Water Softener Part 2

Up with the lark, well 08:45, breakfast and some jugs of water for the necessary brews. It was all go, water turned off, old pipework stripped out and the remaining new pipework fabricated to suit. BUT as usually happens I discovered I was one fitting short... Down to the Colomat in Richelieu which fortunately stocked what I required.

Pipework assembled and the last soldered joint was made...

The water was turned fully back on and the minor leaks on the compression fittings were repaired by a bit more brute force tightening them. All ready to connect the softener, add the salt and commission.

Commissioning involved programming the digital controller with time,day and then the water hardness; ours tested at 350 ppm. For information on Water Harness See Here

This was then followed by an initial regeneration cycle which took 82 minutes. (this will in future happen at 02:00 hrs when we have used approximately 2000 litres of water - hopefully!)

We now have a fully functional water softener, although we will have some time to wait until we have used the 300 litres of hard hot water before we can enjoy the full benefits....

Water Softener part 1

Coming from the soft water area of North West England we have certainly noticed the hard water available to us here in Braye. After months of discussion and a little research we decided to go for a water softener that will cover the whole house, with the exception of one tap for drinking water should we require to use it.

The model shown will more than cover our requirements and is digital meter controlled. This means it works by measuring the amount of water used and then regenerating accordingly. It is being sited at the point of water entry in the garage next to our hot water tank.

We will be utilising  the existing filter and pressure reducing valve to save on cost.  After a visit to Brico Depot for the remaining plumbing supplies (they are considerably cheaper there) we made a start on the preparatory work necessary for the installation.

Some of the new pipework.

The connection to the drain for the regeneration water.

Tomorrow is to be the full installation. The tools are ready...

I am not sure about me, but if there is no blog tomorrow I will have drowned in a torrent of water.. Softened or Hard who knows....

Magic Roundabouts...

We've mentioned roundabouts before when we spoke of Le Main Jaune but this is only one of many interesting ones around the region. The French do take great pride in their local roundabouts. To celebrate these flights of imagination we're going to feature a "Roundabout of the Week" over the next few months.

Our first is to the East of Richelieu, travelling towards St Maure, L'Ile Bouchard, at the junction of the D757 and the D20. It is recognised to the English locally as the Chocolate Orange Roundabout....

Any guesses as to why??  The nickname would be completely lost to the majority of French as Terry's chocolate orange is not exported.

As can be seen from the pictures each segment represents a local village with the name engraved on the outer stone circle. Simple and yet very effective at one of the main entrance roads to the town.

A trip to Angleterre!

On our recent visit to England we were reminded, if we needed to be, why we moved to live in France....

The attitude...

On the Dartford toll booths!

The traffic...

We got stuck in a 6 mile jam on the M6 going home.

The weather...

It rains a lot!!! in Lancashire.

Not forgetting the litter. It is  dropped everywhere....

Vive la France!

Hitching a ride

This big fellow got fed up of flying and jumping around and decided it was time to hitch a ride on my car....

He was a grand specimen of the Great Green Bush Cricket.....

Memories from my youth.

A few days ago the farmer collected the straw bales from the field behind our house. It was significant to me as the method used was the same as I in my youth when I helped my uncle collect his hay bales. The only difference was that in my time (Circa 1970's) there were no loading machines as used here. ALL bales had to be manually lifted or forked to the top of the load.

The main problem with this arose due to a conflict of interests. My uncle used to have to pay an agricultural contractor to bale the hay and was charged by the bale!! The old style small baling machines were quite basic in operation, the hay/straw was picked up at  the side and carried through to a ram with a cutter on the input side which trimmed the excess material each time the ram went forwards to compact the bale.  The bale tension and weight was controlled by two screws at the back of the baler. The tighter the screws, the more material was in the bale and hence less bales per acre. The downside to this was the bales were heavier. So it was always a good idea for the collecting staff to get there before the field was baled to ensure the bales were liftable!!

 

All done and by my reckoning a good secure load. When you have loaded a load by hand the last thing you want is for it to fall off on its way back to the barn. So a good knowledge of the tracks and bumps was also of major importance. We did lose a few over the years.

It was hard work but I enjoyed every minute of it!! Great fun!

Nowadays this method is little used. Most farmers opting for large round or large square bales that are all handled by machines.

No fun in that!!

Albino Beet !!

We planted a row of normal red beetroot in the potager back in April. Over the past few weeks Elizabeth has been harvesting small quantities to have with our salads.

On the last pulling one of the beetroots came up as completely white.

The beetroot was boiled along with the normal red ones.

 

 

It tastes just the same as the red variety but I can honestly say that when you place a piece in your mouth to eat it you don't expect it to. I think the brain only expects red beetroot to taste like beetroot. It is most bizarre!!

They do sell seeds for albino beets but how we should have one in a long row remains a mystery...