Missed off the M letter. This goes to towns and farms, and will be split up depending on the amount of work needed.
I watched the Space X launch today which was impressive. Something happed during the flight which looked like the thing blew up. This was described as a "rapid unscheduled disassembly"
Morning all from a dry, but grey rural France. Leaving the village to take a collection of things to the recycling centre, I found that one of the posts holding the telephone line into the village is down, and we are driving over the cable that is across the road. Telephone lines come down from the poles all the time here, and it can take a couple of years before they are rehung. I hope it will not take so long with this one, as some farm machinery will sever it, and we will lose our internet. Have a good day everyone.
You probably wouldn't notice as there is so little traffic. The cables here are quite robust, so a wheel is not likely to do much, but a plough blade could be a different story.
Morning all. The first frost of the season overnight. I will soon be thinking about getting the wood burner going. Out for the day with football friends and a good meal at our favourite restaurant. We have not seen each other for a couple of years, so I am anticipating lots of chat over a lengthy meal. An hour drive each way, but it will be worth it. Have a good day everyone.
¡¡Hola a tod@s!! Rains here, brought by a very cold, by Mexican standards, cold front. I had to find where the hell my jacket was. Have a good weekend y'all.
Morning all. A clear sky, so a cold night. One of my outbuildings has a roof that is in serious need of repair. I have been trying to get a roofer interested in the job, but it is not large enough for them to bother. Finally found one from 50 kms away prepared to undertake it, and he has arrived on time to make a start. I have checked him out and he seems legit, so fingers crossed. Have a good day everyone.
Morning all. A heavy frost overnight, and although the greenhouse vent is opening in the sunlight, it is blooming cold outside. All the tiles and battens are off the roof, and you can now see exactly why it was in such a bad state. Three rafters will have to be replaced, A heavy snowfall this winter might have brought about a collapse, and the insurance would have said it was my lack of maintenance as an excuse for not paying out. So much muttering about the price of timber now from the roofer, making me glad I agreed a fixed price with him. Have a good day everyone.
Morning all. Cold and occasional light showers, so not very pleasant outside. I had my list of to do jobs lined up, but Mme had hers as well, that means we will be out for the day. The roofer is not coming today, as he is collecting materials, so I will not have to listen to his complaints about the cost of doing his job. No doubt I will have to keep my other half reminded that this repair work is expensive, and her ideas, while good, need to be thought about before diving in. Have a good day everyone.
Morning all. Not much warmer outside, and everywhere is wet after yesterday's rain. One of the purchases that Mme wanted yesterday was fresh cranberries to make sauce with. Normally you will find masses of them, with a scoop to put as many as you want into a bag. At the moment all that was available were some 200g boxes, and she had the last two. I wonder what has happened to them? Have a good day everyone.
Morning all. Cold and damp outside. Well, my outbuilding has a nice new roof, but one of the men dropped a lump hammer through the ceiling, creating all sorts of damage. I now have to get materials in and start a job I never expected or wanted to do. I now have a small snake about the thickness of a knitting needle in a box who was hibernating for the winter on top of the ceiling. Strange that so many French people seem to be scared of them. Have a good day everyone, and hope you can get your boiler fixed BB.
Morning all. Temperature is not expected to get above 3°C today, but at least it is dry. As I start on repairs to my outbuilding, I am thinking that things are not that bad. Telephoned my best mate in Dorset to wish him a happy birthday, only to find that as well as his cancer, he has now had a fall and broken his leg. Eight weeks in one of those surgical leg braces, making getting around difficult. Add to that, his boiler has broken down, leaving a very cold house, and he is struggling to get logs in to light his fire. Hopefully the boiler man has turned up and restored some heat. Have a good day everyone.
Zero degrees up here - both inside and out of the house. No sign of Boiler Man who is apparently sick. As we have no electric heaters, it's hot drinks and hot water bottles for the duration, and a kettle full of hot water for the bathroom sink for washing purposes. My wife and daughter headed off to Inverness yesterday for a weekend stay with friends who have an actual working boiler - I have to remain here to look after the cat and the dog. Life can be so unfair...
We have quite a number of means of heating, collected together before our electric central heating was installed. There is no mains gas out here, so electric, oil or liquid gas are the main means of central heating. Electric is the cheapest and liquid gas the most expensive to run. If you have a wood burner, then with your own supply of logs you can save a lot, but it doesn't heat the whole house. The supermarkets sell compressed wood logs, but they do not last long and work out to be quite pricey. Many of the farmers will have an old tree die, so cut it up for selling, and earning a bit of cash on the side.
We are being bombarded with requests from the Scottish Government (presumably applies to the English government too) to install a heat pump as gas boilers are being phased out from 2030. Generous subsidies are available, but the remainder of the cost is still far greater than the cost of a new gas boiler. There's also the issue of our largish and rather old stone house needing 'wraparound' insulation - I've no idea how much that would end up costing. We have been seriously considering going back to Australia, but the opposite applies there - the cost of keeping cool in an environment where temperatures are steadily on the increase. On a brighter note, the postie just delivered the electric throw I ordered a week ago - so I'll be able to watch our match this afternoon in the comfort of a warm armchair.
Morning all. It is blowing well outside, but it is 7°C which is better than all yesterday. An early start as Mme has a 9.00 am appointment with the doctor. Every three months, she gets a thorough going over before the pills are prescribed. I must have been behaving, as the last two visit have seen her blood pressure normal. Have a good day everyone.
A chilly day up here, but thankfully not as bad as yesterday's -7C - made worse by the lack of a working boiler. Just accepted a quote for a replacement - £3750.00. Hopefully it will be installed soon...
Hope you get warm quickly BB. We might actually get into double figures this afternoon. Great fun, I don't think, trying to put a new ceiling up onto very old oak beams that are not level. As my outbuilding was designed to be a wet room, I bought materials that wouldn't need painting. It has made the task more difficult, but having started, I will have to keep going.
Morning all. I don't have a clue what is going on, but suddenly my mobile is receiving lots of dodgy text messages. Orange have now set up their spam service, putting all the suspects into a separate file, and it has collected a lot of them since the service started. They all have one thing in common, they want your bank details. There is an industry out there trying to defraud people both in France and England. I don't know how you stop it.
