Proxima

tip... grow broad beans on top of potatoes..the broad beans protect the potatoe plants from frost as they all grow. plant onions and garlic and the like all the way around your vegetable patch..this prevents a large number of slugs invading the vegetables. plant a variety of flowers all the way around too.. promotes bees to vist every plant you got, increasing crop. trees, bushes and brambles help to reduce damage to plants and flowers, giving longer life to all.

It will be far easier to get it into France with a cheap replacement engine and then get it CT'd and registered in France before you do the conversion Otherwise he may never be able to get it registered. Depending on the vehicle make/model, you might need a manufacturers list of dimensions, power etc for the vehicle. I had similar trouble with my SAAB... although I had seen several in France, my car was not listed on the French records so I needed the manufacturers details...from the manufacturer, not a haines or Bobs backyard bunker bargain boot sale type listing. there are several threads here that go deeper into vehivle registration. check them out as I'm scratching the surface.

Sheldon is correct. Tile adhesive relys on the water in the mix and the contact between the dry tile and dry floor that create the bonding process..which is the main reason why you not supposed to walk on them for at least 24 hours. good luck with all that you're doing.

Have you considered wood stain rather than paint. The stain will colour the wood to what you want (or as close as) but will also allow you and others to see the grain of the wood. Most paints tend to hide the wood.

Save your cash and buy a hod. and just remember to never go up the ladder empty handed.  after the first thousand tiles, the next thousand will be a breeze. Not only will you save some cash on expensive tools you may never use again, but you'll also keep fit and you'll have far more pride in your work when you can stand back and look at it and remember how many tiles you carried up there.

It's the UPVA glue that you mix with water and brush onto the floor /wall surface that seals it, but this is usually only to stop moisture in the wall/floor coming through. With people walking on the floor, you wont reduce dust as wear and tear will just break the surface down. Using a varnish will be ok temporarily, but that too will wear away. neither method will harm any tiling you plan to do. Just remember to do your tiling in 'planned' sections as you really shouldn't walk on newly laid tiles for at least 24 hours. If you have problems with dust getting everywhere when you sweep the floor..spray it over with a light covering of water first..this makes the dust clump as you brush it rather than billow up into the air and cover every surface. Hope that helps you.

Tyres over 6 years old are deadly. The rubber dries out and cracks and the tread can completely seperate from the tyre itself. There have been numerous tests of this situation and some of the most experienced and skilfull testers have not been able to keep control of the vehicle when this seperation occurs. Please follow this link http://www.belowtopsecret.com/forum/thread367303/pg1%27 and see what's being said about it there too. This is all relatively new info that the general public are slowly becoming aware of. A 'brand new tyre in a car spares shop/showroom that is over 6 years old is highly dangerous and shouldn't be sold for normal road use. Until they make a law to combat these dangerous tyres, more people will suffer. You can also find videos on youtube showing exactly what happens in controlled tests.

There's always bad news everywhere. What people fail to hear are all the good things that people do for others. Good news does not increase newspaper sales or make for good TV reporting and does not allow for further laws to be passed to increase the governments control over us. The more you hear of the bad things, the more you can be sure that they are being deliberately focussed upon to increase the fear, increase your sense of insecurtiy and to make you less safe. The more you live in fear the more readily you will hand over your freedom for security, and ultimately you'll end up with neither. The UK is already swamped with CCTV cameras that invade your privacy, even if you are out in public, what you do is your own private business as long as it does not infringe on others. There are those who now make head sets made from IR (Infra red) lights that totally disrupt the image received from CCTV so identifaction and observation becomes nigh on impossible. It wont be long before such devices become illegal. Again, this will be an attack at your privacy. The whole idea of terrorism is part of this murder culture. It's all a scam. Even global warming seems to be part of a money making scheme rather than an actual Human issue. There \is more evidence to suggest that the current temperature/weather variations are caused by the sun rather than humans. Would I bring my kids home? Would they be any safer than we were when we were kids? I don't think so. The only thing that has really changed is the manner and amount of reports we hear or read about. Take a look back to the 1960's... Mods Vs Rockers and the riots down at Brighton.. and how about the miners strike and the Brixton riots and football vioilence... this has all been going on for a lot longer than the current influence of this supposed idea about global terrorism. The words terrorism and terrorist are used in such a manner as to make it look like there is one big group of evil doers who are hell bent on creating havoc and chaos for 'law abiding citizens'. The problem here is who are we supposed to believe? Some may feel that the rights of any group up in arms against another group is the correct approach, whilst the other group feel they are correct.. A government of any description only works if you believe it does. This is the same for money, which has not been backed by gold since 1970. Money is completely and utterly worthless, yet our faith in its value is what keeps it in circulation. It would be a choice for my kids to make. They must learn, as do we all, from life in all its ways. They would be more than welcome to come home and/or ask for help or advice and I'll gladly give it.  To deliberately force them to return against their best interests is almost an act of cowardice and over protection that borders on complete insecurity of yourself and your own personal development as well as theirs. Forcing your kids to come home is like an act of betrayal. They could be on their way home and then the aircraft/train/coach/car they are in crashes and all onboard die.. how guilty and gutted would you feel then? Nobody can protect anybody from lifes 'what will be, will be' approach. Death smiles at us all and we can only smile back. Of course we would desperately miss those we love should anything happen, but, we should not feel bad, we should celebrate the time we shared with the wonderful people we brought into this life. Celebrate the life, the love, the tears, the smiles we all shared. One day, we will all meet again. Until then, make the best of it as you can and hold your head up high as we are all free and should never bow to no man, no matter what the consequences.

Woody, I'm all the way around the other side.. way over in the Asia area.. almost on top of the equator. Llantony, yes fixing and servicing cars is not a big problem, neither is getting spares from dealers or from breakers. What's most annoying is the price of some of the parts for cars. A french made Bosal rear exhaust box was close to 300 Euros, where as the same part in the UK would cost you about 60 pounds. Getting to know the parts is not so much the problem..that wont take too long. I've been able to describe the function or placement of certain bits to ask for what I need in dealers/breakers.. as for working in a garage would take a bit more practice..trying to explain a particular problem on a car.. also I'm a bit short on the ability to cart all my tools all over  the place.. but that'll come in time. It's all a bit of a mess and I'll be starting from scratch almost. I know it'll all come together again sometime.

Great info. nicely laid out too. Can I just add a few things that may have been missed out. I did read through the thread but don't remember seeing this.. Plumbing; If you're using copper, then run all the main feed around to the areas you wish to supply in 18mm pipe. Once a point is reached, then you reduce down to the recomended sizes. These sizes are usually displayed in leaflets or display cards in places such as Mr. Bricolage etc. or can be found on the appliances themselves. If memory serves me well, it goes something like this, WC = 10mm Wash basin = 12mm Bath/kitchen sink = 14mm It's something like that, so keep your eyes open or enquire as to the correct way. Flexi connection hoses also come in these sizes, but are sometimes a bit of a pain to get a hold of.  I had a right laugh trying to make sure I got all the correct fittings in one run to the merchants rather than having to go back again for forgotten/never considered parts. Sometimes I found I would be visiting several different suppliers to get the exact bits required. One of the strangest things I ever saw was fully profesional French plumbers stood in the merchants for hours working out exactly which bits they wanted. I have seen this happen several times with different plumbers. Always stood around scratching there heads and checking over sketches or notes they made. If you've bought all your kitchen bathroom appliances, this will make life a bit easier. Either position the appliances or make a diagram of where you would like them to go...then measure up for all the pipe you'll need. Remember, 18mm for main runs, then 'Tee' off or feed to the appliances in required sizes. This way, you wont buy too much or too little of any particular pipe and you can work out from there exactly how many bends/straight couples/tee's/reducers you'll need. In the UK, the rule is 1 pipe clip every meter..so you can happily apply that principle in France too. I'm pretty sure there's no regs on pipe clips. A plumbing tip; If you've just done a connection to older plumbing and you can't get the old joint soldered, then replace the joint itself. Ensure the pipes on both sides (old/new) are cleaned with wire wool and wiped with a cloth. Sometimes this replacing of a joint will also solve the problem of getting a leak from a newly installed run of plumbing. You just somehow get that odd connection that never sits right. Again, replace the connection. The pipe doesn't matter too much as it's usually the connection that is the problem. Have you done your kitchen/bathroom in wood or other dark materials with low lighting? Are you showing the copper piping ? Buy a tube of autsol http://www.autosol.com/ and polish up all visible pipe/connections..you'll be amazed as to how it will look. It also helps to keep the pipe work in good condition and will never cease to amaze those who see it. Many will aks how you did it. Autosol meta polish (in the tubes) is a fine paste and rubs off the top surface of most metals. It will remove scratches and the more you use it the higher qulaity the finish. Copper and aluminium can be given a mirror finish.

WOW.. 1 mtr thick concrete floor.. I've never ever heard of anything that thick for a building such as yours. Are you sure you want a concrete floor? That extra meter of space could be a small tool shed or something if you had a suspended wooden floor. Just a thought. 1 mtr of concrete will take years to dry out (but concrete does get stronger as it ages) The average thickness is 6 inches and I've never heard of anything domestic being over 12 inches. Has the outside wall been built already? You could reinforce the wall (as you do with reinforced concrete) then you could reinforce the concete floor too and tie that into the wall. To me, that makes a bit more sense than a mtr of crete. What's the wall being built out of? block and stone? stone alone? or that terracotta rubbish they tend to use on some houses? or just block work? It's the block work that can be easily reinforced. If you use blocks that have an opening top and bottom, you bed some upright steel rods into the foundations then build upwith the rods inside the block.. Every third row you put in horizontal steel bars and tie them onto the uprights (welded joints are best) but you must also fill up all the cavities in the blocks with crete as you go up. A reinforced wall. A vast majortiy of all manner of buildings are completely built this way in parts of Asia to withstand earthquakes and typhoons. More hardcore but tie in a reinfroced crete floor to the wall is my opiniion. Go have a chat with the local builders merchants or ask another builder what they might do. Even the Mairie might have an opinion in the matter. Sounds odd to me..will be interesting to see what others say here..or any further info you get elsewhere.

It's not so much which tractor to buy. it's more to do with the equipment you can fit onto it. If you want a tractr just to pull large logs around, then anything will do. There's even a fitting that splits logs for fire wood... There are no shortage of tractors in France and some old ones that are actually worth a lot of money. As for grass cutting, then one of those small 'sit-on' lawnmowers might be enough. Depends on what workload you foresee. I'll send you a PM now...

lol..you think it's hard to cross a road in France.. you should try Hong Kong.. Every road has traffic lights and you gotta cross where they are otherwise you run the risk of getting seriously squished. and don't even think of crossing as the lights start to turn to let the traffic go again.. If you do, run, and don't trip. And in the Philippines, well, a right turn becomes a left turn, an exit becomes an entrance and a gap in the traffic big enough to get a moped through is big enough to drive a tank through. And if you do want to cross the road, try to use one of the walkovers that go over the road, just have to dodge the beggars, the pirate dvd sellers and those that are sleeping or feeding their kids.. and that's all hidden by the unmistakeable smell of urine.. vive la France

Cool... just my style too..  hehehehe I'm on the same page as you with this. I am able to do a rather unique relaxation method...but anyway... From the impression I get, you've just got an open field at the moment. Bit of a quandry that idea.. it's more of a natural health spa rather than a camp site. The 'Back to the roots retreat'. May I suggest that those wishing to stay bring their own tents unless they specifically ask to be supplied one. Otherwise if you take out the emphasis of it being a camp site, you may find you'll have to provide food and other services too, way before you even get around to what you have planned for the rest of the day.. Not only that, but you'll have to fork out for a load of tents that might get damaged, plus any cooking untensils and camp/gas stoves etc etc.. all depends on what else you got going on in your plans. As to the layout of the site itself, I feel that each tent pitch area could be sectioned off by flowers, plants, bushes, small trees and even seating areas that are open to the view, but offer a small bit of privacy for enjoying the setting sun etc.. Make the whole place tranquil. Give it the mood you're trying to achieve. Maybe have some trikling water to help calm the air... But i do like your idea. I remember talking to a couple from a few years back who were doing a similar retreat. They were, ummm, into the female-Earth-goddess-getting-back-to-nature-and-in-touch-with-each-other (only other way to describe it is like some of the scenes from the film the whicker man with Edward Woodward) anyway, they wanted me to build a web site for them, which I did, and the last i heard of them was they were all off to run through the woods somewhere.. up in Normandy area if I recall correctly. Which gave me another idea for you.. a nature trail.. if you're situated away from the cities and towns and have access to woodlands etc, then maybe you can expand your reach, with neighbours kind permission of course. Might be a good thing to help keep any kids entertained.. a ramble through the undergrowth, truffle hunting..berry picking.. just be careful of certain mushrooms. although there are loads of others that are great eating  :) Well, hope that helps a bit more and maybe got your brain cells working over a bit.. and if you need any help, I'm available from August :) Good luck with it though..sounds good.

Thank you very much coops and tina. I've been going through some sites and a vast majority of them want me to pay up to get listed to hopefully get employed.. Sad type of business if you ask me...asking a potential employee to pay to get employed.. IMHO, it should be the house owners paying to post their vacancy especially as the majority do not pay the house sitter a penny. Kinda defeats the object. Yes, the idea of portage for IT side of things is another option.. I'm also qualified in the car mechanic world, but is a bit difficult to get into that in France. First I have to re-learn all the cars parts names in French and then trying to describe a problem is a bit beyond my current capacity.. some I can do, but not all.. I have worked on a French home pc before and can quite easily navigate around a French windows OS due to years of working with pc's, so that is not a bad field to get into. There's a thread about a camp site which has caught my eye too..I'm about to add a further comment there as what has been suggested by the OP is in my range of skills too. Thank you once again for your input.