One word? When seven would do…

Poor Ady was so filled with rage he couldn’t sleep last night. In our very tiny barely qualifies as a double bed this means neither of us gets any sleep. He got up just after 430am which at least meant I got to spread out and snore.

This morning we did  couple of hours of digging on the houseplot. It was snowing with various degrees of heaviness all morning which was both very pretty and quite cold. Eventually we were both very soggy and in stopping to chat for a while it soaked through to socks and elbows at which point we called it a day. A very productive two hours though. I made finished the north boundary trench which means all three walls are now done and the outline is complete. Ady finished the curved run he was digging. We did some calculations and reckon 20 hours of work left maximum, so five days of two hours each and we’re there. That is only the first hurdle of course but it will certainly feel like cause for celebration.

Back up to the static for lunch. It rained and hailed and snowed so I read to the kids for most of the afternoon. Ady listened a bit, dozed a bit (he had a lot of catching up on sleep to do) and then went out to feed animals, bring in firewood etc. I did some knitting and then made pizza dough.

Tonight we watched Patch Adams which I’d not seen before. I thought it was fab, Tarly thought it was a bit depressing but I think the feel good part of the film passed her by a little. Feel very melancholic about Robin Williams now though 🙁

Off to the ferry this morning as we were expecting amazon stuff. As we hit the bridge so Manager Mike was hurtling towards us. Can’t be arsed to explain all the back story but basically he was flapping once again about something he should have organised and managed ages ago, left to the last minute and then panicked about. As a person I like him, although I have strong reservations about some of his ideas. As a Manager and key member of SNH staff here on Rum where there is historic politics aplenty he is a bit of a pillock. Sylvia, not known for holding back her opinions recently got into lots of trouble for calling him a fanny on facebook. While I don’t really support that behaviour the word fanny always makes me laugh and a lot of the time he is a fanny actually. Anyway, he was wanting us to move our cars, both of which are in the village. I had already sent an email last night to say we’d be moving the Jeep at ferry o’clock but that the Rangerover was a non runner and our Jeep not up to towing it so if it had to be moved then I was happy for it to be done but we could not do it ourselves. He said he had several SNH guys happy to push it and we agreed to see him down in the village.

He then walked with Ady and then discussed and agreed on a place for it to be moved to, then we headed off to the boat. Amazon collected, helped Jinty by pumping up her tyre, chatted to Fliss, chatted to Bad Neil, chatted to Chainsaw Dave, helped Sean load a pallet of coal into his car, then home via the freezer.

We brought up some of the stuff, had a cup of tea and then went back out for the rest. By popular demand I made some peanut butter cookies, we had lunch and then all went back outside. Davies & Scarlett to place fake eggs in key places to encourage chickens to lay there in the chicken houses rather than randomly around the croft, Ady to bring wood up the hill and me to chop wood up. Another good amount of wood chopped as it was snowing and cold and only a couple of hours til dark. We are struggling to get motivated on the house digging I know, we really need this time off to regroup and re-energise I think.

Then back down to the village to collect the veg. and deliver a sack of layer pellets to Bad Neil as he was expecting a delivery which didn’t arrive today so we’ve lent him a sack til his arrives. While dropping it off we realised the Rangerover had NOT been moved to the place agreed, it had instead been pushed to a random spot, near where lots of nails are (puncture alert!), with all four wheels firmly starting to sink into some boggy grass, engine facing inwards. So totally abandoned looking and really hard to get back out and work on. Argh!!! We were both steaming about it so instead of just collecting our veg we stopped for a beer and a rant and a chat with the various folk at the shop.

Back at home there was further annoyance on my part with some more too complicated to blog about and probably not that interesting to anyone who doesn’t live here stuff to do with creating new crofts and the Development Officer running away with himself and telling people things he shouldn’t all of which makes directors lives harder to live here. Another fanny! Lesley had very sensibly suggested that actually her and I probably have a conflict of interest and should not be involved in the decisions which then had Ali panicking about half the board not being involved and finally Fliss being a voice of reason and suggesting everyone calm down. Guess that one will wait to raise it’s head again another day. Finally the internet is maddeningly slow and was refusing to load up flickr so I could send some throwback Thursday photos to facebook. I realise this is not remotely important or worthy of annoyance but by then it was one more thing to poke at me with a stick.

So I had a shower and cooked dinner instead. I’m experimenting with shampoos and not at all happy – my hair is either fluffy and tangled or greasy.

Everyone and everything is a fanny. So there!

This morning was all about the firewood. Mostly in the hail. Which really hurts when it whips you against the cheek, or the bit of upper leg which is exposed from your ripped leg jeans.  Ady and I just kept yelling to each other ‘Good to be ALIVE!!!!’ over the sound of the hail though which made us both laugh and passed the time a little more easily. A full wood store once more with wood for the rest of this week at least.

Then in for lunch – I had made soup last night, along with bread dough so had shoved rolls in the oven and the soup on to reheat inbetween wood chopping. We watched some Junior Masterchef while eating, it is good sport to take the piss out of the kids on it and never fails to entertain all four of us. Yes, we are mean.

Then I headed down to the village for Crafternoon at Fliss’. Ali and Deb joined us for knitting, crochet, tea and chat. It was nice but as Deb is the teacher and Fliss and Ali the parents of the only two kids in the school it was a little school heavy which always makes me itch. Also Deb is lovely but is just so bloody nice all the sodding time which also makes me feel a bit tourettes and want to spontaneously shout bad words for no reason. I suspect I am losing what social decorum I ever did possess (not much). Ah well!

We all left there just after 5pm, Ali and I walked to the shop together and then I headed home. I didn’t need a torch until I hit the croft but it was bitterly cold and I took ages to get warm again.

This evening has been watching Turbo (white shadow!) and lots of email catching up.

I was reading in bed when Ady said ‘Nic, Nic, people are coming!’ and dashed outside this morning. To be fair it was long past 9am but it was raining and it was warm and cosy in bed. So I dashed around getting dressed while he went out and headed them off. It was Steve and Claire who had come up to talk about crofts. I’m glad I was not around, too complicated to explain just now but I was not in the mood for them.

I watched Ady walk off with them and then followed him out – the wind turbine was whizzing round so I left the kids monitoring charging everything up. Then I headed over to the cabin where Ady and BD were having a pre-car cup of tea. Down to the village where we spent another 3 hours trying – and failing to sort out the Rangerover. The Jeep is at least now fully functional again with four new wheels – the Rangerover can stay where it is until BD is over next. I bloody hate cars!

We got soaked and frozen which is always knackering. We took Dave along to the second boat and waved him off then loaded the Jeep up with various stuff which was in the village and came home for a very late lunch with the kids. Just enough time before dark to take the Jeep back down to the village, come home, feed animals and bring up one barrow-full of firewood and split it for tonight.

A lovely dinner, I made soup and bread dough ready for lunch tomorrow and we watched a fab film which had us all laughing loads – What we did on our holiday

Oops, behind again.

Friday – we did some houseplot digging. Just a couple of hours and it’s slow going but we were out there doing nonetheless. I made pizza dough and the plan was to have dinner all sorted and eaten before we went. Unfortunately despite best intentions I foolishly cooked the bread first while constructing the pizzas, the bread took way longer than I planned so at 720pm three of the four pizzas were still not cooked and we were supposed to be leaving at 730pm. I managed to get everyone else’s dinner at least on the table and with them having eaten a couple of slices each before we had to leave. I had eaten one slice and took a second with me on the walk down.

We were heading to the Bunkhouse which was the venue for a talk by John Hunter OBE known here on Rum as ‘The Professor’. We all went down and all four stayed for the first talk which was on archaeology of the Small Isles and a selection of stuff we already know about Rum, Eigg, Muck and Canna and some new stuff. Much of it rather contentious and as yet unproven theories but interesting nonetheless. There was then a break during which Ady and Scarlett left to head home as Scarlett was not at all keen to stay for the second talk on forensic investigations in murder cases which The Professor has been involved in countless of. Davies was just as keen to stay so having taken responsibility for TP’s ideal that no-one under 21 was present away he went with the talk. It was very gruesome, pretty graphic and not for the fainthearted as he covered details of some of the most famous murder investigations in recent years including Moors Murders, Fred & Rosemary West, various prostitutes, paedophiles and other unsavoury cases. But utterly, utterly fascinating. Davies found it as interesting as I did and although a couple of people were concerned about his presence and how he would deal with it I had no concerns about his ability to process it all and he was very articulate on how lots of it was contextual and not relevant to him or his life so while he could feel objectively sad he could not empathise and was therefore not remotely traumatised by it 😉 Go Davies!

We stayed for a glass of wine (just me, not Davies) afterwards and a chat with TP and fellow Rumachs before walking home around midnight. We just about got to the foot of the croft when it tipped down with huge hailstones so we did the last part of the walk home slightly hysterical with post murder science, hail in our faces and ducks and geese being all mental at our torchlit approach! We had the leftover pizza and cups of tea laced with whisky (again me, not Davies) and told Ady and Scarlett slightly sanitised versions of what we’d learned.

Saturday was work for Ady and I. Chainsaw Dave had been working on the wheel of the Jeep and had managed to break several drill bits and spoilt the locking nut so the tool we were expecting off the boat would now not work 🙁 Not his fault at all as Ady had asked for his help but then not told him it was no longer required and Chain had set about trying. I did post office, Ady did hostel and met the boat to collect Big Dave. BD came along to meet me at the shop for  a cup of tea and chat before Ady came along to join us. The Rangerover then developed a serious transmission fluid leak which meant both vehicles were out of action. Sigh.

Home for late lunch, showers, hair brushing and getting ready for Burns Night. I had to finish the topping for my whisky jelly and write my Toast to the Laddies poem still so it was a busy afternoon. Back to the shop by 6pm.

We had a lovely evening with delicious food, poems, whisky, friends and lots of music. I did singing with the band. It was fab. A few key people didn’t come along which was a shame. Davies and Scarlett got bored around 930pm so elected to head home on their own. They started the genny, watched some films, re-lit the fire and generally kept everything on track until Ady and I came back around 1am. Very proud of them 🙂 Apparently I told them that quite repeatedly before I went to bed! 😉

Sunday – Ady and BD spent the WHOLE day down in the village trying- and failing to sort out the Jeep. The kids and I spent the whole morning in bed catching up from two very late nights and then afternoon hanging out together. I made bread dough, apple tart, roast dinner, brought in firewood and even untethered the wind turbine. A much needed quiet day.

BD came over for dinner and we had a nice evening.

Monday – Ady and BD wanted to work on the Jeep again. I stayed with the kids til just after 10am and then went down to the village to do various things in the shop, add some advice to the car stuff and generally ensure they didn’t spend the whole day looking at the wheel. By lunchtime it was finally sorted. I had promised to come back up for lunch so did that, bringing Bonnie who had followed Ady to the village. When I got back down to the village the Jeep was fixed and fine, the Rangerover was still a work in progress. We stayed down there til dark chatting to various folk as they came by and then came home for animal feeding and getting dinner sorted. BD came over for curry and we had another really good evening.

BD is off tomorrow, I think they are planning on doing car stuff again in the morning. I might stay home and make soup!

Today was always going to be a bit of a write off in terms of getting much done. We needed to meet the 1135 boat to get our petrol, visit the shop for various bits, I had a meeting from 1pm and Davies had a doctors appointment at 3pm which one or other of the grown ups needed to attend with him.

So Ady and I met the boat – but when we arrived in the village to collect the Jeep we had a flat front tyre. So I did the shopping while Ady pumped it up and then we drove to the pier. It quickly went down again while we were waiting for the boat to come in and chatting to folk. Along with our petrol came an animal feed delivery, but underneath a pallet of lead so we had to wait for that to be unloaded first by which time the tyre was totally flat. Ady found a tin of puncture repair stuff that you pump in so we used that and it went up sufficiently to drive back to the village but was obviously loaded up by then with 8 bags of feed so went down again.

I went for a cup of tea pre the meeting with Ali, stopping to chat to Bad Neil along the way. Then back down via Bad Neil again, waiting for Lesley and catching up with Ady again.

The meeting was good, productive and I think the 3 of us directors and Fliss are working well together just now, being very forthright and just making decisions and sticking to them. Davies and Scarlett appeared just before the GP appointment so we walked along together (all four of us had to leave during the meeting at various points for the doctors – either for ourselves, a child or a partner). The appointment was fairly quick but will result in a referral so will have to go off to the mainland at some point to deal with that.

Back to the meeting for me – leaving Davies to meet back up with Ady and Scarlett who were still in the village trying to sort out the cars – both cars were now there with Ady unloading one into the other, bringing spare wheels down and taking stuff up to the croft.

The meeting finished at 5pm so I walked home – in daylight, yay! – to find Ady all despondent that the locking nuts on the wheel had prevented him from changing the tyres. He hates not being able to fix something himself 🙁 Big Dave is coming on Saturday though and can bring a tool to deal with that so it will be sorted this weekend. Which I think has cheered him up a little bit at least.

I had a shower – I had used some dry shampoo on my hair this morning and it had gone really sticky and horrid – yuck! Ady cooked a really lovely sausage casserole and we watched WallE which we’d been talking about re-watching for ages.

I was up, down to the village to post Lovefilm and collect some bits from the freezer all before Popmaster this morning. For me that is an early start 😉 I’d not even had a cup of tea!

It then rained solidly all morning so I spent some time online, updated our WWOOF host listing, replied to some emails.

We had lunch and then the weather broke so Ady and I did some firewood processing. I chop, he carts it up from the bottom of the croft. The last load he brought up we did together though and got through it really quickly. In for a cup of tea and then we went to feed the animals.

I cooked dinner and also talked to Mairi on the phone to firm up arrangements for our Edinburgh trip next month. Really looking forward to it.

Hmm a very short blog post tonight.

I had an indoors morning today; making bread dough, flat bread dough, pastry, cookies, cooking the meat for a steak pie. Then assembling said steak pie, rolling out and cooking said flatbreads for lunch. All while chatting to Scarlett about animals, looking at her Animalia book and her Nat Geo magazines and talking about animals and reading. For a non reader (although she is gradually conceding that actually, she *can* read a bit) her animal knowledge is encyclopedic! She regularly astounds me with the amount of information she has learnt, retained and is able to trot out whenever. We were looking at a load of her Nat Geo animal cards the other day and she could name all these creatures that I’d never ever heard of, state facts and trivia about them and talk so confidently. I do miss just hanging out with the kids chatting and exchanging information like that. I know lots of the HE kids Davies and Scarlett’s age are now embarking on the exam route which I remain fairly confident we would not have done even if we’d not headed off here to live but this has definitely been a great introduction to the next level for Scarlett who now mixes with research scientists, ecologists and animal behaviourists. She chats to them about all sorts of animal and nature related stuff with such knowledge and confidence. Later today she was talking to Trudi about how if a planned boardwalk across some wetland were to go ahead it would need to be carefully timed to not interfere with dragonfly larvae or ground nesting birds in the area. I watched Trudi very visibly alter her stance and tone towards Scarlett not just recognising an equal but actually someone who could even teach her something! Go Tarly 🙂

Meanwhile Davies was catching up on some sleep in proper teenage fashion. To be fair he is up til crazy o clock in bed as he is writing and illustrating a book just now – he told me he was working on a story, then realised he had a really good back story to be a prequel so then decided to write that story first and make the original story the sequel. He told me a little about it and offered to show me what he’s done so far but I said I would rather wait and read it all when it is done. As I’ve already leapt ahead to Trudi with Scarlett above I’ll do the same here with Davies and say how he showed her up by knowing far more about tree ID this afternoon than she did and saying to me on the way home that he was really disappointed in her Ranger skills in that area. He then conceded that tree ID is a real interest for him having learnt lots at Forest School and from one of the guys he spent some time with at one of our camping weeks at the Sustainability Centre. That guy went on to work in a community woodland and I know Davies enjoyed hanging out with him but Forest School and Sustainability Centre days were five year ago  – amazed at how much he has retained too! Both D&S were praising Ranger Mike for how much he had taught them both here too – we definitely miss him 🙁

Back to this morning – we all had lunch, I finished my baking marathon, booked train tickets for our trip to Edinburgh and back to Fort William in a couple of weeks and then the kids and I went down to the village for Tree ID event with Ranger Trudi while Ady stayed behind to do some digging on the house plot. The Tree ID was ok, Trudi admitted trees are one of her weak points and she relied a lot on a tree ID book she had brought with her but it was nice to be out looking afresh at Rum’s woodland in more detail. We agreed to do another walk in a month and spot the difference in bud and leaf development. Also to try and tap a birch tree. We were soaked and really cold by the time we got home so all had hot chocolate and stoked the fire up. Ady was about half an hour behind us having done a good couple of hours digging.

After lots of debate about car hire vs trains we have booked more trains – this time to drop the kids off at their outward bound having realised there is an station in the actual centre. There is not a train for us to go and collect them so we will need to get a taxi for that but it will still be loads cheaper than car hire for all those days. Also booked a train to take us from FW back to Mallaig again for the ferry home after more debate. It curtails shopping potential and means no big food shop to bring home but saves a couple of hundred quid overall so is worth it. It will remove all the traffic stress too. And it is one of the most lauded train journeys going so will be nice to tick off as done. We can always do a food shop overnight run later in the spring.

Then back down to the village for me. I was really reluctant as it was very cold, very dark and although not raining it was not particularly nice out there but I had a directors meeting to go to. We met at Fliss’ and it was actually a very productive meeting with some good forthright decisions made on stuff. I marched home super quick as had promised to be home by 9 and it was about ten to when I left Fliss’. I was back just after 9 which was pretty good going up the hill on iccy paths I though :). I even had time for a quick shower before dinner.

We watched episodes 4-6 of Big Bang Theory which concludes the first disc we got. Ady and I thought it was quite good, Davies laughed a couple of times but Scarlett didn’t rate it at all so we will send that back and cancel the next disc on it. I suspect it would grow on us given a longer chance but there are enough other titles on our rental list just now to not keep going with it at the moment. At least now when people talk about Sheldon I will know what they mean though, it felt as though a whole cultural knowledge gap had occurred so I am glad to have fixed that if nothing else 😉

Last night Ady said ‘I hope the water isn’t frozen in the morning’ as we listed to the ‘coldest night of winter so far predicted’ report on the radio. So we agreed it would be wise to at least fill the kettle up ready for the morning just in case.

He forgot. It was indeed frozen this morning. Grr. I managed to brush my teeth with the half a cupful of water that was kicking around from someone’s bedtime glass of water. There was a washing up MOUNTAIN too from roast dinner last night. Ady went off to feed the animals and came back with a 5l container from the river but then the gas wouldn’t work properly as it was also frozen.

Eventually the sun warmed everything up sufficiently and we could do washing up and tea drinking and stuff.

We walked down to the village to collect the Jeep and had a quick chat with various folk who were around. We took the Rangerover down to the fork in the road and left the Jeep there too then came back home for lunch. Then it was ferry o’clock so we headed down. We had petrol jerry cans going off today and wanted to collect a new gas bottle too. Then to the shop to collect a couple of bits – stuff that had come off today (bulk buy of cheese and chorizo) and collect the post.

Back to the croft – swap over cars at the fork, move gas bottle from Jeep to Rangerover, fill rest of available space in Rangerover with firewood left at the fork by Billy, drive over the river and get as far up the croft as we could with the heavy load. We got about half way up the hill. I then took the food shopping and bits up, Ady brought up the first of the firewood in a wheelbarrow and I started chopping it up while he brought up the rest (two further wheelbarrows), then the has bottle. Scarlett brought us out a cup of tea each (wonderful, wonderful child 🙂 ). Then the whole car thing in reverse – Rangerover back down the croft, across the river, to the bridge. I fed the birds to get them all out of the way, we shut Bonnie in the Rangerover to stop her following us to the village, walk to the Jeep, drive that back to the village via the freezer, walk back home again, feed pigs, get it just before it was torch-dark.

I rang my parents and have spent the evening booking their PremierInn for their next trip up here and trying (and failing) to get the cheap train ticket website to work on paypal so will have to do that tomorrow instead.

Car stuff sounds complicated and sort of is:

The Rangerover is not so great at starting cos it’s petrol but is much higher ground clearance so gets across the ford when the Jeep definitely would not. Also it has better off road tyres than the Jeep. But it is a petrol and is 4l so is very, very thirsty also we disconnected the back brakes so it doesn’t really stop very well. So we keep it at the bridge and basically use it for going along the rough track, through the river and moving stuff like firewood about. The Jeep is diesel so much more economical, is a much nicer car but has road tyres and is much lower to the ground so we don’t take it on the rough track cos of punctures or across the river unless it is really low. We were leaving it at the fork and using it as the car to drive down to and around the village / to the pier to meet the boat etc. But we had a rat living in it there, getting into the main car by coming up through the gear lever box thingy. So have been parking it down in the village instead where the rats have a choice of several cars to break into and don’t seem to select ours. All of which means anything going from croft to pier or pier to croft will probably spend some time in both cars with us walking around inbetween. We don’t use either car as people transport really – we tend to use feet for that!

Did some houseplot digging today. 🙂 Yay and hurrah and stuff.

It’s been glorious here all day – dry, sunny and all pretty sparkling off the last remaining snow. The high peaks look like skiing holiday brochures!

This morning I had a lie in, despite Ady’s best efforts to make me get up. There was a *mountain* of washing up from last night so we did that and then Ady made pancakes for the kids while I peeled, topped and tailed 2kg of pickling onions that I added to our veg order as a bit of a joke and turned up yesterday. It’s good though, we get through lots of pickled onions as Scarlett and I LOVE them for lunch in cheese sandwiches plus we can sell jars of them at market day in the summer. So they are in salt ready for vinegar and jarring tomorrow.

We had an early lunch and then went down the hill to dig for a couple of hours. It was very, very cold and once the sun dipped behind the hills it was close to being miserable but two hours made a dent in it and we get to tick it off as a bit done this week, which is good as we’d not done anything since well before Christmas.

While we were digging Steve and Trudi walked round, then Mel did. It’s nice being out and working on the croft and having folk wander past, stop for a bit of a chat and then wander off again. Later while Ady was feeding the pigs he saw Mike & Debs too.

We came in just after 3 for a teabreak. Then Scarlett had a shower while I made apple sauce, an apple pie, peeled and chopped veg for dinner and then brushed her hair. Meanwhile Ady got in some more firewood and fed the animals. It was a good day.

It’s been a pretty productive week considering we have been hampered by winds and extra work in the shape of the polytunnel clear up. Hoping for an equally good week to come and some serious headway on the house plot digging.

Work this morning for both Ady and I. Neither of us worked very hard ;). Ady officially worked for 4 hours but he spent at least one doing our own laundry, another going to the ferry and probably a further 90 minutes wandering around the village trying to get the Jeep to start and arranging a jump start.

I got to work just before 10am and having taken photos all the way down to the village went round to take a couple across the bay. When I came back Ady was at the car having already tried to start it once. As we stood chatting about it so Sean and Eve walked past on their way sledging. Sean arranged to come and jump start Ady on his way to the boat later.

Ross and Neil came to post office / shop so much tea was drunk and chatting done. Then Jinty arrived, earlier than she needed to be for the boat so she stopped for a chat too. Then Ady came back, got the Jeep started and headed away to the boat. Norman came in, Jinty came back with massive amounts of deliveries (cancelled boat on Tuesday and Thursday meant backlogs of everything) so I stayed and gave her a hand.

Davies and Scarlett arrived them, having spent the morning sledging and come to help with the community litter pick which had been cancelled. Neil came back and we all hung around the shop until it was time to meet Ady from work. The kids went home to let Bonnie out, Ady and I went to the pier to give the car another run and drop off some rubbish, to the freezer to put the meat delivery away and then halfway home to the croft, the rest of the way with the wheelbarrow.

We all had lunch and then the kids went off to do sledging again while we took the car back to the village and brought back the rest of the fruit / veg / post. When we got back Neil & Lesley had been round looking for us and they reappeared wanting to borrow some silicone. They came in for tea and chats until it was nearly dark by which time the kids were finally sledged out for the day and Neil & Lesley needed to get back as they were out without torches.

Ady cooked a lovely curry and everyone else has gone to bed, worn out by sledging, chatting and drinking tea. It’s all go here on Rum 😉

Ady scared me this morning by getting out of bed, opening the curtains and saying ‘Oh my God!’. I assumed there was a slew of dead croft creatures or part of the caravan we’d not heard blowing off during the night but it was snow.

Not loads, not really. But loads by Rum standards.

He went down to feed the animals and returned with another chicken egg – I assume the same bird now laying every day, must get some plastic eggs to encourage them to lay in certain places.

Meanwhile I woke the kids who were in varying states of excitement about the snow – ie Davies not very, Scarlett utterly mental! 😉

Ady cooked pancakes for the kids breakfast and then everyone went outside to enjoy the snow. We thought the kids were ahead of us as we walked down to the village but they had actually peeled off infront and gone onto Croft 2, built a snowman,  found their sledges and brought them up to the caravan and then gotten cold and come back inside in the time it took Ady, Bonnie and I to walk to the village, take some photos, collect some cheese from the freezer and come home again.

This afternoon Ady did some fruit cage repairing and sorted some firewood, I wrote a volunteer information document to send out to people interested in coming to help with the cob build and the kids went sledging.

Pizza for dinner and a gorgeously quiet, still night.

As in, I didn’t go out today. I did go to the wood shed and collect four buckets of wood but that barely counts.

Another wild and windy night with plenty of lying awake – some more thunder and lightning and roof rattling. Despite best efforts the last of the polytunnel plastic blew away. Ady spent the morning in his orange waterproofs cutting it off and moving things around. All pots, fish boxes and other such stuff is now in the old turkey pen. The polytunnel is just a series of hoops and the two remaining doors.

I offered to help but he was happy enough doing it alone, I baked a loaf of bread and hung out with Scarlett instead. We did lots of pages of her doodle book ans kept the fire going. It was cosy.

Ady came in for lunch and once again I offered to come and help him outside this afternoon but again he said he was fine just plodding on so instead I spent some time researching the best way to sell his photos online as so many people have suggested he should do and even said they would like to buy. After a couple of false starts and trying to get my head round photostock agencies, micro and macro selling and so on I went with a photobox gallery – no cost to set up, a full range of every type of photo product anyone might want to purchase and nice and easy to link to on facebook, blog etc. It’s already had plenty of people sharing and commenting on facebook, I’ve added a link to the WW blog and it can just sit in the background and see if anyone is actually up for buying. Ady can upload more photos easily without any techie stuff, perfect.

I made dentists appointments for when we are off in a few weeks – just need to sort out hire car and train tickets now and we’re all organised. Bonnie sitting is in hand and several people have offered to feed animals so that just needs firming up.  Enforced indoor time definitely makes for organised living!

I made dinner – tacos and fajitas and we watched Will & Grace. No boat again today and we had been sort of hoping it might get rescheduled for tomorrow but the boat which was going to Eigg and Muck tomorrow has also been cancelled. Now to wait and see if the meat and veg deliveries we were expecting today will turn up on Saturday instead.

I feel like someone who is going out with the coolest of all the cool boys at school who is way out of my league. You know it can never last so instead of enjoying it you spend the whole time just fretting about how it will end instead.

70mph winds forecast for 3am, it’s been tipping down with rain since about five minutes before I walked down to the shop earlier – walking down was not too bad but walking back, up the hill, wind and rain in my face, carrying 8 cans of beer, 2 bottles of wine, 6 very large potatoes, 4 pints of milk, a pack of  butter, 2 packs of cheese, 2 packs of frozen chicken, all the post from the last boat which was the first we’d had in a week it somehow felt a bit worse…

Made the wine all the more deserved though 😉

Today was soup and bread making this morning, clearing the polytunnel site – cut most of the plastic off, had a major tidy up, covered the strawberries and lavender with some of the cut off plastic. Then in for lunch.

This afternoon was firewood – we did loads yesterday but it was too cold for digging and we had already cut down a branch last week before the chainsaw broke so we decided to very carefully cut up the branch and bring it up. I chopped and stacked it while Ady took some indoors. We fed the animals inbetween and then I made my walk to the shop jaunt. Up til that point I’d avoided getting wet all day.

We re-joined Lovefilm having asked for loads of dvd recommendations and started putting them in my amazon basket I realised this was probably a cheaper way and would result in less dvds kicking around the house too. So everyone has been adding things to the rental list in great excitement all day – it’s like free  movies! 🙂

This evening we watched My Family which arrived today, not sure if it will be a winner or not really. I suspect we will have too much else to choose from to give it a proper go. Never mind.

Everyone is really tired – I think the last week or so has taken it out of us all. Here’s hoping for a roof still in the morning!

It’s hard to get motivated. I really want to be outside digging the house plot. But it is so cold outside that within five minutes you can’t feel your fingers or your toes, it’s so windy your hat keeps getting blown off and any loose clothing flaps around, it hails every 15 minutes and, well, it’s just January in Scotland. Outside is not really somewhere people are supposed to be.

Yesterday the internet kept going on and off. Mel rang to say she hadn’t slept much the night before (the castle basement keeps flooding which means the boiler cuts out so there is a constant petrol pump running to pump the water out. There can’t be an electric pump because the power capacity on Rum can’t cope with such a big draw. So the petrol pump needs refilling every couple of hours through the night and she had been doing that. So the postponed Christmas party was postponed again. She did say that while she was not up to hosting a full on party she would still love for us to come down though so we did.

The kids played X box, we had a nice bits and pieces dinner of Mel’s defrosted festive leftovers, Ady and I both had baths and it was all very nice. Mel headed off to bed around 11 and Ady and I sat up for another half an hour with a last glass of wine and chatted. Feels odd to be sitting in a proper room late at night chatting just the two of us.

It’s been one of those crazy Rum times where we give fate way too much of a hand in what happens next and as usual Rum gives us signs (and yes, we probably choose to see them, I do know that) that we are supposed to be here. I was utterly pissed off with Rum people but then the whole island came out to celebrate my birthday and offer us beds for the night and just generally be lovely all this week. The fact is we have built a life here for ourselves the four of us. It is home, really, properly our home. We just need an actual physical home now to enjoy rather than endure the tricky bits. While we were talking an email pinged onto my phone from someone who reads the blog, is just starting on a home ed journey with a 3yo and wants to come and help with the cob build responding to the newsletter I put out yesterday. Another sign?

So a decent nights sleep, a walk home in a bitterly cold but finally still and dry landscape this morning, Tom & Barbara Pig all happily tucked up in their pigpen all filled with straw looking cosy and warm and all the birds rushing down the hill clucking, quacking, shrieking and calling as soon as they saw us. I love coming home to the croft.

Today Ady and I have dodged the hail and snow showers to chop up masses of firewood, we have a good weeks worth all processed. We kept tethering and untethering the wind turbine too so the kids got to sit in the warm and play on tablets, use the internet and listen to music -January stuff :). We made a big roast dinner as we had all had way too much of other people’s home made pizza and jacket potatoes over the last week and were feeling a bit Goddard food deficient.

And I did our tax returns 🙂 And finished the Rum monthly newsletter. All adminny stuff and paperwork done, firewood processed – the weeks tasks are already being crossed off at a fast rate.

Can’t believe that this time last week was only a week ago. Goodbye to Big Dave, my birthday, crazy wild weather, a night away from the static, a late birthday meal down at Mike & Debs and more crazy wild weather.

Friday night was another wild one in the caravan, no further damage but a very noisy night which meant that yesterday afternoon when I got home from work I was not up to anything other than sitting infront of the fire. A decent nights sleep last night had me feeling more productive today but where Ady is prepared to don waterproofs and go outside to find things to do when it is blowing a hooley and tipping down with rain I am more inclined to stay indoors and be useful. So he has been fixing back up the flapping canvas on the horsebox, tidying up the woodstore and sorting out the damaged fruit cage I have been making bread, yoghurt and granola, editing and sorting out the monthly Rum newsletter and hanging out with the kids.

More wild weather planned to come in, which is rather scuppering our plans to get lots done on the houseplot 🙁 We are down at the castle tomorrow night though for a postponed Christmas party for SNH staff and then a sleepover (with a bath! First this year! Infact first since when we were in FW for dentist way back in October). If it stays this grim we may well take up the invitation to stay a second night!

I don’t think there is any ‘in other news’. It’s mostly just been windy.

We tend to front out the weather here. Ever since the first winter when someone scoffed ‘well that caravan won’t still be sat on that hill by the end of the winter’ we have had a certain sense of bravado about staying put and proving everyone wrong. We are nothing if not bloody minded sometimes, I do know that…

Also we have always thought that it is better somehow to stay put and know what is happening than to be elsewhere worrying about it. But the storm forecast for last night had all of Rum a bit jittery – in the winter just before we came winds like that had visited the island and blown down over 100 trees in the village. People had been trapped in their houses. It is spoken of with the hushed tones and reverence I had previously only encountered reserved for the Great Storm of 1987. We lost two huge trees and a hedge in our garden in that storm. My school was closed for 2 weeks and one of Ady’s friends actually became a millionaire as  a result of his glazing business having so much work and insurance claim jobs to do. (times like that I realise the age gap between us!)

So we had emails from Ali & Sean saying ‘We are worried, please come and stay with us instead of in your caravan, this is the worst storm forecast since you arrived here’. From Mike & Deb saying ‘Come and stay with us. We have beds, food. And alcohol!’ a message from Sylvia (fellow caravan dweller, ever eloquent) “100 mph winds forecast tonight, if I were ye I’d get the fuck oot o’ that caravan’. And finally from Vikki ‘Come and stay at Lyon Cottage, it will be like a holiday!’. So we did. We packed up stuff for the night and the scant few precious things we have and headed down. It was the monthly community meeting anyway so we went to that and then along to Vikki’s for pizza, the last episode of Sherlock and real beds in a real house.

I slept dreadfully – Ady was snoring, the house was too hot, the storm noises were different groans and creaks to what I am used to in a caravan, the bed is cheap and creaks if you turn over, the pillows were too cardboard-y. Yes, I’m ungrateful 😉

So this morning we headed off back to the croft to see how things had fared. It was pretty scary walking home, encountering Mel, Sean, Eve, Ali, Bad Neil, Manager Mike all with tales to tell of trees down, dead chickens, slates off roofs. As we got closer we realised the polytunnel was damaged, the honesty larder fridge was knocked over as was the bird food bin. The fence was peppered with stuff which had blown across and been caught in it, the horsebox canvas was ripped off and flapping and some of the contents were now outside. But inside, apart from some egg boxes knocked off the kitchen shelf and onto the floor / sink, some stuff off the shelf above our bed now on the bed and a mysterious puddle we think must have been driving rain blown through the poor seal in the window in our bedroom everything was fine.

Amazing.

All the animals are ok too. Not quite sure how we are so unscathed but we are. Earlier this week Ady and I were talking about needing Rum to give one of her infamous signs to her that we are meant to be here and meant to throw the next level of our time, energy, money and passion at life here. This week has certainly given us plenty of signs.

I’d quite like for tonight’s sign to be a little quieter though – we’re back in the caravan, I’m knackered and need to be up for post office in the morning but it’s crazy windy out there again and very noisy.

and had an incredibly fabulous time celebrating the fact! 🙂

I was up earlyish yesterday and Ady was feeling loads better which was excellent, I was starting to fret about him a tiny bit.  It was a gorgeous day weather wise – cold but almost dry all day, no real wind and lots of sunshine and blue skies.

My gifts from Ady and the kids were some nail varnish, some fancy handcream, a gorgeous mug and a fab book from Davies to go with the book. I love them all lots. I was always going to love the mug because I chose it but Ady had been in touch with the potter who made it (bought off etsy direct from the bloke who made it, LOVE his stuff and the service was excellent Ady tells me) and had my name added to it and it reglazed. My best present was my Davies book though, explaining the story of the cup and how Viking Ady had got it made taking green from the land. I love his storytelling, his imagination and his amazing illustrations.

The kids went off to search for ice to play with (one of their outdoor winter hobbies!) while Ady and I took the wheelbarrow and the chainsaw and went logging. We got a whole barrowful, brought it up and I split it while Ady gathered it and took it indoors. Then we went to a different bit of woodland and started to cut another branch. I had had a go on the first one (I love chainsawing, it feels really empowering wielding a big old scary chainsaw!) but when we swapped over for me to have another go the chainsaw it had stopped working and the chain brake was broken. So we brought up what we had already chopped and Ady dismantle the chainsaw to see what it was. In B&Q days he attended a few garden machine basic training courses for maintenance in things like mowers, chainsaws, strimmers, wood chippers, leafblowers etc so can strip one down pretty competently. It is properly broken with the metal bit sheared off so although the chainsaw works perfectly it is without a chain brake which is the major safety feature on it. So currently shopping around online for a replacement, it’s a rather essential bit of Rum kit and although it could be replaced with a felling axe and cross cut saw which would be greener, low impact and not need petrol I suspect we’ll end up going with another chainsaw.

We had lunch and then it was pretty much time to head down via animal feeding to the village. We had initally planned a group meal in the hall for my birthday as we don’t have sufficient room to invite everyone up here and most people wouldn’t make the trip all the way up here anyway but in predictable failing to commit Rum fashion the only person who said a definite yes to coming along was Vikki. Much as I like her I didn’t really want to just sit in the hall with Ady, the kids and Vikki on my birthday so we cancelled that and Ady asked Jinty if she’d open the shop for a couple of hours instead – she is usually closed on a Tuesday evening in winter. She agreed and suggested 4-6pm so Ady stuck an email round saying we’d be there for a birthday drink and would love to see folk. Davies and Scarlett went ahead of us with a box of cupcakes and assembled them into a cupcake mountain with  a heap of candles in the top one. Jinty had blown up a load of balloons and written birthday greetings on the white board. She said to me ‘You can choose anything you like from the ice cream freezer as a present’ and had stuck a bottle of fizz in there 🙂 I was tempted to select a pack of potato waffles or fab instead – but went for the fizz.

Dave & Sylvia had arrived just before us and presented me with another bottle of fizz. While I was opening the post that arrived earlier which included birthday cards from Granny and Frazer Fliss arrived with Joss and gave me a card and pressie from Joss (a home made card and a chunk of wood which Joss had drawn a picture of our family and her family on :)) and pressie from Fliss of a distressed wood plaque with self sufficient on it which she had made. It’s gorgeous 🙂

Next was Vikki with a book and a card including bath vouchers, Jed and Cosmic gave me a couple of random bottles of leftover alcohol from the students staying in the bunkhouse, a bottle of elderflower fizz from Sean and Ali, jar of home made marmalade from Mike & Deb, and a bag of Lush stuff and a handstitched elephant from Bad Neil and Lesley. The elephant is the best gift of all I think. It is really, really badly made and coming apart at the seams, the ears are wonky, one of the eyes has already fallen off and it has no tail because “I lost the will to live. Sewing is *really* hard. I can’t believe people do it for fun.”

Fliss put on music, load of people bought me drinks and we realised that the whole island had turned out – every single person on Rum at the moment was there, I have never seen so many people all crammed under the covered area outside the shop at once. Dave set off a firework in honour of my birthday and then got the guitar out and we all sang songs. It was a fab evening. Instead of staying open til 6 we ended up there until gone 11pm. Eventually we came home, Ady cooked venison steak and chips while I rang my parents and we finally went to bed around 2am. Excellent, excellent birthday 🙂

Today was a rather slower start – the kids didn’t get up til midday. It has rained solidly all day long so I have not actually left the static, instead done some reading, some online stuff, baked bread, made dinner, brushed Scarlett’s hair, watched her Alive (Attenborough in Natural History Museum with extinct animals coming to life) dvd with her. A whole day off which is not really the plan for getting stuck into making things happen this year but was much needed after Ady was ill, late nights from Christmas, new year and birthday stuff. Ady donned oranges and went to feed the animals and grab some stuff from the freezer for dinner.

We watched a couple of episodes of Bottom tonight which arrived yesterday but it wasn’t working for the kids. Think we’ll order Big Bang Theory next, that seems to have the most recommendations.

AKA jump, jump, jump, it’s my birthday tomorrow 🙂

Ady is feeling better today, still rather weak and was not up to eating much until dinner time but is definitely on the up – hurrah!

We walked down to the village this morning, to collect some bits from post office and see if Jinty was open tomorrow evening – she was not but when she realised it’s my birthday said she would open specially. So now I feel special (in a good way ;)) and Ady has put an email round saying she will be open and to come down and have a birthday beer with me, Hopefully a few folk do. We also grabbed some venison steaks for dinner tomorrow and then brought the Jeep back up ready to take Big Dave along to the boat later.

We had lunch and had a second failed attempt to watch the last Miranda.

Big Dave came over for a cup of tea and to deliver a bottle of birthday fizz for me – I barely have room in the wardrobe and fizz is almost not feeling special! 😯

We went down to the boat, calling in on Vikki’s on the way to drop off cabin keys (Big Dave) and collect jam jars (me), then to the pier where we had several bags of rubbish for the skip between us. It was a quiet boat with just the supply teacher coming off and Big Dave getting on.  We dropped the car in the village having collected pig feed from the Bunkhouse which had a group of folk staying for Hogmanay who created plenty of food waste and then walked home. Ady was struggling with the bags of pig feed  – I had the box of jam jars – so we took the Rangerover across the river and I took it back while he staggered on up the hill. I got in some wood and started dinner, Ady emptied toilets and fed the pigs. I re-boiled the marmalade and thought it had set but it appears still not to have done. I also made some orange curd which was also resistant to setting, a delicious steak pie for dinner, a loaf of bread and some rolls, potatoes for dinner.

We watched Hoodwinked with dinner, great film which we’ve not seen in a while but we are all missing a series to be working our way through.

And now I am going to hit publish because I want to get this in before midnight and head off to bed.

Poor Mr G is still poorly, generally feeling rough, very tired and with added diarrhoea 🙁 He is insisting on going outside to the compost loo so I am spending ten minutes each time worrying about whether he is ok out there. He spent most of today asleep on the sofa and says he feels better today than he did yesterday but I don’t believe him. It sounds a lot like whatever I had in December 2013 which lasted 2 days so I am hoping he awakes tomorrow feeling better although I suspect he will feel weak and blurgh for a couple more days before being fully back to normal.

So that set the tone for today really – we had planned to do some houseplot digging with Big Dave but I didn’t really want to leave Ady alone and didn’t really want to do the digging without him either. So I spent the morning making marmalade – my first ever attempt. I’ve only used half the bargain oranges I bought off Jinty but have run out of jars. Vikki said she had some for me so I will collect them tomorrow and maybe make some orange curd too. I also made some yoghurt, some bread and some wraps for lunch. And started getting dinner prep done in daylight – so a full day stood in the kitchen area really.

The kids did lots of online stuff, Scarlett and I watched some youtube videos that had been doing the rounds on facebook – dead shark being cut open by loud American family on beach to deliver three baby sharks, man with CP who makes amazing art by using an old typewriter, dolphin who is caught in  fishing line and comes up to some divers and gets untangled, that sort of thing.

Big Dave came over after lunch for a cup of tea and chat, then headed off to do some more wood collecting having offered to help if there was anything he could do. I brought in firewood and Davies & Scarlett fed the animals. Ady did eat a tiny bit of dinner but left the table early to sleep more on the sofa and then went off to bed. The kids watched TinTin and they have gone off to bed fairly early too. Hoping it is Ady specific and he is better tomorrow.