Our experimental cob chicken coop is finally starting. First we dig a foundation trench.
Tuesday, 11 March 2014
Monday, 10 March 2014
When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose
A long while ago we had this craving for a simpler life. About 3 years ago today I had my first encounter with a washboard and mangle at our first WWOOF hosts. Our first taste of off grid living. I'd been talking to Ady and the kids only the week before about how I thought a washing machine was a luxury item it would be easy to live without. About how in my Grandma's day there would be one day a week dedicated to laundry processing and that was just the sort of simple existence I was looking forward to us enjoying.
Except that I learnt with that very first experience of washboards and mangles that modern clothes are not designed to stand up to the harsh treatment that washboards or mangles give them. The choice was grass stains in the knees of our jeans or simply no knees in our jeans. A washing machine was one of the most recent additions to our life here and the novelty of that 'mod con' has still not worn off. Today I did four loads of laundry and although it is still a far cry from the days in a house when I'd stick the machine on and go off and do other things (go out, sit down, go to bed....) as it has to be monitored, it is still a massive leap forward from heading the mile down to the village with it and then hanging about while it washes, then carrying a bag of wet washing the mile back up the hill again to hang it out.
This is week four without a vehicle and while we are managing it is tiresome and time consuming. We don't have a lot of rubbish but bottles and cans soon build up so yesterday we trekked to the pier with a full wagon of recycling - a 2 hour trip which would have taken ten minutes in a car. For the same reasons I go through a pair of wellies every couple of months (walking several miles every day over ankle deep mud, sandy paths and rough rocky tracks) wheelbarrow and wagon tyres have a very limited life before they need replacing.
It is a simpler life, in many ways a more rewarding one but the slow pace of life means moving forward is frustratingly slow, foiled at too many turns and simply existing takes way more time and energy than you could ever anticipate.
There are joys too of course - during that two hour trip to the pier we chatted the whole way, bumped into various people, marvelled at the beauty of the weather, the wildlife, the landscape. I appreciate the full line of laundry blowing in the wind, drying in the sun in a way I never would have taken pleasure from before.
Definitely Living The Dream, just sometimes redefining it a wee bit to add in some extra bits to make it even better...
Except that I learnt with that very first experience of washboards and mangles that modern clothes are not designed to stand up to the harsh treatment that washboards or mangles give them. The choice was grass stains in the knees of our jeans or simply no knees in our jeans. A washing machine was one of the most recent additions to our life here and the novelty of that 'mod con' has still not worn off. Today I did four loads of laundry and although it is still a far cry from the days in a house when I'd stick the machine on and go off and do other things (go out, sit down, go to bed....) as it has to be monitored, it is still a massive leap forward from heading the mile down to the village with it and then hanging about while it washes, then carrying a bag of wet washing the mile back up the hill again to hang it out.
This is week four without a vehicle and while we are managing it is tiresome and time consuming. We don't have a lot of rubbish but bottles and cans soon build up so yesterday we trekked to the pier with a full wagon of recycling - a 2 hour trip which would have taken ten minutes in a car. For the same reasons I go through a pair of wellies every couple of months (walking several miles every day over ankle deep mud, sandy paths and rough rocky tracks) wheelbarrow and wagon tyres have a very limited life before they need replacing.
It is a simpler life, in many ways a more rewarding one but the slow pace of life means moving forward is frustratingly slow, foiled at too many turns and simply existing takes way more time and energy than you could ever anticipate.
There are joys too of course - during that two hour trip to the pier we chatted the whole way, bumped into various people, marvelled at the beauty of the weather, the wildlife, the landscape. I appreciate the full line of laundry blowing in the wind, drying in the sun in a way I never would have taken pleasure from before.
Definitely Living The Dream, just sometimes redefining it a wee bit to add in some extra bits to make it even better...
Saturday, 8 March 2014
Turn Around
One of my biggest frustrations with people generally is what I call 'Back in the day syndrome'... the clinging to history, to what used to be, entrenched, ingrained, inability to move on, evolve, grow, change.
I love the changing seasons, life cycles, caterpillar to butterfly, marking time, embracing change. Don't mourn the fallen petals, celebrate the ripening of seeds meaning life carries on.
It does mean I am a bit of a sucker for anniversaries and marking time passing. I can take pleasure in the spotting of a new grey hair or wrinkle around an eye. I certainly don't wish life away but I do get a kick out of celebrating us all circling the sun and another year passing.
Yesterday we realised it was the third anniversary of us arriving at our very first WWOOF host and we looked back at some photos and reminisced about it. About how what could have quite fairly been termed a bit of a whim actually turned into a serious lifestyle change and led us to where we are now. Today a friend linked to a youtube clip of the children and I participating in a bubble blowing event celebrating Home Education and being interviewed by the local news from five years ago.
I've been away from the croft a lot this week with various community responsibilities, we had our monthly residents meeting, I did a couple of shifts at the post office.
We lost a goose this week. It is a fact of animal keeping that the more animals you have the more you will lose. We are pretty sure Barbara Pig is pregnant. We have collected chicken, duck and goose eggs. My Dad always says that the only thing which is certain in life is that you will die; everything inbetween is a combination of luck, fate and a bit of what you make it.
This week we have been particularly proud of Davies and Scarlett for their self reliance. We were held up one evening in the village and arrived home later than planned to find they had jkept the log burner going, carried out the evening routines of drawing curtains and clearing condensation, turned on the generator and so on. I commented to Ady that actually if we'd never come back up the hill they could have survived - they know how to carry out all of the essential tasks to keep our home and business ticking over - pretty impressive for an 11 year old and a 13 year old.
The winds of change are whistling around Rum just now which is in turn both unsettling and exciting. If our particular personal journey has taught us anything it is to embrace, engage with and go along for the ride.
I love the changing seasons, life cycles, caterpillar to butterfly, marking time, embracing change. Don't mourn the fallen petals, celebrate the ripening of seeds meaning life carries on.
It does mean I am a bit of a sucker for anniversaries and marking time passing. I can take pleasure in the spotting of a new grey hair or wrinkle around an eye. I certainly don't wish life away but I do get a kick out of celebrating us all circling the sun and another year passing.
Yesterday we realised it was the third anniversary of us arriving at our very first WWOOF host and we looked back at some photos and reminisced about it. About how what could have quite fairly been termed a bit of a whim actually turned into a serious lifestyle change and led us to where we are now. Today a friend linked to a youtube clip of the children and I participating in a bubble blowing event celebrating Home Education and being interviewed by the local news from five years ago.
I've been away from the croft a lot this week with various community responsibilities, we had our monthly residents meeting, I did a couple of shifts at the post office.
We lost a goose this week. It is a fact of animal keeping that the more animals you have the more you will lose. We are pretty sure Barbara Pig is pregnant. We have collected chicken, duck and goose eggs. My Dad always says that the only thing which is certain in life is that you will die; everything inbetween is a combination of luck, fate and a bit of what you make it.
This week we have been particularly proud of Davies and Scarlett for their self reliance. We were held up one evening in the village and arrived home later than planned to find they had jkept the log burner going, carried out the evening routines of drawing curtains and clearing condensation, turned on the generator and so on. I commented to Ady that actually if we'd never come back up the hill they could have survived - they know how to carry out all of the essential tasks to keep our home and business ticking over - pretty impressive for an 11 year old and a 13 year old.
The winds of change are whistling around Rum just now which is in turn both unsettling and exciting. If our particular personal journey has taught us anything it is to embrace, engage with and go along for the ride.
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
Today's rain....
I have only ever been a Home Educating parent, it's all I have experience of and all I know how to do. Which is not to say that I am not aware that every parent teaches their child, of course.
It does mean that I have been the one for all the tricky questions - I often tell people when I am explaining our style of Home Ed that Davies and Scarlett started with the 'why...?' questions as toddlers just like every other child, except that they carried on... and the end of the why questions got more complicated and sophisticated and rapidly reached heights at which I was learning just as much as they were. It is totally possible to learn alongside your children and all you really need to be teaching them is how to find out the answers rather than to have them all at your fingertips already.
I suspect that all parents have moments when they suddenly see the world anew through the eyes of their child, or learn something alongside them, or are reminded of something they once knew or already sort of knew but didn't fully understand until they had to rephrase it for their child. I know I have been stopped in my tracks countless times over the last 13 years of parenting with 'whoa!' moments like that.
I recall hurrying along an alleyway with the children stepping over dog mess, skirting round the litter, wrinkling my nose at the smell of urine and damp when Scarlett tugged at my hand and pointed out the broken clear and green glass of beer bottles and said 'Look Mummy, there are diamonds and emeralds in this alleyway' as the sun caught the shards and made them twinkle.
I remember Davies piping up from the back seat of the car as I drove them to Tumble Tots 'so were the first people babies or adults Mummy? And if they were babies who looked after them and if they were adults how did they get grown up?'
I also recall an afternoon sitting with a pile of picture books reading to them and The Drop in my Drink: The Story of Water on Our Planet
being in the pile. It's the story of how the drop of water in your glass today may have once been a tear from an Egyptian princess, or a wave in the ocean - the water cycle told in a factual yet whimsical way with gorgeous illustrations and the sort of re-telling of a fact you already know that makes you have a 'whoa' moment all over again. Just like when you look up at the stars on a clear night and see how they go on forever, making you feel smaller and smaller the longer you look at them and the more of them appear.
It has rained all day today. I was raining when I went to bed last night, raining when I woke up and it's still raining now. It's been a soup making, bread making, radio listening, static tidying, sock knitting, newsletter compiling, email catching up on, playing with toys kind of day. A little frustrating when there is much to be doing outdoors but productive and relaxing nonetheless.
Tonight on facebook a friend from a neighbouring Isle shared the motto "Today's rain is tomorrow's whisky - old Scottish proverb" which made me smile and reminded me of the drop in my drink book.
Today's rain will help make tomorrows mud, essential for our plans for this year.
It does mean that I have been the one for all the tricky questions - I often tell people when I am explaining our style of Home Ed that Davies and Scarlett started with the 'why...?' questions as toddlers just like every other child, except that they carried on... and the end of the why questions got more complicated and sophisticated and rapidly reached heights at which I was learning just as much as they were. It is totally possible to learn alongside your children and all you really need to be teaching them is how to find out the answers rather than to have them all at your fingertips already.
I suspect that all parents have moments when they suddenly see the world anew through the eyes of their child, or learn something alongside them, or are reminded of something they once knew or already sort of knew but didn't fully understand until they had to rephrase it for their child. I know I have been stopped in my tracks countless times over the last 13 years of parenting with 'whoa!' moments like that.
I recall hurrying along an alleyway with the children stepping over dog mess, skirting round the litter, wrinkling my nose at the smell of urine and damp when Scarlett tugged at my hand and pointed out the broken clear and green glass of beer bottles and said 'Look Mummy, there are diamonds and emeralds in this alleyway' as the sun caught the shards and made them twinkle.
I remember Davies piping up from the back seat of the car as I drove them to Tumble Tots 'so were the first people babies or adults Mummy? And if they were babies who looked after them and if they were adults how did they get grown up?'
I also recall an afternoon sitting with a pile of picture books reading to them and The Drop in my Drink: The Story of Water on Our Planet
being in the pile. It's the story of how the drop of water in your glass today may have once been a tear from an Egyptian princess, or a wave in the ocean - the water cycle told in a factual yet whimsical way with gorgeous illustrations and the sort of re-telling of a fact you already know that makes you have a 'whoa' moment all over again. Just like when you look up at the stars on a clear night and see how they go on forever, making you feel smaller and smaller the longer you look at them and the more of them appear.It has rained all day today. I was raining when I went to bed last night, raining when I woke up and it's still raining now. It's been a soup making, bread making, radio listening, static tidying, sock knitting, newsletter compiling, email catching up on, playing with toys kind of day. A little frustrating when there is much to be doing outdoors but productive and relaxing nonetheless.
Tonight on facebook a friend from a neighbouring Isle shared the motto "Today's rain is tomorrow's whisky - old Scottish proverb" which made me smile and reminded me of the drop in my drink book.
Today's rain will help make tomorrows mud, essential for our plans for this year.
Monday, 3 March 2014
Fruit Cage Extension
Untitled, a photo by nicgee on Flickr.
It's been a stunning day today, spring well and truly in the air (we'll gloss over the rain drumming against the windows this evening!). Ady and I finished off our fruit cage extension which we started yesterday but left with last bits still to do when rain came in. We realised we had sufficient mesh panels to extend our initial cage to double the size so have done so.
The original cage is stocked with soft fruit - black currants, red currants and white currant, gooseberry, blueberry, cranberry, honeyberry and raspberry. If all of the bushes take and thrive we will have a very plentiful supply of soft fruit for our own consumption, selling to fellow islanders and tourists and turning into preserves, juices, jams and so on. Soft fruit tends to do really well growing wild here on Rum - we have masses of brambles, raspberries and there are rumours of blueberries (called blaeberries locally) in secret locations known only to a select few...
The extension is to be home to some fruit trees - we have bought three cherry trees - two sweet and one cooking / sour cherry, two plum and two pear. These were not well researched, carefully selected varieties chosen for their suitability to our soil, climate and location but were cheaply purchased while we were off island last week and therefore worth a small gamble to see if they take. Our longer term plan is to invest in some fruit trees ticking all of those better selection boxes but in the meantime we have made a start.
I have also made the first sowings of seeds down in the polytunnel and also on this weeks job list is fixing the netting on the raised beds now I have a tried and tested in high winds design of arches which seems to stand up well to the elements. Just our little section of fruit cage and raised beds is larger than our allotment back in Sussex, coupled with the polytunnel and our ever increasing meat production on the croft it is starting to feel as though we are heading towards that ultimate goal of as much self sufficient food production as possible. In under two years it does feel as though we are beginning to tame the land and make it start to work for us. Baby steps certainly but steps in the right direction.
Sunday, 2 March 2014
Back in the day
My friend Jan wrote a very lovely blogpost today on her birthday about what her grandparents and parents would have been doing in their lives as they celebrated that particular birthday.
Coupled with a thought provoking comment on my last post about life before freezers and how life would have been on Rum in our parents' day I've been reflecting on just that.
Ady and I both have landmark birthdays this year - 40 for me and 50 for him. Certainly not the time of life to be considering starting to build a house going back a generation or two ago. We get many a comment (on here and in real life) about being a bit pioneering living without mains power, water, gas, access to 24 hours supermarkets and mobile phone signal. Frankly we are still something of a curiosity for not having a telly and knowing who is in the jungle for 'I'm a Celebrity' or appearing on 'Strictly'.
But the fact is our life here is still more 'switched on' than when our parents were Davies and Scarlett's age. My Dad grew up in a remote village in North Wales, probably similar in size population wise to Rum. During months of the winter it was cut off from the bigger towns nearby. There was no electricity, certainly no phones and I imagine many of the dilemmas and issues we face here were very similar then in their community. Dad went to school but the rest of his childhood was spent in similar pursuits to our children now; swimming in rivers, building dens, avoiding bath time, chasing chickens, fishing, exploring, getting muddy and ripping clothing.
Progress is mostly good though. Leaps forward in healthcare and medical science, technology for communication, labour saving appliances, new thinking in education and breakthroughs in delivering information all mean that choosing to live a slightly different life as we have done is achievable and doable and we have the option of taking the best bits of the 21st century and leaving behind only the bits which don't appeal.
It's been a low impact week with Ady and I having to walk to the pier and the village several times with our little cart to collect things, including an epic trip on Friday afternoon to collect 10 9foot posts. Four mile round trip, tied onto our little cart with Ady pulling and me pushing / steadying, then carrying them the final half mile as the path is too stoney to drag the cart. It took a couple of hours to do something which a vehicle would have managed in about 10 minutes but it was a lovely walk and we laughed and talked all the way. It's been a high tech week though with the wind turbine running everything in the static for four out of the seven days. I like that balance - low impact, high tech. Grab the best bits, leave the rest.
Coupled with a thought provoking comment on my last post about life before freezers and how life would have been on Rum in our parents' day I've been reflecting on just that.
Ady and I both have landmark birthdays this year - 40 for me and 50 for him. Certainly not the time of life to be considering starting to build a house going back a generation or two ago. We get many a comment (on here and in real life) about being a bit pioneering living without mains power, water, gas, access to 24 hours supermarkets and mobile phone signal. Frankly we are still something of a curiosity for not having a telly and knowing who is in the jungle for 'I'm a Celebrity' or appearing on 'Strictly'.
But the fact is our life here is still more 'switched on' than when our parents were Davies and Scarlett's age. My Dad grew up in a remote village in North Wales, probably similar in size population wise to Rum. During months of the winter it was cut off from the bigger towns nearby. There was no electricity, certainly no phones and I imagine many of the dilemmas and issues we face here were very similar then in their community. Dad went to school but the rest of his childhood was spent in similar pursuits to our children now; swimming in rivers, building dens, avoiding bath time, chasing chickens, fishing, exploring, getting muddy and ripping clothing.
Progress is mostly good though. Leaps forward in healthcare and medical science, technology for communication, labour saving appliances, new thinking in education and breakthroughs in delivering information all mean that choosing to live a slightly different life as we have done is achievable and doable and we have the option of taking the best bits of the 21st century and leaving behind only the bits which don't appeal.
It's been a low impact week with Ady and I having to walk to the pier and the village several times with our little cart to collect things, including an epic trip on Friday afternoon to collect 10 9foot posts. Four mile round trip, tied onto our little cart with Ady pulling and me pushing / steadying, then carrying them the final half mile as the path is too stoney to drag the cart. It took a couple of hours to do something which a vehicle would have managed in about 10 minutes but it was a lovely walk and we laughed and talked all the way. It's been a high tech week though with the wind turbine running everything in the static for four out of the seven days. I like that balance - low impact, high tech. Grab the best bits, leave the rest.
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