One word? When seven would do…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

a lady in the afternoon!

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

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

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

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

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

Lighter of pocket and of heart.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Not sure where this week went to!

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think we got as far as Monday, so…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Home for very early nights all round.

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

This morning Ady got the Rangerover up the croft, dropping animal feed off and a new gas bottle, which should mean we’re good for gas til February. Always a good feeling 🙂 Want to stock up more on decent firewood and then will feel better prepared.

I went down to the polytunnel and spent a couple of hours in there sorting things out. This year I had planted things into containers but it is not really ideal as you don’t have as much space and things seem to get root bound and stunted. The soil in there is improved as it is where the pigs were once and a few months of being suppressed by containers has killed the weeds and meant there are loads of worms so I have decided to plant directing into the ground and have the shelves for seedlings and smaller things. I threw everything that was over into a container which we fed to the pigs, got rid of any ‘spent’ compost, as in stuff which has lost all it’s nutrients to hungry crops like tomatoes putting it on the compost heap and moved up all the last few things which may over winter or still perform. I have brought the seed box up to the caravan so it doesn’t attract mice or rats and I can do a stocktake on seeds ready for next season. A nice indoor job in there now will be weeding out all the roots of the reeds which are mostly dead, maybe putting in some borders to the beds (stones are good, create some height and also store heat from the daytime to slowly release through the colder nights.

We had lunch and watched this week’s Apprentice then Ady and I went to the boat. My cheap waxed jacket which I have re-waxed twice proved itself utterly non waterproof 🙁 I’ve ordered a new one, that’s wellies and a coat ordered in the last 24 hours, you can tell the weather has changed! The soaking was justified though as we had loads of stuff come off – amazon monthly deliveries of flour, tomato puree, long life cream, crisps, noodles, coconut chips and cocoa nibs, the final bulk order of jam jars, our new wind turbine gizmo so we should get the new turbine trialled tomorrow, our Toolstation order of sealant for the windows of the shed, hooks to secure the doors open, green wood treatment (hopefully the other bits such as padlock, hooks to keep the doors closed and latch will be in the actual post which we’ve not collected it). We helped unload the shop deliveries and took our order of cheese from Jinty, collected chicken from the freezer for dinner tomorrow, picked a handful or two of brambles as we walked past the bushes and collected some slates for making more signs so had quite a car full!

We dropped stuff off as we went until we just had a wheelbarrow of bits to come in the house. Scarlett had made pizza dough and got the fire lit so I had a shower (I was wet anyway!) and put the shopping away. Davies was working on some illustrations as he is going to apply for an advertised illustration job for a picture book. I had tasked him with setting the scene of someone telling someone else some good news and he did that really well. We didn’t tell Ady what the brief was and he got it instantly from looking at Davies’ pictures of facial expression and body language. I’m going to set him a couple more and then we’ll put those together with some other pictures he has of art work to send off. No idea if it will come to anything but it’s an exciting possibility and he is full of enthusiasm for it.

This evening was pizza and Doctor Who.

It rained and was windy and was windy and rained pretty much all morning. I had half a plan to get outside between showers to start Operation Clear Up in the polytunnel – the various failed crops need to be fed to the pigs (sweetcorn that was stunted, tomatoes which never flowered, that sort of thing) before they rot and spread disease. The things which can over winter or may even still have a chance need to be spread out and maybe given some feed. The seeds should probably be brought into the caravan for the winter and I can pour over them and plan a spring planting schedule, plus top up with ordering any new ones to fill the gaps. There is a crate of tools, pots, plastic and stuff adjacent to the polytunnel which needs sorting out, some is probably rubbish, all needs stacking tidily so it doesn’t get trashed or blown away over winter. The raised beds need the netting removed and the birds encouraged to feed on them (easily done, we just chuck a handful of their corn on each bed and they’ll scratch down to earth level) and then they need a mulch put on to protect and enhance the soil. prevent weed growth and keep it warmer ready for spring. We’re planning seaweed so need to get gathering that at low tide. The fruit trees and bushes also all need a mulch although that can wait a couple of months yet and be a turn of the year project. We also had a plan to clear out some of the stores of wood and tools and stuff and burn any rubbish and get a better idea of what we actually have taking up space, use the galvanised sheets to start building a compost loo and camp kitchen / shelter for next years volunteers. But suddenly it’s nearly the end of October and winter has arrived! And we still have three pigs to deal with. Hmmm.

This was scuppered by the kids getting up and requesting croissants for late breakfast / early lunch and then us getting into a really interesting conversation about venn diagrams. So Ady left is to it and went and did some work on the shed /shop.

At 2 we all went out together, Scarlett on her bike, the rest of us on foot. We posted Lovefilm back, collected some food from the freezer and the kids came back home to have showers and light the fire while Ady and I went round to Fliss & Sandy’s. Sandy has been back for a week long visit and is heading off tomorrow so Ady went to have a catch up chat with him, while Fliss and I drank tea, crocheted and chatted. It was very pleasant 🙂

We left and came home, picking brambles along the way. I brushed Scarlett’s hair and got dinner sorted while Ady fed the animals and brought in some firewood. A good early dinner with two episodes of Warehouse 13 which we’re really enjoying. It’s much stiller than it was last night but there is the odd huge gust of wind which keep making me jump.

Winter is back.

 

Winds rocking the roof, turbine tied up. Coat on weather today.

Post office frustrating as screen not working again, mood in the village tense, got wet walking down and back.

It carried on raining all afternoon, we watched Naked Choir, Ady volunteered to don waterproofs and collect shopping, get post, feed animals, bring in firewood. I found a recipe online for soft rolls, made those and bread, peeled and crinkle cut potatoes for chips, made another 6 jars of jam from brambles picked on the way to and from the shop earlier, labelled them up.

It was getting dark by 6pm, properly dark by 630pm, in a couple of days that will be an hour earlier. Don’t quite feel ready for hibernation and sleepless nights due to wobbling walls just yet, another month would be nice.

My nice rigger boots that I bought planning to see me through all winter are not as waterproof as I hoped, so will need to buy some wellies after all. Poo!

Post office this morning, it was lightly raining as I walked down, pissing down when I walked back. Hmm, coats a necessity again I think.

I had a good morning although no actual post office due to the lack of screen / post office counter working. I had various customers in for chats and then the TV & Radio folk arrived. They filmed a bit, recorded a bit and then had a technical breakdown so had to dash back to the boat to collect more kit, arranging to see me again later at the ferry.

Home, having gotten very soggy indeed, for lunch. We sent some emails trying to unravel a wind turbine conundrum we are having with the new kit we have on long term loan from Peter Who Wants to Save Rum and then went down to the boat, dropping off two hams in the freezer on the way. We were at the boat to send off a jerry can of diesel to be refilled, but chatted some more to the TV & radio folk before heading back to the croft to felt the shed.

It looks good – all done now other than the hasp on the door, but the one that came with it was rubbish, really little and flimsy, so we have ordered a decent one, along with a padlock (not for security, but so we can choose when the weather is unsuitable for having it open and lock it accordingly. Have also ordered a drop latch as I am concerned the birds will hang out in there given half a chance and some cabin hooks to secure the doors open if we decide we do want to do that. Options good to have I think. Really pleased to have got the felt on given the rain this evening. The shed is now watertight, tomorrow we’ll strap over the roof and do some more securing to the window to make it windproof (or at least attempt to). Then it is sorting out the interior to turn it from a shed into a shop, looking forward to that bit.

Internet died last night while I was in the middle of this… erm trying to regain my thread. That might have been about it for yesterday actually.

 

Today, Ady and I put the straps on over the shed roof and he did some stuff to the windows to make them less rattly. Scarlett and I got all the jam from the static and horsebox and did a big stock take of all the flavours (10 different ones this year!), then packed then all but except for two of each which are in the fridge, labelled the boxes and stashed them in the shed. Then lunch and downloaded Apprentice to watch 🙂 Love it.

After lunch I headed off for some bramble picking – I got 2kg which added to the kg from yesterday / Sunday meant another 21 jars of jam made this evening. We’re up to 126 now, still on track for our 200 if I can keep up.  Ady and the kids made up their bikes which had arrived and then rode down to the village to test them out. They are delighted with them and actually they look really good. I am almost envious of them. I met them all coming down and we stopped at the shop to get a few bits and have a chat with the various folk there, along with waiting hoping the rain would pass over. It didn’t so we braved it and walked home.

Back home Ady got dinner sorted, I turned all the brambles into jam and then rang my parents.

An outside all day day today which has been lovely. Ady and I spent the morning dismantling two huge pallets to get the wood to make reinforcement battens for the shed floor. Then we cut them to size, fixed them together and fixed them to the shed base. One super strong floor done.
That took us to lunch time so we came back up to eat and charge the drill battery back up.
After lunch we got the four sides up and the roof on, the workload of which is not remotely covered in this one sentence… 😉 I had researched sheds online a lot and found that there was little difference in the spec and reviews of sheds from the budget £229 one we went for right up to the mid range £800 plus sheds so we were probably better getting the cheap one and upgrading the hardware and modifying it, so that’s what we have done. Using our own, much better screws in far greater numbers than were supplied with the shed and putting a frame around it to support it, trying down the roof and super strengthening the floor.
Tomorrow we will felt the roof and do some other modifications to it, I have ordered the green wood preserver and we have lots of cool ideas to make the inside all quirky and interesting.
We finally stopped at 630pm as we were losing the light and I was losing my patience with the windows – either a crap design, or really poor instructions, or perhaps both… I boiled, glazed and roasted a couple of the smaller ham joints which I had been wet curing in brine since Monday for dinner, delicious 🙂
We watched Doctor Who – a two parter – and suddenly the whole week has gone.

Another glorious day. People on Rum are starting to doubt our own memories of wind, rain and miserable weather.

Ady was at the castle – a tour and some hostel cleaning. I was as Post Office. A fun couple of hours with Jed, Trudi, David and Doug – we laughed lots, I like that coffee shop feel to Post Office in the mornings, so different to the pub feel of the shop in the evening. On the walk down to PO I stopped to take photos, it was such a beautiful morning with dew drop spider webs draped over all the trees, mist clinging in the low areas and a cloudless deep blue sky above. So gorgeous.

I picked brambles as I walked along to meet Ady, I reckon we’re on the last week of brambling really, although I have ordered a final 60 jars from amazon. If I fill all of those it will be 240 jars of jam made this autumn! Some has already sold but it would be great to have such a good stash to start the new shop off with. Ady has his first postcards here already, Scarlett has plans for candle making and Davies is thinking on designs for more of his postcards / greetings cards too. Scarlett has also been making little clay models with the croft 3 clay to paint and sell, so far she’s made a couple of pigs. I think they would be winning. I have my scarves, my midge in resin stuff, my pot pourri and hopefully by the spring some baskets too. As soon as the daily bramble forage comes to an end I’ll be on a daily basketry materials forage instead.

Home for lunch and as the bacon from Monday’s pig was ready and only a fairly small amount we cut that up and fried it for bacon sandwiches. Delicious. I think I finally have the salt ratio right, now we need to work on the cut of meat as this had bones still in and it would definitely be easier to de-bone before curing. Tomorrow I’ll be taking out the hams I have had in brine all week, one I will boil, then glaze and bake for dinner tomorrow, the largest is for a Christmas ham and we have two smaller ones either for midweek meals or to cook and eat as cold ham for sandwiches.

After lunch Ady and I took the rangerover down the hill and across the river and collected the shed and the kids bikes from the fork. It was very loaded up and creatively tied on the roof and hanging off the tailgate with string but we got it all back across the river and to the bottom of the croft. Now all unloaded and ready to go. The floor of the shed is very flimsy so we’re going to work on reinforcing that a bit before we put the shed together. I researched sheds loads, reading all the customer reviews on all the various sheds available from this budget one at £230 right up to ones closer to £1000 (too much £1000, I guess that’s what sheds cost these days!) and all the reviews state they are flimsy, arrive damaged, need work so we decided to buy the cheapest shed we could find and then spend time and a bit more money on making it better.

We fed the pigs and planned the next pig kill, pleased to see Tom had been mating Barbara which means she is hopefully not pregnant from when he mated her before. She would have been due a litter in November if she had been which would have been all but impossible to deal with. If she is in season now that would be an early March litter which would be perfect.

We had a last cup of tea sat on the sporran just as the sun dropped below the hills and it got cold. I swapped over our duvet for our sleeping bag, I’ve been too cold the last couple of nights and woken with a damp duvet and ceiling dripping with condensation so it was time. I vacuum bagged the duvet and extra pillows from Mum & Dad being here and we’ve stashed them in the horse box for now. Ady made a lovely curry with loads of ginger, garlic and chilli to help see the last of my cold off and assist with his which is just coming out. Everyone else went off to bed early, still tired from their mini break or coming down with colds.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I woke in the early hours of Sunday morning with the tell tale ‘thick’ throat that means a cold is on it’s way. Back in Sussex colds were an almost constant feature of life but after a chest infection requiring antibiotics and a nebuliser plus I’m fairly sure a cracked rib from coughing in our first autumn here I am really quite paranoid about them now. A cold damp caravan and a steep hill to walk up each day means my asthma is already a potential issue for me so I am super cautious, particularly at this time of year. The last cold the kids had I managed to avoid somehow but this time it’s me who has the germ, I must have picked it up on the mainland.

So I am being really kind to myself, lots of garlic and ginger, plenty of veg packed into dinners, soup for lunch etc, honey, lemon, ginger and whisky drinks and lots of rest, plenty of water and some gentle getting outside in the sunshine and fresh air each day without knocking myself out will hopefully mean I see it off in the traditional 9 days (3 days to come, 3 days here, 3 days to go – maybe an old wives tale but I find it about accurate mostly unless the cold develops into something more).

So on Sunday Ady and I went out in the sunshine bramble picking and chatting together, we picked an impressive 3kg between us which I split into 3 batches for jam making and Scarlett mostly made – bramble & apple, bramble & rose and bramble & vanilla. She did the jam making and jar filling while I made the labels. Ady cooked dinner – a rather salty piece of gammon from last years pigs – I think it was the last remaining joint of our pork in the freezer. Doctor Who and an early night.

Monday – A post office shift for me. Before I left for work I went down to the pigs with Ady and fed / distracted them while he killed the first of this years piglets. He dragged it out of the pen to bleed it and I left him to it to head to work. While I was gone he skinned it, cut off the head and took out all the insides, halved the carcase and then quartered each half into joints.

I had a nice morning at work chatting mostly to Neil who I have not properly caught up with in weeks. Two people came in (Debs and Stevie) both of whom I thought were not on island, one after the other which rather threw me. I finished PO and headed for home. Ady was doing really well with the pig so I did some rolling up and tying joints and then bagged and labelled the various cuts while he diced up some and separated the rest for mincing. We loaded it all into bags, I weighed it and kept back the stuff for wet and dry curing for bacon and hams. We had some lunch and then walked down to put the joints in the freezer. Scarlett came with us and we met up with Fliss at the croft gate so walked down to the village with her and the girls too.

We called at the shop to collect veg and Ady stayed chatting to Pete (Jinty’s dad) who is over while Jinty is off for a week. Scarlett and I got bored so went and picked some more brambles around the village, when we got back Ady had already left for home so we followed him back. He disposed of the pig waste, fed the animals and brought in firewood while I sorted out dinner – pork stir fry, naturally.

Peter (who wants to be the new saviour of Rum) brought us a signed copy of Hugh FW’s Cook on the Wild Side book which accompanied a really old TV series so we got that on DVD and have been watching an episode each evening.

Today – Ady was ghillie-ing so he was off and out just after 8am. He woke me leaving but I stayed in bed reading for another hour or so. Scarlett persuaded me to make soup for lunch and she made the dough for bread rolls, then took over the soup while I went out in the sunshine for a couple of hours bramble picking. I got back to soup ready for whizzing and rolls ready to go in the oven. We turned the brambles from yesterday and today into mulled spice jam while was delicious with added spices and orange, like Christmas in a jar!

After lunch I made pheasant and partridge pies for dinner and we all had showers, brought in firewood and fed the animals. Ady got home around 630 after a long but lovely day with the ponies. His party had not shot anything so it was effectively just a very long scenic walk but he had been much entertained by them all wanting their photos taken with him as ‘that chap off the telly’ (very posh toffs here stalking this week).

Delicious dinner, long day tomorrow including Davies and Scarlett heading off for a couple of nights for their first solo mainland trip – eek!