Gone and back again

Wednesday was a long and stressy day for me. I had already agreed to do Post Office in the morning as Jinty is off island and had a board meeting (hopefully my last) between boats, then Davies and Scarlett were heading off. Ady was ghillie-ing so my day was going to consist of dashing from one place to the next, changing hats as I went. I headed off down to work and had a fairly quiet morning, closing the post office early to allow me to do end of week stuff. I was so efficient that I was finished and the first person at the board meeting. That went well and it is with mixed feelings I am stepping down in some ways as there are aspects of the role of directors which I enjoy, but sadly too many more that I don’t and I think my time has come to re-focus elsewhere.  I made that point quite forcefully in the meeting by which point my cold was catching up with me and then came home. In between the post office and the meeting I had seen Ian who told me our shed had arrived which was unexpected and not really good news as there was nothing I could do about it and I had been expecting a phonecall from the courier to arrange a delivery day and an email from Calmac to let me know when it was being sent over, neither of which had happened.

It meant that our planned leisurely walk down to the pier, collecting brambles as we went after an hour home together before they went didn’t happen for me and the children as I felt I needed to take the car down and see what was happening with the shed. We picked Steve up along the way to give him a lift and fortunately he was able to help me get it off the van, into the boat shed and part of it stacked on top of the car. By now I was really flagging with my cold and feeling all edgy about the children going off too. I waved them off and stood until they were out of sight before half heartedly picking some brambles and then deciding to drive to the village to meet Ady as we had semi-planned. On the way down the hill from the pier all of the panels I had put on the car roof slid off onto the road. I was not strong enough to lift them back over my head and on to the roof by myself so had to get them off the road and stacked them by the side. There was no one around to ask for help and no one I could think of to ask the favour really as I knew most of the people I would usually ask were out on the hill or would be busy with other things so I just hoped Ady would be home early enough to help me go back for them.

I drove to the village and picked brambles for a bit but then started to worry about the croft animals needing feeding, Bonnie being shut in the caravan and it only being an hour til dark so decided to try and lift the panels onto the car myself again. When I drove back though they had gone! At which point I decided I had had enough and came home. Only to find Ady was already home. I came and ranted at him for a while, we fed the animals and then went down to try and find the panels. It turned out Dave had seen them and picked them up and brought them into the village so we got them back on top of the car, tied on this time and as it was almost dark by then we were persuaded to stay at the shop for a beer. We came home and discussed in a rather heated fashion the knock on effect on the rest of us of Ady doing the ghillie work when he was not really loving it anyway. We talked it over and it was fine but both felt odd without the kids here and not properly able to relax and enjoy the evening.

Thursday – Ady headed off to ghillie – it turned out his last time as he had paid attention to what I had been saying and said he would not do the last two days as we had too much else happening on the croft and he wanted to be at the boat to meet the kids instead of out on the hill until late. I think he is also coming down with the cold and was very aware that another 10 hour day outside leading a pony was not a sensible way to fight that off. I had a lie in and read my book in bed, then spent some time putting together the Rum residents newsletter and emailing that round everyone. Bonnie was utterly confused about where everyone keeps going – me and the kids last week, Ady three early mornings til late evenings running and now the kids off again so she refused to go outside as normal and spent all morning sitting at my feet despite me trying to chuck her outside. Which meant that when I was due to head down to Fliss’ for Crafternoon I felt she needed some exercise and outside time and also not to be left while I disappeared too. So I took her with me and she sat in the garden watching me in Fliss’ conservatory while we drank tea, chatted and crocheted. It was a nice couple of hours, good to chat. `

Bonnie and I came home, fed the animals, brought in firewood, got the genny on, lit a fire and got dinner sorted and then Ady came home. We watched downloaded Apprentice from last week, chatted to the kids on facebook phonecall and felt much more relaxed than the night before.

Today – Post office for me again this morning, another quiet one. Jinty rang to ask if I can do Monday and Wednesday next week aswell. Ady met me having collected the shed from the pier and got it part way home. We parked at the pier and picked brambles for an hour before the boat came in bring the children back and their new bikes too 🙂 Fantastic to see them and have them home. They had a great time, are really knackered having had very little sleep and pleased to be home with our food and our set up apparently.

We had a late lunch as we were all hungry and watched The Naked Choir. Then I made pizza dough and jar labels while Scarlett made jam and Davies washed up and Ady put new bedding in for the pigs. Then it was Doctor Who and pizza time.

The next few days will be filled with shed erection, wind turbine installation, bike construction and hopefully riding and then some more pig processing.