A bit of an update

Following the wee chimney fire last Thursday, we took advantage of the good weather at the weekend to reinstall the woodburner. This involved Andy straddling the apex of the roof for a couple of hours in order to secure the double skinned stainless steel 8m long conduit that now runs directly from the woodburner, up through the chimney and out of the chimney pot which is how it should have been installed originally. It was with a mixture of trepidation and excitement (well, on my side anyway!) that we lit some paper to check that there was no smoke escaping from the system. All OK, so we set a proper fire going. The difference was amazing! We quickly realised just how badly the burner had been drawing due to its poor installation. Wow, we had heat again! And, we knew it had been correctly installed and we were safe. Job well done :-)

Car update - Jean-François down in Massat got the car up on the ramp on Saturday and yes, we do indeed have an oil leak coming from somewhere around the oil pump (well, duh!). Infuriating when you consider that we spent nearly £600 back in January having the engine dismantled in order to replace both the oil pump and the timing belt. Looks like a certain amount of dismantling and therefore a number of hours work will be required to fix this apparent gasket problem .... money we don't really have at the mo, but hey, it has got to be done.

Anyway, Tuesday today and we have had solid rain for the last 36 hours accompanied yesterday by some pretty high winds too which is rare for this neck of the woods. But this afternoon, the skies are brightening and the worst weather appears to have moved on.