Graye

I'm afraid I haven´t really got a clue exactly where this may have been.  We actually drove the whole length of the motorway; we were heading to Monaco at the time so would have covered more or less the whole thing. I've since read something which suggested that there were three of these dumps in the 1960s and 70s although it doesn't say where they were or what happened to them.

This is probably a very vain hope but I am trying to locate a place I once visited many years ago.  It was reasonably close to the main North to South péage of the time (early 1970s) - I believe it was the A6/A7 but would quite happily stand corrected on that.  It was little more than a very large field, absolutely crammed with military vehicles, ambulances, etc.  I seem to remember they were not necessarily French, there were American vehicles and German too.  They were not particularly neatly arranged and the field was somewhat overgrown.  Does anyone know where this is/was and anything of its history please?

Not yet but they are in production (in French and English) as we speak.  Just waiting for my OH to arrive from the UK with the laminator.  I've offered a reward for information leading to his recovery (I suppose that means dead as well as alive but I'm not dwelling on that possibility at the moment):  I'm also producing some flyers to pop through all the local letterboxes but it's such a rural community that I'm not sure how useful that will be.  I'm still hopeful as he is so shy and such a good hunter.  Also because the tracker has not picked up any signs so far.  The locals now think there is a demented woman living in our house who wanders the woods whistling and shouting all day!  But I have a plan with a gridded map and am working my way through it square by square.

Thanks for your support on this.  I think just writing it down helps when you are trying to think of every option to get him noticed or track him down. We lost his brother to a car accident about 18 months ago so have been really careful with him, hence the tracker etc.  Usually we go out and find him before dusk and bring him in for the night, he is rarely all that far from home.  On Friday I started looking at 4pm but with no results, although he had only been out for a couple of hours.  The trackers are really useful and we have already rescued him from being locked in a barn for a week, etc.  The range is 400 feet and they come with two tags and a handheld unit which beeps and gives the direction and range.  Apparently great for things like keys and kids too!  I'll pass on info about them if anyone is interested. Yes, his chip (originally inserted in Spain) is registered with the Spanish, UK and French authorities as he is very much a travelling cat.  The only reason he didn't come with us this time is that the little black one is still waiting for her passport and we thought they would be happier together.  However I would be very surprised if he were to be picked up, he is definitely not a friendly soul with strangers and is quite reserved with people he knows well.  He would have to be injured to let anyone pick him up and even then he wouldn't be very appreciative! There is an area where an old chap used to snare rabbits but I've been over it with a fine tooth comb and as he has been warned off very recently by the local warden I would be surprised if that was his fate. I have enlarged and gridded a local OS map and am now going through it square by square.  It's mainly deciduous woodland interspersed by meadows.  Lots of footpaths but very little used.  I will be sure to report back if I come up with any news!

We have recently been in the UK and left our cats in kennels for two weeks.  I returned on Wednesday and picked them up and on Friday one of them went missing.  We are located in a village called Rudeau, between Nontron and Mareuil.  I believe the older one (white) became disorientated on one of his first trips out and has become lost. [IMG]http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l360/janlawther/cats-1.jpg[/IMG] He is very much a survivor, not people-friendly and an excellent hunter.  Unfortunately he is also a very snowy white and not the best colour to be if he is living wild.  He is also part Siamese and has a very distinctive pointed face and the typical Siamese "voice". He is microchipped.   He is wearing a collar with tracker and we are systematically searching the local woods as I believe that is where he will be.  We have checked the village, outhouses etc and we are not receiving a signal but his tracker has batteries which should be functional for up to a year. We are offering a reward for information which will lead to us finding out where he is.  Putting this request on here is obviously pretty unlikely to turn up any information but I'm trying all ideas I can think of.  I will be putting posters up in the local vets, post office and supermarkets, etc.  Please pm me if you have any other suggestions!  Thanks

Thanks for that.  Here are a couple of macro pix of the cut edge of the table.  The true depth of the wood is around about an inch.  Hope these are good enough I've never used the camera to shoot macro pix before.  Let me know if not and I'll try some in daylight. There are no signs of any resin smells on the cut pieces. [IMG]http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l360/janlawther/DSCN4489.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l360/janlawther/DSCN4490.jpg[/IMG]

I hope you find her and get her to the vet.  They seem to have a sixth sense when it comes to keeping vet's appointments. As for knowing whether she has been neutered if she  doesn't have a chip etc a friend in Spain is running a mini campaign in her village to neuter all the feral female cats.  The wonderful local vet is doing the ops for her for €35 each and is putting a tiny nick in their left ear so she knows which ones have been done.  Apparently cats should legally have chips before vets will treat them in Spain - the exception being feral cats. The last time I spoke to her she was on her 40th female and she does the whole thing by working cleaning holiday homes etc.  A bit like holding back the tide in Spain but at least she is trying.  We adopted one of her abandoned kittens last time we were down there - probably three weeks old at the time.

I must admit that I have no idea what it might be.  Is red pine a type of hardwood?  This seems amazingly heavy for pine - more like oak.  It's also incredibly hard to work.  We DO have another piece of very heavy pine (from a different source) but it is a post rather than a flat piece and hard to do a comparison. Here's another view if that would help? [IMG]http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l360/janlawther/DSCN4469.jpg[/IMG]

Chestnut might be a good bet as there are a lot of chestnut trees around here.  It will probably end up with oak legs.  I'll post a few pictures once it's done. Thanks for the ideas.  Perhaps there might be more once it's finished and waxed.  Certainly too nice to be chopped up for firewood anyway!

What amazes me are the number of French people who have a dog and then let it wander the streets.  Not much chance of THEM clearing up after their dogs is there?  We have new neighbours who have such a dog and as they are out at work he barks all day long at the local chasse pack about a kilometre away then wanders along the lane ripping open rubbish bags - barking at anyone daring to walk along the lane.  Our verge has become his toilet.  I have never seen him walked or even taken into the house.  Why do they bother to have dogs in these circumstances?  All this and FIVE flea-bitten cats who come in to pinch our cats' food at the drop of a hat.  The mayor is fully aware of this as I've seen him visiting the adjoining house - and being barked at. I would think the best bet for the bags are Lidl's freezer bags.  They are around €1 for 75 so pretty cheap and very sturdy with wire ties too.

When we moved in to this house there was a pile of rotting logs under brambles in the back garden.  After disposing of a lot of them (all oak but rotted away) and rescuing some for the fire we discovered all sorts of sawn pieces as opposed to logs.  Many of them have been rescued to make shelves and other odds and ends.  There were three enormous thick pieces which have now been used to make the tops for rustic coffee tables.  We are now left with one beautiful piece of hardwood which is currently being turned into yet another table but we can't decide what type of wood it is.  It just isn't quite heavy enough to be oak and the grain pattern looks all wrong.  We've only roughly sanded it at the moment but can anyone hazard a guess about what it might be please? [IMG]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/MiriamOppenheim/DSCN4471-1.jpg[/IMG]

I've had two dogs (strangely enough both boxers, bless 'em) and I must admit I never once needed to even think about clipping their nails.  I'm pretty sure they would have tolerated it had I needed to as they were both fascinated by every facet of every day but I'm not sure what are the circumstances that the nails need clipping.  Was it because mine were always walked on pavements etc?

I'm glad that so many people have given you support, be it practical or moral, both from this forum and elsewhere.  A very large number of people have almost certainly been looking in here on at least a daily basis who have made no comment on this thread, too. Let's hope the hospital get her move under way soon so that you don't have such arduous trips each day.  I also hope you will stay with the forum once your wife is "up and running" properly, too.  It would be a pity to lose you!

We've used tranquillisers for ours on several occasions.  I think it probably depends on the care with which they are prescribed as our vet weighed each cat, double checked his options in several books and finally offered me the choice of two types, one longer-acting than the other.  Actually, other than making the cats slightly dozy they don't do a great deal - they certainly don't knock them out.  Ours are Siamese so prone to being very "vocal" in the car.  Anyone with a Siamese knows what that can be like on a long trip - ear-splitting.  They actually do become used to travelling and ours just squawk for a few miles now and then just settle down so no further use for the tranquillisers!  We DO cover them on the ferry but that's because we discovered the deck crew "play" with them if they spot them in the car.

She's a  beauty!  Ours was a mish mash of colours when she arrived, apparently black but a very dark tabby when the light was on her and with two faint white stripes along the spine.  She is now extremely shiny and sleek - and pure black.  Cats are such little trouble that I suspect the decision is made for you! At the moment we are trying to resist the dubious charms of this strange creature.  She obviously has a home but thinks ours is much nicer.  She's not hungry, is clean and well-fed and just seems to crave human company.  This is her at the kitchen window late one night.  Our two cats are not impressed. [IMG]http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l360/janlawther/Letmein.jpg[/IMG]

If you go onto whatever you use to play around with your photos on your computer, firstly cut them down to a maximum of 700 pixels wide if landscape and 700 pixels deep if they are portrait.  Then go onto something like photobucket (you'll probably need to create an account) and upload the pictures there.  Once you have them on photobucket you can look at the various options under the pictures and then click on the one which begins IMG.  This will copy the link which you can post into your mailing.  I suspect there might be some more concise instructions on how to do this if you search the site but this usually works for me! Glad about the ongoing good news by the way...

I know it's the Daily Mail but... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1053719/Scientists-turn-5bn-Big-Bang-machine--here.html

I tried putting our rescue kitten into the large dog cage we use for transporting our cats between the UK and France.  All fine until she escaped.  I couldn't work out how until I realised she just walked straight between the bars.  She was three to four weeks old when a friend rescued her having found her sitting under a large thistle plant on a makeshift traffic island in their village in Spain.  Until the day before we picked her up and brought her to France she was being fed by having baby milk syringed into her throat.  Within two days she was happily ignoring "kitten" food and tackling anything in the biggers cats' dishes.  She lived in my furry hat with a little wheat teddy for warmth and her litter tray was a single portion lasagne tray.   They are amazingly resilient and despite being smallish for her age she is completely fearless! Ths is her aged about five weeks, already far bigger than when we first got her. [IMG]http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l360/janlawther/golly3ab.jpg[/IMG]

I do wonder whether you are taking the "racist" comment too seriously.  I took it to mean "racist" as in being about racing - at which point it is reasonably funny,surely? And if it was meant in the usual sense,all I can say is -  don't be so silly!  I don't think that sort of racism comes into the equation.  This is a tale of money, pure and simple.  I have lived in Spain and seen their idea of "racism".  Believe it or not, they are not particularly serious in such comments.  They think being attacked racially is part and parcel of earning a huge salary - you only need to listen to their monkey chants in football matches.  Always aimed at the "other" side of course!

Actually, although we don't have it in writing about the routing of the pipework, we DO have aletter from them specifying how they will "make good".  It also acknowledges they fact that we were away, etc.  Perhaps we have a slight chance then?  I'll pop up to see the maire on Monday with the letters I have.

Could it be Dwarf Elder?  If so I don't think wine would be a good idea...

Members of Saur came calling a few months ago to tell us that in order to give a supply to the new "social housing" being constructed across the lane they would need to tap into our water supply.  We discussed this in some depth with the representatives and they agreed that they would take the supply from within the garage, give us a new meter, seal up the old one in a pit at the back of the house, re-route the pipework alongside the drive and so across to the new houses.  We were not overly happy about this but said we agreed as there didn't seem to be much alternative.  They promised work in 4 weeks.  Nothing happened in that time and we needed to go away for a few weeks. An enquiry by letter elicited that they had no immediate plans to start work anyway.  Almost immediately we reached the UK a neighbour emailed to say the whole of the garden had been dug up by earth movers and there was a metre deep trench across the front of the house (ie from the old meter) and down the drive, probably about 60 metres in total.  When we returned we discovered that the drive had been filled in patched up with a mixture of gravel and tarmac (all of mismatched colours), the trench had been filled in but had numerous huge stones and boulders sticking up, the turf had not been replaced, etc, etc.  The pipework had NOT been laid from the garage but via the much longer route, straight across the garden. We dare not go over this ground with our lawnmower in view of all the stones, many of which are completely impossible to budge and the whole place now looks a total mess. Nothing has been seen or heard of Saur ever since.  Any ideas on what we might be able to do to make sure they at least put things back to how they were originally?

Great news! Have a safe journey tomorrow and tell her a very large number of people on the forum are thinking about her and wishing her well.

OK, having done a steady trawl through the Leroy Merlin and Gedamet sites and seen how cheap it appears to be then it probably WAS a daft question!  Oh well, loads of room in the trailer for baked beans and HP sauce now I suppose.  And I AM joking, before anyone else dives in to tell me off!

Thank you for your kind comments Leo and also Deimos (I was not directing my remarks about bloody-mindedness at you, you were very helpful and have been previously when I asked another question).  I am not a delicate little feminine flower but I do have better things to do than justify myself every time I use the forum.  My prime objection, after apparently clearing up why I asked about pine in the first place, was to the ill thought out one-liner from someone who will apparently be quite a near neighbour of mine.  And it does seems from Leo's reply that my question was not as stupid as has been inferred. We rented in the Dordogne for seven months from September last year and will be arriving back in the Dordogne to spend at least 50% of our time there in our own home.  I have asked 4 questions on this forum over the last 12 months, all of them perfectly genuine.  On two of those occasions I have received "smart Alec" pompous replies.  I do not particularly like cliquish forums where it is apparently appropriate to swap dozens of inane one-liners and "in" jokes but people with genuine questions are made to defend themselves.  I suppose it is the classic case of different personas coming out from behind the safety of an anonymous PC.  There ARE other forums out there and I suspect I will be far less apprehensive about asking a question on one of those just in case it is treated with mockery.  Or have I just been unlucky enough to encounter all your contributors who have nothing to say?