Quoi??Deux chevaux??

Well finally - I can do my blog again. I have been waiting until I had some news about my horse but for the past four or five weeks it has rained pretty much every day!! And not only that but been very cold.. is all a bit much now as there still is not an end to it in sight although it has been a bit warmer and only raining lightly for the past few days. Anyway - this has slowed down the whole process of getting my horse here as I wanted to go on a "ballade" with his trainer prior to getting him here (basically riding him out in the exterior) so I knew what to expect once I had him home. Unfortunately this kept getting put off due to it peeing down constantly. But - finally on Wednesday it was only drizzling in the afternoon so I got to go. And he was fine - very calm - perhaps a little too calm ha but nevertheless he certainly showed that I shouldn't have much to worry about when riding him around here (other then the hunters wandering around the forest with guns - but that's ok - the hunting season is over for now!) So today was the day. But I have a surprise - I haven't got just one - I also got a young mare - she is only 20 months old and has a lovely looking mum and dad - she is a purebred Minorquin - which is a rare Spanish breed. I kind of got her in a 'two for one deal' well - that's what I told Paul anyway - hahaa. No - I was always going to get him a mate as it's not nice for them to be on their own. However Paul keeps mumbling things about donkeys which I feel is very unfair - but to be honest I chose her from the 5 or 6 that I had to choose from because she is very shy and soft in character and hopefully the good looks will come later. It doesn't help that she has had all her mane chopped completely off so it can grow back much fuller in time. Anyway here are some pics of them;;

Seven year old "hongre" Tolsan.. Nice and clean on arrival - already been flat out rolling and trying to dirty himself up again!

Baby girl "Ambre" She looks a bit beaten up - she has been in a pretty large herd of youngsters - after pictures in a few months hopefully!

Here they are saying hello through the fence. They have a temporary fence between them for a few days. They look like they are going to be great mates as there has been no agro ears or kicks from either of them. Will see how they go next week. Tolsan needs to be worked everyday as he is a bit overweight and our lush grass that we have at the minute won't help. In French he is called a 'gourmand' which basically means a bit of a piggy haha. Will fit in well with us two ha. He certainly doesn't mind a carrot or two. I will be going for a short ride tomorrow to see how his feet are. They were a bit tender the other day as he has been worked a bit and doesn't have shoes on at the minute. Will more then likely need to get the farrier in soon by the looks of it. Will try to stick to some soft tracks for now and see how he goes. Any way - enough about horses. We have been doing some other stuff - well Paul has anyway! He has been working very hard - often late into the night - doing two of his least favourite jobs - putting in insulation and gyprocking. But he is getting very close to finishing off the whole second floor - only really the ceiling on the ground floor to go. It is looking good - still lots to do but it is definitely getting there.

Looking out of our bedroom towards the door - note the placo lifter we bought to make life a little easier for Paul when he is trying to hold the sheets above his head!

Our ensuite coming together.

The second bedroom. The garden and all our new plants have been knocked about by the amount of rain and the couple of frosts we have had. Although Pauls new espaliered fruit trees all look fine and are covered in new growth. Hopefully the lavender and the new trees we put in will start to grow once we get some warmer weather. The weeds are certainly getting going though!

Paul with his very professional looking trellis for his espaliered fruit trees. Ok - well that's about all of our news. We had our friend Kathleen's fourtieth birthday party this week - she had it at the Auberge in Degagnac - was a lovely afternoon - a bit like the united nations there which is always good fun! Afterwards I went to a French conversation evening which was nice but a little stressful - not a huge fan of public speaking when I can speak in English let alone French - luckily there is only a half a dozen people there so not too excruciating - all this in the hope that all the lessons etc will eventually click and I will be able to converse without giving myself a brain strain!! A bientot!!

Le Cheval!!

I have some exciting news this week. I have finally found a horse! He is black and pure bred Spanish - I have bought him from a local breeder which is helpful as I have a guarantee that if we end up not getting along I can take him back for a refund or exchange. Having bought a few dodgy horses in my time that you end up being stuck with this is a great advantage. He isn't here yet as they are still doing the full vet checks and working with him to make sure he is ready for me. He has been trained using natural horsemanship which I have some knowledge of and think is fantastic - I rode him yesterday in just a halter and he was lovely so it all seems quite positive at the minute. Hopefully next blog I will have some photos of him. We need to get the fence finished off and electrified as well as sorting out the water too. Also madly searching for saddlery etc. Unfortunately our weather has gone back to being decidedly wintery again - I had actually put the column heater away but we got it out again a couple of days ago. We have rain as well which is nice as it was getting very dry after a couple of weeks of almost summery weather. The trees are starting to green up too so the forest is starting to fill in a bit. Here is a pic of our plum tree with all its blossoms. The cherry tree was also loaded with flowers but we had some heavy rain which looks to have knocked alot off - hopefully we will get some fruit still.

As far as jobs go we have been going pretty well. Paul has finished raising the doorway in the 'snug' from midget size to well - Paul size! This was a tricky job as he was very concerned as to the amount of weight being held up by the lintels he was moving - lots of messing about with acro props.

Now that job has been done we just need some warmer weather so we can high pressure clean some walls in the snug that need doing before we can get the final underfloor heating in and the top slurry done. Then the downstairs walls can also be done although that is also another warmer weather job as working with concrete in this weather is not too pleasant. We did try to find a gap in the weather today to go and get some more plasterboard but it was a bit of a fail as rain kept on threatening and we didn't want to risk getting it wet. We put it on the roof of the van normally which is helpful at the moment as we can then load it direct through the second floor windows. Paul built a frame to rest them on in the window so he lifts and pushes whilst I steady them and line them up.

The second floor is coming along nicely too. Paul has got most of the electrical and plumbing work done ready to do the walling. Starting to look like a real house now!

Paul has also been practising his stone masonry skills and I must say he did an awesome job. He replaced some of the large stones that are surrounding the windows on the second floor where the shutters had broken out of which happens if they are left to swing in the wind. He broke out the old stones and made new ones to go in their place by carving them from stone. Once they get some weather on them you won't be able to tell the difference.

We also had a bit of a play around with the door on our citern - Paul made a new door for it and I painted it with the colour we have chosen to use on our shutters when they have been fixed up down the track.

Well next time maybe there will be some pictures of the newest family member 'Tolsan' who Paul has decided to call Tonsil - he amuses himself quite easily I do think!