Solar Eclipse!!?? Back To The Barn - Preparations For The Floor Levelling

(Historic Post of The Day - More preparations for the biodigester installations: The Concrete Base Is Going In! 21/02/13)

Big birthday shoutout to our lovely nephew, Jacob Patton - 15 today!! Happy birthday Jacob!!! Love you!!! :o)

We were all very excited today as it was going to be the first solar eclipse in 16 years!! Summer had been told all about it at school and they were going to be watching a video about it and going outside with the special glasses so they could see it all happening!!

We have had sunshine and clear blue skies all week and, as luck would have it, today of all days was cold, windy and gloomy with lots of "giboulées de mars" - March rain showers.

So, unfortunately, there was not much to see - just went a little dark, but was dark anyway as the sky was completey grey! Oh well - sure we'll have another chance in another 16 years time!! :oD Saw the spectacular eclipse with everything going totally black in UK on the news - looked amazing! I'll just pretend I was there! ;o)

We both had some admin tasks to do this morning and also the normal bits and bobs around the house, so that was us up until lunchtime.

I still haven't managed to finish all my garden tasks due to the whether and the fact I had to take my car to the mechanics yesterday, but no matter what the weather is - there is always something to do, so we turned our attention to the barn.

Scott has been itching to get on with the barn floor for ages, but has had a couple of big design jobs in and so has had to focus on getting those done. Now, he should be able to focus on the barn in the daytime and do any CAD work in the evenings, but I suppose it depends on the work demand - time can only tell!

First things first - we need to move all our bits out of the left section of the barn (to be our house) and store it in the middle section whilst the work to the floor is being done. Lots of organising to be done before Scott can get going with the breaker, but at least he has managed to do a bit of breaking out!

I am so pleased that we are finally back onto the barn! Not long until the summer now, so the sooner we can get the main bits done, we can get moved back in and ready for the summer! The main bits for me are the floor levelling and the installation of the side french doors so we can access our garden and not have to use the front doors which are visible from the gite.

Below: Me being an idiot and watching the totally cloud covered partial eclipse through a pretend telescope! No, don't think I ever will grow up!

Below - The Barn Re-visited - Time to clear out!

Scott has started breaking out with his new electric breaker - seems to be doing the job, but there is a lot more to do!!!

Below: The left section of the barn which will one day be our house. Yes - we lived in here during summer last year! "Camping a la grange!" Obviously the floor was still intact, it was very clean as had been pressure washed from floor to ceiling throughout and everything wasn't covered up with dustsheets giving the feel that someone had died!! I don't think we did too badly with the 12 days we had to get it liveable, move in and get the gite ready! Actually quite enjoyed the experience once the shock of the cavernous space around us at night was over!

This shot is taken from what will be the lounge, through to the 2 downstairs bedrooms and dining room (currentlly being used as a bathroom. Our temporary "bedrooms" and "bathroom" were separated by makeshift walls for privacy which I quickly put together using old bedcovers that I cut open and attached to some wooden curtain rings, which I had to saw sections out of so they would fit onto the metal support bars which divide each section.

Below: our temporary bedrooms and bathroom. Hey! We had a rolltop bath! Now if you ask me - that was some stylish camping! ;o)

It's all got to come back out again!

The old kitchen which we took out of the gite, complete with washing machine and dishwasher - oh yeah!!

Unfortunately, during the last year, some pidgeons and by the looks of things, an owl too have managed to get in through a high level window which currently has no glass (and is where our friend the bat used to come and visit us each night through!). We have a window which will be going in ASAP to stop any more visitors! In the meantime, forget the pressure washer - the floor is being broken out and replaced and everything else is getting a good couple of cotings of dettol!

Can't wait to have a totally flat, level floor! Although, the trough did act as a brilliant ball pit for Summer last year - she had a little section in the sitting room area which I padded out with foam and filled with her plastic ball pit balls - she loved it! :o) Bless her - not quite a normal upbringing is it!? But she sees it all as one big adventure, so it's great!