Ty Korrigan

Hello,  Obviously condition/hours is something I can't see here so you must judge that for yourself... The prices of such machines have come down enormously in recent years. What he paid for it is irrelevant and has no bearing on what you should be prepared to pay. What it is worth against new products on the market today is the bottom line. I say that a 5 year old machine is worth 50% of 'todays new price' unless in mint condition but this is France...  As for offending him.. It is he with the offensive price point! Nail him!

Hello Chris,  You may be an adept creater of phallic symbols but you are not alone here on this forum...  We have a 'Dick Smith' also... Every day he works in his forge high up on the North Downs forging potent images of male members in order to appease the clients of private shops up and down the country...  This must be the case as Bonobos are known to be enthusiastic about such things...  I read this on Anglo-mis-info somewhere....

Hello,  For most of my clients with 'nicer' lawns I use a set of mulching blades on my mowers. These are double blades basicaly and cut grass much finer and so it tends to decompose quicker and drop ito the grass without rotting on top of it. They cost me 80euros a set so I never use them on bumpy lawns or first time cuts as they are so expensive to replace.The plus side is that I don't have to lift the cuttings so saving the client money and the cuttings are very good for the soil creating a positive thatch that holds in moisture whilst adding nutrients. You do need a powerfull mower and in the wet it can clog easily but it is a 'green' way to go. Composting clippings on mass can cause anaerobic decomposition through lack of air thus creating a slimey morass so the simple addition of anything else that can add oxygen from turning the pile (hard work) to adding sand and other varied organic materials. As for using as a mulch... fine generally but I would avoid potatoes as they are at risk from the phytophora fungus (blight) which may be encouraged by rotting materials.  Turning any heap and adding a variety of other materials possibly the best way to ensure good decomposition. I also mulch hedge cuttings but with a set of normal blades. This works very well indeed for incorporating into the heap with grass.  Oh I do love compost! I even collect my own urine to act as an accelerator but don't tell my girlfriend....

Hello, It gets in the way of me mowing your grass! Random iron work and shiny balls everywhere...  I do like your art and site though... Le Jardinier Anglais

Construction work. No experience required. Non-French nationals welcomed but... An above 'minimum' level of French required for health and safety reasons. Area 22 between Mur de Bretagne, Laniscat and Corlay. Wage is 20% more than the SMIC + bonus after 2 months clean work record.  Contact me for further details. NO TIME WASTERS OR WASTERS IN GENERAL...

What about the Giant Hogweed growing on the verges of Pontivy 56 right next to the Nantes Brest canal!!! Are they chuffing mad!!! if that stuff gets into the Blavet there will be ecological hell to pay.  Should I make a discrete sortie to spray it off with jungle juice glyphosate in eco-terrorist mode or just avoid area 56...?  

You are right of course...  I see where I started my placo joints and where I finished... Also we used a nail gun for the roof, saved loads of time and energy!  Back to the grass now the dew has lifted...

Alcazar... my 'only' mower is 6hp and every day I cut more than an acre of grass so toughen up man! Anyway... now I have 'dissed the weed'.... This week amoungst other things.... I am actually pointing up a barn whose walls are 90m2 in total using a lime mortar. I have 'considered' using a hired machine to spray the mortar into the joints and simply brush off the next day with a  big stiff wire brush but to do this alone is also hard work.  Instead I am plodding along by hand throwing the mortar into the joints then rendering over the stone work effectively hiding the stone beneath a thin layer of mortar before brushing off the following day. This gives a 'buttered look' to the stone work. Time per m2 to rake out 'clay' mortar and apply mix whilst working alone is around 5 hours per 10m2 for which I charge my client 150euros  per 10m2 + materials.  Brushing off is included. I remember when I started offering this service how hard it was on the arms but practise makes perfect. Also the old cement rich mortar is a nightmare to pick out of joints.  I certainly would never go down the route of a stupid toy gun gimmic as I have seen these things cost time and money with the added minus that you learn nothing using them.  So there....    

Hello again... Half my message is missing so it don't make sense sorry!

Hello,  Over the Winter I worked in a factory that made concrete building components. I imagine a textured rubber mat is used for the driveways, laid on the surface and reapplied within minutes elsewhere. We also used many dyes for the beton and also applied an aggressive paint onto the surface which when hosed off with a Karcher revealed the component aggregates which where chosen for the look of the thing by well dressed Parisien architects who minced around the dirty factory floor terrified of the possibility of actually touching or being touched.  Not what you asked about... sorry!  

Hello, My four penny worth of advice is to either pull down your ceiling or over board it.  Masking the glue with a skim may could possibly leave you with a visible trace even after painting.  The cost of plasterboard is little and but the result is as new.    

Hello,  I am asking the forum this as none of my French family know the answer.  Do I have to insure my trailer? It has its own cart gris as it has a PTAC of 1 ton.  I thank you in advance.   

Even then, do eldery ex-pats stay to cope on their own...? Forgive my youthfullness....

Or... The gite is postioned here but the Germans are here, here and here. I met a shellfish farmer last weekend who told me that he often gets elderly Germans returning to his area of Finisterre to look up the places where they where stationed during WW2. Regard 'The master race' he said to me as an obese former soldier squeezed out of a camping car to waddle of to the blockhouse he bravely ran away from in 1944.  'Probally the best holiday of his life' I was told. Four years of eating oysters and dossing by the sea only to make a 'strategic withdrawl' at the first signs of action.  The former soldier peeped into the blockhouse and recoiled at the sight of human excrement and litter than covered the floor before shaking his head and getting back into his camping car...  Thats as I saw it....  

Hello,  An observation...and I am not having a pop at any-one here. Talking to 'some' people here I find that they have sold up in the U.K and moved here on more of a whim than any real desire to better their lives. Arriving ill prepared for making a life here other than a wadge of cash from a property sale. In doing so they have found they can't get any work and end up spending any capital on living expenses and renovation costs. Another group I observe are those who have retired here. I should like to ask, retired here for how long? I can understand living here until the goodlife is over but will many of these people actually go into a French old folks home especialy with the language skills they have?  Its just that I have rarely met any older people who have any serious language skills and I just can't see them staying when they are no longer able to manage for themselves. I assume that they will all go back to the U.K unless they have any serious family living here. Me, I haven't a clue where life will take me....

Hello,  I met a French girl at a cycling concentration here. 4 years later we are still together. It has not been easy for me but I have had the love and support of a remarkable native family. I never would have moved here otherwise and had no desire to live in France previously. As it is my lass would like to move to the U.K to try life there. If and when we return to France we shall choose a place better compatable for each others work needs. Very rural areas are a big No! Tranquil, quiet, even idyllic but a nightmare to find work for the young. Retired persons and those of independant means may live where they choose but for the young earning a living often requires a serious population nearby.  The solution for many Brits may be gites and self employment but this is a rather hackneyed idea and is less and less succesfull. My own entreprise being seasonal and so I must find work for at least 4 months of winter.  Upon reflection... it has been an adventure so far...

Hello there,  I am paid by cheque employee, work in a factory and have a gardening micro entreprise and now also work on the black in order to compete on a level playing field with the expat community.... Ha HA!  Any-way, I don't use an accountant but my 'Controleur' from the M.S.A in formed me that as I had paid social charges via other sources then I should be elegible to a reduction in the amount my actual entreprise pays.  If you don't ask then you won't get... I have also found out that if I have no fixed abode then I can run a business and pay only 260euros a year in social charges but am then without 'rights'... The same status as a traveller...  Even my controleur couldn't tell me what the 'rights' where...  

How do I do this avatar thing...?

 I am fed up with shaking hands with all and sundry in each and every shop/situation/social gathering as I have now developed repetitive strain syndrome and have lost many hours of good Anglo Saxon working time satisfying French etiquete...  Bugger the place.  I only wanted to pay nothing for a house and cut grass on the black, not socialise with drunken sons of paysanes and their ugly daughters who smell of the byre, fags and their husbands.... UUURRRGHHH!

Dick.... Any-one tell you how well you have 'evolved' recently...?

Thankyou, I shall try this as it is definitly better than 'Reg's' recipe...

I confess I am terrified of Dick Smith since I teased him once during an 'inhebrieted' moment (was there a spell checker once here..?)  I am always concious of gramatical erors and spelling mistakes when posting and every day that passes without being hauled over the coals is a blessing for me...   I shall read 'eats shoots and leaves' at the earliest available opportunity...  and maybe go to night school...   Apostrophes misplaced and spelling misconstrooode... Sorry!

You mean carpet on the floor and not on the walls.... I have seen inside a French clients house... Circa 1958...?

In an episode of Blackadder does forth.  Lord Melchett say's " Security, Blackadder, is not a dirty word. Crevice however, is.."  How rude!

As in self manipulation Christine...?