M Fabre has kept us waiting quite a while for the oak. Our order for the roofing and pigeonaire structure including  2 30cm x 30cm beams was made nearly 10 weeks ago.

A bit of pleading helped and M Fabre delivered the oak beams although we need the floor joist too as I need to build them into the internal blockwork so I cant really move on this just yet.

We went to M Fabre's sawmill and watched him cut the beams. Some hefty lumps of wood they were too. He is a lovely guy and is only not delivering because he is so busy.

The weather here has been wonderful for the last 2 months or more. Only the odd cloudy day or thunderstorm to spoil things.

The farmers are busying themselves too and M Bertrand is no exception. He cut, turned and baled the hay in temperatures in excess of 36 degrees.

There has been a lot happening these last few weeks and I think it has taken its toll.

However, Henry has made is recovery almost complete and this Thursday we will find out in Bordeaux exactly what the state of play is. Apart from a lower apetite we feel he is almost back to his old self.

Fleur is now pretty much fluent in French and make a great interpreter for Donna and I which helps. Henry is not far behind either.

Donna continues to graft her socks off. She manages to keep the kids fed, clothed and where they need to be and mix mortar and move stone for me and keep all housework duties in order.

I plod on and I think we make good progress. The 6 weeks we had on go slow made a big difference and since Henr has been back I have managed to get things back on schedule. What is holding us back at the moment is M Fabre with the next oak delivery for the floor joists and Mr Beuatas with some tiles for the Genoise and lintels and corner stones for a window in the pigeoniare.

I will update in between times and add some piccy's as well.

HENRY is a lot better now, he has gone back to school and he is eating 'normal' food now.

We have been getting on with the work on the house and will aim to provide a more in-depth piece on how things are going next week.