One word? When seven would do…

Saturday – work for Ady and I in the morning. Thanks to many power cuts over the last week the post office had crashed again and took about six reboots and nearly an hour to get up and running again. Lots of folk came for coffee and chats which was nice though. I walked along to Ady and when he finished we went and measured up the bridge across the river which the Kinloch Castle Friends Association have asked Ady to do some work on.

The ferry had been cancelled, as had Thursdays so there was quite a milk and fresh food shortage at the shop leading everyone to discuss who could become the baron of what on island. Ian and Kate appeared to have the most milk, we were good for venison and cheese, there also appeared to be a bit of a shortage of cigarettes but that is never really on our radar.

Back home for lunch and plenty of Barbara watching but nothing to report. I cooked dinner. There may have been knitting.

Sunday – the clocks had gone forward and the cancelled ferry from Thursday and Saturday had been rescheduled. We knew we would have various stuff on the boat but decided against going to meet the ferry and planned to head down a bit later instead to collect everything. Sure enough we had a text message from Fliss to say stuff had arrived for us and was in the boatshed so we drove down and collected it, picked up our washing from the castle laundry from the day before and the veg from the shop which had also arrived along with various post items including Lovefilm.

Back home for a fairly late lunch and then the hourly Barbara check. It was nearly 4pm and Scarlett came along with me. This time she was already lying in her straw nest in the pen breathing heavily and not very aware of us. As she slipped further into her trance we were able to creep closer to her until we were able to touch her. She had the first piglet at 430pm, a spotty little one which slipped out, wriggled like mad and was walking without moments finding its way round to her belly to start feeding. It was amazing. I’ve already blogged about it all over on WW so won’t replicate but it was a really memorable experience.

Finally got into the static just before 1030, freezing cold, soaked, knackered and actually slightly traumatised from the whole experience. It was at once exciting, draining and a tiny bit disturbing somehow. I had a shower and thought I was famished but halfway through dinner I crashed and couldn’t eat any more. Slept heavily if a little dream heavy.

Monday – Two dead piglets which was tough 🙁 We went to meet the boat as we were sending petrol off, also Abby had come on a flying visit and we’d not made it down to see her on Sunday night with all the pig midwifery. A catch up with village folk and we helped Jinty with her HUGE delivery before coming home. I rang my parents. Davies ordered some postcards ready for the start of the season.

Tuesday – Another two piglets lost – yesterday it was two spotty ones, today it was two pink ones meaning we’re down to 7 in total and just one pink one. Both of these had been crushed. Lots of online reading shows this is very common, particularly when kept as we do with freedom and no segregation. A suggestion is to try a farrow crate, either penning the sow (effectively trapping her and meaning she just lies there feeding, I have seen these in real life and find them barbaric) or creating a separate pen for the piglets to creep away from her safely attracting them there by a heat lamp. We cannot do that lacking power. Again I am not sure we would want to anyway. Part of the massive litter of 11 is natural selection which is very sad and disheartening for us but also means everything is as close to natural as possible. We’ve discussed it a lot, all feeling very sad at the loss of four, particularly after the high of 11 live births but feel we would do the same again. It would seem that the first 3 days is the critical time so we are still not out of the woods in terms of more crushings but it tends to be the weaker piglets who get crushed so we will continue to be hopeful of the others surviving. The weather has been particularly unkind today with gale force winds, huge hailstones and snow – inbetween rain showers! Not at all helpful.

Ady worked this morning at the hostel. I had a rant at the kids for a bit and then we talked that out and all was better for it. Davies worked on a story idea he has while Scarlett and I made 3 batches of candles (24 total) which used up all her wax and wick supplies. She now has a healthy stock to start selling and tonight ordered up some more supplies from ebay to make some more and has some good ideas for moulds which she is looking forward to trying.

Thursday – Ady was working in the morning, painting at Foxglove Cottage. I spent some time doing online stuff and then he was home for lunch. We all ate together and then I headed down to the village for Crafternoon. It was just Deb, Fliss and I as Ali was stranded on the mainland and we actually had a really nice few hours. I usually sit mostly silent but without Ali there conversation turned to education and it was really interesting and enjoyable to discuss and debate stuff.

Ady spent the afternoon spring cleaning in the caravan on tasks like kitchen cupboard doors, walls which get sprayed with mud when Bonnie shakes and general post winter clearing.

I got home just after 6pm to an email saying that the trip to Muck had been cancelled. No progress with Barbara Pig.

Friday – Barbara’s actual due date. Despite hourly checking and plenty of time spent hanging out with her nothing has happened maternity wise. I made bread dough, pizza dough, tortilla wrap dough and rolled out 20 plus wraps all of which does my upper arms lots of good. Outside we moved 10 galvanised metal sheets and 8 fence posts from various locations at the bottom of the croft to a spot right at the top of the croft ready to construct bird housing, It’s the time of year when we need to pen the chickens and ducks after their evening feed to ensure we collect as many eggs as possible before letting them out in the morning to spend the evening free ranging. We won’t manage to pen them all, which is fine but should secure sufficient egg layers each day to satisfy demand for fresh eggs on the island. After some debate about design we have settled on a plan but have decided to construct with screws rather than nails to allow for deconstruction, moving on and reconstructing as required. So a task in progress awaiting parts.

We broke for lunch and then went back outside to finish off, finding ourselves at 430pm finished that but with nothing ‘small job’ enough to start before the day was through. So I came in and did a few rows of knitting on a scarf for sale. And cleaned another window – I have been gradually working my way round the caravan inside scrubbing off all the green and black stuff after the winter using an old toothbrush. That is everything except the kids bedroom windows done now.

The kids were very productive with Davies creating two new postcard designs and Scarlett designing a logo for her candles. We discussed drafts and experimenting and she did a couple of versions before deciding. Probably the first time she has grasped the idea of not just striving for perfect first time and then considering something finished.

Pizza and some down with the kids tunes for the evening. I suspect we are now embarrassing parents. We are delighting in this ;|)

Monday – I was Mrs Post Office in the morning, Ady and Dave were on Trailer Fixing duty so they dropped me off at work and then headed back to start on that. We got it from What-you-want-to-do-Dave and took it to Harris before the track was fixed and the axle broke on it. WYWDD brought up a new pair of wheel holder things but it’s been one of those jobs that never made it to the top of the priority list until now.

Post Office was good fun – loads of folk came in and I made tons of cups of tea and coffee. I finished up and walked up the hill to meet Ady and BD.  They had made good progress with the trailer but it turned out the wheels no longer fitted so some modification was required. We called lunchtime and all came back up here for food, then we left Dave arranging to meet up later and Ady and I went down to the village to meet Sean the TV dude.

We walked up with him, telling the story of the arrival of the static then had a pleasant couple of hours with him chatting and drinking tea. He had given up caffeine for lent so was on the wanky hippy teas, fortunately we have a box labelled wanky hippy teas for just such eventualities.  He was a nice guy and answered all of our questions and concerns about the documentary. Davies and Scarlett went ahead of us and Sean and Ady fed the animals while I knocked up a quick bread dough to take down with us and we all walked down to the shop. Sean stopped for a beer before needing to get along to Fliss’ where he was staying, for his dinner. We had another and then went along to the hostel as I had offered to cook. Venison spag bol followed by ginger and lime cheesecake which is BD’s favourite and we were celebrating his birthday a couple of days early. We had a nice evening, with Sean the Rat joining us impromptuly as he walked past as I was about to serve up and had not yet eaten. Not too late a night, and BD, Ady and I walked the wheels up to the cabin on the way home.

Tuesday – Ady and I went along to the cabin where BD was angle grinding the wheel inner to make them bigger to fit on the trailer. We walked then down and they were still fractionally too small so we walked them back up again and had breakfast and Popmaster in the cabin with BD before heading back to the croft to meet Sean the TV dude for some further chatting. Davies and Scarlett (who to be fair had had a run of very late nights) had gone back to sleep and were still in bed! So we roused them quickly and then had another couple of hours chatting to Sean. By the end of it we had set dates for them filming and finer details aside I think we’ll be doing the documentary. Quite exciting and means Ben Fogle will be staying here with us in the caravan!!

We walked down with Sean, met Big Dave and collected Gill and Graham from the hostel to take everyone along to the boat. There was quite a crowd of folk there either leaving or waving people off, so plenty of hugs all round for Gill, Mairi, Big Dave, TV Dude Sean etc. Finally they had all gone, Ady and I loaded the Rangerover up with a gas bottle and headed for home. We spent lots of time with Barbara Pig, got the gas bottle up, made bread,  made cookies, chopped some wood and enjoyed just being the four of us again after all the busyness.

Wednesday – I’d been convinced we would wake to piglets but no, Barbara is very slow lumbering around the pig pen but still pregnant. Maybe tonight… she’s actually due on Friday. Ady had been up early to check, gone to the village to collect a few things and put a wash on. After Popmaster and much checking of Barbara Ady and I walked back to the village to collect something for dinner from the freezer and deliver some goose eggs to Mel & Em. Back home again  for lunch, followed by an afternoon of wood chopping for me and compost loo finalising for Ady. That is now all fully installed and operational and aside from the utter luxury of a flushing loo it also seems to be working really well and will save (Ady) hours every week in emptying loos. Hurrah!

I made a really lovely steak pie for dinner which had us all feeling really stuffed. It’s pouring with rain and blowing a hooley outside so I fully expect Barbara is giving birth as I plan to head off to bed.

Thursday – I was Mrs Post Office. Ady and the kids were booked onto a first aid course in the hall from the visiting GP surgery so they came down at 11 and I followed them in at midday when I finished cashing up. It was reassuring to realise just how much I have retained from First Aid training at work over the years. Ady went off up home to carry on with flushing loo installation while I took the kids to the GP as they both had appointments.

Scarlett was first, she has had several warts come back up on the knee which she had one frozen off of last year and I had tried to let the doc know that we wanted more frozen off in advance so she would bring the stuff to do so as the previous locum GP had refused to prescribe the stuff for me to do it at home. This woman is much more relaxed and had been unable to get it to bring but said she would send some over on prescription so we could do it ourselves. Scarlett hurt her knee when we were off on the mainland – she had gotten lost in the museum in Edinburgh and been running looking for us on the slippy museum floor in wellies and jarred something in her knee which has never recovered.  Mairi (who is all sorts of medical having been a nurse, midwife and now more in admin roles but a sportswomen herself and with a daughter who plays rugby for Scotland knows about sports injuries) had given her the once over and a deep massage when she was last over and proclaimed ‘something’ the matter and suggested not running in wellies any more. Scarlett was still hobbling on it of an evening, particularly after an active day so we had it looked at. The GP said it was visibly inflamed and some injury of the patella. She felt it would heal itself but suggested watching it for another month, treating with ibuprofufen gel and a mix of gentle, regular exercise with sensible resting and nothing erratic. She is also sending over a tubular bandage for wearing when cycling or walking lots.

Davies was due two booster jabs so had needles into both arms and I chased up his appointment for the paediatrics which possibly by coincidence has now arrived. The kids went back up the hill, I went to have a quick catch up with Mairi who had arrived and then headed round to Fliss’ for Crafternoon. We had a nice afternoon of knitting, crochet and chat followed by heading to the shop for a few hours, Cosmic Mike’s eclipse talk and finally on to the hostel for dinner with the friends. Unfortunately no food all day, white wine spritzers at Crafternoon, a very late dinner following far too long at the shop and finally cocktails including whiskey did for me and I was most poorly…

Friday I awoke , quite rightfully, feeling pretty rough. I sucked up all of the ribbing and managed to watch the eclipse with all of the Friends over at Daves. He fed me chocolate and tea which probably kept me going…. they all went off to do Friends stuff, we came home for Popmaster and I spent the morning baking – bread, cookies, wraps. We had a very carb-y lunch, I drank lots of tea and did knitting, I had a shower, I was not up to much more than playing Home Maker to be honest. Ady was productive out on the croft though. The kids walked down to the village, Dave called for me and we walked down together, where I held out on non alcoholic drinks for the first round until Ady joined us and then I moved across. I did stick to my pledge of alternating with water though and felt hugely better for doing so, while still very tired the next day.

Saturday – I was Mrs Post Office. I had various visitors before walking along to the hostel to meet Ady and the Friends. We had lunch there with them and then Mairi and I came up to the crofts for a cup of tea and chat. She headed over to Dave’s to do some planting, the kids went out for some fresh air and exercise and I had good intentions which all went to seed when I got immersed in a good book Michelle lent me and read that in the sunshine instead. Mairi had asked me over to drink fizz so having left it as late as possible without appearing openly avoiding I went over about 430pm. Ady and Dave had been working on the Rangerover and actually got it fixed 🙂 Yay! So we all met up at the cabin for fizz and a beer before going our separate ways – us home for pizza, Friends and an earlyish night – Mairi and Dave back down to the shop and hostel for more of the same.

Sunday – I got a bit of a lie in and then we were all off to Kilmory. via the hostel to look at some work on a bridge that the Friends want Ady to do (very lucrative, hurrah!) and collecting Mairi and Gill. Dave drove and enjoyed driving his old car very much. The new track is fantastic and meant we were there super quick. We worked our way down to the beach, wandered about a bit, had our communal picnic of soup, rolls, tuna and mayo, chocolate, then wandered about a bit more before making our way back. It was lovely, if very cold and blowy. We dropped the kids off at the croft turn off with the dog, took Mairi and Gill back to the village and then Big Dave, Ady and I cleared more firewood from the fork in the track down to the crofts and bought along some scaffolding boards too that Billy had given us. Ady and I came home – he got dinner on, fed animals, brought in firewood etc. I made apple pie, read more of my book. Dave went to the shop for a beer and then came up for dinner.

A pretty mad weekend, I could really do with some recovery time!

Yesterday morning I spent some time baking – wraps for the kids lunch, bread dough for later and several batches of peanut butter cookies for general snaffling through the week.  Ady was doing stuff outside. At midday we got changed and headed down to the village to attend the annual Familiarisation Day lunch. The Rum Visitor Management Group (which I used to sit on until one of my rationalisation of all things voluntary a year or so ago) holds them every spring when all sorts of local tourist services and accommodation providers from Fort William to Mallaig and inbetween are invited over to Rum for the day. Trudi the ranger meets them in Mallaig and the Seafari Orion boat is chartered to bring them all across. They get a castle tour, visit the bunkhouse, walk along the front to see the various Rum sights, have lunch at the teashop where they meet local business people and then have a bit of a walk out onto the NNR before being boated back to Mallaig again.

Ady and I went to talk about Croft 3 Produce and Rum Venison. There were various folk there, from Calmac, Skye, FW tourist office and so on. There was free lunch and nice cakes, lots of general chatting and promoting Rum and gently easing ourselves back in to answering tourist questions again.

We heard that our animal feed delivery had arrived the previous day so walked back up to collect the car and went to the pier to pick that up. Ady brought that all up to the croft in 3 wheelbarrow loads while I chopped a load of firewood. We spent some time fiddling around with water tanks and starting to work out how to make the flushing loo in the caravan we’ve been talking about doing but started to lose light so went no further that talking and planning. Tom & Barbara did a bit of leaping from one pen to the other as Ady had separated them in the morning which they always take a while to settle in to the idea of.

I made dinner and we watched the last episode on the Lovefilm disc of Eureka! I’d been getting text and email alerts of a good chance of northern lights so after dinner the kids and I went outside and sure enough there they were 🙂 We took some photos and later after everyone else had gone to bed I went back outside and took more. The caravan rather annoyingly is in the way of north so you can’t sit on the sporran with a hot chocolate and watch – another design fault we never appreciated! 😉

Today was All On The Croft. Ady had been down to the castle first thing and done a load of laundry  and brought it back up so I got that hanging out to dry. Davies and Scarlett headed off down to the village to do some cycling while Ady and I made a start on Operation Flushing Loo. Predictably some bits we expected to be tricky were really easy and other bits we thought would be straightforward proved difficult. But by the end of the day we had a loo which fills, flushes and is suitable for weeing in with the flushed liquid draining into a tank below the caravan, a basket inside to catch solids and filter that and the liquid flowing in a pipe under the caravan and right away down the hill. Next step for that is to dig it in and create a drainage sink for the water but for now it is very, very diluted wee which is fine to just drain out and run away. Tomorrow we will perfect the basket to catch the solids which will then need emptying once a month or so into a composting system we are creating with another old water tank which will be filled with composting matter such as leaf litter and sawdust and a whole load of worms. That will get topped up by the drained, dry (ish) solids as the tank under the caravan needs emptying and will then compost down ready to be used on crops. All very exciting and potentially a massive improvement both to the caravan but also to the general list of tasks we have to get through each week just to survive here. By tomorrow evening that should be set up ready to use, after a few weeks we will know how successful it has been in terms of a longer term option. I mostly had a big tidy up of the bathroom, taking absolutely everything out of it, going through it all and chucking out and reorganising and cleaning everything before putting it all back in. We need to do that with every room really, it’s a great way of properly clearing up.

The kids came back for lunch so we all stopped and ate together, then they headed back out again and Claire appeared with the sad news that Mad Ben the Fencer who we met a few times when he was over working here in our first year here and we even did a bit of paid work for has died.  Pretty shocking and poor Claire who was quite close to him was very upset so I made her a cup of tea and stopped to chat with her for a while. Claire then headed off to feed the pigs some scraps she had brought up and then the kids walked back down to the village with her. Ady and I tidied up, fed the animals and headed down to the village for a few bits of shopping and a beer. Alistair, from Eigg, who got our caravan up onto the croft is over doing road repairs so we bought him a drink and had a general chat with the various islanders who were at the shop. It was a nice atmosphere down there – a sunny Rum day :).

Back home for showers all round, mammoth hair brushing for Scarlett, a collaborative dinner effort from Ady and I and my planned early night not quite panning out. A busy day tomorrow with Post Office in the morning, followed by First Aid training, doctors appointments for both kids, Crafternoon and then dinner with the Kinloch Castle Friends including Mairi and Big Dave who all arrive tomorrow on the boat.

Didn’t realise it had been so many days.

Thursday – dreadful weather again, ferry cancelled so no veg, no milk and the shop was pretty much bare. Ady and I put on waterproofs and went down to the village for various supplies from the freezer and shop. I know we had curry for dinner and I made naan breads but I can’t remember anything else about the day. I suspect I spent time knitting and I’m fairly sure I tidied up in the bathroom and got rid of some of the empty bottles of shampoo etc which seem to collect in there.

Friday – I think the weather was better, infact yes it was. The kids went down to the village, we did some wood processing and filled the wood store back up, Ady scythed the pig fence line and put some wooden posts in then we went down to the village to say goodbye to Billy the roofing contractor who has been here all winter. We got to know Billy when we came for our interview back in Feb 2012 and he was staying in the castle, he was still here when we moved up in the April and stayed in the castle for the first 5 days til the caravan arrived. It was his mats which we used to get the static up here in the end and he has been back every winter since and always been very kind to us giving us leftover materials from the various building jobs. This time was no exception and in addition to all the firewood he has given us this winter he also have us a load of plastic sheeting, some scaffold boards and several bags of lime render, gravel, sand and cement which will all very useful for the cob build. We love Billy.

We made a start on the wooden archway for the walled garden and were out til nearly dark getting it up. Pizza for dinner.

Saturday – work in the morning for Ady and I. Ady got loads of washing done which we brought back up to dry on the line – yay! The ferry finally came bringing loads of food supplies and the electric fence widget things we’d been waiting for. After lunch we put them on the wooden posts Ady had put in and laid out some paddock posts inbetween then finished putting some more bits onto the archway. It looks really good, I’m pleased with it :).

I came in to start dinner as bagels had been requested earlier in the week and they take a lot of faffing, while the others headed down to the village on a Top Secret Shopping expedition.

Sunday – Mothers Day. The kids gave me cards and presents which made me cry :). Ady and I completed the Big Pig Move and it was a glorious day. The kids brought us out supplies of tea and coffee but we missed lunch. The pigs are really happy in their new area. Lovely roast dinner and fizz in the evening.

Monday – Gorgeous weather in the morning. Davies and Scarlett went down to the village to meet Trudi to collect rock pool creatures to put in an aquarium in the visitor centre while Ady and I moved Tom’s pig ark from the old pig pen to the new one, set up the dividing fence to split them up, probably tomorrow. Spent some time in with them stroking and petting them, I do love the pigs. We’d planned to have pizza oven pizza and made the dough and lit the oven but not for long enough and it clouded over so we decamped back indoors for lunch in the end. The kids went back down to the village, Ady and I planned to do some wood processing but got distracted by looking at a plan for a flushing loo in the static so worked on that instead. We think we have it sussed so that is tomorrow and Wednesday’s task. I walked down to the village to meet the kids and collect some bits from the shop, dinner of cold meat from yesterday and potato gratin.

Wednesdays are Crafternoons at Fliss’. I don’t really like them. It’s me, Ali, Deb and Fliss and while I do get to drink tea, chat and catch up on the gossip while being productive on the knitting front (almost a whole scarf done today) it’s all a bit nicey, nicey and far too much talking about parenting stuff and schooly things I don’t agree with.

I can’t avoid going really though without it being obvious I am not enjoying it, last week they even moved the day for me. This week the main topic of conversation was volunteering and WWOOFing though which was actually quite nice and I did more talking than I’ve done in weeks and weeks. Rum folk who have been here a long time are very bad at living in their Rum bubble and forgetting there is a world outside of our island and that people had real lives before they came here, some of which may be more interesting than what happened here on Rum yesterday or last week.

Working backwards though Ady went off to finish painting this morning and came back at lunchtime with the happy news that Lesley is pregnant. We sort of suspected she was back at Christmas but I asked and she said she didn’t know yet and a couple of times I’ve sort of asked and she’s not said so I assumed maybe she was not after all. It’s lovely, happy news and has made me smile all afternoon :). Les told Manager Mike yesterday for work purposes and then Neil said actually they didn’t want him to know before we did so Neil told Ady this morning. I caught up with them later and whispered Congratulations to Neil who then gave me a lift part way to the croft so we had a bit of a chat and I emailed Lesley to pass on congratulations too. I guess they will announce more publicly soon.

I spent the morning doing the final bits on the monthly community newsletter and getting that emailed out.

This evening Ady cooked (venison) steak and chips which was delicious.

Monday – the weather was hideous. 60mph winds with 80mph gusts. Ady insisted on going outside a couple of times but could barely stand up out there. It tipped with rain too and we were getting regular text messages from people in the village checking if we were ok so unusually it was also pretty blowy down there too which futher discouraged us from venturing out.

Ady made a string thing across the shelf above our bed to stop things from falling on us in the night when it’s windy. I finished knitting a scarf, checked stocks of scarves and midges in resin and sorted out yarn for another 3 more scarves. I also made bread, rolls, soup and did some work on a croft3 website. Davies and Scarlett did some drawing, watched some stuff on iplayer, connected on their tablets, did some balloon modelling and chatted about their plans for crafts to sell this year.

It would have been a nice indoor day were it not for the rain entering the caravan at various  doors and windows, the condensation dripping off the windows, the roof and walls rattling and the trees swaying outside. I was feeling a bit ‘bring it on!’ about the whole thing which is probably silly, you don’t really get to be defiant against the wind but never mind.

Today Ady was painting with Bad Neil so he was up and away. I spent the morning doing the newsletter, replying to a few emails and clearing my inbox and then went outside to start repairing the fruit cage. I stopped at a natural break in the repairing to come in for lunch and we had leftover soup and listened to the tail end of something on the radio. The sun was still shining and it was a gorgeous afternoon so the kids took Bonnie off for a walk down to the village to check for post while I carried on with the fruit cage. I didn’t get my after lunch cup of tea because Tom and Barbara pig had gotten out and were up by the caravan though. The kids and I snuck over to their pen and I shook the food bucket and called them while the kids stood by and raised the fence for them to come in and then closed it behind them. Excellent teamwork 🙂 I strongly suspected they would be out again but they stayed put all afternoon and Ady swapped the battery over when he got home.

Ady and the kids came back together so we all had a cup of tea and sat on the sporran in the sunshine. Hard to believe it is the same world as yesterday let alone the same place just 24 hours later.

I went back to my fruit cage while Ady did some more work on the Big Pig Move. It is now just waiting for some fence holder things we ordered off ebay and a whole day of forecast decent weather to do the actual move – hopefully Sunday I think looking at the forecast at the moment,

We were outside til 630pm tonight and it was still light 🙂 I cooked dinner and made bread and we listened to Popmaster on iplayer.

The wind is supposed to be really bad this coming week, with gusts over 80mph tomorrow. Sigh.

We’ve been making lists of all the things we love about life here, fortunately they are long lists.

The wood shed was disturbingly empty so we grabbed the opportunity of spells of sunshine and non gale force winds to top that up a bit with Ady bringing the wood up the hill and me chopping and stacking it. I also made dough for flatbreads for lunch, pastry for an apple tart for pudding and prepped the roast dinner (venison, yum!). The kids tidied their bedrooms which were in quite a state – too much stuff, too little space.

After lunch they walked down to the village to collect the post from the car which is our unofficial post box. Ady scythed the grass ready for the pig fence to go up and I made the tart, washed up and then got distracted on my way to go and chop a bit more wood by the state of the window frame in the bathroom so ended up cleaning that instead, which led to cleaning the two window frames in our bedroom too. The caravan is leaking water / dripping condensation / dire combination of the two infront of both doors and is just feeling generally very tired and in need of some TLC – it seems to get battered from the inside and outside. In the style of a womens magazine readers tips page I actually used an old toothbrush to scrub the fiddly bits and it worked really well.

Bad Neil turned up then so Ady and he came in for a cup of tea and chat which pretty much took us up to animal feeding time. I went out with Ady and checked on Barbara who is looking beautifully pregnant and very happy. Ady showed me what he had scythed and we talked about a slightly different way of doing the electric fence this time and came in and ordered some bits for that. I got dinner on and fiddled with some nail wrap things that had come in the post. The kids watched back to back Doctor Who on the disc that had also come in the post (lovefilm), I had a shower and went back to my bicarb shampoo and vinegar conditioner as my hair has been horribly greasy since coming back from the mainland and using ‘normal’ shampoo and conditioner.

Dinner was lovely, as was apple tart for dessert. Tomorrow’s plan is Big Pig Move continuing if weather permits and some getting stuff ready for the tourist season craft wise if not.

Been feeling a bit meh the last couple of days and I did start typing a really whiny blog post but actually having just read it back it annoyed even me let alone putting it out there for other people to read, so we’ll move past that.

We went down to the school yesterday for the World Book Day event. It was actually a really good turn out with Deb, Eve and Joss (obviously!), Fliss, Ali, Claire, Nicola, Trudi, Mel, Em and the four of us. We’d been asked to bring along our favourite book to share. Ady took Hobby Farmer, I took a copy of Barefoot Diaries, Davies took Mr Gum and a Roald Dahl and Scarlett took a beautifully illustrated old copy of a book on birds, eggs and nests. It was ok – Deb tried really hard and in theory it was a nice morning but it was just so bloody schooly and contrived and false that it makes my teeth itch. First we were supposed to mingle and drink tea and eat cake and talk about our favourite books. I sat and read a book to Scarlett instead. Then we sat in a circle and all talked about what we had learned about other people’s books and what we had brought with us.

Then Deb handed out some pictures of dragons with the writing taken away and asked us to get into groups and write our own words. They were gorgeous illustrations and most people wrote beautiful tales to go with their picture. I worked with Davies and Ady. Davies, who channels quite a lot of his inner Nic decided to write about how the dragon was a merdragon who kills mermaids and was working with a gangsta vigilante dolphin called Bob. It was quite dark 😉

There was then an option to stay and do some art but we wanted to get back for Bonnie really so after reading another book to Davies and Scarlett which we had read years ago when I worked at the library and remembered as lovely (Deb does have very good taste in books) so we headed off.

Back at home we had lunch and Ady tidied the bookcase while I did some knitting.

Today was work for Ady and I in the morning. It’s been crazy windy all day, a real WTF feeling about life here this week a couple of times. Various reasons but it all feels a bit hard when the weather is like this, particularly as it is supposed to be spring!!!

Post Office was ok, I walked along and met Ady, we came home for lunch and have been in all afternoon and evening. Actually we talked ourselves out of the WTF feeling over the course of the afternoon and evening and had a good chat with the kids. And now finally the wind has dropped and although Monday is looking scarily windy it is supposed to be quite nice tomorrow so we may even get outside and get some productive stuff done.

I had a full board meeting this morning at 9am – a time I am not used to being somewhere for these days ;). So up, out, with travel mug of tea and plenty of layers as the White House (SNH office where meeting was being held) has no heating at the moment and is freezing. It was Lesley, Ali, Fliss and I from the island, with video conference link from our chairman Allan and our development officer Steve, both at different locations. So the VC screen looked even more high tech than usual with split screen of Steve, Allan and the four of us all in different corners.

The meeting was productive, quite possibly more so because it was so cold in there 😉 and we were done before 1130am which was when we were scheduled to finish. I hung around for a bit waiting for Ady and then we walked up to Vikki’s house as we’d offered to help load her van that she was bringing over between boats to collect the last of her stuff. We were joined by Sean, Nicola, Mel, Ross and then Vikki and her friend Mairi who was driving the van. We got it all loaded up pretty quickly and waved them off. The rest of them headed along to Mike & Debs for coffee and cake but it was really, really windy so we headed home to check on Davies and Scarlett and have lunch.

Davies was supposed to have a doctors appointment but the doctor didn’t come over as the weather was so bad, so we had a quiet afternoon in. Then it was back to the village for Ady and I for the monthly residents meeting. The kids stayed home as it was still pouring with rain so they spent the time skyping with Ben while we bought some wood in, fed the animals and walked down to the village.

Another very productive meeting with a newly elected chair and secretary for the RCA (Rum Community Association) as it was the AGM and both of those postholders had stood down (one being Vikki who has left the island). That should make for interesting times ahead… Ady and I had both been suggested for posts but we declined, maybe next year when I am not a director and life is a bit less hectic.

Back home for dinner. Another early start (for us!) tomorrow as we’re going to the school for a World Book Day event – obviously should have been today but as Ali, Fliss and I were having a meetingtastic morning it was deemed better tomorrow.

I made bread dough this morning and finished off the newsletter for the Friends of Rum – a Trust run organisation which anyone can join for a tenner a year, gets them two newsletters a year and various discounts etc. Set up mostly to harvest contact details and get support from various people who love Rum and want to be a small part of our community without actually living here. It used to be a winter and a summer newsletter but I took it on last year and wanted to hold back the summer one to announce the opening of the bunkhouse which meant it was more like an autumn newsletter so the winter one slipped to spring and actually I think spring and autumn may be more appropriate to update on news of the coming season and report on the one just passed.

Ady was out gathering together materials to build a pig pen – I was waiting til 11am when I had arranged with a TV researcher to be somewhere with phone signal so she could call me. That ended up taking about an hour, she was very friendly and easy to chat to and we talked about all sorts of things. She confessed to being really interested in Home Ed so we talked about that a fair bit. I expressed my usual concerns about sensationalist TV reporting and was assured that was not the sort of show they are looking for. She is hoping to come up and meet us and scope things out a bit more but it all sounds quite promising – and we’d get paid! 🙂

Scarlett was out checking out the goats who are still hanging around the bottom of the croft, we helped carry a few more bits of galvanised sheeting up and then came in for lunch. I then left the others to it for the afternoon – Ady finished building the pig shelter, Scarlett hung out with the goats more and Davies spent hours on a Doctor Who app he had downloaded which looked really good with some excellent problem solving and logic puzzles. I went off to Fliss’ for Crafternoon – Fliss, Ali, Deb and I. Deb was spinning with her fold up wheel, Fliss was knitting, Ali was making friendship bracelets and I was knitting a scarf. Individually I do like all three of them but I always feel a bit hemmed in at these afternoons – it’s all too nice and too twee and too polite. It makes me feel a bit Tourette-y as though I want to randomly shout ‘Fuck!!’ just to get a reaction. I think I might be weird 🙂

Back at home Ady had finished the pig house – we are moving Tom & Barbara up to the top corner of the croft, they have been on the current bottom corner for well over a year now and it is very muddy and ready to recover from their time on it before starting to graze it with the geese or more likely some sheep before being ready to start growing on. Barbara’s litter is due at the end of this month so we could potentially have up to 10 pigs on this new bit within the next few weeks and two pigs are far easier to move and settle than 10 so we want to do it before she farrows. We need to separate them fairly soon too as the jostling about at feed time is not good for her the further into her pregnancy she gets plus she will start to get bad tempered as she gets closer to farrowing. The house is built, we need to create a small pen for Barbara inside the bigger pen for all of them and then do the actual move. Hopefully sometime middle of next week to give them a good 2-3 weeks in there before she has the piglets.

I made bread and then cooked dinner –  ‘breakfast for dinner’ of sausage, bacon, eggs, beans (for Ady), fried bread, mash (for Scarlett) and garlicky potatoes cooked in the bacon fat (Ady, Davies and I). Very nice 🙂 We watched the last couple of episodes of series 1 of Eureka so that it can go back tomorrow.

Early start for me tomorrow, I need to be in the village for 9am for a board meeting.

Monday – Ady and I called into the shop in the morning for a few bits and then went along to the schoolhouse as Ady had offered to help Stuart and Julie fit a sofa into their moving van. In the end they had run out of room so decided not to take it but been unable to reach us to let us know. We ended up going into the school for a cup of tea and chat with Stuart, Julie, Deb and the girls. Stuart offered us their old fish boxes used as containers for planting and a few other bits and pieces. We took an aluminium frame which they used as a chicken enclosure and will probably be useful to us as a broody bird  / nursery pen during the summer and some rolls of chicken wire. They also had an old mower which they could not get to work but Ady thinks he probably can. The irony of a mower for use on 8 acres is not lost on me even if Ady thinks it might be useful 😉

Back at home I made the bread dough I’d made earlier into rolls while Ady finished off the chicken soup he’d made from Sunday’s roast chicken remains. Lovely lunch 🙂 We watched a couple of downloaded episodes of Comic Relief Celebrity Bake off which were very funny. I did some online stuff, Scarlett did painting, Davies was looking at stuff online too. It snowed lots.

Tuesday – I had a meeting this morning and went round to Ali’s for a pre meeting meeting and cup of tea or two. The meeting went well, Ady picked me up afterwards and we came home for lunch. It has been alternately blizzarding and bright blue skies all day with a side order of very gusty high winds but between blizzards Ady and I went out and walked the area we’re planning to move the pigs to, checking the fence and working out where to put their house. We then checked on the pigs and as we were walking back along the bottom of the croft so Bonnie went mad and ran at the river barking and there were two goats. There are several hundred on Rum living feral mostly out in the wilds so this was a bit of a shock.

The kids (my children, not the junior goats!) and I walked back down to see them some more and get a closer look. Later Ady threw them a handful of pig feed, not sure if they’ll stay and frankly we don’t need additional mouths to feed if they are not actually of use on the croft but Scarlett is delighted at the prospect of goats 🙂

I spent an hour or so chopping wood which was really difficult in the wind – it kept blowing the wood off the chopping block. Later I rang my parents and had a good long chat with them. Eureka had arrived from Lovefilm so we watched a couple of episodes of that this evening.

Work for both Ady and I yesterday morning. Post Office was quiet – Norman came early and stayed the whole time which was tedious as I wanted to chat to other people and he monopolises me. Fliss came in quickly before the boat and said that it was Stuart & Julie’s last day as they were heading off on Monday so did we all want to come to hers on Sunday for tea and cakes and a goodbye?

Ady was up the castle tower emptying water buckets and taking photos (the photos were for him, not actually part of his work) and managed to nip along to the boat to collect our amazon orders. I walked along to meet him when I finished and then we drove part way and walked the rest of the way in the pouring rain.

That was me done with outside for the day! We had loads of wind turbine power so I did various online things and then made dinner.

Today Ady and I went down to Fliss’ to say goodbye to Stuart and Julie. The kids stayed home as they rightly assumed they would get caught up with Eve and Joss if they came, when we got back they showed us the science youtube clips they had been looking at.

Ady cooked dinner AND pudding, all of which were very nice. We made a list of things to be doing when it actually stops raining.