
Wildlife and Waste Water
Bonjour to you all
I hope you are all well? Living in the countryside has many advantages, the peace (most of the time), the space and being surrounded by nature. I have posted many a photo of the skies and views. We are also lucky to see a lot of wildlife and have had a few wonderful wild visitors over the last week, including a deer and a sweet young hare, I think. I took the hare by surprise when out watering the garden early one morning, ahead of a very hot day. It took refuge, rather scared, behind one of the plant pots on the terrace which gave me a brief chance to take a photo and then leave it to scarper off when the coast was clear.

Our Little Owls have been fledging, currently in training in the field near us, learning to hunt and fend for themselves. We are watched every morning at breakfast by one of the parents, checking what we are up to while supervising its young. I feel like we are old friends now, with all the rescues and little conversations. While I was immersed in work this week, it came and sat on one of the pruned box tree trunks outside the office window and watched, probably delighted that it was outside while I was stuck inside!

The ‘highlight’ of this week was the emptying of the septic tanks. What a job, but how interesting to see how it is done and how it all works – really! The charming young man who was tasked with getting to our septic tanks which are not that accessible was very patient with all my questions. The first tank is on our terrace so the pipes had to come through the house to be able to reach. Thankfully we put a tarpaulin down! That’s all I am going to say. The whole process was an education for me and as ever with this house a surprise awaited us. Just as he had finished the second tank and was cleaning it he looked quizzically at what we assumed was the former septic tank. After much fiddling about with the water hose and then managing to prise a square of concrete off this tank, he wearily announced that we had a third tank, which also really needed emptying! I think he realised that we were a bit taken aback by this news, having assumed that this tank was sealed off, just no-one had bothered to remove it when fitting the newer one, 20+ years ago. The poor guy had thought he was done. 8000 litres of septic tank content later (in total – what a thought) he enjoyed a cold beer, before packing up and heading off to another job at 6pm. We then had to refill all the tanks with water. The first one took 3 ½ hours to fill, the second we abandoned at 11.30pm and finished on Friday morning, along with the third one! Hot on the heels of a water leak and a letter from the water company about excessive water use, we now have to contact them to let them know about refilling the tanks. A huge, huge water bill awaits I am sure. Still I suppose that it is only once every 3-4 years that we have to do this.






So now we are the ‘proud’ owners of 3 septic tanks, one of which is rather old but seemingly everything from the tower side of the house goes through it before reaching the newer tank. The advice is to have it removed and the pipes diverted. As is often the case, this petit chateau does enjoy providing us with regular unexpected gifts that we might not ordinarily ask for! We have learned a lot about how the ‘fosses toutes eaux’ work, which is a good thing and at least they are all functioning correctly. Fosses toutes eaux are tanks where all water from every source in the house goes, rather than a fosse septique which is just for toilet water. Another job done, not on the list but a routine task that was inevitable.
Enough septic tank talk. Time to have a swim and look forward to the annual village meal, ‘le repas communal’, when all the village inhabitants get together for a meal and entertainment, a great opportunity to catch up especially for us as we live so far outside of the village. More on that next week.

Enjoy the week.
A bientôt
Ali xx

