February and Skiing

The chickens have started to lay as the days are getting longer.  Great to have my own eggs as they are far better than shop bought ones. No duck eggs yet though.  I have had to break ice on the duck bath, and  as it was brittle, and managed to put a hole in the bottom.  I will buy a new pond soon!  Ducks drink about a litre of water a day, so a temporary pond has been installed.

It's been an interesting month for birds, the weather is bright and warm  I saw a male merlin a few times as I arrived back from skiing in Austria, and after a short trip to stay with friends in Weybridge.  On recent walks to Bald Hill Lilou and I have seen flocks of Chaffinch and a few Cirl buntings.  We even had a few winter thrushes - Fieldfare.  Hares are starting to chase one another, so spring is definitely on the way.

Next week we go to Baqueira in Spain to ski with friends Jean-Phillipe and Fausto, the kids are very excited.  We are staying in an apartment 500M from the nearest lift (so a short walk).  It has enough room for us all plus the important log fire!  Tom has decided that he wants to ski every continent starting with Japan.  Hopefully his plan will fit in university.  Tom is sixteen this year and at school starting his Baccalaureate.

Life at La Bastide is slow, first grass cut of the year this week and cutting and tidying hedges before birds start to nest.  We have had cold nights, but up-to 16 degrees and very sunny throughout the day.  We have not had the normal amount of rain, so another hot and dry year?  The garlic is growing well at the moment, but does need water until harvest in July. There is a garlic festival normally the first week of August in Lautrec.   Lautrec garlic festival 2023

Pink garlic

This month has seen some activity in the village, post markers for the fibre are in and I expect poles will be installed soon.  Three of the four building plots in the village have sold (the old brickworks were demolished) and the plots have been completed with a road and services.

Tom is not very happy as the gaming laptop has stopped working, luckily I bought a carepack so we hope it will be collected, repaired and returned soon (I think it will take a few weeks).  It's only a few days before we ski so I'm sure he will survive.

We have been tasked to complete the Farmall Cub tractor by August as the Cuq tractor fair will go ahead this year.  I brought a gasket set back from Austria, that I bought in the USA and was kindly transported by a ski buddy.  So far we have welded the bonnet, cleaned some parts ready to paint, rebuilt the carburettor and started to strip the engine.  We have sourced a new cylinder head as the existing one was welded (not a good look) . The really good news is that we have access to a sand blaster, so the front wheels (badly painted) will be stripped. We will go to the tractor fair in Realmont in May to look for missing parts.

Baqueira

Skiing in Baqueira was a great success  We started with sunny days and good snow and ended with a few powder days, with the last day very sunny with a foot of overnight powder snow. The kids had a great time.  We ate traditional Spanish food, played cards and other games and laughed a lot.  Skiing In Baqueira  What could be better.

Back home we had a light covering of snow Monday morning, four Roe deer in the field and two hens eggs, that's breakfast covered.  All the animals seemed pleased to see us, especially Lilou who was walked daily by Clementine who is staying in the cottage.  

Well that's about it for February, we now have six bookings and a few enquiries.  I think the season will be quite busy.  Next trip will be a long weekend, seeing friends who moved to Portugal.  It is Richard's 64th birthday and the trip promises to be fun, as I haven't seen some of the guests for over ten years!