One word? When seven would do…

Yesterday I mostly just enjoyed properly feeling better. I spent some time sorting out the storage area under the sofa and filling up jars and tubs with pasta, rice, flour, seeds and so on. I made pastry and left it to chill, finished off the Rumble and then went down to do a phone / Skype interview for the second applicant for the bunkhouse PM job. He was my favourite but I have deferred to the others and we have gone with the other one. I am just as confident they will do the job just fine, I just preferred this one. I got home just before needing a torch and Ady had finished the laundrette. We’re waiting now for a) more petrol to arrive on a non cancelled ferry and b) a day that is not so windy we are able to actually hang wet washing out without it blowing across to the mainland before we test it but in theory it is ready to go :). Very excited. This could be more life changing than the Great Bagel Setting on the Toaster Discovery of 2008.

I made mince pies (which are delicious and already almost gone!) and pizza and we watched Fred Claus which was excellent and is probably my favourite advent film so far. I realised today we are missing Charlie Brown Christmas and The Snowman so have ordered both but they may not get here in time so will go in the pile for next year.

I worked this morning – the weather was hideous so hardly anyone came in but I enjoyed tidying up the herbs and spices which always annoy me when I am shopping as they were all disordered :). Ady came down to meet me as we were expecting a reduced to clear sale to happen but it was rescheduled for later today and I didn’t manage to get hold of him because Jinty had taken the shop phone home in her pocket!

Home for lunch, I played some games using marbles with Scarlett and then headed back down to the village to meet with Lesley and Vikki to make our final decision on the PM job. Ady followed me down and we did indeed get some cheap and free bargains at the shop before coming home for dinner. Tonights dvd was Christmas with the Simpsons which is just some festive episodes and was a bit weak really but I had got Island of Misfit Toys (which was a favourite of Davies when he was really small) from ebay so we watched that too.

Tomorrow is winkle picking = not sure if I am dreading it or looking forward to it. A bit of both I think. Wish it was not forecast to be so windy though as we need to be on the beach for 9am to catch tides and the kids will still be in bed then and I don’t like leaving them up here on their own when it is too windy.

Just as we thought the challenge was over…. on Monday we met the ferry on which there was nothing for us at all, put our veg order in and then I had to go back down in the evening for a run through of the interview questions for the Bunkhouse Project Manager job for the following day.

I felt not right while I was down at Lesley’s doing that and by the time I’d walked home I was feeling really out of breath and just wrong. It was really hot in the static which made me feel worse. Mike came up for dinner which was a lovely curry Ady made but I couldn’t face it and although I kept hinting about needing to be up in the morning Mike took forever to leave and when I did get to bed around midnight I had a restless night tossing and turning and still feeling rough.

By morning I was dashing to the loo and feeling all hot and cold and clammy and distant. I thought it was too short notice to not do the interview which has been a nightmare to organises – they were supposed to be last week but boats got cancelled, the guy from Eigg had come over the day before and stayed the night and was off back to Eigg via another overnight on the mainland, the poor guy from Canna has still not managed to get here and we’re skype interviewing him tomorrow. I just about got through it before staggering (quite literally!) home. If someone had been watching I’m sure they’d have thought I was drunk coming home, it took me about 35 minutes instead of my usual 15 and I just fell into bed.

Scarlett was an absolute angel throughout, bringing me tea, water, constantly checking me and tucking me in. That child has compassion and caring far beyond anything she gets from me, Davies tends to avoid anything germy or yucky so has given me smiles and waves from afar! 😆 Then followed a hideous shadowy 30 hours or so of bolting to the loo, not always making it, wind rattling the walls and roof, nightmare dreams and feeling like death. Poor Ady dealt with all of it so well from sleeping in the lounge (I have to clamber over him to get in and out of bed so it wouldn’t have worked him sleeping in with me even if there had been bedding to use!) and then spent almost all of the next day at the castle processing laundry 🙁 It was awful, dreadful and more than enough to have me seriously questionning what the bloody hell we are doing living in a caravan away from supermarkets, flushing toilets and washing machines!!!

Eventually by yesterday evening I had started to feel a bit more like me and had showered, eaten a little bit and sat with the others being a bit more human again. The bed was made back up and Ady was able to come back to the bedroom. Unfortunately due to being asleep for so much of the previous 24 hours I then couldn’t sleep so was awake til crazy oclock reading anyway.

Today I have felt almost normal, just a bit weak. I chopped some wood, brought it in and stacked it up, made bread and made dinner which was my limit. Made me realise just how physical our lives here are just normally even without carrying sacks of animal feed about or marching up and down the hill. Ady spent the day constructing our laundry – another galvanised sheet add on to the wood store in which we’ll put the washing machine and our second genny. It has a sloping roof with guttering into a water butt which will feed the washing machine. Fingers crossed it will be up and running next week – having spent nearly £20 down at the castle laundrette yesterday it will be very welcome! It’s so breezy and exposed here that we can line dry year round and then just air infront of the log burner so hopefully our carting laundry up and down the hill days are almost over.

Ady and the kids went down to the nativity dress rehearsal which they said was great fun, I stayed home to get dinner on and just not push myself too far. Aside from photo calendars each for my parents and Granny all the christmas shopping is done, just waiting for stuff to arrive and keeping fingers crossed that ferries come as we are waiting on petrol, diesel, wind turbine and most of the kids Christmas presents still to arrive.

The wind is back. Not scary wind, just noisy and taunting us by making the wind turbine whizz round noisily while creating no power. We’ll try and take it down maybe tomorrow.

Scarlett had a lovely birthday – after such a bad nights sleep the night before we were very relieved when everyone slept in later than planned – after 8am seemed like a very respectable time to be getting up when Davies was asking if he could get out of bed yet from about 5am on his birthday!

Rum is currently egg-less island with all of the many resident domestic birds on the island including all our own off lay for the season. The non arrival of Thursdays boat meant no eggs to be had and so Scarlett’s first, second and third birthday breakfast choices were all off the menu (fresh toast, cinnamon rolls, pancakes) so I made cinnamon doughnuts instead. They were a little doughier than we’d have liked which sounds like an odd complaint for dough-nuts really I guess but she assured me were a satisfactory substitute!

Presents from us included Playmobil, candle making bits and bobs – after having several candle making kits last year I was able to top up supplies such as wicks, wax, wick holders and wax dye which meant more supplies for the money. She’d asked for a home made cuddly toy of one of the Croft animals so I’d made a Barbara Pig and a Bonnie and some bits and bobs including an edible Christmas decoration for Humphrey’s cage, some Adventure Time tattoos. From my parents she had a Playmobil ferry (which looks a lot like our calmac Loch Nevis). I’m glad we are still in the age of toys and not just gadgets but her main gift was a DSlite. Although both Davies and Scarlett have a 3DS they miss playing their rumble pack games (they had hundreds!) on old DSlites so both asked for one of those. Davies paid half of his, we bought Scarlett’s. I am fairly sure they are copies, imported from Hong Kong off ebay but they work fine and at 50 quid each seem worth the money. Except they didn’t arrive in time due to the cancelled ferry on Thursday. Davies had spent weeks making Scarlett a book – a full 30 odd pages long, fully illustrated called Adventure Croft – a combination of Adventure Time and Croft 3 featuring Davies, Scarlett and Bonnie and characters from Adventure Time. It’s all a bit over my head but is their current favourite thing to disappear and giggle over on youtube. She was very delighted with all her gifts but says she loves the home made ones the best. 🙂

After breakfast the kids played mostly with Scarlett’s playmobil – Davies is now chief instruction follower and construction manager of making up the pieces – I sort of miss that role as it always used to fall to me, but it’s lovely to see them heads together working on stuff so I left them to it and made birthday cake and birthday tiffin instead.

Lunch was also menu planned by Scarlett – crackers, cheese (stilton, brie, cheddar), twiglets, pringles, peanuts, olives, pickled onions, chorizo followed by tiffin. We watched the Advent Movie of the day which was Merry Madagascar while eating.

In the afternoon the kids went out to play in the snow for a bit and then Scarlett and I did some candlemaking together. I assembled the cake and we all went down to the village to share it with friends and sing Happy Birthday. There was a HUGE turn out at the shop with loads of people there to sing, eat cake and wish her Happy Birthday. And a big pile of presents too – £10 in cash, a box of chocolates, a zebra hat, soft toy, owl necklace, books, modelling clay, sweets, tie dye dylon, notepad made from elephant dung, a mini tent, a DS game, pens and more. Lucky girl 🙂 The childrens’ birthdays here always restore my faith in our choice to live on Rum when I see how much Rum belongs to them and they belong to Rum, how the community sees them as ‘our Rum children’ and know them so well. They never miss the parties of old when they still get to celebrate birthdays with people who mean so much to them and are so thoroughly spoilt.

Home later than planned due to such a nice evening at the shop for Scarlett’s dinner choice of roast gammon and mashed potatoes. Much joking about the Nigella ham in coke having a whole new meaning these days! 🙂 A late night all round.

Yesterday morning I worked and had my usual nice Saturday morning playing shop. Norman brought me down a cheese and onion pasty fresh from his oven, still warm for my elevenses 🙂 Delicious. Dave and Naomi came down to the shop to say goodbye before Ady took them all along to the ferry to leave. Then he and the kids came back to collect me, having got our parcels from the ferry which included all the missing birthday presents and some cards from family too.

It had been our plan to find our Christmas tree but we popped down to the yurt to light Claires fire and discovered some damage that needed attention so by the time we arrived home for a very late lunch it was already nearly 230pm and starting to get dark. We were still missing a turkey and I had found some piles of feathers so Ady and went off searching. We found it tucked into the hedge, still alive and well aside from a broken or dislocated leg. We took it back to the rest of the group but it couldn’t keep up so we went down to the river with an axe but stood debating what to do for so long we lost daylight. The dilemma is whether to kill it now and have to freeze it or keep it alive for another week to have fresh. we were always going to be eating either this or one of the other male turkeys for our Christmas dinner so it is not a problem but we are short of space in our freezer anyway and a fresh bird would be nicer. We delayed the decision by sticking it in the car with food and water for the night where it gobbled down both and looked very comfortable.

I spent the evening ordering a replacement wind turbine and all of the Christmas presents for Davies and Scarlett – not really feasible to do much earlier than this as there is nowhere to store presents when they arrive but hopefully early enough to allow for postal or delivery delays and any more cancelled ferries.

Today it has rained all day. Ady did a few bits outside while I have been in all day, chatting with the kids, brushed Scarlett’s hair, knitted, wrote the handful of Christmas cards we’re sending and letters to go in with them and made a start on the Rum newsletter. Despite a fairly quiet day we all still feel tired but have Mike up for dinner tomorrow and a plan to fetch that elusive Christmas tree.

What a week. ‘What you wanna do’ Dave and Quiet Naomi have been here lots. Dave continues to be annoying but very kind hearted and generous which is an odd mix as it makes you feel both irritated and guilty. Eilidh and Scarlett have failed to find any sort of connection while Davies is visibly (and audibly!) relieved when Ben heads away home at the end of each day. We have said we will see them tomorrow evening at the shop for birthday cake but spend family birthdays just the four of us so have a lovely day of Just Goddards tomorrow.

After lots of issues I finally decided that I don’t actually want to be part of the IRCT board of directors just now. There are too many squabbles, whisperers and destructive and obstructive forces and it is such a fragile time for the trust just now. I’m not the first to retire early and I’m sure I’ll not be the last, I feel a bit bad that I have added to the unrest but it was sapping way too much of my time and energy and I was not feeling sufficient intrinsic reward or that I was making a worthwhile difference to justify the physical and mental drain on my time. I’m a bit teary about it but already feeling mostly just relieved which is a big step on feeling bitter and resentful which is how I could envisage it going. Ady is being very supportive and while its felt very challenging dealing with all of that while putting on a happy ‘move to Rum, it’s great’ face for the visitors, dealing with the worst weather we have ever encountered and agonising over the fact the ferry didn’t come today and therefore many of Scarlett’s birthday presents are not here in time I am sure next week when everyone has gone away, Scarlett is 11 and the weather returns to some semblance of normal and I’ve had a decent nights sleep it will all feel back in perspective again.

Ady and I were in one of our questioning moods this week wondering whether we are supposed to be here, are clinging on out of bravado or uncertainty about what to do next and last night felt like a good test. We were very que sera sera about what might happen, deciding that if the static got ripped apart then that would be our sign that our time here has come to an end. We seem to have been spared and sitting here with the table loaded with the presents (and some IOU on the next ferry vouchers) in the flickering candlelight with the fire all cosy and images of the kids playing in the snow today gives us renewed hope that this might be the right place for us in the end.

I look back on my blog from the days when Ady worked, I stayed at home HEing and think how samey it all was compared to the rollercoaster that was WWOOFing and now Rum. The highs here still outweigh the lows although the spectrum we span is SOOOOO much wider these days but when I recall all those ‘inspirational’ quotes I plastered that hall with at our Bye Then party I am reminded of what we felt was lacking, what we were searching for and what we hoped our lives might become and I realise we are living our dream just now, just at times the pinching to check we are awake hurts a bit more than it should.

Up early (for me) this morning to be organised. Oven on, bread rolls shaped from dough made last night straight in. Pastry made, mince pies in the oven in rotation, veg peeled, chopped and bagged up for soup making down at the hall, cake decorated and everything loaded up ready to take to the car. Kids advent calendared up and then left to walk down with Bonnie.

As usual everything takes longer than planned so I was frantically getting soup on and laying stuff out when Fliss arrived for Christmas Fayre so I didn’t do as much helping as I’d planned in setting that up with her, then Davies and Scarlett arrived so they set their stuff up and I carried on getting the teashop sorted.

Ady was a superstar in the kitchen cooking up chips, making hot drinks and doing the back of house stuff while I mostly chatted and served at the front. Sean, Ali and Eve came, as did Fliss and her girls, Mel, Dave and Naomi, the volunteer who is still here on Rum and Lesley & Bad Neil. We took just over £60 so made over £40 for the hall roof fund. I sold some chocolates and the kids both sold some candles and cards. We did free refills of mulled wine so Lesley and I had three mugs each and it felt a weeny bit like Christmas camp with lots of kitchen activity, mulled wine and Christmas songs playing.

Everyone left and it was just us, Dave and Naomi. We’d been invited to their kabin for dinner so Ady nipped home to the croft to feed the animals and he thought he was meeting us at the kabins while we thought he was meeting us at the hall. Then Scarlett and Davies confided that they had got locked out of the static and had to climb back in through the window but forgotten to tell us there was a problem with the door. I had visions of Ady here in the dark with no torch trying to find tools by the light of his phone and break in to the static, door running wild, pigs on the loose – Ady would have not had a straightforward trauma! So I decided I should come and check out what was happening incase he needed help. I arranged to meet Dave and Naomi back at the kabin and the kids and I walked home by the light of my mobile phone only to find no one at the croft and the door perfectly fine. So we gathered torches and another layer of clothes and headed back down knowing either Ady was properly lost somewhere or we’d crossed with him in which case he would probably come in the car for us when Naomi, Ben and Eilidh got back to the kabin. Sure enough at the bridge along came our car!

Back to the kabin for sausage sandwiches and some chats around the fire before the day caught up with all of us and we decided it was time to head back home for bed. The kids had half an hour playing as they find Ben and Eilidh rather hard work so wanted to just relax in their own company a bit before bed time. It’s another busy week ahead.

Yesterday morning was dealing with the aftermath of high winds during the night. We’d lost our washing line – totally our own fault for not bringing in some laundry which had gotten wet and therefore heavy in the rain and then whipped about in the wind so much that the fence post had snapped that was supporting the washing line. It is properly windy here when it’s windy, no messing about! Having previously only ever lived somewhere very non windy (1987 aside of course) this still take me by surprise. I recall leaving a (full) 4 pint milk carton outside the front door of the static and it getting blown away, that would never happen in Sussex!

Ady dealt with that while I emptied the poo loo (we have a luggable loo in the bathroom inside now for after dark / nasty weather outside times so that we don’t have to venture outside and it then gets tipped into the compost loo the following day. I bought a load of firewood in and then went down to plant the fruit trees in the fruit cage which is now full. It was very windy so hard as everything kept getting whipped away but I did it all and wrote the placement of everything down so I now have a map of what is planted there.

Back in for lunch, bread and pizza dough making and decorating the sweets I’d made. The logburner fan is working so well that there was nowhere in the static cool enough to put them for the chocolate to set properly! I had a phone chat with my Dad which was lovely.

We’re waiting on the next series of Will and Grace so went back to Friends which we’d abandoned but has now grown on the kids a little.

Today was work for me in the morning. I had a busy couple of hours and it went quickly – some good chats with Mel, Stuart, Sean the Rat, and then Ali and Lesley. I do like my couple of hours work on a Saturday morning :). Ady and the kids went to meet the boat and then came round to meet me in various groupings – Davies and Ben, Scarlett and Eilidh and then Ady and the car with a trailer full of stuff. I’d jokingly sent What You Want To Do Dave a wish list of baths and a washing machine! when he asked if I wanted him to put out a request on his local freecycle list for anything as they were bringing a trailer up. And off the boat came the trailer – which is also for us and will make getting logs, animal feed and friends luggage SO much easier, complete with two baths – one tin for us to do the pig processing, one plastic complete with taps and waste for us at some point – it’s currently in the polytunnel but if the nissen hut all comes good it will have a home before too long, a fire and back boiler which could meet the same fate and a washing machine. We’re hoping to build a wee shed from galvanised sheeting, hook it up to our spare genny, plumb it in to the river water and out into a ditch and away we go!

Ady and I brought it all up to the croft and unloaded the trailer. One bath is now by the pigs, one in the polytunnel, the fire is on a pallet and there is just the washing machine to get up the hill tomorrow. While we were doing that Dave and Naomi arrived so we spent a couple of hours drinking tea and chatting with them. I was supposed to be getting on with stuff for tomorrow but failed so had a fairly long evening making dinner, bread dough, cake, mince pies and packing up the chocolates. My mincepies are not very nice as I have been adding fruit to the mincemeat over the last few weeks but forgotten to add sugar so they are on the bitter side. I have dredged them very much with icing sugar which will help and they are being served with brandy sauce but if I get up early enough I may make some more in the morning between baking rolls, prepping soup and decorating the cake.

Dinner was late as a result and I am knackered now so off to bed, tomorrow is due to be another long and busy day.

Interesting few days.

Yesterday morning Ady and I went to the school to collect some card from Stuart so Davies could turn his postcards into Christmas cards. We stayed for a chat for about an hour, I’d forgotten how much of a talker Stuart is :). Ady headed back home while I went for a meeting with Vikki and Lesley about bunkhouse stuff.

That done I came home and Davies and I cut out and stuck all the cards onto card backings. He spent today writing ‘Davies’ Designs Handmade Cards’ on the back of them all.

Then I had to go back down for a Directors Meeting. It was mostly a productive meeting and we got through lots but Jinty came in and out and had clearly had a few drinks and then got all ranty and then stormed out. Sigh. I’d taken a walkie talkie down with me which worked well as I could reach the others at home to let them know I had left the village and was heading for home. Definitely better for walking around in the dark knowing if I did fall over I could either call for help or know that someone would be aware within about 15 minutes that I was not where I was supposed to be. We just need to get into the habit of keeping them charged up and carrying them with us now.

Home for curry and a large glass of wine.

Today was a boat day so after Popmaster Ady and I headed to the pier. Fliss and Sandy came off and Fliss came over to give me a hug and tell me she’d missed me. I hugged her back and said I missed her too and she said ‘that is a general missing you, not just while I’ve been off this week’… she’s making all the right noises to try and repair our relationship. I’ll be forever cautious but it would be good to find a new ground between the old leaning on me way too much and the current barely talking at all… we’ll see what pans out. I am quite enjoying being aloof though – I’ve never really tried it before! 🙂

My fruit trees finally arrived – we didn’t manage to get them in this afternoon as time ran away with us but we’ll hope for a window between rain showers tomorrow to go and fill up the fruit cage. With the exception of a DS lite each we also have everything here for Scarlett’s birthday too – Scarlett wants one so she can play her old rumble pack with loads of DS games on so that is her main birthday present from us, Davies also wanted one so as he gets a small gift on her birthday (as she does on his) he has funded most of it from his own money and we have made up the difference. They know they are getting the DSLs and they may not arrive before her birthday although they have now been despatched so they might get here. We also collected several sacks of firewood and then came home for lunch.

We watched a Panorama show about how awful it is to work for amazon. None of us thought it was that awful at all but then as retail workers for most of our working life used to doing 10 hours shifts on our feet all day it all sounded pretty run of the mill. I’m sure that doesn’t make poor working conditions okay but it was not the horrific expose we’d expected from the write up on the show. I spent some time making peppermint creams, orange creams and rose creams ready to coat in chocolate for the Christmas fayre. As usual with these things they proved way more time consuming than I’d expected so I’m glad I did them today rather than waiting til Saturday afternoon as I’d planned.

The kids were playing really nicely and cosy in the static so we left them to it, chopped up and stacked all the wood we’d brought up and then went to light a fire in Claire’s yurt, collect the veg and post and also caught up with Ali and Lesley down in the village. We just about got home before dark.

I finished the sweets and then we drew our dvd advent listing. Over the last few months we’ve been ordering second hand dvds of Christmas films until we had 24. Were going to watch one a day from 1st December. Some are weaker than others but we thought it would be a nice run up to Christmas given we are away from ‘normal telly’ and mainland Christmas hype.

Dinner tonight was a feast of leftovers from the depths of the freezer which had been taking up lots of room so was a very eclectic serving of food. We watched the Tudor Monastery latest episode while eating. Davies showed me his birthday present to Scarlett – a 50 page full story called ‘Adventure Croft’ which is based on Adventure Time but includes him, Scarlett and Bonnie and Croft 3. It is excellent and he has worked really hard on it. He finished all the writing in it today and all he has left is coloring in. He was telling me his process for it – first he did the main storyboard pictures and worked out the story as he went along, next he drew in details, landscapes, expressions on characters faces etc, then he went back to write in the words – it is almost entirely dialogue comic book style and finally he will go and colour it in. He is on another of his one boy missions to get Scarlett properly reading at the moment and this might just be the tip over for her he hopes.

Tomorrow is no boat, no need for visiting the village and probably windy so lots of power all day. Looking forward to a day of hanging out in the static and getting some bits done ready for the Christmas Fayre.

The sink in the bathroom was slow to drain last night and this morning so Ady spent some time sorting that out – it had a minor blockage. The kids played with Playmobil and Lego and then connected on consoles as the wind was blowing lots so we had internet all day. I tidied up the bathroom and reorganised the cupboard and shelf in there. And knitted.

Ady and I went to the boat and caught up with various people at the pier, then to the boatshed to collect some bits from the freezer and then home for lunch. I chopped a couple of sacks of firewood up just to get some fresh air and exercise time between showers.

Davies’ Christmas cards came in the post but are a bit of a disappointment as somehow despite us being convinced we had entered text to go in the inside of the cards they are just flat with the picture on the front and Davies’ logo on the back – nowhere to write a message as they don’t open. Am very cross with myself for not realising. Davies was very stoical but I felt rubbish and then hit with the idea of sticking them onto cards like photos. We’re out of time to get card here for Saturday but I emailed Stuart at the school and we’re going down to the school tomorrow to collect some suitable card to do something. Situation rescued. And lesson learned.

What else? Tonight we watched Twister on dvd, we all enjoyed that although Ady and I saw it years ago when it first came out. Tomorrow I have many meetings.

Saturday morning work for me, Scarlett came too and we had a busy morning – Tarly counted 14 customers which meant most of Rum came in I think! Ady and Davies watched Shaun of the Dead which Davies has been desperate to watch for about 2 years. Then Ady came down and met the boat (we had petrol coming off and a delivery of various meat from the butcher in Fort William – very impressed, think we’ll be using him again :))

We came back home for lunch and I finished reading Ratburger to Davies and Scarlett. We’ve been watching the Tudor Monastry Farm which is very interesting for all sorts of reasons – firstly that it is filmed at Weald and Downland Musuem where we spent lots of time over the years having annual membership for several years. I remember going on school trips there when I was a kid. It is also interesting in that although I have never had the faintest desire to do Kentwell as so many of our friends do I am still curious about that period. Finally a lot of what is being done in the programme is very pertinent and relevant to us in our current lifestyle – goose and pig keeping, working land, traditional low tech building using local materials.

We went round to Vikki’s for dinner in the evening which was really nice. She cooked pizza; Davies and Scarlett ate and played in her lounge while we ate and chatted in the kitchen. It was a good evening. We left around 11 and so I let the kids have a lie in on Sunday morning.

I enjoyed reading in bed for an hour or so which I like to do on Sunday mornings too 🙂 Davies and Scarlett wandered down to the village to catch up with Mike who they’ve not seen since he came home. I planted some garlic and tidied up in the polytunnel after a rat feast has happened with all my seeds 🙁 My own stupid fault for leaving them all in the polytunnel I know but grr – bastard rats! 🙁

Ady and I walked down to the village to collect some veg from the freezer, found Davies and Scarlett and we all walked up together for lunch. I then made two apple pies and cooked roast lamb and baked bread. Davies stayed up with Ady and I to watch Doctor Who on iplayer. I thought it was utterly over hyped and nothing special but I seem to be the only person in the UK who thinks that so I won’t say much on that count 🙂

Today Davies and Ady went to light a fire in Claire’s yurt and stick a wash on down at the castle while Scarlett and I made some Christmas candles for her to sell at the Christmas market this weekend. She had some great ideas and they came out really well. She spent ages this evening making price tags and labels for them too. Fingers crossed Davies’ Christmas cards arrive in time and they both do well on Sunday selling things 🙂

I also sorted some laundry that had been on the line and brought in some firewood and got the fire lit to start airing some damp clothes. The boys came back for lunch and then Ady and I went to meet the boat. I was hoping my fruit bushes might arrive and we were expecting diesel back but neither came.

Back at home I read a Morpurgo book to the kids (Wreck of Zanzibar) until it got too dark to read. Davies spent over an hour on the phone to Ben while Tarly made her labels and price tags for her candles and Ady cooked dinner. I did some Trust paperwork and then we all had dinner.

I’ve been trawling amazon for interesting books to read aloud, the books we all loved reading last winter were the My Side of the Mountain trilogy so I’ve been looking for something along those lines to get stuck in to. I miss library access!

Yesterday morning Scarlett and I made a 3d tiger puzzle that my Mum had given her and then it was ferry o’clock. Ady and I went down together and collected stuff – our Asda order came along with 10 cartons of milk we’d ordered through Jinty. We grabbed that and then Ady whizzed me along to meet Vikki and Jacqueline who is from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, a body which funds loads of things in the area including our Development Officer post. We had invited her over to talk to some of the directors of the trust about continued funding and how that might work best for us moving forward. We had the meeting at Ali’s so I walked up there with them where we were also joined by Fliss.

Gav came back on the ferry yesterday too for 10 days or so to try and do more house stuff. He looks a little less shell shocked by new parenthood but still rather in the wake of a big life change! Good to have him back if only briefly.

I left Alis and walked part way with Vikki and Jacqueline who was back to the mainland on the late boat and stopped at the hall to load the dishwasher from Sunday, tidy up a wee bit and put the milk, fruit and veg delivery into the fridge ready for the volunteers arriving on Saturday. On the way home I saw Ranger Mike, back from Berlin so stopped to chat for a good half an hour and catch up with him. As we chatted we were joined at various points by Rhys, Norman, Ali and Emily. I love the feeling of being part of the village at times like that when you just hang out and know everyone who happens past.

I got home starving so had some very late lunch. The rest of the afternoon and evening escapes me rather.

This morning I read almost the whole of Ratburger to the kids while they did drawing or just listened. We realised recently that from reading to them pretty much every day for their whole lives it has stopped of late and we all miss it so we’re starting again. I spent some time trying to sort my phone out as it has been playing up all week with some software update issues. I *think* I have it fixed now. I also emailed across my matrix scores for the applications for the bunkhouse project manager and replied to some other directorly emails.

After lunch I read some more and then Ady and I walked down to the village as I was off to Ladies Pamper Day – an afternoon and evening of drinking wine, chatting and having facials, makeovers, manicures and hair curling / straightening. Not totally my thing but Abby and Sylvia had put a lot of thought and effort into so I went along to be supportive. It was not very well attended with just 3 of us going along, so five of us there in total, although there are at least 3 women off island just now who would be definite attendees usually. It was fun and some good female bonding even if acrylic nails and drawn on eyebrows are not really my thing! I had a hand soak / massage and manicure although I insisted on just nail varnish rather than false nails – they would *not* be compatible with my lifestyle ;), had my make up done by Sylvia who is a trained make up artist but was a little heavy on the shading in my opinion and then Abby asked if she could curl my hair so she gave me lots of bouncy ringlets.

I came home slightly earlier than expected but precisely when I’d hoped as although I wanted to support the event I was aware of dinner with Ady and the kids and needing to go to work in the morning so was not keen to have a big late night. Davies and Scarlett were watching Despicable Me 2 and having their dinner when I arrived home so I cleaned my face off and had a shower just incase any of the stuff used might irritate my skin and then Ady and I had our dinner. We all snuggled up and watched one episode of Will & Grace and everyone has gradually gone off to bed which is where I am headed too.

Ooh and the Christmas jumpers came yesterday much to Scarlett and my excitement. We LOVE our matching fluffy reindeer jumpers and the boys jumpers look delightfully Christmassy too. Can’t wait to see them all unwrapped on Christmas morning 🙂

After getting utterly fed up with the hours the kids, Davies in particular are keeping in getting up later and later I have started getting me and the kids up by 9am. I know this is still pretty late by most standards but it is only just daylight by 8am and given it’s been more like 10 or even 11 before Davies gets out of bed this feels like wrenching him from his pit!

It seems to be working and we have been eating dinner earlier and getting the kids to bed earlier, which in turn means we head to bed earlier too. When it is dark not long after 4pm it messes with your head being up for more dark hours than daylight ones!

Yesterday was no challenge to get anyone up as snow had fallen and the kids were very keen to get outside and play in it. They headed down to the village to check out snowfall in different places and we picked them up when we went down to meet the ferry. We collected a new gas bottle and our post along with some food from the freezer and then headed home for lunch. The kids went out to build a snowman, Ady went to cut some grass for the pigs. I made the pickling vinegar for two massive jars of pickled onions that had been soaking in brine overnight.

Today I was out all morning at a meeting and then spent most of the afternoon marking and scoring CVs for the Community Bunkhouse project manager post. On my way home I rounded up the turkeys who had gone roaming again. Not really sure where the day has gone today, another one where I failed to do much of anything with the kids. Must remedy that tomorrow.

Well actually no petrol, no post, no gas because none of them came on the ferry today.

This morning Davies and I looked at uploading and ordering Christmas cards of his latest design to sell and worked out what he would price them at and how many he should buy. He has £60 from his postcard sales to invest but there is a balance between tying up all his funds in stock that has a limited sales period and being stuck with it til next year or making a quick killing and doubling his money. Welcome to the marketplace! 🙂

I cleared out my clothes from the wardrobe and stashed all my summer tops away, put all the dry winter tops into bags and back in the wardrobe and all the wet and musty tops out on the washing line to air / rinse. On the same basis we went through the dirty washing basket and Ady hand washed all the underwear, socks and anything actually stained (that will be all Tarly’s t shirts then!) and I just hung out all the jeans, jumpers and things which more need freshening than actual washing. The castle washing machine doesn’t do a great deal in the way of proper cleaning anyway and at £2.50 per load it is costing us a fortune and is currently a real faff to get in to as Billy and his workers have it closed off lots of the time.

After lunch Ady and I went to meet the boat but nothing we were expecting came, we did take an empty gas bottle down though, gathered some more logs, put our veg order in and collected some bits from the freezer for dinner so it wasn’t a wasted outing. Back home we had a cup of tea and then Ady went to strim some long grass and rushes to make bedding for the pigs while I chopped up 5 sacks of logs and burned all the cardboard from yesterdays deliveries.

It snowed on the actual croft tonight for the first time since we moved here, we’ve known snow on the higher peaks but never actually seen it settle on our croftland. It followed that with some serious hail so it is properly white out there now, looking very pretty under the big moon with ghostly ducks and geese wandering about around the static too.

I don’t really want to leave the cosy logburner but the sleeping bags have been keeping us nice and snug at night so seem to be working way better than the duvet.

A mad start to the morning when I got up for a wee intending to head back to bed to read for a while only to learn that the cancelled boat from yesterday which was coming here today to make up for it had been rescheduled again and was coming in 2 hours earlier than planned. Scarlett came down with us and we collected our much traveled Co Op shopping, an amazon delivery of playmobil and lego advent calendars (Christmas gift from my Mum at the kids request) and a stove top fan that we had ordered.

We swung by the freezer to offload stuff into that and then came home to put away the stuff for up here and stash Christmas stuff. We had lunch and then gathered our big pan to take down with us and headed back to the village. First stop was the hostel to see the doctor. Scarlett has a wart on her knee which came up about 3 years ago and looked like a big mole. She kept knocking it and I started to fret about it so took her to the doctors last time they were over and was told it was not a mole at all but a wart and they would bring some freeze spray over next visit. I was not entirely convinced by the doctor as he was a bumbling locum and when I suggested he just send the spray on prescription and I would do it he said he couldn’t do that but if we went off island then we could go and buy some over the counter. When I heard the doctor was visiting today I rang to check they would be bringing the spray and got the current locum (they are doing one month stints) who sounded lovely and said she would bring it to administer along with some cream to leave with me to follow up. Ady then rang to ask for more ibuprofen cream for his tennis elbow and she said she’d like to see him to show him some exercises.

She was lovely, such a shame she is not our forever doctor, really great manner, excellent with the kids, really unhurried with all of us, explained everything well etc. She did a long dose of the freeze spray and explained how it worked, what she was doing, what would happen next, then talked to Ady about his arm and then did a second dose of the freeze spray. It is stinging Scarlett a bit now but i think she did a pretty good job and am hopeful it might come off with just this one go.

Then to the hall. There were no kitchen keys so while Ady cleaned the loos and had a general hall tidy up I tracked down Lesley and got the keys to make some popcorn. We planned a while ago to do a Sunday Movie Matinee and it was felt that The Big Year might be appropriate given our recent twitcher invasion so the projector and screen was set up, popcorn was popped and 12 of us all settled down to watch. It was really good, almost felt like we’d all been to a real cinema!

We came home and all had showers, hair brushing, dinner and Will & Grace (series 3 arrived today).

It’s been such a dashing about day we’re thinking of calling tomorrow Sunday instead though!

This week the weather was supposed to be really bad on Thursday, we anticipated cancelled ferry, static blown down the hill, general Rum apocalypse etc so I didn’t place the CoOp order we were rather desperate for on Wednesday. But you know what, the boat came anyway! True it only came once instead of the scheduled twice and it didn’t go to Canna at all but it did come to Rum and I cursed not having placed the CoOp order.

So I placed it yesterday instead to arrived today. I went off to work, Ady went off to meet the boat to collect our petrol and our very large CoOp order – some Christmas goodies to stash, some alcohol supplies, lots of meat for the freezer, stuff like butter, cheese and some half price Ben & Jerrys icecream just because.

Except that today the boat was cancelled 🙁

I had a nice morning at work, for the first hour no one came in at all so I spent the time reading the latest issue of Scottish Islands Explorer in which I was a guest columnist last issue. Then I had a bit of a flurry with lots of people all coming in to chat, get cash out of the post office, buy stamps, buy groceries or just hang out at the shop. I ended up kicking out the stragglers at nearly 1230 and walked home in the rain. Ady had been in after realising the boat was cancelled and taken home the bits and pieces of shopping I’d done so at least I wasn’t carrying anything. I watered the polytunnel on my way up and laughed at the turkeys who had left the croft, crossed the footbridge (I knew they’d done this as there was turkey poo on the bridge) and returned to the river on the wrong side. I wondered whether they would be clever enough to realise to get back to the croft they would need to walk away from it to get back to the bridge but decided that even if they didn’t we could find them tomorrow, it’s not like they can go anywhere…

Ady had taken out venison steaks for dinner but left them in the car and then we realised we didn’t have any oil to cook chips in (also on the CoOp delivery) so we’d need to go back to the village later to buy some. It rained pretty much all afternoon but the kids had a nice phone chat with Alex Bart, I knitted and listened to the radio and Ady dodged the showers to do various things outside. At 430 we fed the animals and walked down to buy oil, then back. We watched another few episodes of Friends which the kids are taking to a little more but we probably won’t bother getting the next series yet, I think we’ll stick to Will & Grace.

The kids and I made a list of all the people who live on Rum and one thing they would like to learn off each of them which is our project for the next year or so I think. I want to reassure all of us that lack of mainland opportunities to learn and discover do not mean lack of general opportunities and that closer relationships with the 40 odd people who live here with their diverse backgrounds, knowledge, ideas and skills could offer even more than access to libraries, museums, workshops etc in our old lives. Ady and I have also decided that if we don’t sort out some form of alternative accommodation next year then we will have to seriously consider what we’re doing. If we manage that then the static becomes somewhere for friends to stay meaning we can invite more guests, WWOOFers to stay meaning more help on the croft and more interesting people coming to visit and a revenue source too.

Another mostly indoors watching ‘stuff’ day today. I LOVE having older children with their sense of humour, ability to gauge what’s going on and act accordingly and just be interesting people to hang out with. We don’t spend as much time just being with each other as I’d like, particularly given none of us actually have much in the way of commitments outside of the croft but I know that these are the days they will remember. It is odd to think that Scarlett was just 8 when we were WWOOFing and so actually will probably not recall that much about that year when she is older, and even less of the life she had before that. How odd that it is the normal mainstream, supermarkets, traffic jams, Badgers, Rainbows, Home Ed groups, camps etc that will be the misty murky memories for her and the crazy life in a caravan on a muddy hill that she recalls when she thinks of her childhood in years to come.

We watched B Movie this morning which I like lots, it’s one of the cleverer films of that genre (maybe mot very subtle and possibly a bit do gooder for most but it speaks to me). I made some bread dough, some pizza dough, got some soup cooking and then walked down to the castle to put the sleeping bag we put in the wash last night into the tumble drier. Our duvet is moldy – unsurprisingly given the level of damp in our bedroom so we have all gone over to sleeping bags now, warmer, more damp resistant and easier to wash. Our sleeping bags which have done us really well being the ones we used while still campers and all the way round in Willow are ones which can zip together to be a double so we have washed the one that was stashed under the bed and a bit manky and will use them now. Every night in Willow I used to snuggle down and think ‘I LOVE my sleeping bag and I am thankful for a safe warm bed and my family around me’ so it actually has a bit of sentimental value too – always useful to get me through the dark winter months!

I took Bonnie with me and we got down to the castle in the dry. Billy the heroic builder is here again at the moment and has the back of the castle all cordoned off a building site. We met Billy when we came for our interview and he was here when we moved here too. He is a fixture of Rum for us and a big hero too. He is one of the loveliest people I have ever met – kind, caring and just full of love for everyone. He is a Jehovahs Witness but doesn’t even try and preach to anyone about that here either. He has a very special place in Ady and my hearts having been a huge source of support to us during some dark days last year and it was his mats which got the static up here onto the croft. It actually bought a wee tear to my eye when those mats came off the ferry on Monday. I dithered about going to find someone to ask if I could break the barrier to go in to the laundry to put my sleeping bag into the tumble drier and in the end decided I should just go and do it but I was worried Billy might come and tell me off for breaking into the site. Sure enough as I went to leave he caught me but just stopped for a chat in the rain.

Bonnie and I walked back and got caught in the rain on the way home. The others were watching the end of the Muppets In Oz which I’d left them starting so I finished off the soup and we had lunch. We watched some Cash in the Attic just for the fun of taking the piss out of the people on it, oh the luxury of tv portal app on Ady’s phone allowing us to watch crap TV just for larks 🙂 The kids washed up, Ady emptied the wee toilet and then he and I headed down with Bonnie to collect the sleeping bag. As we walked along the bottom of the croft so Claire appeared, coming to visit us. She is away tomorrow for weeks so had come for a catch up which we had while walking back down to the village. I have massive respect for Claire, she lives utterly off grid in her yurt with far less facilities than we have and in the nearly 2 years I have known her I have never once heard her do a Poor Me routine.

I nipped in to get the sleeping bag and was once again caught by Billy but he was just up for another chat rather than telling for off for ignoring safety signs 🙂 We got home again the dry and in daylight.

Tonight has been Come Dine With Me, Children in Need (I cried, therefore I sent money), Friday Night Is Pizza Night and no genny thanks to plenty of wind.

Work in the morning, bed soon.

Yesterday was a lovely winter Rum day, just how I was expecting it to be living here in the winter last year but wasn’t. We had the internet on all day as it was super windy, got everything charged up, the kids watched some stuff online and then we all listened to Operation Pied Piper, a Radio 2 thing from the weekend about evacuees during WW2’s stories. It was really good and sparked lots of conversations. My granny was evacuated from London to Cornwall and loved it, had a fantastic experience and visited the people she was evacuated to stay with even into my childhood 40 years later. We talked about films and books with evacuation in them (Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Peter Pan 2, Nanny McPhee 2). The we listened to Ken Robinson on Desert Island Discs which the kids had never heard before so sparked more conversations – both about Ken and about the DID concept.

Later Ady and I walked down to the village to get some bits from the shop and collect things from the freezer. I cooked and we watched the first episode of Friends, the kids are not impressed. Fortunately I’ve ordered the third series of Will & Grace as we’ve watched all of the first two series and that has been a hit. I think maybe the characters are stronger and more easy to get to know quickly.

Today we didn’t expect a boat as all week the forecast has been bad but we got one rather than two. I was cross as we’d not done a co op order on the strength of not expecting a boat 🙁 We rang Calmac in the morning to check whether our animal feed would be on boat and it was so we went to meet it. 12 bags of feed, we collected some firewood too and brought it all home before lunch. Ady did all the hard work unloading the car while I came up and got lunch sorted.

In the afternoon Ady and Davies went down to see Claire as she is paying Davies to light a fire in her yurt twice a week to keep it going while she is away for weeks over the winter so he needed to go and learn how to do it and how it all works. Scarlett and I looked at some stuff online including ordering some essential clothes for her and some festive Christmas jumpers for all four of us as a surprise for the others. We’re going to wrap them up and make everyone wear them on Christmas Day. We keep catching each others eye and giggling 🙂

They came back and brought the veg order with them. Then Ady and I walked back down later to collect more stuff from the freezer and bits from the shop. Tomorrow we don’t need to venture to the village at all and the wind is forecast to be high so another day at home listening to stuff, reading stuff, making stuff and watching stuff is on the agenda. Davies had a phone chat with Ben this evening and we have all been cast as snowflakes in the Rum nativity play.

After Popmaster Ady and I went down to the village – we collected post (a new pillow for me) from yesterday and I picked up the Rumble (newsletter) from the office. Then to meet the boat.

Ali came and sat in the car for a chat with me while we waited for it to come in. I’m getting on much better with her these days. I don’t think we’ll ever be close as we just don’t have enough in common but it’s nice to feel we have connected better. Billy the builder (the one who’s mats got our static up the hill) came off the boat – he is here for 12 weeks. It was good to see him, he was such a source of support for us in our early days here and is a bit of a fixture of Rum for us. Ady and I both gave him a cuddle 🙂

Ady got caught up helping load some deer on to the game dealer truck and I had a meeting at midday so I walked down to the whitehouse for that in the end. It was supposed to be four of us but only 2 of us turned up… Meeting done and Vikki, Lesley and I ended up having a brief secondary meeting afterwards by which time I was more than ready to get home for lunch. I got hailed and rained on as I went but by the time I reached the croft it was sunny again. Ady had brought up the last of the laundry, my pillow and some more logs.

I had lunch with the kids while Ady did some outsidey things and then at 430 we shut the curtains and put the lights on deciding the day was over. I had a long catch up chat with Julie on the phone – it’ so nice that she knows all the people here and so much of the back stories and politics as we can actually have a good old gossip about all things Rum.

The rent seems to be taking it’s time finding its way to our bank account this month so I have emailed the letting agents to chase it. Feeling a bit worried about that with Christmas so close so hoping for a reassuring email reply tomorrow.

Yesterday was a little frustrating as we planned to get all the laundry done but there was no one at the castle to get washing machine tokens from so I was only able to process one load (I do bulk buy them but at £2.50 each I don’t want to tie up more than a tenner in tokens at any one time really). We did collect some logs, get Steve’s old solar panel which has a large crack in it so he has given us but will still work enough to charge the pig battery and find an old tyre to try out a log splitting aid idea we saw in this months Permaculture Magazine.

In between we had lunch, got all the logs up and I made a start in chopping and stacking them. The kids came down with us to the village and then Davies and I walked back together as I wanted to talk to him about a couple of things. That was good 🙂

Scarlett helped bring the logs up by finding her sledge and dragging that up the hill loaded up. Ady and I were saying that given we decided to Home Educate for Davies it is so lovely to see how well Scarlett has done with our lifestyle – she is so very happy being wild and free and I rarely ever worry about whether this is the right choice for her. If ever a child was in their element surrounded by mud, animals and excused to never wear a dress then this is the girl!

We had a lovely roast dinner and everyone except me enjoyed the chocolate orange cheesecake I made (It was far too sweet for me). Ady and I had a dreadful nights sleep as the wind was blowing a gale and he let Bonnie out for a wee at 330am and she did a runner! She has been suffering from frequent need to wee so when she started rattling her crate he got up to let her out and she legged it. I heard him yelling at her outside the window which woke me from my fairly fitful sleep. He then stayed up, I stayed awake and I think we both got back to sleep around 545am. Urgh. There are lots of winds forecast for this week so while we’re enjoying the endless free power and always on internet and lights I suspect we’ll be a bit zombie-fied from lack of sleep come the weekend.

Today after Popmaster we went down to sort the second load of laundry and lovely Ross gave me three free laundry tokens which made up for yesterdays grrness. We put the veg order in and bought some bits from the shop for dinners for the next few nights so we don’t have to go down of an evening.

Back up for lunch (lovely chicken broth made by Ady from leftovers and boiled up bones from yesterday) and we watched Katie Morag – it’s on cbeebies but it is so charming and familiar living where we do 🙂

I had a phonecall from the nissen hut people to check some details from some drawings I’d sent them and they will now work on a price for me. Then I went and chopped the rest of the logs.

Tomorrow there is supposed to be two ferries but Calmac are reporting disruptions so we’ll see what that brings.

I woke this morning to see Hallival topped with snow. I heard today that meterologists are predicting the coldest winter in 100 years. Bring it on – cold and dry is a whole lot better than warm and wet as far as we’re concerned.

Scarlett decided not to come to work with me but stayed behind with Ady and Davies instead. I had a fairly brisk morning with plenty of people coming in: Bad Neil, Abby, Mr Rhys, Norman, Marcel, Manager Mike, Vikki, Castle Paul, Ghillie Doug and then just before I finished at 12 Ady, Davies, Scarlett and Bonnie arrived as did Jinty fresh off the boat. We bought a fair bit of shopping, collected some bits from the freezer and then came home for lunch.

We’d half planned to move the pigs today and after lunch it was bright blue skies and sunshine so despite it being very cold we decided to do it. Just as I cut the electric fence the sky turned black and it began to hail 🙁 It was the point of no return though and we were we anyway so we carried on. Vikki and her visiting friend Maree came along to bring some old fruit for the pigs and stop for a chat which was nice to see them but held us up longer than we’d have liked really. The plan to leave them on half the old area worked really well though with no risk of them being free as in previous moves where we spend as much time rounding them back up and containing them as we did moving the fence. This was straightforward, just time consuming. And in bouts of hail which is never the nicest working conditions.

We finally finished about 430 just as the light was failing and Ady fed the animals while I came up to strip off wet clothes, have a hot shower and get the pizza dough for dinner made. Ady followed me up and got the fire lit. I rang my parents who had Frazer, Kat and Robin there for his birthday and spoke to all of them including the phone being held to Robin’s ear. They tell me they are all planning to visit for Easter. I strongly suspect this won’t happen and of course they would need to work out quite where they would stay anyway but the intention is nice.

Pizza, wine, Saturday night music, Will & Grace dvds and I am very ready for bed. Wish me luck as I head into the arctic bedroom!

Another just us, just here day 🙂

Everyone had a lie in which meant for most of us our first meal was lunch… Ady spent some time in the horse box, cleaned out the top cupboards in our wardrobes with mold killer (I started to do it but could feel my cheeks itching and mold spores were a definite trigger for Nic face so I stopped and he took over).

I made the Christmas cake which everyone had a stir of and is now sitting in tupperware ready for regular alcohol feeding from now until Christmas. I also planted up a raised bed with about 80 cloves of garlic – I now have two raised beds and two fish boxes in the polytunnel planted up with garlic – I will achieve self sufficiency in one crop if nothing else next year! 🙂

I also did some knitting squares, some IRCT director email stuff and sent a long and gushing email to Frazer in advance of Robin’s birthday tomorrow.

The kids did some playing with lego and playmobile, watched some stuff on youtube and iplayer, connected on tablets on minecraft and on DSs on something else, played some maths game on tablets which required a calculator and scrap paper and talked to me about what they might want to do when they grew up. They spent about an hour outside in the woods collecting leaves – Ady tasked them with collecting six different ones each for them to ID with the books we have. We are looking at renting some woodland from the trust but need to learn more about managing woodland, get some advice and see whether it is a viable thing for us to do. Davies has wanted woodland for years and is very excited at the idea – he tells me he wants to leave Rum to travel but intends coming back and would maybe like to do some bushcraft or woodland thing to earn money one day. Scarlett just wants to work the croft growing stuff and keeping animals. I walked the perimeter of the croft and looked at the woodland we’re thinking about and emailed the other directors to register our interest.

We watched a very emotional short film about children born on September 11th 2001 in USA (I think it was on CBBC originally) which I spent the duration of biting back tears. It was very moving, particularly the soundtrack played alongside it. Scarlett asked for a hug afterwards.

Ady and I marked out a plot for the nissen hut and the individual rooms we’d put in it. It looks good, the room sizes seem sensible and big but not excessive. The kids would have decent sized bedrooms at last which would be excellent. We’re waiting on a quote now as we had tweaks to the standard design but it sounds like it may be something we could raise funds for next year. We’ll see.

Tomorrow morning I’m working and in the afternoon we’re planning to move the pigs – weather permitting. Scarlett wants to come with me to work and Davies and Ady are planning on watching Sean of the Dead which Davies has been wanting to see for about 2 years but Scarlett is desperate to NOT see so needs to be done while she is out. Tomorrow in broad daylight watching with Ady seems to be a sensible plan for all concerned.