1st November
Wow, first of the month. This time last year the beginning of our adventure was starting to edge ever closer. Now the end is doing the same, although of course it’s only the end of this phase.
After a really good nights sleep we woke with the alarm and headed over to the house for breakfast at 9am. Sue and Struan had already left for school and Neil showed us where everything was before leaving us to it. We all ate and cleared up and then headed off to be introduced to the animals. Aside from the cat and dog there are chickens and ducks. They are not laying at all at the moment so the food bill is not very justified at this time of year. We discussed whether just killing birds off for meat once they stop laying and then buying in new stock in the spring. We also talked about eating birds and best breeds, incubating and letting them hatch their own and so on.
Next was the pigs – they have a sow and a boar here, just growers they got as weaners and will be killed within the next month or so, so will need moving indoors to fatten up / get less exercise / be in place ready for slaughter. The boar is just starting to get more dominant – he is uncastrated and will need to be slaughtered fairly soon before boar taint sets in. This happens when uncastrated males start to produce hormones which taint the meat. I like pigs and although I’d not want to be a pig farmer I would like to keep them for our own consumption,
We walked a bit of the grounds and came down through the next door neighbours croft land shooing some cattle along which roam freely on the common grazing ground and needed moving on. Various people on the island keep cattle and they generally all herd around together. Once we’d got them off the land they all headed off in a group for the beach. Very funny J
Back to the croft where the next job was some fruit bush pruning – blackcurrants and gooseberries. I quite liked doing this as we’d done a fair bit of soft fruit picking earlier in the year at a couple of WWOOF hosts so it is always nice to feel we’ve completed the circle a little by doing some of the work at the other end of the season. Plus I’d not really done much pruning work so it was good to feel I was learning something new. Neill showed us a book with some pruning tips and illustrations and came up with us to show us the first one before leaving us to it.
It poured with rain a couple of times so we sent the kids off back to the Byre to do some drawing / Dsing and Neill told us to go in for a cup of tea if it rained so we didn’t get wet either. He seems very fair with his expectations J
We all had lunch together and then Neill checked we were still up for cooking dinner tonight – Sue and Struan were both out later this evening and we’d offered to cook. He showed us where various things were in the kitchen and said he’d leave it to us. One of the foods that got mentioned last night in conversation was pizza so we decided to do that as an unambitious starting point J Neill said if we were cooking then we could take some time off in the afternoon then and would we like to take the dog for a walk and go and explore the nearest beach? That seemed a very good deal to us and meant the kids got some exercise and time outdoors with us too so I made the pizza dough and we left it to prove and headed out with Rosie the dog.
The nearest beach is literally across the road and down a lane although the ground is pretty hard going and a bit ankle turning and tussocky so it’s slow going. We were out for a couple of hours though playing with the dog in the waves and on the sand, admiring the views – huge waves, Rhum in the background, gorgeous wintery skies with low sun breaking through every so often.
Back at the house we got the dinner sorted and I brought my laptop over for an hours online time uploading my blogpost from last night, posting up some pictures and catching up on emails. If the byre had internet access I think this place would qualify as perfect!
Dinner went down well and the kids spent the evening playing with Struan while we chatted to Sue and Neill about among other things Forest School, WWOOF hosts, intensive farming and community projects. We have even more food for thought now having learnt more about crafting and our heads are rather in a spin with all the different possibilities we have as options. I think Neill will prove a very useful contact and person to know moving forward.
2nd November
This mornings first job was feeding and watering the animals – chickens, ducks and pigs. The kids did that and then Ady and Davies stayed with the pigs to fix some corrugated tin sheets up around the walls of the old henhouse where the pigs are to be moved in as the weather changes to fatten up. Davies spent his time winning over the pigs who had been a little nervous of but was soon standing in the pen with scratching them behind the ears.
Scarlett and I were tasked with bread making – three loaves of our choice. We looked at the flour on offer and went for one mostly white with a little wholemeal, one mostly brown with a bit of white and one malted with grains and some honey. Scarlett did the kneading for one loaf fully and one which I finished off when Davies reappeared to lure her away to play. I got all three in the oven to prove and then headed outside to my next job which was pruning back some honeysuckle and rose that was rather out of control. Neil had told me not to be scared to be tough with it but Ady Destroyer Goddard came along at that point having finished his task and helped which basically meant cutting both back to the ground almost! In the meantime I was in and out on the bread, knocking it back for the second rise and then putting it in to cook. I do like bread making J
Neil came back as we were finishing the pruning and clearing it all away and then we all had a cup of tea while the bread finished cooking. It smelt so nice we decided to have fresh bread and home made jam for lunch rather than the planned pasta. So we ate one whole loaf J Two remaining loaves were there for Sue’s inspection later – Neil had warned me she is rather competitive with her bread making.
After lunch Neil was off to meet the boat coming in today with various supplies so Ady and I were sent next door to strim the grass around the old croft house. Ady strimmed and I raked it up although with it being very windy today that was a bit of a fruitless task. It did complete a full days work for my arms though with bread making in the morning J it’s quite nice to be back to early nights, teetotal living with plenty of exercise and small meals after a week of excess in the holiday cottage.
We’ve had an almost entirely dry day here from rain which has been lovely and the landscape remains ever changing with Rum in the background as a barometer for what might happen next in the weather.
At about 415pm Neil arrived home and we called it a day going in for a cup of tea and to check emails etc. I forgot to upload my blog post from last night so this will probably get tacked on to the end of it. Their internet connection is pretty good for browsing but photos take ages to upload to flickr and I am loathe to reduce the size as we are planning a photo book at the end of the year so I want them all on there at decent quality.
Sue arrived home so we got involved in dinner prep – peeling spuds, grating cheese etc. and chatting. Dinner was mash, cauliflower cheese, veggie sausage patties and carrots from the garden – raw or cooked depending on taste. All very nice.
As always the kids went off to play in Struan’s room while we adults sat and chatted. We’d been talking to Neil lots about crofting which prompted them to ask if we were thinking we’d like to do it. We are and we have also been debating Eigg lots between us. Our only real issue would be with Davies and Scarlett and how home ed would work and how isolated would they be. We talked at great length and after further chats with D & S we are considering putting our names on the list for a croft, of which there will be several coming up in the not too distant future. Still loads to discuss and think about and we have been invited to sit in and observe at a residents association meeting next week and Neil and Sue have already swung into action coming up with ways for us to meet various key residents over the next few days. They met out very provisional idea that this might be for us with great enthusiasm which is both flattering and reassuring although may of course come to nothing at all. We would need to give the whole idea a lot more thought and also come away from here to get some perspective on it all – I think being at my parents will be a great leveller for talking things through with a nice rational thought process. Particularly given we’ve only been here just over 48 hours!
Back in the byre we had some bedtime story and everyone else is now fast asleep while the wood burner crackles and eats up it’s last few logs. I keep peeping out in search of northern lights and having to content myself with the stars of which there are many – no light pollution here J
Jasper was asking if there were any eggs on Eigg, but it seems the answer is no.