One word? When seven would do…

Interesting few days.

Yesterday morning Ady and I went to the school to collect some card from Stuart so Davies could turn his postcards into Christmas cards. We stayed for a chat for about an hour, I’d forgotten how much of a talker Stuart is :). Ady headed back home while I went for a meeting with Vikki and Lesley about bunkhouse stuff.

That done I came home and Davies and I cut out and stuck all the cards onto card backings. He spent today writing ‘Davies’ Designs Handmade Cards’ on the back of them all.

Then I had to go back down for a Directors Meeting. It was mostly a productive meeting and we got through lots but Jinty came in and out and had clearly had a few drinks and then got all ranty and then stormed out. Sigh. I’d taken a walkie talkie down with me which worked well as I could reach the others at home to let them know I had left the village and was heading for home. Definitely better for walking around in the dark knowing if I did fall over I could either call for help or know that someone would be aware within about 15 minutes that I was not where I was supposed to be. We just need to get into the habit of keeping them charged up and carrying them with us now.

Home for curry and a large glass of wine.

Today was a boat day so after Popmaster Ady and I headed to the pier. Fliss and Sandy came off and Fliss came over to give me a hug and tell me she’d missed me. I hugged her back and said I missed her too and she said ‘that is a general missing you, not just while I’ve been off this week’… she’s making all the right noises to try and repair our relationship. I’ll be forever cautious but it would be good to find a new ground between the old leaning on me way too much and the current barely talking at all… we’ll see what pans out. I am quite enjoying being aloof though – I’ve never really tried it before! 🙂

My fruit trees finally arrived – we didn’t manage to get them in this afternoon as time ran away with us but we’ll hope for a window between rain showers tomorrow to go and fill up the fruit cage. With the exception of a DS lite each we also have everything here for Scarlett’s birthday too – Scarlett wants one so she can play her old rumble pack with loads of DS games on so that is her main birthday present from us, Davies also wanted one so as he gets a small gift on her birthday (as she does on his) he has funded most of it from his own money and we have made up the difference. They know they are getting the DSLs and they may not arrive before her birthday although they have now been despatched so they might get here. We also collected several sacks of firewood and then came home for lunch.

We watched a Panorama show about how awful it is to work for amazon. None of us thought it was that awful at all but then as retail workers for most of our working life used to doing 10 hours shifts on our feet all day it all sounded pretty run of the mill. I’m sure that doesn’t make poor working conditions okay but it was not the horrific expose we’d expected from the write up on the show. I spent some time making peppermint creams, orange creams and rose creams ready to coat in chocolate for the Christmas fayre. As usual with these things they proved way more time consuming than I’d expected so I’m glad I did them today rather than waiting til Saturday afternoon as I’d planned.

The kids were playing really nicely and cosy in the static so we left them to it, chopped up and stacked all the wood we’d brought up and then went to light a fire in Claire’s yurt, collect the veg and post and also caught up with Ali and Lesley down in the village. We just about got home before dark.

I finished the sweets and then we drew our dvd advent listing. Over the last few months we’ve been ordering second hand dvds of Christmas films until we had 24. Were going to watch one a day from 1st December. Some are weaker than others but we thought it would be a nice run up to Christmas given we are away from ‘normal telly’ and mainland Christmas hype.

Dinner tonight was a feast of leftovers from the depths of the freezer which had been taking up lots of room so was a very eclectic serving of food. We watched the Tudor Monastery latest episode while eating. Davies showed me his birthday present to Scarlett – a 50 page full story called ‘Adventure Croft’ which is based on Adventure Time but includes him, Scarlett and Bonnie and Croft 3. It is excellent and he has worked really hard on it. He finished all the writing in it today and all he has left is coloring in. He was telling me his process for it – first he did the main storyboard pictures and worked out the story as he went along, next he drew in details, landscapes, expressions on characters faces etc, then he went back to write in the words – it is almost entirely dialogue comic book style and finally he will go and colour it in. He is on another of his one boy missions to get Scarlett properly reading at the moment and this might just be the tip over for her he hopes.

Tomorrow is no boat, no need for visiting the village and probably windy so lots of power all day. Looking forward to a day of hanging out in the static and getting some bits done ready for the Christmas Fayre.

The sink in the bathroom was slow to drain last night and this morning so Ady spent some time sorting that out – it had a minor blockage. The kids played with Playmobil and Lego and then connected on consoles as the wind was blowing lots so we had internet all day. I tidied up the bathroom and reorganised the cupboard and shelf in there. And knitted.

Ady and I went to the boat and caught up with various people at the pier, then to the boatshed to collect some bits from the freezer and then home for lunch. I chopped a couple of sacks of firewood up just to get some fresh air and exercise time between showers.

Davies’ Christmas cards came in the post but are a bit of a disappointment as somehow despite us being convinced we had entered text to go in the inside of the cards they are just flat with the picture on the front and Davies’ logo on the back – nowhere to write a message as they don’t open. Am very cross with myself for not realising. Davies was very stoical but I felt rubbish and then hit with the idea of sticking them onto cards like photos. We’re out of time to get card here for Saturday but I emailed Stuart at the school and we’re going down to the school tomorrow to collect some suitable card to do something. Situation rescued. And lesson learned.

What else? Tonight we watched Twister on dvd, we all enjoyed that although Ady and I saw it years ago when it first came out. Tomorrow I have many meetings.

Saturday morning work for me, Scarlett came too and we had a busy morning – Tarly counted 14 customers which meant most of Rum came in I think! Ady and Davies watched Shaun of the Dead which Davies has been desperate to watch for about 2 years. Then Ady came down and met the boat (we had petrol coming off and a delivery of various meat from the butcher in Fort William – very impressed, think we’ll be using him again :))

We came back home for lunch and I finished reading Ratburger to Davies and Scarlett. We’ve been watching the Tudor Monastry Farm which is very interesting for all sorts of reasons – firstly that it is filmed at Weald and Downland Musuem where we spent lots of time over the years having annual membership for several years. I remember going on school trips there when I was a kid. It is also interesting in that although I have never had the faintest desire to do Kentwell as so many of our friends do I am still curious about that period. Finally a lot of what is being done in the programme is very pertinent and relevant to us in our current lifestyle – goose and pig keeping, working land, traditional low tech building using local materials.

We went round to Vikki’s for dinner in the evening which was really nice. She cooked pizza; Davies and Scarlett ate and played in her lounge while we ate and chatted in the kitchen. It was a good evening. We left around 11 and so I let the kids have a lie in on Sunday morning.

I enjoyed reading in bed for an hour or so which I like to do on Sunday mornings too 🙂 Davies and Scarlett wandered down to the village to catch up with Mike who they’ve not seen since he came home. I planted some garlic and tidied up in the polytunnel after a rat feast has happened with all my seeds 🙁 My own stupid fault for leaving them all in the polytunnel I know but grr – bastard rats! 🙁

Ady and I walked down to the village to collect some veg from the freezer, found Davies and Scarlett and we all walked up together for lunch. I then made two apple pies and cooked roast lamb and baked bread. Davies stayed up with Ady and I to watch Doctor Who on iplayer. I thought it was utterly over hyped and nothing special but I seem to be the only person in the UK who thinks that so I won’t say much on that count 🙂

Today Davies and Ady went to light a fire in Claire’s yurt and stick a wash on down at the castle while Scarlett and I made some Christmas candles for her to sell at the Christmas market this weekend. She had some great ideas and they came out really well. She spent ages this evening making price tags and labels for them too. Fingers crossed Davies’ Christmas cards arrive in time and they both do well on Sunday selling things 🙂

I also sorted some laundry that had been on the line and brought in some firewood and got the fire lit to start airing some damp clothes. The boys came back for lunch and then Ady and I went to meet the boat. I was hoping my fruit bushes might arrive and we were expecting diesel back but neither came.

Back at home I read a Morpurgo book to the kids (Wreck of Zanzibar) until it got too dark to read. Davies spent over an hour on the phone to Ben while Tarly made her labels and price tags for her candles and Ady cooked dinner. I did some Trust paperwork and then we all had dinner.

I’ve been trawling amazon for interesting books to read aloud, the books we all loved reading last winter were the My Side of the Mountain trilogy so I’ve been looking for something along those lines to get stuck in to. I miss library access!

Yesterday morning Scarlett and I made a 3d tiger puzzle that my Mum had given her and then it was ferry o’clock. Ady and I went down together and collected stuff – our Asda order came along with 10 cartons of milk we’d ordered through Jinty. We grabbed that and then Ady whizzed me along to meet Vikki and Jacqueline who is from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, a body which funds loads of things in the area including our Development Officer post. We had invited her over to talk to some of the directors of the trust about continued funding and how that might work best for us moving forward. We had the meeting at Ali’s so I walked up there with them where we were also joined by Fliss.

Gav came back on the ferry yesterday too for 10 days or so to try and do more house stuff. He looks a little less shell shocked by new parenthood but still rather in the wake of a big life change! Good to have him back if only briefly.

I left Alis and walked part way with Vikki and Jacqueline who was back to the mainland on the late boat and stopped at the hall to load the dishwasher from Sunday, tidy up a wee bit and put the milk, fruit and veg delivery into the fridge ready for the volunteers arriving on Saturday. On the way home I saw Ranger Mike, back from Berlin so stopped to chat for a good half an hour and catch up with him. As we chatted we were joined at various points by Rhys, Norman, Ali and Emily. I love the feeling of being part of the village at times like that when you just hang out and know everyone who happens past.

I got home starving so had some very late lunch. The rest of the afternoon and evening escapes me rather.

This morning I read almost the whole of Ratburger to the kids while they did drawing or just listened. We realised recently that from reading to them pretty much every day for their whole lives it has stopped of late and we all miss it so we’re starting again. I spent some time trying to sort my phone out as it has been playing up all week with some software update issues. I *think* I have it fixed now. I also emailed across my matrix scores for the applications for the bunkhouse project manager and replied to some other directorly emails.

After lunch I read some more and then Ady and I walked down to the village as I was off to Ladies Pamper Day – an afternoon and evening of drinking wine, chatting and having facials, makeovers, manicures and hair curling / straightening. Not totally my thing but Abby and Sylvia had put a lot of thought and effort into so I went along to be supportive. It was not very well attended with just 3 of us going along, so five of us there in total, although there are at least 3 women off island just now who would be definite attendees usually. It was fun and some good female bonding even if acrylic nails and drawn on eyebrows are not really my thing! I had a hand soak / massage and manicure although I insisted on just nail varnish rather than false nails – they would *not* be compatible with my lifestyle ;), had my make up done by Sylvia who is a trained make up artist but was a little heavy on the shading in my opinion and then Abby asked if she could curl my hair so she gave me lots of bouncy ringlets.

I came home slightly earlier than expected but precisely when I’d hoped as although I wanted to support the event I was aware of dinner with Ady and the kids and needing to go to work in the morning so was not keen to have a big late night. Davies and Scarlett were watching Despicable Me 2 and having their dinner when I arrived home so I cleaned my face off and had a shower just incase any of the stuff used might irritate my skin and then Ady and I had our dinner. We all snuggled up and watched one episode of Will & Grace and everyone has gradually gone off to bed which is where I am headed too.

Ooh and the Christmas jumpers came yesterday much to Scarlett and my excitement. We LOVE our matching fluffy reindeer jumpers and the boys jumpers look delightfully Christmassy too. Can’t wait to see them all unwrapped on Christmas morning 🙂

After getting utterly fed up with the hours the kids, Davies in particular are keeping in getting up later and later I have started getting me and the kids up by 9am. I know this is still pretty late by most standards but it is only just daylight by 8am and given it’s been more like 10 or even 11 before Davies gets out of bed this feels like wrenching him from his pit!

It seems to be working and we have been eating dinner earlier and getting the kids to bed earlier, which in turn means we head to bed earlier too. When it is dark not long after 4pm it messes with your head being up for more dark hours than daylight ones!

Yesterday was no challenge to get anyone up as snow had fallen and the kids were very keen to get outside and play in it. They headed down to the village to check out snowfall in different places and we picked them up when we went down to meet the ferry. We collected a new gas bottle and our post along with some food from the freezer and then headed home for lunch. The kids went out to build a snowman, Ady went to cut some grass for the pigs. I made the pickling vinegar for two massive jars of pickled onions that had been soaking in brine overnight.

Today I was out all morning at a meeting and then spent most of the afternoon marking and scoring CVs for the Community Bunkhouse project manager post. On my way home I rounded up the turkeys who had gone roaming again. Not really sure where the day has gone today, another one where I failed to do much of anything with the kids. Must remedy that tomorrow.

Well actually no petrol, no post, no gas because none of them came on the ferry today.

This morning Davies and I looked at uploading and ordering Christmas cards of his latest design to sell and worked out what he would price them at and how many he should buy. He has £60 from his postcard sales to invest but there is a balance between tying up all his funds in stock that has a limited sales period and being stuck with it til next year or making a quick killing and doubling his money. Welcome to the marketplace! 🙂

I cleared out my clothes from the wardrobe and stashed all my summer tops away, put all the dry winter tops into bags and back in the wardrobe and all the wet and musty tops out on the washing line to air / rinse. On the same basis we went through the dirty washing basket and Ady hand washed all the underwear, socks and anything actually stained (that will be all Tarly’s t shirts then!) and I just hung out all the jeans, jumpers and things which more need freshening than actual washing. The castle washing machine doesn’t do a great deal in the way of proper cleaning anyway and at £2.50 per load it is costing us a fortune and is currently a real faff to get in to as Billy and his workers have it closed off lots of the time.

After lunch Ady and I went to meet the boat but nothing we were expecting came, we did take an empty gas bottle down though, gathered some more logs, put our veg order in and collected some bits from the freezer for dinner so it wasn’t a wasted outing. Back home we had a cup of tea and then Ady went to strim some long grass and rushes to make bedding for the pigs while I chopped up 5 sacks of logs and burned all the cardboard from yesterdays deliveries.

It snowed on the actual croft tonight for the first time since we moved here, we’ve known snow on the higher peaks but never actually seen it settle on our croftland. It followed that with some serious hail so it is properly white out there now, looking very pretty under the big moon with ghostly ducks and geese wandering about around the static too.

I don’t really want to leave the cosy logburner but the sleeping bags have been keeping us nice and snug at night so seem to be working way better than the duvet.

A mad start to the morning when I got up for a wee intending to head back to bed to read for a while only to learn that the cancelled boat from yesterday which was coming here today to make up for it had been rescheduled again and was coming in 2 hours earlier than planned. Scarlett came down with us and we collected our much traveled Co Op shopping, an amazon delivery of playmobil and lego advent calendars (Christmas gift from my Mum at the kids request) and a stove top fan that we had ordered.

We swung by the freezer to offload stuff into that and then came home to put away the stuff for up here and stash Christmas stuff. We had lunch and then gathered our big pan to take down with us and headed back to the village. First stop was the hostel to see the doctor. Scarlett has a wart on her knee which came up about 3 years ago and looked like a big mole. She kept knocking it and I started to fret about it so took her to the doctors last time they were over and was told it was not a mole at all but a wart and they would bring some freeze spray over next visit. I was not entirely convinced by the doctor as he was a bumbling locum and when I suggested he just send the spray on prescription and I would do it he said he couldn’t do that but if we went off island then we could go and buy some over the counter. When I heard the doctor was visiting today I rang to check they would be bringing the spray and got the current locum (they are doing one month stints) who sounded lovely and said she would bring it to administer along with some cream to leave with me to follow up. Ady then rang to ask for more ibuprofen cream for his tennis elbow and she said she’d like to see him to show him some exercises.

She was lovely, such a shame she is not our forever doctor, really great manner, excellent with the kids, really unhurried with all of us, explained everything well etc. She did a long dose of the freeze spray and explained how it worked, what she was doing, what would happen next, then talked to Ady about his arm and then did a second dose of the freeze spray. It is stinging Scarlett a bit now but i think she did a pretty good job and am hopeful it might come off with just this one go.

Then to the hall. There were no kitchen keys so while Ady cleaned the loos and had a general hall tidy up I tracked down Lesley and got the keys to make some popcorn. We planned a while ago to do a Sunday Movie Matinee and it was felt that The Big Year might be appropriate given our recent twitcher invasion so the projector and screen was set up, popcorn was popped and 12 of us all settled down to watch. It was really good, almost felt like we’d all been to a real cinema!

We came home and all had showers, hair brushing, dinner and Will & Grace (series 3 arrived today).

It’s been such a dashing about day we’re thinking of calling tomorrow Sunday instead though!

This week the weather was supposed to be really bad on Thursday, we anticipated cancelled ferry, static blown down the hill, general Rum apocalypse etc so I didn’t place the CoOp order we were rather desperate for on Wednesday. But you know what, the boat came anyway! True it only came once instead of the scheduled twice and it didn’t go to Canna at all but it did come to Rum and I cursed not having placed the CoOp order.

So I placed it yesterday instead to arrived today. I went off to work, Ady went off to meet the boat to collect our petrol and our very large CoOp order – some Christmas goodies to stash, some alcohol supplies, lots of meat for the freezer, stuff like butter, cheese and some half price Ben & Jerrys icecream just because.

Except that today the boat was cancelled 🙁

I had a nice morning at work, for the first hour no one came in at all so I spent the time reading the latest issue of Scottish Islands Explorer in which I was a guest columnist last issue. Then I had a bit of a flurry with lots of people all coming in to chat, get cash out of the post office, buy stamps, buy groceries or just hang out at the shop. I ended up kicking out the stragglers at nearly 1230 and walked home in the rain. Ady had been in after realising the boat was cancelled and taken home the bits and pieces of shopping I’d done so at least I wasn’t carrying anything. I watered the polytunnel on my way up and laughed at the turkeys who had left the croft, crossed the footbridge (I knew they’d done this as there was turkey poo on the bridge) and returned to the river on the wrong side. I wondered whether they would be clever enough to realise to get back to the croft they would need to walk away from it to get back to the bridge but decided that even if they didn’t we could find them tomorrow, it’s not like they can go anywhere…

Ady had taken out venison steaks for dinner but left them in the car and then we realised we didn’t have any oil to cook chips in (also on the CoOp delivery) so we’d need to go back to the village later to buy some. It rained pretty much all afternoon but the kids had a nice phone chat with Alex Bart, I knitted and listened to the radio and Ady dodged the showers to do various things outside. At 430 we fed the animals and walked down to buy oil, then back. We watched another few episodes of Friends which the kids are taking to a little more but we probably won’t bother getting the next series yet, I think we’ll stick to Will & Grace.

The kids and I made a list of all the people who live on Rum and one thing they would like to learn off each of them which is our project for the next year or so I think. I want to reassure all of us that lack of mainland opportunities to learn and discover do not mean lack of general opportunities and that closer relationships with the 40 odd people who live here with their diverse backgrounds, knowledge, ideas and skills could offer even more than access to libraries, museums, workshops etc in our old lives. Ady and I have also decided that if we don’t sort out some form of alternative accommodation next year then we will have to seriously consider what we’re doing. If we manage that then the static becomes somewhere for friends to stay meaning we can invite more guests, WWOOFers to stay meaning more help on the croft and more interesting people coming to visit and a revenue source too.

Another mostly indoors watching ‘stuff’ day today. I LOVE having older children with their sense of humour, ability to gauge what’s going on and act accordingly and just be interesting people to hang out with. We don’t spend as much time just being with each other as I’d like, particularly given none of us actually have much in the way of commitments outside of the croft but I know that these are the days they will remember. It is odd to think that Scarlett was just 8 when we were WWOOFing and so actually will probably not recall that much about that year when she is older, and even less of the life she had before that. How odd that it is the normal mainstream, supermarkets, traffic jams, Badgers, Rainbows, Home Ed groups, camps etc that will be the misty murky memories for her and the crazy life in a caravan on a muddy hill that she recalls when she thinks of her childhood in years to come.

We watched B Movie this morning which I like lots, it’s one of the cleverer films of that genre (maybe mot very subtle and possibly a bit do gooder for most but it speaks to me). I made some bread dough, some pizza dough, got some soup cooking and then walked down to the castle to put the sleeping bag we put in the wash last night into the tumble drier. Our duvet is moldy – unsurprisingly given the level of damp in our bedroom so we have all gone over to sleeping bags now, warmer, more damp resistant and easier to wash. Our sleeping bags which have done us really well being the ones we used while still campers and all the way round in Willow are ones which can zip together to be a double so we have washed the one that was stashed under the bed and a bit manky and will use them now. Every night in Willow I used to snuggle down and think ‘I LOVE my sleeping bag and I am thankful for a safe warm bed and my family around me’ so it actually has a bit of sentimental value too – always useful to get me through the dark winter months!

I took Bonnie with me and we got down to the castle in the dry. Billy the heroic builder is here again at the moment and has the back of the castle all cordoned off a building site. We met Billy when we came for our interview and he was here when we moved here too. He is a fixture of Rum for us and a big hero too. He is one of the loveliest people I have ever met – kind, caring and just full of love for everyone. He is a Jehovahs Witness but doesn’t even try and preach to anyone about that here either. He has a very special place in Ady and my hearts having been a huge source of support to us during some dark days last year and it was his mats which got the static up here onto the croft. It actually bought a wee tear to my eye when those mats came off the ferry on Monday. I dithered about going to find someone to ask if I could break the barrier to go in to the laundry to put my sleeping bag into the tumble drier and in the end decided I should just go and do it but I was worried Billy might come and tell me off for breaking into the site. Sure enough as I went to leave he caught me but just stopped for a chat in the rain.

Bonnie and I walked back and got caught in the rain on the way home. The others were watching the end of the Muppets In Oz which I’d left them starting so I finished off the soup and we had lunch. We watched some Cash in the Attic just for the fun of taking the piss out of the people on it, oh the luxury of tv portal app on Ady’s phone allowing us to watch crap TV just for larks 🙂 The kids washed up, Ady emptied the wee toilet and then he and I headed down with Bonnie to collect the sleeping bag. As we walked along the bottom of the croft so Claire appeared, coming to visit us. She is away tomorrow for weeks so had come for a catch up which we had while walking back down to the village. I have massive respect for Claire, she lives utterly off grid in her yurt with far less facilities than we have and in the nearly 2 years I have known her I have never once heard her do a Poor Me routine.

I nipped in to get the sleeping bag and was once again caught by Billy but he was just up for another chat rather than telling for off for ignoring safety signs 🙂 We got home again the dry and in daylight.

Tonight has been Come Dine With Me, Children in Need (I cried, therefore I sent money), Friday Night Is Pizza Night and no genny thanks to plenty of wind.

Work in the morning, bed soon.

Yesterday was a lovely winter Rum day, just how I was expecting it to be living here in the winter last year but wasn’t. We had the internet on all day as it was super windy, got everything charged up, the kids watched some stuff online and then we all listened to Operation Pied Piper, a Radio 2 thing from the weekend about evacuees during WW2’s stories. It was really good and sparked lots of conversations. My granny was evacuated from London to Cornwall and loved it, had a fantastic experience and visited the people she was evacuated to stay with even into my childhood 40 years later. We talked about films and books with evacuation in them (Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Peter Pan 2, Nanny McPhee 2). The we listened to Ken Robinson on Desert Island Discs which the kids had never heard before so sparked more conversations – both about Ken and about the DID concept.

Later Ady and I walked down to the village to get some bits from the shop and collect things from the freezer. I cooked and we watched the first episode of Friends, the kids are not impressed. Fortunately I’ve ordered the third series of Will & Grace as we’ve watched all of the first two series and that has been a hit. I think maybe the characters are stronger and more easy to get to know quickly.

Today we didn’t expect a boat as all week the forecast has been bad but we got one rather than two. I was cross as we’d not done a co op order on the strength of not expecting a boat 🙁 We rang Calmac in the morning to check whether our animal feed would be on boat and it was so we went to meet it. 12 bags of feed, we collected some firewood too and brought it all home before lunch. Ady did all the hard work unloading the car while I came up and got lunch sorted.

In the afternoon Ady and Davies went down to see Claire as she is paying Davies to light a fire in her yurt twice a week to keep it going while she is away for weeks over the winter so he needed to go and learn how to do it and how it all works. Scarlett and I looked at some stuff online including ordering some essential clothes for her and some festive Christmas jumpers for all four of us as a surprise for the others. We’re going to wrap them up and make everyone wear them on Christmas Day. We keep catching each others eye and giggling 🙂

They came back and brought the veg order with them. Then Ady and I walked back down later to collect more stuff from the freezer and bits from the shop. Tomorrow we don’t need to venture to the village at all and the wind is forecast to be high so another day at home listening to stuff, reading stuff, making stuff and watching stuff is on the agenda. Davies had a phone chat with Ben this evening and we have all been cast as snowflakes in the Rum nativity play.

After Popmaster Ady and I went down to the village – we collected post (a new pillow for me) from yesterday and I picked up the Rumble (newsletter) from the office. Then to meet the boat.

Ali came and sat in the car for a chat with me while we waited for it to come in. I’m getting on much better with her these days. I don’t think we’ll ever be close as we just don’t have enough in common but it’s nice to feel we have connected better. Billy the builder (the one who’s mats got our static up the hill) came off the boat – he is here for 12 weeks. It was good to see him, he was such a source of support for us in our early days here and is a bit of a fixture of Rum for us. Ady and I both gave him a cuddle 🙂

Ady got caught up helping load some deer on to the game dealer truck and I had a meeting at midday so I walked down to the whitehouse for that in the end. It was supposed to be four of us but only 2 of us turned up… Meeting done and Vikki, Lesley and I ended up having a brief secondary meeting afterwards by which time I was more than ready to get home for lunch. I got hailed and rained on as I went but by the time I reached the croft it was sunny again. Ady had brought up the last of the laundry, my pillow and some more logs.

I had lunch with the kids while Ady did some outsidey things and then at 430 we shut the curtains and put the lights on deciding the day was over. I had a long catch up chat with Julie on the phone – it’ so nice that she knows all the people here and so much of the back stories and politics as we can actually have a good old gossip about all things Rum.

The rent seems to be taking it’s time finding its way to our bank account this month so I have emailed the letting agents to chase it. Feeling a bit worried about that with Christmas so close so hoping for a reassuring email reply tomorrow.

Yesterday was a little frustrating as we planned to get all the laundry done but there was no one at the castle to get washing machine tokens from so I was only able to process one load (I do bulk buy them but at £2.50 each I don’t want to tie up more than a tenner in tokens at any one time really). We did collect some logs, get Steve’s old solar panel which has a large crack in it so he has given us but will still work enough to charge the pig battery and find an old tyre to try out a log splitting aid idea we saw in this months Permaculture Magazine.

In between we had lunch, got all the logs up and I made a start in chopping and stacking them. The kids came down with us to the village and then Davies and I walked back together as I wanted to talk to him about a couple of things. That was good 🙂

Scarlett helped bring the logs up by finding her sledge and dragging that up the hill loaded up. Ady and I were saying that given we decided to Home Educate for Davies it is so lovely to see how well Scarlett has done with our lifestyle – she is so very happy being wild and free and I rarely ever worry about whether this is the right choice for her. If ever a child was in their element surrounded by mud, animals and excused to never wear a dress then this is the girl!

We had a lovely roast dinner and everyone except me enjoyed the chocolate orange cheesecake I made (It was far too sweet for me). Ady and I had a dreadful nights sleep as the wind was blowing a gale and he let Bonnie out for a wee at 330am and she did a runner! She has been suffering from frequent need to wee so when she started rattling her crate he got up to let her out and she legged it. I heard him yelling at her outside the window which woke me from my fairly fitful sleep. He then stayed up, I stayed awake and I think we both got back to sleep around 545am. Urgh. There are lots of winds forecast for this week so while we’re enjoying the endless free power and always on internet and lights I suspect we’ll be a bit zombie-fied from lack of sleep come the weekend.

Today after Popmaster we went down to sort the second load of laundry and lovely Ross gave me three free laundry tokens which made up for yesterdays grrness. We put the veg order in and bought some bits from the shop for dinners for the next few nights so we don’t have to go down of an evening.

Back up for lunch (lovely chicken broth made by Ady from leftovers and boiled up bones from yesterday) and we watched Katie Morag – it’s on cbeebies but it is so charming and familiar living where we do 🙂

I had a phonecall from the nissen hut people to check some details from some drawings I’d sent them and they will now work on a price for me. Then I went and chopped the rest of the logs.

Tomorrow there is supposed to be two ferries but Calmac are reporting disruptions so we’ll see what that brings.

I woke this morning to see Hallival topped with snow. I heard today that meterologists are predicting the coldest winter in 100 years. Bring it on – cold and dry is a whole lot better than warm and wet as far as we’re concerned.

Scarlett decided not to come to work with me but stayed behind with Ady and Davies instead. I had a fairly brisk morning with plenty of people coming in: Bad Neil, Abby, Mr Rhys, Norman, Marcel, Manager Mike, Vikki, Castle Paul, Ghillie Doug and then just before I finished at 12 Ady, Davies, Scarlett and Bonnie arrived as did Jinty fresh off the boat. We bought a fair bit of shopping, collected some bits from the freezer and then came home for lunch.

We’d half planned to move the pigs today and after lunch it was bright blue skies and sunshine so despite it being very cold we decided to do it. Just as I cut the electric fence the sky turned black and it began to hail 🙁 It was the point of no return though and we were we anyway so we carried on. Vikki and her visiting friend Maree came along to bring some old fruit for the pigs and stop for a chat which was nice to see them but held us up longer than we’d have liked really. The plan to leave them on half the old area worked really well though with no risk of them being free as in previous moves where we spend as much time rounding them back up and containing them as we did moving the fence. This was straightforward, just time consuming. And in bouts of hail which is never the nicest working conditions.

We finally finished about 430 just as the light was failing and Ady fed the animals while I came up to strip off wet clothes, have a hot shower and get the pizza dough for dinner made. Ady followed me up and got the fire lit. I rang my parents who had Frazer, Kat and Robin there for his birthday and spoke to all of them including the phone being held to Robin’s ear. They tell me they are all planning to visit for Easter. I strongly suspect this won’t happen and of course they would need to work out quite where they would stay anyway but the intention is nice.

Pizza, wine, Saturday night music, Will & Grace dvds and I am very ready for bed. Wish me luck as I head into the arctic bedroom!

Another just us, just here day 🙂

Everyone had a lie in which meant for most of us our first meal was lunch… Ady spent some time in the horse box, cleaned out the top cupboards in our wardrobes with mold killer (I started to do it but could feel my cheeks itching and mold spores were a definite trigger for Nic face so I stopped and he took over).

I made the Christmas cake which everyone had a stir of and is now sitting in tupperware ready for regular alcohol feeding from now until Christmas. I also planted up a raised bed with about 80 cloves of garlic – I now have two raised beds and two fish boxes in the polytunnel planted up with garlic – I will achieve self sufficiency in one crop if nothing else next year! 🙂

I also did some knitting squares, some IRCT director email stuff and sent a long and gushing email to Frazer in advance of Robin’s birthday tomorrow.

The kids did some playing with lego and playmobile, watched some stuff on youtube and iplayer, connected on tablets on minecraft and on DSs on something else, played some maths game on tablets which required a calculator and scrap paper and talked to me about what they might want to do when they grew up. They spent about an hour outside in the woods collecting leaves – Ady tasked them with collecting six different ones each for them to ID with the books we have. We are looking at renting some woodland from the trust but need to learn more about managing woodland, get some advice and see whether it is a viable thing for us to do. Davies has wanted woodland for years and is very excited at the idea – he tells me he wants to leave Rum to travel but intends coming back and would maybe like to do some bushcraft or woodland thing to earn money one day. Scarlett just wants to work the croft growing stuff and keeping animals. I walked the perimeter of the croft and looked at the woodland we’re thinking about and emailed the other directors to register our interest.

We watched a very emotional short film about children born on September 11th 2001 in USA (I think it was on CBBC originally) which I spent the duration of biting back tears. It was very moving, particularly the soundtrack played alongside it. Scarlett asked for a hug afterwards.

Ady and I marked out a plot for the nissen hut and the individual rooms we’d put in it. It looks good, the room sizes seem sensible and big but not excessive. The kids would have decent sized bedrooms at last which would be excellent. We’re waiting on a quote now as we had tweaks to the standard design but it sounds like it may be something we could raise funds for next year. We’ll see.

Tomorrow morning I’m working and in the afternoon we’re planning to move the pigs – weather permitting. Scarlett wants to come with me to work and Davies and Ady are planning on watching Sean of the Dead which Davies has been wanting to see for about 2 years but Scarlett is desperate to NOT see so needs to be done while she is out. Tomorrow in broad daylight watching with Ady seems to be a sensible plan for all concerned.

Another mostly indoors day today. For me this is fine and dandy – I have a list of crafting things I want to do, stuff I want to research, online things to catch up on, paperwork to process and plans to make for next year. I have writing I want to do. Mostly though I am planning on spending a lot of time this winter hanging out with the kids – watching films, reading books, playing games, stuff like Come Dine With Me cook offs and so on.

Ady and Davies went down and collected some big stones – Davies is planning to paint prices for our various eggs etc on stones for us to arrange on top of the honesty larder. Meanwhile Scarlett made leek and potato soup under my instruction. We talked about how onion, garlic and stock is a pretty standard starting point for any soup. For some reason I’d always assumed soup was a really complicated thing to make from scratch – I suppose because there is such a wide range of tinned and fresh soups in supermarkets and because the ‘soup of the day’ at Mum’s restaurant was always a large catering packet mix. I realise now how little cooking my Mum ever actually did (in her defense she did work full time and Dad did *nothing* at home so I understand why she relied on convenience food. When Ady and I were first together we always thought we cooked from scratch because we didn’t but ready meals but we still relied heavily on jars of sauces for curry and bolognaise etc. It was only really when we started to try and live on a tight budget that cooking with raw ingredients became something we did and I still learnt so much while we were WWOOFing about the ways different people cooked. Now of course it is a matter of finances and availability of ingredients that means everything is cooked from scratch really. It’s particularly satisfying that lots of the dried herbs I reach for in my cooking these days are ones I grew from seed, harvested and dried myself 🙂

Lots of wind today so everyone made use of the internet on all day. I sent a facebook message to my best friend from school, Vicky who is 40 today. Her facebook page is pretty neglected – within the last 10 items on her wall are happy birthday messages from me from the last 3 years so I assumed I was shouting into the wind really. I thought about her for a while though – we were close for the last 2 years of school, then fell out at college, then got close again – she came round for a takeaway on the day Ady and I moved into Osborne Drive. She settled down not long after with a bloke none of us (except her of course) liked very much who was even older than Ady and our age gap (29 to my 19) was gossip worthy at the time. They moved to Buckinghamshire and we became Christmas card friends and then drifted totally when we had kids and moved to Manchester. Her and Paul who she had by then married then came to our Welcome Back to Sussex Party / 40th Birthday surprise party for Ady and she was pregnant. They have since had another child but we totally lost touch so I was most shocked when she replied to my birthday greeting with a facebook message asking how we all are! I’ve replied and am hoping she replies with a longer catch up email. Funnily enough I was telling Davies and Scarlett about her just this week as I have a scarf she bought me for Christmas when we were 16 that I’d been coveting in a shop for months and she must have saved up to buy me. It’s a little threadbare 20 odd years later but remains a treasured possession 🙂

I did some drawings of house plans to send to the people we’ve been exchanging emails with. We are looking at a Nissen hut design from these people . Officially it would just be a workshop / office / farmshop but we would actually turn it into a dwelling for the 2 years it would take us to build a cob house. We would have oodles more space than we have in the static, including room for a bath and a washing machine (my two things I miss most), larger rooms for the kids etc. It would be massively more weatherproof than the static in terms of not worrying about losing the roof etc and it should be far more insulated and weather proof in terms of not having the same condensation / damp / cold issues we have in here. I think it is likely to come in at a price we can try and raise from massive saving over the next 6 months from winkle picking, venison processing, my post office /shop job, looking at trying to get some writing work, maybe another cash injection from my parents and potentially some crowd funding. If I can make it a viable croft expense we could also get some croft funding towards it too. All still very early stages as we are costing it out at the moment and there is a balance between wanting something much better than we have now but still keeping it affordable and being aware it remains a temporary housing solution rather than a forever house. I am very aware of Davies and Scarlett having now spent over 2 years living in a campervan or a caravan though and while it is another metal box rather than a proper house it is incrementally better again…I’m waiting on feedback with prices from the drawings I’ve sent and then we’d need to start looking at the logistics of making it happen. It feels good to have a plan which no longer relies on Osborne Drive selling though.

Ady and Davies checked for eggs but there were none which blew my plan of making a birthday cake for Mel out so I made birthday tiffin instead. Except Ady had been snaffling my biscuit stash so I only had half the required amount which made for a very sticky tiffin without the biscuit to bind the chocolate and syrup glue.

Then it was down to the hall for the monthly residents association meeting. All very benign and mild stuff this month. Afterwards we joined Vikki in heading to the castle to celebrate Mel’s birthday with her. The kids xboxed (Davies’ x box is there), we played pictionary and ate pizza and chips and drank fizz then had birthday tiffin to finish. It was all lovely. And Ady and I won pictionary 🙂

We got almost all the way up the hill before the hail started again so ran the last little bit and are now tucked up very warm and cosy while it continues to blow a gale out there.

An almost entirely at home indoors day today. The shape of the season to come I suspect. Some of us are better at this than others…. I spent some time putting the Rumble (Rum newsletter) together, I’m waiting on a couple more submissions before setting it to print. And knitting. My fleece is now about a quarter covered in knitted patchwork. It’s a longer job than I suspected but I think it will be fab when it’s finally done, just hope that happens before the summer comes!

Ady ducked between showers and buried in some pipe just outside the static. He has rigged up some guttering and a downpipe, then buried in some more pipe to take the water from the static roof away down the hill a little. The area around the static is utterly flooded and didn’t even dry out through the summer – the water run off is too much for the ground to take.

The kids made birthday cards for Mel (Castle Manager, birthday tomorrow), connected on various devices, watched some downloaded iplayer stuff Ady had got for them, Davies did some Adventure Time pictures (their current passion, I am now such an out of touch parent that I have no real idea of what it is they are talking about!).

I made bread (rolls for lunch, a couple of loaves for the next few days), finished off the massive amount of ginger I got last week by making two jars of preserved ginger (boiled in syrup basically – I have four jars of ginger infusing in vodka in the wardrobe – half will stay as vodka, the other half I’ll add syrup to to make liqueur) and Ady and I worked out a floor plan on paper of our current idea for a more permanent temporary house for next year. More on that soon but we sent an intial email for more info today and it is all very heartening so far – I think.

After lunch the kids went to water the polytunnel and walk the perimeter of the croft – they had lots of energy to run off! Then Ady and I walked down to the freezer to collect something for dinner. We didn’t see another person – so indicative of this time of year. I’ve exchanged emails with various Rumachs during the course of the day for various reasons but to not see another soul all day is odd – back in Sussex you couldn’t go more than a minute even in the middle of the night without someone driving past the house, during the day the briefest glance out of the window would see traffic, people walking past, people in the tens of houses we could see from our house.

Tomorrow wild weather is forecast – we’ll see whether it brings ferries and deliveries or not…

It’s been sunshine and showers and bright blue skies and hail and clouds and a little bit of wind today. Briefly there was snow settled on the very peak of Askival (the highest Rum peak) but then it rained again and washed it off.

We sat for over half an hour this morning watching three golden eagles (two adults and a juvenile) flying while crows mobbed them. I learnt later than the odd sound we heard coming from the hill behind us which sounded like barking was probably a deer hind, apparently a calf was accidentally shot yesterday late afternoon so she was probably calling her dead baby 🙁 The carcass must have been left out (no point in bringing it in, it can’t be sold as venison and does not count towards the cull numbers) for birds to feast on, which accounts for all the activity we saw.

Ady and I went to meet the boat as we had diesel coming back on it. We called in to the shop first to collect yesterdays post and get some crumpets which had been a popular request for lunch. After the boat we popped back to the shop to get todays post and then came home for lunch.

We had planned to keep the car on the croft for later in the day but the rain set in so during a brief weather window Ady shot off down the hill to put the car the other side of the river. We spent the day mostly on screens of some sort although the kids made a birthday card for Robin who will be 1 on Saturday and I did some knitting. I had a fairly long phonecall with my Dad which was nice.

We’d agreed we would head down for the fireworks at 6ish if the weather was on our side and it was. So we donned coats, gloves and torches and walked down. There was soup and mulled wine and a brief firework display. It all seemed over very quickly really but the kids said it was more impressive than the one on Saturday which went on for ages but was pretty tame – this was bigger bangs, brighter colours but much, much shorter. Conscious of weather windows we headed back off up the hill home again.

We’d left the jacket potatoes for dinner cooking on the log burner which saved lots of gas. I’ve not been sleeping well so ordered a new pillow tonight which I am hopeful may improve that. It is very cold and very condensation-y in our bedroom now and I seem to do a lot of waking with random pains and niggles that have all gone by morning but keep me awake in the small hours. I am very glad it is our bedroom that is the coldest and dampest and that it is my side of the bed which seems to be the worst ( I sleep furthest from the log burner and closest to the east wall of the static) because I’d feel horribly guilty if anyone else was suffering more but I do wish I had a magic wand to wave to put us all in a more weatherproof domicile for the coming season.

Tomorrow is supposed to be bad weather, so much so that three people who were supposed to be leaving on the boat tomorrow headed off today instead. Today, however has been glorious, not November like at all with lots of sun and no wind. The solar panels were charging things up in the middle of the day. There is however the first dump of snow on the peaks on the mainland that we can see.

Two of them were Mike and Casey – Casey won’t be back until January. This feels very sad 🙁 I think she needs the break. She’s made me feel *old* several times lately and again today. Sometimes I feel as though her and I have really connected, at other times I realise she sees me more as someone’s ‘mom’ than as a peer. Odd dynamics here on Rum.

So, after Popmaster the kids went off to the shop to buy some pasta, Ady did some compost loo maintenance (it will not break down as quickly during the colder weather so will start to fill up, we have decided to bag it and create a compost area on the croft for the semi=composted matter in one of the sunnier areas) and I went to chop some wood. Then Casey arrived to say goodbye and have a cup of tea with us. We stopped working and came in, the kids returned and we had a cup of tea and a chat.

That took us to midday at which point Ady and I decided we were not hungry enough for an early lunch so headed down to the village to collect the washing from yesterday and get some stuff out of the freezer for dinner tonight and tomorrow. We met Sandy so had a chat with him about nissen shelters which is our current research project for a temporary house solution. We grabbed a couple of bags of firewood and came home.

We had lunch and then the kids washed up lunch stuff and headed out to play, Ady went to do more loo stuff and I finished chopping the firewood including the stuff we’d just brought up and burnt some cardboard. We have some rubbish weather heading in apparently but we actually have quite a lot of indoor stuff to be getting on with it’s just that when we have dry sunny days it makes sense to make the most of them outdoors.

I cooked dinner and had made cheesecake for pudding so two rounds of clean plates all round 🙂 We’re almost at the end of season 1 of Will and Grace but season 2 is on it’s way.

The twitchers continue to come, another five charter boats this weekend and meanwhile the MoDo just does it’s thing. Most amusing.

I went off to work yesterday morning and Scarlett joined me. She loves Jinty’s shop anyway and was a little star making tea, coffee (for me and her and one for Abby) and working the till. I was amazed anew (as I always am with our autonomous, no structure approach) that she just knows about numbers for money. I thought gathering change out of the till drawer might pose a problem but no, that was all very straightforward too, she is quicker than many adults I have seen working a till and finding £1.88 with all the right coins!

Davies went with Ady to do bonfire building and then came back with Jinty after the boat – much excitement as he had spotted a spider on our amazon box which appears to be a false widow. He showed it to someone else, they caught it in a jar and it is now doing the rounds on facebook – Rum home to many odd migrants and quite a few odd residents too! Both kids headed off together before the end of my shift when Ady appeared having finished the bonfire. We got our post, found the kids and headed for home.

There was uncertainty regarding whether fireworks would happen as the weather was not great but in the end we got a ‘Go!’ email so I made some flasks of hot chocolate and mulled wine (not together!) and we went down. It was a decent turn out and the fireworks went on for ages. I think my personal preference is for larger shorter displays, my oohs and ahhs get jaded after an hour! 😉 We had venison burgers cooked on the barbecue, various soups and the bonfire was fab. It did rain but sparklers and mulled wine always make everything better.

We got home at about 930pm, mostly dry and watched some Will and Grace before the kids went to bed and we were not far behind.

Today was a slow morning and then we went down to put a wash on and visit the Sunday teashop – the kids collected a dead rat from Ross to take to Sean the Rat (he is doing post mortems on them to learn more about their habits and has said when he has enough he will get Davies and Scarlett round to do some with him. Cue much excitement – opportunities eh?! 😉 We left the car in the village and walked home, Scarlett and I had showers and then I made popcorn and we watched a film while I got all the many tangles out of Scarlett’s hair – wet hair with flour in it from the Halloween games meant this was an epic job! Ady cooked dinner.

Yesterday was Halloween-tastic. In the morning we all headed down to Vikki’s and 3/4 of us had baths (me, Ady, Davies). Vikki is away and had facebook messsaged me to say ‘please go and have baths, stroke my cat and if you need to move in cos the weather is dreadful then do so, spare sheets are on x shelf’) I like being in the houses on Rum when their tenants are not around and pretending I live there and trying on what it would be like to live in a house again. It’s nearly 3 years since I lived properly in a furnished actual house, next week will be the 2 year anniversary of our first ever visit to Rum.

Anyway, the bath was lovely and I sat in the mini conservatory and read afterwards while Ady had a bath and then he and I went to meet the boat while the kids stayed behind and Davies had a bath. Gav arrived back on the boat so handshakes, cuddles and congratulations were in order. We had three sacks of flour delivered so grabbed them, picked the kids up from Vikki’s and then headed home for lunch.

After lunch Ady and the kids carved pumpkins while I made some cheesey fingers and some gingerbread biscuits which I iced to look like pumpkins. I painted Davies’ face to look vampire-esque, started doing Scarlett’s but then she took over (and did an awesome job it has to be said), Ady had no planned costume and said he would ‘see where the facepaints took him’ – he wore a boiler suit, a beanie hat and did a sort of Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas type of job on himself. He looked properly scary – on the way down to the village he double backed to come and help me carry stuff and it was dusk – I saw him coming towards me and thought ‘oh it’s Ady’, then looked at his scary face and thought ‘no it’s not!’ and actually screamed! I just wore black clothes, put on lots of glam make up, curled my hair and made some tiny spiders to dangle from my hair and was a pretty witch!

We stopped at the shop first as we were early, having decided that walking down to the car in more or less daylight and no rain and being early was better than being on time walking in the dark and rain. At 6 we headed off to the school, giving Mike (dressed as leopard man) and Casey (dressed as a fox) a lift so it was a cosy car full! The school party was actually very good despite our reservations. It was strange to be in the building again and I have to admit it has an alive and happy feeling to the building now, far different to the ‘time I did’ working there. Certainly no regrets about leaving though. It was a decent turn out with Ali (pirate witch), Sean (hag of Hallival) and Eve (witch), Fliss (witch) and Joss (Bat), Mike & Casey, Coryla (Scarecrow), Lesley (half witch – cool wig, even cooler red contact lenses), Stuart & Julie (Scary headmaster and witch), us, Manager Mike (sofa throw and sythe), Debs (artfully draped curtain and tealight lantern), their daughter Sophie (clown face paint and braces made of shoelaces) and her boyfriend Norman (bin liner top and loo roll face & hands to make a mummy) all having come with no costumes at all from their barely furnished house.

Various games including apple bobbing, duck hooking, skeleton drive (like a beetle drive but for skeleton parts), ghost skittles, musical statues etc. Team A (my team!) won :), lots of refreshments and then all in the cars to head to the hall for Halloween Party mark 2. Abby had done loads more games and there were more people there (although only Abby was in fancy dress). We played pass the parcel with spooky dares, a relay of jaffa cake eating, apple bobbing and sweets in bowls of flour and other such similar silliness. We danced and generally had a fun and silly time.

We left and got home just after 11 I think. A late night all round. Lots of wind and rain made it another noisy night so not a lot of sleep again.

Today has been a quiet day. I spent the morning and evening in the kitchen – I made yoghurt, soup, bread rolls, bread dough, pizza dough, rolls to take to the MoDo cafe tomorrow (bread and soda bread rolls), two bottles of home made amaretto which is my nightcap of choice, peeled and chopped the last of the bargain ginger which is now in soak to make preserved ginger with.

Ady and I went down to the freezer in the afternoon to collect some cheese and milk and water the polytunnel on the way home again. We watched some Peter Kay stand up at dinner time which I thought the kids would find funny but pretty much none of the things he talks about mean anything – taxis (aside from black London cabs they’ve never been in one), big family Christmas dinners where people – sit on a random selection of chairs (nope!), wet play at school and the school dinner ladies (erm no) – I’m almost feeling guilty for depriving them of such a range of cultural reference points!

Both Davies and Scarlett are tired, grumpy and sugar infested today which has meant lots of squibbling (sibling squabbling) for which my own tired and slightly hungover and hormonal tolerance levels have not been very high for. Tomorrow is Rum Bonfire Night and I am working, so I am hoping to get a decent 8 hours of sleep between now and then.