One word? When seven would do…

Friday – morning we fixed a couple of raised beds which I had cobbled together with reclaimed nails and done a pretty shoddy job of a couple of years ago. They had never actually been filled with soil or used and had fallen apart. So Ady came down with the drill and lots of screws and made them all sturdy and fixed. We decided that we will fill the raised beds with soil from where the pigs have been. It will be a hard task digging it up and barrowing it across so may well make it onto the volunteer list of things we all get stuck into doing 2 barrows each as a team.

We had lunch and then went down to the boat as we had some food shopping coming from the CoOp and to get some sausages out of the freezer ready for the community meal. Back home for a bit more work outside, I did some weeding and watered the polytunnel, then a shower before heading down to the village. We had a smaller turn out but still a good percentage of the community for the meal – which had a Childhood Favourites theme. We took sausages and baked beans, others brought macaroni cheese, jelly, arctic roll, roasted veg, corned beef hash and lashings of ketchup. In honour of the event Jinty and I split a can of cider and a can of lager and had a pint of snakebite and black each 🙂 I then went on to alcoholic ginger beer alcopops stylee 🙂

It was a good night and plenty of being raucous and laughing lots. We wrapped it up earlyish though and were home for midnight.

Saturday – early start as Mairi was coming off the first boat which gets in before 9am. We met her from the boat, then dropped Ady and the car off at the hostel to work while Mairi and I walked back to the croft. We saw outside drinking copious cups of tea and catching up until Ady came home at lunchtime. More sitting in the sunshine and chatting and Ali & Eve came up for a couple of hours in the evening. A really nice evening with Ady cooking a lovely curry and many bottles of fizz being emptied.

Sunday – Mostly more of the same really, sitting on the sporran in the sunshine chatting. We had sausages cooked on the barbecue for late lunch which was delicious and a couple of glasses of wine to wash it down with. Then we walked down to the village to collect some bits from the shop before heading round to the castle to meet up with various islanders to sneak into the castle flat for a surprise birthday party for Doug. Much shushing and muffled giggles had us all installed in the lounge while Doug was in the shower ready to yell SURPRISE! when he came out. It was a really lovely evening with lots of nice food, more fizz and good company. I think Doug was a little overwhelmed but I imagine it will be a birthday he remembers forever. Home for a cup of tea before bed.

Monday – A lazy morning before taking Mairi down to the boat and waving her off. She really is the easiest guest 🙂 Fab to see her and have such amazing weather for the weekend too. We collected some amazon shopping from the village, wheelbarrowed it home and had lunch. The weather had totally changed so it was an indoors afternoon. Doctor Who, pasta bake for dinner and a fairly early night.

Today – like most of the UK we have had crazy weather today – snow all morning but t shirt worthy sunshine all afternoon. I made the most of the wind turbine this morning by getting lots of online stuff done, this afternoon I have mostly crocheted and listened to various Radio 4 downloads – about meat eating, about the Green Children of Wolfpit, about Pitcairn. All really interesting stuff, very thought provoking. I watered the polytunnel and more seeds have germinated that I planted last week.

 

Saturday – Ady worked in the morning. I did midge making stuff and when Scarlett got up her and I made bath bombs. It was one of those evolved as it went along type projects with us initially planning green and blue swirls in star shaped moulds to be sea themed. Except the silicone moulds don’t work for bath bombs as you need to really, really compact the mixture to make them and the silicone just kept bulging out rather than holding it’s shape. So we looked for something different to use as a  mould and came up with some tiny containers we’d got gravy in at KFC when we were staying in Glasgow over new year for Ady’s hospital. I had washed them up and brought them home insisting they would be useful for something, much to everyone else’s scorn. I really hate the amount of waste and packaging we create when we go off island and these just seemed so wasteful to use once then chuck into the already overflowing bin in the Travelodge plus they had lids and were sturdy plastic so they have sat in the drawer all these months. Scarlett used one and we decided it looked like a (green) sandcastle. So we added a load of yellow colouring until the mix was yellow, found some cocktail sticks to make flags with some stickers and created a whole load of sandcastle shaped fizzers. I made the flags and packed them all up and made a sign for them too.

Sunday – I put the fizzers and the sign up in the shop, along with the first few midges which I had finished. Then I spent some time in the walled garden and polytunnel planting, sowing and potting on stuff. In the afternoon Lesley came up, in theory just for a few hours and coffee, but actually by 4pm Ady had opened the first bottle of wine and she ended up staying for dinner and two further bottles of wine, leaving around midnight. We had a lovely afternoon and evening though, it was so nice to catch up properly having not seen each other for weeks.

Monday – I was rather woolly of head as a result but got up and packed. We had lunch and then Ady took Scarlett and I down to the boat, Davies stayed home to manage the power as we had wind and solar producing loads. In the shop we were thrilled to see our first big sale of the year including a scarf and one of the newly put out fizzers :). The boat crossing was pretty choppy, with some quite annoying little kids on there (not actually the little kids fault, more the parents who were ignoring them, telling them off or actually telling them to go and sit somewhere else as they were being annoying to them!!!) Lucy from Eigg got on at Eigg so I chatted to her for a while until she went to lie down as she does not do well with the boat. Scarlett was outside for part of the trip as she was feeling icky too. A quick CoOp stock up and then on to the train. We were staying in a hotel we’ve not stayed in before as it was the cheapest place so checked in there and then went back to Morrisons to get picnic food for dinner, then back to the room for a bath for me. There was no wifi (you could pay £5 a day but I had enough signal on my phone to check emails / facebook and Scarlett insisted she would probably rather watch TV than be on her tablet anyway and could think of better ways to spend the money like a hot chocolate!) so we watched TV and were both asleep fairly early.

Tuesday – we were up early enough to have breakfast which was included in the price. I had a small cooked breakfast, Scarlett had loads of bacon and orange juice. Then we walked along to the dentist. It was a five minute procedure to put the brace back in and that was us. We walked through the high street, checked out the charity shops, then walked along the back past some places we’d not seen before, Scarlett saw rabbits (she loves rabbits and really misses seeing them on Rum), we had a hot chocolate and walked some more, finally getting back to the hotel laden down. We chilled out for a while, then went back out to do the fruit and veg shopping and get some more picnic food for dinner. Back to the room, Scarlett had a bath, I ran across to Morrisons for reduced to clear time getting a load of 5p bread for the freezer and then I had a bath. We chatted to Ady and Davies on the phone, watched some more crap TV and I fell asleep first while Scarlett watched a show about the Caledonian Canal and then did her packing.

Wednesday – up early again, packed up and on to the train. Scarlett slept most of the train ride, I saw watching the view and reminiscing to myself about the trip 4 years earlier on the day we moved here. A quick trip into CoOp for milk and yoghurt, a dash up the hill to post Lovefilm which we’d brought off with us and forgotten about til that morning and then on to the ferry. I chatted to a couple who were off to Canna and the trip went really quick. Ady met us at the boat and we were home by midday. Davies was pleased to see us. We unpacked our rucksacks, put all the bits and pieces away we’d brought back and had lunch.

I did some planting up more seeds, Ady and I sat for ages in the sunshine drinking tea and chatting. In the evening Ady and I finally watched the Ben Fogle show properly, as we’d only watched it as it went out live back last year and had been concentrating on whether it was awful rather than watching it as a TV show. I drank fizz and we toasted four years :). Dinner of pizza and Doctor Who.

Today – more sowing and potting on for me in the morning. Ady emptied the loo and got the animal feed delivery from yesterday up on to the croft. We had lunch (outside in the sunshine) and then Ady came down with me to the village to do the laundry and bring it back up to line dry while I went to Fliss’ for crafternoon. Special guest star of Camille from Eigg who had come across on a yacht with a friend so joined us for cups of tea and catch up chats. Lovely to see her.

Back at home I watered the polytunnel while Ady fed the animals. There is a broody duck who is still coming for mealtimes and I wanted to follow back to her nest but I missed her legging it back. Maybe tomorrow…

Monday – we decided to head off on the first boat on Monday, it was a nice day for the cruise. So we dropped Bonnie off with Ali and headed to the pier. The boat was quiet but got progressively  busier as we called at Canna, then back to Rum, then on to Eigg. Train to Fort William getting us in around 730pm, which somehow does not feel quite so late in the summer when it’s still daylight. On the desk at Premier Inn were the two staff we know well so we were greeted like old friends. Ady and I nipped along to Lidl as we had a faulty jigsaw to return. Scarlett came with us to Morrisons to get food for dinner. We all ate, Ady had a bath, I had a bath, Davies had a bath, we all went to bed. Some of us were asleep rather quicker than others…

Tuesday – we had dentist at 1020am so headed off having dragged the later to sleep among our number from their beds. Ady had his second bath of the trip before the rest of us were even out of bed. Dentist was all fine for check ups. Scarlett’s brace had broken so needed to be sent off for repairs. They are all very understanding of the effort, time and cost involved in a trip to the orthodontist for us but it could not be helped so we arranged for Scarlett to go back next week to have it refitted. The good news is that is is well on track to do what it’s supposed to. This is the palate expander bit of the work. He reckons another 2 months, so hopefully on her next check up it will be on to the next stage.

We left the dentist and went into town for a look around the charity shops. We got lunch in Tescos, Scarlett got an ice cream – she was the only one who wanted one, Davies went back to the room and the rest of us followed. Ady had another bath (#3) which I had a cup of tea and then Ady and I went back out for his opticians appointment and me to hit Superdrug for nail varnish shopping. Ady’s eye test was all fine, the optician also checked over my glasses and said they are close enough to my prescription for him to be happy with them not needing changing for now as I’d forgotten to bring them when last we were off and I had my eye test.

Back to the room – Ady had another bath. We watched more crap TV and then all went out for various shopping, Lidl for olives for Fliss, herbal toothpaste for us and pretend Baileys for me. Morrisons for general shop of taco shells, reduced to clear bread and rolls and pastries for the freezer, fruit and veg for the week, Bombay mix, food colouring, Angel delight and cheap chocolate for the kids sweet stash. Scarlett chose picnic food for her dinner. Ady and Scarlett went back to the room, Davies and I went to get Davies fish and chips. I think Ady had another bath. We packed everything ready to take back and Ady and I went to the Brewers Fayre for a meal as we had a buy one get one free offer. It’s great having everyone old enough to choose their own food and be where they want to eat it. We left the kids and went for our meal, which was nice enough and pretty cheap and still a novelty to be out together in a restaurant (albeit a Brewers Fayre!) for me and Ady.

Back to the room for baths. Ady fell asleep, Davies and I watched Bullseye which I had been telling him about only the other week and was *exactly* as I had been describing. Davies also had one of his now traditional midnight forays to reception. This time he was after tea bags and clean cups. He so enjoys the late night banter with the on duty in the middle of the night reception staff 😉

Wednesday – early start which some people coped with better than others. Ady had a bath obviously. Into Morrisons for last minute supplies of  butter and mozzarella. On to the train, a super quick stop in Co Op and then on to the Calmac. Also on board were a couple from Canna so we chatted to them a bit.

So good to be home. Ali was at the boat so we arranged to collect Bonnie, I had a quick catch up chat with Neil who had come off the boat we got on to so had not seen him for over a week. Collected Bonnie and came home. We had been pretty sensible with what we’d bought so unpacking didn’t take too long. We were all feeling pretty wiped out so didn’t do much but it was good to be back.

Thursday – a gorgeous sunny day. In the morning Ady fixed the chimney while I did some weeding and planting out of peas and beans. We had lunch and the doctor arrived for Ady’s blood test. I got a lift down to the village with the doctor and Dave to go to Crafternoon. A nice couple of hours and then a quick stop at the shop for tonic water before coming home. Ady was cooking dinner so I even had time to go and plant up some more peas and beans and water the polytunnel.

Friday – Ady had a parcel to send so we needed to go to Post Office this morning. Ady was late feeding the animals as it was snowing! When he went down Bob had come quite a way up the croft so he led him the rest of the way and he is now at last in the pen with Blackie next to Barbara and the girls. This is fabulous 🙂

Down to Post Office and to get some beers for Ady for later. Back to the croft for lunch and then out to do shed stuff for Ady – making new display shelves and moving things about. He’s come up with some fab ideas and it’s looking great in there, ready and waiting for midges and bath bombs! I weeded another two raised beds. It had been my plan to do more planting out and sowing but it is very cold at night so I think I may hold fire until things are slightly less at risk of frost.

We had a cup of tea and then walked down to the village with Scarlett to collect post and get our petrol from Ali. I called in for a quick chat with her as she had big news, then home for a very late dinner indeed and Doctor Who. Ady is working in the morning. I am planning a lie in.

Thursday – The kids all headed off down to the village to hang in a gang. So good to have a gaggle of older kids here this last week or so, made me realise how much D&S miss having others to hang out with. Adding Ben to the mix was even better. I have no recollection of what I spent the morning doing at all or even what the weather was like. I was quite possibly making survival bracelets, or equally possibly doing something outside.

Ady and I walked down to the village after lunch for me to go to Crafternoon and him to put the battery of the Jeep on charge as it had struggled to start the last couple of times and we needed it reliable for the early morning Saturday ferry run to get Ben off and the Monday and Wednesday ferries next week to take us off and pick us up, all times you don’t need to be fretting about a car not starting. Crafternoon was good, nice to see Ali, I’ve actually missed her while she’s been off for a couple of weeks, she is less demanding / political company than Fliss. She was sad as her cat had died while she was off (taken off with her and put to sleep as he was very ill) so we talked about that a lot. I miss cats so much 🙁

A late night all round I think, possible even later for the teens…

Friday – The kids headed off out again, I had plans to plant out my peas but had barely started when Ali and Eve appeared so came in for a cup of tea / chat with them for an hour or so. We walked down with them as we had petrol going off on the boat so walked to the ferry to put that on as the car battery was still on charge. We helped with the shop delivery, then walked back, collected the battery, put it on the car, drove back to the village to collect the post and came home. Just as we got in it started raining and didn’t really stop for the rest of the day. So that was the end of planting out peas. Infact it actually snowed on the high peaks through the night. Grr.

Ben’s last night but I don’t think there was much of a nod to that in the time they all went to sleep… I had started to come down with the cold and I think Davies had too by then. They had all gone to the boat to wave off Poppy and Evie and exchanged addresses so they can stay in touch.

Saturday – everyone was awake but not all of us actually got up 😉 Ady was working anyway so he took Ben off to the ferry and saw him safely on, poor Ben had an epic trip with 5 hours on the boat, a couple of hours hanging round Mallaig and then a few more hours on the train south. I think it was about 12 hours after he’d left Rum that Babs texted to say he was safely with her.  Davies stayed up for a while before going back to bed, I was awake but stayed in bed reading for a bit, then got up and made soup for lunch. Scarlett got up after a bit and sat chatting to me.

Fliss and the girls came up to feed the pigs so we chatted briefly, then Ady came home. We had lunch and all decided we were feeling pretty rubbish so would not really attempt much else. I did go down and plant out the rest of the peas as they were sitting out where I had abandoned them the day before but that was plenty of exertion! I cooked dinner which felt like a huge effort and by 10pm we had all called it a day and were in bed! We had watched the final Blackadder Goes Fourth which obviously made me cry before bed too.

Sunday – The down side of going to bed at 10pm is of course waking at 530am! Ady was being really noisy with coughing and snoring due to be all blocked up so I laid there thinking evil thoughts for a while, watched the sunrise (hazy as without contacts!) and then put the light on for about 20 minutes to read until I was dozy enough to fall back to sleep. Whereupon I slept through til gone 10am and woke feeling tentatively much better.

Ady and I did walk down to the village to collect the post, which is only about 3 miles and is usually a 30 minute round trip march but took us well over and hour and felt like some sort of polar expedition! We did meet up with young David and his girlfriend Raquel so chatted to them about their recent trip to Vietnam and Thailand (beautiful but poor and they got very hassled by locals they said) and then bumped into Portia who used to live here before our time and would love to move back so chatted to her for a while too.

Back home for leftovers lunch of the dinner we didn’t really eat much of last night and listening to the radio in the sunshine. Davies got up around 3pm and pretty much his only achievement today was packing his rucksack for tomorrow. Scarlett was feeling much better so she had a shower and I brushed her hair (which was really tangled having been rained on at least 6 times this week) and she made me lots of cups of tea. Inbetween  I have been crocheting (a midge!), coughing, blowing my nose and wishing I had been more diligent with pelvic floor exercises…

Ady cooked roast chicken and we watched Doctor Who. Another generally early night as tomorrow we’re heading off for the mainland for a 48 hour dash taking in dentists, opticians and supermarket shopping!

Yesterday the kids were off out with Poppy and Evie for the day again. Ady was digging a ditch behind the static to help with drainage and I decided to do some outside stuff too. I had initially planned to plant out the asparagus and maybe the peas so started clearing the few weeds which had made it through the seaweed mulch on a couple of the raised beds. I got the asparagus planted and that bed netted over but got really fed up with slipping and sliding about in the mud between the beds as the whole area is really waterlogged and boggy, so I decided to dig a ditch down one side of the walled garden to help it drain. It was ridiculously muddy and I got filthy but I got it running, dug under the fence to join a naturally happening ditch below that area which eventually runs into the river and joined it up with the initial ditch we dug along the top of that area a couple of years ago. It now needs a few diagonal ditches to join up with that one but it should massively help. I mostly weeded another bed ready for planting out peas later in the week. I think I’ll have at least two beds for peas this year, maybe even three as they are by far our most favourite crop so well worth the space. Cabbage and broccoli is all nicely growing in the polytunnel so that will be ready to plant out next and the salad leaves are all sprouting in there too. As soon as I have got the first lot of stuff planted out I can do some more sowing. It’s pretty much time to do some outdoors sowing of various stuff too and I have some old emergency light fixtures which will be perfect mini propogators to sow stuff up with and leave outside too. I also baited the polytunnel as there is loads of rat poo in there which makes it a less than lovely place to hang out in. I’m not up for sharing that space with rodents thankyou!

Some tourists had been along and stood watching me and taking photos for ages, I was quite disappointed that they’d only bought one jar of jam!

Dinner of lasagne and an episode of warehouse 13 before bed. Both Ady and I feeling pretty worn out from all the digging.

Today – Raine Day! Poor Scarlett is suffering with a cold so she stayed home while Ady, Davies and I went down to the pier to meet the Raines who were visiting with an additional French Raine too. Utterly, utterly fabulous to see them all, although far too brief. Ben is staying on for a few nights so we are at least not entirely Raine bereft though. Scarlett, Davies and Ben stayed home this time while the rest of us walked down to the pier to see them off and then Ady and I drove back. Rather appropriately they brought mountains of hot cross buns with them (along with various other food supplies including boxes and boxes of cereal) – the challenge now is to eat them all before Ben goes! Pizza for dinner, and I suspect for Davies and Ben at least it will be a late night.

Yesterday the kids were off away for the day with Poppy and Evie. It rained pretty much all day so I spent it almost entirely baking – I had four wholemeal loaves to make and seven pies for an order. A walking group staying in the bunkhouse who had been in touch about produce. They wanted eggs, jam, bread and pies. I had made the error of offering very specific choices so ended up with 4 different options across the 7 pies including a vegan one. I was really cross with myself having found a recipe for oil pastry and making that batch up separately to realise I had used vegetable fat based spread to make the rest of the pastry anyway having checked the tub so actually it was all vegan pastry! Six of the pies were venison which I had made the basic venison in garlic and wine gravy for last week when Mum & Dad were here and we had pie one night and frozen a batch of, so that got defrosted and the various combinations added to it while I cooked up cubed potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, mushrooms all in separate pans and a tomato based veggie mix for the vegan pie with plenty of herbs. Finally having used pretty much every pan we own I had seven pies for the order and a further four for us for our dinner today, and four huge loaves of bread. And an apple pie with some leftover pastry and some apple sauce to have with dinner. I washed everything up, let it all cool sufficiently to wrap it up and I was done. It took hours – catering on the small scale simply is not cost effective like that but at least I enjoy doing it and I hope they will enjoy eating it.

Ady was in and out of the caravan between showers. We both went out to feed the animals, if only for some fresh air. My wellies are leaking at only a month old so I emailed the company I got them from and they refunded me. I am waiting for a new pair but am wearing plastic bags over my feet inside them for now until they arrive.It is not entirely effective and is creating more of a surprise ‘the bag has leaked!’ type experience rather than the more expected ‘your feet are wet as soon as you leave the caravan’ feeling I have been used to the last week or so…

Ady cooked dinner, I rang my parents and with lots of effort managed to book them a centerparcs lodge for January. Bad phone line, slightly hard of hearing parents and a general lack of patience did not all collide with glee…

Today – Davies and Scarlett were off for more teen hanging out for the day, they have certainly had a good boost of socialising this last couple of weeks. After Popmaster Ady and I walked down to the village with a wheelbarrow to take the battery from the Rangerover for a charge up and deliver all the produce to the bunkhouse. On the way we saw Jed and Derek, Ross and Dave. On the way back we saw Jed, Bad Neil and Fliss, so plenty of stopping and chatting. Back at home we had a cup of tea on the sporran and had intended to do some outdoors stuff but it started raining again so we came indoors. We ended up having a big brainstorming session about things to sell in the shed and came up with some good ideas which led to some online purchasing of various craft and other materials. I have a book on Cottage Industries which offered some inspiration and Ady looked through some preserves and edible seashore books for ideas too. A good productive ideas afternoon. It finally stopped raining so Ady went out to do some repair work on the log burner chimney which he has been planning for a dry spell when the chimney is cool for about a week but not found the right window before. I spent an hour or so working on the Friends of Rum newsletter which is long overdue and have it almost ready to go.

We walked down to the village to collect the veg, stopping for a bit of a chat with various people at the shop before coming home. Somehow we’d missed the kids who we had tentatively arranged to meet at the shop so they beat us home. Ady finished the chimney while I had a shower and got dinner on.

Ady was off to work this morning. I woke early and laid in bed reading for a while before getting up. I labelled up the midges in resin keyrings and pendants I made yesterday and a scarf I finished yesterday too ready to take down to the shed. The kids got up and we all walked down to the village together, dropping the stuff off in the shed and collecting some eggs to take to Jinty’s shop. The kids were off meeting up with Evie and Poppy and they have mostly spent the day roaming around in a posse of four, they seem to have really clicked which is great as E and P will in theory be visiting Rum fairly frequently. They live local-ish on the east coast but their Dad Dan is with Claire and it seems to be pretty serious so that’s good. Excellent to have more older kids around the place.

I called in to Ady and then walked along to the shop to drop the eggs off and buy a few bits, then back to Ady. I chatted to Fliss for a while outside the shop, nice to catch up with her. Ady and I walked back with various stuff including post from today, dinner for tonight and tomorrow, shopping and laundry and a load of out of date yoghurts from the shop for the pigs. We sat on the sporran with a cup of tea and then opened the post to find the electric fence wire had arrived so we decided to finish off the new pig pen and move Barbara, Waddles and Ben Fogle over onto fresh ground as their current pen was just a mud bath. Ady had already set up all the posts so it only took an hour or so to run the fence around and then get the three pigs into the new area. Then a further hour or two of dismantling the old house and moving that across – made all the trickier due to said mud bath. Then moving the standpipe the tap is on for all the pigs water and setting that up. B, W and BF look so happy and were playing like tiny piglets all frolicking about. It was lovely 🙂

I watered the polytunnel and fixed a small tear in the cloches over the strawberries which was going to start ripping bigger in the winds or encourage a curious chicken to go and investigate if not mended while Ady put the kettle on. Then I decided to walk back down to collect some frozen venison pie filling which I had planned to take out in the morning but changed my mind about and decided to defrost overnight so I can make the pies in the morning instead – they are for an order along with 4 loaves of bread, jam and eggs for some visitors arriving on Monday so that will be my morning’s task tomorrow. I met Davies, Scarlett, Evie and Poppy coming back so they walked back down with me and D&S walked E&P back along to the yurt while I was in the shop, then we all walked home together. I walked with Poppy for a bit, the younger girl, chatting about hair wraps and colours, dreadlocks and stuff as she had noticed Scarlett’s newly done hair wrap. She was really sweet :).

Back home I had a shower while Ady got dinner sorted and we watched some Warehouse 13 which had arrived in the post. We’ve been re-watching Blackadder too although we are already 3 episodes in to Blackadder goes forth so that won’t last much longer.

Amazing sunset tonight, the sky was so stunning, so hopefully a good day again tomorrow.

 

A whole week gone.

Friday – Calmac decided they would run just one boat to Rum so Mum & Dad did the shopping and got to Mallaig. In the end their crossing was OK and they arrived safe. Davies, Scarlett and Bonnie stayed at the croft while Ady and I collected them. It started to rain as we arrived at the fork where we park the car so Dad pretty much legged it from there while Mum walked slower and Ady and I brought up the rear with wheelbarrows. Finally all in, kettle on and deep breaths all round as it had looked as though they may not make it.

A nice first evening. I had made my usual pledge to be nice and stay calm and for once I think I pretty much achieved it for the entire duration of their trip this time.

Saturday – Ady was working in the morning. It was tipping down with rain. Ady had gone off with a list of things to get from the shop but had taken no cash and we’d semi arranged to walk down and meet him when he finished work but with the rain everyone was reluctant. So in the end I headed off down to the shop. Ady arrived just behind me so we collected the bits we needed and came home together. I made hot cross buns and lasagne for dinner.

I think that was the night that it was crazily windy, it finally stopped being mad around 3am. The days rather blur…

Sunday – It had been the plan to have venison for dinner and we’d taken out a haunch to defrost but the very cold weather meant it had not defrosted at all. I walked down to get some sausages and bacon out of the freezer and Mum came with me. Later Mum, Dad and the kids went down to the shop. They did this every evening afterwards on the ‘beer run’. It probably did all four of them good to get some fresh air, exercise and have enforced time to chat. It certainly did me good to have an hour or so each day to sing really loudly and get dinner started all by myself… Oh it was Easter Sunday too, which of course means very little here other than added chocolate. I had been to the car first thing in the morning with Dad to collect the final bag they had brought with them (containing tools and wool) and then along to meet the ferry to put diesel cans off. The changed clocks meant I was the only person on the whole island to meet the ferry, quite surreal. After the storms the night before Ady spent lots of time tidying up all the blown about the place things.

Monday – Ady worked again in the morning. Dad and I walked to the car to start bringing the animal feed delivery which I had collected from the pier the day before back. Dad insisted on carrying a sack of feed on his shoulder, Ady arrived home as I was loading up my wheelbarrow with two more. I made pie filling with some of the venison that Ady was finally able to butcher as it had now defrosted.

Tuesday – The morning was  very showery, no real windows to get outside so I mostly crocheted while chatting to Mum and Dad. I did go out and chop some wood. Later in the day we checked the long term weather forecast and Mum and Dad decided they would leave the following day.

Wednesday – the boat was not until 4pm so we had all day together. Ady made pancakes with goose eggs. Mum and Dad paid for Davies to get a new tablet as his had given up the ghost while they were here after ailing for a while. Mum, Dad and the kids walked to the pier, Ady and I drove with their luggage and an empty gas bottle we needed to bring down and we waved them all off.

Home for a cup of tea and chat out in the sunshine on the decking. Their visits always leave me somewhat empty feeling, Empty that they have gone and I do miss them but also more poignantly empty for what might have been. This was probably their best visit in that no one fell out but it was still really hard. Hard to listen to them both slagging off the other one endlessly the moment they are out of earshot, to listen to them being so very miserable in their lives, so without joy in anything. I find it hard that they come all this was because they say they miss us but actually what they mostly do is make our already challenging lives even harder – we end up sleeping on the floor and carrying even more stuff around, cooking for and clearing up after even more people. Time and time again we suggest meeting up on the mainland explaining it would be easier for them (Mum slipped down the croft hill 3 times this visit) and they spent the whole time huddled infront of the log burner insisting on it being lit for ever waking hour getting through mountains of firewood which we have to cart up the hill and chop up – and not only easier for us but also actually a treat – to have a bath, electricity and access to things like takeaways rather than doing all the cooking for six people. They always ignore the suggestion though… Ah well.

The bed that night felt like a cloud, the caravan so huge and spacious 😉

Thursday – Ady was working. I woke up early enough but stayed in bed reading for hours as I was really enjoying both the book and the novelty of a bed. The kids had arranged to go and meet up with Claire’s boyfriends daughters who are over visiting and aged 11 and 13 so they headed off. Ady and I did various bits and pieces including chopping wood, clearing out under the sofas in the lounge and sorting out all my wool into colours then re-vacuum bag packing it, rfeeding animals and chatting to Bad Neil who came up for a cup of tea and a chat. I made dinner and rang my parents who had arrived home safely.

Today – it has rained and rained and rained. And pretty much nothing else. I crocheted two scarves, made some midge keyrings and watched 4 animal documentaries with Scarlett. Both kids had showers, I brushed Scarlett’s hair and rebraided her rainbow braid which was falling out and manky – I think this version of it was at least 2 years old. I made bread and pizza dough and pizza for dinner. Ady donned waterproofs and fed the animals and walked down to collect shopping and post from the village.

And that’s me back up to date 🙂

Post Office shift for me this morning as Jinty is away for a few days. So that mostly entailed drinking tea with Neil, with brief interludes of Ross, Jed, Ian, Fliss and Sean breaking up the drinking tea with Neil. Some people have not voted at all on the marine harvest fish farm vote about which I utterly despair. Sigh. Have an opinion definitely but please make your voice heard by voting, sometimes this island and some of the people here really make me shake my head. Not feeling very tolerant just now I don’t think…

Ady came to meet me after the boat – some amazon food deliveries and some local fish from the fish seller in Mallaig – locally caught white fish mix, smoked salmon and mackerel. What we don’t manage these days in local, seasonal fruit and veg we certainly manage in local, sustainable protein – all our meat, fish and eggs is either from Rum or a very close radius supporting very small businesses. We were expecting veg but it didn’t  arrive. Billy the castle builder / renovator is back so we called round to say hello to him and collect some firewood he had for us, then home for lunch.

Bob Pig had moved quite a way from where we’d left him so we decided to try and get him on to the croft after lunch. I had a bit of a rant at the kids who galvanised themselves to action very speedily and spent time tidying up while Ady and I moved animal feed around the croft, collected the firewood from the car and brought it up the hill, stacked it under a tarp and chopped some and spent ages with Bob Pig. We didn’t get him on to the croft but he did show he is capable of getting around fairly speedily which is heartening if not good news exactly. We have decided to give him the week that Mum & Dad will be here to improve more or less fully or we will kill him. If he is unable to actually walk around and mate with Barbara then his quality of life is poor and we are not an animal sanctuary or able to sustain the food bill for unproductive animals. We WWOOFed with too many hosts who had allowed the livestock holding to get out of hand to fall into that trap. We’ll have to make a decision about Blackie too really but have some possible thoughts on that to explore further. All unwanted further stress and angst though, I am feeling utterly exhausted by everything this year 🙁

This evening everyone had showers and I brushed Scarlett’s hair, then rang my parents. Mum answered the phone crying after a four hour non moving event on the M8 and then an argument about nearly running out of petrol and having to turn back. They finally got to Fort William at about 1030pm and rang me from the bar to say they had arrived, so not a great journey for them. The boat is on amber alert for tomorrow and I suspect will not run, so further drama to come. I know that separately all of these woes are small and even in combination they are mostly insignificant but I would really like to find my optimism and ‘it’ll be fine’ persona again soon, I’ve almost forgotten what that feels like at the moment.

Yesterday was a productive day – Scarlett finished painting the sporran and kilt around the caravan – it looks really good, a dark green colour which should preserve it for years to come. Davies made the most of the wind turbine giving internet and did stuff online, Ady and I did tidying up around the caravan /croft, gathering rubbish and burning it, pulling up some of the broken pallets and chopping them up for firewood and generally sprucing things up. I watered the polytunnel and we spent some time with Bob Pig. Still not sure whether he will recover but he is doing better each day, feel sorry for Blackie who is up here on the croft without him too.

Today was less productive as the weather was showery so every time I started to think I would head outside it threatened rain again. Ady was outside getting stuff done but I was indoors chatting to Scarlett and crocheting instead. We did move an empty gas bottle halfway to the car, carry up some wood for a fence we’re planning and bring the camping mats out of the Pajero to air on the washing line ready for us to sleep on when Mum & Dad arrive though. After lunch I went down to Crafternoon – no Ali this week as she is off island so it was just Fliss, Deb and me, with the constant company of Joss as there was no Eve for her to play with. Ady came down to meet me and we all walked round to the shop together as we are voting on whether to go ahead with a fish farm off the coast of Rum and votes need to be in by tomorrow. Neil and Lesley were around so I persuaded Lesley to stop for a beer with us while Neil went off to check the power and Steve the Man and Jed came along too so a nice little sociable gathering for a beer before we came back home.

Ady had constructed a mobile shelter for Bob Pig so we carried that over and put it over him to keep the rain off then came in. Davies helped with dinner by getting the pasta on while Scarlett made a white sauce and grated cheese and I made bread dough so a collaborative effort. Some River Cottage and a couple of episodes of Warehouse 13 so we can send the disc back tomorrow as I am working at Post Office.

Ady and I went down to feed Bob this morning and not only did we coax him up onto his trotters we also got him out of his fenced area and walking about 20 foot. He’s still far from right but this felt like a massive leap (stagger!) forward. Certainly won him his 24 hour reprieve for today anyway. He’s not made much progress the rest of the day although he has moved around a bit within  the grassy area at the front of the croft he has now commandeered.

After Popmaster we walked down to the village to get some shopping, clear our shop tab (rent went in today and we had 2 veg orders, a slab of sweetcorn and a load of cheese to pay for), put this week’s veg order in, collect the shop keys so I can do Post Office on Thursday and get bits from the freezer for dinner tonight and tomorrow.

Back home for lunch and what was an overcast but promising day turned into a really grey drizzly day with a couple of hours of rain. Scarlett made cookies and I got dinner on (roasted root and rice gratin, delicious but such a long time to prep – peel and chop and roast veg, make cheese sauce, cook rice, assemble). We watched a documentary on Spectacled Bears and I did some crochet. Forgot to blog a long conversation with Davies last night about whole numbers, fractions, decimal places and percentages showing him how to simplify fractions  and add them together. On a really basic level but an interesting conversation (for 11pm!) which gave him the gist of the idea to build on next time it comes up.

The weather had enough of a break in the rain for Scarlett, Ady and I to go out and feed the animals. The pig feeding is very convoluted just now as we need to feed the birds first so they don’t all follow us to the pigs, then go to feed Barbara, Waddles and Ben Fogle first because they might break through if we feed Blackie first, then Blackie and then down to the bottom of the croft to feed Bob. Complicated! Hopefully we get Bob up asap and then it’s just two adjacent pens to feed pigs in. Bob managed a bit more staggering before lying down, he’s definitely improving.

Back in for board games, shower and finishing off dinner which I had mostly prepped earlier – I made sausage meat (our own) patties to go with it which Ady and I really liked but the kids did not. We watched some River Cottage (we were given a Hugh FW book last year which was one of his really early foraging ones so we got the dvd to go with the book and then started re-watching all the RC series as the kids had not seen them before and they were so inspirational to Ady and I in what we have ended up doing. Then Haven which is quite good but too similar to Warehouse 13 at the moment so we’ll watch this first disc then send it back and try something else.

I used to be really good at stress management, or maybe it was just such a frequent state of being in my life I was just really adept at it. These days though it rather knocks me for six. Last year I had a buzzing in my ears for a few days, I forget what it coincided with but I was adding to to an already long list of stuff I was struggling with rather than realising it was the physical manifestation of that actual list. Some extensive googling and asking everyone else on island if they could hear the buzzing which felt so real and outside of my body I was utterly convinced there was a helicopter about to land that no one else could see or hear and it finally abated.

On Thursday, after a few sleepless nights the pigs arrived. It did NOT go smoothly – the sow, Blackie is ENORMOUS! Way, way bigger than I had expected. The boar, Bob was sitting down on his haunches and looking really hacked off. We walked them – Sandy the previous owner and Andrew, her friend with the 4×4 and trailer who brought them, down the track and he reckoned it was worth trying to drive it. Blackie lumbered out of the trailer and fairly quickly Ady was able to lead her up the croft and into her new pen. She is very overweight so will start to slim down a bit over the summer here but will still be a pricey mouth to feed, and we never really wanted her anyway, it was just that she came with Bob.

Bob took forever to come out of the trailer and then could not really stand. He laid down for a while, tried and failed to get up a few times and then just laid down. We had a cup of tea with Sandy and Andrew and their kids (they had brought one each!) before they needed to head away to catch the ferry (which they only just managed). Leaving poor old Bob. Sandy was upset, this was very much not how she had wanted it all to go either and I think she found it really hard to leave them.

We left Bob to it, hoping he just needed to get over the trauma of the journey, fed the others and had to go down to a community meeting. We decided Bob would either not last the night due to the shock and possible injury, or would perk up and be fine by morning. We checked him a few times but no real change.

The meeting was fairly straightforward with no big upsets but I think everyone had been anticipating something to kick off and by the time we got home I had bright starry flashing lights in my peripheral vision, a real spacey feeling and was just utterly exhausted. I made dinner and felt a little better but by 10pm (early for me) I was falling asleep so went to bed and fell straight asleep. I was worried I might be ill and felt as though I had spent hours crying – my eyes hurt and were hard to focus and I was just so very, very tired. Turns out it must have been stress because after a good nights sleep I did feel a lot better.

Friday morning Bob was trying to stand (not very successfully). Ali came up for a cup of tea and to meet the pigs. I spent ages baking for the evening – cheesy stars, pizzas, quiches etc as it was Cheese Night. We spent some time with Bob deciding the best course of action and then went down for the evening. Had a really good night, good turn out, some lovely food, some good chats and laughs and a late arrival home. Unusually Davies and Scarlett stayed with us and we all came home together although we were part of the last to leave posse. My excess of wine drinking hit me on the way home and I felt a bit rough but we sat on the sporran drinking cups of tea and star gazing and I perked up.

Saturday – I slept in and felt much better for it. A mix of out on the croft stuff, crocheting and making pizza for dinner. We watched Doctor Who and it was supposed to be an early night but somehow that didn’t quite happen. Ady had been at work in the morning and done laundry, Scarlett made a start on painting the sporran with green wood preserver which had arrived on the ferry.

Today – Scarlett’s done more wood preserver painting, I tidied and cleaned the bathroom and bedroom in preparation for Mum & Dad visiting next week, Ady did wood working stuff with Mike this morning, Davies has been catching up on some iplayer stuff, Ady cooked roast pork. It’s been quite cold but dry so not the glorious calling you outside weather of earlier in the week but not bad either.

We will have to make a decision about Bob in the next day or so – kill him or keep giving him 24 hour reprieves. Ady and I both have the same gut feeling that he is not going to make it, I think he has internal injuries which are just too severe and would probably prevent him from breeding again anyway. It’s such a shame as this felt like a real poetic solution to losing Tom and infact might just mean another dead pig to deal with and a huge great sow we never wanted anyway. We WWOOFed with so many hosts who had allowed their livestock holding numbers to get out of hand through poor management or sentimentality and we are determined not to go the same way and end up running some sort of animal sanctuary but it’s really hard playing god too. Decisions, decisions…

Yesterday was a wonderful day – I spent almost all of it in the polytunnel sowing hundreds of seeds. Seeds in containers, seeds in egg boxes and seeds in the ground. I just love the poetry of planting tiny little bombs of potential amazing plants and flowers and food and waiting to see what might happen – it;s like giving birth to a million tiny children and waiting to watch them grow. The sun was shining, birds were singing, chickens came and hung out with me and I sang along to my music.

Ady was getting the replacement wind turbine that we have had since December but not gotten round to fixing up back up and running. Steve and Trudi came up and chatted with me for a bit which had the dual outcome of really winding me up and really making me grateful I’m not a director any more. I ranted at Ady for about 15 minutes after they’d gone which made me feel much better. I’ve withdrawn my name from the running as chair of the community association too. I really am determined to just live here this year and only give my time to fun things I want to do for pleasure rather than things which feel like the ‘right’ thing to do.

One of my rants yesterday was people like Steve and Trudi and indeed Mike who keeps telling Ady we don’t know how lucky we are having our view and our life here that we do indeed both know how very lucky we are and fully appreciate what we’ve got but have also worked really hard, made lots of compromises and tough choices, put up with the challenges of living off grid in a caravan on a remote island miles and miles from family and friends, put hours every single day into just surviving and have come from 20 years of working in demanding jobs prior to this life, unlike pretty much anyone else here. We got our croft as a result of a credible, feasible business plan and an interview and have poured tens of thousands of pounds and four years of our lives into making what we have here from a bare field to what it is today. Every choice has been researched, discussed, agonised over, every purchase has been pondered and considered, every livestock loss felt keenly, many many night spent lying awake, many conversations between the four of us as to whether we are doing the right thing. So fuck off with your ‘you don’t know how lucky you are’ bollocks actually.

Anyway…. worked that off my chest didn’t I?!

After polytunnelling I came in for a shower, we played games and I made quiche for dinner with some of the suddenly huge stash of eggs we have 🙂

Today was firewood day – it took us a while to get the chainsaw running, it is new (although we’ve actually had it for about a year!!) so we filled the fuel and chain oil tanks but it took a while to get started and I think we flooded it. It had been our plan to go down to the woodland to cut some stuff but we faffed with it for so long it got late so in the end we just chopped up a load of stuff that we had around the woodstore and had not been able to split with the axe including the remains of a picnic bench. Given us a good weeks worth of wood though. Will do some more over the next few days. We had lunch – outside! and then I went down to Crafternoon with Fliss, Ali and Deb. Topics of conversation were mostly bitching about yesterdays directors meeting.

Home to shut up the shed, water the seedlings and enjoy Ady cooking dinner. We watched some River Cottage and episode 1 of Haven which we got from Lovefilm on the basis it’s similar to Warehouse 13 and Eureka. It is indeed very similar, maybe too much so.

Friday and Saturday were pretty much wall to wall solid rain. It started raining early on Friday morning and just didn’t stop for about 48 hours. So Friday was an indoors day – crochet, animal programmes, pizza, games, music, chatting.

Saturday was work for Ady and I in the morning – me at Post Office, him at the White House. I walked along to meet him and we came home together in the rain. Vikki was over visiting for a couple of nights staying with Mike and Deb and we’d been invited down. I had made excuses for Davies and Scarlett so they stayed home while Ady and I went down. It was pretty boring, made slightly better by Ali and Doug being there and just as rowdy as me… we had nice chats and played a nice game and legged it by 9pm.

Back for curry and Warehouse 13.

Sunday the sun came back. Bad Neil came up for many cups of tea in the morning, I did some polytunnel weeding and Ady did some pig pen stuff in the afternoon, then Vikki came up for a cup of tea just as we were feeding animals. Ady cooked dinner, we watched Doctor Who, somehow it ended up really late.

Today was my final post office shift for now as Jinty came back today. The usual tea drinking and chatting, then home for lunch. Ady had made soup with the chicken remains from last night which was very nice. We met the boat as we had animal feed coming off and that was very sociable sitting in the sunshine with various Rum folk waiting for the boat to arrive. Back home for more polytunnel weeding for me while Ady did some wind turbine stuff to get the replacement for the one which broke last year up and running.

I made bread dough and lasagne for dinner (the lasagne was for dinner, not the bread dough! although I did make garlic bread for dinner too) and we watched Warehouse 13 – 2 episodes as I was so efficient with my dinner prep that we had eaten and were sitting down before 9pm. First night this year with no fire lit although it is pretty cold in here now (12 degrees actually, just checked). Firewood chopping tomorrow to hopefully stock up on the final run of what we’ll need for this year and then we can start working on building up the supply ready for next year.

Post office for me again this morning. A busy morning again, not of working so much as making tea and chatting.

Ady was working too – helping move stuff about and clean the newly converted into two houses SNH white house. After work I walked along to meet him, collected the laundry and we came home for lunch. We watched an Attenborough programme and then Ady went to do more stuff on the pig pen while I did some more weeding in the polytunnel, almost there with that now. If the weather is kind enough to be in there tomorrow I should get it all cleared ready to start sowing. It is forecast to be grim though so it may end up being  a crochet day instead.

 

It is days like today which remind me why we love it here so much. Long, sunny, beautiful and free.

This morning Ady was was working on the new pig pen. I helped carry some posts up the hill and then went off to plant artichokes. Ali had given me some more yesterday so I wanted to get them all in. Then I went down to the polytunnel and spent an hour or so weeding. A couple of chickens came and joined me and it was lovely. Back up for a quick shower before lunch and then Ady came down with me to the village. We collected a new gas bottle as ours ran out on Monday so we are on our spare, got some bits out of the freezer and checked for post then he came back to the croft while I went to Fliss’s for Crafternoon.

I got back around 6ish, we played a round of Blokus and then I got dinner sorted.

That all sounds very brief and rather mundane but trust me it was sunny and lovely and one of the nicest days I’ve had in ages. Outside is wonderful!

Monday – In the morning I chopped up some firewood and helped Ady move a barn door from the bottom of the croft to halfway up. We’ve used it as the floor of a pig pen a couple of times and it was in a house Ady has dismantled to use the bits for a new house. We have two rehomed pigs arriving next week so needed to finish creating a new area for them next to Barbara, Waddles and Ben Fogle (current three girls – Barbara and Waddles will be staying, Ben Fogle may be pregnant so we’ll wait and see if she is but eventually she will be sausages. Does that all sound a bit too much like I’m blogging in code?!) so they can meet at a distance before fully integrating them. Ady is working on that this week with odd bits of assistance when he needs them.

We had pancakes for lunch in  celebration of the chickens finally starting to lay eggs again then Ady and I went to the boat. Calmac and Johnston Bros – the chandlery and fuel station in Mallaig – had pulled out all the stops to get our jerry cans of petrol back to us on the boat, Calmac are really very lovely to us from the Mallaig office and really go out of their way to be helpful. We collected that and called in to the shop to get the shop key as I am Mrs Post Office for the week while Jinty is off.

Back home and up the hill with a 20lt jerry can each, trying hard to love the hill after a lecture from Fliss and Ali about doing the hill more if I am finding the hill hard on Saturday night! It started to spit a bit so having unsuccessfully tried to burn a load of empty milk cartons after feeding all the out of date milk (from the shop) to the pigs who loved it and drank from the bottles like babies, I came in for a cup of tea and to sort out some dinner prep. We had home made bagels with chicken and bacon and home made coleslaw so bagel making (make dough, prove dough, shape dough, allow to prove again, poach the bagels, bake the bagels, toast the bagels….) and coleslaw making took time. Scarlett grated the carrots for me which was fab as I hate grating things. We played games and had dinner while watching two Warehouse 13s.

Today – Post Office for me. Not sure if word was out or whether it was normal Tuesday morning behaviour but it was madly busy, I must have boiled the kettled 10 times as people kept coming for coffees. I had a long chat with a tourist and generally enjoyed being down there and sociable. Home for lunch, a bit of helping Ady and then baking cookies with Scarlett. It was grey and drizzly outside so Ady was dodging showers while getting more done on the pigs pen. I had a message from the pig rehoming woman to say she can bring them next week so booked them on the ferry. Exciting! 🙂

 

Saturday – I realised late ish on Friday that I had said the first Rum choir meeting would be on Saturday. I had also tentatively arranged for a visiting couple to call in for a cup of tea on their way to the boat. They were supposed to be camping at Kilmory so by my calculations would not be with me before 9am and would need to leave before 11 to meet the boat so I knew I had a window for them turning up. I spent the time crocheting and looking out of the window, having decided they were not coming I walked down to the hall. No one came for choir – Fliss messaged me to say she had thought it was 11am rather than 1130, Deb messaged me later to say she had forgotten and Stevie had called in to see Ady to say he had changed his mind about doing it. I gave it five minutes then walked round to meet Ady from work instead.

We decided to leave the car in the village and walk home, meeting Ali and Eve coming  back from the ferry so chatted to them awhile before coming home for lunch. It was sunny but really cold out so we ended up watching animal programs, crocheting and having showers / hairbrushes before getting ready to go down to Fliss’. Fliss had invited a load of us round for the evening, we called in at the shop for snacks and drinks and to collect the post (new kettle and new wellies! Yay) before heading round there. We were the first, shortly followed by Lesley, Bad Neil and Baby Dougal, Doug, David and David’s visiting girlfriend Raquel, Mike & Deb and Jed. Ali came too – all of them were invited by they had had Joss round for a sleepover with Eve the night before and Eve was knackered so Sean had stayed home with her while Ali popped round. Fliss had done some delicious food – a fish stew, pizza, venison, cajun chicken, breads and more and it was all lovely. We ate, chatted, drank and had a great evening. Davies and Scarlett left around 1030, we followed around 1230 getting home about 1am. I’d had a fair bit to drink so went to bed while the genny was still on and the electric blanket was still working 🙂 Scarlett came and got into bed with me for a while. She then got back up when everyone else had gone to bed to wrap gifts for me.

Today – Ady went off to do wood stuff with Mike, I woke about 9ish and read in bed for an hour or so, then got up and made soup and bread rolls for lunch. I drank lots of tea and crocheted. I woke the kids around midday and they gave me my pressies – loads of chocolate, a wine tumbler from my favourite potter who made my lovely tea mug I got for my birthday, a card and painting from Scarlett and one of Davies’ classic tear jerking cards complete with lovely illustrations and words. I do have the most lovely, lovely children 🙂

Ady came home, we had lunch and then walked down to the village for cinema club. Trudi put on Restless Natives  which was really good, never seen it or heard of it before. It was funny, the soundtrack was ace and the scenery was stunning, really enjoyed it. There was us, Trudi, Jed and a couple of tourists so pretty small gathering but good to have started it up again. Next Sunday and onwards!

Home for animal feeding, getting dinner on and playing some Blokus. I rang my parents. We watched Doctor Who and somehow it got really late. Everyone very tired so off to bed with me now.

Wednesday morning was pretty grim weather, again. Ady and I put up the price signs on slates I had made but that was about the sum total for me of productive on the croft stuff. After lunch I went down to Crafternoon. Ady came with me to get stuff from the freezer for dinner. Had a nice couple of hours down there with Fliss, Ali and Deb.

Thursday we went to the boat in the morning, we had petrol going off. Animal feed delivery and meat order came off for us along with a couple I’ve been chatting with on facebook who are here for a few days. He came last summer to do a mountain leaders course and is currently doing off grid living in a van, she has a 3 yo son and a life in North Wales so despite him being very keen to make a life here she is less enthused. They are over for a few days wild camping and walking during which he is hoping to persuade her.

Lots of treks to and fro the Jeep with wheelbarrows to empty the car of animal feed, compost and straw, feeding animals and then down to the monthly community meeting for Ady and I. We took wheelbarrows with us to collect veg and a sack of coal. The meeting was fairly productive, first we’ve been to in months. I abandoned my barrow of coal once we got to the fork as I am unsteady enough on flat ground in good shoes in broad daylight, pushing a wheelbarrow in the dark on our track seemed rather misguided! Home for burger and chips for dinner.

Today we had planned all week to be a trip across to Harris. We’ve been meaning to get there all year to see whether the winter storms had washed up any interesting treasure on the beach and today looked good on the weather forecast and was a no boat day so seemed a good plan. Everyone up and on the road by midday for a lovely few hours over there in the sunshine. We found various ‘treasure’ and carted it all back across the beach to the car then back up from car to croft. Some driftwood, fishboxes and random plastic tat which Ady plans to make water filters from, a whole box of stuff for Scarlett including footballs, deer antlers, two goat horns, an unidentified skull and further random plastic tat. Scarlett corrected me that it ‘was not random plastic tat, it is precious loot!’ when I dismissed it as such 🙂

Home for a cup of tea on the sporran, animal feeding, a search party to find Waddles the runty pig who had followed us as far as the footbridge when we left earlier then tried to keep pace with us in the woodland on the other side of the river as she doesn’t want to cross the river. We thought she’d get bored and come home once we’d gone but she’d obviously hung around and missed her dinner. Ady and I walked back that way calling her and she met us halfway. She is just like a dog!

Pizza and Doctor Who this evening. Everyone tired from the fresh air and exercise. I am feeling Very Old today.

but in the interests of staying up to date…

We had hoped for a semi decent day of weather today and had plans to be outside but it mostly rained. Ady moved animal feed about first thing so he was productive. I was less so… we ticked various things off our lists of stuff to do though. After lunch (leftovers all round) Ady and I walked down to the village to collect the post from the last 2 days – LOVEfilm, the postcard stands and a few other bits. We also collected our cheese which had come and moved that into the hall kitchen fridge as we didn’t have the freezer key with us. We chatted to a few folk outside the shop too.

Back at home we had a cup of tea, Ady made a couple of phonecalls and then we went down to the shed to fix the postcard stands and some signs up and fill the stands with Ady and Davies’ postcards. We have space for 15 designs and they currently have just 6 between them so both have been tasked with finding more photos / doing more drawings to get ordered to fill with a bigger selection. Ady took the plastic off the sign so that it is now pointing to the shed for visitors. More signage and some final titivating in the shed to do but it’s basically there and ready to go. Really pleased with it and hoping for a good first season. Need to get cracking with more stock for it really now…

In other news I made a steak pie for dinner which was much enjoyed, Scarlett and I have finally totally synced our periods and both started today, explaining higher than usual levels of stroppiness yesterday all round ;).