We’ve been cooking curries 🙂
We’ve decided to nip across to Rum again next Thursday. We need to have another look at the land and get some really accurate photos and measurements of the access track so that we can plan stuff from a distance like getting a static across. Due to not being on Eigg we are in Inverness from Wednesday night with nothing actually happening on Thursday which is one of the days the ferry does the day trip with a 3 hr window, perfect for walking to the croft, around the land, marvelling at the view and getting back to the pier for the ferry again. It feels most extravagant but actually it’s only 100 miles from Inverness so it also feels perfectly logical.
Today a friend of Barbara’s came over with her 3 boys which was really nice. She (and the boys) is lovely and it’s always good to meet fellow HEors and swap stories. I’ve always been envious of the amazing HE provision and resources in Sheffield, there is such a lot of people doing it and so many excellent activities and groups and opportunities specifically for HE kids. All thanks to the hard work of certain families and individuals of course but it really is a great place to Home Educate.
Ady is feeling the need to earn his keep so has been doing loads of washing up, clearing away, hoovering, cleaning down the kitchen and today he washed Babs’ car. It’s keeping him happy and ensuring he feels we are guests worth having. The kids are doing fine work in distracting Beth, Ben and Rachael from the usual work and I am mostly sitting around drinking tea and engaging Babs in deep conversations. I think between us we are covering all bases…
We had a viewing on the house on Saturday but the woman was not interested, another is booked for this Thursday. The agent was trying to persuade us to drop it rather dramatically from £240k to £220k which we didn’t agree to on the basis it has only been on the market for 2 weeks and had 1 viewing. We are thinking if it does not sell within the first couple of months we could put it back on the rental market while keeping it for sale and maybe even seeing if Mike is up for the guaranteed rent scheme on it this time as it is all nicely decorated and ready to go. I’d rather not but some rent is better than nothing at all I guess…. argh it all feels like that puzzle with the chicken and the fox and the grain at the moment…
We are thinking we need to go to Rum sooner rather than later really. We do have WWOOFing lined up in April in Kent which looks interesting and would mean we were not spending any money (food and camping space provided) but I think our hearts are already in Rum and I am very conscious that it is the networking and getting to know people that is our most precious asset there – all the machinery we could possibly need to get the road sorted and a static got on to our land is already on the island belonging to SNH and while the official line is they will not let people borrow it that unofficial line is that if the individuals who operate them and live on the island can give fellow islanders a hand then of course they will, but these are the sorts of arrangements and offers that come about over a cup of tea or a beer, not an email or remote third party while we are down in Sussex or Kent.
I had a lovely email from Vikki today to say she’d read my blog and hoped we’d recovered from our grilling but they wanted to be sure we knew what we were getting ourselves into and that they are positive we are the right people and will succeed and if she can do anything to help or smooth the way she is only too happy to do so. She sent me some links to funding opportunities, some more training courses and email addresses of another couple of likely helpful people. I replied to ask if she thought we’d be able to bring Willow across to live in and park somewhere in the village while we wait for our house to sell. I know we’d need to buy food but other than that we’d have no costs and could start doing things like digging drainage and getting use to the land, while making all those relationships with the community. I think living in our van, close enough to our land to walk on it every day, getting to know our island is where we need to be rather than in limbo waiting for something our of our control (house sale) to happen.
I’ve emailed a publisher that I’d had recommended as potentially interested in our story, back before we even went WWOOFing. No idea if anything will come of that but it feels like I’ve made a move in the right direction there too. Grants and funding are not going to start appearing until we actually start doing stuff (it is usually claiming back money spent rather than getting cash in advance) so I can’t begin chasing those but getting some money coming in would be really good.