Sept 2014 Security & wood stack upgrade.

Hi Folks, Yeah, I know, another long gap between updates, sorry. I have been busy this summer, but not working on my own house. I have been working though and getting the money together to pay for a new roof and the new septic tank I have to have fitted to comply to current French standards. The existing septic tank is fine, of sorts. But as the new owner of the property I am obliged to upgrade it to current regs. That’s all in the planning stage now and in the hands of Jean-Pierre the Mayor of our little village. As for the new roof, well that’s marked up for next year’s major upgrade on the house. The long term plan is to have a bedroom of my own up in the loft area and in the process a place to set up the bathroom and toilet as well as a small workshop. We’ll see how this cunning plan works out.

Anyway, August saw me doing my “European tour”. At the end of July I locked up the house and drove to the UK to spend 2 weeks camping in South Wales at the BcUK Bushmoot I had such a great time there too. This was my third year, and I know it sounds old hat to say it, but it gets better each year. After that I was back in Kent building a new shed for my brother and after that building a car port on the side of my parents house. Then early Sept found me heading North to Scotland for my eldest daughter’s wedding. Great day that was too! She looked lovely and her hubby is a great bloke too. Got back home to France on the 11 Sept having clocked up over 2300 miles in the old Rover 218 in just 6 weeks. Happy to be back… until I found out some scrote had been in my garden while I was away and stole my poly tunnel.

I’d bought two of these 2m x 3m poly tunnels as a way of storing stuff outside such as wood and building materials. I’d erected one and that’s been in use since I moved in. The other was still in the box waiting to be erected. Seems some low-life had other ideas and just took it. They’d left the empty box behind though, maybe they figured I wouldn’t notice for a while. Anyway with that theft and the thought of the light fingered scumbag coming back another day with a van to take more of my possessions, I figured I’d better do something about making the place a bit more secure. The existing shed as you step into the garden is pretty secure but as rustic as you can imagine. Victor built it out of logs and corrugated iron. Sometime later in it’s life someone upgraded the roof using 3×2 framework and sat on top of the logs and then put a decent roof on it. This is how the outside looked when I bought the place and I hadn’t done anything to it since moving in, I simply hadn’t needed to.

The guttering fed a sort of pond and water wheel that Victor had built. It has long since been scrapped or overgrown. As you can see though the door is seriously lacking security and I had stored a fair few of my carpentry tools in there as well my bicycle and all the other stuff that comes along with life. The thought of some of that kit going walkabout filled me with dread as well as anger. I HATE anyone who feels they’re more entitled to stuff that I’ve earned the money to buy. I’m getting angry just thinking about the shit who stole that poly tunnel just because it wasn’t stored in a secure place. The fact it was on my property should have been enough. Sadly this day and age that doesn’t mean anything. Rant over. So this is how the shed entrance door looks now:

Made from tanalised decking grade timber, securely screwed together in a new frame that is fixed to the framework of the shed. There are two locks on it now, which hopefully should deter any casual thief. I also raised the height of the frame, I was getting tired of stooping every time I went into the shed. Victor (the original owner) was rather short and a LOT of the way things are set up the house clearly caters for the gravitationally challenged. With the onset of winter looming I also took the time to make the wood store a little less “rustic” (AKA thrown together in a rush). I took delivery of 2 cubic meters of firewood early this year and it’s been covered over under a sheet of fibreglass sheeting – courtesy of one of Victor’s many sculptures he’d done in the garden. With a few screws and some old rack and rail stud wall section I built a sort of roofed area over the wood stack.

So the wood is now well under cover and ready to be fed to the hungry woodburner over the coming season. I must admit I am rather looking forward to being cosy indoors with the woodburner glowing away in the corner. Saturday 20th Sept:- I’d just finished the wood stack roof and thought I’d have a small bonfire around the back of the house to get rid of a load of old cardboard boxes and anything else I could feed on the fire rather than haul to the dump. So there I was sat with a bucket of water beside me in case the bonfire got out of hand and was enjoying this bonfire because it was the first fire I’d had since the Bushcraft holiday, when I heard a rumble of thunder. Within 15 minutes we had a monsoon. It hammered down REALLY hard. Just as well the bonfire was all but burned out. The rain came down so hard and the ground was so dry it flooded out the side paths before it could soak away. So here’s the view from under the covering at the side of the house looking towards the front gate.

The path inside the gate is under 2 inches of water. Also I think I need to do a bit of gutter cleaning if that overflow is anything to go by. Sorry it’s not much of an update, but it’s better than nothing. I’m doing well. Still loving my little cabin and each day count my good fortune at owning my own little home with so much potential.

Thanks for reading folks, comments always welcomed.

Aaron