Ballet Skating, Driving Tractors Like a Winner, and Beehives Round 2

So, I have no excuse for not posting sooner. I was just too lazy to plug my phone into my computer and download the photos...Sorry! Here's my life for the past few weeks :) It won't be a long wait for the next post because I'll be visiting Marta and Guillaume in Bordeaux on Thursday for a fun skate trip.

 My gloves were new when I came to France. I've definitely got my money's worth with these!

 I'm willing my shoes to last to December as well...

 Cleaning up for a concert we hosted at the house :)

 This is one of the things I did while working in the flour mill :) A little bit of Florida!

 This is a good family right here. Doing summer workbooks to prepare for school starting. Adorable!

 Mushroom picking, cleaning, and drying for use in pizza or omelets. mmm!

 Patched up some of my jeans as well. Thrifty and crafty!

 This is a fig.

 I learned how to braid my hair! For those of you who don't know me well, this is monumental. (It's not perfect...YET!)

 I love riding our bikes into down each Monday for the market.

 The concert! We held it in the barn because it rained that day. It was great! We had about 30 people come for it.

 I drove this tractor while we were collecting hay. It's manual and Jess would be proud!

 I took a picture of Barbara working with the bees again. This time from a safer distance. I did NOT get stung this time :)

 Then we started collecting the honey. Barbara used the knife to get rid of the film over the honey when she wasn't slicing off bits of her left hand by accident...

 I used my muscles to spin the honey off the boards.

 Notice her left hand is now bandaged? Yeah... The dangers of beekeeping ;)

 All the honey!

 Ready for a ticket and then it'll be brought to the Monday markets :)

 First day of school!

 I found this awesome Indo board (A.K.A: rusty pipe and plank of wood) at the flour mill. Entertainment!

 Jerome and I have been working on the roof for the past week, replacing busted shingles and cleaning the moss and dirt out from inside. This is when we were about halfway done.

 What? What do YOU wear to the skatepark?

 Homy is one stylin' lady.

 Celestine, her trusty steed, and Ema may have had something to do with it ;) How cute is this picture!?

 Speaking of cute...

 Sunday we went to this Roman ruins museum in Perigueux. It was awesome! I love how they built the museum around the ruins so you can still see how it's all laid out.

 I took this today, we only have about 9 rows left! Woo! I took this panorama style, so you can see the driveway and the back yard.

I too this photo for Barbara so she could put it on Couchsurfing.com for when they visit Paris next month. I'll miss this family! I'm here for another week and a half. I'm going to be so sad to go.


But very excited to see Paris for a month :)

I'll try not to abandon you all for so long next time... c:

Hell Beauty, Too Much Fitness, and a Horse?

After all that nonsense with the bees, you'd think I'd reached my quota of stings for the year (or life, preferably!) But yesterday I got stung by a hornet, which hurts much more, in case you were wondering. I killed him after. A lot. He was super dead. But this morning I woke up with a monumental finger :0 So I guess he got the last laugh. Just kidding, he can't laugh because he's DEAD. Sorry, am I vindictive?

 Gigantor, the finger

 We built more of the wall next to the new bread oven for a while

 We did laundry, and then I did mine too :)

 I rode to Chalais and back so I could go to the post office and also get a cheap phone that works in France for emergencies. In case you were wondering, it's a nice, fun, breezy, downhill ride on the way there. On the way back, it's 5 kilometers of the most beautiful uphill hell.

 Some of said hell beauty

 Then! As soon as I arrive at the house, out of breath, read faced, legs-a-burnin, Barbara asks, "Are you ready to run?"

The run she speaks of is a 4 mile up and down run (with no stops) that I barely survived the first time.

But I felt so great after, that I of course said yes.

I survived again...barely.

This is how farmers run ;) With a horse and a dog! (dog is next to me...)

It was a pleasant run; beautiful nature, the sun shining, cool breeze, and the scent of horse farts floating in the air.

Mellow day

I woke up with a bit of a cold today but I think I'll fight it off by tomorrow with all the tea and vitamin c that I had ;) I still had fun fetching firewood and soil for planting parties! I finished painting the new flower pots and then napped and we had a wonderful lunch with some friends of Pete and Sues. Everything was delicious, of course. And I finally had ratatouille! We had it for dinner. I've always wanted to try it since the Disney movie came out... ;)

The cool firewood storage shed.

The old rustic key to the shed. Woo!

Tomorrow is my last day with Pete and Sue until I return in July for a big birthday party!

Auzillac, France

This is where I'm staying now. It's so neat! They have wifi, so I'm able to update more regularly than I might have otherwise :) here are pictures I took over the last couple of days.

View from my window

Taking Charlie, the dog, for a walk

The trail

The dog :)

Châteauponsac

I helped stain the wood on these planters

Our delicious lunch (french baguette is not pictured ;)

Lake Piscine

Lake Piscine

There's so many photogenic things here! 

Making it to Auzillac

I've been at my cousin's place for two days now and it's great! I made it from Paris yesterday. I took the shuttle to the Paris train station. Then I took the B train, changed to C train, and arrived at Gare d'Austerlitz (a bigger train station). I already had my deat reserved on that train and took it to La Souterainne (3 hr ride) to be picked up by Pete, my cousin. It only cost 15€! Total, I spent 22 hours travelling. I was beat!! But it helped me get used to the 6 hour time difference very quickly :)

This kid was playing the piano in the gare and he was amazing! That piano is there for anyone to play, which I thought was amazing. 

He was swarmed by these impressed kids :)