Hallowe'en

Posted by Rosie

No trick or treats here - just a decorated house, spooky meal and lots of dressing up. Much more fun!!

The Menu:

Starter - Blood Soup (beetroot and tomato)

Main - Witch's Special (pumpkin pasties, baked spuds with ratatouille "gunge" and hard boiled egg "eyes")

Dessert - Chocolate spiders.

Scary!!

Reasons to visit to Lénault - October

Posted by Rosie

La Foire a l'Andouille

OK - I know it's November but we've been busy and it took us until today to visit this food festival that started at the end of October.

We had seen the Festival advertised before but had never gone as we thought it was purely about andouille, a local smoked tripe sausage and not something we are particularly fond of. However, it was actually a festival of all regional food producers and had stalls as varied as chocolate, cider, cakes, snails, sausages etc etc. There were plenty of things to taste although I have to admit some were nicer than others. Generally we thought the prices were quite high but it was a great way of seeing the variety of local and sometimes unusual produce. One that stuck in my mind sold a range of products (edible and toiletries) based on violets. They were definitely very purple! I also quite fancied chocolates that were made to look like andouille sausages - but at 40€ each I declined to buy one.

Animal update

Posted by Rosie

As promised here is a picture of the new ducklings (thanks to Kay for the photo)

Kay also took photos of our other poultry and you can see how much they have grown. First the turkeys.

..... and then the other ducklings. I can't quite believe these ducklings are only 6 weeks old!!

And look who was down the valley - this young bull calf was born on Friday and as yet is still staying very close to Mum. Altogether now - Ahhhhhhhh!

The Tanks Are In - Now the Rest!

Posted by Simon

I have dug the holes and installed the two fosse septic tanks. The exit pipes have to be the same level so putting the second one in took a little longer, although the hole was more accurately done and will not need so much back filling. One tank is 4000 litres and the other 3000.

Before I can back fill though the tanks have to be filled up and as we are on a water meter the thought of pumping in litres of water at 64 euros per 1000 litres was not one I relish. Therefore we have pumped water from the well which has halve filled the 3000 litre tank. Now the well needs to refill. So I have now rigged up a couple of system to get the rain water directed into the tanks to finish the job. I don't really want it to rain at the moment but when it does I'm hopefully ready.

The next stage is to put in all the pipe work to and for the filtration beds with all the required gravel and sand. So loads of wheelbarrowing for the next few days. Jolly dee! So I'm hoping by the time I've finished the this the tanks will be full and ready to back fill.

Chickens can be so horrible

Posted by Rosie

I'm writing this waiting for friends from the UK to arrive - hopefully they will not get lost with the déviation (diversion) around the next village which I completely forgot to tell them about until I had to go round it earlier today.

Anyway - back to the subject - chickens. Due to the ongoing Fosse Septique works we have had to move the fattening white chicks in with the laying hens and ducks. All was quiet to begin with and then I noticed Fluffy Chick having a right go at one of the white chicks, so much so that she had a bloody comb and was lame. This continued and then a couple of the white chicks moved in on the poor thing such that she was cowering in the corner and now VERY lame. So I have had to move her to separate quarters to recover. Tomorrow I shall put her in a safe pen inside the hen field so the meanies can see but not hurt her and hopefully they'll get used to her. I know pecking orders are normal for hens but so far we have seen very little of this and certainly not to this degree.

But on a happier note we have more ducks - 13 ducklings and Mum to be precise, from friends who have an excess of ducks. I am pleased to say they have settled in very well and I'll try and post up some pictures tomorrow.

Oh dear - I've just had a phone call from my friends and they have spent the last hour heading in the wrong direction out of Le Harvre. Ooops!!

Back on Track - Is This Possible?

Posted by Simon

Yesterday the digger arrived back in working order. A burnt out wire and relay had caused the problem. Also the glo-plugs needed changing. It seems to purr now - if that is possible for a mini-digger.

So this morning I got going again on digging the hole for one of the septic tanks. Now the ground has had some rain on it this job was easier than before the digger broke down. So there was some advantage in this delay.

One slight mistake though - the comedy classic situation. I jumped in the hole to measure the depth and found the hole was definitely deep enough - I couldn't get out! Pride was at stake,calling for help not an option, so I managed to jump up and grab the tracks of the digger and haul myself out.

This afternoon the boys had rugby and we needed to get some other materials so I will be continuing with the septic tanks tomorrow. I really need to get this completed before I can get on back in the gite.

Well the only bit of the digger I'm waiting for now - is the bill.

Tonight's supper ....

Posted by Rosie

..... will be veg curry followed by bread and butter pudding (with added banana). The veg is all home grown, including the fiendishly strong chili pepper I've just added. As for the bread and butter pudding, well ...... Ben's' best friend's father works in a supermarket and on Saturday he gave Simon a large box of bread, artichokes and bananas for the pigs. All were perfectly edible so I decided the pigs wouldn't mind if I took one loaf and a few bananas for us. The chooks are still sulking so I had no eggs but I did a swap of veg for eggs with a friend and together with the milk from the local farmer I made the pudding. It smells lovely and will no doubt taste all the better for being a freebie (almost). That's my kind of supper.