A duck house that doesn't cost the British taxpayer anything!

In a continuing quest to make as much of the stuff we do here from scratch and using recycled materials here is the tale of “The Pallet Duck House”

We’re lucky here in that the local garden center/agricultural suppliers in the local town put all their non returnable or damaged pallets out for general use. I think most people round here gather them for firewood as they do make good kindling. Here at Chez Powell we’re aiming for something a bit more creative. My skills are not yet complete and I’m a long way off some of the creations you can find with a quick google search but I have a go. Like the poly tunnel below I’m not going to claim that this is a “how to....” but a “how I did it”

The basic frame was made up of 5 pallets. One we found with no spaces for the base. I then attached one on each of three sides. I then took apart some that weren't suitable for use whole and used them to fill in the gaps. Ducks like a draft free but ventilated home so I overlapped the gap fillers leaving a gap at the top for ventilation.

As with all here crazy child is optional!

The front is another whole pallet, with a gap cut out for a door and restrengthened across the bottom. Ducks can be quite messy so I’ve built it (I would use the word design but to call anything I do a design would be an insult to designers and engineers everywhere) so that it can be lifted out for ease of cleaning. I’ve included a close up of what I came up with for those who are interested! It is simply two offset planks screwed into the sides. As with the sides the gaps were filled with more broken down pallet planks. The door is knocked up from some old bits of wood reclaimed from inside the house.

The closest thing to a design feature I've ever done!

The roof is the only bit we bought new. I don’t trust my skills enough to build a watertight roof from pallets so this was a concession. We did have a good look around for something suitable but couldn't find anything. It’s 10mm plywood cut to overhang the house. We put some baton round the edge for strength and some bit so it would sort of slot into place over the house. On either side I also put so pallet planks for extra wind proofing.

Shot so you can see the overlapping idea

So there it is. A nearly free duck house not paid for by the British taxpayer!! We put in 5 ducks from a very nice English lady with a farm up the road. (I would imagine you’ll hear more about them in the future!) However, there was an unfortunate incident involving an escape and a PBGV called Lottie. We now have three, who continue to astound us with their ability to get out of their enclosure through gaps I can’t even get my hand through.

Don't let her fool you, she's a cold blooded killer, attack dog (So long as you are small and feathered)

By way of a general update, as we're writing and all. Veg garden is pretty much all sown and most is coming along nicely despite this "interesting" spring weather Europe is having. Thanks to Maz we're also trialing some permiculture. This year is mostly to see what will survive the Correzienne winter before we do some actual designed planting in the next couple of years. We broke out War of the Ring this week as well, it was looking like I was going to crush the the Free peoples in full totalitarian style when Mrs Powell put in a cheeky military sortie in the North and stole victory from under me! Next time do-gooding elves, next time! I've also finished A Song of Ice and Fire, now I have to wait for George R R Martin to stop fannying around with the TV series and get writing the last two books.

Probably the best polytunnel in Viam! (But actually, probably not)

Every selfsufficienter needs some way to extend the growing season.  Here the locals tell you not to put anything other than potatoes and onions in the ground until the 15^th of May unless it’s under cover!  In our case we decided to go for a polytunnel and the aim was to build it using as little bought materials as possible. A quick look around the various outbuildings and garden here at Chez Powell turned up a number of things we could use. So when our friends The Hopwoods (Maz’s blog is listed over to the right, lots of good stuff there so take a look) came to stay we got to work. What follows is a “How we did it” rather than a “How to...” as I'm sure it doesn't conform to any kind of poly tunnel norm! Which is just how we like it!

First for the base/frame we cut down some of the pines growing at the end of the garden. We made a rectangle base and A-frame at either end and in the middle.

  This was all lashed together rather than screwed or bolted to allow for the changing of the green pine wood. Thinking this way it can be tightened or loosed as necessary.  Matt’s a climber so taught me some knot technique along the way as well.

We found the frame work for a large garden gazebo in one of the outbuildings so we used a long pole as the ridge pole (Is it called a ridge pole outside of a tent? I don’t know) 

We then drilled some holes along the base and inserted more poles vertically, attached plastic water pipe to act as frame/support for the plastic film that will eventually go over the top.

We also drove in some chestnut fence posts (left over from the pig fencing) at either end to add a bit of extra support and strength. At the one end they will also act as the frame for the door.

The decision was made to dig out the beds and paths before putting the film on. Not fancying the saunaesque   conditions that would ensue with two 30something men digging inside a polytunnel, not to mention the smell!  All the turf was given to the pigs and chickens who love to root around in it to forage for greens and grubs.  

 At the end of the first day, two thirsty men took a break and posed for the up-coming calendar!

The following day, we then stretched the film over the top, weighted it down with rocks found around the land and screwed into the frame at either end.

The door was knocked up form some wood reclaimed from pallets and the hinges used were taken from an old door we took out of the house.  

 








We used stones found when digging to create a little border around the beds themselves, just to make it look nice.

All that remained was to plant it up. We had to wait a bit for the market as a frost killed our seedlings. It wasn’t just us some other English guys down the road had the same problem. So far we’ve put in tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and lettuces. We’re also trying out some companion planting with garlic and basil (Both keep aphids and blackfly off the toms) We have also got some pot marigolds to go in. When the whole thing is in bloom I’ll get some more pics on.   

Again many thanks to Maz and Matt for helping out. We had a great week and are looking forward to doing it again. Knitting our underwear from tofu next time!! Should mention that, Chells old man helped with the door and finishing the following week.

An Evening with the Powells!

Just when we thought it was over winter gave us quick reminder that he’s not quite done this week.  We had a day of the craziest weather yet. One moment you couldn't see the end of the garden due to heavy snowfall the next glorious sunshine and the garden looks like Narnia again. I did say I would blog more often so I thought I’d put something down about leisure time here. As I've said before we’re not connected to TV aerial or satellite which has prompted some people to ask “What do you do in the evenings?”  So, I thought I’d answer the question.

DVDs

We do have a TV and a good sound system (Both second hand) so we do watch it. What we don’t do now is simply have the TV on watching whatever is the least worst thing on at the time. When we watch we actually watch something we want to. Xmas list was full of TV series’ and films so that we have something new to watch and very kindly some people got some for us. Favourites here are Spaced, Black Books, Sharpe (Sean Bean doesn’t die!), Game of Thrones (He does!) and Band of Brothers.

Books

We’ve been reading a lot more and most days we sit down for at least 30min reading. Little Powell as well, his current favourite being “le Rugbymen” a comic book about a local French rugby team. Mrs Powell has enjoyed the latest Trudi Canavan trilogy, the Fifty Shades trilogy (I will have to watch her carefully in Bricomarche now!) and has just finished Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris. I’ve reread some of my favourite graphic novels, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, The Boys and Fables. Books wise I enjoyed Bernard Cornwell’s Azincourt (Although it was sort of just medieval Sharpe). Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s Prisoner of Heaven is great, as are his other two in the series (Shadow of the Wind is one of my all time favourites) I am now ploughing through the A Song of Ice and Fire saga and am currently halfway through the first book (A Game of Thrones). Very impressed so far and I’m enjoying it despite the fact I know the story (Sean Bean dies!) and I’m looking forward to overtaking the TV series. Damm those blasted Lannisters!!

Games

I have successfully turned my normal wife into a sad gaming geek and most evenings we play something. She doesn’t quite get as excited about the different shaped dice, stories or pieces as I do but we’re doing well with the geek conversion! There is no monopoly or scrabble here, we’re talking hardcore gaming.  So, what do we play? There are a few old Games Workshop classics and Magic the Gathering  gets an airing from time to time but it’s mostly Eurogames and the like. So if you’ll indulge me here’s a quick rundown of the favourites. In no particular order.

• Agricola-The world’s most stressful game about subsistence farming, that is a lot more fun than it sounds.
• Smallworld-Think faster, more fun Risk. Lots of replay value because the designers have made it so it’s different every time you play.
• Carcassone-The classic tile laying game. Build cities, roads, farms, make them bigger than everyone else’s and if theirs is bigger than yours-steal it!
• Settlers of Catan-Building and trading game that makes monopoly look like a toddler’s plaything.
• Memoir ’44-Wargame based on WWII Great fun light wargame that even Mrs Powell loves.
• Blood Bowl Team Manager- Great version of the old GW classic. Number one rule-Cheating is mandatory!
• Sheer Panic-Bought for novelty value (Little comedy sheep pieces are great) but is now a firm favourite. Move them around and can you get to Roger the Ram?

Just a couple! We deliberately got some in that have good replay value or lots of expansions so they don’t get boring. This year’s big addition is War of the Ring (A birthday present from my dad) not played it yet as the rulebook is nearly as long as The Lord of the Rings itself. But looking forward to crushing all before me as Sauron. When summer comes around we’ll play less or probably just the card based ones as we will be able to play outside but this winter they’ve been a godsend (Which one I don’t know, but I like to think Thor would love Blood Bowl)

So an evening with the Powells is a veritable geekfest at the moment, especially given that we’ve found Big Bang Theory on the internet, but we like it.  I caught some BBC after the rugby and quite frankly we’re not missing out! The only thing I miss TV wise is River Cottage but there is always youtube, just don’t tell HWF, but we’re sort of doing it for real now.

Ok, not normal for me to blog twice in two days but I did say that I would try and get some pics of the reclaimed wood work I've done. I haven't got a camera, as I said before but I thought I'd have a go with the camera on the computer. It's not the best so apologies for the quality. I just thought I'd put some on so you can see what we've done.

Kitchen-diner

3 views of the pallet table and dog!

Pallet WC complete with mad toddler!

Pallet work top. The surface to the right (At right angle to the pallet work top) is made from reclaimed shelving.

 Pallet WC sans toddler

Pallet mirror frame and shelf. The mirror itself is from a charity reclamation shop in Eymoutiers called Le monde allant vers. http://www.lemondeallantvers.org/ Mrs Powell made the hearts from left over fabric.

Spring into Action

So, winter officially stops the day after tomorrow. It was cold, as foretold, but we managed. It did look like it was all over last week (We actually had lunch outside one day) but Winter had one more trick up his sleeve and dumped about a foot and half of snow on the region in two days. Forecasts say it’s getting warmer so once the snow has gone digging is back on the agenda. Not the greatest news as I managed to hurt my back lifting 1 metre pieces of oak! It’s getting better and perhaps the exercise will do it good. Here’s hoping.

 On the agenda this spring are, duck/geese enclosure, build a poly tunnel, finish digging, set up a permiculture garden (With some help from my friend whose blog I’m going to attempt to put a link to on this page, watch this space) and plant lots of fodder crops for the piggies. The Millevache Plateau have given us more work to do. Our septic tank “does not comply” Well cheers for telling us that now instead of in June when we bought the place. Apparently they couldn’t confirm it because no one was living here. Having seen what it actually was they needed to find why they couldn’t tell us then is a mystery. Poke a stick down it to find the drainage pipe, it’s not there, it doesn’t comply. What a joke! So two options, re place/upgrade it or change the system to not needing one. Composting toilets and grey water treatment are our preferred options but knowing this place it will be difficult as it’s different, but let’s see.

Mrs Powell finally has a Carte Vitale and the request for photos came through today for mine. This means I can hurt myself and get treated! Won’t be celebrating a la Joey from Friends, mind. Still waiting for my social security number though. I can’t imagine the rugby result will speed things up!

In the house, the upstairs toilet is now finished (Just in time to be changed again if we go for the eco friendly version!!) Built nearly everything using pallet wood so only had to buy a new sink. Downstairs the main kitchen diner is a couple of steps closer to being finished. I’ve made a worktop and a table from pallets. The table has a wobble but it adds charm. How many French restaurants have you been to with bits of card holding up the table legs. I’ve also put in another worktop made from some reclaimed wood that we actually found in the outbuildings. As of yet everything in the kitchen is second hand or reclaimed so keeping towards our goal of sustainable renovating.

All the animals are doing well. Poor old Bob² (The Cockerel) got a bit of frostbite on his comb but serviced his ladies to make up for it! It also turns out a snow covered pig ark is really quite warm, not that I’ve slept in it, but I have got in with them to see!

So, with one of the best times of year  for the garden coming up we should be back on with lots of time outdoors which is why we did this in the first place. Must finish True Blood season 5 before the good weather kicks in. Is Bill a goodie or a baddie? A couple of episodes to find out! We sort of managed to play the game Carcassonne with Little Powell (he teamed up with mummy) expecting him to be beating us at it soon! I will endeavour to blog more often but without a camera (But we get some when friends with cameras come to visit!) there is often not a lot to share especially during the frozen winter. When we eventually get one I will try to get some shots of the handiwork on.

Happy New Year

Christmas (or as I like to call it the hijacked pagan winter festival) has been and gone, just like the New Years hangover. Friends have come to stay and we’ve all eaten and drunk too much. No one made a fool of themselves and a good time was had by all. Back to “work” then. We’ve had two new arrivals at the house....don’t get too excited its pigs. Two girls named sausage and bacon. Ironically they are Gloucester Old Spot crosses. Crossed with what we’re not sure but it looks pretty certain to be wild boar. They are very hairy and the one of them has the distinctive flat face of a boar. Having once acquired the result of a similar “accident” at Stroud market we are very excited to taste the result next autumn.

For reasons best known to the continental winds we are experiencing a warm spell. Therefore, we are not yet experiencing the harsh end of a Correzienne winter. We had a small taster at the start of December when everyone shot out to put the winter tyres on the car and got to try them out on some real snow surfaces. On the whole the roads get cleared pretty quickly, a far cry from our experiences back in ol’ Blighty. However, don’t plan on doing anything between Saturday lunchtime and Monday morning if it’s snowing. This is the only time the ploughs don’t come out. Sundays off being as sacred as the two hour lunch break! The big upside to our warm winter is that after a month off, the chickens are laying again and the ground is soft enough to dig so my winter break off digging is no more. However, this does mean I have more time to do it. Taking John Seymour’s advice I’m going for 30min a day rather than a mad rush in the Spring to get them ready for planting. Wood processing is also back on the agenda. Frequent trips back and forth to our lay-by and we should have it all back home by February. Experimentation with the chainsaw has begun. Two mushrooms down, perhaps I’ll try an eagle next!

Yet again we also find ourselves waiting for French paperwork to sort it’s self out. Still no social security numbers, don’t worry France we only asked for them in JULY! Even our French friends are now rolling their eyes about it (rather than the usual bof). That must mean it’s taking a long time, even by French standards! Then there’s the guy at the equivalent of the CSA who doesn’t understand that we can’t give him Jan-Jan salary P60s because we do it April-April in England. Despite explaining this he just keeps asking for the same thing, which doesn’t exist! Ah France. We were warned about this sort of thing so we were expecting it, just need to learn to bof!

We’ve finished Buffy. Game of Thrones next. We’re over halfway through series one and Sean Bean isn’t dead yet. NO spoilers please. New game as well, Shear Panic. Move around sheep and try to get to Roger the Ram (boom boom). More fun fuelled evenings ahead.

.......Winter is Coming!

Brrrrrr

I currently sit in a living room, in November, at 800m alt, whilst it hammers down with rain that has a 1m² hole in the wall! Why? Today I knocked a hole in it for the flue of your new log burner. Which means that at last we might actually be able to heat our home with wood this week! It will mark the end of a saga worthy of Tolkein, full of waiting and far flung conflict. We ordered our wood and burner way back in July but due to unforeseen circumstances we are only now getting it in. Wood is from just up the road so 2-3 times a week we go up, chainsaw it up and carry it back in our newly acquired citron xsara (a result of the accident in the Landy Grrrrrrrrr) It will take a while but we’ve think we’ve bought enough to last us well into next winter. The installation of the burners will mark a turning point at Chez Powell as we will now be able to make the downsairs of the house look less like a building site and more like a home.

It’s been slow progress here, hence the delay in the post, despite the fact we haven’t stopped. However the eventual B&B rooms are now decorated and “with bed” and we’ve learned how to hand rear baby rabbits. This is because mummy rabbit died a week into their lives and to give them the best chance we’ve bottle fed them. However at such a young age the odds it seems are really stacked against you and despite starting with 10 we now only have 3 living quite happily in the kitchen (Their eventual resting place!) They get infections, drown in milk and just generally struggle with being alive. Hopefully next years litters/mums will fair better.

Playing rugby in France is a different experience a far cry from the physicality I’ve grown used to in Gloucestershire(where training is just as dangerous, if not more so than a game) but there is a lot more support from the town in both numbers and investment. People pay to come and watch and both teams (firsts and reserves) play one after the other with a sizable crowd turning up to watch. I am starting to get used to complex backs move and watching ball get kicked backwards and forwards but I still like to resort to stick it up your jumper and go forwards until you score or someone stops you! Old habits die hard (Oh and Die Hard 5, really?)

Board games and DVD box sets feature heavily in an evening’s entertainment here and we are racking up some heavy scores in Agricola (A farming based very complex game). Buffy the Vampire Slayer is into season 3, so we’re getting dark! It is nice not to have telly (as in “live” or access to iplayer and 4OD). Removes the temptation to just sit and channel hop.

So, here’s to warm evenings, cooking with wood, watching teen horror based comedies and bracing ourselves for “the coldest place on Earth” or “little Russia” as the occupying Germans called la Correze during the war.