Temporary fix

We won't know if this works until it gets windy again (and there's some wind predicted for Sunday). We took advantage of a calm Friday to hoist old window shutters and a heavy piece of steel onto the edge of the carport roof where it had detached from the structure, then weighted them down with concrete blocks.

You can't see them, but there are three beams under the roof to which it is attached with bolts. The wood is starting to dry-rot and the bolts are no longer holding. I think this 25 (or so) year-old carport's days are numbered.

We must have been a sight: two geezers lifting concrete blocks up a ladder and onto the roof. But we did it without too much huffing and puffing and, thankfully without injury. The roof certainly needs to be cleared of all the debris that falls from the trees. That will be a spring project.

Things that go bump in the night

Wind! I hate it. It's been blowing relatively non-stop for a month now. Last night we had some scarily strong gusts. They were made even more frightening by the fact that the the wind has been systematically ripping the roof off our carport and the sheet metal flaps violently through the night. The carport is a home-made structure that predates our tenure here.

This is the carport back in 2008 when I used it as a place to cut and store firewood. These days we keep our older car out there. The roof has detached on the left hand side and flaps up and down in the wind. I've tried more than once to reattach it, unsuccessfully.

I'm fairly certain that nobody around us (the few that there are) can really hear it, but it's just outside the bedroom window and it sounds like the end of the world. Noises are more scary when it's dark outside. This morning the wind has calmed down, thankfully. A few days ago, I tried a temporary fix for the roof by tying it down in a couple of places, but the sharp metal made short work of my cords and the roof continues to flap. I've added heavy weights to the roof to hold it, but the wind tosses them off with seemingly little effort.

We need to call someone to either have the roof repaired or removed altogether.

A few rays

It's raining again this morning, and it's expected to continue through the day. We did have some brief sunny interludes over the past few days, but they were not nearly enough to dry things out. Even when it's not raining, water runs through the vineyards down to the streams toward the river.

Look! Those dark things on the ground? They're called "shadows."

This photo is from Tuesday afternoon during one of the (mostly) sunny periods. It's nice to walk with Tasha when it's not raining. Her legs and belly still get wet and sandy, but the rest of her stays relatively dry.

One ring to rule them all

Since we had the spruce tree removed, I've been looking at the stump and thinking, "I should count those rings and find out how old that tree was." Yesterday was the day. I verified how to count tree rings on the internet (start in the center and count the thin dark rings, don't count the bark) and went out to count.

I counted twice, on opposite sides, just be sure.

The center rings are not easy to see for some reason, so my count could be a little high or a little low, but only by one or two rings. The result: that tree was between 38 and 40 years old. That means it was planted just about the time I first came to France (Paris) in 1981. Pretty cool.

One year ago

A year ago this week we took a mini-vacation to a small city called le Puy-en-Velay, down in south-central France. Here's a photo of a nearby castle. Next month, we're going to spend a week in the north of France near the Baie de Somme (Bay of Somme) in Picardie.

A sunny day near le Puy, March 2019. Better weather than we're having now.

I'm hopeful that we'll have good enough weather to take a lot of photos. Among our plans is a visit to the cathedral at Amiens, one that I've not been to before. Before all that, though, we need to get through March. I will be making an appointment for Tasha at the groomer's very soon.

It's raining again

We're having a very wet, but warm, winter. January and February have felt like the soggiest months we've had in a while. The official rainfall total for February 2020 in our area is over 73 mm (just under 3 inches), compared to the annual average for the month of about 50 mm. That's close to 50% over the average for the month.

A late winter sunrise over our hamlet in 2015.

This photo is from five years ago, early March of 2015. The skies were mostly sunny. March is notoriously a month filled with rain and sleet squalls known as les giboulées de mars. We'll see how it goes this year.

Ten years ago

At the end of February 2010, we suffered a wind storm like none I've known. Wind speeds reached hurricane force where we live. It was much, much worse on the Atlantic coast. The storm was called Xynthia; until then I didn't even know that they named storms in France. The winds were so strong that they lifted several concrete tiles from our roof and dumped them into the driveway below. Fortunately, there was little or no rain associated with the storm in our region, so we didn't have any water damage.

The big hole in our roof after the storm went through. We called a roofer who came immediately to replace the tiles.

Fortunately, we had some extras.

Our loft wasn't yet converted to living space, so we were sleeping on the main level of the house. We closed all the shutters to protect the windows from flying debris. The wind shook the house and it was quite scary. A sleepless night, to be sure. The recent wind storms we've been having are nerve-wracking, but they're nothing like that one.