Here comes the sun!
And the village springs back to life like an Attenborough documentary about deserts when it rains with people scuttling about being busy, cleaning, chatting to each other, out on bikes, walking…
Yesterday was the anniversary of our interview for the croft – one year ago. We bought a drink each and went and sat on the bench near Fliss and Sandy’s where we sat and texted people a year ago to say we’d got the croft. What a rollercoaster of a year it has been.
We sat there for about an hour til it got dark talking about how we’d felt then and how we feel now and then we went to Mike’s for dinner. He has Thalassa – a student, staying with him at the moment. She was here in May doing a research paper on the newts on the island and made friends with everyone then so has come back to do some volunteer stuff as she is job searching and needs stuff for her CV. She is two weeks through her three week stay and her and Mike are starting to drive each other mad so we’d partially been invited to dilute things I think :). We had a really nice evening with them and several rowdy games of charades which I don’t think Davies and Scarlett have ever played before and was lots of fun. It brought home how well the four of us (Goddards) know each other at how good we were at guessing things :). We left about 11pm so it was a fairly late night.
This morning we had pancakes for brunch made with goose eggs :). It’s been a gorgeous day all day so once we’d done various indoors things including having all doors and windows open for a good airing and drying through the static Ady and I went to pace out from the burn to the static (again) to finally sort out water. We’re going to plumb the static in to the burn which is where we have been getting drinking water from all along. We currently collect 2 20ltr jerry cans a day for drinking and cooking while all our washing up and shower water comes from the roof. We were drinking rainwater too but when we fitted the log burner it has meant all the water gathered from the roof is tainted by smoke and tastes revolting. Water gathering and toilet emptying are the two most time consuming and tedious tasks here, mostly done by Ady I have to admit, probably if it were me doing them we’d have had alternatives sorted a lot earlier 😉 – he is happier to graft for much longer than I would be.
So, spurred on by my parents next visit at the end of March we have measured out what we will need to get water from the burn and will get that ordered this week. Sandy has a few bits and pieces we can use too which keeps the cost down and is up for coming to help us get it all up and running. We have ordered the cardboard box on a pallet to go to Ed and Carina for them to box up the composting loo for us which should arrive with them tomorrow. I am hoping we will have the water sorted and the loo installed by the end of this month which will feel like massive steps forward. Also on my list to sort by the end of the month is Osborne Drive on the market (it was valued yesterday, not had feedback yet) or the tenants served notice, Gordon the builder talked to about giving us ground works quotes. grant forms filled out for the polytunnel and the pigs sorted out. We’ve decided to stop moving the pigs but to sort out their house better so that it remains dry and clean for them regardless of what the piece of land they are on it like as they have now been moved five times and I could see us moving them pretty much all over the croft but until we start doing stuff in the ground we have moved them on from they are better left where they are.
I’ve still not had paperwork about the school job so probably won’t be starting this week. Fliss and I are planning an overnight trip to the mainland for a big supermarket shop, I might be going off on a 3 day tour checking out visitor centres on Skye and the outer Hebrides (very excited at that idea, would love to see Harris and Lewis) in March and have signed the forms putting me forward as a director of the trust. Gav and Laura will be here soon and we have various contingency plans again now which feels better. I hate not having a plan at all even if I know we won’t necessary stick to a plan.
amazing what a bit of sun does huh? All sounding a bit better, hope the house valuation comes back good and you can get it sold nice and quickly 🙂
Comment by Kirsty — 19 February 2013 @ 6:36 am