Bonnifont 2011
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Chez Moi - Bonnifont - 2011   A record of what happens, as it happens......well almost !
Jan 2011 Start Guest Room 1 And a few weeks later It's done February - trip to the UK for shopping and pick up the car.
Maintenance ready for cutting the grass March - This was our view from the kitchen window Unfortunately, high winds dislodged the back wall and the roof started to fall off And it very quickly deteriorated from there so I had no choice really
Also removed the old swimming pool pump structure Then the concrete base And this is the kitchen view we ended up with. The domestic management does not like Ivy, so that was next.
April - Guest room 2 New ceiling and lots of wall prep but after a few coats of paint
All done. End of April and Fosse Ops commence Tons of sand and stones required for this job
as well as a 4000 litre tank and pipes Start with a hole in the hedge Then a hole for the tank Then a hole for the pipes
In go the pipes and the sand and the stones cover it all over We turn our hand to everything over here
And all done These are the views we used to have before fosse ops started.
A little closed in and lots of shadows These are the views post fosse ops Fantastic vista
and lots of light has really changed the look of the house both inside and out. June and here's that digger operator spraying the fruit trees.
Fosse Ops also gave us the opportunity to trim some of the trees and produce some fire wood 26 June New lounge wood burner installed August - Matthew, Ellie and George visit
August - September Bathroom Remove wall & floor tiles Dig up floor and move drains & pipes Lay concrete floor
Tile floor Tile walls Then grout, grout and more grouting Bath, sink & shower screen
New shower September - Emma, Dave and Archie visit Archie playing with shutters I think this is a Dragon stick !!
Archie sitting next to our old man garden ornament Original boiler with dividing wall to workshop 20 September- Boiler wall removal 24 September - Workshop window removal
New bigger hole required because 26 September - Solar heating installation starts Jen standing by new tank Solar heating roof panels
30 September - New wood boiler, controls and tank 2 October - New workshop window Remove rest of wall between boiler and workshop ready for new workshop layout. This is Stumpy on the left and Knobbly on the right, Jen's favourite old tree stumps that she has been trying to get rid of since we arrived.
Well, an afternoon with a chainsaw and some ropes and a lot of effort and she gets her wish - gone (from the skyline at least) Last job for the bathroom was to fit the radiator
having rerouted the pipes through the WC to provide some heating in that room. October 15th and we changed our Broadband supplier.  8/2Mbps compared to previous 20kbps, worse than dialup and half the cost. Having had a little rain in October I was able to identify areas of the roof that needed attention. The orange chimney is no longer required
and takes up a fair bit of space in the workshop So I removed it, patched up the roof and as well as giving me more room in the workshop it looks much tidier outside as well. New shutters for new workshop window.
Start of bottom field work.  Move old wall rubble to field to make a nice slope from the road. November 1st  and Gerry & Vicky visit for a few days delivering my pneumatic pump up antenna mast
and collecting a few bits and pieces that we no longer require to take back home. Hard work but certainly cleared out my workshop. 18th November and we get our first log delivery
which took 2 hours to move. Notice new log splitter in garage. 22 November and we finally clear the last of the front garden path and then move on to widen the drive moving the earth to the bottom field to make the slope.
Also moved our collection of rocks and stones to the bottom field to help construct the slope making room for next log delivery. Time to put the modified wind generator back up This time at 40 ft so used one of our spare telegraph poles(!!) Hope it works better at this height.
November 25th and final use of digger to dig trench for solar panels and wind generator cables November 28th Remove pen from chicken shed and tidy up area November 29th Flatten earth I moved from the drive dig out to fill
in the French Drains that run across the top field - made cutting the grass very difficult as the lawn mover used to fall into them. 1st December - New toy, wood moisture meter.  Supposed to identify wood ready to burn but even growing trees give the same reading!! 11th December - Put the geraniums to bed for the winter Wind turbine works really well but I think the 3 phase ripple blew up the transient protection on the Tri-Star whilst generating 30 amps
Tri-Star advise against using it in charging mode for wind generators so I reconfigured it for "Diversion Control" mode.  This is the temporary dump load - 5 metres of 1mm2 cable as a 0.39 ohm heating load. Samantha's first visit - Driver training for future working holidays !!! 16th December - Storm "Joachim" left it's mark on Bonnifont removing roof tiles, ripping down light fittings and devastating the Wind generator and the solar tracker array
Ripped the concrete blocks out of the ground.  Only lost 1 solar panel and smashed the solar detector dome I didn't think the 40ft arrangement would withstand a storm - I was right despite 8 extra guy ropes. Put a really nice bend in the lower tube though but also cracked the fan casting and bent one of the blades bent the rotating shaft
and the generator main shaft Worst was the flood water We normally can't see the river through the trees but this was the view from the bottom of our lower field
All of this is normally grazing land for cattle We also had a river running along the back of the house which overflowed the tanked wall and ran through the back bedrooms but this only lasted for 30 minutes.  Anyway, no one hurt so no problem.  It can all be put right.
So - That was 2011, our first full year living in France.

  And what do we think of our little life changing adventure now?

Rural France - Best kept secret of the EU if you ask me.

Whish I'd have learnt of it years before
Christmas time -  a nice warm fire and Christmas decorations And here we are again - our 2nd Christmas at Bonnifont. Fantastic year