One word? When seven would do…

Saturday morning Ady was working at the hostel. I walked down to the post office to send a couple of things and sign the IRCT accounts to go off to the accountant and companies house. Then I walked along to meet Ady and we drove to the boat, in theory to collect petrol, maybe animal feed and a Co Op order. The CoOp order and animal feed were there but no petrol. CoOp was mostly stuff like pringles, twiglets and other festive fayre to stash for next week, a few more Christmas gifts arrived in the post too. Lesley and Ross went off, Ali, Sean, Eve, Debs and Claire all came back so it was a busy pier.

We transferred everything from the Jeep to the Rangerover and drove across the river then brought stuff up and put it away. Christmas film was The Holiday which soundtrack and background weather conditions aside is not really Christmassy but was a good film and both the kids enjoyed it.  The electric blanket arrived and while it makes the bed super cosy while it’s on the genny goes off at 9pm so by the time I get to bed about 4 hours later it has gone cold again. Oh for a sneaky power source just for 15 minutes before I go to bed without having to go outside to turn it on and off.

Sunday was all about wood chopping. Ady brought firewood up the hill and I chopped it all up. I got through three large rounds, filled the wheelbarrow three times, stacked it all and was visited by ducks, turkeys, Bonnie and a pig! I spent ages watching an eagle circling too. It was a lovely clear dry day. We had a Warehouse 13 marathon of 3 episodes so we could send the disc back as we have Nativity 3 on lovefilm next so are hoping to get it here before Christmas.

Monday morning we walked down to post the lovefilm and a couple of Christmas cards, get stuff from the freezer and collect some slabs of tins from the shop. Bonnie followed us down there but was really well behaved and played with Jock. Back home for a speedy lunch before Ady headed off back down to the village to work for a couple of hours at the hostel. He also collected the post – lots coming on every boat just now as Christmas presents for the kids arrive. Will probably do some wrapping at the weekend.

I made some candles and yarn trees with Scarlett, Davies finished the last couple of Christmas cards, I finished crocheting Davies’ Christmas stocking and started on Scarlett’s as neither of them can find last years. Festive film was the Muppet Wonderful life one, can’t remember it’s proper Muppety name. Everyone did their bad, good, learnt in 2015 and hopes for 2016. I made dinner of potato gratin, pheasant, duck and bacon which went down well with everyone and then stayed up far too late finishing my bad, good, learnts.

Today

Woken by Ady and Neil coming in the caravan for a cup of tea! Ady had already killed the pig, just one to go now. We had a cup of tea then Neil headed down the hill and Ady and I skinned and chopped it up, weighed and bagged it and went down to put it in the freezer. We took out all of the meat for mince from the previous pigs this year and moved it all to the hall kitchen where we’re doing mincing and sausage making tomorrow.  We collected the post and found out our petrol had finally arrived on the ferry today.

Back home for a crazy late lunch, then Ady dashed out to get rid of pig remains and feed the animals. Scarlett and I watched The Hunt and I made bread dough. A few bits had arrived in the post so I can finish some Christmas decorations I am making for a secret santa gift which needs to get in the post soon, along with the calendar for Mum & Dad which I had sent here as I got free postage on a load of things for spending over £40 and it was cheaper to get that sent here and then send it on than pay two lots of postage for not spending enough to qualify for free delivery. Was able to put a Christmas card in with it too. A huge parcel arrived from Mairi of a hamper of lovely stuff for us all, including small wrapped gifts each, a bottle of raspberry gin and some posh chocolate. She is so lovely 🙂 I have ordered her a photo mug with nine funny or nice photos of her and I or just her here on Rum which I think she will love.

 

Ady was working at the hostel today 10am to 2pm, which in reality meant he was gone all day as he always leaves for work really early. When we lived in Sussex he would regularly leave over an hour before he needed to to get to work, I think it went back to the days at B&Q where everyone got to work early for coffee, cigarettes and a game of darts before you started work. I used to do the same, latterly I would rather have the extra minutes in bed though! As he was going to the village he took down a load of laundry, collected the veg box (which had been invaded by either rats or mice and two apples and a carrot gnawed at!), the post and various bits and pieces as the cabin at the back of the old hostel is being cleared out and there are odds and sods of furniture left behind which are up for grabs. Today he got a mirror (which will be fab repainted for the shed) and a bench.

Meanwhile the kids and I were working on Christmas stuff – Scarlett and I made candles for various secret santa gifts. I’d seen an idea on line for adding cinnamon to give a festive scent so wanted to try that. I made one in a jam jar with cinnamon and little silver stars, Scarlett made some stars in a star mould we’d bought at Lidl in golden with silver stars and then we decided to make some mulled wine / winter spice scented ones with orange, cinnamon and cloves and some burgandy colour wax. They came out the best and we decided to use cinnamon oil next time rather than ground cinnamon as that all sank to the bottom of the wax. Planning to do some more tomorrow as I found another jam jar and Scarlett wants to try again.

Davies did some Christmas cards although he faffed around a lot and I got cross with him later in the day for wasting so much time. The cards he did do are fantastic though.

Scarlett did some painting and later her and I made some yarn Christmas trees which I’d seen online and came out even better than I’d expected. So good infact that we’re making more tomorrow and Davies wants to join in. Last year’s best online craft find was the plastic bottle icicles, this years is definitely yarn trees. I did some crochet too and we listened to lots of Christmas tunes.  I did start chopping up some wood but managed to get box axes stuck in knotty bits of wood so Ady took over when he got home.

Pizza for dinner, we started watching Spike which was just too babyish so ended up watching Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas instead. Tomorrow is The Holiday.

An uncertain day. The ferry was amber alert and at 930am they cancelled Canna with a review at 11am due to decide about a call to Rum. We are waiting on animal feed and had petrol going off so Ady and I went to meet the boat which did come in at 1 ish. On the way down we had a quick tidy up in the Pajero which is now used as a storage space, clearing some rubbish which had gathered in there, relocating some wicker baskets my Mum had brought up into the shed to be used as ‘props’ along with some tea light lanterns which I will probably repaint and hang in there.

The animal feed didn’t come 🙁 Davies’ laptop did come, his Christmas present, and we sent the petrol off. We decided not to hang around to wait for veg delivery or post as Ady is down in the village again in the morning to work at the hostel. Back at home I sorted out the bacon and hams which had been curing in brine or salt mixes since last week. The hams have been in wet cure and are now ready to hang for a few weeks. It’s my plan to cook them both a few days before Christmas. The bacon was in a dry cure and I have cooked one large lump as a gammon / ham joint to slice for sandwiches, the other half I have sliced thinly for bacon sandwiches. I think it was in the salt rub for a couple of days too long but the weather has been so wild I had not gotten to it before.

Ady put up a rail in the horse box for the hams to hang from. It will also be used for hanging chorizo and salami which we’re hoping to get made next week. I split some firewood but probably overdid it a little as my shoulder is protesting now. I like chopping wood though and we have a new grenade tool which I wanted to have a go with. I wanted to ring my parents this evening so I got dinner all prepared (bacon and cheese pasta bake and garlic bread) while it was still daylight ready to put in the oven, we watched The Apprentice and then I rang them while dinner was in the oven. A crime spate in Sompting saw something like 13 incidents in one night and our house was targeted with two of the windows shot with a rifle or bb gun and breaking!!! I had talked to the insurance company earlier to see whether that was covered in our landlord policy and what the excess would be and to authorise my Dad to be named on the policy to speak to them rather than doing it all through me up here on a mobile phone so needed to pass that information on.

Christmas film tonight was Christmas With The Kranks which was pretty good, some funny bits and a nice festive feel. Tomorrow my plan is some festive candle making with Scarlett for Secret santa gifts, packaging up some midge in resin stuff I have sold and Davies doing some Christmas cards so I can get stuff in the post on Saturday. Ady is working Saturday and Monday too, so some more festive stuff like that for me and the kids which will be nice. We need to do some more firewood processing and then next week hopefully the final two pigs and the processing of sausage and chorizo making. Then the plan is other than animal feeding and emergencies we take Christmas week off.

I slept in a bit this morning, felt much needed after a whole week of broken nights sleep thanks to my shoulder / neck. We have swapped our bedding over too which is working well. We usually have a duvet in the summer and a sleeping bag in winter as the duvet goes mouldy in there because of the condensation and is just not warm enough. This year though we both felt constricted by the sleeping bag and not warm enough. Ady got a new duvet when clearing out the White House so we are using that with the sleeping bag opened up on top to make it like a super duvet and it is working well. We have also ordered an electric blanket to put on while the genny is on each evening thinking that may help in there too.

We listened to Popmaster and then Ady and I went down to the village to get stuff out for dinner, put the car battery on charge and check for post. One of the facebook off grid groups I am on had been sharing posts about favourite books last week and I’d been recommended a couple I’d not seen before so found them second hand and they had arrived. I collected my stuff from Fliss’ craft shop so I can stock take ready for next season in the Shed. There was a power cut though so not able to put the car battery on charge. Ady set it up to come back down and turn on later and we walked home.

We had lunch and watched The Hunt. We had planned to go and chop up some wood but the weather remained very wet and quite windy so in the end Ady went out on his own to do it while I stayed in with the kids. Scarlett had a shower, Davies made a start on some Christmas cards – we’re not sending many but I wanted him to draw the ones we are sending personally for each recipient.  Ady chopped wood, fed animals and dashed down to the village to put the battery on charge. He said it was scarily windy down there near trees. Almost makes you glad to live in an exposed caravan! 😉

I rang my parents this evening, Mum was out. It turns out her upset on Sunday night is mostly down to her not being in Granny’s will according to Dad. Hmm. Dad said to me ‘It’s funny, I’d say you and your brother are not at all interested in or motivate by money but me and your mother are…’ as though this had just occurred to him. No kidding! I said I’d ring again tomorrow but feel better about all that now, her crying down the phone on Sunday really upset me. I also had another email from Frazer which sounds more balanced too. It’s hard not to be there.

We gave up on tonights Christmas film, it was called The Town That Cancelled Christmas and was just shite. We watched a couple of Vicar of Dibley Christmas specials instead which had all four of us laughing out loud several times. Proper festive fun!

Tuesday was another Post Office day. The weather was hideous, ferry cancelled, wind howling, rain lashing and river burst it’s banks. I was in full on orange waterproofs and stupidly, foolishly decided to carry home all the shopping – a box of wine, 4 pints of milk, 10 cans of beer, 2 bottles of tonic water, 2 x 2ltr bottles of lemonade, cheese, butter plus a load of post from the day before. I struggled to lift the bag out of the shop so quite why I imagined I would get it home I don’t know. I managed it but had hurt my shoulder in the process and was really cross with myself.

Not sure what we did with the rest of the day, it would have been indoors based though!

Wednesday was dry but very cold and a bleak day. We planned to kill the final pig for this year but Ady missed the shot. The pig was unhurt but frightened and we could not get near it despite spending about 4 hours standing, watching and trying. It was really stressful (for us, the pigs were all fine) and just felt like a stupidly challenging day. We didn’t really eat lunch, my already stiff shoulder was even stiffer from stress and standing around in a bitter cold wind. I had arranged to go to Fliss’ for crafternoon and despite not wanting to leave Ady he insisted I go. We were both pretty subdued and feeling a bit hopeless. This time of year can do that to you – one bad day is enough to tip you over.

Thursday got worse 🙁 I was working at post office but the plan was to have another try at the pig before I went to work. Ady went over first and I was hurrying to catch up and slipped and fell down the caravan steps. I thought I had not done any damage but obviously was already a bit sore and tense. I got over to the pigs and while feeding them managed to slip in the mud and twist myself. I was then covered in mud, cold, hurt and very pissed off. I cried 🙁 We agreed to stop trying with the pig for now and I went to work. Back home for lunch and then Ady and I went back out to meet the amended timetable ferry. We were hoping for an animal feed delivery which didn’t arrive. To justify the car trip we collected a load of firewood we’d asked Mr Rhys to cut for us although I was rapidly getting less mobile and more hurty so I didn’t help load the wood up. We also collected the veg and then brought a wheelbarrow each home laden with firewood, veg and post. I spent the afternoon, evening and night in pain 🙁

Friday I declared a nothing strenuous day for me. Instead Scarlett and I did baking with her doing the lifting, kneading and bending and stretching. We made cranberry sauce, birthday brownies, mince pies, apple pies and pizza dough. I did some sewing of a duck soft toy for Scarlett and we listened to a lot of Christmas music.

Saturday – work for me and Ady. We had planned to stagger our shifts as the weather was supposed to be really bad but it was not that bad up at the croft despite the village having a bashing from wind overnight and a few trees down. Scarlett and Davies came down to the shop for 1230 and everyone also on the island gathered to sing Happy Birthday to Scarlett and eat birthday brownies. She had several nice gifts and was really chuffed at everyone coming down. Ady still had a little left to do at the hostel so we went along and waited for him. Back at home I wrapped Scarlett’s birthday presents up while she made cinnamon roll dough for the following days breakfast and helped make tiffin for her birthday cake. I managed to get a shout out for Scarlett on the Liza Tarbuck show which she was thrilled about 🙂

Sunday – we had agreed on 7am to get up but in the end everyone slept in til 9am! Hurrah for teens! 🙂 Scarlett had some fab presents and really enjoyed her day playing with playmobile and eating all her favourite food and drink.  My shoulder and neck was slowly improving but very slowly. A phonecall to my parents which was a tough one and an email exchange with Frazer which was also tough 🙁 Determined not to let it over shadow Scarlett’s day though.

Monday – back to post office duty for me, no boat so a quiet one and much relief that Peter Who Wants to Save Rum was planning to come across and couldn’t. Just 2 weeks left until I step down, I can’t wait. Home for lunch and a bit of a pep talk from Ady which helped a lot. Felt a lot more positive after that. We went out to find and chop down our Christmas tree after lunch.

Today – yay, caught up! The boat came and I was at Post Office. Ady met the boat – no animal feed still 🙁 He picked me up after work and we came home for lunch and got the tree in and decorated. My neck / shoulder is still a bit twingey but massively improved. Days when a soak in a hot bath would be very welcome… Tree looks lovely and its all starting to feel festive thanks to the Christmas films and music too. Did a bit more online shopping for various photo gifts for people. Just a tiny bit still to get for the kids and a couple of secret santas still to make but almost done really.

 

Ady killed a pig this morning, I fed the others while he did the deed and then I went off down the hill to do post office. Except I had totally forgotten it was Bank Holiday and post office was supposed to be closed. Ross and Neil came in and I had already sold myself a stamp and banked the shop takings when Ross said ‘I didn’t think you’d be open’ and I realised I was not actually supposed to be! I decided that rather than either expect Jinty to pay me when I wasn’t supposed to be there, or work for free I would close back up again and go home. I cut a load of basket materials along the way home so not an entirely wasted hour!

Ady had already skinned the pig so I helped with some cutting, weighing and bagging and then brought the bacon in to get it in a dry cure mix. Not enough salt at home to make a brine for the wet cure ham but it is in the container waiting and I will bring some salt home tomorrow, it’s so cold it will be fine for another 24 hours. All very efficiently done. We have it down to a fine art now. It was very, very cold though and by the end I couldn’t feel my fingers which is not a good thing when brandishing a sharp knife.

Back in for a speedy lunch before heading back to the village. Davies and Scarlett cycled down – a good fresh air and exercise idea but they were both freezing cold afterwards and we even tried to fit the bikes in the car at the pier so we could give them a lift back but it would not all fit so they rode home again. We went via the freezer to drop off the pork. We were there to see Sean the Rat off who was leaving Rum today. Lots of hugs and goodbyes and waving 🙁

We planned to wait for the post back in the village but it seemed to be taking forever so despite hanging around getting some fence posts from the ‘we need to get rid of it so help yourselves’ pile of SNHs and me cutting some more basket materials and collecting some hay from the shed for pig bedding it was still not done – maybe because of the bank holiday?!? So we gave up and came home. We fed the pigs and then came in for cups of tea and coffee, getting warm infront of the fire and watching a wildlife documentary with Scarlett.

Dinner tonight was pork stir fry and sticky ribs, clean plates all round. Tomorrow is definitely a post office day…

A nice Sunday lie in this morning followed by bacon rolls for late breakfast / early lunch. Then Ady and I did some wood chopping / bagging / sorting out the woodshed again. We came back in for a cup of tea and I never went back out as it started alternately snowing and hailing for the rest of the day.

Instead I did a bit of crochet, some online stuff, Ady and I did his bad, good, learnt for 2015, hopes for 2016 for the end of the year blog post and chatted a bit more about this year and the highs and lows. The kids watched last nights Doctor Who and we all had showers, I brushed Scarlett’s hair.

This evening we had a lovely roast pork (our pig) and I made apple pie for the kids and the first batch of mince pies for Ady and I . Doctor Who, a Warehouse 13 and a How I met your Mother – dvd tastic day today 🙂
Davies has a headache so has gone to bed, hopefully to sleep, that boy keeps very nocturnal hours.

Post office for me and hostel cleaning for Ady this morning. The ferry was cancelled due to the winds, which have been gusting to tie-up-the-wind-turbine levels all day and are pretty wild just now. We both managed to get down to the village in the dry despite some fierce hail storms and rain downpours this morning. I thought it would be a quiet morning for me but it was actually pretty brisk. Neil was around for pretty much the whole morning but I also made drinks for Ross, Doug, Fliss and Jed who all stopped for chats. Claire and Steve both called in too, as did David. Jed paid in huge amounts of cash from the bunkhouse into the post office so I was counting that up to pay it in and then counting it up again to cash up which took a while. Ady and Neil were back by then so we all had another cup of tea and then we gathered the materials and went to Croft 1. Neil & Lesley have ponies and sheep who are trashing their fence and getting into Ali & Sean’s garden and generally rampaging. Gav had given them the electric fence he bought when he and Laura were going to take some of our pigs so we went and set that up to try and stop them. Not sure it will work and it was a cold and muddy hour or so setting it up but it’s at least a two person job which Lesley can’t help with just now and Neil was not confident about doing anyway so it was good to help.

I’ve been posting a fair bit on a couple of off grid facebook groups and it’s like the early days of Home Ed where you suddenly feel you have ‘found your people’ – you know that to begin with it might be all you have in common but bonds start to form and it’s so good to have shared challenges and victories that only other people doing that will understand. Just like Home Ed there is a fair share of crazies and a lot of trolls and haters too which is always hard to take but in posting there and talking about our lives I have been feeling really positive about what we’ve achieved here in 4 years. When Neil came up to the croft yesterday we felt proud too, knowing that despite all the other challenges of living in the caravan and setting *everything* up we have also made a bloody good go of the crofting side of stuff too with the livestock, crops and selling stuff. It cemented again for Ady and I today helping Neil how much we have learnt and feel confident in doing.

I had a comment on the other blog this week about being too judgey about other peoples lives and bigging up our lifestyle to justify it and how the mainland is not as bad as I made it out to be. I re-read what I’d written and thought it was a bit harsh really, I had said that we’d eaten junk food and watched crap TV, not that other people were and I said that Christmas was full on and people in the shops seemed stressed which was all true – compared to Rum where no one is really thinking about Christmas much yet and there is only one shop anyway! It reminded me of Home Ed when you celebrate a HE victory only to have people slate you for being anti school. As ever I don’t judge other people but I do think our lives are better for us than their lives would be for us…Maybe I just felt a bit kicked when down too and it’s been nice to have the boost from other likeminded folk celebrating what we’re doing.

We got back home at 3pm, just as the rain really set in and we were really hungry. We put away washing, shopping and stuff, had some food and then Scarlett and I watched a wildlife doc and she painted while I crocheted, Ady fed the pigs and got some wood in and Davies did some stuff on his tablet. He has done a fantastic canvas art for Sean the rat who is leaving on Tuesday, I think he will treasure it, will get a photo tomorrow. He applied for an illustrating job a few weeks ago and has not heard anything, not sure whether to chase it up or not…

Doctor Who tonight, for some reason we’re doing three nights running… we were supposed to be going to Sean’s leaving do at Jed’s house but had already said we may not make it if the weather remained crap, which it has. Steak and chips for dinner and some special off mainland gin meant we had no intention of heading back outside again.

Today was forecast to be wet and windy. It was sort of neither which was a bit annoying as we could probably have done the pigs today. Ah well. Instead Ady did some pig fence repairs as Barbara is in season and keeps escaping – we have this every single year around this time and then she gets pregnant and calms down. He also moved animal feed around the croft. We have wheelie bins at the bottom of the croft where he puts the feed when we first get it delivered and then he moves it higher up a sack or two at a time to various places where we feed the pigs and birds.

I planted the yellow roses for Granny. A climbing rose bush next to the rustic erection archway into the walled garden to train over that and a bush near the caravan near the herb spiral. I cut some more basket making stuff and then came up for lunch.

After lunch I went back down and started a small basket with holly. I need some thinner material to use as twine and tried splitting some holly but it didn’t really work. Also I didn’t quite grasp the next step in the book from the photo or instructions so need to google or youtube it to get my head round it better. Ady came down to the shed where I was working and helped me staple up the crochet bunting I’d made – a job for at least three hands if not four rather than two! It looks nice, looking forward to getting the kids bikes out and setting things up in there properly. Ordered some fill a foam and tarp to finish off the bike shed Ady built last week so we can get that all done and the bikes moved.

While we were doing that Neil appeared coming to ask if Ady would help him set up electric fence in one of his fields tomorrow as his horses and sheep keep getting out. He stopped for a chat and admired the shed (not very effusively but in Neil’s world it was admiring!) and then headed off back down the hill. By then it was getting dark so I came back up to get pizza dough made and Ady fed the pigs.

We all had a really long chat about life in general, whether we are all still happy here – yes I know, we have it regularly but I’m wobbling just now and needed the other 3 to reassure me why we are doing it, and Christmas.

Pizza, prosecco and Doctor Who. Winning Friday night combination!

Post office duty for me this morning. Scarlett had asked to come with me so her and I set off down to the village. We had a fairly brisk morning of customers both for shop and post office business and for cups of tea and coffee and chatting. Ady met the boat as we had petrol and some amazon coming off then he came to collect us. We waited for our veg to be sorted and the post to be done and brought everything up together.

Home for lunch and catch up on The Apprentice from last night. It rained all afternoon so Scarlett and I watched wildlife documentaries, she painted (she’s making Christmas decorations) and I did some stuff online too. Davies was making the most of wind turbine action meaning lots of internet. I’ve been hanging out on a few off grid facebook groups including a newly set up one so had posted some pics of our livestock, crops and our stuff we sell which generated lots of comments, questions and interesting chat. Made me realise how far we have come in under 4 years and as Ady and I were saying if we’d known five years ago when we were about to set off WWOOFing that we’d have done as much as we have we would be thrilled. Probably if we’d known how tough it’s been too we might have thought twice of course…

I cooked dinner and made bread, Ady and I had showers and listened to Popmaster from earlier and then I got a comment on the WW blog which smarted a bit. Probably fair and if one of my friends or someone who actually knows me had made it I would have taken it well but coming from someone I don’t know who has chosen to come and read my blog it just made me a bit pissed off, or ‘American pissed’ as we call it these days (watching too much US TV 😉 ).

Tomorrow is supposed to be wet and windy too so probably not a pig day. Might dodge the rain to do some shed stuff, or might just do lots of crafts indoors instead.

a lady in the afternoon!

I slept *so* well last night. My own bed, with Ady in it rather than Scarlett (I adore that girl but I feel the optimal window for enjoying sharing a bed with her has passed and I’ve shared a bed with her a fair few nights during the last 13 years), a cold room rather than a too hot one and no concern about catching trains, ferries or dentist appointments in the morning.

This morning Ady and I were sorting out firewood, pulling out the whole wood shed, spacing out chopped but wet stuff so it gets a through draft to dry it out, chopping, splitting, bagging and stacking the bigger stuff. We have not been as on it with firewood this year as in previous years but have plenty there to get us through the next month or so and have ordered some from Mr Rhys. We do have a chainsaw and could do the whole thing ourselves but paying Mr Rhys £30 is a Good Thing to do for him and saves us a can of fuel for the chainsaw and several hours work so is well worth it.

We had lunch and watched some of the Adele at the BBC show from last week – she is very funny being interviewed and I love her voice. Scarlett and I watched a Chris Packham documentary about foxes and then I headed off for Crafternoon at Fliss’ while the others watched a Harry Potter film. Davies and Scarlett clubbed together to buy the box set of all the films when we were off and are wanting to watch them all again with Ady – I have, obviously declined to watch 😉

Crafternoon was ok. I felt a bit disjointed but that has happened before round there. Lesley came this time which was nice, I hope she comes again but suspect she may not as it felt as though we were all pretending to be ladies rather than being ourselves somehow. I think the combination of me, Fliss, Ali, Deb and Lesley isn’t a comfortable one. Lesley really doesn’t like Mike who is Debs’ husband and is dreading going back to work in February after her maternity leave, we are all conscious of not talking about directors stuff infront of Debs and Ali, who is away tomorrow on holiday for 3 weeks off Rum with a week in Fuerteventura in the middle, was very excitable and can be irritating when she is like that.  I crocheted most of a hat though.

I called at the shop to post some letters, collect the post and get some milk before coming home where the others were Harry Pottering still. Ady made dinner and we watched some early River Cottage episodes as we have the first series on dvd.

Lighter of pocket and of heart.

Ady’s had a nice few days watching films we’d hate, eating food we don’t like and even hanging out at the shop drinking whisky one evening 🙂 I gave him firm instructions NOT to do anything dangerous or silly while we were gone as I didn’t want to have to ring someone in the village to come and look for him if he didn’t ring me at the agreed time each day – stuff like tying up the wind turbine in high winds in the dark, or using the chainsaw, that sort of thing… Instead I think he actually had a bit of a rest while we weren’t here which is a good thing.

The kids mostly enjoyed the mainland but it felt a bit stifling being in FW on a wet weekend in winter. They watched *hours* of TV and mostly ate crap, stereotypical teenagerhood all crammed into one weekend 😉

The ferry on Saturday was 4 hours, going to Mallaig via Muck and Eigg. Lucy from Eigg was on the boat for the first half so I sat and chatted to her. She said she always thinks of the Loch Nevis as the fifth Small Isle – filled with Calmac staff who we all know and a random selection of islanders at any given time. I liked that analogy, particularly at this time of year when just like the islands it was a bit of a ghost town whereas in the summer it is crammed with tourists.

Off the ferry onto the train where we chased the daylight away to Fort William where we were hit with the twinkling lights of civilisation making us feel instantly festive as we got off the train. Into the room where the kids hung out while I did a first trip to Lidl and Morrisons for secret festive stuff for them and a bottle of wine for me. I regretted not getting a bar of chocolate too later but didn’t succumb to late night supermarket proximity, or even a raid on the vending machine in the Premier Inn reception which I could actually hear singing to me. Ah hormonal chocolate cravings!

We had McDonalds for dinner, Davies and I had baths and Davies begged a blowdry of his hair too. Funny how he would have his hair played with all day whereas Scarlett is still only a step away from hissing at me like a feral cat when I brush hers.  Scarlett had asked to share the double bed with me as she hates the camp beds in Premier Inn so she did but she was so wriggly all night that I gave up and I slept on the camp bed in the middle of the night. It was dreadful! We sorted it out for the following two nights by her staying in the double with me but using her duvet from the camp bed which meant we were not trying to share the covers. It worked really well.

Sunday – I walked along to Poundstretcher and Argos for a few bits, the others didn’t want to come so I went by myself. I dropped that stuff off and then we all went to Lidl and Morrisons for lunch and dinner stuff and to do the big food shop. I packed all of that up and then was bored so Scarlett and I went into town for a while. Not much was open but I did get a Superdrug nail varnish fix 🙂  Scarlett’s turn for a bath and hairbrush that night, made better by watching The Hunt on a big Tv rather than a tablet and on Sunday rather than downloaded later in the week.

Monday – Dentist first thing. Davies’ crossbite is not severe enough for NHS treatment, Scarlett’s overcrowding and crossbite/ overbite / underbite is. So he chatted to her lots about the options, what each would entail, the impact on her and the end result. He was excellent with her, talked to her rather than me (which I always really like with medical professionals) and was realistic and honest with her. Good stuff 🙂 She has decided to go with a brace which I am really pleased about and despite feeling really cross with my Mum saying in a patronising way that ‘she might not care now, but she’ll be glad when she’s older and her appearance is everything in her 20s’ I don’t think she will regret having a brace whereas she may regret not doing it.  So mainland trips every 8 weeks from early next year then…

From there into the town for a quick charity shop / WHSmiths / outdoor shop for wellies for Davies jaunt. The kids headed back to the hotel before me but I was not far behind as it was grey, miserable and everywhere had a slightly depressing air about it. It wasn’t much better back at the room. Too early for a bath because I didn’t want to go out again later to get dinner with wet hair, nothing worth watching on the TV, internet very slow as they try and persuade you to pay for the upgrade to faster service. We had all eaten and drunk too much junk and were feeling blah. I offered bowling but none of us were really bothered so we just hung out in the room being silly until it was late enough to do the dinner run to the chip shop. All in bed by 11 having packed ready for a quick get away this morning.

Today – early start for us, up before 8am! Actually I was awake before 7am. Final pack up, leave the room tidy and load up with all our heavy bags. I think two cups of tea followed by hoisting a really heavy rucksack onto my back did me no favours as I suddenly had the sort of nausea feeling I’ve only had before during morning sickness when pregnant. I had to stop and lean against the wall and breath deeply but it did pass. Hate being dramatic like that, particularly as it freaks the kids out. The walk across to the station was torture, as was the walk from the station to the ferry the other end. The rucksack was crazy heavy, I had a smaller ruck sack in one hand and the holdall, which felt like it weighed as much as me trailing behind, except one of the wheels had bust and was leaning inwards so I was literally dragging it and very aware of all the bottles of drink within.

Very pleased to be on the boat, it was a choppy sailing and I went outside twice to get fresh air as I was still not right but as soon as we arrived home I felt fine so I am sure it was tiredness, overheating, hot tea (which does sometimes happen here if I drink the first cup of the morning too hot on an empty stomach) and heavy lifting all combining with travel stress. So good to be home. Loaded the car up, drove to the fork and swapped everything into the other car. The kids walked to the croft with a wheelbarrow each while Ady and I drove across the river which was far too high and almost got swept away. Water was pouring the doors and splashing over the bonnet! High drama indeed. Ady revved it hard and got it across though. We managed to get everything up the croft in one lift with the kids loaded up and Ady and I with a really overloaded wheelbarrow each.

Grand unpack and put away done, followed by lunch, catch up on the last two episodes of junior Bake Off and plenty of sitting near the log burner feeling most zen and centred once more.

Now to focus on Scarlett’s birthday, closely followed by Christmas. Just a couple of weeks of being a director left and lots of plans for the croft in 2016 to talk about.

 

There has been a lot of crochet, a lot of late night mopping up Scarlett’s tears, a lot of thinking ‘thank fuck I’m about to step down as a director’  though.

At least two of the days I didn’t leave the caravan at all as it was windy, raining and I could find far more interesting and cosy things to do indoors instead. I’ve made two chains of bunting for the shed, the plan for next week is to get the kids bikes into a dedicated bike shelter and then we can start making some units for the shed and displaying stuff. And killing pigs.

Two meetings – one on Monday which was supposed to be to thrash out the IRCT business plan for 2016-2020 which the other directors have asked me to help with before I step down. It was at Lesley & Neil’s house and Ali & Fliss were very distracted by baby Dougal, we ended up talking about various other things which was all very productive but not a business plan meeting, so we rearranged that for today instead. This morning we met at the office and despite baby Dougal being present we were more focussed on getting the plan done and managed it. It needs some final prettying up in places but the basis is there. Phew.

The Monday ferry was indeed cancelled due to the wind, which meant I would not have gotten off even if I’d planned to for Granny’s funeral. I’m sort of glad it was cancelled. I bought two yellow roses – one bush and one climber as they were her favourite flower and will plant them here on the croft so despite her never actually getting here in person there is a tribute to her her in spirit instead. I’ve not talked to Mum & Dad about how the funeral went but imagine it was sad, a bit fraught with all the various family there and generally funeral-y.

I had a long chat with them both on Tuesday night, the day before the funeral when they told me that Robin has been diagnosed as autistic. No further information just now, but Kat has taken it very badly and there are problems with her and Frazer. Mum was all for being a bit heavy handed with Frazer so I lectured her a bit about being supportive to him and taking his side, remembering that he will be struggling with it all too and that if Kat is going to pieces the last thing he needs is Mum giving him a hard time. I think she took it well. Dad, who is sounding much better and says he feels back to normal said ‘I wish you were nearer’. Hard to hear 🙁

Rum stuff is very argh-y and I am mostly just relieved to be stepping away from caring about whether people have paid their rent or done what they said they are going to do and when kerosene deliveries are coming. I had the sort of email I used to get in the early days of running HE groups or being a local contact where people would say ‘I want to Home Educate, please can you tell me everything I need to know about how to do it’ with someone emailing to say she had seen the TV show and would like more information on ‘how to live like you’ I replied asking what aspect of living like me and she wants to know ‘how much it costs?’ Argh! again.

Meanwhile Scarlett has been having almost a teenager wobbles. Lots of late night tummy aches and can’t sleeps and sadness over all sorts of things, some real, some drummed up reasons to feel sad when she is tired. I got to the bottom of part of it which is not wanting to get older and a worry that she’ll *never* be able to read and write as she has finally decided that actually she’d quite like to only to start fretting that maybe she won’t be able to.  Along with many hours in the middle of the night, sometimes before I have gotten to bed myself, sometimes after I am in bed and one time after I had been asleep myself for an hour or so I have been spending lots of time with her this week, snuggled up watching wildlife documentaries, two afternoons making candles and some time demonstrating to her that actually yes she can read, she just needs to try. I’ve ordered a copy of 100 easy lessons as well to sit and look at with her if she needs some structure around it having struggled to find anything suitable for her to try and read here – oh the reading schemes and phonics and bob books we’ve had over the years, all gone in book sale coffee mornings before we left Sussex. After a big chat on Tuesday night (just what I needed after Mum, Dad and silly emails) she is feeling happier and has been fine since. I’m sure we will have it again and I suspect some was also hormone related too.

We never got to kill any pigs this week, we have two still to do. Ady has increased the size of their pen to see the remaining ones through the winter but we have not had a decent day of weather or no meetings. Ady may try and do one or even both this weekend or we will just have to suck up the weather and do them next week.

The kids and I are off tomorrow to FW for the dentist on Monday morning, back to Rum on Tuesday. Not much time for anything other than some supermarket shopping and a walk to Poundstretcher and McDonalds really but looking forward to a bath and a dose of mainland run up to Christmas.

My memory foam pillow gets rock hard in the cold so during the winter I have to bring it into the lounge and stick it near the log burner before bed. I’d not started doing it yet this season and the last couple of mornings I’ve woken with a stiff neck / upper back. I have it warming up now so hopefully that will be the end of that but I’ve been super cautious about pulling it today so refused to do any real lifting or heavy stuff.

Post Office shift this morning – a few visitors – Ali, Bad Neil, Ross and Fliss. We’re quiet at the moment with a lot of folk off island. Jinty was back today though so I finished off PO and left her to it restocking and putting away deliveries. Ady came along to collect me and we swapped cars (and all the stuff) and drove across the river to the croft. Animal feed had come along with a Book People order (some birthday, some Christmas), Superdrug, Toolstation, new wellies for me and a trampoline we’d bought for £15 off a family nearby moving away and getting rid of stuff. Didn’t know them but my friend Alison put us in touch and despite being logistically tricky to organise it got here 🙂 Yay.

We came up for lunch and Junior Bake off, putting away laundry and then Ady and I went back down to the village to collect more laundry, something from the freezer for dinner tomorrow, the veg which arrived this morning on the boat and today’s post (Lovefilm, randomly one book from the Book People order sent separately, Scarlett’s NatGeo mag, a couple of torches) while Davies and Scarlett looked for a missing turkey. It is the hen who was broody twice this summer and who suddenly started losing feathers this week – we assume it’s just moult which is late in the season but normal but will leave her vulnerable to the cold. Ady had penned her the other night to ensure she was in a crate with lots of bedding and food but let her out the next day when she seemed otherwise full of energy and a bit pissed off with being contained but she went missing yesterday. She is either tucked up somewhere or dead but unless she comes for feeding she won’t last. They didn’t find her and I spent another half an hour looking too and failed. Will look some more tomorrow.

Ady put animal feed away and brought in some wood and swept the chimney while I read some of Scarlett’s magazine to her – protecting that back remember! Dinner was a joint affair – Jinty had some pork chops and a whole chicken which were out of date so gave them to us – Ady roasted the chicken for the kids and cooked rice for him and Davies while I made stir fry with the pork for Ady and me with noodles for Scarlett and I – so no two dinners the same!

 

I realised today that we had missed the fourth anniversary of the first time we stepped foot on Rum which was on Wednesday. 11th November. Four years since we first got off the ferry on this island, walked around the crofts, met a couple of the people here (none of whom are still here) and decided based on that 3 hour trip to head back to Sussex and apply for the croft here.

Bizarrely I was then checking back to the date of the very first blog post on here and discovered that was also 11th November. 11th November 2003 mind you, so 12 years ago but how about that for a coincidence. I have a half written blog post composing itself in my head for the wonderingwanderers blog based on our croft application and business plan written four years ago and am in the process of typing it up from the paper copy I have as the electronic copy is long since gone, lost in laptops through time. I thought it would be good to have it as a doc, on the blog somewhere to refer to but also I want to measure us against those early plans and see how we have done.  It’s really interesting re-reading it and remembering the nights sat in Mum & Dad’s kitchen editing and reading it out to Ady before we finally walked to the post office on Scarlett’s birthday to send it. We emailed a copy too but Davies and I walked along to post a paper copy of it up here and I now have that same paper copy back as I took it from the IRCT office when we recently decided as a board that that information no longer needed to be kept and we shredded Gav & Laura’s and Lesley and I got our own ones back.

Abigail was nowhere near as bad as feared, infact it is probably a bit windier tonight to be honest, but somehow without the hysteria of the media the expectation that it must be going to get worse isn’t there so it’s just windy. This morning Ady undid the wind turbine for a while so I had internet and made the most of it, getting the Rumble newsletter finished and sent by email to those who get it that way and to the school to be printed out for everyone else. I finished the last two chapters of the HE book I’ve been helping write and did some more copy typing the croft application.

This afternoon I did some crochet – I’m making some bunting to decorate the shed shop. We watched Junior Bake Off and some of The Hunt from last week. Ady cannot stay indoors so kept heading off back outside to do various things. I made pizza dough and bread dough.

Tonight was Doctor Who and pizza followed by an episode of Warehouse 13. Tomorrow’s ferry should be bringing us all sorts of deliveries.

Not sure where this week went to!

The new wind turbine died – the test of the big winds at the start of the week did for it. We got in touch with them and they are sorting out a replacement. I got reinstated as Mrs Post Office – well for this week anyway – I did today and will be doing Saturday as Jinty is away. A second week without vegetables though as the amended ferry timetable meant a super early boat today which had already left Mallaig before the veg truck arrived with Rum veg. I guess they may come on Saturday?! Who knows! Rickets R us…

 

Some outside time this week dodging the rain and winds – Ady as always manages to get lots of time outdoors, I am less inclined to risk getting wet or battle the elements as there is always plenty to do indoors instead. Our planned pig processing this week didn’t happen, our only real day that looked promising weather wise started with heavy rain so we put it off and then although it ended up nice we had missed the starting early window we like to allow incase things don’t go as planned. I have painted the other half of the floor though, it has absorbed more than I expected into the floor plywood which means it is more of a wash of colour than a painted surface, similar to what I had done, and intended with the walls not quite what I was after for the floor. I need to get all the stuff out which has gathered in there though and make a decision as to whether it is fine or whether I want to do a second coat and make it more of a block of colour. The biggest thing to do next is to build a bike store for the kids bikes at the fork of the road where we park the cars so that they can come out of the shed… There is a tiny bit more outside painting to do too but it could wait really. Next Ady is going to make some shelf units and I am thinking about bunting or similar type adornments.

Crafternoon and chats at Fliss’ with Fliss, Ali & Deb, walking part way down there with Lesley. A few hours of chatting and nice stuff almost not all about Rum! I bought a hank of Canna wool, from the Canna sheep, spun and dyed there. It’s very pretty blues and greens self striping sock wool and I’m going to make myself a scarf with it. I got my craft shop takings from this year, just under £100 which would have been about £125 if I was not paying Fliss commission for selling in the craft shop – next year all profits will be mine from the Shed 🙂

I spent some time in the polytunnel and raised bed area – lots of work to be done there next year / in the spring. The dead fence needs attention around the walled garden. I did some more weeding in the polytunnel and will start thinking about sowing stuff in there in the next few weeks. I can only really be in there when it’s not windy though as it can only be closed from the outside and if left open in the wind will create a parachute!

Scarlett had has a couple of late night hormonal melt downs, not like her but with a various set of circumstances – nearly being 13 and fretting about that being way more grown up than she is ready to be, a period, upset about Great Granny dying and general mother/daughter relationships in our family, tiredness from several wild windy nights keeping her awake. Two nights she has ended up coming into our room crying after everyone has gone to bed. Ady is excellent at just getting up and going into the lounge to give her and I space to cuddle and talk it out. Poor baby, it’s hard being a teenage girl! I hope she continues feeling able to come and blurt all her angst out to me so I can help her process it and either feel better or just feel okay about feeling sad.

I had some lovely email chats with the woman who did the article about us on her blog, inspired anew to crack on properly with some writing. We’ve been watching loads of iplayer stuff having realised the kindle fire I got ‘free’ with my phone is a much better screen than Ady’s phone to watch things on. Instead of watching something at lunchtime we have been watching something once it is dark at 5ish to kill that hour or two before we put the genny on and start getting dinner sorted. Better than sitting in the dark!

After many back and forth phonecalls with my parents and a couple of hours researching sleeper trains, flights, budget hotel rooms near arirports and coach travel I have decided / been persuaded not to go down south for Granny’s funeral next week. I was not able to make a sensible decision myself and needed someone else to make it for me. Wrapped up in that my Dad has not been well and I was struggling to get a handle on whether he was just ill with something minor or something sinister. I am now fairly confident it is more like flu than anything scary and at the very least if it is not then I am getting a clear message from both my parents that they do not want me to come down. I am relieved if still a tiny bit guilt ridden. An insight into my whole emotional reaction to living up here most of the time in relation to family down south really…

I think that’s caught up now. Winds are howling as we are in the middle of Abigail just now. I have a plan to go to bed and attempt sleep, but suspect it will be more dozing between roof rattling blasts.

 

 

Saturday – I enjoyed the lie in that my newly unemployed on a Saturday morning brought… 😉 Then I walked down to the hostel to meet Ady. Bad Neil saw the car outside and came in for a chat with us before it was boat time. We whizzed along to collect Dave & Faye off the boat then back to the hostel to collect laundry and food from the freezer before heading to the crofts. We parted ways at the croft gate – us to come home for lunch, them to check in at the cabin and drop stuff off. Then Ady walked back to meet them at the Jeep as they were changing the oil in it. I took advantage of the dry weather and sunny conditions to do some more shed painting. I stopped when my fingers got too cold to comfortably hold the paintbrush – it’s mild for November but it’s still November!

Ady had arranged to meet them for a beer at the shop so he and I walked down leaving the kids to keep the fire going. We’d bumped pizzas from Friday to Saturday as we’d eaten at the Bonfire on Friday night. It was dead at the shop – just Jinty there when we arrived. We had a good chat though and if she did let me go for any reason other than it being deathly quiet and her not being able to justify paying me £20 each Saturday morning to stand and drink tea with Neil it appears to have blown over. Phew. Dave and Faye arrived, followed by Chain and then Stevie so there was a handful of us drinking beer in the dark. We stopped for two drinks and were home again by 730pm.

I started making pizzas and then Ady got a call on his phone from my mum who had tried mine and got no signal. It was the anticipated news that Granny had passed away that morning. I sat in the dark in our bedroom as she told me. She is very upbeat about the whole thing although I suspect it will hit her at some point in the next couple of weeks but her and Granny had a big falling out earlier this year so have been mostly estranged. Not unusual for them. I am sad. Sad that she died, sad that I never got to say a proper goodbye, sad not to be around Mum, Dad and Frazer. Sad about what it represents and that this is likely the first of various such phonecalls we will get living up here so far from everyone. I’m also sad that my Granny is dead. I certainly didn’t always see eye to eye with her but she was a good grandparent when Frazer and I were small, probably took the most delight and joy in Davies and Scarlett of any of our relatives and despite being a shockingly bad mother was a strong, independent, successful woman with fantastic business skills, a talented florist, a world traveller and adventurer, a bold and brave woman who lived through amazing points in history, had many stories to tell and in her last communication  with me wrote a shaky handed letter to say she had seen us on TV with ‘that super Ben Fogle’ and it had made her all the more determined to come and visit us, even if she did have to sleep in a tent!

Ady had failed to watch the pizza I’d stuck in the oven despite me asking him to, the smoke alarm had gone off and it was very well cooked. A petty argument about that meant I didn’t tell them straight away and went and sobbed in the loo for a while before coming out and blurting it out. Everyone was very lovely to me after that. The children were sad but probably more sad that I was sad to be honest, I guess to them she was always a little old woman who made pointed digs at their granny and part of the complicated mother daughter dynamic that seems to have run in my family. Scarlett and I are adamant it ended with us. I hope we’re right. I was really touched by some of the comments on facebook, particularly from my first boyfriend Will, who had messaged me earlier in the week to say he’d seen the Fogle show and we all looked really well and how much Scarlett is like me. He came to visit my Granny in hospital with me when we were together and I was 17, I bet he couldn’t believe she was still around. My school friend Victoria had also commented and she would have met Granny many times over the years, along with Lucy, who would have known her from when she worked at Mum’s restaurant, and my friends Pauline and Jim who have known us for over 20 years and would have met her at our wedding, kids birthday parties and so on.

A big cry is exhausting so I was pretty early to bed and although I didn’t dream about Granny I had some weird dreams.

Today – It rained pretty much non stop, with added gale force gusts of wind. In the end we tied the small turbine up as it was screaming. Winter is here. Ady had promised to help Dave and Faye with some ditching. I was only too happy to stay in all day and make use of the internet provided by wind. I caught up on a couple of chapters of the book I am writing for on Home Ed, answered a long email from a blogger who has made contact about WWOOFing and food production. She has already written a bit about WWOOFing but wanted a longer feature piece on us having read an article I had written for the WWOOFing newsletter. I also wrote a piece for the next Barefoot Diaries this week. Sadly none of the writing is for money – yet, but I am definitely getting my name out there which is really exciting. The more widely I am published and known the more chances I have of people getting in touch with something I get paid for.

Ady came home for lunch, we watched the third Autumnwatch, just one more to go and had a really lovely piece of our gammon for dinner. I’m knackered again now, this sitting around all day is pretty tiring 😉

I think we got as far as Monday, so…

The rest of the week has mostly been about the shed to be honest. I do love having a project like that to throw all my enthusiasm at. I’ve been painting the floor and decorating the outside and loving it. The muscovies are settling in brilliantly, they are so cute.

We had a fairly modest amount on the this week on croft 3 board but have done it all and more this week including a sort out of the freezer ready to get more pigs in there, shed stuff, putting up a windbreak around the polytunnel, a sort out of the raised beds / walled garden which I have now de-netted and collected all the rubbish which got burned, the birds are being fed on there now to get the weeds down ready for mulching.

We went to a community meeting last night after missing the last two or three, that was good.

Today was Bonfire Night so Ady and I helped build the bonfire this morning, got sodden in the pouring rain but had a laugh with Fliss, Ali and Trudi and then went round to Fliss’ for tea and biscuits afterwards. We took mulled wine (four flasks of it) and marshmallows and helped with the barbecue, it was  a good evening with pretty much everyone there except Jinty, Dave & Sylvia.

Jinty’s let me go on a Saturday morning for post office but asked me to carry on with holiday cover. I suspect this has more behind it and is a bit of a shame but I also suspect it may well not be permanent so for now I have been upbeat about it and will see how it pans out.

Next week we’ll be doing the final two pigs and hopefully stocking up on firewood a bit.

Sunday – I lie in bed texting with Clare in Mallaig – making the most of the extra hour to read, lie in but also the best place for signal to text. While we were chatting and planning dinner Calmac announced the boat would not be running after all – very sad all round 🙁

I’m not entirely sure what we did with the day after that. I know I went down to the freezer to get some haggis out for dinner and picked some brambles along the way, probably turned them into jam. I think we may have watched a film or something in the afternoon.

Monday – Ady was working at the hostel so the kids and I walked down to collect the car then drove along to meet Clare and co. The big Calmac (Loch Nevis) was still not running but they had sent the Orion instead. It took ages to come in and we were all down at the pier speculating that it wasn’t coming but finally it came into view. It had been a rough crossing but it bought Clare, James & Elinor. Also on board were Rum residents Ali, Eve, Mike & Debs and a visiting family (Mum, Dad, son, daughter & son’s girlfriend). I took Clare and all the kids along to the bunkhouse, stopping along the way to offer to take some of the other family’s stuff for them. I had also picked up the post so went to run that along to the village and dropped the car back with Ady who had almost finished working and arranged to come and join us at the bunkhouse when he was done.

Ady took the car back up to the croft, let Bonnie out for a bit, collected various bits and pieces, fed the animals and then came back down. Clare and I walked along to the shop for supplies and then she cooked dinner for us all. A late night… We made friends with the family who were lovely and the only other bunkhouse resident, a Polish guy who was here to do some walking and explore more of Scotland as he is wanting to move to the Highlands.

Tuesday – Pig Day – we had discussed the pig killing the night before and James had been keen to come and watch but we waited for them and they didn’t arrive so we did it. It turned out they had gotten lost, James had fallen over and hurt himself and then it was lunchtime so they had turned back. Ady and I skinned and butchered the pig, then I weighed it, labelled it and bagged it up while Ady cleaned the area down. The kids had lunch and headed down to the bunkhouse to find James & Elinor. Ady slow roasted a joint on the barbecue to take down for dinner, I went down to find Clare and Ady joined us. Another late one.

Wednesday – I think I did some shed painting in the morning. Everyone came up for lunch. The kids headed off after lunch for general adventuring, Ady stayed to feed animals and Clare and I went bramble picking. I was on dinner duty that night but everyone helped at the last minute as the oven was not working so the meatballs needed to be cooked on the hob top and the pasta did it’s usual trick of failing to cook when everything else was ready. Was delicious for all the team effortness though. Our last night, not quite so late as the previous ones but still the next morning by the time we got home. I’d had a lovely afternoon chatting to Clare about all sorts of things though, none Rum related which was so lovely.

Thursday – Ady was working and I had promised Clare & Co and the nice family in the bunkhouse a castle tour in the morning, so the kids collected them all and we spent an hour or so walking round the castle, including all the secret not on the tour bits too. Nice to be able to offer that 🙂 There was all sorts of nonsense with the boats – the Nevis was supposed to be back but it left Mallaig, had problems and turned back and they sent the Orion out instead. When we got to the pier ready to say our goodbyes the Nevis was on the horizon too and all the people who had been trapped on Rum with vehicles were waiting to get on it. In the end both boats arrived at the same time. We waved everyone off – Clare, James & Elinor, plus Billy the roofer who is off now til next year and Kate & Ian – summertime residents who have gone back to Wales for the winter. Rum is starting to empty.

Home for very early nights all round.

Friday – more shed painting, inside and out. Pizza for dinner and Doctor Who. I let the kids have a lie in to try and catch up on all the late nights.

Saturday – Post office for me in the morning and hostel for Ady. A weird feeling down in the village. I was feeling sad about Clare going and the lack of sensible conversation and company on the island and feeling very anti social. A family vote had decided we would not go to either the craft stuff at the school in the afternoon or the dressing up drunken stuff at the shop in the evening. I think it was the right decision based on reports of both although I suspect it would have made us unpopular. Ah well. Instead I did some shed painting and Scarlett helped me then we all watched some Halloweeny films for the evening, staying up past midnight again.

Sunday – I left the children to it and spent the whole day outside shed painting. Ady did some loo maintenance in the morning and then after lunch he came and put all the various hardware on the shed door so it now closes and locks. Next job is a bike store so they can come out, something done to the shed floor inside and then we can start turning it into a shop with displays and decoration. No real rush for that, it will be a nice outdoors job as and when the weather allows through the winter though. I did a half hour bramble picking at the very end of the afternoon and felt so good for having been outside all day.

Monday – today. With the shed more or less done and Ady off working for SNH for a couple of hours I decided to do one last big bramble pick so went all around the village to all the best spots and got nearly 5kg. Now gone past my target of 200 jars, run out of sugar and almost out of jars so feel it’s been a good productive year on that. There was some confusion with Ady’s hours so when I finally got home I flicked the internet on to check the details and found an email to say the ducklings were coming today! So Scarlett and I set off back down the hill to try and find them. We met Ady and Dave at the fork with the ducks – Ady just coming home, Dave bringing them to us. Thanked Dave and Ady and I carried the case between us back to the croft. They are in the fruit cage just now until they settle but they are gorgeous – five muscovy ducklings, 12 weeks old and very pretty. I think we have 3 boys and 2 girls.

Back in the house I made lots of jam – 37 jars I think, plus pasta bake for the kids dinner and potatoes to go with some game pies we’d defrosted for our dinner. Trying to clear out the freezer to make room for more pork!

 

The wild weather meant an amended timetable for the ferry today but there ended up being technical problems with our big boat so it got cancelled altogether. They were hoping to get it fixed though so we were getting hourly updates all morning until they finally cancelled at lunchtime. Poor Big Dave and Faye were in Mallaig waiting to get across 🙁 They were only coming til Monday so not worth it, especially when the forecast for Monday is pretty grim so may well be cancelled anyway. Tomorrow is looking iffy, weather still wild and Loch Nevis still out of action, so it will be passenger boat only if the weather allows. Sigh, so winter begins!

I had a very quiet morning at post office. The screen is not working so there is no post office and now the phone line has stopped working so there is no card machine either, meaning it’s cash only. Which is a problem because everyone here gets their cash from the post office, which isn’t working… I just about justified my wages as I spent £40 and sold two lots of cigarettes to Ross & Jed, otherwise I’d have felt guilty about being paid to sit and drink tea and chat to Neil, Ross and Jed which is basically what I spent two hours doing.

I walked along to Ady with Jed. He was still working so I did half an hours bramble picking, finding a new spot behind the castle with some amazing big blackberries, so I got nearly 2kg in a really short time. Yay! Another 14 jars made this afternoon. I think we’re at 146 jars now, easily on target to reach 200 in stock. Home for lunch, bringing up a full wheelbarrow and a box of jam jars with us – shopping, deliveries and clean dry washing. All of that put away, lunch consumed and decision time as to whether to head outside or find indoor stuff to do instead. The rain and hail made the decision for me – I’d wanted to either paint the shed or do some weeding in the polytunnel but neither would have worked – too wet to paint, too windy to have the door of the polytunnel off.

So instead I made jam and made this years mincemeat as we had a load of apples that had started to go wrinkly. Christmas cake to be made next week, I’m waiting on a delivery of cherries before we make it, cherries can be added later to mincemeat though. Ady brought some wood in, fed the animals, made dinner.

We watched Warehouse 13 and the new series of Modern Family which Jed’s lent us. Hoping my friend Clare gets across tomorrow, really looking forward to seeing her.