After a few days with friends down in Yorkshire (which we used to call 'the north', oh how we laugh at our geographical ignorance of the past...) we headed back across the border again on Wednesday, primarily for my crofting course in Inverness but also to sort out some finer details about our temporary home for the first year. Being so close (relatively) to Rum and with an unexpected free day when the ferry does a day trip we decided to head over for the couple of hours between the ferry yesterday.
Having talked to the lovely people at Mcleod's caravans and looked at several of the statics they have for sale we knew what information we needed to gather before selecting the right static.
We were greeted on the ferry by the chef who remembered us from our crossing a couple of weeks ago and brought over the Highlands & Islands paper with an article about us on page three! We caught up with a few islanders as we dashed around taking photos and eyeing up the access track and very gratefully accepted a lift to and from the pier. All too soon we were back on the boat again hoping that next month we are on the boat again on our way 'home'.
Day one of the course has been excellent - loads of questions answered and contacts made. Ady, Dragon and Star were off doing further research on getting the static sorted and after lots of phonecalls and another visit to Macleods they have chosen one and all that remains is the phonecalls and emails to book delivery / make payments for that. Hurrah, a home!
I'd be quite interested to see how you plan on getting the static to Rum in the first place, and secondly how you plan on getting it on-site!
ReplyDeleteAlso what about electricity, phone, water and sewage? You have the "middle park" croft closest to the windbreak right?
How exciting - hope it continues to go well!
ReplyDeleteKay :)
Thanks Kay :)
ReplyDeleteMrdjc - Macleods will bring it over on the calmac ferry - they drive it on their lorry and it will fit on the ferry, then they'll bring it as far as possible - the access track to the croft (we've gone for croft 3, the furthest from the village, will upload the pic) *should* be sufficient for the lorry the driver reckons from our photos. If not it'll be landrover / tractor towing it on to the land.
So, erm as much planning as possible in advance and plenty of crossed fingers :) I suspect that's indicative of much of our future life!
Electric will be generator initially (we are very used to using very little electric from our year in the campervan), with plans for wind / solar / hydro combo eventually. Most applicances in the static will be gas to begin with (cooker, heating, hot water boiler, fridge etc.) Water will be brought up from the village for drinking / cooking / washing initially (again something we are very used to from the last year) and we'll collect rainwater. Long term we have some information on grants / funding for putting in a proper water supply - either filtering from water source on the croft or perhaps piping up the water supply from the village. Phone - we have mobiles which get signal from various places on the croftland and in the village, landlines are down in the village including the call box if needed, we don't intend having a landline ourselves as broadband won't require it. Sewerage will either be septic tank or compost / reed beds.