Now the rain has stopped, we are busy 'faireing le bois'. To the uninitiated, i.e. those of you who live in houses with central heating, this means frantic chopping and stacking of wood in an attempt to keep warm over the winter months.
Just doing the wood works well enough. After a couple of sweaty hours lugging logs around the garden, there's no need to light the fire; we are quite warm enough. And, there's no way that I'm going to develop bingo wings anytime soon. As the eldest pointed out yesterday whilst pushing a laden wheel barrow through deep mud, 'Jesus Mum, you could open this place as a fat farm. There's no way people would fail to lose weight here'. She has a point.
Never having had our own bit of woodland before, we are rapidly learning about wood. What will burn, what won't, what needs felling...and just how much time it takes.
Still at least it is a cheap form of heating and given our current financial situation, cheap is good in my book. With Christmas approaching, I am desperately racking my brains for present ideas that won't cost a fortune. Last year we (the royal we obviously) spent hours making the most fantastic art deco dolls house for the girls and an enormous Action Man camp for the boy. Action man's camp came complete with watch tower, anti-tank defenses, a sentry post and (hand sewn with love by yours truly) sand-bags. The husband and his ex-SAS buddy got very into the design and creation of this work of art, painting everything in arctic cammo colours and adding Action Man sized bullet holes to the sentry post. I banned them from building an interrogation suite though and convinced them to make a hospital tent instead. The theory being that then the son could develop his nurturing, caring side as well as his small boy blood lust. Ha! What actually happened was that he stole his sisters Bratz doll and left her in the tent to 'do sex' with the Action Men. I can only hope it was consensual.
There is no chance of such home made delights this year. The husband is too busy trying to rebuild the real house. Last night we spent a quality hour together in the dark. I was holding the torch whilst he wielded a pair of snips and cut off the latest piece of dodgy live wiring before the kids could be electrocuted. Who says romance is dead?
I love reading your posts and imagining your life. Keep up the great writing! and say hello to the family from me.
ReplyDeleteI don't suppose your husband could set up business bulding and operating interogation suites for French artisans to get them to explain how come they want mind boggling prices for cocking up the most simple jobs....could he?
ReplyDeleteAw thanks Harriet!
ReplyDeleteOoh that is such a good idea. I am sure he would be booked until about 2015. Can we include those artisans who you ask for a quote and then never, ever get back to you with said quote?
ReplyDeleteYour blog is great... I have been rebuilding my place high in the hills of Normandie, your pains make my life much more acceptable!
ReplyDeleteCheers
Always delighted to provide a little ray of sunshine amidst the doom and gloom that is property renovation....Remember, things can always get worse!!
ReplyDeleteAgree about the workout potential of having wood fired heating. I read somewhere that lumberjacks in Finland were monitored and reckoned to be be burning up to 5200 cal per day. That's a lot of Mars bars?
ReplyDeleteI think I deserve a fair few Mars bars then...
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ReplyDeleteHi, we've been living in France (Montelimar) for five years on and off (we spent one year back in the UK) and I have to say that this year has tested everything. We are living in a half finished house (with no budget left), my partner lost his job in September so we couldn't afford to go home for Christmas. The homesickness is really unbearable today as it is New Year's Eve and all of our friends back home are having parties. I rang my Mum in a frenzy yesterday and blurted out "that's it, I'm coming home", I've told my partner that I don't love him any more and I just feel desprately trapped by the whole situation. I wanted to share this with you, because your comment about missing "the pub" struck a chord with me. I know that really, all I need is a good natter and a night out with friends (without going to a restaurant)!. Please help, I need advice!!! I would love to hear from you as I'm running out of ideas as to why we are staying in France.
ReplyDeleteI've only just come across your blog so I know my comments are a bit late but.... boy do I NOT miss chopping wood. We lived in France for 5 years but for a number of reasons returned to the UK where we are very, very happy and better still, very, very warm! I shall continue to watch your adventures and wish you the best of luck.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous, you can contact me through my blog at any time if you need someone to sound off at. Been there, got the t-shirt.
Hi, we've been living in France (Montelimar) for five years on and off (we spent one year back in the UK) and I have to say that this year has tested everything. We are living in a half finished house (with no budget left), my partner lost his job in September so we couldn't afford to go home for Christmas. The homesickness is really unbearable today as it is New Year's Eve and all of our friends back home are having parties while we share the evening with other expat friends at home. I rang my Mum in a frenzy yesterday and blurted out "that's it, I'm coming home", I've told my partner that I don't love him any more and I just feel desprately trapped by the whole situation. I wanted to share this with you, because your comment about missing "the pub" struck a chord with me. I know that really, all I need is a good natter and a night out with friends (without going to a restaurant)!. Please help, I need advice!!! I would love to hear from you as I'm running out of ideas for staying in France.
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