It’s pretty much rained for 48 hours straight. The trees are still sat in their packaging waiting to be planted, the sheep are still at the bottom of the croft waiting to be moved up. Ady’s been out, togged up in orange waterproofs to do twice daily animal feed / welfare checks and he did a dash to the village yesterday for various bits and pieces but the rest of us have not left the caravan. There has been plenty of wind power which has meant all day internet though which is a handy distraction. I have finished my ten midges for Mairi and started thinking about the three different secret santa gifts I need to make. I also made a tiny santa hat to fit on the midges and might try and sell some festive midges too.
In other news I decluttered one of the lounge cupboards which has held Flora and Philadelphia tubs for pretty much the whole time we’ve lived here. It is obviously commendable to wash plastic lidded containers out and reuse them for all sorts of reasons. In a cramped for space set up like we have it is not sensible to take up a whole cupboard with them, particularly when you can’t actually remember the last time you used one… so they’ve gone. I’ve also gone through our wardrobes and under the bed and sorted out two huge bags to go to the charity shop of clothes. Some are too big, some are too small, some I simply will never have occasion to wear in this life on Rum. If I lose loads of weight I can celebrate with new jeans, if I put on loads of weight I can console myself by buying new jeans, if we leave here and I need new clothes for a new lifestyle then that will be part of the new lifestyle preparation… in the meantime there is very little room to spare for ‘maybe one day’ type things. The last thing to sort out is a stash of wool which should all fit into vacuum bags and fit under the sofas. Hurrah!
The Fogle show aired again in Australia – I had an email from a woman who watched it saying how much she had enjoyed it and asking what we are up to now. Someone on a UK Home Ed facebook group was also asking for an update having seen the show. A journalist from an economics journal has been in touch, via my friend Miranda with a list of questions about the financial feasibility of self sufficiency. Then a TV researcher got in touch about a channel four documentary which has been doing the rounds on social media looking for home ed, particularly unschoolers to feature. I had a phone chat with her this afternoon. I would probably be up for it, despite the disruption and possible back lash from these things I am really proud of what we’ve done and would love to think we may help others to consider doing something a bit different. Ady and Davies are up for it but Scarlett is against it so we are unlikely to go any further with it. It was funny talking to the woman on the phone – she had a set list of questions she was asking having read the blog and seen some of the Fogle show and she asked whether I was happy with the way Home Ed and our parenting choices had panned out and whether I would change anything if I went back and did it again. I monologued for a bit saying about how I felt it had been the greatest joy and privilege to have shared these precious years with two amazing individuals. That I could not claim to be proud of them as such because that would be taking credit and I felt they were their own, rather than my success stories but that I felt I was leaving behind a legacy and had done something fulfilling, worthwhile and amazing. She listened and then said ‘wow, that was amazing, you are so inspirational, you should… you should….tell people about it’ before realising that was exactly why I was talking to her, because she was trying to persuade me to go on telly! 😀
Watched the latest Attenborough, listened to lots of Desert Island Discs, watched lots of Supernatural.