We decided to visit Kerverbel for half term and Laura managed to get a few days off from her job as IT manager for a specialist building consultants. Laura's sister Clare and her partner, Steve (half Italian) decided to make it a foursome.
It felt like a conference of the UN at times, with me (Anglo/Welsh), Laura and Clare (Irish) and Steve (Anglo/Italian) in a Breton Farmhouse!
As I said before we were taking a new Kitchen over (MFI best) and decided to take the Van for transport (LDV Convoy) with Steve and Clare in the back on the new seats, mind you they seemed to prefer their bean bag and camping cushions which they took "just in case". The journey down to Dover was quite uneventful really except that we found out that there were ferry delays from Dover to Calais, our chosen route, and the police were stacking lorries on the M20 . The return journey was to be very different.
he van with it's Peugeot Diesel engine is not the fastest mode of ransport, Downhill it's ok,but it is no use at all on an incline, it seems to hit a barrier. It is somewhat embarrasing to be overtaken by overloaded Eastern European lorries laden down with goodness knows what on the slightest hint of a hill. Perhaps it needs a good service, still it passed it's MOT with flying colours just before we left.
There were delays entering Dover after our detour from the M20 but we had started early so no problem we thought. We would arrive at our alloted time. We actually arrived early but were then told it would be a four hour wait on the dock. As I was a bit fed up at this time I was not in the best of moods but after letting rip at the P and O rep (not his fault, he was just there, so to him, Sorry) I was accepting of the situation and caught a couple of hours sleep. I should have realised that this was just an omen!
When eventually we caught the ferry and set sail we settled down for the crossing in the corner of the lounge with our food and drink ready when our worst nightmare unfolded. We were surrounded by a school party crossing for a long weekend.
Gosh, I do feel sorry for teachers, even though I am one myself, my heart goes out to those poor beleaguered souls surrounded by teens and pre teen, during their holidays. It takes a certain sort of masochism to inflict that on thenselves. It's bad enough having to take piles of work home without taking it onholiday. Still Mr Lancaster soon started doling out the spending money to eager young shoppers.
Our experience of school parties is that the youngsters spend most of their time strolling round in packs looking for something to do, and the teachers try to recover some composure and much needed rest, except for young PE teachers who seem to love running around organising, every school trip should needs at least one. As most activities on board a ferry involve alcohol or tobacco either imbibing or buying, there is not much for youngsters sans parents, to do, except maybe throw away their hard won spending cash on fruit or games machines. So the crossing is spent strolling round and round the same decks hoping that something different will happen. It never does.
We manage to have our food and rest in some comfort and even able to get some rest while the constant stream carried on. Fortunately the hordes were not able to invade again as we were joined by a young family consisting of a mother and four very well behaved young boys, who needed some rest as much as we did. The young one, Tom was actually quite refreshingly interesting and chatty.
As we approached Calais we had to wait while a berth was cleared for us by the departure of another ferry so another half hour or so was spent happily circling just outside of the harbour. Still as we had a van we had been loaded quite near the front of the boat so were able to get out and on the road reasonably quickly and emerged from a wet, dark and deserted Calais in double quick time. However we soon came across the next, potentially worse problem.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Friday, February 11, 2005
Winter trip.
We are just off to visit the farm over my half term. I have been off school for a few days with a return of some very bad depressive episodes, but at the moment they only last for a short time. The new medicine is working!! So this trip is a real treat for me.
I have managed to pack the new kitchen into the van but I had to replace some of the 'window installers racks' in the van left by the last owner and these have proved to be a real boon. I shouldn't have been so quick to remove them, but at least I didn't cut them up as I was going to. That would have been a mistake.The racks, made of 50mm sq timber lengths was originally installed to carry large double glazed window panes internally in the van. They consist of two lengths of timber fastened to the roof and floor of the van along the righthand side, with vertical members every 600 mm or so. These are positioned about 350 mm away from the side of the van. The flat pack kitchen cabinets and worktops were packed behind this racking, leaving much of the interior clear.
Laura's sister, Clare, and Steve her boyfriend/partner are coming to Kerverbel for the first time but they are travelling in the back of the van. This won't be quite as bad as it sounds, I have fitted a double seat from another van that I managed to get for a few pounds from a specialist breakers yard. There are seat belts.
We have been in contact with our neighbours from France by email and there is a 'Raclette' on Saturday evening in the local village of St Martin Des Pres. Apparently these sort of organised parties are a big part of Breton social life so it is a great opportunity to meet some of the locals. Hopefully we won't make too great fools of ourselves with our poor(ish) French. Still it's better than our Breton. So on Saturday we are off to "La soiree melted Swiss Cheese, served with baked potatoes", (My neighbour's words - not mine).
The van is now more or less packed, just a few boxes of clothes etc to be loaded, a bite to eat and off we go. I will be reporting when I get back.
I have managed to pack the new kitchen into the van but I had to replace some of the 'window installers racks' in the van left by the last owner and these have proved to be a real boon. I shouldn't have been so quick to remove them, but at least I didn't cut them up as I was going to. That would have been a mistake.The racks, made of 50mm sq timber lengths was originally installed to carry large double glazed window panes internally in the van. They consist of two lengths of timber fastened to the roof and floor of the van along the righthand side, with vertical members every 600 mm or so. These are positioned about 350 mm away from the side of the van. The flat pack kitchen cabinets and worktops were packed behind this racking, leaving much of the interior clear.
Laura's sister, Clare, and Steve her boyfriend/partner are coming to Kerverbel for the first time but they are travelling in the back of the van. This won't be quite as bad as it sounds, I have fitted a double seat from another van that I managed to get for a few pounds from a specialist breakers yard. There are seat belts.
We have been in contact with our neighbours from France by email and there is a 'Raclette' on Saturday evening in the local village of St Martin Des Pres. Apparently these sort of organised parties are a big part of Breton social life so it is a great opportunity to meet some of the locals. Hopefully we won't make too great fools of ourselves with our poor(ish) French. Still it's better than our Breton. So on Saturday we are off to "La soiree melted Swiss Cheese, served with baked potatoes", (My neighbour's words - not mine).
The van is now more or less packed, just a few boxes of clothes etc to be loaded, a bite to eat and off we go. I will be reporting when I get back.
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Kitchens and stuff.
I haven't written for a while but it has not been a completely uneventful time for us. We have made use of the sales in the UK to buy some things for the farmhouse, mainly a new kitchen as the one in the farm is very basic , and that is being generous. At the moment the kitchen comprises a range type stove (which is inoperative) and a sink/drainer on a rickety base unit. Not really high design. Just about adequate for washing up.
We bought the kitchen at one of those shed warehouses, the one with the three letter name, (I was once told it stood for More Furniture Inside but I don't really believe that:-) It was a terrific bargain really, one of their 'packages'. We got a range of floor standing and wall cupboards, hob, oven, extractor, worktops. etc all for less that £550-00 and that included extra wall units (glass doors) and better worktops (we got the originals as well which will be useful in the Gites when we come to convert them).
Apparently although these 'packages' are good value, they don't sell as many as you might expect. According to the salesman (thanks Sonny) who served us, many people are put off when they discover that no corner units are provided for the bases. This I find amazing as from my days working with and as a kitchen fitter I know that it really is very simple to convert a double base unit into one to suit a corner location. There are at least two simple solutions but that's another story.
The other main development now is the possibility of becoming more self sufficient. My Partner now insists on calling me Tom, in honour of Tom Good from the popular TV series ' The Good Life'. I have been investigating the possibility of using vegetable oil (used cooking oil will do) as a fuel for use in both central heating and in a Diesel (note that I use a capital D in Diesel, this is quite deliberate as it is named after it's inventor Rudolf Diesel) engine to run a generating plant to provide electricity. Quite a lot of work as been done on this by others and a lot of information is available on the internet on both using straight vegetable oil and converting it by removing the Glycerides from the oil using methanol and lye. Apparently the resulting waste, glycerine, can be used to make soap. So who knows you may have a chance to buy Kerverbel Craft soap if you're ever in the district. I may be desperate to sell some so please look out for 'Kerverbel Oatmeal and Lavender' soap. ;-)
In order to help me with my experiments I have managed to buy an old Lister stationary engine off Ebay. The chap I bought it from has been very helpful and has some interesting pages on 'oldengine.org' a host for members pages. See:-
http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel/
If you think that you may be interested, There's lots of good information there.
The engine is a bit unusual in that it is air cooled rather than water cooled as most engines were. For those in the know it is a VA, similar to the CS but with a finned flywheel to act as a cooling fan, The air is directed around a finned cylinder (like an air cooled motorcycle engine) by a sheet metal shroud. It produces 7.5 HP@ 850 revs per min. This should give us around 3.5 kW. Not huge amount but enough to make a significant difference to our bills.
I rather like the idea of using vegetable oil as a fuel. Altogh at the moment it is expensive compared with fossil fuels (mainly due to production costs determined by scale of the operations) but with the rise in fossil fuel costs due to political and financial issues this is changing. Just wait until the shiite muslims control the oil supply routes as willed by good ole Dubya, Bush that is he still doesn't know what he has unleashed!!
The former point about the use of oil pricing for political ends has raised it's head again over the last couple of years as we have seen the volatility of oil prices following the post 9/11 actions by the US. For those of us old enough to remember the fuel crisis of the early 1970's we can remember that the cause was the Arab/Israeli wars of that period. Are we so certain that this cannot happen again? Remote pipelines are vulnerable targets to small groups of mobile terrorists.
The crisis which the fuel shortage caused led to such programmes as the 'Good Life', as interest in self sufficiency increased.
The other positive about using vegetable oil as a fuel is that there is zero carbon increase. Carbon locked up by the growing process is released by burning and then locked up again by the next crop. Neat.
The cost factor is helped by using 'used' oil. Here is a resouce which is usually wasted. Tons of the stuff is disposed of daily, think of all the chip shops and McDonalds, Burger Kings etc who use it. But the oil, when no longer of use for cooking, still retains its usefulness as a fuel and although it needs straining and filtering before processing, is still a cost effective and useful resource especially for small scale production. Most of these end users of oil have to pay to get rid of it. Just think, all that fuel for free!!
I now need to find a supplier of small quantities of methanol for my initial experiments. If you know of anyone, email me.
The next development will be the use of a pump for a water supply from a well, but that's another story!!
We bought the kitchen at one of those shed warehouses, the one with the three letter name, (I was once told it stood for More Furniture Inside but I don't really believe that:-) It was a terrific bargain really, one of their 'packages'. We got a range of floor standing and wall cupboards, hob, oven, extractor, worktops. etc all for less that £550-00 and that included extra wall units (glass doors) and better worktops (we got the originals as well which will be useful in the Gites when we come to convert them).
Apparently although these 'packages' are good value, they don't sell as many as you might expect. According to the salesman (thanks Sonny) who served us, many people are put off when they discover that no corner units are provided for the bases. This I find amazing as from my days working with and as a kitchen fitter I know that it really is very simple to convert a double base unit into one to suit a corner location. There are at least two simple solutions but that's another story.
The other main development now is the possibility of becoming more self sufficient. My Partner now insists on calling me Tom, in honour of Tom Good from the popular TV series ' The Good Life'. I have been investigating the possibility of using vegetable oil (used cooking oil will do) as a fuel for use in both central heating and in a Diesel (note that I use a capital D in Diesel, this is quite deliberate as it is named after it's inventor Rudolf Diesel) engine to run a generating plant to provide electricity. Quite a lot of work as been done on this by others and a lot of information is available on the internet on both using straight vegetable oil and converting it by removing the Glycerides from the oil using methanol and lye. Apparently the resulting waste, glycerine, can be used to make soap. So who knows you may have a chance to buy Kerverbel Craft soap if you're ever in the district. I may be desperate to sell some so please look out for 'Kerverbel Oatmeal and Lavender' soap. ;-)
In order to help me with my experiments I have managed to buy an old Lister stationary engine off Ebay. The chap I bought it from has been very helpful and has some interesting pages on 'oldengine.org' a host for members pages. See:-
http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel/
If you think that you may be interested, There's lots of good information there.
The engine is a bit unusual in that it is air cooled rather than water cooled as most engines were. For those in the know it is a VA, similar to the CS but with a finned flywheel to act as a cooling fan, The air is directed around a finned cylinder (like an air cooled motorcycle engine) by a sheet metal shroud. It produces 7.5 HP@ 850 revs per min. This should give us around 3.5 kW. Not huge amount but enough to make a significant difference to our bills.
I rather like the idea of using vegetable oil as a fuel. Altogh at the moment it is expensive compared with fossil fuels (mainly due to production costs determined by scale of the operations) but with the rise in fossil fuel costs due to political and financial issues this is changing. Just wait until the shiite muslims control the oil supply routes as willed by good ole Dubya, Bush that is he still doesn't know what he has unleashed!!
The former point about the use of oil pricing for political ends has raised it's head again over the last couple of years as we have seen the volatility of oil prices following the post 9/11 actions by the US. For those of us old enough to remember the fuel crisis of the early 1970's we can remember that the cause was the Arab/Israeli wars of that period. Are we so certain that this cannot happen again? Remote pipelines are vulnerable targets to small groups of mobile terrorists.
The crisis which the fuel shortage caused led to such programmes as the 'Good Life', as interest in self sufficiency increased.
The other positive about using vegetable oil as a fuel is that there is zero carbon increase. Carbon locked up by the growing process is released by burning and then locked up again by the next crop. Neat.
The cost factor is helped by using 'used' oil. Here is a resouce which is usually wasted. Tons of the stuff is disposed of daily, think of all the chip shops and McDonalds, Burger Kings etc who use it. But the oil, when no longer of use for cooking, still retains its usefulness as a fuel and although it needs straining and filtering before processing, is still a cost effective and useful resource especially for small scale production. Most of these end users of oil have to pay to get rid of it. Just think, all that fuel for free!!
I now need to find a supplier of small quantities of methanol for my initial experiments. If you know of anyone, email me.
The next development will be the use of a pump for a water supply from a well, but that's another story!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
