Ma chaleur / My Heat.. Dec 2011

well its back to Ma Chaleur to create some winter comforts before the snow

we were very very lucky and found a second hand log burner for sale 10 mins up the road, old cast iron jobbie, 12kw & fits our fireplace perfectly & can be run with the four doors fully open

we paid £250 crazily low, someone was smiling down on us for sure, no more firewood gobbling open fire, it eats 25% of the wood but gives out 4 x more heat, after a very sooty day we’re sitting back enjoying the fruits of our labour.

we’ve had aesthetic fires before, but this is different, when its your only true form of heating it takes on a whole new value

and after 6 months of having to empty a converted mobile home toilet, I finally get a reprieve in the form of fitting a new Fosse Septique (septic tank)

Bac degreaser for kitchen and bathroom white water before it goes to the main septic tank

leads to main 3000l tank

from here it goes onto the sand filter (because we have clay rather than high drainage soil) 5m x 5m x 1.2m, half way through this but the weather is so cold now that it is freezing the ground so hard & thick that cannot penetrate it with the JCB

think some time out is needed for the machines tbh, think I need some time out to if the truth be told, we’re hoping for a break in the weather right now, looks better for next week so fingers X.

the temporary toilet systen is freezing up in the temperatures but it seems anti freeze in the loo apres poo does the do 🙂

been talking about a new pup for a while now, decided on what we want (Husky) so off to have a look!
he/she would love playing here at the moment

found a good breeder for huskies with excellent credentials and show winning parentage, apparently some puppies are due any day, after that we’re looking at a couple of weeks before we can view deposit paid will keep you posted

JCB woes 😦 a flat tyre found me hunting for a reason, seems when i slipped off the edge of some concrete I split one of the wheel rims on the inside! it split the lip of the wheel & tore it up at 90 degrees at the same time i think the inner part of the tyre was pushed to the centre of the wheel thus letting the tyre down.

I pumped it up with everything as it was (bent out) and it held pressure so thought a simple hammering of lip back into place & running a seam of weld along the lip might do the trick.

this is it hammered back into place & wire wheeled ready for welding

improvised trolley jack to push tyre away from point of welding

no awards for the welding (I couldn’t get comfortable is my excuse )

wasting no time getting her back to work

timew to dig the 5m x 5m sande filter, the last stop for all the waste water before it just runs into the ditch

excess earth used to build up new driveway at Mon Coeur

the JCB disaster again, failed UJ for hydraulic pump

stupidly designed imo, the oil cooler for the transmission runs across the top of the drive shaft at 90 degrees with about 20mm space between them so you guessed it….

one destroyed oil cooler which lead to transmission oil mixing with water, now both the water system & transmission oil system needs to be drained, flushed and re filled along with new parts fitting wouldn’t mind but I’m trying to fix it in a record breaking -15º fek fek fek!

Munched oil Cooler

new oily prop shaft, fitted new fan belt whilst at it as the propshaft runs through it thought it a good idea to fit a spare at the same time (actually I read it on JCB forum ) but yet to be tie wrapped out of the way.

feeling more inspired myself as of yesterday ‘Tia’ (female Husky) is now part of our epic (to us) journey….

finishing Fosse…

from here the treated water runs into the ‘sand filter’ basically the water enters the top of this plastic lined, sand filled pit, seeps through pipes with holes in, falling through the sand & gravel with a ‘Geo textile’ film, this filters the water once more & is collected at the very bottom to be then drained off to suitable area, which happens to be the other side of concrete so i’d better get cutting..

first thing in is the inspection tube & exit pipe right at bottom, said pipe has to be mechanically sealed through liner, after working on the jCB its a pleasure & no different to Mecano, bit warm in the black plastic hole on a 24 degree day in no way complaining though

lower distribution matrix

exit pipe 5ft down under concrete

30 tons of aggregate, sand & pea gravel

gravel in on top of pipes

sandals and slippers taking a bashing

but she’s very happy 🙂

as are we

back to reality

sand in

levelled off ready for next layer

top matrix

covered

geo textile membrane seperates this layer from the last layer of top soil

all connected up over the weekend we finally have a proper sewage system the luxury of being able to flush without having to count down to the next trip across the fields with a bucket of pooh, was ok in the summer but the winter trips left me feeling like scott of Pooptarctic

these chaps were out again this morning Tia will have great fun chasing them

under the watchful eye

laying concrete back down, then forced into soft soil below ready for reinforced top layer to be laid

dispersion trench dug to receive gravel, you can just about see the pipe arriving from the sand filter that passed under the concrete at the far end

bit knackered after all that tbh, been at it 14 days straight trying to make up time lost in cold weather and JCB breakages, so some time in the potager is in order, Gills not been idly watching me, she’s been working hard digging over our central flower bed display that was 8 inches thick of agro grass, I admire her tenacity to get things ‘just so’

the right mix of manure, top soil, compost etc etc there will be stepping stones laid in amongst so Macro photos are poss, specific plants planted to attract the creepy crawlys

Cranes are returning, a beautiful sight and noise, we’re not really on their flight path so have been quite lucky, lovely way to finish the day seeing these guys fly into the sunset.

In light of the Cranes returning, another welcome return this week has been the first Barn Swallow, it’s incredible to watch their acrobatics & their return to the same nest they’ve been using for years. One solitary bird arrived today, over the next 2 weeks they will be many many more, they are a very welcome sight & sound that really brings in the new season

Still in the Spring theme, Gills been hard at work making use of the shelving I made for the greenhouse, hundreds and hundreds of little seeds planted a week or so ago, 3 types of Chillies, red, green, yellow Jalepenos, Asparagus, Cauliflower, Brocili, tomatoes, onions, chives, the list goes on…..