tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37949054571511207292024-02-19T09:30:00.237+00:00wondering wanderersFollow a family of four on our continued adventures as crofters on the Scottish Isle of Rum where we are building a new life from a bare field up. Off-grid, low-impact, self sufficient, permaculture inspired living in a wild and beautiful island with a small community with big ideas. The wandering may have stopped but we'll never lose the sense of wonder.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger662125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-76029421720316821242014-12-02T23:49:00.000+00:002014-12-02T23:49:21.211+00:00New HomeWe're still digging the foundations for the cob house but we have moved blog over to our own domain (which you may have been using already and getting redirected to this blog).<br />
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We can now be found at <a href="http://wonderingwanderers.co.uk/">http://wonderingwanderers.co.uk/</a><br />
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Look forward to seeing you over there!Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-28699920904084584042014-11-30T23:44:00.004+00:002014-11-30T23:44:50.851+00:00Rainbow WeekBut none of our days were black.<br />
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We had some red - plenty of red wine used in the salami making, loads of shiny ruby red cranberries went into our six jars of cranberry and orange sauce we made yesterday ready for Christmas (but tested today with roast chicken and several set aside for gifts, the rest will go with our hams).<br />
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Orange - not just orange, but pinks, yellows and streaks of all colours across the skies every morning for sunrise and every evening for sunset. This time of year we get a breathtaking show twice every day as the sun announces coming and going - a mere six hours apart - each day.<br />
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There was yellow - there are gorse flowers still blooming all around the island reminding us that the burst of spring flowers are never that far away.<br />
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Green - green shoots on the garlic which I finally managed to get in the ground in a very late cutting it awfully fine for autumn sowing.<br />
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Blue, blue skies. I have not had to wear a coat yet, t shirts are the order of the day inside and twice this week have been stripped down to outside too. It is crazily mild for the last week of November and while I am worried about just what the implications of this global warming wise are, I can't help but celebrate every day which is not wet, windy, grey or dismal at this time of year.<br />
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Indigo are the night skies - once it is dark it is properly dark. Inky blue skies pricked with stars strewn across them like someone dropped a tub of glitter on a dark carpet. The longer you look up the more you see, like one of those magic eye pictures where the depth just keeps getting more intense. You don't leave the house without a torch at this time of year because you never quite know what might delay you coming home and without a torch you'd be struggling to navigate.<br />
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Violet, well okay I'm going to cheat here just because rather than the colour I have been drinking in the taste of violet. Inspired by some delicious liqueurs we had in a cool restaurant in Norwich when we were off on our cob course earlier this year I bought some cinnamon and violet natural flavourings and have been making some gorgeous alcoholic drinks with them. In theory I am testing to check them before I decant some into pretty bottles as festive gifts, in practise I may have to get some more vodka to make more because the bottom of the bottle seems to have come up rather quickly! In my defence I did have help drinking them and we have had many things to be toasting the last week or so.<br />
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So, December tomorrow. Christmas is very much coming. We have dug out our decorations and plan to go and find a tree this coming week although it won't go up until next Sunday, as Scarlett's birthday is on Saturday and we don't put the decorations up until after that. But the Christmas cake is feeding nicely with regular drams, the Christmas tunes have been dug out ready to start playing from tomorrow, the cranberry sauce and pickled onions have been made and jarred this week, the Christmas ham is in the freezer awaiting glazing and baking and the Christmas turkey has been identified and is now penned and feeding very regularly.<br />
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It's a far cry from the mainland madness I have been hearing about on the news. The times we feel lucky to be stranded way up here far from the crowds and craziness are frequent, this week they have been very often indeed.<br />
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<br />Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-12401633138921614492014-11-26T23:59:00.000+00:002014-11-26T23:59:35.141+00:00Sausage and baconWhen we butchered the pigs last week we did various things with the three different animals. We took meat from the back and belly from all three to make bacon. We also created various roasting joints from all three - some went into the freezer to be used as pork, but some we held back to make ham and gammon joints with. We diced up some of the meat to be used in pork stir fries and we froze bagged up ribs for next years barbecue season. We had just over 5kg of meat for mincing and another 4kg mix of meat from the front of the third pig for making salami / chorizo with.<br />
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The bacon and several of the smaller joints set aside from the pigs went into plastic containers in a dry cure mix. Made up of salt, sugar, juniper berries and black peppercorns we rubbed the dry cure into the meat and then every day drained off the excess liquid the cure had drawn out and added a little more of the cure to the tub. After a week the texture and colour of the meat had totally changed and was darker, denser and much drier.<br />
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I sliced up the bacon into various cuts - rashers, lard-on style streaky bacon and some cubed for use in things like pasta bake or quiche.<br />
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I had also put two bone in leg joints into a dry cure. This I have frozen and will roast whole to be used as ham for slicing for sandwiches. We did do some dry curing last year but this was the first time I tried joints and last years cured meat was smoked and chopped up for us. It was good to do the whole process myself this time.<br />
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This year I also experimented with wet curing in brine. One whole back leg which is a huge joint is due to come out of the brine soak tomorrow and be hung up for 24 hours to air dry. I am planning to bake and glaze that as part of our Christmas banquet (we will feast like self sufficient kings this year at Christmas!). I also soaked four smaller boneless joints in brine - which was a solution of water, sugar, salt, cloves and juniper berries. These came out tender, very soft and smelling like Christmas! As they had been boned they needed rolling and tying into joints for cooking. Another new skill learned and thanks to some internet research I can now tie a butchers knot in my butchers string - well with help - it is definitely a job requiring more than one pair of hands!<br />
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I can't report on the flavour of the brine experiment yet but I can confirm the dry cured bacon was delicious - it needs a 10 minutes soak prior to cooking to remove a little of the salt as I was a bit heavy handed with the dry cure (again!) but we have had bacon sandwiches and cheese and bacon pasta bake already with this years supply. I suspect it will not last long!<br />
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Today we were flexing our learning muscles again and having defrosted the bags of meat destined for mince and for chorizo we spent several hours mincing, mixing and stuffing!<br />
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First - sausages. We were both trained in sausage making when we did our venison processing training but it was a brief session in the middle of the processing of a whole deer and there was more hilarity than sausage making as I recall! However one of our WWOOF hosts had been an excellent sausage maker and although he had not actually let us anywhere near the black magic art that is linking and twisting we had keenly observed and some of it must have rubbed off.<br />
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We minced the pork, then added sausage mix and water and minced it again. Then we loaded up the sausage maker and created one very long sausage!<br />
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And then the moment of truth - word was out and we had quite a kitchen full of Rum folk popping by to watch, laugh and share their comments on our sausage technique. But I confess to being pretty darn proud of my efforts...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sausage Queen!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Over 100 sausages made, bagged up and ready to freeze<br /><br /></td></tr>
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We very much enjoyed sausages for dinner this evening. I can confirm they were delicious and won 'best sausages ever' status with empty plates all round. I would like to pretend it was all in the linking, Ady would like to take credit for his superb cooking of them. I think we are agreeing on it being a team effort!<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">sausages and a tiny bit of leftover sausage meat fashioned into a burger,</td></tr>
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<br />Then to the salami / chorizo. As far as I can tell the difference is in the ingredients with chorizo being spicier. I am happy to be corrected though as it will be a long while before I get to be the Queen of Chorizo - these are still months away from being ready as they will be air drying til well into next year.<br />
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A controlled blend of lean pork and pork fat, some garlic, red wine, paprika and a 2% salt content all blended together made for a gorgeous smelling mix. We had a small amount of sausage skin left so made one small salami which will be our tester ready first. Then filled the five large salami casings and tied them off with our butchers string.<br />
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These need to air dried hanging up. They will get a coating of white mold on the outside and will shrink and shrivel and harden. I will update on progress on these as it happens.<br />
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Achievements like the slaughter, butchering and processing of the pigs number among some of my greatest life moments so far. This is the embodiment of our dream - the reason why we headed off on our first adventures WWOOFing in 2011 and why we took on Croft 3 and do the things we do. A desire to eat meat but to know it is of the highest possible quality, reared to the best possible welfare standards and having had the best, most natural life. Learning new skills, taking on challenges which even 5 years ago I would have sworn were far beyond us. I am so, so proud of our family for this. For Ady and I in stretching our talents and skills and being prepared to have a go and try, for the children in facing all of these lessons head on, being so keen to be involved and understand how things work, knowing their own personal limits and the bits that they can and can't do. Davies has been amazing in getting bloodied up and close in the butchering side of the pigs - next time he wants to be there for the slaughter and I imagine in a few years he will be able to do that side of it himself. Scarlett is philosophical about it happening but does not want to be involved in that side of it but comes into her own in the processing - she would be able to wet and dry cure, make sausages and other produce next time quite comfortably.<br />
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I think the reason those sausages taste so great is due to many, many factors. The amazing quality of life and the humane respectful death of the animal. The knowledge that the meat is top quality as we know it's full history - it's natural diet, no medication, perfect health. Top quality organic additions in the way of sausage skin and added mix. But the secret ingredient is pride - and it tasted amazing!</div>
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Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-70837564292353346862014-11-25T23:30:00.000+00:002014-11-25T23:30:19.505+00:00Living the dream...I've always thought our children have a near perfect childhood. That when they reminisce, all halcyon tinted nostalgia they won't actually be glossing over all that much.<br />
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They have always had the luxury of time - time from us and time for them to do the things that really matter to them. As someone who has thrown away many of modern life's conveniences and expensive distractions to enable me to only do things which I love and which mean something to me I don't think this can be underestimated.<br />
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Davies is now 14 and Scarlett will be 12 in a few days time. They have grown into independent, capable, responsible individuals. They have clear ideas, firm stances and views on things. They are articulate, interesting, funny, creative and full of ideas and inspiration. I love this current age which is a mix of clinging onto childish pleasures, delights, playing tinged with a hefty dose of knowing how to make mature decisions and act in the right way.<br />
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Today was a perfect example. Ady and I had gone to feed the animals, get some bits from the shop, collect something from the freezer and bring up some more firewood. We had all had breakfast together and Davies and Scarlett said they were going 'ice hunting'. It was a clear, crisp, sunny morning following a cold, clear night so there was a ground frost making things twinkle.<br />
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When we got back they were filled with excitement having been looking for frozen puddles on the croft and heard a disturbance in the fruit cage. They spotted a bird trapped inside so managed to get in and free it from the netting it was trapped and tangled in. It was bleeding a little and they were not sure what it was so brought it up to the static to clean it up a little and photograph it. They checked it was not ringed and debated bringing it down to the village for the resident bird ringer to do but decided that would take too long and cause undue stress to the bird.<br />
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They took some photos and then released it. Off it flew!<br />
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They then used various bird books to try and ID it and decided it was a snipe. When I got home I asked if they were sure it was not a woodcock as they are pretty similar so they got another book out to look it up, compared the description and images in the books, looked again at the very good photos they had taken and decided that actually, yes, it was a woodcock.<br />
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It was moments like this, coming home to hear them chattering with excitement, brandishing books and cameras and keen to share their experience, their research, their knowledge that make my heart sing and know what a fabulous life they have.Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-16456552176531886272014-11-24T22:25:00.004+00:002014-11-24T22:25:41.034+00:00What a week!It's been an amazing seven days.<br />
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From the slaughter, butchering and preserving of our pigs at the start of last week for the first time independently. We have had roast pork, bacon sandwiches, pork stir fry, pork in ginger sauce. On Wednesday we are spending the day making sausages and salami.<br />
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Midweek we were firewood processing. We have been given heaps and heaps of old, rotten wood from a building project on the island which will provide firewood for us for probably the next year including perfect wood for the cob pizza oven. We have been moving it about, creating space to store it dry and chopping up what we need for this winter and storing it up next to the caravan.<br />
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Over the weekend we were helping with Operation Hot Water over on the neighbouring croft. The cabin over there is being finished over the winter and the first big project was to get water over there for a shower and then to heat it up via a gas boiler. We have been thinking about how to sort out our hot water for a bath (oh, a bath!!) once we build the cob house so this was an excellent learning opportunity for us too. The gas boiler is the same one we have in our caravan and was incredibly simple to install - cold water and gas in, hot water out! The gas is courtesy of a bottle, the same as all gas on the islands, something we would one day love to get away from but for now the best, most speedy option. But first, the actual water to the cabin?<br />
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Our water is from the burn - filtered at several points and piped over with blue pipe. We use a water tank to ensure regular pressure and then a solar powered pump draws it into our caravan as we have a sink in the kitchen, one in the bathroom and the shower. We are 300 metres from the water source and the cabin is a further 400 metres from us - nearly 3/4 kilometre from the source of the water. It felt like quite a daunting prospect. But - three reels of pipe, several pipe connectors and a very wobbly walk across the two crofts later there we stood with water coming out of the end of the pipe, spraying on the wall of the cabin!<br />
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There were stupid grins on all of our faces as we splashed each other. It was as good a feeling as striking oil or finding gold - water - the absolute life essential! From there it was a small leap to hot water and suddenly these mostly unforgiving, unyeilding 20 acres of croftland, a mile away from the village, 16 miles away from the mainland started to feel like something we have tamed, even if just a little bit.<br />
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Today we were back on Croft 3 once more and had the symbolic breaking of ground as we started digging out the first trench for the cob house. I've a post writing itself in my head about the timeline and progress for that, but for now I'll leave you with a few photos which hopefully convey in some small way the regular doses of euphoria the last seven days have held.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi83hvCggZf6NJxicVvbMd8jZJAELPoSyWBie75egacb129vh-N-4dU_Hz-Nb0YsEjF23calm8loBoQwXFrC2I-NmbfyFk52UhtOp4-CzjmdeP-E3gDFbcvxC6f7kAz-RzZP3qyOI5LAAQ/s1600/breaking+ground.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi83hvCggZf6NJxicVvbMd8jZJAELPoSyWBie75egacb129vh-N-4dU_Hz-Nb0YsEjF23calm8loBoQwXFrC2I-NmbfyFk52UhtOp4-CzjmdeP-E3gDFbcvxC6f7kAz-RzZP3qyOI5LAAQ/s1600/breaking+ground.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">breaking ground on cob house site</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHfMEDxmo_tqj1Oyu3L9i5Mz-AFrfxpki_9VJ_1MmnDKOXX8yXSr5dMeWpnBOichyphenhyphenyjMvSb69JP7QiXbCXv2s4vxkwgd0IxkVA8ANMOyyEDtHSsAHMBzi0KmMJxnxnXS-edfufLbZkbb0/s1600/firewood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHfMEDxmo_tqj1Oyu3L9i5Mz-AFrfxpki_9VJ_1MmnDKOXX8yXSr5dMeWpnBOichyphenhyphenyjMvSb69JP7QiXbCXv2s4vxkwgd0IxkVA8ANMOyyEDtHSsAHMBzi0KmMJxnxnXS-edfufLbZkbb0/s1600/firewood.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">big old pile of wood!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_7I_6uPpVlUUrbnUJwGCIVpA5YK-ALNfbOhNjKx40Q1CUY5ts6wUWjq2Rgv4wmoORF0Vp8EGjS9ljPMhvszXBDi_v9BFdwcrGoWu20pgyPjJpVBYVh8X76wAFwVIJgK9EsqnUjK3tX24/s1600/meat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_7I_6uPpVlUUrbnUJwGCIVpA5YK-ALNfbOhNjKx40Q1CUY5ts6wUWjq2Rgv4wmoORF0Vp8EGjS9ljPMhvszXBDi_v9BFdwcrGoWu20pgyPjJpVBYVh8X76wAFwVIJgK9EsqnUjK3tX24/s1600/meat.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pig to pork</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi51tCeXDKuyWGeFVpPenZ3IhANG_bKw2MPhS2-UL5TLB0bkRIlOBByKf7L97kSGGxV4RypZh_8ZbpWqc7dRDjyMje98LI_5ov6GFr7LM8IK17-mcslP975rOYxxdord2FOsvefi3MKxRs/s1600/roast+pork.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi51tCeXDKuyWGeFVpPenZ3IhANG_bKw2MPhS2-UL5TLB0bkRIlOBByKf7L97kSGGxV4RypZh_8ZbpWqc7dRDjyMje98LI_5ov6GFr7LM8IK17-mcslP975rOYxxdord2FOsvefi3MKxRs/s1600/roast+pork.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">and delicious it was too!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzZqPOMQuLAAWOiZ_Lxh9tDb_u2xoRs9oqbmbFXwfQlyJWOA7wn2tCMAAxB2XmiUkUyQTWs4rAgxkMRLQBLPeylF1JNzIbzF5pAk-l3AGfNy5CjaS-Qprtz5dJreghTmyRs5YKPcmzHzY/s1600/water.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzZqPOMQuLAAWOiZ_Lxh9tDb_u2xoRs9oqbmbFXwfQlyJWOA7wn2tCMAAxB2XmiUkUyQTWs4rAgxkMRLQBLPeylF1JNzIbzF5pAk-l3AGfNy5CjaS-Qprtz5dJreghTmyRs5YKPcmzHzY/s1600/water.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">water!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSW0DltZhyctOp7kk_YIbGoCgYQJOyaj2RQdI8_v0OsbOlzvKe_l_HfrbLnzRtStDTjiUjFv0DZ-OlWa9nPRgErwKlq5OAnFh3uPldfsEyKQKeF_WIfRwEmywe96h_HNZeVdwQoYDreVw/s1600/watering.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSW0DltZhyctOp7kk_YIbGoCgYQJOyaj2RQdI8_v0OsbOlzvKe_l_HfrbLnzRtStDTjiUjFv0DZ-OlWa9nPRgErwKlq5OAnFh3uPldfsEyKQKeF_WIfRwEmywe96h_HNZeVdwQoYDreVw/s1600/watering.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">water!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlVOG-pGqbEXVhekHDGPadnWxYj4XWANtYhkhnZCndnlQHoogIpn46VLA_tyouAaB5X_ZDvJA7xOk3Kbssw5bC2tnBR6Kq7-UUbgaeOeBuZYyNrQiN98KaQc6BQJFGQD651IpqR_kN-g/s1600/wood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlVOG-pGqbEXVhekHDGPadnWxYj4XWANtYhkhnZCndnlQHoogIpn46VLA_tyouAaB5X_ZDvJA7xOk3Kbssw5bC2tnBR6Kq7-UUbgaeOeBuZYyNrQiN98KaQc6BQJFGQD651IpqR_kN-g/s1600/wood.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ready for splitting</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6lgmVYmsUidoBI1kIJZbpFddwNjImDxVE2u19Cf4FP_anlzhNF0GAJobMqpOwRC41Ez4-t6LdqAfzitlxtshFhison5Nq4rCWYKGUpXCpLMAh5YMJbvBZZMcSdnYZ_umTAGBBY8SVzMU/s1600/woodstore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6lgmVYmsUidoBI1kIJZbpFddwNjImDxVE2u19Cf4FP_anlzhNF0GAJobMqpOwRC41Ez4-t6LdqAfzitlxtshFhison5Nq4rCWYKGUpXCpLMAh5YMJbvBZZMcSdnYZ_umTAGBBY8SVzMU/s1600/woodstore.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">woodstore</td></tr>
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<br />Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-21021713827001953992014-11-19T23:21:00.000+00:002014-11-19T23:21:50.147+00:00Too old for this?When we told my parents that we were going to buy a campervan and spent a year traveling the UK my Dad said to me 'But really, Nicola, you are too old for this. You should have done this in your twenties...'<br />
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In many ways he was right. I don't deny that a part of what sent us off on crazy adventures was probably a repressed urge to be crazy that I bottled up in my twenties when instead I was paying a mortgage, working full time in stressful jobs, pretending to be a grown up.<br />
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But then if we'd done this then we either would not have had the kids, or would have delayed having them, or not had sufficient crazy in us to be the parents we are to them. And taking an 8 year old and a 10 year old off on the WWOOFing adventure was the perfect age for them. They remember it so well, will always remember it, it formed such a big part of who they are. And moving here with them aged 9 and 11 was also perfect - they had enough mainland memories of urban life, access to museums, art galleries, 24 hour supermarkets, zoos, cinemas, group activities, scouts and guides, family and friends, camping trips, sitting in traffic jams on motorways - to sustain them through the lean times of island life not offering those things. To allow them to compare and contrast, to see where this life is lacking but also where it makes up for the deficits.<br />
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We were talking the other day about life expectancies. About how at 40 I am hopefully not even half way through my life, about how I still have so many more ideas, dreams, hopes, ambitions. But of course the truth is that at 40 there are things which are probably outside my reach now. A day of hard physical work takes a toll and there is no hot bubble bath to soak tired muscles at the end of a long day here in our current life.<br />
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There is a line in the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_Sunscreen"> fabulous poem by Mary Schmich</a>, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_cLCkf3XxY">Baz Luhrmann version </a>of which I listen to at least once a week, which says:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;">Enjoy your body, </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;">use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;">think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own</span></blockquote>
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I could drink less wine, eat less food, find numerous ways to fit into a smaller size of jeans. But this week my body has done amazing things - slaughtered and butchered pigs to feed my family, offered cuddles, kneaded bread, chopped firewood, walked up and down that croft hill carrying things to and fro.<br />
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For now, and it may only be fleeting, and there are often times when I sigh to myself and my Dad's words of wisdom ring in my ears, I am using my body to do precisely what it is able and it's just the age to manage it.Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-48944002261539724472014-11-19T00:15:00.000+00:002014-11-19T00:15:25.629+00:00Project Pig 2014 completeAfter a very smooth first day on Sunday we have processed a pig a day and now are back to just Tom & Barbara again with the three piglets from this years litter now in the freezer, in our tummies, or in containers dry curing or soaking in brine.<br />
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We have over 50kg of meat, a combination of large and small roasting joints to see us through the whole of the next year, kilos and kilos of curing cuts of bacon, pancetta and lard-ons, gammons and hams soaking in brine, spare ribs ready for barbecues next year, lean pork strips for stiry frying, heart, livers and kidneys bagged up ready for making pate, a huge bag of over 4kg of meat waiting for salami and chorizo skins to arrive and another big bag of nearly 5kg for mincing and sausage making.<br />
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It's been a very exciting three days doing it all ourselves and today having watched Ady do it twice I did the third pig myself, which was both scary and made me feel very proud. As a confirmed meat eater I am very pleased to have actually done the deed myself. It was quite a big deal and once I'd done it I did have a little cry (having hidden my feelings prior to the act, not wanting to create any atmosphere of stress around the pigs).<br />
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Davies did not want to watch the actual slaughter but came and watched all of the gutting and skinning and found it very interesting, getting gloved up and involved in it all. Scarlett prefers to come and see once it looks more like meat but she brought us a cup of tea once she decided it was a 'safe' point to visit.<br />
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Tom & Barbara are luxuriating in all that space and food and it's a relief both on the animal feed bill and with the approaching winter not to be taking smaller more vulnerable animals into the Rum wind and rainy season.<br />
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Now begins adventure in curing, brining, air drying, sausage making and charcuterie. Experiments, inventions and plenty of new skills and knowledge to acquire.Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-26592420718034247972014-11-16T19:53:00.003+00:002014-11-16T19:53:33.761+00:00Pig 3a.k.a Sausage Roll.<br />
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Another landmark day here for us on Croft 3.<br />
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Last year we successfully bred and reared our pigs (well the pigs themselves did most of it!) and earlier this year with help we killed, butchered and processed the meat. The friend who helped us with killing, skinning and butchering the pigs has now left Rum so we knew we needed to work out another way of managing it.<br />
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After a lot of research we invested in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captive_bolt_pistol">bolt gun - </a>which meets all the criteria for welfare, humane killing and laws and regulations governing the slaughter of animals for own consumption. After losing two pigs last winter we had already decided not to take young pigs through the poor weather conditions again. The additional cost of feed to sustain them once the grass and general grazing is over for the year does not equate to any level of weight gain and the young pigs really struggle with the wind and rain of a Rum winter.<br />
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The gun arrived yesterday, along with a supply of blanks - it operates by shooting out a bolt fired by blank cartridges. The weather was nice today, so we gathered together all the necessary equipment and headed down to the pig pen.<br />
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The deed was done - very straightforward, utterly humane and without awareness let alone suffering. The other pigs continued to snuffle around nearby unbothered. I'll not go into huge detail as not everyone reading is interested in the process but it certainly met our own personal very high standards of welfare, caring and respect for an animal that we have cared for, tended and raised over the last 7 months of it's life.<br />
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We are unable to carry out the traditional scalding of a pig here on the croft so we skin them which means no crackling but our animals due to their slow grown, outdoor life do not have massive amounts of fat anyway. Skinning beasts is something Ady is getting pretty good at - this week he was involved in skinning two deer during a venison processing session. Pigs are much smaller but trickier due to a layer of fat that deer don't have and nothing like the same level of hide. We did it in under an hour though, then we butchered it into various cuts - roasting joints, ribs, liver & heart, meat for curing, meat for mincing and meat for stir frys etc. In total we had over 20kg of pork.<br />
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We had the whole lot done and back up at the static in bags within 3 hours. The meat for curing - we should have bacon, gammon / ham and pancetta/ lardons is in salt, pepper and juniper berries. The rest is bagged, labelled and in the freezer. We are planning to do the other two piglets over the next two days at which point we will use the combined livers & hearts to make pate, mince all of the meat for mincing and make sausages.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKD3Eatii2Mf9dkRVw109VE3etp_QYQ4_-hxt3xA89BpfkZDW9rjqiWWg17lTVnpul0m46qJpV3ku4TQeGTGf7sf3S_UBm6-VhUYTqHVhS6jNuOUk3is8ED6fz2ZK9pfBKv-qVZCNqRF8/s1600/bacon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKD3Eatii2Mf9dkRVw109VE3etp_QYQ4_-hxt3xA89BpfkZDW9rjqiWWg17lTVnpul0m46qJpV3ku4TQeGTGf7sf3S_UBm6-VhUYTqHVhS6jNuOUk3is8ED6fz2ZK9pfBKv-qVZCNqRF8/s1600/bacon.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">bacon curing</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp0_ed2Q3UevKLY_N_8rS6S31Y1lPIMYgPO8o02g0WecF3n0LmM5hUSo7zl5LhIzjK9xOPIKLDW99JagHayVoeWyfbWWfd4XAmkZHEA-qLYHarvn9fAjKZI1LiT-HwHEW8EcGWwYak86Y/s1600/pig3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp0_ed2Q3UevKLY_N_8rS6S31Y1lPIMYgPO8o02g0WecF3n0LmM5hUSo7zl5LhIzjK9xOPIKLDW99JagHayVoeWyfbWWfd4XAmkZHEA-qLYHarvn9fAjKZI1LiT-HwHEW8EcGWwYak86Y/s1600/pig3.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pig 3</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">butchering 'in the field'</td></tr>
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<br />Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-71746091043365978572014-11-12T19:44:00.005+00:002014-11-12T19:44:55.766+00:00RumiversaryYes I know, I celebrate way too many 'versaries' - moving to Rum, being told yes we had the croft, heading off WWOOFing in the first place... what can I say, we like celebrating!<br />
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I realised earlier that it was about three years since we first came to Rum between ferries to view the croft and meet a couple of the people here so I checked. 10th November was the first time we stepped foot on Rum, walked the north side nature trail which took in three sides of our croft and then got back on the ferry and started the two day drive back down to Sussex.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAdwM5Ud171lJ2p2nPtanXU4ompAaa4o-S4CrWGevV1EUZ3jLXwcb9oiOHOfv94p6UxmFVmrgRP4moiMAX5nqamreu8nWo3Jmtf021ss_AP1bKynKEWGkrgzb3CCTSm_idqpTjyhedtos/s1600/6337367567_e3a816ae22_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAdwM5Ud171lJ2p2nPtanXU4ompAaa4o-S4CrWGevV1EUZ3jLXwcb9oiOHOfv94p6UxmFVmrgRP4moiMAX5nqamreu8nWo3Jmtf021ss_AP1bKynKEWGkrgzb3CCTSm_idqpTjyhedtos/s320/6337367567_e3a816ae22_z.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">back in Sussex - everything we owned aside from the contents of Willow. We don't even have all that now!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjps_9T2huSWitVCBmRRX2lcdb2N8VXo7iwQAp2YVMDTFZaSmmP6qdH2cLe6tLLcyKcgq46E3SKuEPGMzHltgfaPOL4hz3dqDGHcmmDEcry9K4ljPFiNaHJ5XodIG5qHOFMDqcUF4OFAFQ/s1600/6338407812_2ed2422d20_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjps_9T2huSWitVCBmRRX2lcdb2N8VXo7iwQAp2YVMDTFZaSmmP6qdH2cLe6tLLcyKcgq46E3SKuEPGMzHltgfaPOL4hz3dqDGHcmmDEcry9K4ljPFiNaHJ5XodIG5qHOFMDqcUF4OFAFQ/s320/6338407812_2ed2422d20_z.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Celebrating being back in Sussex. This bottle of fizz traveled all around with us and we opened it when we returned home to my parents - 3 years ago today!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTJon-V6mNgLeB0eERutziHXu4Z6jrKdObXMWK3q0NpkAE6vjZ6wR8e2MY0DYxe90NOgdha9L6f23uWT2G6MG6_zKoHsmGS8dB40hRvLiaZw86LDJdYqNuUFyXpJUYayIRKjk_kC6MYrs/s1600/rumiversary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTJon-V6mNgLeB0eERutziHXu4Z6jrKdObXMWK3q0NpkAE6vjZ6wR8e2MY0DYxe90NOgdha9L6f23uWT2G6MG6_zKoHsmGS8dB40hRvLiaZw86LDJdYqNuUFyXpJUYayIRKjk_kC6MYrs/s320/rumiversary.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">walking the croft boundary - 3 years ago.<br /><br /></td></tr>
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As rollercoaster rides go it has been a long one so far. And it's not over yet!Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-90136042779925548172014-11-12T19:28:00.001+00:002014-11-12T19:28:47.967+00:00Cob onWe've had a fair bit of interest in coming and being part of the cob build already and I have written a couple of articles for various newsletters and magazines which will come out over the next few months and should drum up more. We already have a couple of people 'booked in', the 'whiteboard of control' ready to be filled up with plans and action points (currently it is a wipe clean graffiti wall in the bathroom which we are all enjoying!) and we have been re-reading our library of cob build books.<br />
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Today though we were out 'getting practical' on the house site. After nearly three years familiarising ourselves with this bit of land we are confident that we have selected the best spot so today we cleared a large area with the scythe - all of which went to the pigs and marked out the northeast corner point from which the south and west points are marked and the quarter circle shape spans.<br />
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The next step is to begin digging out the perimeter of the footprint and laying in drainage. It was very exciting today to stand in the space which will be our bedroom or lounge and imagine ourselves standing on that same spot this time next year and being inside.Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-61308491703858403722014-11-12T00:49:00.000+00:002014-11-12T00:49:04.069+00:00DistractionsLiving in a community like we do is both a privilege and a responsibility.<br />
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When we were interviewed for our croft here on Rum one of the questions we were asked was what we could offer the community here. Our reply was that if we were to move to Rum and make our lives here then we would be expecting an awful lot from Rum. It would need to be our everything - meet all of our social, educational, recreational, financial needs. In order to expect that much from Rum we would need to be prepared to give at least that much, probably a whole lot more, back.<br />
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I think we do that. We do it in lots and lots of ways.<br />
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We do it by the small part time jobs we work - at the shop and post office, the castle, the venison company and previously at the school. We work for hourly rates lower than we earned 15 years ago in our mainland lives but it keeps the local economy turning, ensures those jobs do get done and while we know if we didn't do them someone else would being the people who do them gives back as much as we get back in wages.<br />
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We do it by working our croft - putting energy and time and money into making good the land we took on and slowly improving the soil, demonstrating that it can be done, growing local produce, supporting the tourist trade by creating our brand and adding to the offering of goods and services visitors to the island can buy from.<br />
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We do it by attending events, being there and making up the numbers. Competing for Rum in the small isles games, going to the ceilidhs, the quiz nights, the parties, the nativity, the halloween party, the bonfire night, Burns night, hogmanay, the birthday celebrations, the cinema evenings, the ranger events.<br />
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We do it by supporting the other small businesses here on the island, by buying food from the shop, arts and crafts from the other makers, tea and cakes from the teashop, meat from the venison company.<br />
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We do it with the voluntary posts we hold - director of the community trust, small isles community councillor, sitting on steering groups, attending meetings, interviewing employees, writing for the local newsletter, the website, editing and compiling the community newsletter, emailing, talking to, liaisiing with....<br />
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We do all of this because we want to be here, we want to take back from this community to meet our needs so we need to make sure it exists by giving to it as much as we can. We understand how lucky we are to live here and be part of this and how much energy and effort is required to ensure it is here at all.<br />
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But this afternoon, despite having 101 other things we could have been busy with on the croft, or doing on the computer, or planning or talking about we bunked off. Between at least five meetings already this week and another scheduled by phone for this evening (and it's only Tuesday!!) we headed off where we knew we'd see no one and just enjoyed neither taking or giving anything other than to each other.<br />
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<br />Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-91523800279777309452014-11-09T00:01:00.002+00:002014-11-09T00:01:26.123+00:00NovemberMaking the most of the dramatic landscapes that this time of year offers Ady and I have been out and about lots with cameras this week. We have had a couple of days of sunshine and a few of torrential rain. All of which make for drama, gorgeous light and stunning photo opportunities.<br />
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It might have gotten a bit competitive... :)Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-36965570289099831122014-11-05T20:46:00.002+00:002014-11-05T20:46:59.877+00:00Falling in love again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am sure I have mentioned before that it was Bonfire Night on Eigg which fully sold us on island life. This year there was no community built bonfire, no barbecue, no soup. But it was still a group of my favourite people, children (of all ages!) excited about sparklers and plenty of whizz-bangs lighting up the sky.<br />
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And this year it didn't rain. Result!Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-81974232274057651002014-11-04T00:47:00.000+00:002014-11-04T00:47:01.070+00:00A thin place photoI've <a href="http://wondering-wanderers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/touching-stars.html">blogged before about thin places</a>. Look at this photo Ady took tonight from the croft.<br />
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It looks like you could hold your breath and jump through that hole in the sky. This time of year certainly brings it's challenges but it brings a whole load of stunning photo opportunities too...<br />
<br />Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-88193802052027645302014-11-01T19:55:00.000+00:002014-11-01T19:55:02.092+00:00cha cha chaI read a great quote this week:<br />
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An optimist is someone who realises the one step forward followed by two steps back is not a disaster, more like a cha-cha</blockquote>
The onset of November and winter is looming a bit this week - there has been a *lot* of wind and a *lot* of rain which means a *lot* of condensation - bane of our lives each winter. I am sure we spent the whole winter wearing clothes adorned with splashes of mud with the aroma of mildew clinging to us.<br />
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Fortunately with Halloween last night that was perfectly appropriate! We attended the annual party at the school, played spooky games, danced frankly terrifying dances and won scary prizes. Then we headed to the shop for the pumpkin carving competition.<br />
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Davies and Scarlett were declared joint winners - the clearly winning entry was disqualified on the basis of being on the wrong axis - it was awesome, as was the clear runner up - we do live with some very creative and artistic people here on Rum.<br />
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This week we were visited on the croft by a rather unusual guest - a young whooper swan who hung out for a whole morning on the croft trying to join in with our birds. He seemed to think he might be a goose - our geese were having none of it though and kept seeing him off with much hissing. The ducks were most impressed with him but he knew he was better than them. Eventually after grazing all morning, having a bit of a splash about in the river and having his photo taken he flew off, hopefully to rejoin his family group who were hanging out at the north side of Rum.<br />
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Meanwhile Operation Cob House 2015 continues in the background. We have not cleared the site yet, we spent time building a turkey pen and extending our fruit cage instead during outside weather windows. The turkey pen is because we have lost two more of this seasons turkeys. We have decided not to buy in any more birds and concentrate instead on making better housing for our current stock to breed and rear their own. We are trying to find a way of working an incubator without electricity too. So the three remaining (from eight bought in - grr) are now penned in a large area to get fattened for the next 8 weeks or so.<br />
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The fruit cage extension means we now have an enormous fruit cage with a nice big space ready for the apple trees which should be arriving fairly soon. It's netted at the top too to make it both deer and bird proof - fingers crossed everything does well next year.<br />
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On the Cob House Build front we have agreed for 2 more WWOOFers to come and join us next year with the project and my giant white board purchased to keep control of the whole plan has arrived, been 'tested' by Davies and Scarlett and is now up on the wall in the bathroom ready to start filling with dates, lists and masterplans.<br />
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<br />Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-81855836866861657042014-10-27T23:52:00.000+00:002014-10-27T23:52:09.632+00:00Experiences, not thingsI've been busy setting the ball rolling for the big build next year. A few facebook posts, some emails, catching up with people who have expressed an interest in being part of the project to give them a heads up that it is happening. I've written an update for the WWOOFing newsletter and am very excited at the prospect of a group of very close friends making it up here next year to join in.<br />
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I was reading an article on the Tiny House movement earlier which had a lovely quote:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #332629; font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">People would rather have experiences than things</span></blockquote>
This has been something I have believed for a very long time - in summing up a day, a week, a year, a life it is never the stuff accumulated which makes it count, but the memories - the what you did not the what you had.<br />
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We have been so pleased to have such a great first response to our plans for next year - it's been raining pretty much non stop since we first posted about it last week so we have yet to translate our own enthusiasm into the first breaking ground on the house plot clearing the site but hopefully by the end of this week we will have some pictures to share of the actual location looking like the start of something exciting rather than just an untamed corner of the croft.Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-20608323097189573802014-10-24T12:59:00.001+01:002014-10-27T23:20:03.719+00:00Draw a houseWhen I was a child I drew hundreds and hundreds of houses. Early depictions would have been of the square topped by a triangle variety, that would have been followed by 3d versions and I distinctly recall more sophisticated illustrations with a garden wall, goldfish pond and a few trees and flower beds.<br />
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What I probably never drew was a home. Over the last few months all four of us have been drawing homes. Davies and Scarlett have done this exercise many times over the last few years. We have had very elaborate interiors including helter skelter staircases, laundry chutes, trapdoors and skylight windows to see the moon, the stars and the northern lights. Drawing a home is a whole lot more fun than drawing a house I think.<br />
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We have a few very inspirational books on cob and other green buildings which we have been referring to for help at this stage<br />
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Thanks to advice from these books we started thinking more like Davies and Scarlett and less like the junior version of me and began planning a home rather than a house. There is a difference. We don't need to be constrained by square building materials and straight edges - we can create a home that is more like clothing - comfortable, designed to fit around us and our shapes. Specific to us and our needs and our rhythm and our lives. </div>
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We began with an exercise to get us thinking about the pattern of our days. We all started with a blank circle and marked the 24 hours of the day around the edge, then wrote around the outside what we were doing during those hours - we all did it and it gave us a blueprint of when we are apart, when we come together and what sort of space and light we require at different times of the day and night.</div>
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It showed when we are sleeping, eating, hanging out, watching a film, listening to the radio, having a bath (clearly this was a little bit of an aspirational project rather than simply the reality of life in a caravan just now!). We then spent some time talking about specific spaces that we need, the things that we sometimes struggle to find a home for in our current living space and that it would be good to consider before planning a home. We came up with:</div>
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<li>room for Bonnie's crate - somewhere near the door so that she doesn't walk mud all through the place when she comes in wet or dirty. Bonnie sleeps in her crate but only really goes in when we are either not home or in bed so it doesn't need to be in the main space.</li>
<li>space for coats and boots - we need a 'decontamination zone' for wet and muddy clothes when we come in from outside.</li>
<li>Power hub - we need a space outside to house our generator, inside for the batteries and invertors and controls for our off grid power sources.</li>
<li>Boiler room and water tank - a space for storing and heating water.</li>
<li>Clock - my 21st birthday present from Ady was a giant pine framed clock. Nearly 20 years later it is still the focal point of every home we have and will require a flat bit of wall to hang on - we need to factor that into our plans.</li>
<li>Bath space - we really miss a bath and need to ensure there is a space for one with a nice view, it doesn't need to be fully enclosed in a room, just screened off from the main living space.</li>
<li>Loo room - this does need to be enclosed and would be best near the door so you can just nip in from outside without going all through the house.</li>
<li>Cooking, eating and hanging out - this is the main focus of any indoor space for us and makes sense to be all in one place rather than sectioned into separate rooms.</li>
<li>Cosy place - for a child to sit with a book or drawing materials, for an adult to sit and drink a coffee or write or check emails.</li>
<li>Christmas tree - you can laugh! We tend to have our Christmas tree up for the best part of a month and so something which is around for 1/12 of the year deserves a space planned for it even if the other 11/12 of the year that space is given over to something else.</li>
<li>Sleeping, personal space, storage for clothes, toys.</li>
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We then translated those circles into a physical space orientated towards north, south, east and west taking into account where the sun rises and sets - beds to be on the eastern side of the home so the rising sun wakes you of a morning, living space on the south side for maximum light, bath space on the western side for sunset views, water tank and larder on the north facing wall to keep it cool. After several drafts - and a lot of discussion and pacing things out and looking at spaces with tape measures we came up with a plan.</div>
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Three bedrooms, a cupboard for a loo, a screened off space for the bath and a nice big living space to fit everything else into. The interior will shape itself with obvious places for the things we listed above showing themselves to us as we go.</div>
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One of the errors we have made in life here so far is orientating our caravan the wrong way - it had to go east/west as that makes it most resistant to most of the wind and weather we get here but we should have spun it round 180 degrees so that what is currently north would be south. That would mean the fridge and main kitchen area which currently overheats facing south in the summer would benefit from the constant shade of being north facing, and the bedrooms and bulk of the clothes storage space which suffers from damp along the north wall would all be south facing and get light even during the winter months. It was an easy rookie error to make when we moved here having never even thought about such things in our previous life - you just don't get to decide which doors and windows and rooms face in which direction in a normal house. Getting to know our land so very well over the last 2 and a half years has offered us the luxury of knowing which bits of the croft are in shade at certain times of year, which areas flood, where the prevailing weather comes from and precisely where to sit to get the best views at different times of year, of day, of night. </div>
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You will notice so far the only drawing of our home is a floor plan, we have more to do in terms of looking at elevations and other dimensions. There are technical bits to work out, doors and windows to site. More on that later.</div>
Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-464198756444576302014-10-23T19:56:00.002+01:002014-10-23T19:56:58.042+01:00Cob, cob, glorious cob....We're going to build a cob house.<br />
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We're going to build it next year. Here on Croft 3, using clay dug from the croft. We know roughly where we are going to build it, we have an approximate timeline, we've done some critical path analysis, we have an agreed design.<br />
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I remember announcing something pretty similar in just a few lines four years ago.<br />
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We're going to go off traveling around the UK in a campervan. We'll do WWOOFing</blockquote>
I also remember the reality of what that plan took to organise, to make happen, to convince all the interested parties that this was a good idea and we hadn't completely taken leave of our senses. It was not without challenges - both the planning and the execution of that plan. There were times when I think everyone concerned secretly - and sometimes not so secretly - thought actually it would be better to not be doing any such thing. But we did it, we made it happen.<br />
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Then a year later we came up with another plan.<br />
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We're going to move a remote Scottish island with just 30 odd people and be crofters. There is nothing there at all yet except a bare field but we'll keep animals, grow food, find a way of making a life there</blockquote>
Turns out that we did that too. We're still doing it, it's still a work in progress so I guess this latest announcement is more of a sub heading underneath. But it is pretty similar in many ways. There will be schedules, people to talk to, communicate with, help and support to be garnered, people shaking their heads and thinking we are crazies to be proved wrong.<br />
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All of the most amazing adventures I have ever been on have started life as a slightly random thought that struck me one day, snowballed in my own mind into an idea and then I took to Ady to persuaded him to join me with. Latterly I have taken them to Davies and Scarlett too. Sometimes when they are properly crazy or ambitious we take them to other people too and with a mad glint in our eyes, a passionate tone of voice and an air of excitement about us we ask<br />
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We're going to do something a bit out of the ordinary. It might go wrong at times, it certainly won't go completely according to plan. There will be surprises and adventures along the way. We will try hard and plan as much as possible but we will need to be prepared to change our plans, sometimes at the last minute when things crop up that we didn't anticipate or expect. It won't always be easy but it will be a lot of fun. We will laugh a lot, sing a lot, build lots of memories together and take lots of photos. It will definitely be hard work but then anything worth doing always is. Do you want to join in?</blockquote>
How does that make you feel?<br />
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Are you shaking your head? Did you even read to the end? Is it the sort of question you turn away from and assume was not actually being asked of you?<br />
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Or does it make a little cartwheel spin down in the pit of your tummy? Does it make you a bit restless in your chair? A bit twitchy? A bit inclined to type something in the comments box about how yes, you'd like to join in?<br />
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At this stage we are working out what help we need and when. We will want people to come and move heavy things around, get muddy, make cob, make tea and big pots of soup to feed hungry workers, we will need people to sing, take photos, make everyone laugh. To hand round midge spray or hold umbrellas. We also need people to watch from afar and cheer us on, to celebrate with us and commiserate with us. People to read the blog and smile and feel proud to have commented and been a part of it.<br />
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What does this post make you want to do?<br />
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Nichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932738551901230757noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-63578194542924396452014-10-20T23:55:00.001+01:002014-10-20T23:55:43.565+01:00InsidersAs I type the wind is howling around the caravan. Ferries have been disrupted today, already cancelled for tomorrow and the wind turbine is tied up against forecast gales.<br />
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My reaction to this - to my Mum on the phone last night, and to a random tourist I was chatting to in the shop this evening as he insisted 'There <i>has</i> to be a boat on Wednesday, I <i>need</i> to get home' tells me that heading into our third winter I am now, officially An Islander. I know that this is what you expect at this time of year; this is normal, commonplace, unexceptional. We got our visit to the mainland for a dentist visit out of the way, have got plenty of milk and butter in the freezer, good stocks of tins, jars, rice, pasta and flour and will make sure we order any Christmas presents to arrive in early December just in case.<br />
<br />
It is easy to push lots of things to the foot of your to do list living here - during the spring, summer and autumn you are a fool if you don't head out on weekly Sheerwater boat trips to spot dolphins, go clambering up mountains in the dark to listen to manx shearwaters coming in to feed their chicks, walk to Kilmory to witness the red deer rut, celebrate a non midgey day of sunshine by going swimming in the river. So you file a whole lot of things under 'for the winter' and forget about them. During our first winter we were just focussing on survival - collecting firewood and water daily, struggling to make sense of this new life. During our second winter we found a better rhythm and were able to do crafts, read books, watch films, catch up with each other. This year we have plenty of that scheduled in, along with lots of planning for next year's big build project. I have some writing work lined up and plans to try and get more. I am organising a secret santa for interested islanders and we have been talking about various social things to keep us all going through the shorter days.<br />
<br />
In other news we made our Christmas cake this week - yes Scarlett is wearing the same T shirt as in the Christmas cake picture from 2 years ago :)<br />
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and the guinea fowl are settling in well and running with the pack<br /><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-1140018049937866142014-10-18T00:11:00.000+01:002014-10-18T00:11:24.782+01:00The 'Oh look, it's a whole new masterplan Masterplan'I think we might be on v3. Or maybe even v3.1<br />
<br />
Never be afraid to upgrade, enhance or completely change your masterplan.<br />
<br />
In our case I think we may be doing a little bit of all of the above. The current Masterplan is a cob house build in 2015. We're starting small - permaculture principles suggest small steps make for small mistakes, cob house builds suggest small houses make for smaller amounts of cob mix required. But we hope to have something suitable for next winter built by next winter. If that works we can progress more in the following year for the following winter.<br />
<br />
So we are finalising designs for something with a living / cooking / eating space, a place for a bath, three separate rooms for a bedroom each for us, Davies and Scarlett and an indoor loo. We have worked a lot on the design plotting the shape of our days, working out best use of space, deciding what we do and don't need room for and looking at seasonal changes, sunrise and sunset, views, weather and the general knowledge of our land which two and a half years of living it has afforded us.<br />
<br />
We have decided on a plot and marked out the rough size. The next stage is clearing that plot of grass and starting to dig out the footprint. Over the winter Ady and I will aim to dig it out, put in drainage and build the low wall that a cob building sits on. That is the practical side.<br />
<br />
The planning side is rather more complex - we will get planning permission for a structure on the croft of the relevant size and shape. We will organise a large volunteer project to come and assist at the key points we will need help for, sort out the logistics of the materials we will need to buy in and work out the finer details.<br />
<br />
I have been spending time on a Masterplan master plan brainstroming all the required things to organise and sort out, listing them, prioritising them and creating a timeline. This has then broken down into monthly targets and will then fit into weekly lists of things to do. Divided into indoor and outdoor, practical and planning sections. It's all quite complicated! It reminds me of the 9 months of planning that went into our WWOOFing adventure and how we went about organising that.<br />
<br />
Everyone is feeling quite enthused and excited about this and it's great to be heading into winter feeling empowered and in control as we face the most unknown and out of our hands season of life here on Rum. I can't control the weather, the fate of the caravan or many of the other variables of our lives here. We can seize the reins of at least knowing which direction we'd like to be headed in and doing all we can to be moving in the right way.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-86498363547741978422014-10-16T23:49:00.000+01:002014-10-16T23:49:24.681+01:00And then there were four...I know it is only October but there is a real 'end of season' feeling here. The winter ferry timetable kicks in in the next week or so, the hostel is closed for the winter, the teashop is only open for limited times. We have turned round our 'produce this way' signs leading people to the croft.<br />
<br />
We have had our last planned visit of the year to the mainland for food shopping and dentist check-ups. We waved off our last visitors of the year - my parents - on the ferry yesterday. <br />
<br />
Today has been a day of planning - the start of the planning for the cob house build next year, a winter plan for general indoors and outdoors croft going forward stuff, a month-by-month timetable for the coming six months. We have some possible work opportunities, next years livestock and crops to bear in mind, investments of time and money in the coming year, an evaluation of what worked and didn't work, what can be improved and enhanced for next year.<br />
<br />
The cupboards are full of pickles and preserves, the freezer is stocked up, we have craft materials ready to be turned into sale-able items, to do lists, ideas and inspiration.<br />
<br />
But first, just for a few days, we're going to do not much. To spread out in our own space, catch up on watching films and downloaded tv shows, luxuriate in the end of one part of our year and our life here and just catch our breath before throwing ourselves into the next bit.<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-67012896350901062042014-10-09T00:02:00.000+01:002014-10-09T00:03:47.901+01:00In your own timeI tend not to focus on the can nots. On the things we are not able to do. Mostly because I do believe that in the main it is what we can't do <i>yet</i> rather than what we can't do. That if we actually wanted to do something then we could.<br />
<br />
I think that what we don't have or can't do is mostly to do with having chosen a different path.<br />
<br />
I
can't have a bath tonight or pop to the 24 hour supermarket or ring for
a takeaway because I have chosen to live somewhere where I get to see
the red deer rut from my lounge window, the evening sky catch fire with
breathtaking sunsets and my children have seen the northern lights from
their beds.<br />
<br />
Having chosen the path of Home Education
there are various things Davies and Scarlett can't do. There will be
milestones they have not hit, areas in which they are not level with
their peers, gaps in their knowledge, spaces in their skills. I believe
this is because they have been far too busy getting up to other things
instead, things which may or may not rank above or below in importance
in the scheme of things but at the time were precisely the right thing
for them to be doing. And that if at some future point those gaps and
spaces become an issue they will address them then and there and fill
them up accordingly.<br />
<br />
Learning to ride a bike has been
one of those gaps. They had the toddler trikes, they had scooters. But
somewhere along the way when other children their age were learning how
to ride bikes we were busy doing something else instead. I'm not even
sure what now -I cannot cite the moments when instead of loading up the
car with bikes on a rack and heading to the park we went off and did
something else instead. The day when we didn't ceremoniously remove the
stabilisers from the back wheel of their bike and push them across the
lawn promising not to let go but letting go anyway. Maybe we were off at
the zoo, or the beach, or camping, or at a museum, or the theatre or
cinema instead. Perhaps we were reading, or drawing, or hanging out with
friends.<br />
<br />
Whatever. It didn't happen. We did buy Davies
a bike once. We took him to the beach which had a very good cycle path.
We talked to him about it in our usual honest fashion - Ady said 'Now
you will fall off, it will hurt. But that is part of riding a bike'. To
which Davies looked at me, shook his head at Ady's stupidity and firmly
announced that if he didn't get on the bike and attempt to ride it then
no, he would not fall off and no he would not get hurt. So why on earth
should he try?<br />
<br />
For at least the last four years though
Davies has added 'learn to ride a bike' to his list of things he wants
to achieve this year. Each year it has not happened. Again I can list
what we did instead. He has certainly not sat waiting with a hopeful
look on his face for the day that year that he learns to ride a bike.
Life has simply gotten in the way.<br />
<br />
But this year, this
year we decided it was definitely going to happen. My parents birthday
present to each of them has been a bike (Scarlett's is an early present -
having a December birthday means you either get the best presents
early, late or combined with your Christmas present!) and today was the
day.<br />
<br />
We practised on the croft first, down hill, on
grass, got all the falling off and working out what height the saddle
should be at on nice soft ground. Then we took them down to the village
and used the smooth track infront of the castle. Our children have very
different approaches to learning new skills - both in line with their
personality and both work for them personally. Davies needs a bit of
goading, some challenging, some prodding and poking and inciting to
actually really truly give his best. He needs to get a little bit pissed
off and angry - with me, with the bike, with himself. He needs to have
something to prove to someone.<br />
<br />
Scarlett needs an
audience for her own personal commentary as she psyches herself up and
cheerleads all by herself. She compares herself and needs to be reminded
that it is not a competition. She never loses heart and just needs
reassuring that if we are still there trying by moonlight then that is
fine.<br />
<br />
Within an hour they had both cycled for a fair
distance and cracked it. More practice is needed, more confidence and
more skill in combining looking, listening, steering, pedalling and
braking all at the same time. But today was the day and it happened,
they did it, they can.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-12684721600351197552014-10-07T23:01:00.001+01:002014-10-07T23:01:58.140+01:00Autumn watchingIt's stunning on Rum just now. The colours are fantastic, photos don't do it justice and words fall way short. There is a smell of woodsmoke in the air and the sun (which continues to keep putting in an almost daily appearance) is hanging low in the sky giving a fantastic quality to the light.<br />
<br />
Today we headed off over to Kilmory - the north side of Rum with a white sandy beach, views across to the Isle of Skye and panoramic ocean views. And home to the Kilmory Deer Research project. We are fortunate for so many reasons living here on Rum but one which we never anticipated is the experts we have access to. The people who make up our fragile community have come to Rum for a variety of reasons but high on the list is research science. We count among our residents here two of the worlds leading experts in red deer research - able to glance at a deer and tell you who they are, their parentage, their offspring and their success rate at breeding.<br />
<br />
As we headed off away from the croft there were two stags parallel walking in the area just above the croft and stags roaring all around which did make us rather question why we were off five miles away but Kilmory is always worth the effort and today was no exception.<br />
<br />
We drove part way today - there are repairs and improvements being made to the track at the moment and our car would not have managed the rough ride all the way there so we did 2 miles by car and walked the final 3 but it reduced our journey time from two hours to just one. Once there we settled into the hide and sat for a good couple of hours watching as the stag right infront of us with a large harem (we counted 24 at the peak while we were there although several wondered off during the course of our stay) defending against incomers and challengers. We saw a couple of parallel walks, roaring aplenty and lots of interesting behaviour. We also had a chat with one of the researchers who showed us the census information he was collecting and ID'd the main players infront of us. Davies was most interested to note that two of the key stags were 2000 births the same as him. Scarlett was mostly just falling in love with the little spotted calf who was a late birth this season and very cute.<br />
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Then home again - an hours walk to the car, past more stags and hinds, then a drive back to the croft. There is plenty more roaring out on the croft tonight - it's a noisy time of year.<br />
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The skies tonight were amazing - as though the hills were on fire.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-34740633881487286932014-10-06T00:09:00.003+01:002014-10-06T00:09:48.723+01:00Thrust into autumnWith the autumn equinox so we have been thrust straight into the changed season. Our usual Calmac ferry is off for it's annual time in drydock so we have had a combination of various other vessels bringing our freight and visitors. That makes for a fair level of disruption generally to the timetable as one of the replacement boats travels at a much slower rate than our usual boat, the Loch Nevis, and the other travels much faster. Add to that a fair level of poor weather, gale force winds, sea swells and general October-ness and you end up with rather a lottery of ferry services. <br />
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We have had friends and family coming and going during all of this, and we went off for a dentist trip too. We have also had our usual animal feed deliveries, post and other bits and pieces arriving (or not as the case may be) including our latest addition to the Croft creatures of some guinea fowl.<br />
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We have had a full quota of visitors this summer which has been lovely and it's been great to show off Rum, the Croft and our progress here and have some great feedback on what we have achieved from people who have visited before and can see the difference. It's been lovely for Davies and Scarlett to have plenty of time with friends too, we all feel nicely topped up ready to face the winter and relax into being a foursome again - although we have one last visit of the year from my parents this coming weekend.<br />
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The changing weather means a change in our routine too - earlier evening feeds for the animals as the nights draw in, earlier dinners for us for the same reason - if we can cook in daylight it saves on lighting. More time spend on indoor pursuits such as crafts, drawing, reading, catching up on planning, watching films and indoor playing. Davies got a new mini dvd player for his birthday and we invested in an external disc drive to store plenty of films on so we have a whole new library of things to watch including wildlife documentaries. While we were off on the mainland we splashed out on a set of throws (all of £30 in total from one of the cheap shops!) and a couple of rugs so the lounge area of the static is looking all made over and cosy ready for the winter. We might look at making some heavier weight curtains too. I've been turning old pillows into cushions and crocheting some cushion covers with some wool scraps to make it look even nicer.<br />
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It's still a work in progress and we won't be spending any more cash on it - all of what we have bought comes to under £50 and will move into our new build eventually anyway but it feels time to make the static feel a little more personal as we face a third winter it in. <br />
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This week we plan to tidy up the polytunnel as pretty much all the crops are over or close to over. I harvested the last of the tomatoes last week and what had not ripened and been snaffled as raw tomatoes was made into about 10 more jars of chutney. We are also planning a walk to Kilmory as the red deer rut is in full swing - as I type I can hear stags roaring outside. I do wonder if the vibration of the straps in the wind, holding the caravan roof on are at the same pitch and some poor stag thinks he is being roared back at by them!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3794905457151120729.post-22868657996828828502014-09-23T00:04:00.000+01:002014-09-23T00:04:11.433+01:00Masterplan revisitedThe masterplan to build a nissen hut this year has not come to fruition. This has not been the only part of this years plans which has not quite panned out.<br />
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However, the measure of a person is not whether they make all their plans work out, but how they adapt and react when their plans go awry. So here we are adapting, rethinking and making new plans.<br />
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This year we have learned even more about the best possible location to build on our croft. We have acquired plenty of new skills in a building method which perfectly meets our needs - low impact, green, using very local materials, creating opportunities to learn and offer others the chance to learn alongside us, cheap, sustainable, within our reach. We have spent the last few weeks practising and testing with our small scale build of a pizza oven and we can now spend the winter observing how that copes with the Rum climate and conditions.<br />
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We have also had hours of discussions, stacks of research, plenty of reading and lots of sketches and agreed on a design that all four of us are delighted with. We have done some really interesting exercises based on some of the self build books we have about how you use the space you live in and thought really hard about what works for us in the various spaces and places we have lived and stayed and worked in, including our static, our campervan, various homes we have lived in and visited. We have created lists of essential and desireable features, thought about our relationship with indoor and outdoor and bridging the two, functions of different areas and what works specifically for the four of us - the people who have to live and work in a space.<br />
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We mapped out patterns of our days, times we are all together, times we are apart, worked out where the sun rises and sets in relation to our activities, which spaces need to feel cosy and be easy to keep warm, which need to feel light and airy and spacious. Places to snuggle up, places to spread out, places to relax, places to get privacy, places to be sociable. We talked about the sort of quirky, specific to us areas we need - somewhere for Bonnie's dog crate (not too far from the front door so she can be put straight in there if she comes in to the house wet or muddy), the Christmas tree (it is up for approx. 1/12 of the year so deserves a logical space rather than being simply in the way for a whole month every year), Ady to have his morning coffee, me to have my hour or so after everyone else has gone to bed. How we don't want the bath in with the loo, how open plan works well for us so the person cooking is still hanging out with the rest of the family in the evening, how we want the oven close enough to the table that I can nip across to check the bread I almost always cook after our dinner is served. How the radio needs to be kept near a window to get signal and we need to gather round it for Popmaster every weekday morning. This will be our space and it needs to feel as comfortable and tailor made as the perfect pair of boots.<br />
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So, we have our design. We have our location. We have our test model. Next we need to start working out timescales and putting together a masterplan as to how it will all work, when it needs to happen and what order everything will go in.<br />
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I love it when a plan comes together. Or falls apart totally and gets superceded by a brand new plan! Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0