a house is glamorous and/or romantic, let me put them right; it’s neither!

We picked up the “grande tronçonneuse” on Friday evening; the lads were pleased that it wasn’t as heavy as it looked. You pay a fee for the hiring of it, plus an extra 30 euros for every millimetre of blade that you use. There were 4mm left on the blade, so we got a second one, just in case.

They started on Saturday morning, making vertical cuts in the walls of the cuves, using the small angle grinder to cut through the steel reinforcements at the end points of the cuts and using a sledgehammer to knock bits out and the digger to push bits over. At one point, the digger was wobbling about so much that the door fell off, cracking the glass! The tronçonneuse no longer felt lightweight, but seemed to be getting heavier by the hour.

By Saturday night, the first cuve was done and the second one started, and both Nick and Kieran were exhausted. Kieran couldn’t even eat his dinner, he was so tired!

Sunday was a rerun of Saturday and by the afternoon both cuves were gone; apart from the bases, which can be broken up at a later date, using the concrete breaker. Rob, our neighbour, will be coming round this week to take away the rubble for a project he’s doing. Nick and Kieran look rather like zombies, too tired to do much at all. I think it might be an evening for watching a film!

We’re having another caption competition on the photo below. Suggestions in the comments box, please!

Captions please!

It’s been blowing a gale and pouring all day, so we were glad of indoor jobs to get on with. I’m not much good at driving the digger or wielding a sledgehammer, so I suppose my role is best described as “support services”, ie all the boring bits. This morning I made a big vat of soup to go with yesterday’s leftover bread, for lunch, then set about making mince pies to take to my English class this afternoon. I know I’ve got some pastry cutters somewhere, but just where is anybody’s guess; we were looking through some of the boxes of still-packed stuff on the first floor, above the grange, until part of the floor fell away under Nick’s feet. Only a little bit, and he didn’t go far this time; but we gave up the search. Nick found a makeshift pastry cutter for me; it used to be part of the old water heater, but cleaned up nicely and worked well! Sadly, because of the weather, only one student turned up to class; the French just don’t seem to go out in poor weather!

The boys attacked the wine cuves again, this time using the digger; it had absolutely no effect, so it was back to the angle grinder and brute strength. Later on, they went to Aire to hire a much bigger Stihl saw for the weekend, which we hope will be up to the job.

On their return, they could only get the car partway into the mudbath we use as a drive, before it got completely bogged down. It’s still there and if the rain doesn’t stop soon, may remain there for some considerable time yet!

Yesterday, the lads had great fun; a neighbour is in need of some hard core and we need rid of the two huge wine cuves in the grange, so they decided to start demolishing them. These cuves, you must understand, are about 2.5m in every direction and are made of reinforced concrete; but undaunted,  they set to work with a concrete breaker and a Stihl saw. The roof of the first cuve was an easy enough task, but the walls proved more challenging, as you can see from the photos, taken over about 4 hours. We’ve now found somewhere to hire an industrial size, water cooled Stihl saw, so I think that may be the weekend taken care of. (Hire is cheaper at the weekend)

This morning  the rain started at 7.10; I know this because the noise of it woke me! It sounded as if a huge, celestial power shower had been turned on over Caupenne. Unfortunately, we’d ordered a tree from the market in Eauze, held today, so had to go out in it. Normally, Eauze market fills the entire town and buzzes with life, but today there were hardly any market traders there, most of them put off by the weather. However, the tree man’s made of stern stuff, so we got our Judas tree and bought what we needed in the market in record time, then came home to put our soaked shoes and clothes in front of a big fire, from which we’ve hardly moved since!

Why, oh why, is nothing straightforward?

We went to the DIY shed this morning to buy some guttering for the back of the house; a simple enough task, you’d think. But no.

When we finally found the right aisle, the longest lengths of guttering or downpipe they seemed to do were 2 metres; after much searching, we found the rarest of creatures – a sales assistant. However, he wasn’t the sales assistant for the guttering aisle, so someone else was called and we waited – and waited – and waited. When the guy finally arrived, he said that yes, there were longer lengths of guttering and downpipe, in the outdoor bit at the other end of the shop; so off we went to find them. Unfortunately, there were no prices on anything in this part of the shop and the sales assistant we found told us that they were displayed with the rest of the guttering bits, so back to the guttering aisle we went, and finally tracked down the prices board, tucked behind a stack of boxes. The price was OK, so off back to the other end of the shop again, to get said guttering. But no, you have to find an assistant, get them to write you a “bon”, which you take to the checkout, pay for the goods, then drive into the outdoor bit and collect them. Well, you do if you can find a sales assistant who isn’t far more interested in driving round and round in his forklift truck than in serving customers.

In total, we spent an hour and a half just buying some guttering; I’ll never complain about B&Q again!

To add to our frustrations, we heard from our estate agent this afternoon. The house sale in England should have been completed weeks ago, but our buyers’ buyers are now threatening to pull out if the price they are to pay isn’t reduced by the cost of replacement windows. So we’ve been asked to reduce our price by a portion of the amount! Some people just have no conscience at all!

The Brassempouy Christmas fair last Saturday must surely rate as one of the village’s least successful events. We arrived when it opened at 10am and by the time we left for lunch at midday, there had been not even one customer. There were about 8 stalls; those manning them were the only people who attended in the morning, standing around in a freezing cold, undecorated sports hall, trying to look cheerful in the face of French Christmas musak (yes, even worse than the English stuff!).  I don’t imagine it was a lot busier in the afternoon. I think I’ll make a swag for the mantlepiece with all the little Christmas stockings I made.

So, full of the Christmas spirit (or maybe not), but not wanting to look too bah humbug near the veritable Santa’s grotto that’s sprung up next door, Nick and Kieran decorated our Christmas tree in the garden.

Apart from that, it’s been a bitty sort of day; Nick’s done a bit of plastering and Kieran’s sorted some of the wiring on the digger and taken the chain saw to bits.

At the patchwork club this afternoon, one of the ladies, an ex opera singer, kindly lent me a boxed set of four CDs by some famous singer who I’ve never heard of, in spite of my protests that classical and operatic music really aren’t my kind of thing. It seems to be classical and opera mostly, with a bit of folk thrown in for good measure! I think I’m going to be tested on it next week, when she’s threatened to bring me something else! I’m very willing to embrace French culture, but there are limits!

Thank you for all the entries to the “name the digger” competition. After much consideration, we’ve decided to declare Ginny the winner. She suggested Dougal; a name which, for me at least, evokes images of a solid, down-to-earth, robust type. I have to give a special mention to Becky, though, for the longest, most imaginative and most unpronounceable and impossible to remember suggestion (see comments).

After some rain over recent nights, the drive resembles a quagmire; you don’t so much drive along it as skate, praying not to slide into the gas tank behind the house. What we needed was a man with a digger and a heap of rubble. Then, as if by magic, they appeared; if you want to see them in action, click on the box at the bottom of this post.

The lads also plastered the next bedroom ceiling today; soon it will be time for me to redecorate that room.

We bought a couple of grapevines on the market yesterday; Nick wants a row of table grapevines forming a barrier along the side of the septic tank. I don’t know what they’ll taste like, but my choice was one whose leaves turn the loveliest shade of deep pink in the autumn. These two are now in place and we hope to have grapes next September.

I was teaching this afternoon; adjectives, comparatives and superlatives. Hmmm, exciting stuff! However, “Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer” contains lots of adjectives and it is nearly Christmas, so I took my guitar along and taught them the song. I was amazed; they all joined in and loved it, so next week we might do “Silent night” before we eat the mince pies I’m going to take along 🙂

Kieran’s a happy bunny now, playing on the digger. Today he and Nick removed the last two tree stumps and roots from the garden; they took more work than yesterday’s but Kieran lifted the last one out with the digger. His skill is impressive; he must have been a professional in a former life.  Perhaps we’ll have to cash in on this and run digger-driving courses next year 😉 The garden, however, does look as though we’ve been invaded by giant moles now; he’ll have to hone his levelling skills next.

I spent the day making a Christmas wreath and some little Christmas stockings to put on Adrian’s Christmas market stall on Saturday. He’s made some wooden reindeers, which just looked as though they needed something to hang from their antlers. I hope they sell; otherwise  Santa’s going to be horribly confused when he comes down our chimney to find 14 miniature stockings hung by the fireplace!

The “name the digger” competition is still open; we’ve had some great entries so far, but if anyone else has a suggestion, please send it in.

OK boys and girls, the moment you’ve all been waiting for has arrived, as has Nick and Kieran’s Christmas present. (drumroll) They were so excited; grins as wide as Cheshire cats (another drumroll). So what, I hear you ask, is it!

IT’S A MINI DIGGER!!!!

Yeah, I know; boys and their toys! Kieran was the first to have a go and, typically, took to it very quickly. I then had a turn, to Kieran’s consternation, and managed not to do any damage to anything! It’s actually great fun to drive, though I wouldn’t have been able to do anything constructive with it, being a girl! Nick had to wait till last, but coped admirably.

Once we’d all had a play, the lads got down to the serious job of removing some of the stumps and roots of trees we lost in the garden, in the storm of 2009. Two down, two to go.

What we need now is a name for it; so please log in and make your suggestions. If it’s any help, the brand is Yanmar and the French for mini digger is mini pele.