One word? When seven would do…

Where were we? Ah yes, wondering if we’d last the night. Well we did – I went to bed around 1am and it was actually a fair bit quieter in the bedroom as the wind was westerly so the lounge end was taking the beating. Ady stayed up though and came to bed around 3am. I’m of the opinion that if something emergency-like happens it’ll either wake me and I’ll run or it won’t!

The next morning Ady and I were sorting out the horse box which had indeed had the canvas blown in but as we miraculously had not had any rain with the wind everything had just been blown to one end but not gotten wet. Davies and Scarlett came outside as it was calm and sunny and re-appeared with an injured duck. We assume the one that had been missing the day before but had reappeared at feeding time that morning but was now mauled and pretty injured. She has lost all the feathers and skin from the back of her body, we assume from Bonnie although have no proof and Bonnie is actually being very protective of her ever since so maybe it was a rat or otter or something else… it’s pretty nasty and we assumed the shock of whatever had happened would probably kill her but I went to the village to see Lesley to borrow a cat carrier with the intention of putting her inside it into the chicken coop where she would be warm and dry and with other birds but safe from their pecking (chickens are nasty and will just peck at an injured fellow chicken or duck sensing weakness and using it to up their rating in the pecking order.

I found Lesley and she lent me a carrier, I went to check on Steve from the yurt to be sure he’d seen the night out okay – he had although he had managed to knock himself out on his door when it blew open and has a big lump on his head) and I reported a fallen tree that I’d been the first to notice. There is a real sense of community here at times like this with everyone checking in on each other and staying in contact, it’s good :). I came back up and put the duck in the carrier with some food and water. Later though Ady went down and found a rat sitting on top of the crate so we decided to set the duck loose and just watch her. She went straight to the other four ducks and two geese and they sort of surrounded her and kept her close. She’s been eating and drinking and has now survived another 3 nights so it all looks promising. The wound is healing pretty well so we’ll keep an eye on it for infection but given our lack of suitable isolation pens and her general normal behaviour we think leaving her to it is the best course of action.

We all went down to the village in the afternoon and checked in with Sandy and Fliss who had got the spare room ready for us expecting us in the middle of the night. It’s good to know we have that security there if needed, even though we hope we never have to take them up on it. An early night all round after the lack of sleep from the night before.

Thursday we met the boat and had shopping come off so we dealt with that and then had lunch. In the afternoon we all went down to Fliss and Sandy’s for a few hours and the kids got double dinner as Sandy fed them pasta and then they came home and had dinner again with us later :). We had a nice couple of hours round there chatting and then Fliss and I went to the shop for a few drinks while Ady brought the kids and the veg box home and got dinner started. It was a horrible night to walk home in, really windy and rainy again though.

Friday- Ady went to see Norman to maybe help him move a table – they didn’t! while I did some baking and hung out with Davies and Scarlett. Scarlett told me she was worried I am drinking too much wine so I said she could monitor me that evening and see how much I drank and that I would interchange every glass with one of water too. Hard to have them seeing some of the islanders with genuine alcoholism issues, some who just abuse alcohol a lot and not fret about their parents. Not seeing excessive drinking as ‘normal’ is something I do worry about here so we talk about drinking a lot. It’s a conversation I remember having with Sue on Eigg about their son Struan and one which I think the only sensible answer is constant communicating. It meant that Scarlett brought me two full glasses of water to every half glass of wine I had last night though which kept me very sober and up about four times in the night for a wee! We had a great evening at Paul and Carol’s with half the island playing wii dance and generally chatting and making merry. I was by far the soberest grown up and the one of us who called time at about 1230am and made the other three come home as they were all happily wii playing or whiskey drinking while I just had a water induced headache! I was the only bouncy hangover free person at the pier this morning when we met the ferry too! 🙂 Scarlett is now much in demand as the sobriety officer – oh the irony! 🙂

Today we met the boat, waved off Carol and Abby who were both off, waved on Dougie (on, off partner to Jinty), came home for lunch and then all went down to help Sandy rescue his car which had stalled stuck in a boggy bit of ground. We loaded it with wood and then went round to theirs to unload it and get some wood for us, have a cup of tea and chat with Fliss and the girls who are home this weekend from school. Scarlett and Davies spent a couple of hours on the beach playing and Scarlett found a starfish (dead) which she has brought home to dry out. Parcels arrived on the ferry from Helena (Thankyou 🙂 xx) and Julie both containing various bits for everyone so that was lovely 🙂 Scarlett says it’s her lucky day with presents through the post, a letter from Maisie and a starfish!

Dinner was sausages, bacon, potatoes, fresh eggs and fresh bread which was lovely. The chickens are all coming back into lay again so eggs supplies are building back up which means more baking. We got away with just buying in 2 dozen eggs over Christmas to tide us over the barren off lay period but that’s all, certainly our best year ever in terms of chicken ownership 🙂

Ady and I had our last cup of tea /coffee of the day on the sporran and sat pondering and chatting. This is going to be a big year for us but I think the challenges will reap rewards in the long run.

The boat came today but only here to Rum and stayed docked while the removal van for Dave and Lynda came off, was loaded up and got back on again. Ady and I went down to help and between about 10 of us we had the whole van loaded up within an hour. What’s going to work? Teamwork! We hugged them and wished them well and then we came home for lunch. We got various bits on the boat including 7 pallets from Calmac which we’re using for more pathways around the static. We have a deal with Calmac where they stick any unused pallets on the ferry for us once or twice a month. I get an email saying ‘Hey guys, pallets for you coming today!’ from the office which makes me smile. I love being an islander 🙂

I’d made soup yesterday which just needed whizzing and warming so we had that followed by cookies. It rained all morning and winds were starting to blow in. We appear to be missing one of our ducks but although I’ve walked the river all the way down to the village and walked all around the croft I can’t find her. I am hoping she is holed up somewhere and may return but Ady found a buzzard sitting on top of the chicken house the other day so I am a bit worried 🙁

The kids wanted chips for dinner and I forgot to grab some from the freezer so I walked down to the village as it wasn’t raining. Sandy was in the workshop so I got a lift back up with him as he wanted to talk to Rhys who was up at ours chainsawing wood for us. He’s cut up about 50 bags of wood from the felled trees around the croft for £20. Bargain 🙂 I fed the animals and walked the croft some more looking for the duck before coming indoors as it was getting dark. Ady was bringing wood up and checking everything was battened down.

I checked the bags we’d packed over Christmas and added a few bits to them incase we need to do a runner in the night. It is very windy, we’ve taken the clock down and the strap over the roof keeps coming over the door and banging but other than that we seem fine. I think the canvas on the horse box has blown in which if it rains will mean stuff will get wet but we can sort that out in daylight. We’ve had shelter offers from Vikki, Mike, Carol & Paul, Fliss & Sandy and the castle so if the worst happens we have plenty of places to run, a clear plan on what happens in such circumstances and bags packed ready to go. Fingers firmly crossed we don’t need to and that while we up here remain safe they down there remain so too with all the trees in the village just as likely to cause problems.

Saturday morning we did laundry, met the boat, called in for a cup of tea at Fliss and Sandy’s and then came home for lunch. The weather had a break in the rain so we walked down to the village to drop Davies and Scarlett off with Sandy and Joss to watch films while Ady and I went to the hall for a Community Engagement Event about the classroom / educational facility and the visitor centre provision in the Byre Project.

That done we walked home with Fliss, stopped for a cup of tea and then Sandy gave us a lift halfway home as it was by now blowing a hooley and pouring with rain. We got in and I finished off pizzas just before Vikki came up for dinner. A nice evening although Vikki stayed later than we were really up for having had a run of late nights lately.

Yesterday Ady did various things outside while I spent ages on the Isle of Rum website doing the events page. It’s looking really good so time well spent. Then Sandy rang to ask if we had any spare painkillers as Fliss was fighting a headache and all they had in the house was calpol which wasn’t hitting the spot! When there was a break in the rain I walked down there with a selection of drugs while Ady got our roast dinner cooking. I stayed for 3 cups of tea (when Sandy is good and straight he is very, very good and rivals Ady for over-hosting!). I walked home also in the dry and arrived home to find dinner nearly ready and a box waiting for me containing my lost amber from way back in July that Ady had found blowing across the croft after all these months. Can’t believe it 🙂 🙂 I knew the solution was to buy a new piece and sure enough a month after Ady and the kids gave me a new piece for Christmas the original turns up!

Lunch was lovely and we watched Brewsters Millions before going down to the village for what is allegedly the last ever opening of the castle bar. We’ve never been as it was closed when we first arrived and has opened a handful of times over the winter but we’ve always felt it was probably not the right place to take the kids. It being the very last time we decided to make the effort and go so we could get some photos and have the memory of the castle bar as part of ‘our Rum’ too. So we did. Our plan was to stay for a drink or two but we ended up staying til the end participating in whiskey tasting and trying random liqueurs. Rach made popcorn for everyone and it was a really nice evening. We got home and everyone laughed at my pitiful attempts to read a story due to too much wine! 😆

Today has been a quieter one, I’ve not actually left the static. Ady popped down to the village and dropped off our veg order, the wind and rain has not stopped all day. I made soup, baked cookies and have enjoyed a day just the four of us. We watched Africa from last week and tonights Miranda. Emergency bag at the ready as the winds are forecast to hit 70mph again tonight but fingers crossed we sleep through it all and nothing of note happens.

Friday – Burns Night 🙂 In the morning Ady stayed home to do various tidying up and sorting out stuff indoors while I took Davies and Scarlett down to the school for a J Ranger event. Due to lots of politics and quibbling Mike had decided to combine J Ranger with taking the little ones from the nursery along to the beach. We have a student, Kacey, from Canada here just now deciding whether to do her thesis on Rum (as in the subject matter, not a home!) so she was spending the morning with Mike too. I hadn’t decided whether to go along or not as I usually don’t do J Ranger with them unless it is something I am really interested in like the bird ringing. But when we got to the school I got roped in to help with putting waterproofs and wellies on the little ones (three children, one nursery assistant and one clerical assistant equals not enough adult hands per welly!) so I went along at the back helping to spot the wee ones. Davies and Scarlett strode out infront with Mike and Kacey while Coryla, Fliss and I were at the back with Joss, Eve and Elena. It brought out all my anti school, anti formal one size fits all learning as they were chivvied along from catching sight of an interesting shaped pebbles, raindrop on a spiders web or fallen leaf in order to attempt to keep up with the older ones, never actually catching them up anyway, only to arrive at the beach where Davies and Scarlett were identifying four different types of seaweed and it was time to start heading back. The best part of a mile from the school wet, tired and having had none of their ‘what’s this?’ questions answered because that was ‘not what we’re learning about today’. Grrr

Davies and Scarlett were having a great time so I arranged to meet them back at the pier in two hours and helped walk the little ones back to school. I then had nearly two hours to kill and it was tipping down with rain so I decided to go home, take the veg box from the night before up to the static and have a cup of tea. I had just over an hour with Ady and then went back down. Somewhere along the line I missed Mike and the kids who had finished, I thought I’d be smart and walk along to meet them and finally Mike managed to reach me on my mobile to say he was back home and had sent the kids home too so I went home.

We had pancakes for lunch and the kids had showers and hairwashes in honour of Burns Night, then duly prettied up we headed down to the village to celebrate. Dave and Sylvia had asked to do the catering in honour of it being a year on from Sylvia’s darkest moment being helicoptered off the island with a cancer treatment related life threatening issue last Burns Night. Unfortunately they are not always the most reliable folk at time keeping so when we arrived ready to start eating they were still peeling swedes and defrosting chicken breasts. Several of us swung into action to help and I peeled and chopped swedes, sliced haggis and stuffed chicken breasts while Lesley wrapped them in bacon, Fliss set up the tables and Ali got out cutlery and crockery. It’s times like these that totally remind me of why we chose to live here, our random, eclectic selection of people all pulling together to make things happen 🙂

We finally sat down to eat at about 8pm rather than the planned 6pm but the food was well worth the wait. Cullen skink which was divine (both my kids had seconds and thirds!) followed by Balmoral Chicken, neeps, tatties and lemon glazed carrots with cranachan to follow. Ady did the Selkirk Grace, Dave addressed the haggis, we had the toast to the lassies from James, the toast to the laddies from Abby, poems from Fliss, Rhys, Sean and a toast ‘to life’ from Sylvia. We had several drams and then the quaich did the rounds about three times before being drained and put on Lesley’s head!

We then pushed the tables back and got the music on for dancing 🙂 Steven who was staying in the caravan and is a pianist played some tunes which several of us gathered around the piano to sing along to – for one night only we had the Rum version of the Spice Girls in me, Abby, Mike and Fliss 🙂 then loads more dancing and lots of fun. It was a top night 🙂 We finally called it a day at about 1230am and walked home getting in around 1am and to bed about 2am. The kids had a fab night; spending it all on the dance floor 🙂

But the rain’s back! Which is good because our water butts were both empty after possibly our longest stretch here without rain so we were close to needing to gather water from the burn for washing up and showering which starts to become hard work.

Yesterday Ady went off to do some work at Norman’s while the kids and I stayed home. We read some more Mountain (we’re on the second one, they are far to lengthy to keep remembering the titles but they all have ‘mountain’ in.) and I made dough for flour tortilla wraps for lunch. By surprise Ady arrived home having failed to get Norman to be ready to do the house clearing stuff so we all had lunch together and then Ady and I collected wood while Davies, Scarlett and Bonnie ran around on the croft.

We fed the animals and then left Bonnie at home and went down to the village. We were off to Claire’s for dinner but stopped in to the shop first. My cider went straight to my head and I was feeling very giddy by the time we left Claire’s at 10ish. We had food, Steve and new Sean were there and it was all very nice. Claire had late Christmas presents for Davies and Scarlett and it was a really good evening.

We were home by 10 and I was in bed not long after.

Today we went to meet the boat after Popmaster as we had Co Op food shopping coming off – we’ve stocked up on meat and the freezer is now nicely full of dead animals 🙂 We dropped it all off at the freezer and then called in to see Sandy. He is clean again just now and we talked a little about what happened the other night. Fliss came home and Ady had a bit of a run in with Norman who walked past resulting in him saying he’d go round in half an hour so he dropped me and the shopping home and then went back to the village. I put the shopping away, finished making bread rolls from the dough I’d made earlier and the kids and I had lunch then I read to them.

Davies and I made bagel dough, I went to feed the animals and then shaped the bagels and Ady came home. I went down to collect the veg and stayed for a few drinks with Fliss and various people who were at the shop before coming home. Mike was up for dinner so we had a nice evening chatting with him and catching up as he was away just after Christmas so it feels like we’ve not seen him for ages.

It’s crazy windy and rainy tonight – still no snow. The weekend is looking to be a busy one – its Burns Night tomorrow…

Ady’s been doing some work down at Fliss and Sandy’s clearing their back garden the last two days which means the kids and I have had lovely mornings at home reminding us of Home Ed days of old :). Yesterday we read for ages and finished My Side of the Mountain which we all loved. We started The Far Side of the Mountain today 🙂 Scarlett got the trilogy for her birthday. I went out to collect some wood, sorted out the kids lunch and then nipped down to meet the ferry. We had jerry cans to go off empty and a full one arrived but not the Harbro order we were expecting. I collected Ady on the way home.

I walked down to the shop to put in a veg order and stopped for a drink before coming home and cooking dinner of leftovers and jacket potatoes. We watched Mirror Mirror which was quite good and then Miranda which was excellent 🙂 I read the last bit of the book to the kids and they went to bed.

Today was an earlier boat so I had an hour with the kids before heading down to meet it, calling in to see Ady on the way. Sandy is in a state just now and Ady spent some time in the house with him. A box of drink came off the ferry for him which I nabbed and passed to Fliss. Our animal feed and haybales came and I gave a lift to Sean the rat man, Rum’s newest resident who is here for a 2 year field study of the rats on Rum for his Phd. He’s housesharing with Vikki and has only been here a week but loves the place and is very keen to meet everyone and make friends. He seems really sweet. I called into the shop, saw Ady again and then came home for lunch. Fliss had emailed to say could she come up with Joss this afternoon so I nipped out to collect firewood and they arrived at the static at the same time as me.

Davies and Scarlett and then Ady when he came home did a really good job of distracting and entertaining Joss so that Fliss and I could have a proper chat. It’s really hard supporting someone who is having problems with someone you are also supporting with their problems! I feel like I used to with my parents. We’re being very straight with both of them about being their friends and not taking sides or doing anything other than supporting and being there for them as individuals and a couple. I really feel for them both though.

Fliss and Joss left and I cooked a really lovely curry (if I do say so myself! 😉 ) and we watched Look Who’s Talking which the kids really enjoyed. We were all snuggled up reading and about to pack the kids off to bed when Sandy arrived, drunk and wanting to talk. Ady and I sat with him outside and worked through tears, wanting cuddles and then starting to sober up thanks to two cups of coffee and the below freezing outdoors before he left at midnight. Davies and Scarlett had gotten back up so we had a quick chat with them and they went to bed while we chatted stuff through. A friend in need and all that…

Ady went down to the village first this morning to give Steve and Claire a hand moving some firewood from one end of the village to the other. We have a wee trailer lent to us from Chainsaw Dave (who I’ll henceforth refer to as Chain as everyone else does) which meant it was a two journey chore with the car rather than a 20 journey trip with wheelbarrows for them of about a mile each way. I like Claire and Steve a lot and they don’t always get a lot of help from people. Often I think this is because they have rather used up favours rapidly in the past so I am ever cautious of becoming their carers but they certainly do us plenty of favours back whenever they can so it all balances out.

I then went down to the village for a meeting with Lesley about venison. Neil who is actually my co director is off island but Lesley suggested getting together with her over the weekend so I went down. It was really nice and I ended up staying for a couple of hours mostly chatting about all sorts of island stuff before we actually did the venison stuff. She’d bought me some Lush stuff as a birthday present but hadn’t seen me since my birthday (we went off the day after have not been out in the village much since). I like Lesley a lot, she is very funny and one of the key players in community stuff – she is a IRCT director, chair of the RCA and works for SNH so is on lots of the same steering groups as me. She is also the other crofter. Her twin, Ross also lives here and the few times I have mixed with her socially I’ve always gotten on really well with her but never felt I’ve scratched the underneath and she is a bit of an enigma as she doesn’t really have a female friend on the island. Another of thse people my path would not really cross with if we lived elsewhere but I could see us being close given time. We talked house build stuff and I learnt more of her recent history here on Rum too and then we realised the time so I came home for lunch.

Ady was out with Bonnie having some exercise so I had lunch with the kids and caught up with them a bit. Before I’d gone out we’d talked about stuff to sell to tourists this year and Davies got all inspired about some stories to do with vikings and trolls on Rum while Scarlett dug out some seaglass jewellry we’d made and decided on some pricing, she needs to sort out packaging next and would like to gather some more seaglass and maybe shells. Perhaps we’ll manage that this week sometime. Ady came in and I went out to help him gather a couple of barrow loads of rocks to start building a wee path to the horse box and we caught up on each others mornings.

Then we fed the animals and before we lost daylight we came indoors to take Bonnie’s stitches out. Ady held her while I did it and Davies held a torch for really good light on it. Scarlett surprisingly was a little squeamish about it and was not up for taking photos which I’d hoped she might do. She did watch but found it a bit icky watching me pull them through. Bonnie was totally chilled and actually wagged her tail through most of it. One of the stitches was a little more healed over so bled a little when I pulled it out but it’s not bothered her and the actual wound is nicely knitted together. So that appears to be that really. She has full energy back and although we’ll try and get her to stay a bit cleaner than usual until it all fully heals she is ready and raring to get back to her normal life again of running for hours and hours all over the place.

Ady was getting dinner on and I was sorting out some wools when my Mum phoned all teary about missing us and not having much contact with Frazer 🙁 So I ended up on the phone to her for well over an hour as it got dark outside and the dinner smells wafted through. I had a chat with Dad too and then came through for dinner which we ate watching Back to the Future.

Some more My Side of the Mountain and then bedtime. I’ve been fiddling with the isle of rum website and website fiddling is always a real time sink so somehow it’s now gone 1am!

Yesterday we went down to the village in the morning – just Ady and I, the kids were relishing the chance to stay home and play, having had far too many interruptions this week. We talked house designs with Sandy and Karl and then came home for lunch.

I’m reining in a little on house stuff until we have talked to someone who knows their stuff about groundworks. The budget is running away a little and I am feeling we are not staying true to our original ideas. I am really looking forward to Gav and Laura getting here as I think they have very similar ideas to us about things and, I think, a similar budget. We have been telling people that if we are unable to build this year for the budget we have then we will probably have to leave and take our dreams somewhere else and it has caused some ripples through the community I think. I probably have more to write on how we’re all feeling about house stuff but I’m tired and it needs forming properly. That all sounds a bit comment whoring and it’s not, all is fine and well and still going to plan but we are building up back up plans and talking about different possibilities just in case. Sort of like always having in the back of your mind which the nearest decent school option might be when you Home Educate – no intention of using it but good to know that if the current plan A doesn’t work out then all is not lost and dreams can still be realised in different locations.

The rest of the afternoon escapes me rather but we all walked down to Fliss and Sandy’s again later to look at some more plans. The school boat had been cancelled due to wind so Fliss was all fed up at not having the girls home for the weekend – they should have arrived today instead but when you only have your daughters home for two nights out of every fourteen losing one is a real blow. We left there and came home for dinner. We watched Bruce Almighty having watched Jim Carey in Yes Man a few nights before.

Today we went to meet the boat as we were hoping for animal feed and haybales to arrive. They didn’t but my new wellies did – I know, more new wellies. The ones I bought in September have split so I have got a new pair having spent a wee bit more and hoping they last. I guess wellies worn every single day for nearly five months and pulled on and off at least four or five times a day probably is a pretty cheap cost per wear but not enough to persuade me to Hunter territory. I have gone for some muck boot alikes with rubber bottoms and neoprene tops and they certainly feel pretty robust with a place on the heel designed for you to kick them off with the other welly. I’m definitely sold on neoprene too having gone from previous just rubber lined and lost feeling in my toes. Investing in decent waterproofs made all the difference so maybe one day I’ll fork out on serious wellies. We’ll see how these do for now.

Claire arrived home with stacks or stuff so we offered to drop it off at the yurt for her and did that – no room to offer her a lift so she walked with Steve. We called round to collect some firewood Sandy had chopped up for us and came home. We had lunch and then Ady went off to do some path building but Vikki and her friend who is here for a few days arrived, ostensibly to bring a bar of chocolate to say thank you for looking after her cat last week but I think to show us off to her friend :). Cate was really nice to chat to although she got rather monopolised by Scarlett who was on fine form telling Cate her life story and bringing out various treasures to show her. Cate was really interested in our WWOOFing adventures and the kids did a great job of telling her some highlights – favourite hosts, most inspiring, most crazy, most exciting etc. I was really proud of them and it made me realise – at quite a good moment when I’m fretting a little about providing for them properly and meeting all their needs – that we have given them so many amazing opportunities, lessons and memories with our life choices these last few years. Listening to them speak with such confidence and eloquence about their adventures, so much more than many people will ever have in a whole lifetime let alone by their tender ages, the observations they have made about people and places and the world and society reminds me that we are doing right by them even if it’s a little unconventional and there are days here and there which present challenges.

Vikki and Cate left, I made pizza and bread dough, we debated going down to the bar in the castle which opened tonight for the very last time as the managed Dave is about to leave and he is the licencee. The bar will not open again and all the drink needed selling. There was to be a karaoke machine and I’m sure it would have been a good, if rowdy night. But we’re pretty broke, it’s bitterly cold so the walk down to the village and back is not appealing and I don’t think it’s really appropriate to have the kids in the bar after a certain time of night anyway. So we stayed home, ate pizza and watched Mirror, Mirror instead.

I’ve been fiddling with a website for croft3.co.uk which I bought a while ago but had not decided what I wanted to use it for until now. After thinking about stuff for the isleofrum.com website we decided to do some camping here on the croft this summer as there is just such a huge demand for places to stay with the castle hostel closing. We have a tent and Fliss and Sandy have a tipi, we may think about a wee cabin (ie shed!) and possibly buy another tent or two aswell and do a pre errected tent deal up here. We’ll need to sort the compost loo and provide drinking water in jerry cans but people can go to the village for showers. We have sufficient cookers and crockery /cutlery to cater for that and people can either bring their own bedding / sleeping bags or rent them from us at a price to cover wear and tear and laundering. I also want to sell more produce this summer even if it’s just jam, eggs, bread and cakes regardless of whether we grow anything extra so that will go on the ior website too.

Yesterday I made soup for lunch and then did some stuff online in the morning. We had is lunch and Ady went down to the village to see Norman who had said he wanted to propose something to Ady. It turned out to be a day or twos work clearing rubbish and general tat from Norman’s garden as he is about to start renting out rooms as B&B so needs to tidy the place up a bit. In exchange he has offered us his car which is currently non running but only needs a new battery and a tyre change. We’re hoping Paul can fix the tyre and we’ll get a new battery for about £50. It’s a four door, larger than the Pajero with decent 4wd so will be perfect for us here and the Pajero can go into semi retirement and stay this side of the river on the croft. Seems like a good deal to us 🙂

I took Bonnie out for some lead exercise and then Ady came home. Most of my day got eaten with online stuff which is always frustrating when it is not actually completing anything but lots of faffing and fiddling. Never mind.

After dinner I started reading My Side of the Mountain which Scarlett got for her birthday from Julie. I’m pretty sure either Jan or Michelle recommended it to us ages ago as a book we’d like and I looked for it but didn’t find it. Sure enough it is exactly the sort of book we love so I ended up reading for nearly an hour with everyone begging for one more chapter!

Today Ady and I met the boat which brought Playmobile for Scarlett who had spent the last of her Christmas money on various bits which all came today. I called in to the school to fill in my forms which hopefully means that will all get sorted and I can start the job soon. Karl from Eigg came off the boat and is staying with Fliss and Sandy and keen to help us with house stuff. We put a load of washing on and transfered it to the drier so will need to collect that tomorrow, I’ll be glad when it’s line drying time again and we only need to hang around for the washing machine cycle before bringing it home. A quick stop off in the village and then home for lunch.

Just as we finished eating Sandy, Karl and Joss arrived so they came in for a cup of tea. I was making bagels and needed to whizz away to meet up with Ali to talk about websites so I left them all to it. They looked at the house site and went away to do more measuring, planning and plotting – we’re going down to talk more tomorrow morning.

Ali and I looked through the website, changed what we could and made a list of changes to pass on to the admin / design guy. It will look good and fresh for the new year once it’s all done :). I called in to the shop for a beer and stayed about an hour chatting to various people before heading home to do dinner. We watched the latest Africa and I’ve done more website fiddling.

I went along to the school this morning to get a head start on what goes on there in the clerical job. The short answer is ‘not a lot’. Fliss probably spends less than half an hour in any one 3 hour shift actually doing work to do with the school and the rest of the time checking her emails and doing other paperwork for the trust etc. I had a couple of cups of tea and chatted awhile and then headed off for home. I walked into the village to check for post from Derek as there have been 2 boats we’ve not bothered meeting this week then came home the top nature trail route which is a nice walk with good high views of the village and the steep bit out of the way at the beginning rather than the end. I stopped outside Jinty & Ross’ as I looked up from pacing along and glanced across at the mainland. Those are snow capped peaks in the background, my camera phone failed to capture it really but it was just stunning.

Ady was tidying up around the horse box, moving all the crud that had accumulated around it down lower. I get really fed up when there are piles and heaps of stuff around the static so had ranted about it before Christmas and Ady had built three pens near the animals to put everything into, cover with tarps and store until we get sheds / outbuildings sorted. It’s still a heap of stuff but at least it’s all in one place, out of sight of the static and organised. It all looks loads better 🙂

We had lunch and Scarlett took Bonnie out for a walk on the lead. Ady went to finish stuff off outside and I did a little bit of crochet and chatting to Davies. Ady had gone to the freezer to get some mince out for dinner but got chatting to Sandy and forgotten to get the mince out so Scarlett and I walked down to do it and popped in to use Fliss’ microwave to defrost it. Joss and Fliss ended up coming back up to the croft with us for the walk and popping in for a cup of tea and chat. Fliss hasn’t been up for ages so that was nice although the soya milk I’d got in for her had gone off and Joss whirlwinded through all the drawing stuff Davies and Scarlett had out so it was not the relaxed hosting it could have been.

They left and Scarlett tried to do some melted crayon art as she’d bought a box of crayons in the pound shop last week with the intention of doing that but they didn’t melt well so she was disappointed. I made some bread dough and then rang my parents. Scarlett helped me make a flat bread with roasted garlic and rosemary which she has always refused to try before but having seen all the components being things she liked tried some of this evening and loved :). We had dinner and watched Winterwatch and I rang Julie who I have been playing answerphone tag with since just before Christmas so it was good to actually talk 🙂 While I was on the phone Ady and the kids had been looking at some of the brochures that had come for kit houses so we talked about house design for a bit before they went to bed.

It’s been a productive few days and Ady and I are feeling very positive for the coming year. Just need to fit in some proper time with the kids now. They both have stuff they got for Christmas that they are wanting time with one of us to do.

Yesterday morning we collected firewood. We’d gotten behind in our firewood and instead of collecting every day and bringing it in to dry out infront of todays fire ready for tomorrow we’ve been mostly burning wood that is still too damp. This means the fire is hard to get going, cokes up the flue and doesn’t chuck out as much heat as it could. We really need to have a day or two just collecting wood and then we’d be ahead, but I suspect that won’t happen this season. I can dream that we’ll be on top of it for next winter though… 😉

While collecting wood Ady and I had an interesting conversation while looking down on the croft and the static about what we;d have done differently and what we’re proud of. We’re not out the other side of this winter yet and in many ways it has been far more testing than we’d expected but in others it has felt just fine. We;re all clinging on to the idea of a house for next winter though…

We had lunch and then got roast dinner prepared and in the oven at a very low heat before heading down to visit Fliss and Sandy for more house build talk. Sandy is doing loads on it for us and appears to be really enjoying it. He will be the chief joiner on the project so will get some paid work out of it and being so involved certainly seems to be keeping him straight and sober or at least helping so I don’t feel too bad. We looked at various designs, did some amending layouts and Sandy emailed a couple of firms to ask for more details and get quotes.

We popped in to Vikki’s to feed Lisa cat and then home for dinner, breadmaking and watching Uncle Buck from Lovefilm.

Today was sorting out the horsebox day. Despite everyone else seeming to have snow we have only had the briefest flurry here and nothing on low ground has settled. Infact although we had snow on the croft for about 10 minutes it didn’t even fall down in the village. The peaks have a nice dusting though. I took everything out of the horse box and Ady did lots of rubbish burning, we re-organised the food stored in there and chased out the nasty rat who seemed to have decided he lived there 🙁 Another job well done and ticked off our list making us feel very efficient so far this year 🙂

We came in for lunch and I made pizza dough before heading down for an afternoon of event planning and general chit chat with Fliss. I also looked at some more house stuff with Sandy and then the others came down to pick me up having been wood collecting for some of the afternoon. Ady and I had baths at Vikki’s for the last day of cat feeding duty (the deal had been to have baths whenever we wanted but having already bathed lots last week on the mainland I only had two and Ady only had one in the end) then we came home for dinner.

It’s pretty cold here but has been dry and very pretty with sunny days and starry nights. Cold is good, it hardens up the ground and makes everything twinkly! This evening I’ve been ploughing through more admin job list stuff, replying to emails and looking at the Rum website to see what changes need making. We have some income generating ideas to talk over with Fliss and Sandy tomorrow and I’ve been trying to do a very basic website for Croft 3 too. Definitely need that cloning machine!

The mainland feels like a dim memory already!

Yesterday morning I went down to the school to drop in my ID for the disclosure (like CRB check) forms. It all seems very slow and I am not in any great hurry to rush things through but I imagine at some point I will finally start my new job – I’ve not even had anything formal in writing offering me the position yet! I ended up staying for a cup of tea and gossip with Fliss and arranged to go in for a morning or two next week so she can start handing over. I know the council won’t pay us both to be there for any length of time so I’d rather it was me being there unpaid getting my head around everything than Fliss coming in for nothing after she’s left to show me how things work. I walked home afterwards, partly to time how long it might take – walking home will always be longer as it’s uphill. It took about 25 minutes, I reckon I could do it in 20 at a real push. As much as possible I will walk there and back but obviously sitting at work soaked if it’s raining in the morning won’t be pleasant. Will also need to keep a pair of indoor type shoes to wear there rather than sit in an office in wellies! Mostly I walked home because I’m very aware I’ve put a bit of weight back on and lost a bit of fitness in the last month or so. Christmas and being ill coupled with just not being outside and out and about as much as in the summer have all played a part but I want to reverse that and get back to being active and outdoors as much as possible.

Ady was burning all the cardboard we’d stacked up from deliveries and mainland packaging when I got back. We had lunch and then Ady collected some firewood while I put away some clothes and finished the last of the unpacking and the kids tidied their rooms and then we all walked down to Fliss and Sandy’s. The same goes for the kids as me above and I am hoping to get them outside every day again and can already see the difference after two days; they seem to come back alive again! We looked at various websites for kit timber frame houses as after some conversations with Corin who we were planning to use Sandy is not confident that he is up to speed enough on the Scottish building standards and in making his spec up to those levels it may well push the price up to a level where it is not so cheap and such a bargain. The plumber Fliss and Sandy used for their loft conversion had recommended someone so we were looking at their website and have been doing some plans to change the spec of their kit homes according to what we want in our house. They do the plans for you to submit for planning permission and then make the kit and send it over for you to assemble. We reckon with Sandy and Karl (from Eigg) as the professional joiners and Ady, Gav (Croft 2) and I as labourers we can get it all up in a fairly short time to a wind and water tight level with internal finishing and stuff done as and when once we’re in.

Scarlett and I walked to Vikki’s to feed Lisa the cat while Ady and Davies headed home to feed our animals. Bonnie is very sorry for herself with her collar on and no exercise to speak of. For a dog who has the run of 20 acres of field and surrounding woodland pretty much all day every day she is finding imposed sedentary life pretty tough. I think she is probably a bit uncomfortable and still a bit confused by the whole mainland trip, operation, being at the vets without us, ferry rides etc. All a bit traumatic for a wee puppy! Scarlett loved playing with Lisa and then we walked home admiring Jupiter which was very bright in the sky and saying tongue twisters.

Ady cooked a curry, using the very last of the Christmas turkey (which had been frozen).

Today Ady and I met the ferry as we had some metal bins arriving – they are for animal feed as rats chewed through both plastic dustbins last week – gits! One for pig feed and one for bird feed. We had moving the pigs on our job list for the next few weeks but I went to check on them and realised their house was pretty muddy and wet so decided as it was a dry day we should do it today. The kids came out to help and Tom and Barbara were just roaming around enjoying some freedom but hanging out close to us while we worked. Margo and Jerry the geese came up too and were very funny hissing and honking at the pigs when they got too close. I think it’s the first time we’ve moved the pigs (this is their fourth area since we got them) that we have not been rained on while doing it. They look very happy in their new space and we now have a big strip of pigged land ready to start putting some raised beds and drainage on to start growing. We set the new bins up next to the pigs as the birds can be fed anywhere. So another task ticked off the list 🙂

We had a very late lunch (nearly 4pm) and then we collected some firewood, I went off to feed Lisa the cat and have a bath at Vikki’s while Ady got the fire going and tidied up. I came home and cooked dinner and we watched the Polar Bear Family on iplayer. Ady and I have been looking at kit house layouts to see which ones would lend themselves well to modifications for the sort of house layout we want. We’re going down to see Sandy tomorrow
afternoon to talk about it all more.

We have a big joblist again with plenty to be getting on with and a good mix of indoor and outdoor stuff to crack on with depending on the weather. It feels good to be back in the swing of things again 🙂

Back home again 🙂

Monday – we left on the 2pm ferry and despite our fears that Bonnie may be in season again and the lack of return phonecall from the holiday cottage when we were sure they’d said they’d ring us nearer the time to confirm our arrival time everything went smoothly and according to plan.

The crossing was a good one, the sea like glass and on the boat with us was Neil from Eigg, our old WWOOF host. It was so good to see him again, I really like Neil and he is very responsible for us being here now. I’ve seen Sue since we came to Rum (she works for the school on Eigg, part time teaching and part time clerical) but not Neil. We had a good chat with him. Between chatting to Neil and knowing lots of the crew on the boat we really felt like proper islanders coming off 🙂

Into the car and straight to Fort William to the vets. Bonnie was checked over, weighed and shown into the same big crate she had last time she was there, going in pretty happily. Then to the holiday cottage which is just around the corner. Sure enough we were expected :). A quick chat with the owner who recognised us from September and then left us to it. We needed food but predictably the lure of a TV was greater than Morrisons so Davies and Scarlett stayed behind while Ady and I hit Lidl and Morrisons for a quick initial shop for dinner for 2 nights and breakfast for the next morning. The holiday cottage is really well stocked and has all the essentials like tea, coffee, sugar, rice and pasta, gravy, herbs, spices, oil, ketchup etc. The owner had also put a carton of milk in the fridge and a bottle of wine and box of shortbread on the side which was very gratefully received :).

Back home for dinner, baths, TV and bed. We all slept badly – the kids because I had put the washing machine on before we all went to bed and it was very noisy. Ady and I because it was so hot in the cottage compared to what we’re used to so we both got up for drinks of water and to throw the covers off. The following day we turned the heating off and had a window open so slept fine after that.

Tuesday – up early-ish to head to Inverness. Fort William has little in the way of a high street with over half the shops closed down anyway. There is a huge Tesco due to open this year which will no doubt be the end of the high street there forever. As befits the town as a tourist destination it is mostly outdoors shop with the sole clothing store there being M & Co. There are about 5 charity shops but rather hilariously pretty much the entire clothing stock in every one is M & Co clothing too – I guess if that’s all you can buy new then that’s all that gets donated! So we’d decided to take a day to go to Inverness which is 65 miles from FW. It’s a twisty turny road and within 10 miles both the kids were feeling car sick. After 30 miles we had to pull over so Scarlett could actually be sick, poor thing 🙁 For such seasoned travellers they both suffer in cars now after such a long time not in them (Willow travelling was a different sort of car journey experience). We bought travel sickness tablets in Inverness and although they both felt rough this morning from FW to Mallaig neither was actually ill.

Once there we parked up and hit the shops. In retrospect we would have been better planning our day more as we have been to Inverness several times before so do know the rough lay out. We ended up parked too far to nip back to the car with shopping and then went to Primark first where we did the bulk of the shopping so had three really big heavy bags to cart round for the rest of the day. We did kit Davies out with long sleeved tops and pj bottoms, Ady and I both got a new top and Scarlett got pants. Then we split up for lunch as Ady and Scarlett wanted McDonalds while Davies and I wanted KFC. That was quite nice, I enjoyed a nice lunch date with my fast food buddy and I know the other two enjoyed theirs 🙂 Davies observed that sitting in just the small seating area we ate in were more people than on the whole of Rum.

Further looking round shops before we hit a point where we’d all (mostly me!) had enough so we called it a day for Inverness centre and went to the big Tesco complex just outside the town. There the kids got a 3ds kit each (stylus, case etc) reduced to 99p in Argos, I got a top in the New Look and we got lots of food shopping, some trainers for Davies, a t shirt for Scarlett, some more tops for me and a tablet for Ady. We were totally done in by the time we’d finished there and the drive back to FW felt very long in the dark.

We got in at 9pm, had baths, a Goddard o’clock dinner and then bed.

Wednesday morning we walked into FW first going to the vets to visit Bonnie who was utterly delighted to see us and very sorry for herself with her cone. She was bright and fine though so that made us all feel better and reassured. We walked into the town and in M&CO managed to get more tops for Davies and some bras for me. We then all got a few bits in various charity shops and I stocked up on nail varnish in superdrug before going back to the cottage for a late lunch of leftover stuff from the previous two days dinners.

The kids had got a couple of dvds, Davies had a new lego set and Scarlett some new playmobile so they stayed behind again while Ady and I went to do the final Lidl and Morrisons shops. This time mostly cheap alcohol (Morrisons amaretto and ginger wine is less than half the price of the branded stuff Jinty gets) and leftover Christmas stock of things like twiglets, peanuts, olives and other nice snacky stuff that we stash for miserable days to have as treats. The ‘treat cupboard’ is now suitably groaning again having not had the usual injection of Christmas fayre that we’d have had on the mainland. We also have the sofa storage filled with own brand stuffing, gravy, stock cubes, instant noodles and other value supermarket items that cost pence versus pounds when compared to what Jinty has in.

Back home again for an earlier dinner. I made lasagne, everyone had baths (Scarlett had bought Lush stuff in Inverness, I dare not use it incase it gives me Nicface) and we all left Ady with the TV for his last night of enjoying it having packed the car up really well to fit everything in.

This morning was an early start to be out of the cottage and at the vets for 830 when they opened to collect Bonnie. Last time there had been a lot of faffing when we collected her so I’d paid yesterday to ensure that didn’t need to be done and made it clear we had a ferry to catch so we’d not be able to hang around. I think being there before they even officially opened meant we didn’t end up in a queue of patients too. I went in on my own – the kids were wedged in by stuff anyway and we thought it would keep her calmer if it was just one of us. She leapt over the seat to get to the kids anyway and split the journey pretty much equally between Scarlett, then Davies, then my lap. We’d originally planned to go into the CoOp in Mallaig to get meat for the freezer but we’d run out of money! So we loaded all the shopping into the Calmac van and then paid the freight on that and also settled up for the last lot of winkles which Tony had not paid. Again, it’s so nice to be an islander and known by all the Calmac staff 🙂

Steve was on the ferry with us so we spent the journey chatting to him. The first mate came to talk to us about collies as he is thinking about getting one and I spent the last 15 minutes or so out on deck as it was such a beautiful morning watching Rum grow closer and chatting to Jinty’s dad who was over visiting about house builds and chasing dreams.

We stepped off the boat and Chain said ‘welcome home’ which was lovely :). We managed to fit everything into the Pajero including us and the several deliveries that had come for us on Tuesday’s boat, called in to see Vikki who has been animal sitting for us and we are now cat feeding for her as she was off on the second boat and then home. Ady carried Bonnie up the croft and then he brought everything up the hill while I sorted it all out and put it away. We took a break in the middle as we had a birthday present for Carole and Paul was off on the second boat to meet her for a break at Loch Ness so we wanted to send that off with him. We then called round to put stuff in the freezer and dropped in to see Fliss and Sandy and meet Keeva – Sandy’s eldest daughter who is over visiting. More house talk to be continued tomorrow.

Back home to carry on putting stuff away, Ady cleaned out the log burner chimney and flue as it was clogged up – this one is small and cheap but does require regular maintenance. I got dinner all sorted ready to go in the oven for later and then Ady and I went down to feed Lisa the cat, collect our veg box and attend the monthly RCA. It was really poorly attended – Lesley & Neil, Sean & Ali, Ady & I, Fliss and Rhys. A real shame as we did have some fairly important stuff to discuss and it’s almost impossible when you only have about a quarter of the people there. Really looking forward to Gav & Laura coming, they will shake things up a bit with new enthusiasm, energy and ideas. Slowly we will get to a point where there are more of us here who care and want to drive things forward but it will take time.

One thing to come out of today was that I am taking on a community newsletter. We have had an IRCT newsletter for a few years which started with the right intentions to keep everyone informed of what is happening in the community but somehow morphed into yet another big chunk of workload for Vikki when she could just be spending a morning a month knocking out a column for it rather than the whole letter. It’s just the sort of task I enjoy and I should be able to do it while working at the school too which is even better. I’m looking forward to getting that sorted for February :). The other thing making me smile today is starting the first payment for the Rum Christmas Club. Fliss and I came up with the idea of paying in a few quid every week on veg box day to Jinty to keep for us to be spent at Christmas. I’m doing £3 a week which I’ll not miss at all but can blow on loads of nice Christmas food in December. This year I spent about £60 in there on Christmas Eve and I’d far rather give all that to Jinty and spend more if I’ve spread it through the whole year :). A new notebook was started and Fliss and I signed out money in for the first weeks contribution :).

Ady and I were back home even earlier than we expected – we bought new torches in Lidl while we were off and we love them. I have a pretty good headtorch but these are even better for a bigger beam lighting the muddy path up the croft. We got dinner on, I sorted out the bedroom, just clothes and bathroom stuff to put away in the morning but it can wait til daylight. We watched Africa on iplayer – really annoyed to have forgotten that was on last night and just caught the last ten minutes on the big TV screen at the cottage 🙁 I did some crochet which I missed while we were away, another hexagon done :).

We’re expecting a nice few days of weather so looking forward to getting some outside stuff done on the croft along with various indoor tasks too for house planning and form filling. I need to get my ID sorted for the school forms so that is in motion too. It’s good to be home 🙂

Not old yet. Only 4 years older than my Dad was when he had me and definitely still not a grown up. But the mirror says time is taking a toll and even though my children are small for their age they are definitely creeping up past my shoulder height…

I lazed in bed this morning until my Mum rang me. She rings every year at 10,10am the time I was born. So I spoke to her and then got up. Ady made me tea and I opened the cards that had arrived in the post – one from my parents and one from Frazer, Kat and Robin. Carole and Paul had bought me a pair of earrings from the craft shop so I opened them and then the kids gave me the pressies from Ady and them. I got a glass cutter (I have plans to make glasses from recycled wine bottles, both for selling and for using ourselves / gifts and maybe even as building blocks for a feature in the house). I’m looking forward to playing with that when we get back. I also got a photo mug.

We had some lunch and then Vikki came up – she brought me a card with a posh teabag and a wine voucher in it and had offered me a birthday bath which I declined as I want to fully appreciate the bath in the holiday cottage tomorrow :). Vikki stayed for a chat and then walked down to the car with us as Sandy had rung earlier and invited us down. The kids decided to stay home and play so we called in for a cup of tea and quick chat with Fliss and Sandy who had made me some soap,some bubble bath and some chocolates 🙂 – love home made gifts the most :).

Then home for dinner. Ady had made me a cake which was lovely and we had roast pork and watched at Attenborough thing on iplayer.

It’s been a really nice day 🙂

I think it was Tuesday I last blogged…. the rest of the week has gone in the usual blur really. We’ve done washing, met boats, ticked stuff off our pre-off island visit job lists. We had a mammoth creating the next three months action plan session and have been working our way through things that arose from that. I’ve emailed the council to get some wheelie bins (which we’ll actually use for compost loo rather than our rubbish and recycling), the planning and building department for advice on house build stuff, Gav and Laura on various things. I had a long chat with Vikki about house build stuff after Ady and I had a conversation where we concluded that we either have enough money to build here or we don’t and that will be the decider for us as to whether we stay here. We know we can’t do another winter in the static so will have to have a weatherproof shell of a house at least to move into by the end of this year. That means having a really tightly planned and controlled budget to stick to with a real worst case scenario contingency in place too which either will or won’t be doable with the funds we have. Vikki looked at some of the costs of our community bunkhouse for comparison which was heartening as the one area I am not confident on is the groundworks but the surveyor has looked into the bunkhouse build very closely and priced accordingly even taking into account the additional cost of labour and materials to get to Rum. I explained to Vikki that we would not stick it out here unless we are able to build this year and we agreed that would be devastating for Rum aswell as for us. We then came home and had the same conversation with the kids as I am ever conscious of throwing everything I have at this dream but being aware that we make big sacrifices and compromises to be here and it has to be worth it, which on a cold wet windy January afternoon when the condesation rolls down the walls can feel a challenge. All of the other 3 agreed they want to stay here rather than anywhere else so the fight is on to make that happen.

Ady has been doing a great job of tidying up the croft a bit as we’ve amassed various bits and pieces which were looking scruffy in heaps around the place. I think we’ve concluded we really need an outbuilding or three so putting together the claim forms to see if we can get part funding for a shed or two is next on the list.

Yesterday evening we went to Paul & Carole’s for a games night – they were using up all the Christmas party food so did a big buffet and had an open house with the wii, a roulette game and various other games and chats. They had a really good turn out – us four, Abby and James from the castle, Neil & Lesley, Ross, Fliss and Vikki. We had a great night, lots of drunken frolics and laughter, lots of putting the world to rights, competitive dance offs on the wii and just a really nice time. I had far too much to drink, told everyone I loved them, staggered home and slipped on the way up the croft hill and have nursed a killer hangover today but it was worth it for such a good night – a real tonic to what was a fairly un-party like NYE and a general lack of social gatherings now the winter is so set in. Today at the boat everyone was there post morteming and it was really nice to carry on the banter.

We had a few things arrive on the boat today, we’d bought a few bits in the Matalan sale which had come (mostly bowls and other kitchen container things which are lovely and will hopefully be in a new kitchen by next Christmas), a photo calendar we’d ordered. The rain began when we got back from the boat and pretty much carried on all day long so we had a nice afternoon indoors. I made pizzas and we watched a couple of films.

This time next week we’ll be back! We’re looking forward to going off, it’ll be fab to have beds without mold patches, baths, power, realised today we’ll be there for the next episode of Africa to watch on the big screen in the holiday cottage. I’m looking forward to the novelty of supermarket shopping and getting nice foods and clothes and various bits and pieces we need. Ady and I are super paranoid that Bonnie will come into season and prevent her being spayed again.

Today Ady has been continuing with efficient tidying up outside. Rats have chewed through both our plastic dustbins into the pig feed so metal bins are required. We knew the plastic was vulnerable but you sort of hope keeping them swabbed down with milton will be enough to ward off rats. Sigh.

I’ve been working my way through various indoor sorting out stuff – I tidied up the cupboards and under sofa storage areas ready for more food supplies and today the kids tried on all the clothes in their wardrobes. Scarlett needs more trousers and some more tops and some shoes. She has loads of pjs and plenty of pants. Davies needs loads of pj bottoms but has plenty of tops, he has lots of trousers and shorts but very few long sleeved tops and also needs shoes. Ady and I both need underwear, Ady needs trousers and I need tops. We want plastic storage boxes to keep stuff in to prevent it from going moldy, tinned food supplies and stuff like stock cubes, supermarket value items, things like toothpaste, shampoo.

We met the boat but nothing came off for us (we’re waiting for a few bits from Maplins having ordered another 2 power packs when they went down to half price in the 48 hour sale over Christmas – it means we have a power pack each to charge up what we choose and can either charge them back up on the genny or use the workshop. They seem to run at least 6 hours worth of dvd player, a couple of phone charges or keep the internet going for a good few hours. We popped round to Fliss and Sandy’s to drop off my ID for the school job for Fliss to photocopy and send off and while I was there Stuart the headmaster rang Fliss so I had a quick chat with him too. He’s over on Monday for a night but I won’t be here so will have to catch up with him next time.

Back home again for lunch and then the kids did their clothes trying on and I peeled and chopped veg ready for dinner while Ady did more outside. After some consideration I walked down to the shop to get a few bits at 530pm. It was very cold and dark and windy and a bit rainy but although it was not very nice to be out in I did feel better for having done the walk there and back. Far too much time indoors this week. I had a beer and a chat with Ali who wants to try and get funding for a playpark for the kids which I agreed to help with, Jinty who suggested a weekly bonfire for rubbish burning and a proper firepit to do it in which I also agreed to help with. Paul and Carole who are having a party / games night at theirs tomorrow which I wanted to check details of and then Fliss appeared so I had a chat with her and walked part way home with.

The others were listening to music and Davies and Scarlett had connected on minecraft on their tablet and 3DS. Ady had a shower and I got some mashed potatoes on for Scarlett (who doesn’t like roast potatoes) and then rang my parents.

Conscious I have not mentioned this at all really. The main reason is that it is all still very much work in progress with lots to research and learn before getting any further with it.

So where are we? We know we have to build this year. Living the static for another winter is simply not an option. It is damp, really, really damp. There is not enough space. Davies and Scarlett should not have to scale their Christmas and birthday wants to what will fit in their cupboard sized bedrooms, they need space. We want a bath. We need a proper kitchen with cupboards to keep things in rather than trekking to the horse box every time we need a new jar of jam or having to take all the sofa cushions off when we need more cereal. I want a washing machine – walking down to the village 1.5 miles away to use the castle laundry is not feasible long term.

We’ve marked out a plot on the croft – near the bottom of the land so we can have access from the nature trail rather than across the croft land, down near the river for those views and water access, away from the static so that we can’t see holiday makers or WWOOFers in our own time and they can’t see us.

We have found a bloke in Ireland who has designed a very lovely 3 bedroomed house for us – downstairs is one bedroom, one bathroom, open plan kitchen / dining / living area with staircase and single story back room snug / lounge with log burner. Upstairs is open plan study / landing with two bedrooms, large enough for en suite if we want (not likely, prob just have them as big bedrooms). It’ll be timber frame all visible inside, double glazed, probably rendered and tin roof.
Price for the wood and the putting up is under £30k. Interior and insulation and stuff can be done for about £20k so the price we are waiting on is the groundworks and what measures building control imposes on us.

Power is still to be researched – we can go for bank of batteries with solar / wind / water and genny back up but looking into that more. Water is also to be looked into – we could get a compost loo that sorts out the waste with power or we could look at septic tank and reed bed drainage. We’ll cook and heat using bottled gas and wood burners. Water can be either harvested rainwater or hooking up to the burn. Gav and Laura are up for sharing that side of everything so they are helping with research in those areas.

So what could go wrong? It all depends on price of groundworks really – it will either be feasible to do putting the house on stilts or pile driving rather than laying full foundations or it won’t. We have prices for everything else. Corin (the wood building guy) can do technical plans, Karl from Eigg who built his own house is up for doing the rest of the drawings to submit to planning to get planning permission and we have already had the nod that our design should be acceptable along with our planned location. Labour won’t be a problem with Sandy, us, various other Rum folk and of course WWOOFers and other friend and family who have made serious offers of help when needed (and I am not just talking those who said airly that we could rely on them for help if needed at various points ;))

We have a very finite budget. The crofting housing grant is £22.5k we could expect to realise £100k from our house sale once everything has been settled but I really don’t want to spend all of our everything. I think unless we can build for under £80k, so the housing grant paying a quarter of it then it is not feasible for us here as I know we could buy a house and land somewhere back on the mainland for that sort of sum.

Our next stage is researching just what ground works are required and what the cost will be which is the only uncertainty at the moment. I have emailed building control to ask what their minimum required standard is and we will speak to GGMcKenzies who are the main contractor here for SNH when they are back over later this month to get an idea of price once we know what is required and that will complete our budgeting research. Next stage then is to submit plans for planning permission and start putting together timescale plans. That will dictate whether we need to sell Osborne Drive straight away or whether Dad is able to fund us for now at various stages and if we can raise money to cover costs in some areas too. The school job starts for me and we could look at other revenue streams if the money needed to trickle in rather than come in one big hit.

What could go wrong is that it may end up just too expensive to do. If the required groundworks are just too expensive for us then it will mean we can’t build here and if we can’t build here then we can’t stay here. If that happens we do have a couple of other contingency plans. I would hope that we are now valuable enough people here for the trust to start helping things happen but we’ll see. Our house might not sell which could hold things up but before we can start anticipating things going wrong we need to know precisely what we’re dealing with in terms of things going right.

So, let battle commence!

well I’m sorry Joyce. I have been writing a blog post but it’s one of those pesky end of the year ones so I’ve been spending lots of time reading old blog posts and searching out photos.

I know, it’s not good enough. Sorry.

Where was I? Erm Thursday I think. So Friday… the weather was forecast to be dreadful and Sandy rang in the morning to say he had an idea for the static so why didn’t we all go down to theirs and then he and Ady could come up and do it. It seemed like a good idea so we all donned waterproofs and headed down there only to get huge hugs from him when we arrived and be knocked back by the smell of drink from him and the grim looks from Fliss behind him.

So Ady and Sandy did go up to the static and secured the roof with some straps. Fliss and I stayed behind and chatted, the kids watched TV and sat in the warm. We were invited to stay the night but due to the drinking and atmosphere there and that we’d still rather be at home even if it is at risk of blowing away we came home. It was indeed terribly windy. The straps may well have stopped the roof blowing away but they vibrate and make whalesong noises which also keep you awake all night. It was a dreadful night with barely any sleep, loads of noise from wind, rain and straps and the whole caravan shaking and flexing.

Saturday was pretty much just more of the same really. There was a break in the wind so Ady and I nipped down to check on the yurts for Steve and Claire who are both off island and bumped into Fliss and Sandy down there. They were on good form ( ie sober) so we went back to theirs for a cup of tea. Sandy was all for us fetching Davies and Scarlett down (who were busy watching the box set of Home Alone dvds that had arrived) but we declined and came home for a planned early night which didn’t really happen due to more wind blowing up again. The boat was cancelled for the first time since we arrived here.

Sunday was a planned woodcutting with Sandy day. It didn’t happen, instead we had a nice roast dinner at a very respectable time and would have again had an early night but for the wind howling around us. It almost feels too quiet and still now it has all finally blown away.

Monday – new years eve or now we are in Scotland – Hogmanay. Due to the cancelled boats Calmac laid on an altered schedule taking in all four islands – loads of deliveries and post came off. We met the boat and took two loads of washing down to the castle to start processing through the washing machine and tumble drier. I went down to the hall early to make a start on the roast which were my contribution to the shared meal in the hall. It was a lovely meal with two soups, various home made bread and rolls for starters, Thai salad, venison stew, chilli, quiche and the roast potatoes for main course and bannofee pie or Christmas pudding for dessert. James had brought along some eco friendly sky lanterns and pens to write messages on them to set off which some of us did and it was all very lovely.

Ady went round to see Sandy at his request and the evening started to fizzle out a little – those with children had gone home, those without were settling in for some hard drinking so I left with Fliss to go to hers and collect Ady with an agreement we may or may not stay for the bells depending on the mood round there. It was fragile but okay so we stayed til about 130am, saw in the London fireworks on TV, the mainland fireworks from across the water and the Rum fireworks from the window being let off in the village. Fliss and Sandy are sometimes quite tiring company to keep but we are incredibly fond of them and currently they are friends in need. We can’t fix or even make much difference to their current issues but we can be there as friends to support them whilst ensuring we don’t give too much of ourselves and leave not enough over for us. We toasted friendship and 2013 and hope to be playing host to them in our house to see in 2014.

We got home around 2am, the kids went to bed and Ady and I sat up with a drink to talk. The wind had dropped but sleep eluded us still….

Today has been lovely. A slow start, several foiled attempts to speak to my parents – it is their anniversary today too, collecting the last of the laundry, calling in to see Paul and Carole who we rather abandoned last night but they were not home. We watched Brave – I promised Scarlett to never bethroth her to a prince, she promised never to turn me into a bear but said she thought I would make a good bear because I am soft and cuddly and good at being fierce. Not at all sure that is complimentary although she did mean it as such! 😆

We took down the tree and moved Bonnie’s crated back, I cleared out the coats, put washing away and sorted out the storage under the sofas ready for bringing back more food supplies next week. Yesterday I sorted out the bookcase in the lounge too so it is all feeling far less cluttered and claustrophobic.

We had dinner and watched Miranda and finally the wind has gone, bed is calling – we have written up a 3 month job list / work plan / action plan and want to do a couple of things on the croft before we go off next week so hoping for good weather tomorrow to be outside in.

And a rather special one for us four really. Our first ever just the four of us – we’ve always either gone to my parents (stressy) or played host to my parents (not as stressy but still far from cosy and relaxing). My parents are rubbish at Christmas, always have been, it brings out the absolute worst in both of them as individuals and as a couple. After our new Christmas eve tradition of bacon sandwiches at midnight we finally got to bed around 2am. Both Ady and I then coughed for about an hour and then the kids started waking up every half an hour and calling to ask whether it was time to get up yet – we’d said 7am. Eventually it was 7am so they came into our room to open their stockings. They both had bulging stockings containing the usual chocolate coins, fortune telling fish, slinky, novelty rubbers, glitter pens, little magic trick, some glow in the dark stars for bedroom ceilings, lego minifigs for Davies and little playmobile animals for Scarlett.

Into the lounge at about 8am, cinnamon rolls in the oven and then present opening. Davies had a tablet and a lego house, Scarlett had a playmobile farm. They both had various books, craft kits, socks, art stuff.

Ady had gotten lots of chocolate, a book , a dvd and a soldering iron. I got a voucher from Vikki for baths (more than one use, call ahead to ensure oodles of hot water, soothing music and candles supplied!), the box set of River Cottage books
(set from Book People at a quarter of this price!), a new dressing gown and as the amber I had ordered for my birthday had arrived and the present Ady and the kids had ordered me for Christmas had not they swapped them over and I got my amber for Christmas and hopefully the other (surprise) thing will arrive in time for my birthday.

All in all a very good haul but not too much new stuff to find homes for and nothing that will not be useful or ornamental. Well maybe the fortune telling fish are just for amusement… 😉

Ady got the turkey on, I opened the fizz to make bucks fizz, Davies got making lego houses and Scarlett and I ate twiglets and made her playmobile farm. We listened to the radio and rang my parents for a chat mid morning. It was all very lovely. The static is a cramped living space, totally unsuitable for this climate and going mouldy around us BUT it is home, it’s cosy and warm and the space with the kitchen and lounge all together makes for a very sociable area to all be in doing our own thing but together. A bit like a centerparcs chalet!

We had lunch at about 2pm and watched Outnumbered on iplayer and then spent the afternoon doing more of the same. Ady and I went out to feed the animals and I had romantic notions of walking around the croft a bit surveying our land in a festive fashion but quickly gave up on that idea when I realised how bloody cold it was out there! Instead I shoved food at everyone and dashed back inside quick to warm up again! We had a lovely tea of cheese, crackers, olives and other nice snacky stuff and got the kids to bed in time for Ady and I to watch the Royal Family. After that we were both so knackered we went off to bed too. A very lovely first Rum Christmas 🙂

We’d planned a cooked breakfast for Boxing Day followed by a trip to either Harris or Kilmory with a picnic, we often used to go to the beach on Boxing Day back in Sussex and a bit of fresh air and exercise is always good after the excesses of the day before. This year we’re all feeling the sloth of crap food and too much indoor time all the more for it being not our usual state of being any more! Trouble is we got up far too late to get going so it was nearly midday before we finished eating our fry up and then Vikki appeared with a dvd to lend me (Its a Wonderful Life, I’d never seen it, she insisted I had to!). So in the end we took our rubbish and recycling down to the pier, nipped in to the workshop to swap over leisure batteries on charge and had a walk along to the otter hide beach past the pier instead. We paced out one of the blackhouses and realised it was pretty much the same size as the static.

We collected a bit of wood along the way too and although it was not the long beach walk we’d been planning it was nice.

The moon was up when we got back to the car, very beautiful

Back to the croft to feed the animals. We had dinner of turkey curry (we’re loving having leftovers, it’s the first time ever for us as in years gone by if we’ve hosted we’ve had so many people the meat has all gone or we’ve been to Mums so don’t get any leftovers. We bought a huge bird which will do four full dinners by the end) and watched Miranda before the kids went to bed.

We’re so gorgeous 😉 yes that is a mattress and pillows you see in the background, pillows have to come into the lounge every day to dry out, mattresses about once a week. It is really quite grim dealing with such levels of damp and condensation and is a constant battle to not just have everything covered in mould. We have whole cupboards that are unusable and when we are already so pushed for storage space this makes life even tougher. We are trying very hard to ensure it does not have impacts on our health and it will truly definitely be our only winter in the static as it would be foolish beyond even our standards to attempt a second one. 12 weeks to go…. la la la la la!

Ady and I watched Doctor Who but I fell asleep on the sofa halfway through.

Today we did indeed get to Kilmory. It was bitterly cold and rained and snowed the whole time so we were waterproofed up. We took a flask of tea and a hipflask of brandy, chocolate and cookies having decided a full picnic was probably not feasible. It was a nice couple of hours though. The drive to Kilmory is a 4wd vehicle only one, a very rough track so you are forced to go at about 10 mph. It reminds me of driving around in Willow through the highlands, the scenery is so gorgeous, constantly looking out for deer and eagles but this time I get to constantly remind myself we actually live here, this is our island :). Martyn who works at Kilmory is off island so no people were around but there were loads of deer and ponies on the beach. Really funny to see the footprints of ponies, deer and seabirds all over the sand. The deer ran off when we came but the ponies came closer to say hello. I am not that keen on the ponies so was happy to march on with Bonnie who is also not keen on them!

We walked along the beach, the kids played chicken with the waves, we had our tea and chocolate, lost feeling in our fingers and took some pictures which may have been the death of my camera 🙁

Then we came home. It had briefly been snowing right on the beach and as we drove home we realised that hefty dumps of snow had fallen on all the peaks and down lower that we’ve so far seen snow. The peaks behind the croft are now snowcapped which we have not seen before, if it gets much lower we’ll have snow on the croft 🙂 It is supposed to be fairly rough weather for the next few days and has been raining and hailing all night so I suspect we’ll wake to further snow capped peaks tomorrow.

Back at home we had cheese and crackers and Davies and I watched Doctor Who. We’ve done a task list for the next three months having started to feel we were losing sight of what to get on with next so that feels very efficient. We had cold turkey and jacket potatoes for dinner, tomorrow will be the last day of the turkey and I am planning a pie I think.

Ady has The Cough of Doom, mine has all but gone.

and not a chance of children asleep for hours yet…everything is wrapped and ready to bring out as soon as they fall asleep, Christmas cake is iced, cinnamon roll mix is made, Christmas Eve pyjamas have been opened and donned. Having mislaid the Night Before Christmas book I’ve read the rewrite I did last night instead.

This morning I finished off a crochet stocking for Davies. It took longer than expected but he is really pleased with it and it can come out for years to come. Vikki had brought up Christmas presents for us in envelopes on Sunday and said to the kids they could open theirs today if they wanted so once they were dressed they did and it was the first clue in a treasure hunt. Although it was raining it seemed like a really good idea to get them outside so they put coats and wellies on and headed off in the direction of Primrose falls coming back a few minutes later with a jam jar full of lollies and another clue. This time they were directed to a holly bush in the larch trees on the west side of the croft where they found chocolate coins and the next clue taking them down to the bridge. That one had reindeer antler boppers and a clue to the woodland on the east side of the croft (known locally as the Gruffalo woods) where the last clue was along with chocolate stars. This time to the Millionth Tree where it all ended with more sweeties. Such a brilliant present, it took the kids a good couple of hours and was perfect for getting them outside running around today even if all the good work was undone with the resulting sugar rush from all the sweets and chocolate! I’m really touched at how much work and thought Vikki put into it and very curious to open my envelope tomorrow from her!

Ady was doing lots of outside-y tasks so the kids came in and got changed into dry clothes then they had some lunch while Bonnie and I went to meet the ferry. I had rubbish and recycling to take down to the pier and we needed to pass our bank details on to Fencing Ben so he can pay us for the work we did so I had to go down there even though we were not expecting anything off the boat except post. It was a small delivery so I helped unload that and then went to the hall to get the mulled wine on. The post did arrive – about 15 Christmas cards including from various friends, neighbours in Sussex (I had posted a big pile of cards to one of the neighbours for all of them and they had all sent one back), a long letter enclosed with a card from Frazer and Kat and cards for the kids from my parents and granny too. Also the last present for Ady which I had thought might not get here in time, so everything arrived :).

I had a drink with Jinty, Ross, Neil and his (newly arrived) brother and then joined the few people in the hall. We’d been told most people went down on Christmas Eve for mince pies and mulled wine but actually it was just Ali & Sean, Vikki and David & Lynda with assorted visiting parents and children. It was nice though but it wrapped up just before 5 and after discussion about staying on to see who came down for a drink at the shop after 5pm when Jinty opened again we decided to come home and get settled in for the night.

We had venison for dinner, watched the Snowman and dog and packed the kids off to bed although at 11 they were both still awake.