One word? When seven would do…

I could have sworn I’d blogged some of it!

Sunday – the weather was much better. I can’t remember what else we did but I know we had Sunday lunch at lunchtime and I baked some bread. Everything else has faded into the mists of time. At 3pm I went down to the village to hang out with Rachel and Abby for a couple of hours pre-bonfire as arranged on facebook the previous night. It was nice, I like them both a lot. I notice the different camps on the island and know that we don’t fit into some circles just by virtue of lifestyle – we are not available to stay up til 5am drinking and smoking so there is a whole swathe of stuff that we are just not a part of. This is fine with us, gone are the days I’d feel the need to be part of everything going on regardless of whether it actually was something I’d want to be doing. I like the afternoons popping in for a cup of tea and maybe a couple of early evening drinks before coming home with the rest of the family type socialising these days.

Ady went to help Sandy chop some kindling for the fire and then came back to the croft to feed the animals and collect the kids, then we all met up at the bonfire. Ady and I both took our turn at cooking stuff on the barbecue and chatting to people. The fireworks were a bit feeble but we learnt later that the promised fireworks had not arrived so Paul had stepped into the breach with a small selection he’d bought for himself. It was a nice couple of hours, about half the community came out, people brought cakes and soup to share and we watched the moonrise over the sea which was quite magical. Scarlett totally overdosed on coke and felt ill after much running around and I was very mindful of not getting home too late after the excitement of the night before so we came home about 830pm. It was such a gorgeous night though Ady and I sat on the sporran with a brandy and stargazed for about an hour.

Monday – Ady and I walked down to catch the post office in the morning to send back a faulty powerpack to Maplins. It arrived last week and we are really pleased with it for size, charge held etc but the invertor, plus and USB ports don’t work. Back at home I decided to make the Christmas cake which I’d been planning to do for a while but never seemed to be planning to be at home for long enough to cook it without needing the oven for dinner or bread or something else. The kids were happily lego-ing, Ady was busy with something outside so I put the music on and got mixing 🙂 I also made pasta bake ready to just shove in the oven later for dinner.

We all had lunch, I finally ticked a couple more adminny things off my perpetual job list and rang the tax credits people to tell them we are now self employed and change our address. The address had already been done thanks to me registering as self employed – funny how they do manage to do joined up databases really despite needing to have stuff told to every singled different department officially… turns out we’ll now be eligible for working tax credit which we’ve never had before (or maybe we have, we’ve only ever qualified for one form of tax credit before thanks to either earning too much or not earning at all, now we’ll get both. That’s an unexpected bonus I’d not even thought about! No idea how much it’ll actually be mind you, maybe I’m getting excited about a tenner a month!

Then it was time to head down to the shop for the next lot of fireworks! We walked all the way this time, leaving Bonnie in the car where it was parked as she has more room in there than in her crate at home plus she gets a wee walk there and back with us. The fireworks were good, there were a few people at the shop and it was a good atmosphere. We left about 7pm and got home to shove the pasta bake in the oven and have it while watching Despicable Me.

Today – Davies and Scarlett had J Ranger with Mike – they are doing rocky seashore stuff. We dropped them off and then I spent nearly an hour on the phone to the bank and the Co Op – after 6 months of it being fine the Co Op rang me this morning to say that my big food shop had the card payment declined. Further trying using Ady;s card and checking with the bank as to why this might be determined it is actually because they have stopped accepting Visa electron cards. Argh! Our only method of payment. I’ve struggled with a few other places that don’t accept it (including Tescos when I tried to sign up for wine deliveries) so I rang the bank to see if we could sort out different cards. Thanks to 6 years of squeaky clean banking we were able to upgrade our most basic of all basic bank accounts to a current account. I refused all offers of upgraded super accounts and free overdraft facilities but we will now have a proper visa debit card which should make life that wee bit easier. I had to do some photocopying at the post office too by which time it was close to ferry o’clock so we headed down there to wait. Various people joined us and there was quite a crowd down there chatting, I like moments like that 🙂

Our four boxes of shopping arrived safe so we unpacked them and took all the stuff for the freezer (the main reason for the mega shop, starting to stock up our freezer) straight there, then collected the kids and went home for lunch.

Davies and Scarlett are in full on legotastic moods just now so they carried on building cities and making animations. They’ve got into youtube and have been looking at lego animations on there and have a new hero – a guy who does make very good stop animations and must have a HUGE lego collection given all the props and scenery he uses.

Ady and I walked down to the village to drop off some meat which had arrived as a massive joint so we’d cut into three ready for freezing. We walked the circle of the top road home as we want to get more familiar with it incase of further flooding on the low road. The culvert has been properly fixed today though by the contractors who are over. Apparently the trust were quite wobbly about how dramatic our trip home had been on Saturday night so decided they needed to get it fixed. Bloody right too!

I’ve been looking at a draft proposal between SNH and the venison processing company for which I have a meeting with SNH tomorrow afternoon. Had almost forgotten that was happening. Guess we’re about to be busy getting blood on our hands! An evening at home which was nice after all that wandering around in the dark for the last few evenings!

Pancakes for breakfast today, might be the last for a while as all the birds have stopped laying now. Jinty will buy in eggs so there will be some on the island but I’m not sure we’ll bother. It might be nice to view eggs as seasonal produce 😉

Then down to the village. Claire caught me and asked for a quick word then dissolved on me as her and James had split up. Gave her much cuddles and sympathy – poor kid 🙁 She was away on the ferry to stay with her parents, sure she’ll be fine in a week or so.

Sean dropped Eve off and me, Davies, Scarlett and Eve made the guy. Eve’s a funny little four year old, I like her but suspect she gets sat infront of far too many Disney dvds…

Sean came to collect her – a load of insulation had come off the boat so they’d all been a while helping unload that, Ady included. We went round to Fliss & Sandy’s to empty the stuff we’d got in their freezer into our new freezer which is now up to temperature. Looking forward to doing a big CoOp shop to start filling that up.

We stopped for a cup of tea and then left to come home for some lunch. A couple of hours at home and then waterproofs on to go back down for the fireworks. We sat for a while in the camping shelter and then Sandy came down to say it had been postponed due to the weather and did we want to go back there for soup. We went back for a while but were conscious of the weather being dreadful so headed for home at about 730pm.

Just as well. The culvert was so flooded it was over welly height with a rushing current. We debated turning back to do the north trail but had no collar and lead for Bonnie and were not sure what condition that might be in either. Ady stood one side, I stood the other and we passed the kids and dog across feeling rather helpless to be good parents. Once over that we hit a very flooded part of the path and it occured to me that the bridge may be under water. It was not quite and we did cross it but it was less than a foot below the bridge. The river had burst at one point and the path was more like a river than a path. The other side of the bridge was the same, flowing very fast, burst drainage ditch which in daylight would probably have been exciting to witness but in the dark with kids and dog just felt scary really.

We got home and were all so buzzed up sending the kids to bed would have been pointless so we watched Lovefilm which had arrived – we bought a zoo. It was a really nice film but with a dead mummy in it both kids were effected having brushed close to danger already this evening. Davies snuggled on my lap and Scarlett cried at bedtime at the thought of me ever dying. 🙁

Knackered now, it’s been a very long day, infact it’s been quite a long week. Fingers crossed for a dry day tomorrow and a nice firework night too.

Wednesday – Halloween. In the morning the kids did pumpkin carving with very minimal supervision. Scarlett wanted to do the ‘original jack o lantern’ while Davies did an angry pigs design from his angry birds annual. Both were excellent :).

Meanwhile I made some bread and some gingerbread biscuits which I turned over to the kids to decorate and made a lasagne for dinner which just needed heating through later.

The kids made themselves up as zombies and we headed down to Fliss and Sandy’s. We had a cup of tea and chat with Fliss while Ady did some stuff with Sandy (helping with something up in the bathroom of the B&B and then helping try and fix Norman’s car), then we went to the party at the school. They (as in Fliss and Coryla) had tried really hard to create an event catering to all comers but meeting the very different needs of 2 3 year olds, a very highly strung 4 year old, a nearly 10 year old and a 12 year old with collective parents is always going to post a challenge. We did some Simon Says, some sticking your hand in bowls of gruesome feeling stuff, a pass the parcel which was a bowl of green spaghetti with sweets buried inside and more. All of the little ones cried at least once due to something, Davies was a superstar, helping to calm the fractious toddlers, Scarlett went into total sugar overload and was just loud and boisterous. I was just feeling twitchy about being in a school at all! The autumn leaves collages made me feel a bit militant about formal education 😆 There was lots of nice home made spooky snack food so I managed to overcome my feeling of being trapped in a pushy middle class toddler group and remind myself these were actually my friends and fellow islanders who I like lots.

We left there and went to the shop for the pumpkin growing competition results – Fliss was clear winner with a HUGE specimen so she got her prize. The kids had brought their carved pumpkins down so they lit them and did a bit of trick or treating around the village netting a huge haul of stuff. They then offered the last of our cookies out and were given cash by the contractors over here for them so made about £7 and got bought more sweets and coke in the shop. The clear advantage of being the only kids out in the village in nice contrast to me feeling they were a bit like that sketch in Sorry I’ve got no head being the only kids in the school earlier!

We stayed for a drink and then headed home to cook the lasagne and watch Escape to Witch Mountain on dvd.

Thursday – boat in the morning. We’d been told our freezer would be delivered to calmac between 7 and 8am so rang to check and it had been delivered. We didn’t really expect it to be on the boat but it was :). So we got a lift to the workshop with it from Neil and managed to manhandle it in to position then leave it to settle. We put a wash on at the castle, transferred it into the tumble drier, popped round to see Sandy and got shown how to find winkles for winkle picking which may be a money spinner for us in the coming weeks then came home for lunch. I’d prepared pumpkin and sweet potato soup which was ready to go.

It rained in the afternoon loads so Ady and I had to don waterproofs to head down and collect the washing. We left it in the car, wrapped up in plastic bags as getting it up to the croft in the rain would be impossible. We would have been very happy to stay in for the evening but had been invited to Steve’s yurt for dinner and there was the monthly RCA meeting so we all dressed up in waterproofs and braved the rain to head to the village. The RCA was not very busy but a few thorny issues got resolved. We chatted to Fliss for a while and then headed down to the yurt with Claire for dinner. It was a really nice couple of hours and all the better for ending nice and early – we were back home by 1030pm with the walk to the village, drive to the crossroads, walk to the croft all in a break in the rain too.

Today – Scarlett had a disturbed night with a couple of nightmares so ended up in bed with us for part of the night 🙁 This morning the kids played with lego while I did some knitting and Ady did lots of mould and mildew cleaning and preventing. He’s moved our bed away from the wall along with Davies’ and Scarlett’s mattress is now raised up with a bit of ventilation beneath it to help the air circulate. We’ve been bringing bedding into the lounge to put infront of the fire to really dry it out too but we had totally underestimated how much of an issue condensation and therefore mould is going to be. With us still having a full five or more months of cold weather ahead we will need to rethink how we deal with it and I think a log burner is the only real answer. It will provide a dry heat which can be left constantly low to prevent the swinging temperatures through the day and night. Cold I can cope with by using more clothes, hot water bottles etc but damp and condensation is out of our control and none of the suggested measures of bowls of rice, constant wiping of windows etc are making enough of a difference.

We had lunch – leftover soup and soda bread – and then the kids elected to stay home and watch dvds while Ady went to help build the bonfire with various other blokes and I went to Fliss’ to mix up burger mix to marinate for the barbecue and then to sit and chat and crochet / knit. We talked about Home Ed and parenting and then Sandy and I chatted about log burners and tin roofing on wooden houses. I walked round to the shop and Ady and the kids came down to meet me having fed the animals and put dinner on. We stayed for a drink and then came home for dinner.

It’s been a really busy week with stuff happening every day and several evenings which is great, I so don’t want to end up stuck up here not seeing anyone for days on end all winter. It’d be nice if the rain stopped mind you…

This morning we went down to the village to join in with Mike’s Coastal Otter Walk. To our surprise we were not the only takers – a family of three (mum, dad, 10yo daughter) and two other women (couldn’t decide if they were a couple or just friends, lovely women though) were also there. For a while we assumed all five of them were together but actually I don’t think they were. The family had been here before in the summer and been on the Sheerwater with us one week and later I vaguely remembered them although the woman said she’d met Davies, Scarlett and Ady but didn’t think I’d been there so obviously I didn’t leave must of an impression on them either! 😆

We walked along the coast, to the ferry point and took shelter in the waiting room for a while as a huge downpour of rain blew in so we waited for it to pass and admired Scarlett’s picture in the waiting room :). Then along to the otter hide and beyond. It was very changable weather and cold while sitting on the beach watching out for otters but very warm while walking as it was a clamber across the beach and through woodland. We didn’t see any otters but we saw loads of seals and plenty of gulls and eider ducks just out to sea.

We chatted to the tourists lots, they all thought we were very lucky to be living here and the girl loved the idea of being on an island – she likes Rum a lot anyway. We finished the walk and called in to Fliss and Sandy’s to collect some meat for dinner from the freezer. We ended up staying a while – the kids played with Joss, we chatted, Norman came round for a bit and Claire popped in too. I then walked home with Bonnie who had been in the car so she got to stretch her legs a bit (and because I like walking – another good 6 miles or so today, I think every bit of outdoor time is a bonus to be savored this time of year even if it is in full waterproofs and pouring rain!).

A very late lunch (as in nearly 4pm). Ady fed the animals and I did some knitting. We watched Be Kind, rewind and I had planned to make some bread and get dinner sorted but the mince was still frozen and so we dipped into tinned supplies and had tinned ham, egg and chips instead, which meant the oven wasn’t lit so I didn’t bother with the bread after all.

Facebook has been all Autumnwatch tastic tonight and my Mum rang to say they’d watched it too. We sadly have not as it’s not on iplayer yet 😆

I like the extra hour. It means I get to feel virtuous about being up early even though I am still actually getting up at my usual slovenly o’clock 🙂

We’re only waiting for stuff to be delivered that would come by the post so didn’t bother going for the ferry today. I did need to call into the IRCT office though to do some online form filling for being a director of Rum Enterprise. I stayed to banter with Fliss, Vikki and Mike who were all in the office for a bit and Ady joined us and then we went off to Jinty’s to give her some eggs and get some cash out of the post office.

Back home again almost but not quite in time for Popmaster. I made my cutlery organiser while Ady went and dug some ditches that needed clearing. I also made some bread rolls for lunch and some carrot and ginger soup and sorted some bread out to put on later when the oven was lit for dinner.

We all had lunch and EVERYONE ate the soup 🙂 The weather was pretty changeable with a few heavy showers so we spent the afternoon indoors. I finished off another scarf and did some paperwork while the kids watched a film. We’d collected some new dvds from the library including (grr)the very dvd I’d just had an email from Lovefilm to say was on it’s way to us.

I left the others to feed the animals and get dinner on and headed to the hall for my meeting. It was all pretty run of the mill. Fliss and I went to the shop afterwards and stopped for a couple of drinks. I’d said I’d be home by 730pm but it was about 8pm by the time I left. Sandy had emailed Fliss to say did we want to go round for dinner but of course it was only me out, not everyone else. We parted and I sang all the way home, stumbling as I hit the rockier bit of the path in an embarrassing fashion. I’ll have bruises on both knees tomorrow and have cut my hand a bit too although nothing serious, it’s enough to be sore and annoying for a few days. It’s the second time I’ve fallen on that section of path.

Back at home we had dinner and then I rang Julie back as she’d rung me and left messages last night and tonight. Lovely to have a long catch up chat with her :). The kids watched Gullivers Travels (Jack Black fest here currently). Then it was bedtime for them. About to be hot water bottle and bedtime for me too. It’s cold.

Not even sure what time it is/was/supposed to be when we got up but it was later than usual. Rain had been forecast all day long today but actually a lot fell in the night and the river was running high but today has been showery rather than raining all day.

The kids were happy playing lego but Ady and I wanted some fresh air so we walked down to the village. We saw Steve and James, passed Paul driving so he stopped for a chat and then we went up to the tattiehouse to catch up with Ian. Ian and Kate are off on Tuesday so we wanted to see what they’ve been up to in the house as we’d not been up for a while. They have made fantastic progress and its really starting to look like a house rather than a shell. They’re heading home to Wales for the winter and will be back in the spring. We’ll miss them, it’s odd to think of people leaving the island for months on end.

Back home for some tea and cake and to get the dinner on. We decided to have roast dinner early at 4 / 5ish depending on what time zone we are in. I fed the animals at 445 old time or 545 new time, we’ll move them forward by 15 minutes a day until we’ve caught up although we’re not completely by the clock with their feeding anyway (quel surprise!).

Dinner was really nice. We watched Miranda on iplayer and then Scarlett requested watching Annie which we’d not realised either of the children have never seen. It’s on lovefilm instant so we stuck that on. Funny how they knew loads of the songs but had never seen the film.

It was cold and had been dark for a couple of hours so we took advantage of it and packed them off to bed – 730ish new time I suppose. I’m not sure Davies is actually asleep yet but I think Scarlett is.

I’ve finished off the first scarf I started and nearly finished a second. I think I’ll keep them back for the Christmas fayre and then maybe send a couple as presents if they don’t sell. Everyone will be getting home made this year anyway and these are very gorgeous :).

Ady and I discussed plans for next year and want to write a list of targets for the coming months. We did that for this summer and although we have not achieved everything on our list it feels good to be more or less on track and to get stuff ticked off.

I’ve been uploading old photos onto facebook the last few days which I’ve enjoyed. I looked at some of Fliss’ old photo albums on Friday and it inspired me to look at some old pics on flickr. We planned to make a photobook of our WWOOFing last year and never managed to do it. Maybe I’ll try and sort that out for Christmas this year along with a book of our adventures here so far for my parents.

Right dragon breath and failing battery demand bedtime o’clock. I think it’s gone midnight now whatever clock I’m looking at!

Oops!

Thursday – morning Ady and I walked down to the village to get some money out of the post office (which is just Jinty’s shop open at a different time!). We were just about back in time for Popmaster and then away again to meet the boat. We were hoping for dog food, flour and our new powerpack – the dog food and flour came :). Sandy had rung me earlier to ask if we could pick up their stuff too as they were expecting various things but Fliss was at work and Joss is a handful to take to the pier. They did indeed have loads arrive so we took their stuff round and stopped for a cup of tea.

Back to the croft for lunch (soup, whizzed up roasted root veg I’d cooked extra the night before to make into soup.) I got dinner cooked (pasta bake, so cooked pasta, bacon and made white sauce and assembled it all ready to go in the oven), made a cake and got some bread ready bake later. Steve came up and had a cup of tea.

We watched Parent trap (Lindsey Lohan remake, the kids had seen the orginal at J&Js) on lovefilm instant over dinner.

Friday – In the morning we sorted out a floor for the pig ark. We use an old landrover top which suits them really well but as it’s getting colder and likely to get muddy I wanted to ensure they had a dry place to lay down in as pigs can be prone to catching colds. We’ve been modifying their house every time we move them and had got it to the right location within their pen to stop mud just running into the house from the back. We put down some boards and staked them in. The kids were playing down by the river with the dog so I left Ady to tidy up the tools and came back to make cheese on toast for lunch – one of those foods that you get a craving for when someone mentions and simply have to have!

After lunch we all headed down to Fliss and Sandy’s. I’d arranged to go round for crochet and chatted, the kids had been invited too and Sandy had said he’d help Ady put a pallet on top of the Pajero as a roofrack (it’s so Rum, all the best on island cars have one 😉 ). Really feels like we’re part of the gang now! 😆 We had a lovely couple of hours drinking tea, making things out of wool, chatting. Davies and Scarlett played with lego and then with Joss after her nap.

We left and had planned to nip to the shop for a Friday drink and to collect some printing Paul had done for me. Fliss came with us and we had a couple of drinks in the shop chatting to various people then Sandy rang her to ask if we wanted to go back with her for dinner. We’d already got pizza dough proving up here at home but it could keep and Ady had already nipped home to feed the animals and collect Bonnie who we’d left at home. So we did :).

The kids enjoyed watching TV while the adults listened to music, chatted and generally had a nice time. By 11 everyone was tired so we packed ourselves up and came home, managing to drive all the way as it’s been so dry. The moon was so bright we didn’t even need torches.

Ady and I stayed up later than the kids and ordered our new freezer online – it should be here next Saturday 🙂 Very exciting.

Today – Pancakes for breakfast which is a new Saturday morning tradition around here although may cease when the eggs stop coming in winter although I’ve been googling on freezing eggs and it looks worth a go so may do that with the remaining gluts rather than selling them to the castle.

After breakfast we collected up various things we needed to take to the village and headed down to put some washing on at the castle. We went down to meet the boat and I checked the boxes of new library books that had arrived, nothing very exciting but I picked a few to look at and bring home. Our power pack came so we collected that and then went to put the washing in the tumble drier. We called in to Fliss & Sandy’s to drop off a parcel that had come for them, stick the new power pack on charge and collect a chicken from their freezer for dinner tomorrow.

Back to the croft for lunch and then down to the village for the final time to collect the laundry. By then the promised rain had started so the car is now the other side of the river. We all had showers (the kids bath in the deep shower tray), I brushed Scarlett’s hair and have been knitting a scarf, not sure yet whether it’s for me, for selling or for a gift for someone,I’ll have to decide once it’s finished!

Pizza for dinner and we watched Bugsy Malone which arrived today from lovefilm. It didn’t really hold the kids attention but we stuck with it. Everyone is tired which bodes well for the extra hour in bed. I am hoping we can use it to get ourselves better at getting out of bed in the morning as the kids and I are not at all good at that!

When we arrived here I remember saying to Ady that the people who we first thought were friends would not necessarily be the ones we ended up close to. It’s interesting how different people have taken different lengths of time to warm to us or find connections. We were doing our bad, good, learnt stuff for a six months in blog post over on WW and Ady mentioned how being here really demonstrates what community means. He talked about how although we knew our neighbours in Sussex noone ever offered to help each other or even just called in and out of each others houses really. It made me think about the last two weeks here: we’ve been in Vikki’s house for a cup of tea, Fliss & Sandy’s countless times for cups of tea, a crocheting afternoon, to grab something from their freezer, to Claire’s yurt to have lunch when we helped put her shed up, had a cup of tea brought to us from Steve’s yurt while we were doing it. Had a cup of tea at Mike’s while doing J Ranger and he fed the kids breakfast last week and biscuits this week while they were with him. We’ve had Fliss and Sandy up for dinner, Sandy had lunch with us three times last week while he was helping with the kilt, Fliss has been up twice this week for tea and cake. Today Neil popped by with some paperwork and stayed for a cup of tea. We’ve offered to chicken, sheep and cat sit for Neil and Lesley when they go off island tomorrow for a a few days. For all the squabbling that sometimes happens on the island there is a real sense of community, of neighbourhood, of being there for each other I have only previously read in books or seen on TV but never actually experienced myself in a real life situation.

Add to that this view when I opened the front door and stepped out for my regular deep morning breath of Rum this morning
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and this as I stood on the sporran with my last cup of tea of the day this evening
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those white bits are the ducks and geese coming up to say goodnight with Bonnie hot on their heels.

I love it here so much! 🙂

Today was an all day at the croft day, breakfast followed by washing up, some time doing bad, good, learnt and then Popmaster. Then everyone outside. The kids played darts for a while and then did some Bonnie training and general playing on the croft while Ady and I emptied the horse box out and put stuff away again. We’d come back from the mainland with Lynda and Stuart, then had Julie and Chris here, then my parents so had just shoved the food shopping we bought back in there and had not really done a proper inventory. So Ady pulled stuff out, I restacked the shelves and wrote down what was in there (played shops basically!) and then Ady finished off putting the rest of the stuff back in while I came indoors to make some soup and soda bread for lunch – leek, potato and onion soup and soda bread rolls, it was delicious 🙂 Ady, Scarlett and I really love our home made soups for lunch. Davies always tries them but in that screwed up nose, taking a tiny sip having already decided he won’t like it way that kids often try things. At least he tries I guess…

Scarlett and I had been talking about the ‘How the whale became’ stories by Ted Hughes yesterday and she’d asked if we could read them again so I said I’d see if I could get them off amazon or on the kindle. While I was sorting the horsebox I came across a copy with a 20p sticker from a charity shop we must have bought and forgotten, along with a Morpurgo book and a heap of My Story books we’ve had from Book People for years but never looked at. And a Shakespeare stories BP box set too. I got all of them out and the kids have been looking at them. I read a bit of the Ted Hughes to Scarlett and we now have a nice pile of books to get on with some reading aloud of too. We all really enjoyed that last week so plan to make time for it more often.

I burnt some rubbish while the bread cooked and then we all had lunch. Ady and I moved some stuff from around the horsebox down nearer the animals and talked about where we’d put a shed and some raised beds which are my next plans to get looking at. We might even get some raised beds marked out this week depending on what the weather does. I went to put the kettle on and got distracted by several emails asking for meetings: vistor management group, Rum venison processing, Rum enterprise, training for Rum enterprise so was quickly replying to them when Fliss arrived.

We sat on the sporran chatting with a cup of tea, Ady went down with the kids (Fliss had brought Joss with her) to feed the animals. They left. I went to get some water from the burn for showers while Ady and the kids dealt with the poo loo. I peeled, chopped and seasoned some veg for dinner and got it in the oven, had a shower and rang my parents. Ady had his shower and made toad in the hole. We watched Jumanji on Lovefilm instant over dinner which we all thought was pretty good. We do like Robin Williams :).

Right, another blogpost in another place to do.

Another gorgeous day here again today. Sun shining, blue skies, lovely autumn colours. We’re being predicted a very cold winter I believe which is all good as far as we’re concerned. It’s endless days of wind and rain I am dreading, although now we feel more secure in the static I guess even those would mean lots of cosy days inside the static doing crafts and reading by candlelight – you know I’ll make anything sound romantic and just what I always wanted! 😉

We were all up just after 7am as the kids were off to do bird ringing with Mike for J Ranger this morning. The last three or four mornings have been spectacular sunrises over the sea with Rum residents all posting up stunning pictures of Loch Scresort and the village all bathed in pinks and reds but this morning when I was up early enough to actually see the sun get up there was nothing – typical! A rant at Scarlett about suitable levels of clothing meant any lurking wildlife had been long since scared off by me by the time we left the house too!

We arrived just as Mike was checking the nets for the first time and had caught five birds – four song thrush and a redwing. We all stayed to watch them being done and the kids got to release them all too, something they are really enjoying, I’m very impressed with their confident handling of the birds. We were there just after 8am and by 10am the village had properly woken up with several people cycling past on their way off to work or to the post office, the SNH tractor starting up and getting moving and general to-ing and fro-ing – it all felt a bit like being in Balamory! 😆

Ady and I stayed for the next net haul and then we headed back to the croft to let Bonnie out. Our original plan for today was to get the horse box sorted but we had so many interuptions to our day that we decided to save it for tomorrow when we have nothing else happening. So we listened to Popmaster, did the washing up, had a cup of tea and piece of cake on the sporran and then gathered everything up ready to meet the boat. We were hoping dog food and a sack of flour would arrive on the boat along with food shopping from the CoOp and a couple of jerry cans of diesel. On that basis we took down empty water jerry cans and kept the veg delivery we’d not had the energy to carry up the croft hill last night in the car too with the intention of doing a run up the hill in the car as we had so much stuff.

When we got to the pier the Orion was in with foot passengers and the contractors who do the roads and are building SNH agricultural building were there waiting for their machinery so we chatted to them for a bit. Our CoOp order came along with the diesel but the dog food and flour was delivered to Calmac about an hour after the ferry had left so it will come on Thursday now. I’ve chased up a new power pack we ordered along with a jacket for me which was shown as despatched on 13th October so really should be here by now. There is a fine line between the excitement of waiting for stuff and needing to feed the dog, bake bread and keep warm! 🙂

Ady dropped me off in the village to meet Davies and Scarlett and he took the car up to empty it. They had just caught a blackbird and a chaffinch and were taking the nets down so I waited with them. Davies was really good at aging and sexing the chaffinch, which is apparently easy but nonetheless impressed me. Mike can be a very frustrating person but he is amazing with Davies and Scarlett and their knowledge on so many nature related things is massively improved as a result of the time they spend with him. He is really passionate about outdoors education and bringing the natural world to kids – if we’d had a wish list of people and their skills to be on this island I think we would have been hard pushed to top the idea of Mike really, we have all learnt loads from him and I know his influence is going to be really important to the kids.

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We walked home discussing what would be the coolest way to make use of the pile of leaves if you raked up every fallen leaf on Rum 😆

We had lunch and then listened to a play on Radio 4 about an alternative ending to the moon landing where Armstrong and Aldrin didn’t make it back. It was good.

Fliss arrived for us to chat about grant funding for the creative Scotland event, the Christmas Fayre and other such stuff and we had a really lovely couple of hours chatting. I really like Fliss, she’s definitely the person I have clicked with the most here – we have lots in common.

Fliss left and then Scarlett and I went down to the shop to buy milk and check if any post had arrived for us today. It hadn’t but Derek gave us a pair of wellies which will fit Davies when he next grows – we have quite a welly stash now :).

Back home I made lasagne for dinner which was very delicious (I made the white sauce by mixing philadelphia with cream, it was really nice) and some bread for the next couple of days. I’ve been looking at candles, trampolines and pushbikes online as they are our next planned purchases with excess funds although I admit to feeling a bit wobbly about a trampoline here… maybe one sunk into ground level…

Life eh? Today I became a director of another company and got my official recognition of my self employed status. Not at all sure I have ever been so busy and earned so little!

We had plans to sort out the horse box today but the morning rather ran away from us and then it was Popmaster o’clock. We’ve had some initial drawings back from Corin who is designing a cottage for us so we looked at those and discussed house plans for a while. Then Ady and I took the dirty washing and headed down to the castle.

We stuck the wash on and then bought some DG notes from Vikki, called at Fliss’ to collect some stuff from the freezer and the keys to the gas cage and then got three of the four gas bottles we had paid for and took them up to the croft. The car has not been up the hill for weeks but we were really keen to get it to the static with the bottles as they are crazily heavy to carry up the hill. We made it and loaded the car up with two empties, had some lunch and then headed back down again. This time to meet the boat and put the empties in the gas cage and collect the last full one.

We were hoping for dog food and a sack of flour on the boat but nothing came off for us. We came back with the last bottle via the castle to swap the washing into the tumble drier. I made a banana cake with some of the huge ripe banana glut we seem to have (along with a kiwi glut – the other 3 all suddenly start eating loads of a particular fruit so I order more the following week and then they all stop – I’ve yet to get the hang of anticipating 4 days in advance what fruit and veg we’ll be needing next week when we’re only 3 days into this weeks delivery!). Then I walked down to the village as I had a meeting about becoming a director of Rum Enterprise (a group set up to make money for the trust – first and currently only project being a bunk house we are hoping to get funding for from the Lottery).

Ady and the kids arrived in the car just as we finished the meeting which was excellent timing. They’d collected the washing and delivered some eggs to the castle – we’ll have had our best month yet in egg sales in October, reckon we’ll top the £50 mark thanks to the ducks laying fairly reliably and there being a very good market for duck eggs here too. We stayed for a beer / coke and chat. Ian and Kate are heading home to Wales next week so it feels like the island is starting to empty. People are talking about going away for Christmas, Steve is thinking he’ll take the winter off from the yurt and stay with his Mum, Claire and James are off for a months holiday and there are no non-islanders here at all at the moment.

Back home for dinner and we watched Labyrinth which had arrived from Lovefilm on the recommendation of at least 3 different people. The kids quite liked it but Ady fell asleep and I thought it was rather dated but totally Jim Henson.

I meant to be in bed ages ago – we’re up at 7am tomorrow to do bird ringing. Somehow I never manage even the most needed early nights!

Saturday – Ady did the first ferry, was there as the sun was coming up. He took some photos and it was beautiful. He got invited on board the Orion which is doing some of the ferry runs. Pete the skipper is full of business ideas so Ady gave him our email address and we’ll have some further chats with him about some of his ideas for bringing people to Rum over the winter.

He came home and we had a fairly relaxed morning until it was time for the next ferry at midday. I went down too and we met the various people coming off including Dave Chain, Neil and a trailer full of sheep – five gorgeous ewes and a ram. Very cute and now there are sheep on Rum 🙂 I do like sheep lots and am tempted but happy to wait for goats. I spent some time chatting to Linda and Castle Dave who were going off as Dave has an interview – they’ll not be long for Rum now I suspect which is a shame but not a shock.

We then had said we’d help Claire put up her new shed so I nipped home to tell the kids what we were doing and then back to join Ady. First we carried all the component parts down from the village to the yurt – about half a mile, which felt further with shed pieces on your back! We did it in three trips. Claire had made a really nice packed lunch for us all so we sat and ate that and then got most of the shed up. We’d said we could stay til 5pm but then needed to be away to feed animals and kids, plus we had Vikki coming up for dinner too. By 5pm all of the wall panels were up, the doors were hung, the glazing in. All that remained was the roof going on. Steve, James and Claire reckoned they’d get it finished in the hour ot so before dark but I wonder if they did… We came to a natural break at the rechargable drill ran out of charge so we had a beer with them and then Ady and I headed off, via Fliss’ to collect something for dinner today from their freezer. They have said we can put a freezer in the workshop which means we can have as much space as we want and access to it whenever rather than going in and out of theirs all the time. They have also said we can plumb a washing machine in the workshop too which will be amazing – they are the two things I miss most and would find life so much easier with – ideally up here on the croft but down in the village will make a massive difference. We’ll wait til the spring for the washing machine, we’d still need to use the castle tumble drier til then as we have no indoor drying space yet but we’ll get a chest freezer on order asap as being able to fill that with various things will be amazing – we can have foraged and fished and hunted food kept, stash things like milk, butter, cheese and stock up on meat and even things like ice cream and frozen veg. It will make a massive difference to our food budget and our ability to store stuff. Really pleased :).

Back at home Ady fed the animals and I came up to get the kids dinner sorted. Vikki arrived and the kids went off to watch a film in our room while we had dinner and chatted. It was a nice evening and although I think Vikki is another one who is probably not long for Rum it was a positive and happy evening which felt fitting for our six month anniversary of having moved here.

Sunday – we did have a list of things to get done today but seem to have not really done much. It’s been a really productive week though so that’s okay, we can afford to slack off today :). I finished an article for the next WWOOFing newsletter that I’d been asked to write; an update on our first six months here and some stuff about how the finances are working for us including our crowdfunding and other such ideas. I just need to email across some pictures of our first six months now, which should help inspire me for a blog post I need to write on the same subject.

We had lunch and then decided to tick off one of our planned achievements for the week – exploring somewhere new on Rum. We only had an hour or so of decent light left before the sun dipped down and it got cold so we headed off across the croft, past our planned house site and down to the river bank. The river is very meandering, snaking round on itself lots of times so we walked, sometimes wading along the actual river which is really low at the moment, sometimes along the banks. It was lovely 🙂 and we could see the static the whole time. I love that our house is visible from all these amazing places.

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A really nice hour or so wandering around exploring and then it was time to head back to feed animals. Ady did that while I got our dinner on and then he and I took our final cup of tea / coffee of the day out onto the sporran to drink it and enjoy the view as the sun went down. We’ve been debating going off island before Christmas to get Bonnie spayed and do some Christmas shopping but have decided not to and to wait until after Christmas to get Bonnie done. We think we’re better off spared the pre Christmas stress of mainland life and will probably spend less and get more in January instead.

We had a wee fire to burn off some rubbish and make the most of the gorgeously starry night as it got dark then came in for dinner. We watched Holes while we ate on Lovefilm instant which was actually pretty good and we all enjoyed.

Ferries change from this week to winter timetable so we go to 6 instead of 8 ferries per week, although still on four days (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday). We’re predicted nice dry weather til at least Thursday so we’re carrying on with winter-readying this week, stocktaking our animal feed and people feed in the horsebox, getting four full gas bottles up here to see us through til spring and coming up with ways to create a foot path through the boggy track down the hill. I’ve also agreed to be a director of Rum Enterprise, a trading subsiduary for the trust for any income generating projects. It seemed like a good start for getting involved in what’s going on here. given I don’t really want to be a trust director just yet. The first meeting to get up to speed on all that’s going on with that is tomorrow, plus Fliss and I are organising a Christmas Fayre, a grant application for an artist in residence event as part of Year of Natural Scotland and we’re planning a big bonfire night event too. Always busy!

A lie in for everyone this morning after a late night last night. I did a few bits online and then we all left together for the village. Ady, Bonnie and the kids took the car and went to do the ferries – three in today at various times so Ady just stayed down there for the whole time and managed to get phones etc charged up, enjoy the sunshine, have a long chat with Sean and take Bonnie for a walk on the beach.

Meanwhile I walked down to Fliss and Sandy’s with some brownies we’d not eaten last night, my notepad and pen and some crochet and knitting as we were having a brainstorming on a fund application for something to do for Creative Year of Natural Scotland next year and a yarn chatter at the same time.

Sandy brought us a tray of tea and left us to it and a very lovely few hours we had too sat in their conservatory. We came up with some ideas, sent a few emails and then just spent the rest of the time chatting. Davies and Scarlett walked round to us so they sat and played with lego, Sandy was in and out, Derek brought round Fliss’ post and then popped back with mine as I was still there and had some parcels (teaspoons because the cutlery drawer goblin has eaten all of ours, teabags because every time I run out of my Goodearth tea and then have one I realise how very superior they are to any other tea so I’ve taken to buying bags of 440 at a time and decided I am worth that for my tea, glass paints as I want to decorate the wine bottles we use as candle stick holders to make them pretty. Ady joined us for a final cup of tea and then we headed off via the shop to deliver some eggs. More amazon deliveries had come on the ferry – sugar and washing up liquid so we had plenty to carry up the hill home.

I cooked, we watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit arrived today from Lovefilm and then fairly early nights all round. Tomorrow is our 6 month anniversary of arriving on Rum and we have Vikki coming up for dinner.

I’ll do a quick blog before I head to bed.

A fairly laid back morning for everyone with Ady and the kids spending lots of the day outside while I did some cooking. We had Fliss and Sandy coming for dinner so I made Galoka recommended roasted veg rice gratin and some home made garlic and rosemary bread. I spent ages peeling and chopping veg and then made some brownies intending them for pudding although in the end we didn’t eat them. I had music blaring out and was listening to the Christmnas camp playlist of music on my phone, so that with the mass amounts of peeling and chopping had me feeling like I was at camp :).

When I stopped for a cup of tea with Ady and we looked in one of my books to find the best wood for making brooms I actually got quite tearful. There we were sat on the verandah of our home, drinking tea looking out not only ove the most amazing view I know but also looking out over our land. There were chickens, ducks and geese all bimbling around doing their thing and I just tried to imagine how I’d feel if this were a WWOOF host we’d arrived at. It is so close to our dream that at times I hardly dare believe it is true we are here. A beautiful sunny day, clear blue skies, a lovely cup of tea, kids and dog off playing by the river… it all brought a grateful tear to my eye!

The day disappeared really, we all had lunch together and the kids disappeared back outside. They’ve been teaching Bonnie tricks and been doing pretty well with it too. Bonnie and I went down to the pier to collect the power pack and buy a few bits from the shop, then home to finish off dinner.

I fed the kids first and then Fliss and Sandy came up. We’ve had a really nice evening with them including Sandy having a couple of beers which may or may not pan out to be a good thing but we’ll see what happens next.

Our static has a skirt. Or maybe now we’re in Scotland it could be a kilt! 😆

I took Davies and Scarlett down to meet Mike this morning for some more bird ringing. I dropped them off and nipped to the castle to stick a wash on, then back to them. They had already caught a male and female goldcrest and were ringing them when I arrived. I was just in time to see them both and be shown the differences between sexes. They are tiny birds (smallest in UK) and very pretty. I stayed for a cup of tea and chat with Mike and Fliss and Joss walked past so we chatted to them too. Then I left the kids for one last look at the nets before they went home and I went to meet the ferry. The usual Calmac ferry, Loch Nevis is off for it’s annual service so we have the Loch Brushter at the moment, a smaller, slower, noisier boat that mucks up the timetable completely. It is also being run alongside the Orion, a small whalewatching superfast boat that sometimes does passenger runs too so the whole timetable is totally askew. The castle had rung Calmac and been told normal two ferries at 15 minutes earlier would be in so I went with that and arrived to meet the first one to realise it was not even in sight. I have the skippers number so I rang him and got his ETA instead which was another 45 minutes. Not long enough to go home really so I sat in Daves’ van with my fluorescent vest on and waited. Various people came to chat to me, I saw the boat in, chatted to the staff and then headed off.

Next on my list was taking sausages out of Fliss’ freezer for dinner tonight so I popped round there and ended up staying for three cups of tea and nearly two hours of chatting. I do like Fliss’ company, she is very similar natured to me. I left there and collected my washing which James at the castle had very kindly tumble dried for me :). Then finally up to the croft. I carried the whole bag of clean laundry (about 3 normal machine loads) and Scarlett’s new wellies and my new gilet which had arrived in the post along with two packs of sausages and two 1.5kg bags of bread flour. That hill gets no kinder!

As I walked up the hill so the rain started and had driven Ady and Sandy indoors. They had all but finished though – will get some pictures tomorrow. It looks fantastic 🙂 The whole static has a skirt round it, hatches have been put in for access to the genny and water and we have a verandah and steps outside to sit on. Sandy has built a bench to sit on and store wellies underneath out of the rain too. I love it :).

I heated up some soup and we grown ups had some food, the kids had already sorted out their own lunch. Then Sandy headed for home and Ady and I went down to meet the second boat. We arrived at about the same time as the boat did so dashed about getting the ropes ready, waved everyone off that we knew was leaving but then instead of being able to let the boat go early as we’d hoped there was confusion about whether two day trippers had got back on or not. We assume they had in the end because no one seems to have heard from them but there was some toing and froing with the boat.

We then were hailed by Sean on our way past the castle to say while Richard (big SNH boss) was not around would we like him to bring the big table Billy had left for us up to the croft on the forks on the tractor. We’d been agonising over how to get it up – it’s really heavy, Ady and I can barely drag it between us and really big, it wouldn’t fit in the car so we jumped at that :). We followed him up and he managed to get it about half way up the croft so we now have a fairly random table in the middle of the track but we can sort that out tomorrow. Back to the car where we found Martyn trying to get in because Bonnie had managed to turn on the hazard lights AND lock herself in 😆 We sorted that and then went to the castle to collect the last of the wood, called into the shop for a couple of bits for dinner tomorrow and then finally came home.

I washed up – there was mountains of it, dinner last night, breakfast and lunch today, made bread, had a shower and cooked dinner. Ady tidied up outside a bit and we’re all looking forward to a day off from everything tomorrow. We have Fliss and Sandy coming up for dinner and I’m looking forward to making something nice and having a grown up evening with friends after a day of no running around or being up at a certain time.

I have not been distracted by photo hunting for the 50 things blog post, I have posted on the other blog, I have been a very good mother and wife and crofter and made moves towards other stuff on my job list. And having been up since 7am (still dark, still bloody cold and still way too middle of the night for the likes of me) I intend being in bed before much longer.

The reason for the early-up-ness was J ranger and bird ringing. Mike tells me the nets are less visible in crepuscular light (my word, not his) so early morning or late evening (which these days is about 4pm) is the best time for catching birds. So the kids and I were off, armed with mug of tea for me to meet him at 8am, leaving Ady and Bonnie to feed animals, tidy up and get started with Sandy. I stepped out of the static this morning into the veranda and came all but face to face with a stag – oh he was majestic! 😉 We all looked at him for a while and then Bonnie chased him off.

I hung around for a couple of hours and three nets worth of catching so saw robins, great tits and dunnock ringed and released. Its really interesting and the kids got a very full on experience of it all including handling and releasing birds but due to strict (and right) rules they are not officially supposed to do so so in the interests of not getting Mike into trouble I have kept all pics on F&F status.

I left at about 1030 am to head back up to the croft and busied myself making some bread and soup for lunch and doing various labouring tasks such as removing all the nails from a big pile of reclaimed timber. We have almost finished now, should be done tomorrow and have skirting all around including hatches to access things like water, generator, gas and a veranda on the front. I think I might love Sandy 🙂 It looks fantastic!

The kids and I went back to the village as Mike had said he might do some early evening ringing and we were very hopeful of some birds of prey – owls have been mentioned! It was getting too late though so we had a drink at the shop and got home just before darkness fell.

Ive gotten into a tangle with online stuff – I have a really long list of things I want / need / really must do and with limited online time I end up doing none of it and aimlessly filling time instead. Must be more disciplined about working through stuff in chunks but don’t want to let blogging slip really.

Yesterday we had hoped to get to Kilmory to see more of the deer rut and I’d even asked for permission to drive there but when we called down to Fliss and Sandy’s on Saturday they said they’d pop up on Sunday for Sandy to plan the static skirting which is our top priority just now so we decided to hang on for that instead. We should really have checked a time with them though as in the end they didn’t come up until nearly 5pm so we could have gone to Kilmory after all.

We all spent the whole day outside though, enjoying glorious sunshine and beautiful blue skies. Ady and I moved all the wood from the other side of the river onto the croft – certainly felt we’d been working yesterday with aching knees and bruised shoulders from carrying wood -like being WWOOfers again! Which reminds me, another job is to write an article for the WWOOFing magazine again, I did a big article for the Spring issue and they want another for the autumn one, shame it’s not paid writing work!

Davies and Scarlett spent lots of time outside too, playing down by the river and running about with Bonnie. These are the days we hoped for at the end of last year when WWOOFing was coming to a close and earlier this year when it was so tough living with Mum and Dad and not knowing where we’d end up. Our own space, freedom to enjoy it and the knowledge that these good days more than make up for the challenging ones.

Ady and I walked down to the village and back and Fliss and Sandy were here when we got back. Tea and chatting – Fliss and I planning a crochet group, reading group and other such dark evening fillers for Rum residents, Sandy and Ady measuring the static and planning the skirt to go around it.

They headed off and I got our dinner on, then passed the baton to Ady to carry on with it. I meant to have a far earlier night than I managed but I got distracted by photo perusing for the 50 things blog post I’m writing for WW.

Today – Sandy was due up here at 930am so everyone was up and ready. I’d planned to help if needed but actually I was more use supplying a ready stream of cups of tea and keeping Davies and Scarlett occupied so I fulfilled one of my long intended activities and got out a book from the bookcase and spent about six hours reading to them all snuggled up together on the sofa instead :). We are almost all the way through Twist of Gold (Morpurgo) which is excellent. We all three really miss such times and rarely seem to capture them these days so it was lovely to sit in the sunshine watching the progress of Ady and Sandy outside while reading to the kids.

The skirt on the right hand side is done, all of the pallets which had been laid out as a sort of decking have been nailed together as a solid plinth and a platform is now up between the two doors to create a veranda. It is fantastic and means we have a lovely place to sit outside and survey our view. Love it :). More still to do with the rest of the skirt and Sandy has some further grand plans to carry out. We’re putting ourselves in his hands really, he has the vision and the skills and is enjoying doing it too so Ady will labour for him and we’ll end up owing favours back but hopefully we’ll be left with something vastly improved to what we had before.

I went down to meet the boat and get a handover from Chainsaw Dave who is off today so Ady is doing the boats on Wednesday and Friday. We have all sorts of ferry disruption at the moment as the normal ferry is off for it’s annual service and the stand in boat runs at different speeds and capacities. Vikki came back so I ran her home and went in for a cup of tea and quick chat. Jinty had collected my shopping as that meant I missed the boat so I whizzed along to the shop to collect it from her and then the kids and I staggered up the hill with it. 18 loo rolls, 2tubs of chocolates, 6 pints of long life milk, 4 tins of soup, 6 jars of pasta sauce, 6 jars of curry sauce, 6 litres of vegetable oil. 2 whole chickens, a bottle of brandy, 2 bottles of kitchen surface spray, 2 large bottle of mayonnaise and a 12 pack of crips. I think we did well to manage that up our hill in one go! 🙂 Go me and my Sarah Connor arms ambitions!

I made lunch for everyone and then we read more book until it was time for Sandy to head off. His car wouldn’t start so Scarlett and I fed the animals and then went to collect our fruit and veg (more staggering up the hill with very heavy bags) leaving Ady and Sandy to it. When we got back an hour later it had been abandoned and Sandy had walked home. Ady and I jumpstarted his car and then I followed Ady back in it to get it home to them. Final walk up the hill in almost pitch dark carrying the fruit and veg.

My shower tonight was well deserved, as was dinner and the fire on with a hot water bottle I am now enjoying. I plan a small glass of pretend Lidls own baileys before retiring as we’re meeting the Ranger down in the village at 8am for some bird ringing before another full day of carpentry.

Yesterday morning was wet again but we had wood to collect. Billy, the builder who has been doing work on the castle roof since before we arrived here (we sat and chatted to him in the kitchen when we came over for our interview, he helped us with loaning his mats to get the static onto the croft) was finally leaving Rum and had promised us any leftover wood and other building materials but had been told he could not leave them at the castle. They had been moved to the bonfire pile of SNH so we needed to grab them asap before they went. Donning waterproofs Ady and I left the kids home and braved the rain and mud to load the car up. We did it in two runs and a huge pile of wood is now sitting just the other side of the river waiting for it to go down low enough to load the car up again and bring it back to the croft.

We then heard that the ferries were disrupted with the vehicle ferry only coming in once instead of twice and a smaller passenger ferry coming in twice instead. We’re starting to realise that ferries are a law unto themselves this time of year – which would not be such an issue for us if Ady were not being piermaster next week! We dashed to the pier and missed the first coming of the passenger ferry so rang Calmac to check times and the CoOp to ensure the food delivery we were waiting for was definitely coming and then dashed home for some lunch before heading back again to meet the boat. Food shopping safely collected we went home again – lots of toing and froing yesterday.

I’d made pizza dough for dinner so we fed the animals, put shopping away and then went down for an end of the week beer at the shop. We’ve been rather out of the loop for the last couple of weeks so it was nice to catch up with fellow Rumics for a couple of hours. We didn’t stay late and were home by about 730pm and eating by 8. We watched The Pirates – an adventure with scientists which was good but not amazing.

Today was a quiet morning. I did some bits online, made some apple sauce with Scarlett, some orange curd on my own, Ady did some applying draft excluder foam to the doors and the kids pottered about til lunchtime. Then we walked down to the village for a cup of tea and catch up with Fliss and Sandy who had been away for a week and got back yesterday. They both look much more like themselves after a crazy few weeks getting their B&B finished and ready to go so the holiday has done them the world of good. We missed them last week, it was good to see them home.

Back home again to feed animals and get settled in for the night. We’re trying really hard to minimise condensation which means as little hob cooking as possible once it’s getting cold / dark and cooking earlier. Sometimes we manage this… 😉 We watched Nanny McPhee 2 which we’d started watching once before and then everyone else went to bed. I’m about to follow – it’s too cold to sit up when my bed is so cosy and I’m enjoying a book on the kindle.

And it gets really hard to get back into the groove again, particularly when I have two blogs to be trying to catch up on.

Thursday – we had arranged for Chris and Julie to come up to us in the morning. Ady and I were doing something outside – quite what now escapes me – when I saw a big and little person coming along the nature trail path. I assumed it was Julie and Lorna based on size and shape from a distance but it turned out to be Sandy and Joss once they got closer. They came in and by the time the kettle had boiled Chris, Julie, Lorna and Maisie had also arrived. So a static-full! 🙂 We all chatted in various little groups and everyone stayed for pancakes for lunch. Sandy and Joss left first, followed by Chris, Julie and their Goddard-lets who were all off for a castle tour. We were destined for an evening of meetings so arranged to feed our animals slightly early and head down for a cup of tea with them after their tour and before our meetings.

We did just that and the kids all went off together while we drank tea then we had our monthly RCA (Rum Community Association) meeting followed by a Venison processing company meeting. Plenty discussed and thrashed out at both. We had a beer at the shop before heading home, arriving just about before it was properly dark. A week later it is now fully dark at 7pm with sunset getting about six minutes earlier a night and the clocks due back in just a couple of weeks now I know it will be dark before 4pm before we know it. It does mean it feels *really* late by about 10pm! I can see even me getting in early nights this winter.

Friday morning we’d arranged to meet the other Goddards down at the village hall as Ranger Mike wanted to do an event with so many kids here. He’d invited Eve and Coryla from the nursery aswell as Fliss and Joss to come along too so we had a really good turn out with our five Goddard kids. First we did a matching game on birds and learnt to identify Rum birds and learnt a bit about them, then we headed outside for some running around and shouting games. It was lots of fun and Julie and I spent ages in hysterics after running around in silly hats and wigs. I do miss her.

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I’d put my washing on at the castle so was nipping back and forth checking on that and then we went to the caravan for a last cup of tea before heading to the pier to meet Mum and Dad. Somehow we managed to lose track of time so just about arrived at the same time as the ferry. Davies and Scarlett had done the same, wandering around on the beach with Jack and Maisie so we scooped them up along the way and just about got there in time to wave and smile as Mum and Dad came off the boat :). We were then on a bit of a schedule to get all their stuff unloaded into the static and get back down to the camping pod to load Chris and Julie’s stuff on and get them to the second boat, just two hours later. Ady took the car, drove all the way up to the croft and unloaded everything while the kids, Bonnie and I walked with Mum & Dad catching up as we went. Ady went back down the road to do some culvert fixing while I made a cup of tea for everyone and the kids unpacked all the things Mum & Dad had brought for them including a massive box of lego, various art stuff, new socks, pants, gloves and hats and a heap of food items I’d asked them to collect for us. I then walked back down to meet Ady and load Chris and Julie up, arranging for Mum to walk down with the kids to say goodbye.

We got them all packed into the car and drove to the ferry – most of us walked although Chris and Maisie squished in the car with Ady. Mum, Davies and Scarlett arrived just in time for all of us to say goodbye. Julie and I both got quite teary, it felt way too brief a visit this time 🙁

We all got in the car to come back to the croft and had a really nice evening eating steak that Mum & Dad had brought over for dinner. Dad and I stayed up til 2am talking, so nice to have him here. We sat up til that time on four of their five nights here, talking about not a lot really but enjoying each others company very much. I miss my dad lots.

Saturday We walked to Kilmory for the red deer rut event. We walked part of the way with Mike and with Claire’s brother and his girlfriend who were visiting for the weekend and were very nice. Mum and Dad didn’t really get the event to be honest – I think they were expecting less authentic out there in the wilderness stuff and rather more cups of tea and comfy seats. For all I enjoyed their visit this time I was slightly despondant at their ability to just sit in the static for days on end saying how wonderful the view was but not really being up for getting outside and enjoying the island. Ah well, each to their own. Davies left with Dad and they enjoyed the walk back together and the hour or so they had before the rest of us returned. Mum left soon after and walked back with Mike but Scarlett, Ady and I stayed for another hour or more tucked into the hillside with Ali who was able to tell us loads about the deer infront of us, roaring at each other, more about the research work and little anecdotes about it all. I could have happily sat there with her for days, it was fascinating and so very very thrilling to be say all but in the middle of the whole thing playing out so close to us. The Autumnwatch team were perched on some rocks just across from us getting the last of their film footage for what will go out at the end of the month – this year it is pre recorded rather than live.

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We walked back and then I did two further walks to the shop and back – once with Dad to buy beer, call in to Fliss and Sandy’s to feed cats and chickens and then again to deliver some eggs that Jinty asked for. Nearly 15 miles walked that day and aside from minor gripes from my knees the next morning I felt no ill effects :).

An earlier night all round though on Saturday, I think we were all feeling the late night from the day before and the walking taking a toll.

Sunday Ady and I moved the pigs. Thanks to a very rainy few weeks they needed moving earlier than last time. We were more efficient this time and had it done fairly quickly with some technique modifications. That done we headed down to Fliss & Sandy’s to feed chickens and cats and have a quick bath while we were there. I did a sweep round the caravan floor and picked some brambles along the front while Ady was in his bath, he collected a pallet from the pier while I had mine.

Back to the static for a roast dinner along with a quick nip down to the shop for Scarlett and I which netted a purchase of ready baked yorkshire puddings (we had no room in the oven to make any) and ice cream for pudding.

Monday Ady spent pretty much all day under the static insulating the floor. Sandy gave us some rolls of loft insulation so Ady donned full waterproofs, mask and goggles and got underneath and pushed it all up into the joists of the floor. It has made a discernible difference to the warmth of the floor and hopefully when a skirt is around the base too it will feel much warmer. A very unpleasant task but a job well done. I gathered water from the river, made jam, baked bread, made a delicious soup for lunch and we had venison sausages for dinner. We left Ady to get clean and changed while we went to the shop to collect the veg box in the evening. Another staying up late night.

Tuesday In the morning we did a ranger event walk – Changing Seasons, a walk along the shore of loch Scresort observing wildlife and nature as the season changes from summer into autumn. I don’t think I will ever take for granted just how beautiful this part of the world is. Autumn takes my breath away here, the low hanging sun creating shadows and amazing light, the colours of the trees and heather as it lets all the gathered up sunshine from the summer back out through the changing colour of leaves. It is truly stunning and no matter how much I photograph it I never capture it entirely.
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I love these couple of pictures Davies took of some fungi – totally as the camera captured them, it’s like a peek into a different world!
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We got back to the static for lunch and then Dad and I walked some of the croft as he’d not done that last time. I showed him where we’re planning to build and we walked the nature trail around the perimeter of the croft. I made pastry for quiches for dinner.

Wednesday The week ended much as it had continued really, Mum and Dad had a pretty low impact week with lots of sitting around doing very little. I do find it a bit frustrating but having promised myself I would not get irritated by them I was determined to enjoy their company, look after them well and remind myself that I miss them a lot when they are not here so to try and almost eke out their visit by thinking how many weeks and months it may be before we see them again. It worked and it was actually a pleasure to have them here. The kids certainly got a lot out of it and Ady and I managed to get stuff done rather than allow having visitors to prevent us from getting on with things. We loaded them and their stuff into the car and took them to the pier. I walked but Ady came and fetched me as the ferry was in slightly early so I would have struggled to get there in time. We waved until they were out of sight and then had a bath and some TV time at Fliss and Sandy’s while our washing dried at the castle. It’s nice to have the bolt hole with permission to have baths and watch TV when we want. I don’t miss baths anywhere near as much as I worried I might and actually when you have to get dressed again and go home it’s not as luxurious as simply putting pjs on and slobbing around on the sofa but it’s good to know there are opportunities for bathing when I want them!

We had a lovely dinner of chicken curry and watched Local Hero which we all thought was pretty crap. I’d had grand plans to catch up online but ended up asleep on the sofa at 9pm, waking to stagger to bed around 11pm. The craziness of the last fortnight had finally caught up with me. We had the fire lit briefly which always makes me drowsy and we have candlelight for light once the dinner is finished which adds to the cosy and sleepymaking feeling here.

Today has been a quiet one – it was already raining when we woke up and it’s not stopped yet, 16 hours later. The river is running very high, a massive contrast to yesterday when it was at it’s very lowest after nearly a week with no rain. We stayed in until after lunch, I caught up a little online, the kids played. Then to Fliss and Sandy’s for the kids to have a bath. We called into the shop to hand in veg order for next week and buy some milk – we’ve been on long life stuff since Monday. Back at home we tried to watch Kevin’s manmade house but it kept buffering so in the end we watched some CBBC before the kids went to bed and I’m back to blogging to catch up again. I’m debating whether I want a hot water bottle or not – it is cold, I can see my breath but I know once I’m in bed I’ll be warm…

This morning Ady and I left the four kids still in bed with breakfast all laid out for them and went down to the larder. First thing we did some more sausage making – definitely got the hang of that now :). We did some dicing, mincing, weighing out and bagging up. Then we cleaned the larder and then went to the hall for some more theory.

This proved to be rather a waste of time as Claire monopolised Barry the butcher and it was all rather pointless with lots of the group going outside for multiple fag breaks and lots of sitting around. We then broke for lunch.

Ady and I dashed up to the croft with Bonnie and had lunch with Davies and Scarlett who had had a nice morning with Jack and Maisie. We all went down to the hall for the last hour or so which was useful. Ady went off to see Chris while Neil and I collected all the meat from the larder and tried to identify and price it. We need to do some more work on that but it is all now in the freezer and we have a meeting tomorrow evening to thrash out some details of the company.

Finally it was beer o’clock. I don’t think I’ve needed a drink at the end of a day that much since we arrived here, for some reason I found today really testing. I stayed for a beer while Ady went off with Chris to the croft. Ady came back, Davies, Scarlett and Jack went to the croft and Ady and I had a beer at the shop before coming home.

If it were not for my daily blogging resurrection I’d not have not have bothered today – I am wiped out and really fed up about not spending time with Julie who I miss so much and has been here on Rum for 2 days while I have been doing something else. 🙁

Ady and I left the kids to it this morning and headed down to the larder. We were cutting up the haunches and boning out the ribs this morning. We’ll never remember all those cuts and will have to watch the dvd lots of times before getting our heads round what we’re doing. We finished the morning bagging up various cuts before breaking for lunch.

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Ady and I whizzed round to see Chris and Julie and had a cup of tea with them before going to the hall to do some theory training. We learnt about labelling, what goes into sausages and had a bit of a chat before going back to the larder to make sausages. The training has been frustrating in that it has been slow of pace in some ways but we feel like other bits have been rushed through. I suspect we’ll only really get the benefit of it once we’re doing it. It’s all the harder for having Chris and Julie here and wanting to be spending the time with them really rather than doing this.

The sausage making was really good. I’d done a bit of it at Evergreen while WWOOFing but Pete had been very protective of the actual making part so I’d not had a go at that. It was fab to do the whole thing, particularly using the deer we’d skinned and butchered over the last two days. Neil and I had a quick directors chat and decided everyone could keep their own sausages which pleased the whole group 🙂

We’ve come home with a great big bagful, all of which is now added to our meat stash in Fliss & Sandy’s freezer – even more to keep us going through the coming months although Scarlett is not that keen on venison so she’ll be having something else when the rest of us are eating it!

Ady left a little before me to get to the croft to feed the animals and walk Bonnie who has had a fairly rubbish couple of days really cooped up in the car while we get on with stuff. I’m looking forward to getting back to normal once my parents leave and spending time with Bonnie and the kids again, it’s felt like a manic couple of weeks. I walked up to the croft to catch up with Ady and then we both walked back down to put the meat in the freezer at Fliss’, catch up with Chris and Julie and pop to the shop for a swift beer – it feels like ages since we were part of the Rum crowd even though it’s less than a week.

We walked back to the croft as dark was falling to be met by the four kids who had got worried about us so come to meet us, so we all walked back together in fading light. Sausages and chips for dinner – lovely :). Kids to bed and I’ll not be long after them – standing all day in the refrigerated larder trying to take in so many new skills makes for a very tiring day!