Little by little

Stuff is getting crossed off the 'to do' list and joining it's mates on the 'stuff Nic & Ady feel smug about having gotten sorted' list.

Today we walked in the sunshine to the post office and got the car taxed. Fingers crossed all the panic buying of fuel has now ceased and we are able to drive over to collect the new car on Sunday and bring it back again. We also posted the letter cancelling the old car insurance. We've got a months insurance on the new vehicle, after which the car won't be used on the mainland again and can go SORN and uninsured :)

Also on the list for today was a charity shop run (yes we really did still have some stuff left to give away) and a tip run (yes, we really did still have some stuff left to chuck out! Mostly old carpet). We spent the voucher I was given as a leaving present last year and came all around the UK with us unspent on a new airbed for Ady and I. Our camping mats which we have had for four years and have seen far more use than is fair to expect of a camping mat (many, many camping trips, being beds for the year in Willow and now beds for weeks here in our house) have finally given up. The kids are having double layer of the two camping mats which are okay for smaller lighter bodies when used together and we have a new air bed. I'm not a big air bed fan but it will suffice for the short time we have left sleeping on floors and then be a useful spare bed for the many guests we already have booking themselves to stay on Rum with us.

Also on the list were phonecalls and emails. We solved the dilemma of the chicken house by contacting Calmac ferries to discover that for about a tenner and a phonecall in advance they will take in the delivery of shed for us, bung it on the ferry and even give us a bit of a hand getting off on the other side. That is rather better than the several hundred quid we were being quote for a lorry to bring it over. We rang a local contact on Skye who is The Man for chickens and ducks and placed an order for ten hens, a cockerel, five ducks, a goose and a gander. Still to source a drake and some turkeys. Oh and cats, we want cats.

We reserved our bottled gas to run our cooker, fridge, heating and hot water in the static - just need to pay for that now. We got the vehicle permit sorted to bring our 4 wheel drive across along with our horse box on the ferry (cars are not allowed on the island without a permit).

We had another viewing on our house but it is smaller than they were looking for so it's not let yet. Ever hopeful for that happening soon though, two viewings this week shows me the agent are doing their job in getting people here to look at it at least.

The list is getting smaller, the time is getting shorter, three weeks today we'll be there!