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friend of stouby

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Everything posted by friend of stouby

  1. what about a sweet eating grape, black or white, that can be grown on a conventional due south facing hillside in the northern Auvergne near to Moulins? Any recommendations please?  Jamie ps:  but not a climber as they will be free standing
  2.  No longer sure if I'm on topic but am enjoying it all anyway, ....  as a poor second best, is there a wonderful book on wiring UK homes ? one that maybe is pitched under an electricians examination course but a little up from a rank beginner. Not sure why I asked this but know I can get help with edit if I need !   Thanks      
  3. what's 'log splitter' in German Keith, and what type was that? Thanks
  4. Are there any recommendations for a book written in English for general house wiring in France. I have an excellent French book (recommended here on the forum) but sometimes I just want to take the easy route and grasp an idea in English first, then attack the French book. Thanks from a poor French reader    
  5. Hello Heather Large wood burners remove a great deal of moisture from the air, plus create a constant airflow which tends to prevent mould. This is a simple solution which we have also used in a number of large workshops where metal tools were being coated with a rust film over night, a wood stove cured this problem.  Jamie         
  6. Hello Neale We are a little south of you in the northern Allier and have to have a major roof replacement as we too want to convert all of our attic. I was wondering if you had progressed at all with your roof repair, or at least now have an idea of cost per m2. We have the small red clay tiles which I believe are also found in your area, but as the whole roof is to be retiled are considering using modern look-a-likes as a neighbour of ous has done, and I must say that it looks quite close to the originals (he replaced his roof by himself but I do not have a head for edges at any height !).   Any help or advice is much appreciated Thanks Jamie
  7. ... the reason for not wanting to disconnect the supply and sink the pipe deeper is mainly due to the supply arriving through the neighbours garden and so far we haven't found any form of external stop-cock, although very thoughtfully we have them either side of the meter that is located inside the kitchen.  
  8. It may also depend on the supplier. We asked for 3 steer in April and found it easily. Our neighbour then suggested we use someone more local for this winter and although the wood is not freshly cut, the local wood has quite a high moisture content and not at all good to burn. The first delivery we specifically asked for wood to burn straight away and the second the neighbour arranged on our behalf and we have no idea what was ordered. About the time the wood was delivered our neighbour disappeared off hunting and a week or so later we left for England. As your first reply, it may well depend on the amount of forestry there is in your region. Jamie    
  9. Hello to all The rear wall of our fermette has soil against it to a maximum depth of about a meter as the house is built on a shallow hillside. Next spring we will remove the soil against the rear wall down to internal floor level and create some form of land drainage maybe 3 or 4 meters away from the rear wall. The mains water pipe runs across a field and into our house at or just below floor level. We do have the occassional -15oC cold snap we are told. The question is...  as the mains pipe is presently at least a meter below ground there doesn't appear to be a freezing problem, but if the pipe where it enters the house is only 10 or 20cm below the new ground level when the soil is removed, it occurs there maybe a problem. Has anybody overcome this problem before or have any practical solutions? I understand it may be necessary to ask for the pipe to be sited deeper, but am trying to avoid going that route if possible. Is there a know minimum depth that water pipe should be placed below ground level?   Sorry for such an obscure question and thanks in advance Jamie  
  10. If the "slinkies" are laid into a hillside, do they follow the contour of the land or must they be laid horizontal?
  11.   Thank goodness for this forum, so much info here. We have moisture in/on the inside of two of our outside walls which even with the current levels of dryness and heat is transferring moisture to fabrics, armchairs, towls and clothes hung outside a wardrobe. This is probably the standard situation with 200 year old stone cottage, soil piled against the outside of 2 walls, part of the way down a slope, too old to have a damp course etc etc. In the short term we want to improve the ventillation each room by fitting adjustable grills with ducts through the walls.  The question is simple?? ...... is a grill more effective at floor level or ceiling level? have been trying to work out how air flow will be best created and can't decide if top or bottom is the best. Anybody have experience of this? Thanks in advance. Jamie     
  12.   Hello londoneye Send me a photo at  [email protected] , it sounds like a 'used to be popular/common' type of cuisiniere. We used one ourselves for about 2 months earlier this year mostly for heating, and it worked really well ......once lit. With our De Dietrich model, on lighting (very straightforward) with a cold stove and flue, the design of the top plates (gaps everywhere) allowed smoke to escape, but within minutes this cleared and didn't give any further problems....plus stayed in for as long as fuel was put into it. We used Charme and Oak, Oak kept it in over night without a problem for such a relatively small firebox, and for one evening only we used Anthracite, which was only half burnt after about 7 hours!! We are now replacing the De Dietrich with a large Godin cylinder, gives us more space, also goes with the style of an old fermette, and has a large firebox = can now saw wood into 50cm lengths instead of 35cm. I must say that I will miss the cuisiniere even though it's an ugly old thing, they are well built and very welcoming too. Hope this helps Jamie  
  13.   We have used 0044 to supply a French SFR sim card with a starter pre-paid credit which appears very similar to the Orange offer. We used SFR as it's part of the Vodafone group and didn't have to think about locked handsets as we use Vodafone in the UK. The service was very prompt, and a small query was answered well and very quickly. We were impressed with our experience with them. ......not sure how you can top it up remotely from the UK though??   Jamie  
  14.   I agree with Sunday Driver to use the eastern route, and in fact used just that 2 weeks ago with a large van & caravan, it was very straight forward.  In the last 2 years I have driven about 30,000 miles a year in France, much of it alone, and very often complete routes that I haven't travelled before. My motto is 'keep it simple' and I used this 2 weeks ago. Travelling south I used the furthest destination sign board I could find when I reached Lille, which was Paris,Bordeaux, Lyon, then Nevers. That got me from Lille to Moulins (Allier) without looking at a map (although I do study the most up to date map before I set off). I returned via the east of France on this occassion, but would have used Aeroport Charles de Gaulle and Lille going north. Also I keep a piece of paper to hand ( sunvisor) with the autoroute numbers, both E and A, in the order that they follow each other, and if it looks very complicated the junction number to change at/before/after. This mostly works for me......hope it helps. Jamie
  15.   ...the problem with the flymow on a rope idea is there are a fair number of rocks (part of the retaining setup) which are not flush with the bank surface...
  16.   Is part of the problem that heat rises unobstructed to the upper level, and all cold/cooler air falls to the ground floor where living area is?
  17.   Thanks andyh4, Pip and Russethouse, they are all good points. Strimming is a very difficult option due to the height unless a scaffold was used but there is the ditch to contend with too, plus the highest part of the bank really does appear like the North Face of of the Eiger when looking from below. Have thought of planting a hedge at the top but it then occurred, how to trim it on the road side? Perriwinkle sounds interesting, I'll investigate it further and Ivy is found all around our property (though not on this bank!) and in the recent past has overtaken 2 large oak trees nearby, so is obviously virulent. That may put us off of Ivy as we do love trees and it appears as a pest in the neighbourhood although because it grows so well it may be the best idea? With any planting, hedge or ground cover, plants that have intense root systems are what we are looking for, to form a mat across the bank face or just under it. Many thanks again for the ideas, Jamie
  18.   The front of our property is above the road level, by as much as 4m at the highest point down to 2m. A steep bank (maybe 75 degrees from the horizontal ) runs down from our garden to the road level. The bank has been built with stone and soil but without any form of mortar, and is covered by grass and weed. There is a shallow ditch at the base. There is a fence running along the upper boundary edge with some of the post concrete bases becoming exposed due to erosion. The question is...are there any recomendations for dealing with the two continuing problems. To stop further erosion by planting into the bank, and to plant some form of ground cover that will need minimal maintainance but remain looking good. We are there only half the year. The previous owners were part of the farming comunity and I believe that a neighbour must have trimmed the bank for them. We are new to the area but hardly there at the moment,  and are not sure that we could ask the same favour anyway, therefore a low maintainance ground cover. The bank faces east, is well drained fine soil, in the shade for maybe half the day, and as I wrote is underpinned with sandstone rock, which is another reason that mowing with a flymow on a rope for example doesn't work, some of the rock shows through. Any straightforward ideas please?
  19.   Hello again Thanks everyone for the advice and opinions, apart from the fact that 3 of the trees are 10m+ tall and removing caterpillers is not practical in this case, I have learnd some useful things. It appears that not to worry too much about caterpillars, use grease bands for other problems that may arrive, hope for a milder spring next year, and be around the moment the cherries are ripe. Many thanks. ....I have now posted a different question, hope this is ok?  
  20.   Hello again Thanks everyone for the advice amd opinions, apart from the fact that 3 of the trees are 10m+ tall and removing caterpillers is not practical in this case, I have learnd some useful things. It appears that not to worry too much about caterpillars, use grease bands for other problems that may arrive, hope for a milder spring next year, and be around the moment the cherries are ripe. Many thanks. ....I have now posted a different question, hope this is ok?    
  21.   Hello We returned to our fermette last week to find 4 of our 5 ancient cherry trees attacked by 2 types of caterpillars. The effect is severley nibbled leaves and all the fruit clusters withered and dried up.Each of the trees had masses of blossom when we were there in April. The previous owner confirmed that the caterpillars had caused the damage and just shrugged and said some years they arrive and some they don't. Does anyone know of anything preventative that we may do before next spring that may prevent the caterpillar attacks? An apple tree next to one of the larger cherry trees also suffered from the same problem but less severe. Thanks for any ideas. 
  22. At the risk of putting this question back a step or two, may I ask a simple question of those with ADSL in France. We had a Wanadoo dial-up account and want to change to ADSL. Phoned English speaking FT line and arranged a new contract for ADSL. Box with modem, CD and booklets and leaflets arrived promptly but we left for the UK before there was time to set it up but continued using the dial-up sytem. The day we left the dial-up stopped working and would not reinstall, I made a guess that the ADSL line had been installed and the dial-up wouldn't work on that line??? We return to France in a few days and want to install our ADSL modem but without the disc if possible, so have noted the info on this thread, but one large question remains. The data for the connection are listed above, but where do the username and password come from? The only documents with the kit were booklets and leaflets on usage, but no code names/numbers. Does anyone have any idea or is it possible that we continue to use the old dial-up details? Many thanks for any help   Jamie
  23.   We have now taken possession and moved in to our small fermette with most of our previous fears having melted away. Now we are studying some of the works that need attention, one of which is to find out if it is possible and practical to insulate the internal stone walls without losing too much space....it is a small building. As was probably usual for this type of building, the walls are c. 50cm thick and built of the local sandstone with a soft (and a little damp) mortar, maybe a lime mix?. The stone is irregular with smaller pieces filling the inner part of the wall. The outer and most of the inner walls that are visible have a hard cement render which in the main is in reasonable condition, internally some of the walls are behind a form of board or panel, and therefore don't know what lies behind that at the moment. There are a number of air vents built into the walls. Does anyone have the experience of insulating such a setup and if so were the advantages worth the effort? Also did the insulation cause any problems with the stonework?   We were living in the house during April when the night time temperatures were quite low, and even with only a basic wood burning range the evening temperature was almost acceptable. We do believe though in the benefits of insulation for all the usual reasons. Any advice, views or info on this would be much appreciated...... ps: we are using the house as a holiday home at the moment 6/6 months UK/France and required a home insurance policy that would allow longer absences. Having asked and checked many leads we opted for a French insurer on the basis of the full coverage while in the UK plus cost. Yes the policy is in French and no we probably don't understand all the detail, but neither do I on some policies written in English. We have worked on the basis that we have understood the major components of the policy and that's the best we can do where ever we are. We also used a second registered English speaking Notary. His was very meticulous and had all the time in the world to make sure we understood the detail and consequence of the sale proceedures, and we felt that as we had hired him he really was working for us. Plus the fees were very reasonable. Hope these notes help any others about to purchase a property in France        
  24.   thanks James, what does a liner of that size weigh and how did you move it at each end? and Glynis...are they Coypu ?   Jamie
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