One word? When seven would do…

This morning we debated Halloween costumes. Davies is his usual enthusiastic self and has more or less assembled everything he needs and just wanted a bit of help. He’s being a vampire wearing his own black clothes, a cloak made from an old dress, fangs from Jinty’s halloween sweet selection and a painted face. Scarlett said she wanted to be a vampire but didn’t actually want to wear anything other than the single pair of trousers she will wear (light blue) and doesn’t have a black top and refuses to wear any of the ones we offered to lend her. Argh. Explained that in years to come she might look back at the photos of this year and wonder why she looked like she had wandered in to the party by mistake rather than planning to be there, tried – and probably failed to not project my own desire to be a good mother providing or assisting with a decent costume and then she agreed to wear her tiger sleepsuit (I refuse to use the ‘O’ word) which is too small with the feet cut off she she can actually bend her legs to walk in it, painted tiger face and her vampire fangs as tiger teeth. Phew.

I made bread and soup for lunch – cooked the soup on the top of the log burner :), looked at some pumpkin carving ideas with the kids on the internet and then I headed down to meet Casey and go to visit Debs for tea and biscuits. We stayed for a couple of hours, had a tour of the house and a really good chat. I like her, she has a good attitude to life in general and I think she will be a good addition to the island.

I popped to the shop for a few bits and then came home, just about getting up the hill without a torch (I did have one but both hands were full and it was just about light enough to see without). My knee injury from 2 weeks ago is still playing me up so I am being super cautious about not falling over again if I can possibly help it! We had an earlyish dinner and watched Coraline in a Halloweeny tribute, followed by a couple of episodes of Will & Grace before kids bedtime.

I spent some time gazing out the window trying to decide if I could see the northern lights or not when there were a couple of pictures from local (as in mainland this area not local as in Rum) folk on facebook but I think they are more of the very slow shutter pictures rather than visible with the naked eye ones.

A rare bird landed on Rum yesterday and was spotted by one of our birders here who sent the message out to the twitching world. Apparently it was a MEGA. We realised last night that this might mean an influx of birdy types on the ferry today and there was hurried emails being sent about a pop up teashop to make money for the RCA / provide refreshments for the hoardes.

I offered to do soup, bread, cakes and was all set to take stuff down to the hall when Ali contacted me to say it would probably be better just at their house as she suspected people would not actually want to move from her garden anyway. So I went down there instead. Ady and Sandy fixed a bit of Gav and Laura’s roof which had blown lose.

Ali and I had various visitors through the morning until the onslaught of twitchers arrived. It was mad! About 35 of them, all in their camouflage gear with huge lenses and scopes. They didn;t want to talk to anyone, kept glaring at us all when we made a noise and were dashing from one side of the house to the other as people whispered that it might be this way. It was just like the Big Year film! It was all very tense and Ali and I had been watching it all morning hopping about feeding out of the window but then it had disappeared and we feared it may not come back out while the crowd were there. But then it was spotted in a tree and they all got their pictures, ticked off their books and visibly relaxed. Enough to have tea, coffee, soup, rolls and cake and fill our donations pot with cash 🙂

They all left and we all returned to our normal lives. Davies and Scarlett who managed to not see the dove anyway went home, Ady (who also didn’t see it) and I went to finish processing laundry and wander round the village a bit while it was all done. We loaded it all up, grabbed a couple of sacks of firewood too and came home.

This evening I had a Small Isles Community Council phone meeting which lasted an hour but was interesting and worth doing. Lots on the agenda including things like Calmac ferry issues, NHS doctor provision etc so we talked about all that. Then I joined the others for Haggis for dinner. An inspired dinner we have not had since we moved here despite all really liking it. Ady offered me a dram of his whisky afterwards and as I don’t like whisky I added ginger wine to it which made it very palatable but probably not very sensible!

Sunshine and showers here today. I put what may even be the penultimate lick of paint on the honesty larder (for this year, I may paint the sides come the spring) and darted in and out of the polytunnel whenever the heavens opened. I watered the lavender, strawberries and salad leaves in there and marvelled again at the Scout Path.

Davies and I had a long chat this morning (with occassional input from Ady and Scarlett) and he is very keen to have a visiting friends and relatives trip next year. I need to contact a few likely hosts and lift givers but reckon I may be able to coordinate him going off with one set of visitors, maybe being dropped off between a couple of friends and then brought back up with some more visitors again. He’d not want to be away for more than 10 days or so, so would only be a night or two with each potential host and he’s ever so small and not much trouble…. will see what I can sort out but if anyone was planning a visit here in the spring and might have car space for a passenger do speak up. Scarlett remains adamant she does not want to go anywhere or visit anyone but everyone can come and see her here!

Ady fixed some guttering and down pipe to the static as there is one particular corner which the rain pours off and then sits on the ground. The whole area around the static is sodden and didn’t really dry out even in the summer so we need to channel the water away from it somehow. Gutter and drain will help and Ady has been experimenting elsewhere on the croft with drainage ditches. It’s not really feasible to criss cross the whole 8 acres with ditches but we can certainly make some improvements. The kids went out with Bonnie enjoying the being outside-ness after a day cooped up yesterday.

We all met back for lunch and then Ady and I went off with the weeks laundry to start processing that. We timed it perfectly to collect our post which had arrived and put the veg order in which saved me needing to go back down to the village this evening. First load washed and in the drier, second load in the wash, third load ready to go. Tomorrow I’ll collect the dry stuff, dry the wet stuff and wash the dirty stuff. It should all be back up here tomorrow. One day a washing machine, an indoor loo and a bath…maybe next year?

Back at home Ady fed the animals and then we shut the door and settled in for the night. Will & Grace series 1 arrived in the post so we watched the first few episodes of that, which the kids thought was quite funny. I think it will grow on them as they get to know the characters. They particularly liked Karen and Jack and the fab piano theme tune was a winner.

This evening I have mostly been being silly on facebook, internet access being a far great luxury than a bath I guess.

I’ve been feeling quite blase about weather warnings, even slightly smug although not wishing nasty weather on anyone we are so used to having dire wind and rain here it is commonplace so to have it be headline news when it hits other places feels a bit indulgent. And I know it isn’t and the more populated a place is the more of an issue weather is etc but bear with me – I got my comeuppance when Vikki asked me ‘are you worried about your house in Sussex?’ which I’d totally forgotten we own and is insured but bloody hell what an arse that would be to sort out if something happens to it in the winds.

I woke early this morning even without clock changing malarkey but stayed in bed reading. I had an outdoor plan of finishing painting and planting up the lavender but at 10am there was a knock at the door and Vikki was there asking if Ady could come and help over at Gav’s. There was a plan afoot to finish the last two ridge plates on the roof while Big Dave is here. Ady and I both put our oranges (the oilskin waterproofs from winklepicking days of yore) on and headed over. Vikki, Big Dave and Coryla were there and we faffed with arranging the roof ladder in place before deciding that actually it wasn’t really safe. We knew it was a 2 hours job and the winds were already gusting, it was pissing with rain and the job would involve at least one person sitting, unsecured on the roof. We decided that it was not a necessary enough job to risk safety, particularly when the weather warnings (although not for this area) are making headline news. So we stood down.

There was a bring and buy sale arranged for midday at the hall at which we were hoping to pick up some old clothes to make halloween costumes with. It was cosy and warm indoors with regular heavy showers outdoors so the kids took the sensible option of staying in while Ady and I took some milk down to the hall to sort out tea and coffee and headed down. We met Vikki and Big Dave along the way, Casey and Mike joined us and then Manager Mike and his wife Deb, daughter and her boyfriend who are over visiting for the week all arrived too. We didn’t have much brought and nothing bought but we did all drink tea and chat for an hour or so which was very nice. Debs seems lovely, she’s invited me round for tea and biscuits while she is over so I will certainly take her up on that. She is a teacher and needs to finish the term at her job before moving here in January but is here for half term visiting. We actually chatted before when they were over for the interviews as she bought some of Davies’ postcards and he happened to be at the hall so I introduced her to him and she told him how lovely it was to meet the artist and how she was planning to take them back to her class to use as examples of ‘sense of place’. She reminded me of that and when I told Davies he remembered talking to her too.

We came home and as previously arranged with the kids I made popcorn and we watched a film – Nightmare before Christmas. We’ve been stockpiling Christmas films on dvd in preparation for all of December stuck indoors and Ady had ordered that but the kids argued it was more of a Halloween film so we relented. Ady cooked a very delicious slow roasted pork and we had a generally lazy afternoon. I did plant out the lavender in the polytunnel so at least one of my jobs is done.

Dinner was lovely and we watched the second episode of Farm Fixer which we’ve quite enjoyed, we rang my parents for a catch up chat – I got a guilt trip about it being Robin’s first birthday in two weeks and me not even having met him yet. I reminded my Mum that a trip to Sussex for even just me would mean several hundred pounds in car hire / train / plane charges and at least five nights off island to justify it, probably only two of which would actually be spent down there anyway, the rest would all be travelling. There is no chance of all of us getting off and finding someone to animal sit for that long and actually we could never justify spending that much money on a trip south anyway. It’s very sad and I hate that I have a nephew I have never met but not leaving Rum is a fact of our lives we have to accept. Big Dave has offered us use of his second home in Queensferry if we need a few nights off island to break up the winter which is very lovely and we may well take him up on though.

And now, having used that extra hour up at least three times I am feeling tired.

Thursday morning escapes me but I know I made soup. I think I may have done some painting, but then again maybe I didn’t. After lunch Ady and I went down to the hostel to meet the scouts. We had a group of Explorer Scouts (12-15 years old) and their three leaders over on a visit wanting to get involved in volunteer projects that helped the community and had a conservation or eco slant to them. I’ve been exchanging emails with the leader for about 2 months and had in my head a stereotypical image of a scout leader crossed with Mr Claypole from Rentaghost because his name was Tom Claypole. It really floored me when not only was he much younger and more attractive than I’d pictured him he was also not wearing a jesters outfit!

Initially we’d planned to do a beach clean around the village and some working with Ranger Mike doing rhodie bashing but Mike ended up being away on a course this week so I had to summon up some other tasks. I came up with further litter picking around the village and campsite and putting a path through the community polytunnel. We joined them on the beach – Davies and Scarlett came down and Vikki came along too. They were like litter locusts and did an amazing job of clearing everything they touched. We were done way quicker than I’d expected so Ady went home to feed the animals, the kids went round to Casey’s to watch a film and I had a cup of tea and chat with Vikki about bunkhouse stuff. Then Ady and I went to Casey’s for dinner and had a very entertaining evening where we all wore hats all night and kept swapping and rotating them.

Friday morning Ady and I walked down to the village to see the scouts again and tell them about the polytunnel. We came home for lunch and as it then tipped down with rain we didn’t end up going to help as we had limited buckets and spades for rock gathering anyway so we watched from up here while they did the polytunnel – and what an amazing job they did too – superhero scouts!

I made pizza dough and then I walked down to Fliss’ to do crochet afternoon, or as we call it Crafternoon with her and Casey. I debated not having any social involvement with her any more but it is just not feasible in such a small place so I am being cautious but friendly. Shortly after we sat down the helicopter went over and landed. Much speculation about why it was in and a text message from Ady to check I was okay (you always fret about your family members if they are not with you when the copter comes in). We decided the most likely reason was Laura in labour. Sure enough we soon got word that that was the case, then we watched the charter boat come in for Gav (which will set him back £300 ouch!) – harsh reality of island living… Not to keep you in suspense Gav borrowed Big Dave’s car (Rum regular visitor, almost honourory resident, here this week so his car was at Mallaig) and got to Inverness in time. Baby Maggie born safe and well just before midnight. No further news but all well and a decent weight of over 6lbs despite being nearly 3 weeks early.

Ady came down just before 5 and had a coffee and a chat with Sandy, then we all walked round to the hall together for the Directors Quiz Night which was an idea Lesley had a while ago to have an open, ask us anything type event where everyone was invited to come and meet the directors and learn more about the trust and how it all works. It was fairly well attended and we started with a quiz for all the people who came along – trivia questions about the trust mostly. Then we took their questions. Unfortunately Fliss who is no longer a director but was a founding director and very instrumental in the early years took over rather and was defensive and a bit aggressive with some answers – inappropriate because she shouldn’t have been answering anyway and a shame because the idea was it was an event in the spirit of transperent leadership and openness. But never mind. Everyone said it was useful and I think it has at least aired a few of the things people mutter about down at the shop but never actually ask properly.

We came home for pizza and again managed to dodge the rain.

Today I worked this morning which I am still really enjoying. It was pretty quiet but I like standing there and playing shop and post office 🙂 I drank lots of tea and had a nice chat with Jinty when she came down. I also had in Neil, Lesley, Norman, Derek, Steve, Ross and Fliss so was far from bored. Mike hailed me as I walked past their house so I went in for a cup of tea with him and Casey and a chat. Then I came home for a late lunch and missed the rain again. I had plans to head outside later and finish painting and plant up some lavender which arrived in the post on Thursday but it hasn’t stopped raining all evening, including some spectacular hail storms and even a smidge of thunder and lightning. I am making full use of my extra bonus hour by staying up on the basis I can hear the wind turbine whizzing around so the internet and lights are all free power and it’s far too noisy to sleep anyway!

A wet, windy and sometimes sunny day today. Not great for getting things done outside but a real boon for solar and wind power 🙂 As a result we’ve charged everything up, had the internet on all day and not needed the genny at all today.

I did a tiny bit of painting on the honesty cupboard between showers, Scarlett had a hormonal weep about very little – twice – along with a shower and hairbrush. Davies tidied his room and filled the dirty laundry basket. I knitted more squares and sewed some together to go on my fleece.

Ady and I walked down to the freezer after lunch to get some bits out for dinner. A tourist appeared mid afternoon wanting to buy eggs – fortunately Scarlett found a goose nest earlier in the week and we had a stash of those.

I did some reading ready for the directors meeting this evening and spent some time with Scarlett looking at Playmobil on ebay. Then I walked down between more showers and had a brief pre-meeting chat with folk at the shop before going in for a directors meeting. It was a long one with lots on the agenda but we are only meeting monthly now which helps a lot with meaning things get sorted and ploughed through. There were some debates and a few moments of strong feelings but I think we got through everything.

Home again just before the rain started again and it was a gorgeous if cold walk under a starry sky before it clouded over again. Ady had cooked a lovely lasagne and it was all warm and cosy in the static. A glass of cold white wine topped it all off nicely and we watched a Tv show about seasonal food where they were cooking venison from Jura.

Just broke off from this to send various emails I should have done before starting it and then decided I’d put off til tomorrow but have now done. yay me 🙂

I had a Visitor Management Group meeting this morning and on the walk down there I made up my mind that if I were to start knocking on the head some of the things which I don’t find useful, enjoyable or fulfilling this would be a good thing to not do any more. So I told everyone that I didn’t want to do it any more, have potentially roped in Vikki to do it instead of me, emailed off my last few contributions and feel very happy about it. I didn’t hate it, didn’t even particularly resent being there, it is a fairly small drain on my time really with meetings perhaps only once every two months but I got nothing out of it, don’t feel it is a particularly constructive or purposeful group and as such don’t need to give my time for nothing to it any more. 🙂

I had a cup of tea with Vikki as the meeting was very brisk and efficient and we were out within the hour, then walked home, marvelling that I managed both ways without getting rained on. I did slip over on the way down the croft so had a wet muddy knee for the duration of the meeting but that is preferable to being rained on.

Ady and the kids had a productive morning – Scarlett cleaned out Humphrey and her and Ady worked out how old he is in hamster years – 106 apparently! Davies spent the morning recreating a cover of a book to recover an old book and turn it into something from Adventure Times to be a prop for one of his home made films. I am not at all familiar with Adventure Times and probably don’t care enough to google it but it seems to be all the thing with the young ‘uns. I may be officially old and Someone’s Mum now ;).

Home for lunch and I made some bread dough to prove. Ady volunteered to cook dinner – steak pie as he wanted to experiment with cooking the meat on the log burner top. The others all carried on with their various indoory things while I went back down the hill to do some more to the honesty cupboard / larder / upcycled freezer. It’s looking good, I’m pleased with it :). I was down there for a good hour or so and then Casey came along, we chatted for a while and she headed up to see the kids while I finished the bit I was on before getting thoroughly rained on and heading up the hill myself. Casey was playing lego with the kids 🙂

We talked and drank tea and Casey and I looked at some aerial shots of the croft and talked about permaculture design and long term croft plans. Ady and I had been saying earlier that it would be great to get some third party input on some of our ideas and Casey is a landscape design architect so although not precisely her thing she is very interested in what we want to do, particularly as her special interest is in design for tourism.

Casey left, I baked bread and made some pastry for the pies, had leftover so made an apple tart too and then Ady made suet crust for the pie tops and finished off dinner. Claire gave Davies and Scarlett the Little Book of Calm the other day having talked to them about it from Black Books much to their delight and hilarity so we watched the first couple of episodes of Black Books to see that featured again.

I had a big list of emails to send and things to do online and for once I think I have achieved all of them. And so to bed.

Saturday morning was me off to work at being Mrs Post. A very quiet shift – just Abby, Coryla and Jinty came along. Oh and Manager Mike who bought me some apples. I wasn’t quite sure either but apples are always welcome (when given nicely, not chucked at me, obviously). After 12 I went to view what Claire was selling off as it was the last day of teashop for the year and she was clearing out the freezer and cupboards. I bought 20 chicken breasts, 2kg of bacon, a kilo of mince, a block of pate, a load of frozen ham, a block of cooking chocolate, a large tub of firecracker sauce and 1kg of cherries from her. She gave us two trays of Cadburys flakes, a large tub of margarine, a jar of marmite, various herbal teas. The whole lot came to £50 which was a stonking bargain and has filled up our freezer nicely 🙂

I came home for lunch and only Ady was here as the kids’ friend Catriona (pronouced Catrina? I’ve never known the like!) had arrived on the early boat so they were off playing with her. The kids appeared shortly after me hungry and a bit soggy so we put all their coats to dry infront of the fire, fed them and they played indoors for a while before heading back out to play when the rain stopped. We arranged to meet them at the shop at 5pm. I put a first layer of green paint on the freezer which is to be the honesty produce cupboard and then we walked down to the village.

We ended up staying at the shop later than we planned celebrating the end of the season with Claire who fed Davies and Scarlett leftover ice cream so they were only too happy to stay down there too. A very late night home with dinner at Goddard o’clock!

Sunday – the kids were off playing with C for the whole day again. I did a second coat of green and then Ady and I walked down to the village to put a wash on and go to the Community Teashop. Emily was doing it this time and had a veggie options castle caff theme with some excellent activities on each table to do like ‘draw your ideal house on Rum’ and ‘tell us your best wildlife joke’. There was quite a few people out and the activities got passed around the tables. It was good fun 🙂

We walked down to Norman’s as we’d been invited for dinner and wanted to check what time we were expected, swapped over laundry and headed back to the croft. We fed animals, I did some more painting and then we went down to collect the kids, swap over laundry into the drier and go to Normans. We had a lovely roast dinner and watched some Attenborough on his HD tv which was a real treat for the kids and left there around 9pm, collecting the washed and dried laundry on the way.

Monday – the kids were off to meet C again for the last few hours before they left today – back to school for her tomorrow. She adores Rum and is a perfect fit with Davies and Scarlett, they have loved having her here for 48 hours. Hopefully she’ll be back again soon.

I did some lettering on the honesty cupbpard and then Ady and I went over to visit Gav and Laura and admire their cabin. They only have two weeks before they are off to have their baby and won’t be back til next year. We’ll miss them 🙁

We went down to the boat to wave off Catriona and I called in to the office to print some bits off for a meeting tomorrow. Then home for some more painting before I went to the shop to put the veg order in and have a beer with Casey. I got home dry which seems amazing given the amount of rain falling now. Ady cooked a lovely dinner and I’m planning an earlier night tonight as I have a full week of meetings and general grown up thinking ahead.

I noticed there were two lots of in other news on the last post. So this entire update is brought to you by way of other news.

Yesterday in other news Ady went to work with Chainsaw Dave on fixing the Pajero. It is more fixed than it was in that it now more or less starts but it is still not very fixed at all in that it does not go more than 10mph and always has a comedy Wacky Races style cloud of black smoke coming from the rear which we call our built in midge repellent but is actually the car slowly and very high profile dying.

I made various bread dough mixes for bagels, rolls and bread, helped the kids with some spellings and talked lots about penpals and friendships through the post and we had lunch. The kids took Bonnie off for an adventure and I went to do some polytunnel sorting.

Ady came home and brought me down a cup of tea, I took the car back to the other side of the river with him and we had a sensible timed dinner.

In other news today we had bacon sandwiches for breakfast which always feels slightly decadent but we had left over bacon defrosted from yesterday. I knitted some squares as I have a plan to sow knitted squares patchwork style to a fleece I don’t wear as a fleece to make a sort of home made jacket. I might do some freeform crochet stuff on it too. I live on an island, there is hardly anyone to judge me fashion wise!

The kids had a letter from a friend they made back in the summer here to say she was coming for the weekend camping with her parents probably today so we all went down to the pier to meet the boat. She didn’t come and when we looked at the letter again tonight it says maybe tomorrow morning so they will go with Ady to meet that boat too. They were a bit sad about that 🙁 We took some of the shop delivery in our car along with our own co op delivery so went to the shop to drop that off, walked round to put some stuff in the freezer and then waved the others off home while I went to do a social media training workshop. I know, I know…. but Lucy (lovely Eigg woman) gets paid to deliver them and I do always learn something new from her every time.

Ady and the kids came back down at 5pm and we stopped for a beer at the shop before coming home for pizza.

In other news we are trying to find something interesting to order on dvd to watch. I am so over Disney pixar films and the internet is super slow and buffer-y. We have cancelled our Lovefilm membership as we discovered we can buy a couple of dvds a month for the same money and the post turnaround here is so slow we were only getting through two discs a month anyway. I think we have done all the family films I can think of so we were looking at series to get stuck into that are suitable for Davies and Scarlett to watch. We’ve done Red Dwarf, Miranda, Black Books and the first series of Lead Balloon. I was pondering Friends – it needs to be funny, not sci-fi and kid suitable (within reason, Black Books is a 15!). Suggestions gratefully received.

Do you remember when I used to mention my home educated children on this blog? Now I just leave them to fend for themselves while I swan about crofting and that.

Recently I had a wee wobble about whether they would be able to exist in the real world once they fledge and we release them on the ferry to find their own paths in life. To ensure they are able to do this they are now tasked with washing up the lunch time plates and cups, collecting eggs, doing the evening animal feeding. They also have to provide regular cups of tea and coffee to Ady and I. I am torn between feeling a little like Cinderella’s evil stepmother and an unschooler entering a new age. I’ll let you know how it goes.

In other news Bonnie has stopped limping and appears to be fine so it must have just been a sprain. This is a huge relief as we didn’t not want to take her off to the vets because it was expensive and inconvenient but it really would have been very expensive and very inconvenient. A two night away trip at least with accommodation and transport before we even looked at vets bills.

In other news we went to the pier to send our diesel off and our Harbro order of animal feed, compost, fence posts, electric fence posts and straw arrived. After loading it all into the white van new Manager Mike said ‘but you can’t get that to your croft!’ and Dave told us to leave it all at the pier and he’d bring it to the croft on the tractor which he did. I imagine there will be fall out from this – long tractor story – but who cares, we didn’t have to walk 1/2 mile with 12 bags of feed / compost and 10 fence posts which would have taken us most of this afternoon and tomorrow to do as we could only really have carried one at a time for a mile round trip.

The posts arriving meant we were able to do the pig move which thanks to our new Grand Pig Move Plan was very smooth- hurrah! I then headed down to pay for this weeks veg order and collect any post (of which there was only one item). Tomorrow Ady is helping Dave do some work on the Pajero and Casey is either coming up here for crochet or we’ll go down to Fliss’.

Can you tell I’ve been hanging out with a Canadian? 😉

On Sunday morning Manager Mike (new SNH reserve manager, not Ranger Mike, it gets very confusing here when we have two people with the same name!) came up. He is really into our lifestyle and all about the permaculture and transition town and stuff so we are a bit icon-eqsue to him. I don’t know if he will last as he is finding the job tough but if he does I think he will fit in well and be a great addition to the island.

We showed him around and then Gav came over to ask for help from us all so we headed over to their croft and helped lift a large bit of the cabin up high and position it. Steve and Claire were over there already and Laura arrived while we were there.

Then it was lunchtime so we headed back over to our croft. I chopped up the last of the firewood and Ady and I planned the week ahead. I burned all the rubbish and spent lots of time reading.

Monday – we had plans to collect more firewood, put a wash on and various other running around the village jobs, all hampered by the car dying. We ended up carrying the washing, the veg box, stuff from the freezer for dinner and the post up from the village. Bloody heavy! We decided not to move the pigs as we came up with a proper pig moving action plan which requires spare posts so we ordered them instead. I spent some more time researching fruit bushes and ordering a load to fill the fruit cage.

Ady, Scarlett and I went down to pay for the veg and have a Monday night beer, Davies stayed here; he is practising being a teenager 🙂 I managed to fall over on the way home (not drunk, I’d had two tins of cider only) and really hurt my hand and my knee. I cooked a really nice dinner despite my injuries. I may have deserved some sort of heroic award or medal 😉

Today I spent the morning doing some online stuff while Ady did some various outdoor tasks. After lunch we all went down to Dave and Sylvia’s. Dave is looking at our car for us and has lent us use of a van while he does so, it won’t get over the river so is only half useful but does mean we can bring things to the start of the track off to the crofts which is good given we have a large Harbro (animal feed, fence posts, compost etc.) order arriving later this week. We had a couple of cups of tea with them and Davies and Scarlett played with Andrew (2 next week) and then Davies had his birthday present from them of a drive around the village of Dave’s golf buggy. He LOVED it and was actually a pretty good driver bless him.

We left them and headed home, part way in the white van. The kids fed the animals and I mostly lolled about moaning about my sore knee and hand. Ady cooked dinner – we had chips about which there is a funny anecdote which I can’t be bothered to type out now – and Vikki came up for an hour or so.

Early night all round due to very bad nights sleep last night thanks to poorly knee and roaring stags.

Thursday morning Ady put the car batteries on charge and then we spent the day on the croft. I did some weeding of the raised beds, planted some garlic, chopped some firewood and generally pottered. Ady and I both went to place the veg order and stayed for a beer. There was a ceilidh happening in the evening as there was a large student group staying but we had decided not to stay for it and came home for dinner and a film with the kids instead.

Friday was a busy one. Ady collected the batteries and put them back in the car. I did a circuit of the croft with two buckets = one for brambles and one for rosehips and then we drove the car back to the village to collect some more firewood and check out the recycling area for old appliances. Our repurposed bedside cabinets we’d been using as honesty cupboards are falling apart for not coping with the Rum elements so we needed something hardier. We found it in the shape of an old freezer, complete will with drawers perfect for storing 6 dozen eggs in each and room for a shelf of jams on the bottom and the honesty jar on the top. Ideal. Just need inspiration to do a paint job on it and turn it into something other than an old freezer now 🙂 While Ady collected wood I picked a load of brambles which I shoved straight in the freezer – we now have about 20 jars of jam and lots of brambles in the freezer – would have liked more jam and more frozen brambles but we’ve done well. And a load of rosehips to make syrup with.

We brought the wood and the freezer back up to croft and then Ady and the kids took the car back down to the village while I came back to the static to make some soup and bung some rolls in the oven for lunch. The others arrived back just as lunch was ready :).

After lunch the kids washed up while I took a bucket of hot soapy water and cleaned out the freezer and did a first coat of paint on it to stop it looking like an old freezer. Ady strimmed the outline of where the pigs are moving to next. The kids headed down to the village ahead of Ady and I who followed them to collect the post, some grated cheese I’d ordered from Jinty and have a Friday night beer. Then back home for pizzas.

Today was work for me in the morning. It was all very sociable, I think I’m going to enjoy Saturday morning working 🙂 Ady walked down with me and the frosty ground was beautiful with the sun shining on it. I finished just after 12 and walked home to find people and animals dotted about all over the croft hill in the sunshine. We all had lunch and then I walked back down to the village to deliver some eggs to Fliss. She has clearly given more thought to our falling out than I had and yesterday when she arrived back from holiday asked ‘so are we alright then, you and me?’ to which I replied ‘yes’ and today asked me for a hug. I’ll be more cautious now but am glad all is back to some sense of normalcy with her.

Back at home I did some more painting to the honesty cupboard but really need to wait for some paint I ordered last night to arrive as I think I want to paint the whole things green and then do lots of little chickens and ducks all over it – have been google image searching for inspiration but can’t quite find what I am looking for yet. While I was faffing with it Casey arrived and so we chatted for a while and then she came up for a cup of tea and sit on the sporran while the sun dipped below the hills.

Casey left, I had a shower and then cooked dinner and we all watched Fantastic Mr Fox which I’d not seen before and thought was quite good. There is a stag on the croft roaring his head off tonight. Ady and I went out a while ago with a torch and he was just outside the static with a group of hinds. I wish I could capture these moments properly – the sky was on fire at sunset tonight, the stag roaring in the dark under a twinkling sky full of stars, the frost in the sunshine on the grass this morning. I’m aware I get repeptitive sounding off about the beauty here but it is true that I never felt this connected to the earth when we lived normal lives back on the mainland. I would occassionally get a sense of wonder at a load of daffodils in spring, or a clear blue winter sky but here there are no distractions and you just exist in the middle of all this nature. It is amazing.

Not sure if we’re getting carbon monoxide poisoning from the log burner (I am sure really, we have a proper alarm for it to ensure we are not, before everyone worries!) or whether living so much closer to nature is putting us into a semi hibernative state but Ady and I are both shattered this week.

Today has been a busy one – we walked down to collect the car from the castle, swapped over laundry (having carried more laundry and our rubbish and recycling down) and went to meet the ferry. Rachel who has been over visiting was leaving so we gave her cuddles and waves goodbye, collected our petrol which had arrived back and then went back to the castle to swap laundry over again – two loads, both needed tumble drying), got some stuff out of the freezer for dinner, bagged up 12 sacks of firewood, collected some strawberry runners from Vikki’s polytunnel and then came back for lunch.

Bonnie developed a limp on her back leg during the course of the morning and we’re a bit worried as she is not putting it down at all. She seems fine in herself and not in any constant pain but won’t put weight on it and has been happy to rest all day rather than wanting to be outside with us. Fingers crossed she improves over the next few days or it will be a mainland vets trip I guess. We’ll see how she is doing tomorrow.

We emptied the logs out of the car and I planted the runners in the polytunnel then we planned to go and collect the laundry, get some more firewood, check the coal bund which serves as the islands old appliances awaiting recycling / landfill collection from the council to see if there are any old fridges or other suitable things for us to re-paint and turn into a new honesty cupboard for our egg (and other produce) at the croft gate as the old bedside cabinet we were gifted from the castle is falling apart from exposure to the weather. Except the car failed to start. At all. It is slowly dying and we have to put the batteries (it has two) on charge at least once a week to keep it going, the plan was to do that after we had used it for all the various stuff we wanted to do today.

That left us with a couple of options as we knew there is no one who would be prepared to drive across the river and up the croft to jump start us. One was to take the batteries off and bring them up to the static to be charged by the wind / solar / genny set up but this would probably take all our power and mean no internet etc for us tonight. The other was to take them down to the village to charge up – heavy things to carry a long way 🙁 We decided to take them to the village so set off to collect the wagon which was at the bridge and found Gav’s car at the bridge. This seemed like a better idea so we went to see Gav and Laura and asked if we could dump the batteries in their car for them to take down to the village for us instead. Which they agreed to.

So back to the croft, batteries disconnected and bunged in Gav’s car, then I chopped wood and stacked it while Ady brought it up the hill. I got through about half, so that is tomorrow’s task. The weather has been very heavy showers, lots of wind and some sunshine and the evening looked bright so Ady and I walked back to the village again to collect the washing as I was out of clean pants.

A late dinner (Ady cooking, he is always very busy but not always good at ensuring the longest things to do get done first), the kids watched Star Wars while I made a start on putting together the Rum newsletter and we watched the Grand Tours of Scottish Islands on Muck, Eigg and Rum which was good.

Friday – I think in the morning we finished planting the fruit bushes in the fruit cage finally. We have more than enough blackcurrants and redcurrants even if they don’t all survive the move, we have a fair few gooseberries too, but only 3 of Pthe raspberry canes were even find-able and I’m fairly sure they are all dead and past it but we’ve planted them anyway and will see. One of the big tasks on our current job list is planning next years planting, both in the polytunnel and out on the croft. I want to actually start an orchard, fill the fruit cage, plant some fodder crops for animal feed and concentrate on some worthwhile crops in the polytunnel. I have a much recommended book on Scottish fruit and veg gardening and a Crofting Federation guide to horticulture for crofters which is packed with advice too.

We went to meet the boat and the wind turbine finally arrived, along with lots of tinned goods I’d ordered from Jinty to stock the horsebox ready for winter – last year we did a mainland run to buy all the tinned stuff and realised afterwards we’d not really saved that much so this year we’re buying in bulk from Jinty instead.

I had a meeting with Mike about the volunteer program, after which Casey joined us for a cup of tea and then we all went to the shop for a Friday beer. The Friends of Kinloch Castle were over for the weekend so I chatted with a few of them and then came home for dinner – pizza night!

Saturday – I worked in the morning. I think I’m going to really enjoy the post office / shop Saturday job. I got a set of keys tonight 🙂 There are lots of people popping in and it’s all very sociable and friendly. It’s nice to have the chance to get to know Jinty a wee bit better too. Ady came down to meet me and we did a few bits to do with getting the wind turbine sorted then came home for lunch and got it to a point we were happy to leave it at to start again the following day.

Mike and Casey were coming up for dinner so I got that sorted while Ady fed the animals and we had a lovely evening with them with the usual rounds of charades and plenty of in jokes.

Sunday – it had been a really wet and windy night and we’d not slept well but were keen to get the wind turbine up and running despite it being very non suitable weather for doing so. I’d agreed to go to Community Teashop both to support Laura and Gav and because Rachel who used to live here is back for a few days visit and we’d not gone to the shop on the Saturday to see her as we’d had M&C up for dinner. We got everything to a point where Ady could carry on by himself and I walked down to the village. I took a bucket and bramble picked as I went to maximise time usage :). I had a nice hour or so there chatting to Gav and Laura and then to Jinty, Abby, Rachel and Lesley who were all there. I got a free tea refill and brought home a couple of cakes for the kids and walked back home.

Ady was at the right stage for me to come back and we finished the wiring and putting together then lifted the pole and we had power! Lights came on inside and the turbine whizzed round and round. Our initial ideas about securing the pole proved not good enough and after trying to guy it with some steel core washing line we gave up and resorted to an old tent guy ropes which work far better (we’ll just keep a very close eye on them for wear and tear and replace with metal wire at some point) and decided our plan to stake the pole to a deer post would not work so built up a mini wall of stones around it securing it in place. It is going nowhere now :). It looked at one point as though we might run out of light and have to take it down to try again today but it all came good in the end. The kids went down to feed the animals for us and I came in to get dinner on while Ady tidied everything up. A night of no generator and wind powering everything we needed. Our candle bill is going to dramatically reduce!

Another bad night of howling wind and heavy rain meaning we didn’t sleep well at all but at least when Bonnie whined and Ady got up he was able to put a light and the internet on!

Today – Popmaster, lots of email catching up for me and then lunch. Scarlett and I walked down to the village as she had the doctor at 2pm. After that we walked home again having collected my bramble bucket from the car and carried on picking all the way home. It may be the last pick or at the very least the penultimate one, the last lot of 2013 jam.

Ady and I went down to collect veg and had a beer hoping that Rachel would come out but she didn’t. Walking home we got drenched, it was pouring with rain, windy again and almost dark. A stark reminder of the coming winter.

This morning I assumed Domestic Goddess status and made bread, rolls, soup and banana cakes while Ady did some H&S for the hall. After lunch I went down to do crochet at Fliss’ with Fliss and Casey. As tends to be our thing I went back to Casey’s for a cup of tea and a chat afterwards before heading over to the hall for the RCA meeting.

It was a slightly fraught meeting on various counts and I felt attacked by Fliss so was defensive. I then walked the meeting feeling the need for a beer and walked in to the shop to be greeted by silence obviously as a result of my arrival. Fliss then kicked off at me to which I responded and it all got a bit shouty. She left, I cried (arse, I hate crying!) got cuddled lots, bought another beer and chocolate and cuddled more and had lots of people telling me she was wrong and I was right.

That sort of doesn’t matter because I feel I didn’t handle a situation to the best of my ability which makes me cross with myself but at least I was not shunned and told I was wrong (which would definitely happen here if people felt you were wrong).

I walked part way home with Casey and then we found a shearwater which was lost so I caught it, Casey struggled with holding it to get it back but we re-caught it and she headed off with it while I went home.

I’ve had better days but I’ve also had worse. While I’d feel really bad if no one rushed to take my side it’s a bit of a hollow victory when they do because a better way of managing a situation would be less public and with no one having to take sides…

Yesterday I mostly spent lots of time sewing up the netting which covers the fruit cage imagining myself to be like a fisherman mending nets. At one point Ady came down and managed to chase a couple of turkeys in who then flew to try and get out and ripped a bit I’d just mended. The air was very blue indeed after that as I used all the swear words I know at the turkeys. Fortunately no tourists were walking by…

I gave up around 5pm as it started to rain and I was disheartened with lack of progress. Scarlett’s hair was super tangled (I think the onset of puberty is doing something to her hair and making it tangle more than ususal) so we watched a film while I brushed it after a shower for her. It took almost the whole film… I also fixed the hairbraid she has had in for years and years and put a new thread at the top as it had grown out.

I had a lovely catch up chat phonecall with Julie in the evening.

Today was a stressful start as the car would not start (flat battery) and we had a big Co Op food delivery arriving along with some amazon stuff. We walked down to the village to seek help and borrowed Jinty’s car to drive up and jump our car off of. It took a while but we sorted it and then drove to the pier. Deliveries collected we came back to the croft to drop stuff off and then took the car back to the village to put the batteries on charge before coming home for a very late lunch.

After lunch Ady and I dug up all the fruit bushes from various places to replant in the fruit cage and caught all the turkeys to clip their wings. We’ve decided to pen them as they are just so destructive but thought clipping their wings in the meantime while we await building stuff to create a pen might curtail their craziness a little. I caught my first turkey and also got battered in the face by my first turkey flapping it’s wings. I now have two big red welts across my cheek and some blood on my forehead. It really hurt!

We walked down to the shop to buy some poppadums, put in our egg invoice and pay for Monday’s and then home again to get dinner on. Ady made a lovely curry and we watched some Attenborough while we ate.

Sunrise and sunset are getting ever closer together and more spectacular in the skies they bring which I recall from last year. I now have a torch in the pocket of all of my coats.