Hectic to say the least!

We've been experiencing problems with the internet again and so we've been off line for 2 days. I eventually traced it to the wireless connection between the phone modem and the computer. So I'm currently sat next to the telephone with the computer linked with a direct connection.

So, where were we?

Having repaired the digger on Saturday afternoon, Sunday saw David and I carrying on with digging out the dry river bed. With the two of us, we successfully reached the end of the 'river' (or is it the beginning?) in the Silver birch copse. (as it will be). In fact we timed it rather too well, as the digger ran out of diesel just as we finished.

Meanwhile, the girls (June and Sue.......and Betty!) were still busy clearing the heap of stones from the rear wall of the barn. And job was finished.

Having got on so well with all of the jobs I'd lined up for David and myself, we spent Monday up in the loft above the kitchen, removing some rigid insulation that I want to re-use in the porcherie. Not a nice job!

This was the final job of David and June's 'Holiday'. I was almost glad to see them go so that I could have a rest!

I then spent Tuesday evening, after we had taken our workers back to Limoges airport, trying to sort out our intenet problem. And virtually all day Wednesday! But.....whilst I was sat at the computer, Jean-Pierre, the lad who works for our builder, was finishing clearing out the first Cave.

We can't believe how much stone has come out of this one 'room'. And the next Cave is nearly twice as big.

This work of clearing out the Cave, also meant that the passageway was cleared as well. However we now have about a 2 foot drop from the bottom of our steps down to the bottom of the passage. Not easy for Sue and I, and definitely not easy for Betty. But our builder, Cyrille, very gallantly rigged up a plank to allow us to get out of the house!

Then, this afternoon, work was started in the second Cave. The old dividing wall in what will be the kitchen came down, and so did one of the huge beams holding up the floor of the lounge. Fortunately, the floor didn't come down as well.

Things are happening quite quickly at the moment, and we are going to have to try to move all of our things out of the house this coming weekend. Cyrille is planning to get the ground floors dug out and the correct levels fixed during the coming week. Then the first-floor floor will come down! It's certainly proceeding quicker than we thought it would.