Friday – I think in the morning we finished planting the fruit bushes in the fruit cage finally. We have more than enough blackcurrants and redcurrants even if they don’t all survive the move, we have a fair few gooseberries too, but only 3 of Pthe raspberry canes were even find-able and I’m fairly sure they are all dead and past it but we’ve planted them anyway and will see. One of the big tasks on our current job list is planning next years planting, both in the polytunnel and out on the croft. I want to actually start an orchard, fill the fruit cage, plant some fodder crops for animal feed and concentrate on some worthwhile crops in the polytunnel. I have a much recommended book on Scottish fruit and veg gardening and a Crofting Federation guide to horticulture for crofters which is packed with advice too.
We went to meet the boat and the wind turbine finally arrived, along with lots of tinned goods I’d ordered from Jinty to stock the horsebox ready for winter – last year we did a mainland run to buy all the tinned stuff and realised afterwards we’d not really saved that much so this year we’re buying in bulk from Jinty instead.
I had a meeting with Mike about the volunteer program, after which Casey joined us for a cup of tea and then we all went to the shop for a Friday beer. The Friends of Kinloch Castle were over for the weekend so I chatted with a few of them and then came home for dinner – pizza night!
Saturday – I worked in the morning. I think I’m going to really enjoy the post office / shop Saturday job. I got a set of keys tonight 🙂 There are lots of people popping in and it’s all very sociable and friendly. It’s nice to have the chance to get to know Jinty a wee bit better too. Ady came down to meet me and we did a few bits to do with getting the wind turbine sorted then came home for lunch and got it to a point we were happy to leave it at to start again the following day.
Mike and Casey were coming up for dinner so I got that sorted while Ady fed the animals and we had a lovely evening with them with the usual rounds of charades and plenty of in jokes.
Sunday – it had been a really wet and windy night and we’d not slept well but were keen to get the wind turbine up and running despite it being very non suitable weather for doing so. I’d agreed to go to Community Teashop both to support Laura and Gav and because Rachel who used to live here is back for a few days visit and we’d not gone to the shop on the Saturday to see her as we’d had M&C up for dinner. We got everything to a point where Ady could carry on by himself and I walked down to the village. I took a bucket and bramble picked as I went to maximise time usage :). I had a nice hour or so there chatting to Gav and Laura and then to Jinty, Abby, Rachel and Lesley who were all there. I got a free tea refill and brought home a couple of cakes for the kids and walked back home.
Ady was at the right stage for me to come back and we finished the wiring and putting together then lifted the pole and we had power! Lights came on inside and the turbine whizzed round and round. Our initial ideas about securing the pole proved not good enough and after trying to guy it with some steel core washing line we gave up and resorted to an old tent guy ropes which work far better (we’ll just keep a very close eye on them for wear and tear and replace with metal wire at some point) and decided our plan to stake the pole to a deer post would not work so built up a mini wall of stones around it securing it in place. It is going nowhere now :). It looked at one point as though we might run out of light and have to take it down to try again today but it all came good in the end. The kids went down to feed the animals for us and I came in to get dinner on while Ady tidied everything up. A night of no generator and wind powering everything we needed. Our candle bill is going to dramatically reduce!
Another bad night of howling wind and heavy rain meaning we didn’t sleep well at all but at least when Bonnie whined and Ady got up he was able to put a light and the internet on!
Today – Popmaster, lots of email catching up for me and then lunch. Scarlett and I walked down to the village as she had the doctor at 2pm. After that we walked home again having collected my bramble bucket from the car and carried on picking all the way home. It may be the last pick or at the very least the penultimate one, the last lot of 2013 jam.
Ady and I went down to collect veg and had a beer hoping that Rachel would come out but she didn’t. Walking home we got drenched, it was pouring with rain, windy again and almost dark. A stark reminder of the coming winter.