One word? When seven would do…

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 ;).

Erm… Wednesday would have been Crafternoon. Ady and I walked down to the village in the morning to get stuff out for dinner and collect post. We bumped into Mike and Ali so stopped to chat. Ali invited us up for a cup of tea but we were keen to get back. On the way back we bumped into Stevie and Trudi but still just about made it back for Popmaster and then planted out artichokes. Ali gave me another bag in the afternoon dug up from her garden so we still have more to plant, planning to put them in a different spot and try and have two artichoke patches for pig feed. We did a little bit more in the shed before I went off to Crafternoon and then Ady went across to help Dave and Faye put roof panels up in the cabin.

Thursday – We helped Dave and Faye a bit more in the morning, then went to meet the boat as we had diesel coming off. Dave and Faye wanted a lift to the second boat. The Rangerover had conked out with a load of firewood in the back so Dave came to have a look at that with us and decreed it ‘fooked’ 🙁 Water in the engine. It will need draining and refilling, which is rather beyond us but we will have  a try. The four of us tried to get it out of the way as it was at the croft gate. First Ady, Dave and Faye pushed while I steered but we got it stuck in one of the big dips (which is mostly a puddle when the river is running high and floods) on the path. We tried and tried and had almost given up when I suggested that as I was stronger and heavier than Faye maybe she should steer and I should help push. It almost killed the three of us – Ady and Dave made some very odd noises and went funny colours but we did it. I walked up to the car with them and collected all the amazon stuff which had arrived, Ady took them to the pier to see them off then back to the hostel to do a couple of hours cleaning. He collected the veg on the way back.

Friday Ady spent most of the day working on the path up the croft hill, gathering wheelbarrow loads of gravel from the river and tipping it into the mud to make a track. It is so, so much better. Pathbuilding is one of the tasks on our volunteer list for this year, we’re planning a footpath at least all the way up to the caravan and maybe even a rough track to get a car up. If we had that we could probably get all the way up to the caravan all year round. We are looking at another 4×4 with better tyres and keep seeing bargains on ebay that we can’t get here… Ady has a monster truck yen I think. I spent most of the day doing shed stuff and chopping firewood. Ali, Trudi and Eve walked round in the afternoon so I chatted to them for a while. I came in for a shower and to make nan bread dough and then we all went down to the hall for Curry Night. It had gotten later than I’d planned so curry was more like 730 than the aimed for 630 but a fab time was had by all. We had almost 100% turn out of those on the island with just Stevie not coming along. We stayed out til crazy late and I felt rather the worse for wear on Saturday morning….

Saturday – I was up and about though, although not terribly constructive. I read in bed for a while, did some crochet and then walked down to meet Ady from work as I realised I still had the freezer key in my coat pocket. We chatted to loads of people outside the hostel, then more at the shop before finally getting home for a late lunch. Later we walked back down and Scarlett came with us to check for post and gather dairy produce from the shop that we’d somehow neglected to purchase earlier. An early dinner and an early night all round.

Sunday – Ady was doing wood working stuff with Mike in the morning. I made two types of soup (leek and potato and curried parsnip), bread rolls and peanut butter cookies and Scarlett made shortbread bears. I chopped some more firewood and then Ady came home so we all had lunch. After lunch the kids went off for a walk while Ady and I gathered stuff from the car and he showed me what he and Mike had been doing in the woods, chopping down, splitting and debarking wood for fences and stuff. He is really enjoying learning stuff from Mike, it’s a good Sunday morning regular slot :).

Home for roast dinner and a round of blokus or two.

Monday – It’s rained and rained and rained all day. After Popmaster we walked down to the village in waterproofs to fax a butchers order, put in our veg order, get stuff from the freezer and buy milk. We stopped for a cup of tea with Jinty and I agreed to do a weeks worth of Post Office shifts from Saturday as she is heading off island for a few days. Back home in the rain, baked some rolls with dough I made yesterday to go with some of the soup – so glad I’d made the double batches, I should do a soup day more often!

An afternoon of internet for Davies, animal documentaries for Scarlett (and me), crochet for me and tidying the kitchen cupboards for Ady, all happily coexisting in the same space doing our own things. Dinner of our own pork chops and potato gratin (thank you Jinty for free out of date cream!).

Monday – In the morning Scarlett and I walked down to the village to buy butter and margarine for baking cookies as she had requested. Ady came part way with us to sort out a sign which had been put up a bit wonky and possibly could lead visitors the wrong way to the croft. We got back and did the cookie baking then had lunch while they cooled. We left Scarlett icing them and Davies chatting to friends online while we met the boat – diesel going off and Big Dave and Faye arriving. We helped load the shop delivery into Jinty’s van and then brought BD and F back to the croft. We helped them up to the cabin with their stuff and stayed for a cup of tea and chat.

There was a community meal in the evening at the Bunkhouse to give people the opportunity to talk to a company who are putting together a report on next possible steps for energy provision on Rum (at the moment it is a hydro powered grid which is owned and run by SNH and also provides water to the village. We are obviously not hooked up to it and further expanding the reach could prove costly for other new builds on the island in the future. SNH currently subsidise the price per unit for electric too and this is not a situation that will continue in the long term). Davies and Scarlett went down to the village ahead of us, we followed having fed the animals and had a couple of beers at the shop before heading along to the bunkhouse. It was a nice evening with a good turn out but obviously the power stuff is something we are more interested observers on that something which directly affects us so we didn’t really engage much in conversations.

Home by midnight and we were all still hungry (food had been provided, venison stew and cheese and nice bread but none of us had eaten much) so Scarlett made everyone tea and toast before bed.

Today – Ady was working at the hostel this morning so he had gone off before we were all up. I left the kids in bed and went out in the sunshine to pull up the carrots and parsnips from last year, dig over those beds and plant out garlic. It was a gorgeous morning, if still quite cold. Just lovely to be outside though.

I came back up around midday in need of more tea and Ady was not long behind me, so we had lunch. Davies stayed in chatting to friends online (making the most of good solar power), Scarlett climbed trees and played with Waddles and Bonnie – Waddles was down at the riverside and roaming the croft, her and Bonnie seem to play together or at the very least both try and herd each other, it’s very funny to watch. Ady and I moved the bikes into the new bike shed and started sorting out the shed shop. We now have some rails to hang scarves, a fixed shelf unit for jams, a big branch to display midge jewellery, baskets for displaying Scarlett’s candles and plans for more stuff, signs have been put up and it’s all looking really good. Tonight we ordered a couple of postcard display units. It should all be ready by the end of next week I reckon, perfectly in time for spring and the grand unveiling 🙂

The kids walked down to the shop to get some cheese for dinner and were gone forever. Eventually it was getting dark and they had gone without torches or coats. We rang the shop and got no reply so Ady went off with coats and torches to find them. They missed each other so he rang me from the village to say they were not there shortly before they appeared home. Eventually everyone was back here at the same time. I cooked dinner which none of us really enjoyed – spaghetti bolognaise which was the meal we had the night Ady was helicoptered off so always feels somehow symbolic. I think we may stop eating it for a while. It’s a bit like Southern Comfort which I had an unfortunate teenage experience with and cannot face at all any more…

 

Thursday morning Ady and I used fillafoam to fill the gaps in the shelter Ady has built for D&S’s bikes. It is pretty much done now, just needs a few wheelbarrows of gravel to give it a more solid floor than the mud in there just now and the bikes can come out of the shed shop and into that. It has 3 sides and a roof and we have a big tarp to cover the bikes when they are in there. We spent some time putting posts in to mount the various signs to direct folk to the shed – one at the fork, one at the bridge and one just after and put some of the signs up. The one at the fork we have covered up for now as we are not actually ready for people to come and look at the shed yet but it’s there ready to unveil when we are. I have another sign ready to put at the bridge in the village and just need to do two more signs which I have the slates for getting washed clean in the rain outside.

Lunch and then down to the village – collected the veg box and then Ady went off to get the animal feed delivery which had come on the ferry while I walked round to Fliss’s for Crafternoon. I walked with Bad Neil and Baby Dougal for a brief catch up chat with him. A nice couple of hours with Fliss and Ali chatting and crocheting. It was the community meeting in the evening but it was at 7pm and I really could not be bothered to go back down to the village so I emailed to say we had forgotten – bad Nic!

Friday – it was windy and rainy and horrible. I didn’t actually go outside at all. I spent the day crocheting and making bread and pizza dough and watching animal documentaries with Scarlett. I did catch up a bit on the blog, put together a volunteer events campaign and set some dates and write an article for Barefoot Diaries though. Oh and organise a curry night for next weekend so not entirely unproductive…

Saturday – I made soup. And crocheted. The ferry was cancelled and it was dire weather again. I had plans to go outside in the afternoon but then Ali and Eve came up so I drank tea and chatted to Ali instead. It was nice though, Ali was telling me about life before Rum which is something noone here ever talks about much. Ady worked at the hostel in the morning and did the laundry.

Sunday – More wind and rain. Scarlett had wanted to bake cookies but we had no butter so she was a bit fed up with me / the universe about that. We watched some more iplayer stuff and I crocheted.  Ady spent the morning with Mike the Fanny doing woodland stuff and came back having really enjoyed that. We all had various leftovers for lunch (soup for Scarlett and I, pizza for Davies, curry for Ady) which made me feel most virtuous. The kids had showers and I brushed Scarlett’s hair. Ady hoovered and then he and I went out to feed the animals together so that I had actually left the caravan today. We fed the birds, I collected a log bucket which had blown all the way down the croft, we walked around the outside of the croft to feed the pigs and then indoors for blokus.

I’ve put together a volunteer info doc and sent it out to everyone who has registered an interest so far and it’s been widely shared on facebook, blog and twitter so hopefully we can get some good group volunteer events happening this summer to push stuff forward.

The wind is howling tonight but its supposed to be a still, dry week so hoping to get lots done.

After the last post the kids and I headed into the town to get some lunch – it was tipping down and we were wet within about five minutes of stepping outside the hotel. The subway under the road in Fort William floods in the heavy rain (we discovered!) and while Davies was suitably shod in wellies Scarlett was in crocs and I was in silly girl shoes so we did a massive detour to cross the roads. We went to Lidl and got pastries and breads for lunch, called into Morrisons and got some ice cream which Scarlett had been desperate for, some yoghurts for dessert later and a bottle of wine and some tonic water for me in anticipation of two more nights in the hotel. The kids went back through the subway as Scarlett decided to just roll her trouser legs up but I walked round the long way. In Lidl we heard about the two missing climbers who still have not been found. Fort William is the scene of regular helicopter dramas obviously but it seems there is still a collective holding of breath when news gets out like that.

Back at the room we asked for a hairdryer, hung our sodden coats over the bath and put our wet trousers over the heater. I had an email from Steve to say the possible lift back to Rum today was back on and so a rapid exchange of emails followed to arrange it and I cancelled the hotel room for tonight. Now regretting the hasty purchase of extra food and drink which would not be consumed and would have to be carried back with us… I did pop out one last time for a wander round the shops but my heart was not in it so I came back for a very long bath instead. Travelodge baths are tiny so you have to decided which portion of your body is going to be submerged at any given point. A cunning plan to assist with this I discovered this time is to have the shower on at the same time, which sprinkles warm water, jacuzzi style over you to keep the unsubmerged bits warm. Fun!

We ate in the Wetherspoons as a sort of last night treat and to avoid walking anywhere (it’s directly below the Travelodge so less than a minute outside in the rain) but it was not really much of a treat as Scarlett’s first, second and third menu choices were all sold out. She ended up with Steak and Kidney pudding and mash which she sort of enjoyed but was not what she was hoping for. I have to say she has Ady’s good nature about things like that, I would have walked out after the second choice not being available! Davies was very happy with his steak though. Back in the room Davies had a bath, we all packed our stuff up and watched Gogglebox which I have rather fallen in love with.

This morning was an early (for us!) start and I had not slept well, I never do without Ady anyway and had kept waking panicking I had overslept and missed the train and boat – the stress of having to meet two specific deadlines is so outside of my normal life now I hate it. We were pleased to see the subway had drained away as we had been prepared to wade across to get to the station and were on the train in good time. Scarlett slept on the train, Davies was in a daze and I read my book. We’d been told the boat would wait for us til 10am and the train got in with seven minutes to spare so we were feeling hurried. Jen was getting on the train as we got off so we had a quick hug in passing.

We carted our heavy bags to where we’d been told the boat would be but no sign of it, we walked all around, asked some people and wandered around like lost souls trying to ignore the worry that we had missed it after all and frantically making a mental back up plan when it suddenly appeared pulling in. It was gone 1030 by then so actually we could have done the quick CoOp shop which I’d really wanted to do but never mind. We had to climb down the ladder and scramble across the boat so I got grease all over my jacket, jeans and rucksack. We sat in the little gally kitchen on the sea level deck and thought it would be fine. One of the crew (there was only him and the skipper) made me a cup of tea and handed round the biscuits, there was a tv on showing This Morning which Davies and I found most entertaining and George (the crew) was very chatty and friendly despite the twin challenge of him having such a strong Scottish accent that I struggled to understand him and him being hard of hearing with a hearing aid which didn’t appear to work fully so being unable to hear me. By the end of the trip we had developed that sort of fellow survivor mentality and were able to communicate in facial expressions…

About half an hour in Scarlett went grey and bolted for the loo, Davies went green and headed for the deck to get fresh air where he remained for the duration. I waited about ten minutes calling through to Scarlett to check she was ok periodically before the need to retire to the deck myself became pressing. At which point Scarlett called through that actually she was trapped in the loo. Between bouts of vomiting she explained that the lock twiddly thing was simply missing so there was nothing with which to unlock the door. Between checking on Davies and spending time restoring my own equilibrium I communicated to George what had happened and we had a surreal conversation with Scarlett through the locked door with me acting as interpreter as she could not understand him, he could not hear her, she was regularly being sick and I was fighting the urge to do the same. Eventually George went upstairs, accessed the bathroom through the ceiling hatch and passed Scarlett down a screwdriver with which to rescue herself by moving the lock across. Adventures abound!

We finally got back to Rum and it was so, so lovely to be home. A quiet afternoon – we got in and unpacked / put everything away, had some lunch. Then Scarlett spent some time looking for Gunther the disabled duck while Ady and I buried the piglets. Davies was catching up with some friends online who are on half term so more available than usual. We walked down to the shop for a few bits and then home to feed the pigs and get dinner on (Ady) and ring my parents (me). I’m not sure how it’s ended up being 1am so I am off to bed!

Thursday – Jen arrived on the 1135am boat and Ady and I went to collect her at the pier. We bought her and her stuff up to the croft, had a cup of tea, handed over with demonstrations of the boiler and solar panels and took her over to the pigs. Tom had not come out for breakfast and was a bit slow on his feet and lumbering which had Ady worrying about him. We talked to Jen about it and decided to see how things went. When we went over to the pigs Tom came out, feed, drank and tried to mate Barbara though so we decided all was probably well after all!

We headed down to the pier, Jen came with us and walked back to the croft to get her bearings and collect some sausages from the freezer and we were off! Fliss, Joss , Claire and Dave Chain were all on the boat with us so it was quite a sociable trip and the 90 minutes flew by. Fliss and Joss were on the same train as us, heading for Glasgow so we sat with them until we got off at Lochailort. Alison collected us from the station and took us back to theirs. The timing had not been as great as we’d hoped for the weekend as their girls had dance classes that evening and a dance exam on the Saturday morning meaning we didn’t see as much of them as we’d hoped – Davies and Scarlett were even more disgruntled about school taking friends away! We had a nice first evening with them and the girls got home just after dinner – unfortunately the sleepover all in one room for the four kids only lasted the one night as the late bedtime knocked their two out for school the next day. Davies and Scarlett shared a room and sneakily used the wifi though so they were not too upset 😉

On Friday Alison stayed at the house with slumbering D&S while Ady, Leon and I took their dog out for a long walk. It was very rainy and Ady and I got sodden. Made me covet Leon’s coat which I am now constantly checking ebay for a version of ;). Alison and I went out to Mallaig to the screen machine which was there, collecting a couple of her friends on the way to see Sunset Song  I can’t say I enjoyed it as such, it was incredibly bleak and with more violence / sex than I would usually choose to watch but it was quite beautiful and a powerful story. It is from a trilogy of books which I have got on my kindle and may read to get the end of the story. We went for a meal afterwards which was nice and Alison’s friends were both really good to chat too – Zoe was younger and very interested in Home Ed and alternative education for her 4 year old daughter. Becky was much older and a really interesting character – I enjoyed talking to both of them, I like meeting new people.

On Saturday while the girls and Alison were out Leon took us four for another walk, this time the tide was low enough to walk across to the wee island he uses for some of his bushcraft survival courses so we did that, looking for signs of otters and chatting about the landscape. The girls were home by about 2pm so they all hung out and then Ady and Leon took them all off back to the screen machine to see the new Star Wars. Alison and I chatted, made dinner and talked to a bloke who had come to service their log burner. I like her a lot but I know she disagrees with a lot of my educational and parenting philosophies which can make for some uncomfortable avoiding subjects. I would rather chat and keep assuring her I am never judging and know that mine are the unconventional choices which I am happy to discuss or simply accept as too ‘out there’ for most people but it often feels a bit ‘elephant in the room’. I was pleased when the others came back, especially as they had had such a good time and really raved about the film.

My friend Heather in NZ told me that the Fogle show had been on TV in Australia – we got a lovely email from a bloke in Tasmania who had seen it and claimed it was the best documentary he’d ever seen and hoped we live happily ever after on our island 🙂 🙂

Sunday morning Alison made waffles for brunch which were delicious. When we went there the first time she did that and it had us googling waffle makers but deciding against one as they are really power hungry. There was a papermaking workshop in their village hall which had unconfirmed numbers of attendees and we had all been considering, in the end Alison and I went along while the others stayed behind. I really enjoyed it – making paper from reeds and rushes (which we have no shortage of!) and meeting more new people.

Jenna had to watch My Left Foot on dvd for some homework so we all watched it in the evening. I remember the hype about it when it came out and Daniel Day Lewis won the oscar but had never seen it. We’ve all talked about it since, definitely a film which leaves a lasting impression. Ironic that a family who are so anti screens had us watching 3 movies over the course of our stay 😉 🙂

On Monday the girls headed off to school and Leon gave us a lift to the station to catch the train to Fort William. We got photos done and bought our Highland rail cards and got our tickets for the train journey the following day then checked into the hotel. The receptionist remembers us we have stayed so often so that was a lovely welcome. Davies and Ady stayed behind while Scarlett and I went along to the dentist for her three teeth to be taken out and the impressions to be taken for her brace fitting. The dentist and nurses had seen the Fogle show so we chatted about that with them.

Tuesday was the train journey to Edinburgh – smooth and straightforward but a long trip. Mairi picked us up from the station to take us to the flat. While we were waiting for her a bloke came up and said ‘Were you guys on George Clarke’s amazing small spaces?’ I said ‘No but we were on Ben Fogle’s New Lives in the Wild!’ – maybe I should have just said no! 🙂 We chatted to him for a while, it was weird but pretty cool.

Mairi had bought us food and drink and a bottle of fizz so we chatted and had a drink before she headed off for home leaving us to the flat. We had dinner, watched TV and had a fairly early night – except Davies who was still sending me facebook messages at 4am! That boy!

Wednesday was Charity Shop shopping day – we walked down to the area where there are loads, spent a couple of hours there and then walked into the main city for lunch. Davies wanted to get Sherlock on DVD, Scarlett and I wanted to go to the Lush shop and there was a need to visit Primark for boring clothing so we did all that and collected food to cook for dinner.

Thursday we did Camera Obscura – a really cool place on 6 levels in the city centre. The actual camera obscura is set on the top and we went to the talk about that and watched people all around the city, then walked down the 6 floors looking at all the optical illusions, trick mirrors, holograms and other exhibits. It was good fun, worth the entrance fee 🙂

We found some more charity shops and I managed to get a weekender style large shoulder bag which I had been looking out for in one of them. Pleased about that 🙂 Back to the flat with a load of pizzas to cook for dinner as despite having an oven and hob there is only one pan in the flat so really hard to plan meals for four of us.

Friday – Mairi had the day off and had said we were welcome whenever we arrived at their place in North Berwick but after checking train times and debating the kids decided they would rather have a lie in and lazy morning so Ady and I did one last wander down to the charity shops, dropped off some clothes that Mairi’s daughter had offered to Scarlett but she didn’t want and bought some cakes for lunch. Then we walked up to the station and caught the trains to North Berwick. Another person recognised me from the TV on the train – I really didn’t think I was that recognisable, even with my hair! He said he really wanted to come to Rum, we told him he should! 🙂 Mairi took us along to the beach as her dog Mack was ready for a walk so that was lovely. We dropped Davies and Scarlett off at her house and then Ady and I went her to Aldi for some bits for dinner and a look round. Back for G&Ts and then her friend Jean arrived, soon followed by Jean’s husband Derek. We met Derek before when Mairi brought him to Rum and he is lovely – in the real world he is a Sheriff Principal judge and he and Jean have 6 children of their own and have fostered a further 6. Jean was an amazing woman, small, loud and a ball of energy. Mairi had warned me that she would make Mairi and I look like timid wallflowers of women and she was right. I utterly fell in love with her and she was very complimentary to me too – we really hit it off. They had brought two of their foster kids who were similar ages to Davies and Scarlett so the kids went off to a different part of the house to hang out while we got through countless bottles of fizz and loads of lovely food and were generally rowdy and riotous! A fab evening. Mairi’s husband Patrick joined us a bit later – he is a teacher and was out with workmates having an end of term pint or five so he didn’t need to catch us up ;). A late night all round.

Saturday – We’d been having updates from Jen all week on Tom’s progress – he had gone downhill a bit when we first left but she had been doing a grand job of tending to him and he had seemed to rally. Infact on her Friday morning update all seemed really positive as he was up and about eating and drinking. Sadly she rang us on Saturday morning just before we left Mairi’s to say she had found him dead 🙁 We were all really sad to hear that news, of all the croft creatures Tom and Barbara have been our favourite, not pets but not quite livestock either. Tom was such a lovely pig, calm, gentle and really nice natured, a great Dad and just really happy with his life. It’s a real blow.

We spent much of the train coordinating with Jen and Doug back on Rum by phonecall and text message when signal allowed. Doug and David very kindly went up to the croft, got Tom out of the house and buried him for us on the croft. A massive relief as it would have been beyond Jen and not a nice task to come home to a few days later. In some ways I think it is best not to have seen his body and to remember him lumbering about healthy which is how we all last saw him. We got in to FW and walked through the town to the Travelodge. The Premier Inn is the better one of the two here in FW – bigger baths but also much closer to the station and the Morrisons, whereas the Travelodge has identical rooms really but is in the heart of the town centre shops. They are less than 10 minutes apart but it feels like more with heavy rucksacks! The Premier Inn was full on the Sunday night and more expensive on the Saturday and Monday though so Travelodge it was. We had also been looking at long term weather forecasts and Tuesday – home day – was looking pretty rough so we had already agreed with Jen that Ady would come home on the Monday so she could get off if the forecast remained bad and I had booked two more nights at the Travelodge just incase.

The kids stayed in the room while Ady and I went and met up with Sean, Ali and Eve who were also in FW having left Rum that day to head south. We had a couple of beers with them then went off to get dinner to bring back to the room.

Sunday – after debate and frantic bus timetable research we decided to head up the Nevis Range for a couple of hours. Bus there, collecting picnic lunch food from Tescos on the way and then a HUGE queue to get tickets. It was so, so busy. Scarlett’s dentist said he’d seen us there but had already skied past us when we recognised us but that it was the second busiest day of the year. Wish we’d known! We’ll go again this time of year but plan a weekday when school is on next time. Gondola ride up watching the snow appear beneath us. It was so, so cold which I know is likely to be the case halfway up a mountain but still surprised me somehow. We trundled around for a bit but I was wary of falling and it was so busy that we were constantly having to leap out of the way of skiers, snowboarders and sledgers. We had a hot chocolate and admired the view – you can just see the very tip of the highest peak on Rum and then came back down to catch the bus back. We had a choice of 2.5 hours or 5.5 hrs there with nothing in between on the Sunday bus timetables and felt 5.5 would be just too long. We walked back through the town, had baths, did a tiny bit of shopping and then in the evening Davies and Scarlett decided they would stay in the room while me and Ady went out for a meal which was lovely.

Monday – Ady had arranged a lift from outside the hotel with Development Officer Steve who was driving through heading for Rum. The kids and I mooched around the shops in the morning, got some food for lunch and then Scarlett and I went off for her dentist appointment. She has had a brace fitted which fits behind her top teeth, held on by brackets around the two very back teeth. I had thought it was a straightforward traintrack style brace and have been googling ever since. I think perhaps we had misunderstood but can’t work out whether she will have the traintrack once this has held the spaces for the adult teeth to descend into due to her overcrowding to then straighten everything up or whether this is the whole thing. Will check properly at her next appointment. I’d over prepared her with you tube clips and googling so we were both just a bit taken aback when he said ‘right that’s you done, see you in 8 weeks’ and didn’t question it at the time!

Scarlett went back to the room while I popped out and bought a little pocket diary – think I’m going to need one to keep up with all the dental appointments this year, bargain at 24p – always worth waiting til mid Feb to buy your diaries folks! 🙂 I got an email and text from Argos to say my reservation for a rucksack had arrived which I was not expecting (I decided to get myself a big one after we got the kids a big one each. Our old wheelie holdall had broken and one of our other holdalls has a zip which probably won’t last the next trip and is also pretty heavy even when empty so we’ve decided to get a rucksack each and then large bags and all carry our own stuff) – it was not due to arrive til Wednesday so I had decided if we were stuck here I’d get it, if not I’d order it online to be delivered to Rum. I just had time to walk along to Argos and back before my opticians appointment as it is a mile or so out of the town. I had time to pop into the Poundstretcher too but was dismayed to see so many fruit trees and bushes and seeds and sets that I couldn’t possibly carry back that I wished I hadn’t looked!

Opticians went well, a slight change in my prescription but I can use up my contact lenses I already have before I change it. Good to have the eye health check too though. Ady will get his done next time we’re off. Ady had arrived home by then and rung with more bad news – we already knew the two muscovy ducks had died (they have been a complete failure on the croft, we’d like some more but will hatch them and harden them up way more than these ones which had clearly been hand reared and hand fed and had no coping skills for the free range life we offer our birds) and about Tom of course but Ady went to feed Barbara and the two girls to discover Barbara in the pig pen with six dead new born piglets 🙁 🙁 We had been pretty sure she was not even pregnant and certainly nowhere near due. Not sure if she has miscarried them and they were stillborn or if they were simply too cold and didn’t make it without assistance. She is fine though which is a huge relief as we could have lost her too. I didn’t take the news well, it was like the final blow to Tom dying really, particularly as it would have been lovely to have more of his piglets and we would probably have kept a boy from the litter to breed on from.  Davies and Scarlett were great, really philosophical and supportive, bless them. Scarlett’s pet duck is also missing, presumed dead although Ady has not found remains yet. It’s been bitterly cold on Rum and this is the time of year we tend to lose livestock, coming out of a cold hard winter with all their reserves simply used up. Even tougher not to be there though.

We all had baths, packed up and went to get McDonalds for dinner. A sombre evening really, all hoping to get home the next day but with ferry on amber alert knowing it was probably not likely.

Sure enough today we got up early and headed off only to get the text notification of the cancelled ferry just before we reached the train station. Could have been worse, we could have been on the train which would have meant a 3 hour circular ride back here, or even worse than that have got off the train and missed the return trip meaning 6 hours in Mallaig waiting for it to come back. It’s wild, wet and windy here, the kids are not up for doing anything much and the promise of a potential lift back tomorrow on a charter boat with the fish farm people has fallen though so I guess we’re here til Thursday.

This morning was packing up clothes for me and the kids. I had half planned to chop some wood but never quite got to it. Quite possibly because although I woke up at 8am (early for me, especially at this time of year when it is barely light still at that time) I read my book for an hour or so in bed and got really immersed in it – it made me cry 🙁 A story based around two husbands in hospital so quite possibly a bit close to home, or to Glasgow!

I did try on every pair of jeans in the wardrobe – somehow I was up to about 10 pairs, some are too small, some are too large and about half are just right, Goldilocks stylee. All are second hand from ebay / charity shops but it turns out that a Next bootcut in my size is still not necessarily going to fit. I packed up our clothes and spent some time writing out contact details and our travel plans for Jen then tidied up the bookcase and shelves a bit. Davies was sorting out his own jeans mountain (8 pairs but only 2 fit!) while Scarlett was painting, for once we were not having clothes related arguments! Our periods have completely synced which potentially means Davies and Ady will probably move out for a week each month, but probably better to get it out of the way in one dire hit rather than have two weeks of hormonal hell!

We had lunch and were listening to some interesting radio stuff – one about film soundtracks which Davies was really interested in and another about a man with Motorneuron Disease who had died this week. I thought it was the guy who had written an article in the Barefoot Diary journal that I write for but looked up his article and found it was not. That was really sad 🙁 As was the article written in BD 🙁

Ady was busy doing practical outsidey stuff to prepare for our trip off. The deal is supposed to be that I make it happen with all the planning and logistics and organising and he does all the physical stuff for it. Somehow despite me spending hours organising it and him just a couple of days beforehand he seems to feel put upon that he has done more… I think I am just more efficient at managing my workload 😉

I went down to Fliss’ for Crafternoon and had a lovely couple of hours with Fliss, Ali and Debs. Fliss and I were talking, firstly about books I had read before we came travelling – Moneyless Man, No Impact Man, How I lived on £1 a day, Treehouse Diaries etc. Then we had a really interesting discussion about law, justice and punishment. I’ve never really given much thought to our justice system as an adult although it was part of my A level sociology 🙂 In talking today I realised that my attitudes to punishments via parenting don’t really translate and Fliss had some really interesting thoughts. Came home and talked to Davies about it as I love the different perspective teens have on these sort of subjects. Must talk about it more with him and Scarlett. Davies is a real deep ponderer but comes out with some wise words, Scarlett can construct a really good rational argument – her and Ady were talking for ages the other day about tagging wild animals for scientific research purposes.

Ady came to pick me up as he had driven down to collect some laundry and do a rubbish run to the skip, we swung by the shop for mozzarella cheese but there was none so I bought both feta and haloumi to go on pizza, neither cut it 🙁 sometimes only mozzarella will do! Davies had had his shower but the boiler had gone out and neither of them could get it re-lit so Scarlett had not. Ady stripped the boiler down and cleaned some bits of it which seems to have done the trick so I brushed Scarlett’s hair, did the News From Rum report for the West Word  and made dinner.

Sure enough Monday was a not leaving the static sort of day for the kids and I. Ady did the two rounds of animal feeding and spent a bit of time outside tying stuff down too. I made bread rolls and soup for lunch, did some crochet and then sat with Scarlett helping her write a letter. A Home Ed woman down in Worthing had seen the TV show and having a few local HE friends in common I had accepted her friend request on facebook and we have chatted a bit. She has 4 kids and the oldest two are similar ages to Davies and Scarlett although the other way round. She suggested before Christmas that they might like to be penpals and I talked to D&S about it who liked the idea so I agreed. Her two wrote to Davies and Scarlett and because of cancelled boats the letters didn’t get here til a few days after Christmas and then we went off. Davies had written his letter when we got back but Scarlett needed help with the writing of hers and it’s just not happened. She was determined to improve her writing as she has previously just written in block capitals in a messy manner but has been working on bubble writing and more fancy styles, particularly as Maisie who often writes to her has really nice swirly writing. We talked a bit about joined up writing and cursive script and in classic leaps and bounds autonomous HE style she has produced a page of really quite nice writing. It is a way from being beautiful but looks like it was written by someone several years older than the last thing she wrote. Infact you can even see the improvement over the course of the letter itself. She also pretty much spelled the whole thing herself. When I pointed out that if she can write and spell then she can read because in theory that is easier she denied that and said that she finds it easy to work out which letters she needs to spell things but finds it hard to keep track of all the sounds in a word with more than one syllable to sound out to read it, which sort of makes sense. I do catch her quite obviously able to read a lot though and think part of it is deliberate which I have read a lot of in late readers and AHE kids.

Anyway, Scarlett and I did an hour or so of writing, getting distracted and chatting, drawing letters and so on and then she had had enough so her and Davies played a game (s Sherlock app) which he was desperate to show her.

Today the wind finally died down after yet another noisy night. Looking forward to our trip off and some time away from mud! My Granny’s will has left Ady and I jointly one sixth of any savings and investments she had. Frazer gets one sixth as does our cousin Dan and my Uncle gets a quarter as do Mum & Dad jointly. A complicated will! Our Uncle also gets her house which was built on his land 20 odd years ago. Listed in the will were premium bonds which have subsequently been sold and it is not clear what else there is so it may amount to very little at all but we have send our proof of ID documents to the solicitor. In the meantime as there has been some falling out between my Mum and Uncle over things there was a cash sum found in the house of £5K which my Uncle has split between Ady & I, Frazer & Kat and our cousin with us getting £2K. Dad had lent us £1000 when Ady was in hospital which instantly went on hotel bills and food for me and the kids, I have not even had the invoice for the hire car yet but that will be several hundred pounds. So I paid Dad back (he would not have wanted it but Mum insisted) and we will spend some of the remainder of the money on this trip. It feels a little frivilous really but I think we need the break.

This morning we walked down to the village to get some stuff from the freezer for dinner and some shopping ready for Jen (croftsitter), then back home for lunch. Scarlett and I finished her letter and then I chopped wood for a couple of hours making some good headway in the woodpile. Not sure whether Jen will keep the fire lit all day long or be keen to chop some wood herself anyway so trying to make sure she has sufficient without leaving so much she just burns all our supplies!

Really tired tonight after a few nights of crappy broken sleep thanks to the wind and the wood chopping has made me all achey too. I was ranty at the kids this evening and think I am really just ready for my holiday now!

Ady emptied the Rangerover of wood and seaweed onto the croft this morning. I sewed up my jeans – I won several second hand pairs on ebay just after Christmas so currently have about 5 pairs without holes in so my worst holey pair were relegated to repair material and my second worst have now been patched up and become my croftin’ jeans. Then I went outside too. While Ady moved the seaweed into the walled garden and spread it on the raised beds then carried some of the wood up the hill next to the wood shed ready for splitting, I took the netting off the top of the fruit cage and rolled it back to the sides. It has been getting more torn and flapping in the wind catching on the tops of the fruit trees and damaging them. I had been intending to repair it again but decided that as it is not actually needed on there until there is fruit on the trees and bushes way later in the year it would be more prudent to remove it during the winter storms so did that instead.

We came back up for lunch and then went down to do laundry. We called at the shop for some firelighters and peat blocks then put the washing on. While it was doing we had a wander round the walled garden at the back of the castle where various residents had had allotment plots over the years. We were looking to see if anything was coming back to life for the spring on Ranger Mike’s old plot when Ady trod on a really overgrown shower door and then an old window with perspex in. They were both really overgrown but intact so we dug them out and have put them aside to collect next time we are down in the village with the car. They will make perfect cold frames. The washing finally finished so we stuck it in the tumble dried and walked round to Fliss’ as she had invited us round for chocolate cake. Had a lovely hour or so chatting with her, drinking tea and eating cake, then back to collect the washing.

On the way home we met Mike & Deb who had called up at the Croft to visit us so chatted to them for a while, then Mr Rhys at the croft gate. We fed the animals and then I came in to get dinner on (Scarlett had peeled potatoes, carrots and parsnips in preparation while Davies was tidying his room) and Ady quickly split a load of logs. A round of Blokus before the genny went on, we all talked to my parents on the phone, I had a shower and we had a late dinner and Doctor Who.

Definitely made the most of the window of calm between storms. Anticipating doing very little other than crafting and watching iplayer tomorrow.

Thursday – A one boat day instead of two. We went down to collect a delivery of wine – Aldi are doing wine deliveries and had some good offers on with free delivery.  I got a crate of fizz and a crate of white for under £50 which is an excellent price. Even Jinty’s cheapest of all cheap white (white is basically vinegar!) is not that cheap. In the morning there had been some online facebook based drama with Fliss which had had her upset so Ali and I made a very obvious show of supporting her at the pier too which was good. We went to the freezer and then Ady collected some washing and some firewood which Mr Rhys had chopped up for us while I carried a sack of cat food from Fliss’ car into the house for her as she has a bad back. We collected the post and then came home.

We had lunch and had planned to move seaweed and firewood around a bit but the weather prevented it as Gertrude swept in.

Friday – A bad nights sleep all round and aside from going out to feed the animals, walk the croft and check all was well we didn’t do much else. We watched a cartoon adaptation of Animal Farm which was interesting and provoked discussion about political ideologies, ate pizza and watched Doctor Who.

Saturday – Another windy night. I’d got up in the night to take the clock down and move some candles around as it had gotten really windy again. We had to go to the village to collect stuff from the freezer and post Lovefilm even thought the boat today was cancelled so in a weather window this morning Ady and I did that. Ali had messaged to say she might come up this afternoon and her and Eve arrived with brownies shortly after we got back. They stayed for a couple of hours chatting, Ady went out to empty the two wheelbarrows of seaweed he and I had brought back with us onto raised beds but the almost constant rain, hail, snow and wind meant I didn’t venture out again. I did manage to dehydrate the milk and water kefir grains in preparation for us going off next week but that’s about all. It’s died down a bit now and tomorrow is supposed to be better so we are planning to get laundry done and have been invited to Fliss’ for chocolate cake too.

Friday – erm…. nothing at all springs to mind. I know we had pizza, I know we watched Doctor Who. Oh, wait, yes, Fliss came up for lunch. I chopped wood in the morning and Ady did loo emptying, Fliss came up for lunch and chats about craft events.

Saturday – we went down to the boat as we had petrol coming off. It was a busy boat so we chatted to folk, our animal feed delivery came off and we also did our laundry. So we came back from the boat and transfered the animal feed into the Rangerover, then went back down to the village to collect seaweed while the washing dried. We got the car across the river with the animal feed and unloaded all that, then came in for lunch. After lunch it had rained a bit but we managed to get the car across then it died having got water in in it. We loaded the seaweed in but left it there rather than attempt another river crossing.

We’d had a really productive week so I declared it Prosecco Saturday and Ady drank a whole four pack of beers. We’re so rock n roll.

Sunday – the weather was horrid so I dossed in bed with a book having a lie in. Then Ady and I went down to the village to help with prep for Burns Night. Ady took on the icky task of cleaning out the hall kitchen fridge, while I helped peel and chop a load of potatoes, then diced up the tops (heart, lungs, liver) of a deer hind that had been boiled for a few hours. Really interesting the different textures between the different organs. I fried that off and then added it to stock and the haggis mix (oatmeal and spices) and then with Ady’s help stuffed the two massive casings. Doug, David and Lesley were there with us in the kitchen, Ali and Clare and Dan were in the hall laying out tables and clearing up. It was a nice few hours. Baby Dougal prevented Lesley from doing as much as she’d planned so I ended up whipping the cream and making the cranachan too while she supervised and cuddled Dougal. We came home for dinner which was a lovely roast chicken.

Monday – the weather was dire again, Ady and I walked down to collect the battery which had been on charge but several power cuts in the village meant it had gone off. I’d taken down some butchers string to tie off the haggis so did that and we collected the pole from Gav’s old bell tent which we have the canvas for and had thought the pole was forever lost when Neil and Lesley found it under their spare bed in the room Gav and Laura had used – yay!  Reminded me of a very funny afternoon with Clara trying to work out how long or short to cut a huge bamboo pole as a replacement. We managed it and stuck it in a welly with a deodrant lid on top. Back at home for lunch and we watched some wildlife documentaries, I had a shower and wrote our poems and then we got ready to go down to the village.

A fabulous evening down there, lovely food, good poems, some singing and lots and lots and lots of drink. One good thing to come from having been a director is my friendship with Lesley, Ali and Fliss, the four of us are very close now and they all stood by me like sisters when we had our drama earlier this month. There is one particular photo of the four of us from the evening which just makes me smile every time I look at it. I have felt pretty lonely here on Rum at times for good friends but four years in I know that there is a real bond between us four.  It was a very late night, I think Ady and I got home just before 2am.

Tuesday – which of course meant nothing much happened on Tuesday! 😉 Davies didn’t even get up until nearly 4pm. I didn’t get up til 11 although Ady had been up and getting on with things much earlier. I mostly drank tea, ate toast and chocolate, crocheted and watched wildlife programmes with Scarlett on iplayer. I was not remotely productive but had a happy glow of a lovely evening and the pleasure of looking through the photos, well over half of which were just unflattering ones of us all in various states of drunken rowdiness and hysterical laughter! I did ring my parents and manage to write a blog post but that was the sum total of my achievements for the day.

Today – much more productive. Ady dealt with loo emptying while I got the remaining six rounds of wood up the hill and chopped, split and stacked them all. It was glorious and sunny, I was actually in short sleeves for a while when I was axe swinging. The weather suddenly turned though and an hour later it was snowing! We had lunch and then I headed off to Crafternoon with Fliss and Ali. Chatter, tea, brownies, post mortem-ing Burns Night and a small amount of crafting. Back up the hill for a round of Blokus and then dinner.