Just when we thought the winter was over it’s been back to bite us on the bum again this week. Literally as the boat pulled away on Saturday night it started raining and got windier and it’s not really stopped much since. The winds have been SSE rather than easterly or westerly which are the worst ones for us up on the croft so it’s not been scary, just wet and noisy with the straps over the roof vibrating lots. It’s pretty mild so not totally miserable but the condensation is back and so is the mud.
Poor Barbara is thigh deep in it and I am worried if she has the piglets just now they’d probably drown in it. Yesterday we collected three old mattresses from the castle which we’ll put down in her pen just as soon as the river is low enough to get across to bring them to the croft. Mattresses are such a bugger to carry, like a great big sheet of jelly! We also had a big Harbo delivery of compost, grow bags, animal feed and straw yesterday, along with some food from the Co-Op. It’s amazing how quick we’d forgotten the grind of trying to get large and heavy things up the muddy hill. The mice have gotten into the polytunnel and eaten loads of my seeds – gits!
We had Vikki and Sean the Rat up for dinner on Tuesday which was really nice. We had a great evening, chatted about introverts vs extroverts after Vikki had linked to an interesting TED talk on the subject, Sean did a myers briggs test and we talked about that and then we (mostly Sean and I actually) had a long debate about politics which I really enjoyed. Have not had a good old rant like that in years! Sort of strange to realise I do still really passionately about these things even though I’m pretty removed from that world these days. Also quite odd to be discussing such stuff with someone so much younger than me. I also ranted about birthing choices (rather topical on island just now with Laura pregnant and lots of people tutting about how she’ll not be able to have the baby here, live in a shed etc.) I was the most extreme in my views and felt a bit like I was being a nutter but comforted myself that I was the only one in the room that had actually *had* a baby so I was allowed to speak with more authority 😉
I hate the school job. I’m sat here now typing this while I charge up phones and torches and I got to print off a load of housebuild stuff this morning and use the school phone to arrange dentists appointments but those sort of perks are just not enough. I walked down the road to the school on Tuesday morning just utterly resenting with every step that I am here. I’m away from home for four hours four mornings a week. I earn about £20 per shift so it only works out as £5 an hour and one of those is walking around in the rain. In the winter it will still be dark when I leave. I either take the car and use diesel and leave Ady without it (not feasible on boat days if we are expecting something anyway) or walk and even if I do take the car I’d be wet by the time I get to it parked on the other side of the river. Plus I just hate being here. I hate Stuart talking to me about how he tells the kids they have to do the ‘boring stuff’ like maths and history so they can do the ‘fun stuff’. I hate the stickers and certificates for meaningless stuff. I hate listening to the kids being told they can’t go and explore the pine cones or do painting because they ‘have to do this now’. I hate the taped nursery rhymes that get played every morning and I hate being captured in a depressing building with other people’s kids four mornings a week while my own children are missing me and missing out on the time I used to have for them. I hate missing Popmaster and having half the day already gone by the time I’ve gotten home and had lunch. I hate that it means I struggle to arrange stuff like the dentists appointments and won’t be around for half of the time people visit when they come to stay and it’s just not what we moved here to do. I’m here for freedom, for being outside working my croft, if not beating the system then at least ignoring it! Yesterday my tasks included some photocopying, organising the sugar paper storage system and ordering playdoh and fabrics for the dressing up table. Life is too short!
Fortunately Coryla is interested in the job as she will probably lose her job in September when Stuart comes back and the school opens for Eve. The council (rightly!) cannot justify a nursery assistant, a teaching head and a clercial person along with running two buildings for two children in a school! I told the kids my decision to finish at the end of the school year yesterday and they were delighted 🙂 So I get to skip away at the end of the summer free once again. I just need to explain to my Dad now why I’m planning to give up a perfectly good job (in his opinion) – I need to find something else to bring in the money instead and justify it that way.
Poor Gav has been rained and winded out of his tent and is staying with Neil and Lesley down in the village until the wild weather passes over. He seems in good spirits still but is clearly finding this a testing time without Laura or a home. Saturday is our anniversary of a year on Rum – I have this feeling that it will either be an amazing day – sunshine, new piglets, chicks hatching and maybe a bottle of fizz and some venison. Or it will rain, there will be problems with the animals and the polytunnel will blow away. Fingers crossed it’s a day for celebrating!