Ten pictures of Callie, among other things

An electrician, Christophe Jouanneau of the village of Pouillé, is coming in with a crew this morning to update the wiring in our kitchen. We are jumping feet-first into the 20th century — a vent fan unit over the stove, for example, and two sets of grounded outlets for our toaster, coffee maker, microwave, stand mixer, food processor, and espresso machine. Not to mention a grounded outlet for the big transformer that converts some of these appliances, American in origin and power needs (110V) , into something other than expensive doorstops here in the land of all-220V current.

Callie on the road in the vineyard, headed home
You can't really see her unless you click the picture to enlarge it.

So we are clearing out many of the above-named appliances for the day to give M. Jouanneau and his crew room to do their work. You never realize how much merde you have in a kitchen until you have to move it all out.

Callie likes to climb up on this pile of logs.

Doing this reminds me how the moving company that packed up our San Francisco house four+ years ago for our move to France put one guy to work in our kitchen there to wrap every dish, glass, and storage container in packing paper and stuff it all into moving boxes. He spent at least six hours doing that job. And that doesn't even account for moving the bigger things we are having to move out of the way today, which back then were either staying with the house or had been otherwise disposed of.

Showing some leg

I don't know if I mentioned that our favorite roofing contractor, Christian Lucas of Saint-Aignan, came over last Thursday and did several jobs up top that had needed doing for quite some time. I think Walt wrote about it.

Pretending to have seen something interesting in the distance

We had two leaks, which he fixed — well, we'll find out during the next good rains whether they are really fixed or not. Up front, there was the problem with the dormer structure right over the kitchen that had caused a big leak in the ceiling back in June, when we had an inch-and-a-half of rain in one 90-minute downpour.

Crouching

M. Lucas said that debris had formed a dam up there in the valley between the roof and the dormer roof. Walt knew that; he had managed to removed some of the the debris during the storm. On Thursday, Lucas removed many tiles from that section of the roof and cleaned off the galvanized metal flashing underneath. He said he filled a bucket half-full of leaves and twigs. I bet that had never been cleaned out in the 40 years since the house was built.

How's my profile?

These tile roofs are amazing. Lucas was able just to pull the tiles off, sweep under them, and put them back. On the back side of the house, we had an old vent pipe left over from the previous sewage system. Two or three roof tiles had been cut to make way for the pipe to stick up through the roof just above the gutter line. The pipe was tarred but the tar had disintegrated and water was leaking around it onto the wooden eaves underneath and running down the side of the house. Lucas just yanked out the pipe, removed the three cut tiles, and put three new ones in their place. No more leak.

Chewing on something found in the back yard

He similarly replaced a tile that had split; half of that one had just fallen down into the rain gutter. The tiles just hang there on their wooden slats, with no nails or glue or anything to hold them in place. It's weight and gravity that do the job. They just hang there, and a roof like this one will last about 100 years, as long as the wooden structure doesn't rot or a storm doesn't come rip the whole thing off.

Think I'll chew on this branch off the rose bush.
Damn the thorns.

The other job Christian Lucas did was sweep the fireplace chimney. An annual sweeping is a requirement of our homeowner's insurance. No sweep, no coverage. We plan to use the woodstove a lot more this winter for heating. Walt has been busy cutting wood for the last week or two, so we will have a good supply. I predict a cold winter.

Posing in the vineyard

So we are taking care of business. A dry, warm home will be a good thing when winter rolls in again. This is our fifth summer here, and it will of course be our fifth winter.

My work here is done.

It's been hot for a few days now, but a weather front moved in early this morning. There was a stiff, cool breeze for a couple of hours around 4:00 a.m., and now it is raining lightly. Looks like a nice week coming up, however. Yesterday was actually too hot.