|
|
Bookmark This Page |
|
||
|
January News Update
Firstly, we wish you all a very Happy New Year (albeit a little belatedly). Our first month of the new decade has seen some pretty cold weather with several falls of snow, though none of them more than around 20cm at a time.
One morning we awoke to a fresh fall of snow and wonderful blue skies. The sun shining through
the frosted and snowy trees was breathtaking – well worth putting on those extra layers of
clothes to go out and enjoy the scenery. Funnily enough though, its amazing how quickly you can get fed up with
seeing snow. It almost like living in a mon-chrome world and its now long before you are longing to see
some green fields again.
We mentioned in an earlier newsletter that the chickens didn’t understand snow; well as
you can see they are now quite at home wandering around, ankle deep in the stuff. It hasn’t
put them off laying 5 or 6 eggs a day between them, but they do want to know where all the worms have gone.
The cold weather has meant some jobs have had to be postponed, but we’ve been able to make use of the time in other ways, so no real delay in our building plans. We now have all the barn windows painted and ready to install, plus kitchen cabinets built and ready to assemble for one of the gites at least.
Once the snow melted, Titi the builder only had a few days of work on site before he had finished everything needed. All that remains for him is to complete some inside work, for which he is waiting for the roof to be completed. This is a massive bonus for us, since he has left all the scaffolding in place. Thus all the roof work can be done with the safety of full scaffolding all around.
Scaffolding has also helped enormously with getting the walls re-pointed. There is now just a few metres of outside wall to complete, plus some internal walls which we are leaving as ‘exposed stone in each of the gites.
By the end of the month, Doug has battened roofing felt to the rear side of the barn, plus nailed in place around 800 metres of battens ready to take the slates. These have stood in crates for over 6 years now, as we bought the barn slates at the same time as the house. Deni tried sorting out the slates one day, ready for use, only to discover they were all frozen solidly together. Another job postponed!
Still, as February starts, so does the thaw, so we’re in full production again now.
One thing to note is that we have extended our winter ‘Free Night’ offer to include the whole of April. You just need to book any stay of four nights or more, and one of those nights will be free of charge (meals not included – give us a chance!).
Lastly, the end of January is an important date in our calendar of memories – seven years exactly since we fell in love with a pile of old stones, signed on the dotted line, paid our money ……….. and started our Chez Jallot adventure!