One word? When seven would do…

About to head off to bed, still pretty noisy but it was a shit nights sleep last night and I am Mrs Post in the morning so hoping to do some sleeping.

 

I think the worst is over. I will tentatively say that although it has been crazy windy it has not felt that bad, certainly not in the league of some of the storms we had last year. The clock is down and the walls are shaking though, so there is every chance that I am getting more blase about it rather than it being tame.

 

I finished painting Dave’s cabin bathroom – second coat of gloss on the walls where the shower is going and a second coat of marine floor paint on the floor of the bathroom. It looks good. Fingers crossed it all dries before he is over next weekend – it is *really* cold in there and the first coat on the floor stayed tacky for ages. Other than that dash along the top trail to the cabin I have been in all day and not really very productive either. I had sort of plans to make gingerbread and help Scarlett with her secret santa for Jinty but didn’t manage either. I did make most of a crochet bag for my secret santa though so not entirely pointless. I also made lunch and dinner and bread and watched Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas.

And drank tea, 🙂

It’s actually been quite a nice hanging out in the static listening to music, watching festive stuff type of day. Davies made a couple of Christmas cards, Scarlett made a fimo decoration to top her candle. Vikki appeared late afternoon and stayed for a couple of hours. We watched Arthur Christmas as our advent DVD. It’s been nice. Very touched by how many people messages, text, rang, emailed etc to check on us – Rum folk and general friends, Made us feel most loved 🙂

 

 

Arctic weather bomb! I *love* the sound of that, even more exciting than last years polar vortex.

The wind came in around 3am – I was aware of it and only slept fitfully from then. Up for work this morning and it was oranges (full on oil skin waterproofs) down to the village to do post office. As predicted with the exception of a couple of people using the banking side of the post office to take cash out it was very quiet. Bad Neil came in for a cup of tea, Fliss came in for a cup of tea and Norman came in for his four beers (yes, really four tins of beer between 10am and midday – ah Rum!).  There was due to be a nativity rehearsal this evening but I had already sent our excuses if the predicted weather came in.

I got home and Ady had made the bread dough into loaves so lunch was ready. The kids were watching Simpsons on dvd so Ady and I chatted over lunch and then as it was not too dreadful outside we went out to secure the salamis in the polytunnel with some better string and hanging arrangements, chop a bit more wood and feed the animals. It was borderline wild out there but still good to be outside. Pretty cold though, part of me is not desperate for the winkle sacks to arrive 😉

Back indoors before dark and we finally watched last weeks Apprentice. I did some work on the Rumble newsletter while Ady cooked dinner (our) sausages and chips. We watched some HIMYM and then tonights festive film was Elf. It is gusts of wind just now, so nothing at all and then you hear it rolling towards the caravan and then smacking into the side. The clock is down, we’ve done as much prep as we can so all that remains is waiting it out and hoping nothing dreadful happens. Weather bomb…. see you on the other side!

It would not get Dolly singing really would it? But it was a pretty full on 2 hours shift this morning. No boat on Saturday, a promised rescheduled boat yesterday not happening and close proximity to Christmas with threats of no more boats for the rest of this week meant *everyone* was wanting to post their parcels and Christmas cards today. A real run on festive stamps and much weighing, printing labels and asking whether there were dodgy contraband contents in the parcels.

The morning started quite quietly with five of us stood around drinking tea / coffee – Steve, Trudi, Ross, Bad Neil and I, but it got busier as we went and there was never really a lull til home time. Jinty rang to say she won’t be back til probably Saturday so am I ok to do tomorrow and Thursday? I am. More cash for Christmas and I suspect they will be quieter shifts as everyone has already done their mad sending stuff off today.

I walked home and Ady had been busy digging a ditch around the back of the fruit cage. We have decided not to plant the new apple trees out until after the forecast storms this week. I know they will have to put up with 80mph winds but they can wait in the polytunnel a while longer before they do. We had lunch – no bread so it was mince pies all round 🙂 The kids went and fetched their bikes which had been up at the fork in the road under a tarp but have now been brought in to the polytunnel  to keep them dry and safe as cycling opportunities are about to dry up for  a few weeks I suspect. Then Ady and I went to meet the boat, taking rubbish and empty petrol cans with us. We took the rangerover to the jeep (the rangerover is used on the really off road track and across the river as it is higher and has better off road tyres, the jeep is used for driving on the better roads around the village as it is a nicer car, lower to the ground and also runs on diesel rather than petrol so loads more miles to the gallon) and then the jeep to the pier. The boat had not been to Muck so had sat at Rum for over an hour sticking to timetabled departure. Our animal feed delivery had come, along with various parcels. Bad Neil was on boat duty so we waited for him to finish and gave him a lift back to the village, collected some bits from the freezer, got the post from Derek and then came home.

We transfered the animal feed into the rangerover and then brought that across the river to the croft as it was just about low enough to cross at the ford. Then I left Ady to empty the car while I went across to the cabin and did a coat of paint on the wall in the shower room. Back home just before dark, we watched some River Cottage Christmas, I made wraps for dinner, bread dough and then cooked tacos, fajitas and nachos. We watched a couple of HIMYM and then tonights Christmas film which was a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie.

Work again in the morning and then possibly not a lot in the afternoon as we may need to stay indoors and hold the caravan roof down!

Saturday – Scarlett’s birthday 🙂 Up not too early at about 730am for present opening. It was  a really dark drizzly morning that didn’t actually get properly light until about 930am so it felt earlier though.  Scarlett was thrilled with all her pressies and set about setting her hudl2 up and then connecting with Davies and fully exploring that. We left them to it and Ady and I spent a while looking at old flickr photos of her through the years. Awwww.

 

We had her choice of birthday lunch – cheeses (she likes proper blue cheese, mature cheese, stinky cheese), pickled onions, olives, twiglets. Then we headed down to the hall for Christmas Fayre. It initally looked as though it was not really going to happen with Mel & Em there but looking about to leave and Fliss darting about still getting things together. But we pulled it together and it was all good. I made a vat of mulled wine, Em nipped home and got some mince pies, Debs turned up with loads of cakes, there were four entries to the mince pie contest and we got Jinty’s dad to be the judge. People came along and brought birthday presents for Scarlett, Claire, Fliss, Davies, Scarlett, Debs and I all put stuff out for sale and all sold stuff. We put Christmas music on, Ady bought in the tree, he and Fliss secured it, Fliss brought fairy lights and the bag of Christmas baubles that is always kicking around the hall was found and the kids all lobbed them at the tree.

We did Tarly’s birthday cake candles, singing etc and it was all very lovely. The kids all played together and it was a nice atmosphere. Lesley is hoping she is pregnant but is not sharing it widely (as in at all other than me I think) so she stretched her glass of mulled wine which I diluted for her and then Ady made her a cup of tea.

Back to feed the animals and get birthday dinner sorted – Scarlett had requested gammon and potato gratin so we had our first taste of the gammon I wet cured from our pigs and it was delicious. I am very excited about doing more adventurous things in the future but this is a fab start to our own meat.

We watched Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas and it ended up being a late night, candles at both ends and in the middle!

 

This morning Ady worked at the hostel just for 2 hours. Our promised boat as yesterdays was cancelled also got cancelled -fingers crossed for tomorrow. I had a nice lie in and read my book in bed as it was very cold and hailstorming. I stayed there til Ady got home and stoked the fire up, then had a shower and got up once it was warmer!

The kids had a lazy morning playing on tablets – plenty of power thanks to wind turbine spinning round. After lunch they both had showers, I cut Davies’ hair, brushed Scarlett’s hair, fed the animals with Ady so I had at least left the caravan once. The kids and I did some plastic bottle and candle craft making icicles to hang on the tree thanks to LovelyEm’s lovely mum’s blog idea. Then finally we decorated the tree. It looks lovely although I would like a few more decorations on it so we may make some biscuits tomorrow and I might knit or crochet a few more bits. Also might send the kids out foraging for natural decorations when the weather is better,

 

Ady cooked dinner – roast pork (yes I know, pig produce tastic!) and it was divine, best pork so far I think. Nightmare Before Christmas as festive film which I think we might bump for next year. I like the idea of more cheesy festive films with small children being cute and a bit of old fashioned magic. I suspect I may be officially middle aged and nostalgic 😉

will blog today when it has all happened!

 

Yesterday was a typical day before a birthday day (Alison – remember when we stayed up til crazy morning o’clock every single time before a kids party and then staggered through them all glazed eyed and manic?!) where I had left some things to the last minute because they needed to be and others because I was just slack!

Mucho baking – mince pies for the Christmas fayre tomorrow, more mincemeat because that was the last jar from last year, birthday cakes – tiffin for up here for us four and an eggless chocolate orange cake to take down to the hall to share.

We went down to the woods to chop down a tree for the hall – Scarlett did it this time and did an amazing job of hitting it with the axe and pushing it over.  Ady took it up to the car ready to bring down to the hall while the kids and I went back to the static to get lunch sorted.

Lots of Christmas songs all day, feeling very festive.

I walked down with Ady to the car to collect our newly arrived mattock just before it got dark as I was feeling a bit caravan-bound and it had stopped raining / sleeting / hailing / snowing briefly. We fed the animals and then came in for the night. I then had to sew a toy hamster which had arrived in kit form a couple of weeks ago but I’d not found time alone to make. I shut myself in the bedroom with it but it was getting dark and it was baltic in there so after about an hour I couldn’t actually feel my fingers any more so I brought it into the lounge and did it covertly. I took way longer than I expected but does look very much like Humphrey (while still alive!) which is what Scarlett wanted.

Christmas dvds were Simpsons Christmas specials and Merry Christmas Mr Bean, I think I prefer actual festive films to the TV specials, next year we’ll get more films I think.

Pizza for dinner, kids to bed, I wrapped Scarlett’s presents – a Hudl2, case for it, playmobil swan, the cuddly Humphrey, a mini whiteboard and some stamps for her stamp collection. wrote a birthday message on the whiteboard wall in the bathroom and was just about in bed for 151am which is when she was born.

Oops, mistakenly posted this on wondering wanderers – hope no one saw it!!

 

Bloody teachers! 😉

I worked at post office this morning – a swapped shift as I am not working on Saturday as it’s Scarlett’s birthday. How did my baby get to be 12?! 😯

I had my usual trickle of folk in and Bad Neil and then later Fliss stopped for a cup of tea and chat. I do like Post Office, it’s most sociable 🙂

Derek brought along a delivery from the boat of my apple trees. I ordered and paid for them back in about August and was wondering if it would ever actually get cold enough for them to be dormant enough to send – the same happened last year with fruit trees which didn’t come til late November for the same reason. These are rather more of an investment though – £150 for the 8 of them, all heritage varieties, six eaters and two cookers, all specifically chosen for their suitability to our soil and climate from a choice of about 60 types that this little Scottish orchard had available this year. I found the contact on a Scottish permaculture mailing list. We have the fruit cage ready to go but need to dig some drainage ditches and then actually put them in properly according to instructions with mulch and stuff – too big an investment for my usual method of shove it in and cross your fingers! In theory this is our last big financial outlay on the croft until the house is built and we are definitely staying, so they are slightly symbolic trees too. Oh the stupidity of burdening a tree with any level of symbolism! :rolls:

I walked home in the rain with my trees and various bits I had bought from the shop, mostly for Scarlett’s birthday. Her birthday menu runs thus: cinnamon french toast for breakfast (always a problem as there are never eggs on the island in December, this year is no exception but I had frozen some eggs beaten with sugar during the earlier in the year egg glut so am ready this year!), cheese, crackers, olives, pickled onions etc for lunch (onions pickled again cutting it too fine really but I had been ordering pickling onions with my veg for *weeks* – next year I will try and grow some myself!), roast gammon and potato gratin for dinner (our own gammon this year – yay!). She wants a birthday cake of tiffin for up here with us and something more chocolate sponge-esque to take down to the village to share. I had various cheeses, crackers, stuff for cake making and a mini bottle of prosecco that Jinty had got in a crate of and I had earmarked as a pressie for Scarlett.

The others had been variously up to things all morning so we all caught up with each others days so far over lunch. We had then planned to plant out the trees but it began tipping down with rain and was already 230pm so we decided to unpack them and put them in the polytunnel with the roots wrapped in a wet sack to keep them hydrated and plant them out tomorrow when we have more time. Davies and Scarlett made the most of a break in the weather to walk down to the village and then I followed them an hour or so later. Ady stayed behind to feed the pigs and ensure Barbara didn’t escape – she didn’t. I met the kids and we joined in with the first run through of the school nativity and then had the monthly residents meeting. Ady put on a load of laundry, collected pig feed from the bunkhouse, put the laundry into the dryer and then came to join us.

The nativity run through was fine but I was annoyed with Deb who kept trying to coerce Scarlett into joining in and taking a part, Scarlett was very resolute and is determined that she does not want to do it so I was proud of her for sticking to her guns. Davies did well reading his parts with just the right mix of aloof cool teendom and enthusiasm for a community event ;). Deb is clearly desperate to include Davies and Scarlett more in school stuff which would be nice if it were for their benefit but is quite clearly because she prefers doing stuff with older children and feels Eve and Joss will get something out of it. I may have been ranty about this on the way home 😉

The meeting was a typical winter one, a very low turn out, not much on the agenda and no appetite for contentious stuff. Then most people left, the rest of us had jacket potatoes and then Sean the Rat did his talk which is the last of the current round of Rum lectures. He talked about his Phd which is about the Rum Rats, explaining how he has conducted his research, early findings and various science-y stuff. He is doing some discections of rats soon and Scarlett and Davies are keen to join in with that, he is also looking for help with his trapping and chipping of live rats in the next few weeks so they have volunteered to do that too. Better than nativity stuff 😉

We got home, more or less in the dry and watched Muppet Christmas Carol all snuggled under blankets. It made for a very late night, but no one has to be up in the morning. Tomorrow brings cake making, mince pie making, apple tree planting…

Sorry Helen (who commented, and anyone else who read) but yesterdays post seems to have gone! Lost in the transition period. Along with all blogpost from March this year, so I guess one more isn’t the end of the world.

I can more or less recall what it said – lots of digging! The housesite digging is going well, we have done two sides of just the edge with the third side nearly half done. The longest edge which is the curve has a full dug out trench, the north to south wall is just a small edge to mark it out. I reckon we are about a sixth of the way dug which is pretty good given it’s just the two of us.

In other news the annual Goddard advent DVD extravaganza has begun, so far we have watched Polar Express, The Snowman, Father Christmas and tonight was The Christmas Story. Today we chose our Christmas tree and Davies was the axe wielding one cutting the tree down all by himself. A real landmark moment 🙂 It will stay outside until Sunday when we will bring it in after Scarlett’s birthday.

I am sure much else has happened but I am very tired and just want to check this all works ok. Please comment if you managed to get in and read 🙂

I *think* I’m back. I appear to have lost everything between March and now but in the scheme of things that is liveable with and far preferable to losing everything which looked like it may be the case earlier in the week. Gulp.

Fortunately I have not blogged much on here this year really anyway, and have been more active on the other blog and on facebook so can probably cobble together enough to do a round up post for posterity.

So, I won’t try and catch up on 8 months of blogging but will talk about this week which has been a good one. We had a great day making sausages and salami in the hall, sausages are delicious, salami is hanging in the polytunnel and will be a wait and see deal before knowing how that pans out. I also sliced up the bacon which had been curing, rolled up the hams and gammon joints and the freezer is groaning with pig produce 🙂

Also we finally broke ground on the house plot site. Top ditch is about a third of the way dug, the curve wall is all dug and we have over half of the outline of the house. Based on that progress I reckon two weeks of digging will clear the site. We have found subsoil not too far down, there are threads of clay so far but nothing of any quantity but that is fine as we know we have clay elsewhere on the croft, it would just have been incredibly easy to be digging it out of the house plot rather than digging it elsewhere and barrowing it to the house plot. At the moment we are just spreading out the spoil but we may need a better plan than that eventually. For now though it just feels good to be finally making some practical physical progress on it and being out there doing something towards making it happen.

I had foiled shower this morning – just as I had put conditioner on my hair and lathered up the rest of my body the water ran out 🙁 There is a vent in the roof of the shower so it is never a nice experience being in there on a windy or rainy day anyway but covered in lather, wet and naked exposed to the elements was far from fun. Ady went up to the burn to investigate and the filter covering the hose had gotten clogged up and come loose. He fixed it, I waited for the tank to fill back up and finished my shower. Brrr.

That took us to Popmaster, after which Ady and I went down to the village to see Gav who had offered to tow the Pajero back to the croft, complete with full load of animal feed which arrived on Saturday. Bonnie was out playing on the croft and Ady and I attempted to sneak past her by crouching down low behind the wall. We both found this hilarious and were snorting with laughter which attracted her attention and had her furiously barking as we made her jump. I almost wet myself laughing, it was so funny! Ady took her back home to the static and we carried on our way.

We had a cup of tea and chat with Gav and Laura before heading to the pier and bringing the car back. We’ve left it at the fork off to the crofts from the main track so that it is a good halfway point between the village and the croft – people could get to the car with their vehicles to drop stuff off for us and we can use it to hold things too. Eventually we will get it all the way down to the croft but for now it is good there.

Back home for lunch and then candle making for Scarlett and I. We had the idea of making layered ‘moods of Rum’ candles similar to my scarves having brainstormed for a while how to make them more Rum-esque and therefore more saleable to tourists. Another excellent idea was midge filled citronella candles which we’ll make when the midges return soon as I need to collect more for my resin stuff too. Scarlett designed four candles – The Sea is Alive (ocean colours), Rum Cuillin Ridge (grass, grey peaks, blue skies), Summer Skies (a series of blues) and Sunset at Kilmory (reds, oranges, yellows). We made them in silicone cake cases and they look fab. We need to get the layers more even next time and think they would be even better if taller and perfectly cylindrical rather than graduated wider at the top but an excellent first attempt and perfectly sale-able 🙂

Davies and I had a big chat about what he wants to do with his life – he is adamant he wants to travel more but didn’t really have much of a plan beyond that so we talked about deciding where he would like to travel, whether he is looking to stay long term in places or just pass through, to save up and travel like on holiday or to work as he goes, or to make traveling his job somehow. We got out the map of the UK and talked about the different counties, different places we’ve been to around the UK, where friends live, memories he has of various holidays, WWOOFing, trips and time spent in different places. It made me realise anew how well traveled the kids are in this country, both in the standard tourist destinations but also in culture and proper geographical knowledge.

Vikki came up for dinner and I had a rant about universities, we realised Vikki has never seen Torchwood so we ordered series 1 on dvd to watch with her one day next week and had a nice evening before she braved the wild weather to head home. It is mad windy out there tonight, reckon the gusts must be 70mph.

Wild weather here today although it started really calm this morning to the extent I thought about doing a load of laundry. Glad I didn’t as it would now be being blown all over the croft getting wet and muddy.

In the end I had an indoors day – I ran all sorts of anti virus stuff on my netbook which is playing up and now seems a little happier and faster. I also created two new logos – one for Croft 3 Produce and one for Made on Croft 3. I did some director stuff (emails and some editing of documents) and did some sock knitting too. I replied to some emails and felt at least a little productive if not very active.

Ady kept bobbing in and out between rain showers, he really struggles with staying indoors all day.

At 5ish Ady and I walked down to the village to collect the post and get a couple of bits from the shop.

Scarlett has had a dicky tummy today so we’ve been boiling water for drinking.

If the weather performs as it is supposed to tomorrow (ie dreadful) I want to do something with the kids.

Erm…. yesterday morning I didn’t get my lie in because it was super windy and the charge controller for the wind turbine caught fire 🙁 It is supposed to have a brake which obviously didn’t kick in so I have emailed the supplier to see if they will replace it but their customer service feedback reports are pretty poor (they are by far the cheapest place to get wind turbines so worth the gamble) – if we have no luck we will replace from somewhere else. We had the spare one from the previously damaged wind turbine which is inferior but works so Ady put that in but it stayed too windy all day to hook the turbine back up to test it so Ady spent the whole day fretting that the turbine might not work anymore. It does – we tested it today.

I did some baking – another weeks supply of Nic-ola (granola), some snickerdoodles and an apple pie.

We’d arranged to collect some paint from Ranger Mike so went to the village with the wagon to do that. Lots of ends of pots, many with just a dribble of paint, which we have brought back to the croft and I will rummage through in nicer weather to see if there is enough to repaint the horse box with, gypsy stylee like the honesty larder fridge. While we were down there I took my laptop to the IRCT office and Steve came to see if he could get it to talk to the printer. We spent over an hour trying but admitted defeat. In the end I emailed the newsletter to everyone for this month. I hate printers.

Davies and Scarlett stayed home and had showers / hair washes. Really noticing the changes in their hair and skin just now as they hit puberty. Not little children any more…

On the way home we bumped into Vikki who was heading up to visit us bearing banana and chocolate muffins to share so she came in to drink tea and eat cake which was lovely. Vikki left, Ady sorted dinner, I emailed newsletters, Davies finished a poster for his postcards, Scarlett got out her candle making supplies and we all had dinner and watched Friends.

Today Ady and I took our veg order down to the village and collected some bits from the freezer. Back home for lunch and then we went back out to do some firewood. The chainsaw is proving incredibly useful and in less than an hour we had filled our wagon and wheelbarrow with full loads – enough to keep us going for at least 4 days. It took almost as long to get it up the hill and stack it all up as it did to chop it up! The next plan is to start chopping, splitting and stacking for next winter, just wish I knew where the right location to site a wood store will be…ah for a crystal ball!

We emailed Gav to tack on our mortar order to a Travis Perkins order he is doing – next step for us on the chicken house is to fill in the trench with small stones. Maybe we’ll start that tomorrow, weather permitting. The fruit cage is looking great with buds on all the fruit trees and loads of the fruit bushes, it is definitely chicken proof 🙂 All four trays of peas have sprouted in the polytunnel and the salad leaves are all sprouting too. Spring is coming!

I’ve been all uncoordinated and clumsy today. I made cock ups at the post office, spilled a load of milk, have my period and maybe a sore throat but maybe not.

I think I’m just tired. I’ve read a couple of haunting books this week – one about concentration camps and another about a ‘sliding doors’ style split life and I’ve been dreaming myself in the stories at night. Last night I got home around 1230am so read for an hour or so but Ady was very snore-y so I didn’t sleep well again and then I had to be up for work this morning, the one morning this week when I struggled to wake and get up.

Scarlett didn’t fancy coming down today so I was on my own. Ady came to meet me having been to the boat, we had a fair bit of post and picked up various stuff from Jinty that we’d ordered including coal, wine, beer, tins of sweetcorn and beans and other bulk purchases, all trundled home in the wagon.

A parcel from Dad came in the post – containing two chainsaw blades and a pair of waterproof trousers. I’ve thought of him several times this week, not least when there was a question on Popmaster I knew he’d know and would be thinking about us and laughing if he’d listened to it. I rang him for a good old chat this afternoon and he told me not to worry about a car, he’d find one and drive it up when they come at Easter. I miss him so much I can’t really think about it too much, it would make me cry 🙁 I’m happy to know he thinks of us too and misses us lots but it doesn’t make it any easier.

Back home for lunch and then a fairly lazy afternoon. Ady bobbed in and out, I made bread and pizza dough, knitted a bit, replied to some emails and thought about posters. Davies made a new poster for his postcards.

I made dinner and we watched a couple of episodes of Friends – new series 4 and 5 arrived in the post today.

I think I need to have an early night, read something cheerier and hopefully get a good nights sleep.

A pretty productive week again with the cob chicken house trench dug and draining really well. Next week we’ll fill it all in with gravel and drainage pipe and then we’ll be ready to start building – first is a metre high stone wall before we start with the actual cob bit.

We’ve done lots of other stuff around the croft too including fixing the fruit cage and netting on raised beds, tidying up a bit and Ady did some chainsawing so we have some more firewood stocked up. I have done various Director-y things but thankfully nothing unpleasant this week.

Yesterday was Abby’s birthday so we went down for beer and cake and singing at the shop for that. It was nice 🙂 Today has been mostly rainy so aside from a brief walk to the village to collect stuff from the freezer I’ve been catching up on emails and stuff like that. I still have various things to do like posters to get ready for the ‘season’ but might try and tick all those off this weekend.

Tonight Vikki has invited me and Lesley round for a glass of wine. Not sure whether it is as simple friendly evening or if she has something on her agenda… will see.

A splendid start to the week 🙂

All the laundry done, the fruit cage door fixed and all the netting removed tidying it up, my raised beds with garlic in all re netted so everything growing is now chicken and turkey proof – yay! Although I did find five chickens in the polytunnel tonight so they may have just moved indoors for their buffet!

We got the whole footprint and runaway ditch trenches dug for the cob chicken house – lots of clay like stuff, some decent large stones useful for building too. Next step is to fill the trenches in with small stones for drainage but as rain is forecast over the next couple of days we’re planning to see how the water runs away (or not) and make any necessary amendments before filling in. Hopefully we get some dry weather at the weekend or early next week to start that.

The kids had been outside loads, Scarlett even paddled in the river – yesterday it was deliberate, today she just accidentally got a wet foot! 🙂 We got a very lovely Hotel Chocolat gift box from a Sussex friend which has been much scoffed and enjoyed, the kids now have waterproof over trousers that fit them.

I still have a HUGE job list but it does feel as though it is slowly getting smaller. Meetings tomorrow.

Have felt most outdoors deprived of late.

I worked this morning at post office – Scarlett came down with me but Davies appeared an hour later with some cash so they bought some sweets and wandered off to play. I had a nice morning chatting to various people and selling stamps.

I found the kids and we went home for lunch.

Ady had got two more loads of washing done so he made lunch while I hung that out and then everyone scattered outside doing different things. Ady stayed near the static to watch the washing machine and moved some pallets around to allow some ground to dry out and preserve some other ground from getting too messed up before the better weather dries it out. The kids and Bonnie headed off adventuring, while I went to the fruit cage and gave it a really good tidy up, collecting some blown around cardboard and plant packaging, snipping off the ripped netting that had been the roof, cutting off the long ends of tie-its used to secure things. I took the door off, repaired it and netted the whole thing before fixing it back on. It needs the netting secured a little more with some string which I’ll do tomorrow but I’m fairly confident it is now chicken proof. Yay 🙂

Next job is to chicken proof the raised beds and plant out the chitted tatties. I also want to do some more sowing in the polytunnel although that could wait for a not such weather day.

Our plan for tomorrow is a trip to the village to collect post once the ferry has been and then the start of the cob chicken house trench, we’re hoping to carry on with that on Wednesday which should pretty much mean the trench is done and we can put down drainage and start gathering stones for the first layer of the foundations / chicken house wall. Tomorrow I’ll re-read that chapter in the book and make a list of the stuff we need.

Ranger Mike was due up to dinner but didn’t arrive – he has a lot going on so I assume either he forgot or something happened (there have been several incidents these last couple of days). I rang my parents and we gave up on Mike and had a later dinner than we’d hoped. Ross and Rachel have just split up in Friends, Scarlett shed a tear or two.

I hate conflict. I find it so draining that I feel physically exhausted by it. This week I have dealt with the lead up to, execution of, and aftermath of a discplinary hearing, been copied in on a really stroppy email about not moving things in the hall and finally today heard two sides (always know there is the third side to every story – ie the truth!) of an incident last night which led to the police being called and an assault reported which will probably mean a visit from the police to the island and will still probably not go away.

Sadly every single one of the above involved Mike the ranger 🙁 He has been such a good friend to us, Davies and Scarlett adore him and Ady and I think the world of him too but he needs to leave now. He is out of his house but clinging to his job which he is not even doing properly any more, just kicking around carrying out what he obviously feels is unfinished business with various people and becoming daily more paranoid, bitter and frankly unhinged. I wish he’d just leave. Just go to where Casey is waiting for him to start their new life together on the mainland and put his time here on Rum into perspective so he can be proud of all he’s achieved, remember the great and good bits and forget all the little niggly things which is all he seems to have left to focus on now.

After I got into bed last night having taken my contact lenses out and everything I remembered I had promised to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Sunday, way back on about Tuesday. So I got back up, found a pair of glasses so I could see (I have about 3 pairs, all different prescriptions, all unworn and only kept incase we need to evacuate at night so I can shove a pair of glasses on and see rather than stumble around trying to find lenses) and made the dough.

This morning I read in bed for a while – a Jodi Picoult about the Holocaust which is very haunting and probably has not helped my frame of mind as it’s been my bedtime reading matter all week. Then got up and made the cinnamon rolls. We all had breakfast and then Ady and I loaded up the wagon and headed down to the pier with our recycling. We met Mel and Vikki and then Gav and Laura along the way and learnt that Gav and Mike had had an altercation last night. At the pier we learnt from various other people that the version of events Mike was telling was rather different to what Gav had told us and then we bumped into Mike on the way back from the pier and indeed his version is different. Sigh.

We came home via the shop where some parcels had arrived for us. Back home for some lunch and then I did a load of laundry and Ady and I walked along to Gav & Laura’s to look at the new path Gav has been building.

Ady cooked a lovely roast dinner and we watched a couple of episodes of Friends. We have a good long job list for this week and only a couple of things which will take us away from the croft and down to the village – Wednesday, Friday and Sunday should be all day long up here which will be great, particularly if the forecast weather holds true and we have some sunshine.

Yesterday morning I walked along to Ali’s to prepare for a disciplinary hearing. It went smoothly in the end but was stressy and horrid and one of those things you’d really rather just not be part of. I came home for lunch and in the afternoon Ady and I went and collected some firewood from the woodland at the foot of the croft.

We walked down to the village to get some beers for Ady and some pineapple for pizza and stayed for a beer with the various people at the shop. A nice evening with a toast to the fact it was the 3 year anniversary of arriving at our first WWOOF host Steward Wood which really doesn’t seem like such an extreme existence these days! Who’d have thought those people struggling up a hill three years ago would live at the top of their own hill now?

I worked this morning – it was a quiet shift and the boat was cancelled due to crazy weather. Ady was next door in the hall helping various folk clear up the village hall ready for the season. I joined them for an hour after work before we headed off home for lunch. The kids had downloaded a new game app on their tablets last night which has been consuming them most of the day.

It rained all afternoon so I finished off the newsletter, Scarlett had a shower and I brushed her hair, the kids played with the Lego between tablet time and we had dinner and watched a few episodes of Friends.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to no alarm clocks and no need to be anywhere at any time with anyone.

Work for me this morning and it was the most frantic post office shift I’ve ever done. There were special deliveries, postage to all over the place, people buying in the shop, folk coming for cups of tea and chats and a million things inbetween. Ady met me and we took our veg home with us.

Home in time for lunch and to watch Outnumbered and hang out with the kids for a bit before heading back down to the village for spinning. I have not yet got the knack so it was a slightly unsatisfactory hour or so trying but the company was good.

From there on to the hall for the monthly residents meeting which this month had some fairly thorny issues to be covered. There was a really good turn out of residents – with well over half the on island at the moment residents coming along. We thrashed lots of things out but it was a very long meeting in a very cold hall. We finally got home after 8pm.

So a very late dinner – the kids had been stars and kept the fire going and put the genny on and got everything charging up. We watched several episodes of Friends. So far being a director again has been very time consuming and tomorrow I am sitting in on a disciplinary hearing – next week I have another meeting and it is a long way from the one or two meetings a month and a few emails I promised the kids. But we have an EGM at the beginning of April to elect two more directors and once we have our current round of recruitment sorted things should calm down. I hope.

Up early (for me) for me this morning and away down to the village for interviewing. We saw the three candidates and as we’d hoped by the end of the morning we had a clear and unanimous decision on the successful one. All three were very strong and gave good interviews but one just stood out above the rest and Lesley, Ali and I all agreed he was the best choice. We’ll let them know tomorrow and fingers crossed he accepts the job and will be in post mid-April.

We retired to Ali’s for a final chat on the candidates and to drink tea as Eve is off school ill so Ali needed to get back home. That done I came home for a very late lunch. I sent a couple of quick follow up emails and then dashed down to the fruit cage to finally plant the pear and plum trees so I can fully tick that off this weeks list. I started looking at the netting on the raised beds too but it was very cold and nearly 5pm so I just took off the damaged netting and will look at that again tomorrow (if there are any breaks between the forecast heavy rain).

Ady and I walked down to the shop to get some eggs – that feels pretty crap given how many chickens, ducks and geese we are feeding! We fed the animals on the way home and met Davies and Scarlett out on the croft with the goose who has been ailing for a few days. Scarlett had picked her up (as she has done most days, she is pretty tame) and we looked her over again to see if we could work out what the matter was before coming in for a cup of tea. As we looked out of the window we saw her flapping wildly so Ady went out to check on her and as he picked her up she went limp and died 🙁 Very sad and very strange.

The kids are pretty upset, she was one of our original pair of geese and ironically the only one laying eggs just now. We will probably cut her open tomorrow and see if we can ascertain what happened, whether she was eggbound, ate something or had internal injuries that we didn’t spot from the outside. Geese can live for over 30 years so she was very young to die naturally and given the low risk of poison or disease here it is a little concerning and we’d like to try and work out what happened.

This evening Mel and Vikki came up for pancakes. Ady cooked an endless supply until everyone declared themselves ‘out’ and full. We had a nice evening with them, plenty of laughs and setting the world to rights.

I’ll be glad when we have this Development Officer role filled, it’s been two evening meetings, an afternoon and tomorrow will be a whole morning away from the croft so far. Which rather makes a mockery of my promising Ady and the kids being a director again will be less onerous this time…. hmmm.

This morning we finished the fruit cage and I planted the cherry trees in. The top of the cage is still very wet so Ady spent some time this afternoon putting some ditches in to help drain it, we’ll hopefully plant the plums and pears out tomorrow afternoon. We need to think about netting for the top to stop birds getting in once there is actually fruit on stuff but for now at least the bushes and trees are safe from the deer and our own birds who won’t fly into the cages and scratch around.

We had lunch and I headed off to meet the boat and our interview candidates. One woman, two men. One of the men used to live here (before our time but only just) and is very keen to move back with his partner (also lived here, they met here and moved away but now want to return). Lesley and I met them off the boat and walked them round to the village hall stopping along the way to point out various landmarks. We were with them for a good hour or so and then left them to do some exploring before they had their dinner at Fliss’. We went up to Ali’s who was stranded home with poorly Eve off school so couldn’t join us but will be interviewing with us tomorrow for a quick debrief and final chat about the interviews as Ali is very nervous about them having never interviewed anyone before.

We left there and I popped to the shop to hand my veg order in, then to the freezer to collect some bits and then bumped into one of the candidates so stopped for a chat which went on for nearly an hour. Nice guy, I am glad I bumped into him as he was able to ask some questions which will hopefully relax him pre-interview and allow him to do his best. I finally got home about 630pm.

I like talking to people about Rum, about the potential for the community, the amazing things we do here and the even more amazing stuff we could do in the future. I’m looking forward to the interviews tomorrow and hope we find a really strong candidate to be the paid person taking some of the stuff forward that needs to happen but those of us living here lack the time, skills or capcacity to manage ourselves. Just need to keep that balance tipped in the right direction.