Catastrophe in France!

At our house in France we have  two external outbuildings (called 'dependances'), both picturesque almost-ruins. They are constructed from timber and a clay mixture using all sorts of ready-to hand materials - straw and horsehair and cowdung among them, I believe - and roofed with heavy orange tiles. The larger one is due for reroofing in February in order to extend its life. The smaller one was originally a bread oven, but the dome-shaped brick structure that housed the oven itself had gone long before we owned the house, leaving only its rickety housing, which fell partially earlier this year. When we arrived a few days ago we found that the front section of the building, which contained a lot of elderly kindling and random chunks of wood, had collapsed quite spectacularly. This wasn't entirely unexpected; bits had been falling off for a while, and one corner was held up by a black twist of dead ivy,  but we had hoped it might last a bit longer. Unfortunately we haven't been in a position to save both buildings. I guess the three weeks of almost constant rain that they've had here didn't help. The side wall, made of 'colombage' or half-timbering, fell sideways, what remained of the roof slid off, and immediate casualties were some of the vegetables growing in our kitchen garden: leeks, rhubarb and purple sprouting broccoli. Fortunately the builder who is to do the work on the larger building has agreed to clear what remains of the small one - everything that we don't want to keep and are unable to clear by ourselves. So since the weekend we have been hauling broken tiles, stacking sodden timber and chainsawing up huge beams, which when dry will serve as free firewood.
It's always the way - when we come to our French home there are things we hope to do, and inevitably something else happens which puts those plans on hold. Last time we had trouble with our internet and found ourselves trimming trees instead of hedging. This time the hedges will have to wait while we clear rubble! When the site is finally empty all that will remain is the central stone wall. The stones are mortared with 'torchis' - the clay mixture - so we will have to cap the wall, or rain will wash away the clay and the whole lot will collapse. So it goes!