Rob Roy

Some friends brought us some for last year - our French neighbours thought they were great, they had never seen them before. Thanks for the reminder to get organised to ask for some more to be brought this year by someone in a car!

And to hear French spoken watch French TV, again and again and again - in the end it starts to make sense! (Whether you enjoy it or not is another matter!!)

[quote user="WJT"] Here in the Dordogne as well. Our local farmer has these very small metal dome shaped boxes he keeps calves in, the poor things cannot stand or even move at all. If that is not cruel enough, I cannot imagine the intolerable heat they endure in the summer months in these tiny metal boxes they spend there entire lives in.[:'(] I think the least we can do, even the biggest meat eaters among us is to give up eating veal. To buy veal and support animals being raised in such cruelty is beyond me. A very small sacrifice indeed. [:(] [/quote] Or perhaps buy veal sourced from those raised with their mothers, then perhaps others will follow that example?

[quote user="Haventgotone"] Hi all, I struggled with a tea towel the first time I made redcurrant jelly - very messy and a little scary with all that hot liquid! Then my sister-in-law told me that she had used one of those bags for hanging hams when she made her quince jelly.   I'm thinking about trying to make cheese and may try using one of these bags they are sold in supermarkets for a few euros each and seems like a good idea to me. Good luck Val [/quote] I also have used the material sold for hams and it worked well for sloe and apple jelly, but my lovely M-in-L bought me a Lakeland jelly bag as part of my extra goodie bag last Christmas, so will be trying that this year. She is also arriving on Thursday for her annual visit with some muslin that I asked her to get as I have not found it here in any shops (she's a gem[:D]).

It must have been a hard summer, he's starting to talk to himself again[:-))]

[quote user="Jon D"]I confess that I remain mystified as to why there is such resistnce to changing one's licence for a French one. It's not difficult, it's not particularly expensive (or, at least, it wasn't), you get a useful piece of ID (minor benefit) and jobsworth gendarmes can't misapply the law on a flimsy excuse (they can always find another one, I am sure). So why the reluctance to change? [/quote] No reluctance to change here, but our Prefecture wouldn't do it when I went to ask, said it wasn't necessary as we had the pink EU licence and our CdS (for identity purposes), and refused![8-)]

Sorry Val-2, I wasn't aware of that, interesting! Does that mean that if you have a small van and an ordinary car you don't pay road tax in either?

I agree with Cassis and Wozza - our agent organised the change of name and reconnection of water and electric for us.

Sorry Nick, maybe the wine has befuddled my brain, but I don't understand your posting. Can you explain please!

What do you class as organic?

Not true in the Limousin. Here all calves are left with their mothers in the field until going to local abatoirs for slaughter.

Good luck, and all the best for your next delivery[:D]

Try asking on this site, in the Parlez-vous Francais? section of the forums: www.acountrylife.com Or ask again here on the Pets or Wildlife/Nature forums.

Perhaps the problem is where you staying - in Dordogneshire [;-)] Are you sure these were not UK residents/visitors?[Www]

" As a starting point let us suggest veal and the way that they are treated." Meaning?

There is no yearly road fund tax for ordinary cars in France. However if you have a 4x4, van etc then you are liable.

[quote user="legs_akimbo"] You can indeed board straight onto the rafters,though Nick does have a point about slight deflection in timbers that are not of a substantial thickness. Anything over a 5" rafter is fine to board onto and the roof can be braced with collar ties which can  form a ceiling and added struts around where the perimeter of the room will be. If you need to add depth to the rafter, to allow for between rafter insulation you can screw 2x1 or 2x2  directly onto the original (underside) rafter to enable the installation of between rafter insulation of the Kingspan double foil backed rigid polyisocyanurate (P.I.R.) type. Though expensive its insulation values are excellent and more importantly in summer when slate roofs can heat up to 70 degrees, the inside attic room will stay cool whereas inferior insulations will turn the loft space into an oven. It is critical to allow 50mm of space between the underside of the roof covering and the insulation for through ventillation, if you do not there will be major problems in the future. Frankly though if the roof and timbers are in poor condition then this must be addressed before contemplating any extensive conversion work. Another consideration, and probably a planning issue would be to install a loft escape window at lower levels for easy access in the event of fire. [/quote] Of you can use the metal spikes and rails available here that are a lot less hassle in our opinion, they hold the insulation in place and you can fix the plasterboard on to them. We have 200 mm of 'ordinary' insulation which is a lot cheaper and is the recommended thickness for this area.

This story has been running on the BBC Breakfast show, and from what I gathered it was highlighting people who have moved abroad and thought they should be entitled to the same benefits, particularly carer's benefit, as they would get if they still lived in the UK. They felt these should be paid from the UK as they had previously paid their taxes and NI there.  I noticed that all those interviewed that I have seen are at present living in Tenerife, or other parts of Spain, and now face having to return to the UK as they cannot manage on their own any more.

[quote user="Cassis"] EDIT I'm not calling you an old granny, either.  [:D] [/quote] Phew! I was just going to tell you to mind your manners, you young whipersnapper! [;-)]

You might all think you are obsessive about your joints - try being married to a car body repairer/classic car restorer who has rubbed down more cars than I've had hot dinners! I was told in no uncertain terms that my rubbing down was not good enough, and to keep going (I suggested he did the rest on his own[:@]) - mind you he was right and you can't tell at all where they are now it is all painted.[:P]

[quote user="Cassis"]I can imagine.  But try digging the blighters by hand! [:D] I found some anti-sprouting agent in the village agric shop.  Cost 4€ and there's enough powder to do 400 kilos of potatoes if you're not silly with it. Sorry - that was another thread but I can't remember where it was! [/quote] I have dug them by hand (only on a garden scale though), and agree with you. But Gilbert grows them commercially for the markets etc - the field we were on the other day was about 3.5 acres, and that is just his first field to be done! He measures in tons rather than kilos.[blink] As least I never have to buy a potato - just go to the barn and fill a bag when we need them.[:)]

Here are a couple of sites: http://www.graines-baumaux.fr/ http://www.jardinexpress.fr/

If you do a search on here for "photos" you will find several answers about how to put photos up. I'm not sure what you mean by an e-mail draft?

Just to get back to the orginal posting - about toads! I was helping out our neighbour, Gibert,  yesterday by working on the potato harvester, had to sort the potatoes from the earth that came up the belt. Suddenly found a toad in front of me - quickly scooped him up and deposited him over the side. I think I missed a few potatoes doing it, so don't tell Gilbert![Www] P.S. It was b***dy hard work, and filthy dirty with all the dust.

My husband loves these, and so do our dogs. They can't wait for him to have 'his share' so that they can get theirs!