Penny29
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Posts posted by Penny29
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I'm looking to find a source of a plumbing part called HEP 20 (or 2.0 or sumat like that)
We bought a mobile home to live in during house renovations - the caravan was made In the UK and has British plumbing. In the latest cold snap no less than 4 pipes have burst.
If worst comes to worst my plumber will convert the entire system to French piping but says this could be avoided if he can use a particular type of connection piece, this HEP thingie, which he remembers being discussed on this Forum ages ago (despite searches of the archives I've come up with zilch).
Can anyone remember the original thread or advise on a supplier of these parts (either UK with online ordering & delivery to France or supplier in SW France).
Thanks in advance
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Miki....................
I think someone's got a crush on you
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The all singing, all dancing, making hot-chocolate-as-well machine is called a Tassimo. We got one for Christmas, but can't recommend it either way as we can't work out how to use the darned thing!
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Hi All,
I've stopped dragging them in at night and decided that they are intelligent enough to decide for themselves. They seem to use the stable more now that they have gorged themselves stupid on grass in the extended paddock area. Although this is a guess simply based on the amount of pooh in the stables every morning (but then they could just be using the stable as a gigantic lav!).
I tried the "coat" idea but they just took one look, laid their ears back, bucked like crazy and ran away - I guess they didn't like my taste in handmade donkey fashionware (Gucci it ain't!) & I did hear Mabel neigh, "My dear, I wouldn't put a dead dog in THAT outfit."
The farrier comes next week and I am dreading it, I expect they will show me up something rotten!
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MDW,
I've had a bad weel here too, but whenever feeling down I think of the M25, the smell of pollution and the daily grind of office politics - it cheers me up every time.
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Thanks, Gay,
He is the absolute best! I saw the Xrays - at least 20+ bullet fragments across her entire hind quarters - most vets would not have even tried let alone succeeded. These vets are in Thiviers - I would happily, more than happily, reccommend to anyone in the N Dordogne.
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Sone tell me what The Cross We Have To Bear is going on about! On second thoughts, don't nother as I'm not interested.
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Hi All,
If my rant offended some then I apologise, I did say I was feeling very emotional when I wrote my last posting (and no, Karen, I didn't mean you - one donkey isn't the same as litter upon litter of kittens and I know how much you love your donkeys from the PM you sent me). Like you, my pockets are only so deep otherwise we would be offering a home to your baby donkey.
However, the bulk of my posting still stands, I understand that some people may have inavoidable reasons for giving up a pet, those are NOT the people my rant was aimed at. Enough said.
On the good side my baby cat is now likely to survive her ordeal by the huntsman - the vet is more than optimistic that she will live although, always now, as a disabled cat. Fortunately, she is the most home loving of cats and so this should not pose too much of a problem. The fact that she survived 9 days in sub zero temperatures with 2 broken back legs and managed to drag herself home remains nothing short of a miracle to us.
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C'mon Miki, you could have come up with a better excuse than that! What's wrong with the old "jam on the keyboard" reason?
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Anton,
Thanks for making me smile for the first time in what has been an awful day.
Your wit is sublime.
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Thanks for the reassurance and advice (and for your PM, Karen).
We finally got Mack and Mabel in the stable in the wee hours of this morning after us walking up and down the fields at 2am (in blizzard conditions) with carrots dangling from our hands! As far as we know they stayed in the stable all night - I can only guage this, though, from the amount of pooh I had to muck out this morning!
I am sure it is the lure of all the new grass which is tempting them to stay out all the time, so as soon as possible, I shall reduce the paddock area & also buy them some donkey macs to wear. This would have all been done today had we not been at the vets all afternoon (see my other posting).
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Don't judge too quickly, especially if you are referring to the poster "Sheerik" - I know Sheerik and she runs an animal shelter in the Dordogne and has rescued countless cats and dogs from death row at the SPA, plus her refuge is constantly used as dumping ground by people who suddenly have unwanted kittens or puppies & many animals just get left in boxes by her front gates - her postings will all be about rescued animals who desperately seek good homes.
However, if you want to get on your soapbox about idiot pet owners then I'll gladly join you! The things that drive me mad with anger and frustration are:
1. Idiots who express surprise that their unsterilised cat has had kittens.
2. Idiots who are stunned that their unsterilised dog has had puppies.
3. People who buy a puppy as a companion to an older dog, then the two don't get on after 5 minutes, so they don't persevere, the just chuck the old dog out and keep the dear little puppy (until that one grows up).
4. People who breed dogs - aren't there enough unwanted animals looking for homes?
5. Lastly, and a bit unrelated - the ruddy Chasse. One of my beloved cats (an ex Sheerik rescue) was shot dead at the beginning of the season, and I have just spent hours in our vets, today, with another of my cats who has two broken back legs thanks to the ***ing hunt and it is extremely unlikely that the vet will be able to perform the miracle we crave. It is more likely that she will have to be put to sleep tomorrow.
We lavish all our animals with care and love & it makes me sick to the teeth to think that my darling cat is fighting for her life while other people out there are dispensing with their animals like so much used tissue paper.
If this all sounds angry and emotional then it's probably because that is exactly how I feel right now.
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Hi,
We've just given a home to two unwanted donkeys. Before they arrived we turned one of our outbuildings into a stable for them - they have manger racks full of hay, plenty of clean fresh drinking water, we have deep-bedded the floor with straw, and a plentiful supply of human contact bearing carrot and apple treats, the also have free access to the paddock directly from the stable - in short they have the 5 star hotel dreamed of by donkeys everywhere.
Up until Monday they were fine, behaving as donkeys are supposed to - grazing in the paddock by day & retiring to their stable at night or when it rained.
On Monday we extended the paddock area by an extra 1/2 acre as I felt they needed access to more grass. Since then they have refused to enter the stable, and remain in the fields even when it is pouring with rain. If we manage to temp them inside with treats, they hang around long enough to eat the goodies then act "spooked", lay their ears back and run out of the stable. I've searched the stable, turned over all the straw, hunted high and low but can't find anything untoward.
As I write this we are in blizzard conditions here in North 24 & Mack and Mabel are standing in the paddock looking like two sad snowmen. This is daft when they have a nice warm home and it can't be good for them!!!
Can anyone shed any light on this weird behaviour or suggest anything we could try to get them to behave like sensible animals again? I really am quite worried about them freezing to death!
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Hi,
We've had some weird weather here in the N Dordogne. Last night wicked gales (don't forget we are living in a caravan in the middle of a danged field at the moment!), this morning snow flurries, swiftly followed by radiant sunshine, followed by wind and hail, followed by thick as socks snowflakes, and now, as I write this, the fields are bathed in glorious sunshine again.
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Hi Shawney and welcome,
Yes, our particular species (!) are all well and alive here in the depths of rural France! In our small corner of the Dordogne we know 3 other lesbian couples and more gay men than I care to count, and you can't get more "out in the sticks" than we are. Even our local friendly tax officer is a dyke!
We were warned that we might have a difficult time of it when we first moved here but I'm glad to say this hasn't been the case. Most of the time I forget that people may even perceive us as "different" as we are so boring and ordinary. We've met nothing but consideration and kindness & we are accepted as a couple when we go along to village events, although I'll be honest and say we would never upset the apple cart by dancing with each other at the monthly danses etc. We don't make an issue out of our sexuality and hence no-one else seems to either - I think, to many, we are just the two daft girls who live up on the hill with waaaaaaaaaaay too many animals.
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Hi Helen,
If this appears twice then sorry - my first response disappeared when I hit the send button.
I believe the new regulations apply to new installations only.
We had a huge discussion about this with eveeryone we knew - many people said we didn't need a conduit (those with old woodburners) whereas everyone we knew who had a new burner installed said we had to have one. In the end we checked with the shop we bought the burner from (although we did find out afterwards the appropriate reg had been quoted on the back of the invoice) & also our insurance company. Our ramoneur checked with the Mairie, who then checked with some government body. Ultimately, the answer was yes, it was obligatoire to have one gaine per woodburner, so in our case we needed two even though they went down the same chimney, because they were connected to different woodburners. The ramoneur felt so sorry for us he only charged for materials on the 2nd gaine!!!
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Hi,
We bought our free standing Godin from a specialist shop in Perigueux but then saw the same model many, many Euros cheaper in Mr Bricolage so it is worth looking around.
We had ours installed by our local chimney sweep. First he swept and cleaned the chimney, then he went on the roof and dropped down the gaine (long silver snake like thing (conduit) which, I'm sorry to tell you Helen, is required by law in France as we checked!), then he made plates to enclose both the gaine and stove pipes into the chimney so that heat would escape into the room not up into the void. We had two free standing wood burners installed in this way (2 gaines, 2 sets of plates etc) and the total cost for the installation was around E1000 including all materials and TVA. Hope this gives you some idea.
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Hi,
Our facture came in today at E226 for 139m sq. We use the washing machine 2/3 times a day minimum, keep the donkeys in water per day (many gallons), baths, showers, loos etc plus we have the builders in at present who are using a lot of water for making render/cement etc.
We do have a well into which we had just paid to have a E1000 all singing, all dancing pump installed then the wretched source dried up (sigh). However, we are having new guttering put around the house and barns next week and the builders are feeding the downpipes into underground channels which will lead straight into the well - this way we will be able to use the pump and well in future for all outdoor gardening needs at no cost. We also plan to pop water butts around our fields and veg plots etc so that we can make use of all that free rain water.
Like the other poster I do like the convenience of ebing able to turn taps on indoors without any major hassle but, at the same time, like to feel we are doing our bit for the environment by recycling as much rain water as possible. If this brings the bills down a bit then so much the better!
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Hi,
They don't always tell you when your "dossier" is ready. Apparently we were supposed to know by some sort of mental osmosis that ours was there when the Notaire sent us a refund cheque approximately 4 months after we had signed the Acte. We happened to mention the cheque to friends of ours months and months afterwards and they said, "Oh that means your dossier is available". We popped down to the Notaire's and asked the question and within 5 minutes had the documents on our hands!
In my experience hardly anyone in France ever bothers to respond to emails - you are better off going into the offices and asking.
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Thanks Paul,
I guess we don't need one then because we have had EDF involved at various stages of the re-wire (change of tariff, and they replaced the exterior EDF box with a new "encastré-d" version and then connected it to the new wiring) and during every vist to the local EDF offices we've told them about the re-wire etc and they haven't said anything about an inspection. The guy we used is a fully registered and qualified electrician so I don't feel the need to have an inspection if we are not obliged to. Thanks for putting my mind at rest.
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Hi,
The re-wire of our house is almost complete - can anyone tell me if it is obligatory for us to have an inspection & get a Cert of Conformity from EDF or are these only required for structures which have not previously had proper wiring (e.g. Barn conversions/new builds)?
If required, who normally arranges this - the householder or the electrician?
Thanks
Penny
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Hi,
We also bought our kitchen from Hygena at 50% off and were very pleased with it. We used an English (but fluent in French and resident here for 20+years) fully registered artisan (actualy a fully qualified cabinet maker - so we struck lucky!) to install everything and the work was of the highest quality. Delighted with both the product and the finished result.
We are in the Dordogne so if anyone needs a kitchen fitter I would happily recommend the artisan we used.
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Hi Diana,
Pop into your nearest branch of Hygena (or find them in the yellow pages re this link) http://wfa.pagesjaunes.fr/pj.cgi?lang=en
Their catalogue has a range of frigo's integré & some will be at sale prices after 12th this month. They also do a range of gas hobs (as do BUT, Conforama, Castorama & many of the Brico's). We have a gas hob from Hygena - it works from both mains gas and also from cubes or canisters. PM me if you need more info.
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Emma,
PLease don't let them go to the SPA as they will almost certainly be put down within 48 hours.
I'm in the Dordogne so too far to help, but have left a message in your inbox
Penny
English to French plumbing connections - URGENT
in House Renovations
Posted
I'm looking to find a source of a plumbing part called HEP 20 (or 2.0 or sumat like that)
We bought a mobile home to live in during house renovations - the caravan was made In the UK and has British plumbing. In the latest cold snap no less than 4 pipes have burst.
If worst comes to worst my plumber will convert the entire system to French piping but says this could be avoided if he can use a particular type of connection piece, this HEP thingie, which he remembers being discussed on this Forum ages ago (despite searches of the archives I've come up with zilch).
Can anyone remember the original thread or advise on a supplier of these parts (either UK with online ordering & delivery to France or supplier in SW France).
Thanks in advance