Poorly chicken

[Beantree]

We had snow this morning and just an hour ago @Daphne, but it's raining now so most has melted.

What we now know is we have two major heat leaks in the loft. The worst is over the kitchen where the snow melted very quickly, so it's serious. The area corresponds to the main heating pipes and is very difficult to get to. My guess is the previous tradesmen have done a very bad job and haven't insulated the central heating pipes nor fitted the loft insulation because they couldn't be reached easily and couldn't be checked independently.

The second area is at the far end of the house and also difficult to get to and inspect. So it looks like I need a top quality mask, overalls, mask gloves and some crawling boards. Definitely a job for Winter because in Summer it can be over 45C up there.

Always another job to do!

The French do exaggerate their breed values. They are all chickens and the taste lies mainly in the rearing and feed. La Bresse tastes the same as anything else here and Coucou are just Cou-Nu. But what would the Hairy Bikers know; they don't live here?

[Beantree]

Lovely warm sunny day and the front door is open for a while, because they forecast thunder storms with hail later.

Further to my last post, the reason for the heat loss was mainly due to the insulation coming away from the main central heating feed pipes. Wouldn't have been noticed if the loft insulation didn't stop a foot from the far wall where the pipes run, so the pipes were in fresh air. New insulation €17, the insulation we have left over from another job, so it will pay back in the first month of the heating being on I think? Mind you, the mask was rather expensive! Didn't need crawling boards; the loft is planked over.

[Beantree]

Things have calmed down now, but we've had over a week of thunderstorms, some of which have been fierce. For the first time since we arrived here, so 6 years, the torrential rain was driven by a strong Southeast wind. Result was it hit the South wall which I have started pointing, but which otherwise is completely open to water ingress. Whilst some is coved to keep it dry, that's only the bottom metre (splashes off the driveway), so the rain hit the wall, went into it and soaked it through. The result was a humidity level in the hall (along the front of the house) of 90%, a reading never before seen. We had condensation on the windows this morning, another first in June.

Had a quiet spell but now another 4 days of thunderstorms. They predict with a 98% probability that this Summer will be the warmest ever. Insulation is completed in the back store, so the chickens should be OK and we have splashed out on a good aircon unit for one room, so we have somewhere to retreat to recover. The law now says the minimum set temperature should be 27C (energy saving) but who is going to check? I joked last year about a new force called the 'Energy Police' and they did actually start debating it!

[Valkyrie]

After months of autumn, winter and spring monsoons here, there is apparently a hosepipe ban in Cornwall and parts of Devon.  I kid you not, the ground was still squelching in May and we drain fast here.  So why wasn't this rain harvested in reservoirs, and with all the funds thrown at the water companies - why haven't they fixed their leaks.  Oh yeah, shareholders and salaries for the top bods - say no more!  So far we've had reasonable temperatures - finally - around mid May.  Husband went to Utah for 3 weeks and returned on the 10th May - it was still wet here.  There were selfies of him in his shorts and stupid red shoes while we still had our coats on to go out.  But 4 weeks dry and the panic starts.  Not by me - by the authorities.  Well it's been a good year for hay as it is very much like the year we moved in, the grass is taller than me!  I've lost track of how many times the farmers have been harvesting hay, haylage and silage.  A snowy winter perhaps.  Anyway it's been so nice outside that finally I've been able to get cracking in the veg plot and get rid of the last remaining weed sections.  Just slurping coffee and it is cool at the moment and quite misty.  Love these atmospheric unicorn playtime mornings.

[Beantree]

We have leaks here as well @Valkyrie. They are asking the same questions "Why, after the drought last year, have they done absolutely nothing, either to fix the leaks or build reservoirs?" We have been driving past the same leak at the side of the road for a month now. Just planted a bush in the chicken enclosure. Despite all the rain it still needed a pickaxe to dig the hole. The clay is wet but so compressed. It's the stuff they built our house from, or rather held the stones together with.

They are introducing new drought measures now in places, but actually ours have just remained in place. No car washing (unless you use a carwash which recycles the water), watering veg or flowers only after 7.00 pm and before 11.00 am, no topping up or filling of swimming or paddling pools.

As an aside, we are in another 'drought' area they reported on the news this morning. We only have 230 GP's per 100,000 population and some areas have fewer. Just South of us in the adjoining department they have twice as many.

[Valkyrie]

Crazy! 

Just down the road from here there is run-off from the hill that is still pouring water along the road, not gushing as it was although it is still fast moving and I gather natural springs are abundant on that side of the road.  All it does is go down the drain!  There is a well in our utility room which was the original kitchen - slap bang in the centre!  A deep hole with breeze blocks of sorts revealed a cemented rectangle.  Unfortunately the concrete has been poured down and while the guys tried to dig it out, it was too deep.  Pity.  I'd have still boiled and distilled it just for good measure - or had it tested.

[Beantree]

Problem with wells in houses is the ground water can rise up and flood the room with no possibility of pumping it dry. A potential occurrence we had with a capped well in the cellar in the UK, which stayed capped for that reason.

So back to thunderstorms here. We are warned they can be very fast moving and the sky has gone awfully dark as I type. Tomorrow and Tuesday may be the worst and the rare glimpse of BBC1 weather this morning (TV reception isn't very good at the moment) said the same; lots of dark blue areas over this part of France.

Raspberries are abundant and delicious this year. Once again we have a deadening of areas on the tomato plants, but I've cut those bits off and hopefully they will recover as they did last year. Sadly an error on my part whilst twisting our only cherry plant around the support resulted in the top three trusses snapping off leaving just the bottom two.

[Valkyrie]

Second day of big storms - none here.  We've had a bit of rain but it was lovely and warm - I had decided to sort the birds out early just in case - I was radar watching and on the lightening maps, which sounded like a Geiger counter - still does!  Big ominous clouds to the west.  But it is much cooler than yesterday, quite pleasant to work in.  No wind at all though - not even a tiny ripple!

I guess that's what happened with the well - plumber suggested that was the reason.  Our wonderful builder has concreted in one of the drainpipes that takes the run-off away, so they are going to make the pipe drain into the pond.  We're having that all cleaned and sorted at the same time.

Hmm, clouds to the south now.  Hope it stays dry long enough to put the birds to bed!

Raspberries sound good.  I'm hoping for wild rose hip syrup this year - the flowers are terrific!

 

[Beantree]

After 6 heatwaves last year we are on our first this year, which is building in intensity. Just had a look at the warnings for tomorrow and we are on a 'life threatening' RED alert, the first we've ever had. Potentially it could reach 42C so I'm rather pleased that the back room is now fully insulated and the Cou-Nu are in it, the gaps found in the loft insulation are filled, the pointing on the South wall is in far better condition and most important of all the air conditioning unit is in place in the main bedroom. Used a piece of 3mm polycarbonate sheet to replace one side of the window and fit the oval (very awkward shape designed perhaps to make you buy the manufacturers fitting kit) outlet duct. Works well, but could cost a fortune if you set it too cold. 27C is the legal minimum, but in the absence of 'Energy Police' it's set to 24C. The rest of the house is at 26C and it's too hot for me.

I've taken the opportunity to start the BBC French course I bought 7 years ago whilst chilling.

[Daphne]

If its any consolation we get a couple of Code Reds every year, and although its uncomfortable, it is bearable.  We had our hottest day this year on Tues, it was 42, and unpleasant.  Ex-pat friends were here and decided to go to the coast the next day, where it was 22, and then it rained!  What seems to be happening at the moment is that there is a dustcloud from the South, and it holds the warm air down, it looks like smog/pollution, but it isn't.

Good news on the aircon though!  We were in Spain a couple of months ago, it was 43/44 every day.  Luckily the appartment we stayed in had aircon, otherwise I'm not sure how we'd have coped, sightseeing and being out and about (at home, we stay in all afternoon).  I think I had the aircon at 22, 27 seems extremely high.  At home, we still survive with fans and being immobile!

[Beantree]

I think 27C is too high as well @Daphne. It's OK our Government coming up with these figures, but age and humidity play a part as well. They had a report on people coping in this heatwave; one old chap had his aircon set at 20C and the tea rooms had theirs at 23C. They have a heating limit set at 19C. Ours runs at 17.5C and is plenty warm enough considering we are not just sitting down all day.

Worth telling you about our aircon unit. It's a Delongi with a stated cooling power of 2.5KW and an average power usage of 1KW. I took that to mean it draws 2.5KW until the room is cool and then 1KW average keeping it at that temperature. Wrong! Out of curiosity I used a power meter and discovered it only draws 0.75KW and then switches down to nearly nothing. On the rating label the maximum power draw is 1.1KW. So where their advertising numbers come from I don't know. Perhaps it draws more when it's a dehumidifier? I would have bought the 3KW cooling unit, but didn't want to push the wiring which is in the loft where it is over 45C at the moment. Now I know we could have bought the bigger one. So the lesson there is these units are not as power hungry as a glance at the advertising figures would lead you to believe. In comparison our fan heater is 2KW as is our kettle.