Big sigh of relief!

The French elections are done and the Front National did not win. Phew! It would have made life very difficult for us if they had. As we are not French citizens we are not allowed to vote. The manifesto of the new president looks good but politicians have a habit of promising the moon then forgetting they ever did so. The new president speaks English!
We still do not know what challenges Brexit will bring us but we are feeling more settled already.
Sadly I lost another duck this week. A female again. It is time to sort out the ducks. I need to find more females. Or maybe a new group. The boys seem happy and stay in a tight group.
Tomorrow I will extract some honey from the hive. The original hive has 7 full frames of honey. I have to take it now as there is a risk it is from the rape flowers. This will crystallize if not removed. I do not have an extractor so googled it. I will use my colander to do this. I will heat the carving knife to remove the wax caps then drag off the comb into the colander. I will place this over my stewpot to drain. I will then warm the pot and the honey and pour it into a large bowl. Any remaining wax will rise to the top and can then be removed. I can then pot up the honey. I will let you know if this is successful. At some point I need to invest in an extractor.
In September I hope to take more honey from both hives that should give us enough to last until next year. I plan to use the honey to replace most of the sugar I buy in. It is my only non vegan thing and I am comfortable having it as the bees do not die and are not exploited.
Meanwhile the Gite bookings are increasing. We took the decision the change to flexible arrival and departures and set a minimum 4 night stay. This has resulted in more bookings. We are now on 11 weeks. The trend now seems to be to book nearer the arrival date. We are hoping to sell more weeks nearer the time this season.
Gite number two is almost ready. A couple more weeks will see it done. Then onto the final one which has already had a lot completed.
A friend came over last week with his mini digger and did the groundwork for our pétanque court. Work is now progressing on that. It is another area of the garden that has been cleared of brambles. The idea is for guests and us to have games. In September all three Gites are booked for three couples. I am sure they will enjoy a game. Eventually when the bread oven barn is renovated into a little pub it will be a social area.
It really feels like our dream is coming together now.