Well, the mad flurry of activity around the opening of the 2026 calendar on new year’s day was quickly sorted and then life reverted to a more normal winter-tempo: SLOW.
Typical of January it has been dark and wet so work has been predominantly based around decorating, and I must say I have caught up with a few jobs around the house, some of which I have been putting off for years.
The weather has been atrocious, storm after storm after storm, the first 3 weeks of the month were a bit of a write-off to say the least so I had to take advantage of every dry spell. Thankfully the last week has seen an improvement and I have actually spent the last couple of afternoons working outside in short sleeve shirts. Lovely jubbly, Spring is in the air.
Nothing exciting though I must add, just doing the usual pruning around the lake:
I have another dozen of these things to take out and then next week I am hoping to complete the refurbishment of swim 5.
Swim 5 is by far the most popular swim on the lake and as a consequence it suffers from the most wear and tear. It has been making do with running repairs over the last couple of seasons but it is at a state where it will not survive another season without a major refurb.
The log face of the swim needs to be removed and totally replaced, the doors on the log cabin need to be replaced and the solar lights have just about had it. I will let you know how that job progresses in next month’s SITREP.
Thankfully we did have a couple of dry days which was sufficient to finish off the refurbishment of the sluice gates, it did spend a few weeks at this stage and for a while I was starting to worry that the weather would never ease off :
Thankfully it did and the job itself did not take that long. The shuttering was straight forward although it was a bit of a learning curve for me to get the steel bars tied together and then it was bolted to the original base and at this point it was ready to pour the concrete:
Given the limited access there was no way to get a mixer-truck on to the site and of course there is no choice with the concrete pour, once you start mixing you have just got to keep going. The end result is superb and will keep the water level at the right depth for another 50years or so :
All it needs now is a drop of black paint so that it matches the new grills and it is ready to go.
The weather forecast for the next couple of weeks is warm and dry so I am hoping to get the refurb of swim 5 complete, and as soon as the new log facade is in place I can let the water back in.
Till next month’s SITREP, take care.
Le Moulin de Graffeuil 
Nice job Tony