the boo, the noo, some bugs and some mugs!

good evening folks,

it's all go here at simple HQ with preparations for Bob coming along nicely although there's not been much worth blogging for a little while but here's what's new with us.

- goodbye boo, hello noo.

after one expensive repair job too many we finally decided that enough was enough and said goodbye to sha-boo-boo.

but.....

we're now the proud owners of sha-noo-boo (see what we did there? with 'new' in the title - genius!).

it's not the biggest change as far as vehicles go as you'll see from the photographs below.

the boo:



and the noo:



we've sold the boo to julio (a friend who nikki woof'd with a couple of years ago) and it is currently being renovated prior to embarking on a whirlwind tour of the world.

julio is taking the boo through europe, into russia, china, india, back through the middle-east, into north africa, down through east africa, to south africa, back up through west africa and then returning to europe.

it's a hell of a journey and we're a little proud that the boo is going to have such a damn fine adventure!

- here's a cool moth that we saw the other day:





he/she's got amazing antlers (i'm sure they're not called that but you know what i mean).

- and this is the caterpillar of the Hummingbird Hawk Moth which monkey boy found outside:

it's a crazy looking dude - no?





- we've also sourced the booze for Bob.

the beer is from a local micro-brewery in Saint Agreve which makes some bloody nice ales!

www.lagrivoise.fr

the wine is from a place a couple of hours south of here (near the Ardeche Gorge).

www.masdintras.fr

and finally, the cider is being brought from the UK (as we couldn't find any local cider) and is Westons Premium Organic.

www.westons-cider.co.uk

- a few weeks ago we took delivery of the Chestnut trees which will be used to make our terrace (once Bob is over).

here's Roger in his Unimog making it look easy to shift 9m/27ft trees:



- what next.....oh yeah, i know.

we went to a Cooperative Wool place a little south of here to get some new mattresses as, although our 'hand-me-down' mattresses have done us proud we wanted to get something a little more comfortable for the future (as well to help provide spare beds for Bob).

the place we visited was:

www.ardelaine.fr

it's all natural and handmade from their sheep herds on the hills above the place, sheared by them, cleaned, dyed (naturally of course) and then made on the premises into amazing wool products.

we're now the proud owners of two new sheeps-wool mattresses which are incredibly comfy and should last us for years to come.

- finally, we're been making glasses for Bob.

that's right - making!

it seemed a little daft that we throw away (ok, recycle but still) many bottles and then were thinking of buying glasses for Bob.

so.....we looked into making our own (thanks for the help/advice Vicki).

and it's easy!

you score a little mark at the desired height on the glass with a porcelain cutter, turn the bottle (we used the foot-powered pottery wheel we have) and then heat the bottle (holding the blow-torch) at the required height (that of the scratch) until the glass heats up and magically cracks leaving a perfectly splendid drinking glass (once the edge is sanded smooth).

here's what we started with:



and here's how they turned out:



we're currently about 2/3rds of the way through the manufacturing process (as we want at least 60 glasses for Bob) and so you'll be able to sample them in a months time.

ok, that should about do it for now as it's getting late and i'm tired.

see you soon, gairy.

Three little pigs.....

Firstly let me apologise to those of you who have been waiting by your computers for another simple update. It has been a while and for that I am sorry.

Lots has happened since last writing on here.

We had Mr P3 travel back with us at the beginning of June and Shabooboo broke down. We ended up with no car for a week or so and had to walk to the shops - 5hr trip, but it was a beautiful sunny day and the three of us managed to carry enough food back home after a lovely long walk. P3 also helped us with moving a whole lot of slate and tiles - so thank you very much for that Mr Three. But unfortunately he also broke his wrist after falling off my bike just down the hill from here! Not the best start to a 18 month tour of the world, sorry dude.

We've also been hard at work to prepare things for the oncoming Bob (mine and Gairy's "big day") - there will be pictures of the progress shortly.

Anyway, what I know you are mainly interested in is the fact that we've jut officially become pig farmers!

This morning me and g went to Edith's farm - a lovely lady not far from here, who very kindly sold us 3 of her lovely piglets! They are all females so that we don't get overrun with piglets. They didn't much like all the moving about (I now fully understand the phrase 'squeal like a pig') but now they are happily (if a little timid) in their new home (pig ark).

Here you can see how we made our pig ark.

This is the base we built in the workshop.

This is the ark with the ends on.



Here it is in place in the pig sty.



And with the bright red roof on. We also added a little ramp for them after this picture was taken.



And the little piggies themselves. Hanging out.



When they are young they are a bit scared of people but hopefully they will become our friends and like Edith's pigs let us scratch and tickle their bellies.



We also picked up a load of organic food for them which is good enough for us too (red lentils, pasta, quinoa and mixed grains).

Enjoying their water and food.



I'm sure there will be lots more pig pictures on here soon.

Other news:

We have been building a couple of bbq type pits for the big feast in August.

Below you can see the elusive "Monkey Boy", working the angle grinder on an old oil drum. He cut it in half and then we made a frame for each half to house the fire pits.



We've had an extremely hot and sunny week or so and the plants in the green houses are starting to look good.

The gerkins/cucumbers starting to flower and spread, we will build them a climbing frame in the next couple of days.



Here are a couple of lettuces. We have been enjoying our salads recently with home grown lettuce and rocket and radishes too. We've also been gorging ourselves on our home grown strawberries - sweeeeet.



While me and Gairy were in England at the end of May, Monkey Boy was hard at work not only cutting grasses and clearing space for the pigs arrival etc but he also designed and built a trebuchet! It works extremely well especially with eggs. Here's a not so great picture of it.



We've also made some elderflower cordial and have started the process to try and make elderflower champagne - we'll let you know how that goes.

All the flowers are just beautiful - check these ones out.



That will do for now.

Nighty night.

Nikki

a very simple coffee table

hello folks,

over the last week we've been making a new piece of furniture for the house.

as you may have guessed from the title of this post - it's a coffee table!

we had a big piece of ash left over (from a piece nikki and monkey boy got to make a firewood chopping block) and thought it was mighty fine and so we decided to make the table from that.

here's the piece:



we didn't want to mess with it at all and so, apart from sanding, we kept it as it was.

we then cut another piece of ash into two rectangles (from the same tree as the top) - below:



as we were thinking about how to put the thing together we decided to try and make the whole thing without using nails, screws or glue - 'old school'!

so, we shaped the two ends of the cross-section so that they'd fit into the legs.

here's how it started:



and here's how it looked when we were done with the ends:



we then cut out the holes for the cross-section to slot into:



and here it is in place:



next, we went about making wooden pegs (from - you guessed it - ash!) to hold everything in place.

here are the end pegs (and you can see one of the pegs to hold to top in place too):



then, when everything was oiled/varnished (we found a water-based eco-varnish to give the table top a longer life and oiled the rest with linseed oil), we put it all together.

finally, we added some suede to the bottom of the legs to stop any scratching of the floor and we were done!

this is the finish table:







once again, we're pretty damn pleased with the end result - another fine piece of home/hand-made furniture for our house - hell yeah!

we've got mamma kuels visiting tomorrow and plan to put her to work and so i'm sure there'll be more to tell after the weekend.

that's all for now.

gairy.

simple is as simple does

Hey there,

Sorry it's been a while, but we're been busy working hard and now we can share with you, what we've accomplished.

We've been working on our bookshelf/office space and it's all gone swimmingly well.

Here's how it started out.



Below you can see the frame for the desk and filing cabinet space starting to take shape.



The mess below is me oiling the box/book shelves - you can see all the brackets already on the wall waiting for the book selves to be fitted. We made all the book shelves out of rough cut chestnut from our local fella.



This is what the bookshelves look liked when they first went up - empty. You can also see the pull out fling cabinet draws (which are on wheels) below the shelves and of course the desk too.



The desk in all it's glory. The actual desk top is a piece of oak that our good friend Ben Yank gave us a long time ago - thanks dude. We built storage space underneath at the back and also the three draws. The lowest draw is on wheels and houses the scanner/printer - handy no?



The bookshelves full and looking lovely. You can also see the light that Monkey Boy made, we still need to make the glass a little more opaque but it already looks great.



Here's the overall look - can you tell we're pretty pleased with it?



Whilst the office space was project managed by Monkey Boy, Gairy has been heading the team for the new spice rack. What, I hear you ask have I been doing? Well, I have been working on both projects as have the others too, I'm just not quite ready to be in charge of a project just yet.

Anyhoo, this first picture shows the stone wall which the base of the spice rack is attached to. We drilled holes in the walls and fitted metal rods which then slotted into the chestnut shelf.



We routed out a space for each spice jar to sit in.



And then made eight more shelves that are secure with rope.



I particularly love this spice rack. It looks so great especially with all the beautiful different colours and textures of the spices.



We're also going to fill a few big jars with pasta and other such things.



Müca has recently found her way into our new house. The other day Monkey Boy snapped a very cute shot of her snuggled on the couch.



Below is a picture of the pair of gloves I knitted for Naah - the lucky bugger. I hope she receives them before she sees them on here.



Very quickly, as this has been LOOONG.

Other news with us: last Friday we picked up two Guinea Fowl from our architect Ronold and welcomed them into our family. But on the very same day it seems a fox got lucky and killed 5 of our chickens! Obviously quite sad news, but what can you do? Now we have 4 chickens and the two guinea fowl and we're hoping the fox doesn't come back.

I've got to go and eat my din dins.

Cheers
Nikki

Another Simple Success!

Hello Folks,

Today we finished our kitchen/dining table and we think it's pretty sweet.

Follow the photos below to witness the magic.....

We started off with rough cut planks of Ash wood that we bought from "Roger-the-wood-dude", up the road.

We put them through our thicknesser and they were incredibly beautiful.

Below you can see how we made the frame. We routed out grooves in the legs to put the frame together so it holds the legs nice and tight.

Here's the frame put together.

Then yesterday we moved everything from our workshop to upstairs - it's all very very heavy indeed. Below you can see the table top starting to take shape, just needs the end pieces now.

Here you can see the tongue that we routed in the centre pieces and then we routed the groove in the end pieces so they all fit together.

Here it is in all its glory, having been oiled.

And some close ups of the grain.

The Ash is such strong and beautiful wood.

I don't want to brag, but we rock hard.

We're having a day off today, we feel we have deserved it.

Nikki