Heat Exchanger

Posted by Simon

I have nearly completed the installation of the air/heat exchange unit today and the attic now looks as if a nest of fat grey vipers have moved in. The inlet vent still has to be put in and the electrics connected up.

The diagram gives a brief explaination of how the unit works but basically warm old/damp air is sucked up from the bathroom, toilet and kitchen areas. It then passes though the heat exchange unit and is then blown outside. At the same time fresh air is being drawn into the the unit and as this passes through the unit the heat from the old air is used to warm up the incoming air. This warm fresh air is then blown down into the bedrooms and living area. In the summer the reverse happens and the incoming air is cooled.

I believe the theory is that not so much energy is needed to heat the house from other sources plus risk of condensation etc. is reduced. With all the installation we have put in lets hope so.

Having spent quite a few hours installing the planned prime soucre of heating the wood burner stove I decided to give it a test run. Well the flue/chimney was all okay but the wood burner was only burning on one side and was roaring away. Having checked all the air vents I just happen to run my hand along the back of the wood burner and that's when I noticed a gap. It transpires that the joint on one side or the rear is not closed up hence the air getting through. So a trip back to the supplier with a photo of the wood burner with a 10 €uro through it. These sorts of things I really do not need at the moment.

Rugby Burn Out

Post by Simon

With all the work I did manage an unplanned day off last Sunday. Ben had an all day rugby tournament (Fete du Rugby) at Chateau de Beauregard, just north of Caen. If he had gone on the coach with the club it would have made for a very long day so it was decided that I take him. Then I would come home, work and pick him up later.

Well I decided to watch a couple of the matches, then got chatting to Ben's friend father, then it sort of got a bit later and then it wasn't really worth going all the way home to come back again.

So on an extremely hot day I was totally unprepared for a day out and ended up, especially on the receding hairline, rather sunburnt. Fortunately I could get drinks and joined in with friends picnic.

I had a lovely day, made even better by Ben's team getting to the final. This ended up a draw and so an enthralling period of extra time was played and the first team scoring a try won. Unfortunately for Ben's team the opposition scored the 'golden' try.

Hot Work

Posted by Simon

In the middle of a spell of hot weather I've been putting in a wood burner and continuing work on the chimney! Work on the chimney had stopped because of the bad weather and then we started doing other things and have only just got back to it - then it was too hot to stay up on the roof for very long. No pleasing some people is there? But apart from rendering the chimney that job is nearing completion.

The kitchen has been delayed as the plumber was held up elsewhere but I have plenty of other jobs that need doing. I have been putting a heat exchange unit in the attic area and have a trail of ducting to connect up now. Plus I have made a cupboard-cum-doorway from the mezzanine bedroom through to the attic. When the back is off (as shown) and the shelves removed I get access to the attic but normally it will be used as a cupboard - I thought a good way of making use of the space.

Apart from some major works it is now a case of starting at the top and working our way down with the decorating and finishing. I also wrote a list of everything that still needs to be done - scary! But we are working through it and things are getting crossed off (and more added on). My aim of mid June to finish the gite interior possibly will not be met but hopefully by the end of June it will be finished and then I'll just have the outside to do!

Well it's off to bed now before another long day tomorrow.

Reasons to visit Lénault in May

Posted by Rosie


This is our back gate which leads directly onto the excellent network of footpaths we have around here. In May they are just a riot of wild flowers:

MORE hungry mouths

Posted by Rosie

Hilda, the duck, is also a Mum!! I went in to feed the ducks this morning and got a wonderful view of her ducklings, at least 10, maybe more. They were too bunched up and wriggly to make an accurate count and of course I didn't have the camera. When I went back later she was keeping them well and truly hidden so this was the best I could get.

And there is yet one more mouth - Tom found this amazing caterpillar yesterday. It is an Oak Eggar Moth which feeds, not on oak, but amongst other things bramble, hawthorn and sloe (blackthorn). Tom found it crossing a track and the plants in the nearby hedge were bramble and sloe. So now Squiggly is residing in a bucket in Tom's room with hawthorn and bramble to munch on and we are just off to get him (or her) some sloe.

Hi Ducks

9 more hungry mouths to feed!

I am SO ANGRY with myself

Posted by Rosie

With no rain to speak of for weeks now, the rainwater tanks are mostly empty so yesterday I disconnected the hosepipe from the well to the garden tanks and started to fill up the tanks by the pigs. It takes a while for the well to pump up the water so I decided to pop off and do some little job or other in the meantime ......... 5 hours later and I had an empty well but 4 very happy pigs who now have a lot of mud to dig and wallow in.

And it gets worse - when I disconnected the hose from the garden I didn't check where the other end was and I managed to syphon out the entire contents of one tank. To say I am angry with myself is such an understatement. I am FURIOUS.

So now, until we get rain to fill the well again we are on emergency water-saving measures. In other words washing up and bathwater are being tipped into plastic jerry cans which I wheelbarrow across to water the veg patch. And it needs it - seedlings that have germinated are just sitting there and others haven't even germinated despite being watered in at sowing time. I am hardly cropping anything and the freezer/stores are all but empty of veg as we ate more over the winter when the snow and cold killed off so many of my overwintering crops.

For the local farmers it is even worse. The grass just isn't growing meaning there is less for the animals to eat now and less for a hay crop for later. They have just planted their maize but without rain it will only sporadically germinate and that will mean less silage for winter. It may be lovely to see the sunshine but it is making it a difficult year.

I will however end on a positive note - Matilda's ducklings hatched yesterday. I have seen at least 7 but will hopefully get a better look later and a photo. And Hilda's are due today :-)

Kitchen etc.

Posted by Simon

With much interest in the gite and a definite deadline it's all hands to the gite. So writing posts is taking a very distance second place at the moment.

The kitchen has been fitted and is ready to be installed properly but the final fixings of the units etc cannot be done until the plumber and electrician have completed their bits. I really pleased with the result and looking forward to getting the kitchen up and running.

Other jobs are also going on but in the main are all loads of little things that need dealing with so we can then push on again with the finishing touches. For example I had to get the stone hearth in so we can get the wood burner in place then we can get the chimney liner in and so on and so forth.

Next week we are going to start painting with our home made paint. This evening I experimented with a different colour (yellow ochre) and added distilled vinegar to the recipe - this is apparently reduces the risk of mould in susceptible areas. I also put a coat of linseed oil over the previous test areas and this definitely stabilises the paint. One drawback is that this paint is runnier then your average tin of paint - could be a very messy job especially with my paint brush skills!!

Thoughts on Grouting

Posted by Rosie

• Grouting a bathroom is boring and best accompanied by The Best of the Eighties CD Box Set.
• Make sure this is the 4 CD Box Set because grouting the bathroom takes a long time.
• Wear white if grouting with white grout and black if grouting with black grout because however tidy you are you will still get covered.
• For all the fancy grouting tools that are probably available, your finger (or thumb) is the best tool for removing excess grout.
• Old PJ's the boys have grown out of are the best buffing material - the ones I used were even organic!
• Calling all suppliers of ready mixed grout - putting it is a round bucket is just daft because it is annoying impossible to scrape it our with a grouting spatula.
• If you think grouting walls is boring - grouting bathroom floors is boring and MUCH harder which is why I was still there at 9.30pm trying to clean off the excess and swearing every time I smeared the grout YET again.

Did I mention, by the way, that Simon and I were grouting the bathroom yesterday?

As promised

Posted by Rosie













They are no fancy breed, just white chickens that the markets sell and who fatten up nicely for the table. A friend and I want to move away from having to buy them from the markets where we do not know their living conditions so these are our first hatch from her incubator - 12 little bundles of fluff who may be small but were flippin' hard to catch come bedtime. Hopefully soon, they will work out by themselves how to get upstairs to their sleeping area but in the meantime it's "catch the chick" every evening. (Not that I am really complaining - they are so cute!)

ANOTHER Bank Holiday!!

Posted by Rosie

Here in France it is a Bank Holiday (Jour Férié) today and despite only being the 13th it is already the third this month! This one is for Ascension Day and is always the Thursday that falls 40 days after Easter Sunday. Previously we have had May 1st (May Day) and May 8th (VE Day). This year both these fell on a Saturday and unlike the UK, they do not shift to the nearest Monday so the boys didn't get 2 extra days off school and nor will they next year when they fall on Sundays!! However all is not lost. They are off today and will be off tomorrow for what the French call Le Pont (The Bridge) and there is yet ANOTHER Bank Holiday on May 24th. This one is always on a Monday, being the Monday after Pentecost. Phew, with all thuese Bank Holidays it's no wonder there isn't room for a half term as well!

Unlike the earlier 2 Bank Holidays, this one looks like being a bit better in the weather department - the cold wind has dropped and the sun is shining. It was cold enough for a frost last night though and for this, the French will blame Les Saintes de Glace.

Mind you, Bank Holiday or not, life will pretty much go on as normal here - the animals are all fed and watered and I have a long list of gardening jobs to do. Simon came back yesterday with the kitchen for the gite and I have a feeling I may be on kitchen unit cleaning duty today. Not before I take delivery of some chicks though ........ more of this later :-)

Tiling and Paint and Policemen

Posted by Simon

This evening I am off to the UK to collect the kitchen, after the slight, enforced, delay. The interval has meant more time to get things ready and this week I have managed to tile the kitchen floor. So on my return, I can install the kitchen straight away. I have also finished the bathroom tiling, which I put on hold to get the kitchen done. So from never having tiled ever before I have now completed two rooms without too many problems.

Yesterday I decided to have a bit of a tidy up and sort out which turned into a 'mega' tidy and clean up. This carried on into today. There are parts of my workshop floor that hadn't seen the light of day for ages and all my tools have been put away. So it is now guaranteed I will not able to find anything when I get back.

Today we have been experimenting with making our own paint. Believe it or not the base ingredient in skimmed milk. The other ingredients include hydrated lime and colour pigment. Various other items can be added and we put linseed oil to ours but have seen recipes with white vinegar, powdered chalk, cottage cheese and salt. I made up a test board to try out the paints on the equivalent surfaces in the gite and on one surface it has worked well but the other will need some form of base coat first. Plus I have tried the paint out on other surfaces to see the results. A bristle brush is the recommended method for best results and not by spraying whilst mixing the concoction up with the drill at its highest speed. Um - that's a nice shade of paint you're wearing Rosie!

There is one small drawback with making this paint. It should be made with fresh skimmed milk but this is impossible to get here so we used long life for our experiment - I don't know what difference it makes but I'll be coming back with bottles of skimmed milk from a UK supermarket. At least skimmed milk can be frozen - if there is room in the freezer that is!

Now, a friend of ours is coming with me to the UK to help move stuff. Now the last time Ian and I returned from the UK we had a trailer load of materials and an interesting discussion with a policeman. We arrived at the port and checked in. Queued up. We were then directed to the security hut where trailer and vehicle were checked. No problems so far. We then waited in lane to get on the ferry, when a policeman came over to talk to us. Now in my defence I had not seen his face but when he asked..

'Where are you going next?

I replied 'On to the ferry'.

And it went downhill from there.

Without going to the in and outs - what was I suppose to say? And I did not realise he had no sense of humour. And it was difficult to keep a straight face for the next few minutes. And I thought Ian was going to have a go at me - in fact after our treatment Ian wanted to put a complaint in about this policeman. And we did get on the ferry - eventually.

A Night at the Flicks

Posted by Rosie

Many of the cinemas round here have, on a regular basis, English speaking films with French subtitles, so last night Simon and I had a night at the flicks in nearby Tinchebray. And it was like stepping back to the cinema of my childhood: no 10 screen multiplexes here and no sales of obscenely large fizzy drinks and popcorn. Just one screen, 2 ladies behind a desk selling those old fashioned tickets a bit like these and coffee for sale from a large urn. If you wanted a chocolate bar (I did!) you picked your choice from a basket and popped a euro in the tin! No adverts either, just straight into the film which tonight was A Single Man. Admittedly it took the projectionist a few minutes to get the film showing correctly and the sound quality wasn't the very best but that really didn't matter. It was an excellent film and a lovely evening out.

I also rather liked having the subtitles as it gave me the chance to practice some French. A couple of times I realised exactly what something meant that I had previously heard or read and not fully understood. It did however, get a bit confusing when there were scenes of spoken Spanish so you heard one language and had 2 subtitled below!

Big thanks also to our babysitter - and Happy Birthday for today!!

Dear Henry .....

Posted by Rosie

I am glad you realised it was very naughty to wee in the rather difficult to reach place between the armchair and the wood box. I am sure I read somewhere that by bringing me a mouse you are saying sorry in Catspeak. But I really would have preferred that the mouse you brought me and left on the doorstep had actually been dead and not semi-conscious!!

It's Raining!!!

Posted by Rosie

Yay - at last. In fact it rained for a good part of the night, kindly stopped long enough for me to do the animals this morning and has started again now. It is only forecast for today so would it be awful if I asked for it to rain ALL day? I know there are people with BBQ's at the ready and all sorts of outdoor activities planned but it really is just one day - and I promise not to mention the fact I have 2 loads of washing to try and get dry!

Strawberries in the Polytunnel

Posted by Rosie

First of May and the first strawberries are ripe in the polytunnel. I don't get many but it's a nice treat when there isn't much else coming out of the garden at the moment.

Things are looking quite good elsewhere in the polytunnel but the garden still desperately needs rain to catch up. However, if these flowers are anything to go by we could be in for a bumper crop of outdoor strawberries again.