Living It Up

It's the Busy Period here on Rum. Tourists aplenty, lots of visiting friends, stacks to be doing on the croft (not all of it getting done!) but also in true tail chasing manner it is the very time of year when you most want to be taking time out to enjoy the many things which make Rum so very special.

The wildlife, the weather, the landscapes, the interesting people, the produce, the foraging...

Rum is famous for so many of the creatures we share our island and surrounding waters with; the red deer, the sea eagles and golden eagles, the midges (!), the dolphins and whales, the dragonflies, the winkles (!). We are also the summer host to a quarter of the worlds population of Manx Shearwaters, fantastic little birds who return here every year to meet up with their breeding partner (they stay with the same partner throughout their breeding life), use the same burrow as in previous years, mate, lay and incubate their egg and rear their chick until it fledges and they migrate to their winter habitat. During the day time the birds are out feeding at sea where they are graceful, elegant creatures, swooping low over the ocean with alternate flashes of black and white (their wings are black on top, white on the underside), sometimes gathering in large rafts, bobbing on the seas surface. As it gets dark at night they return once more in to land (their burrows are holes dug high into the mountainside using their beaks and wings) to feed their chicks, calling to each other with eerie high pitched squeals believed to have been incorrectly identified as trolls and goblins by the vikings who landed on Rum and named the cuillin range Hallivall, Barkeval, Askival and probably the reason behind the name Trollaval. On land they are clumsy, struggling to walk along on legs set far back on their bodies, vulnerable to predation.

On Monday we were fortunate to assist as volunteers in some of the shearwater burrow monitoring, where selected specific burrows are checked for productivity each year. Rum is the location of countless scientific research projects on many species, habitat, weather, flora and fauna.

Our part involved a walk 'up the hill' (about 3/4 of the way up a very high peak) on a very hot day but the views each time we stopped to catch our breath were more than worth the effort required.

and the shearwater chicks themselves once we got there were definitely worth it! We had a lovely few hours up there checking burrows, finding chicks of varying sizes, a couple of adults birds and a couple of pipping eggs. We also found a dead bird which was sad but still interesting as we could learn more about the shearwaters from looking at it's remains and speculating on how it may have died.

Then then long walk back down the hill...

On Thursday we had our usual weekly summer treat of the Sheerwater boat trip. The conditions were perfect - a roasting hot, midge infested day back on dry land made for a welcome sea breeze, millpond flat shimmering blue ocean, cloudless blue skies and a gorgeous trip out from Rum to Soay, around the isle of Soay and back to Rum again. We saw loads of porpoises, plenty of seals, tons of jellyfish and plenty of gannets.

These close encounters with nature are a big part of what makes our life here so amazing.

Last night we ventured up the hill again, to the same part as we had been on Monday but this time in the evening. We walked up just as it was getting dark, installed ourselves on comfortable rocks and sat to wait for the adult shearwaters to come in for the night. It was an amazing experience. Sitting amid the screeching calls, the flapping wings, the shearwaters landing all around us, appearing in the drifting clouds and fog and then disappearing again while we sat, a group of 14 of us close together, speaking in hushed whispers and exclaiming on how amazing it was.

Photos are poor, mostly because the light was not good for photography but also because such an experience can never be captured on film. It is the stuff of wildlife documentaries which makes you desperate not to view it through a tv screen but to be there, experiencing it, feeling it, seeing it, hearing it and living it for real.

That's us. Living it. To the full. And a lot of this week up in rather high places too.

One day on, one day off

We've been having some very changeable weather here on Rum with days of full sunshine and overpowering midge attacks interspersed with days of heavy rain and gusty wind. Enough to remind you of all of the best and worst of Rum nature all in one go!

We've celebrated various Rum residents birthdays this last week - birthdays here tend to come in clutches. We had a lovely evening over at Harris on the south coast of the island barbecuing over a fire from gathered driftwood. Sadly that was one of the midgier evenings so we were dancing not to the music we'd taken over with us but to avoid the little black monsters!

Market Day is up and running and it's great seeing the different arts, crafts, makes and bakes on offer from talented islanders. I've been gathering as many raspberries as I can and turning them into jam although we seem to be eating it quicker than I can jar and sell it! Raspberry jam really is very delicious... the herbs in the herb spiral are doing well and there are several tomato plants with fruit starting to look red rather than green. The strawberries seem to be all but done for this year and the soft fruit is all looking healthy in  terms of growing and looking happy in the cage but not so good in terms of producing much fruit this year. We've been eating peas for weeks along with salad and the onions are looking almost ready to harvest, along with the broccoli and cabbages. We harvested the first lot of tatties a few weeks ago and there are a few more ready to be dug up soon.

We've been on some great ranger events lately - the kids went along to a biodiversity walk and we all went to a splendid foraging afternoon with a cook up afterwards of all the gathered up goodies. Seafood galore in the shape of winkles, muscles and clams along with some orache and plantain, followed up with some wild raspberries.

Aside from soft fruit I have done very little in the way of getting out foraging this year, I didn't even gather elderflowers this year. I do have my eye on a fair few hazelnuts which look like they just might come to something this year though.

Exciting news of the week was that the duck egg which Scarlett very hopefully put under a semi broody bantam has hatched! The bantam seemed to spend as much time off the egg as she did on it and Scarlett sprayed it with water several times to keep the humidity up but we were not really very expectant, particularly as duck eggs need incubating for 28 days while bantam eggs only take 19 days. But to our delight Mrs Bantam has been out and about the last 3 days proudly leading her 'baby' around. Davies and Scarlett have christened it 'Chuckling'

Dodging the elements

It's been a real pick and mix of weather and general outside conditions these last few days. Sunshine, pouring rain, high winds and back to sunshine again. We've had rainbows aplenty and everything is growing like mad. With the weather come the beasties and the clegs have been out in force biting and buzzing around with the midges putting regular appearances too.

All of this means you have to really pick your moments to be outside or even in the polytunnel getting things done but we have managed to cut down the grass in the fruit cage, transplant asparagus into a raised bed in the walled garden and do lots in the polytunnel including planting on various things including chillies, peppers, rhubarb and tomatoes, cucumbers and melons. I have staked some tomatoes and pinched out the excess leaves, harvested the last of the first potatoes, onions and garlic and some of the peas which had gone over are drying out to save the seeds for next season. It's been another good year in the polytunnel and while there is still lots of learn and ways to make it even more productive I feel I have made good use of it this year.

My current round of research when captured indoors due to too many beasties or bad weather is learning what best to do about the ragwort invasion that is taking over the croft!

Slow Days

This week for various reasons I have been reflecting, both personally and to others about the life we left behind. The trappings we used to have around us, the things which used to be important.

It's very easy to look at our lifestyle here and make judgements. As a family we are super protective of certain things which to the casual observer may seem unimportant or trivial. We are fiercely precious about our time - our evenings together, our coffee break listening to Popmaster, our routine of trying to get home to eat lunch together, or relishing the last cup of tea of the day sat on the sporran looking out over the croft. There are reasons for this; we have given up a lot, sacrificed more than many people ever have in the first place to have this. We've decided that we will not work in meaningless, unfulfilling jobs which keep us apart for lunchtimes, make us weekend and holiday companions only. We made a choice 3 years ago that actually we decided to share our lives firstly with each other as a couple and then with our children as a family unit and that spending time together is our first priority. As such we celebrate these small rituals and guard against them being eroded for less important things.

Part of the slow progress here on Croft 3 is a very deliberate choice to move slowly through life - making time to stand and stare, to find meaning in the small things, beauty in the dew on the spiders webs, the tiny flowers hidden in the grass, the perfection of a still warm chicken egg collected from the coop, the joy in watching the piglets play with each other, listening as a bee buzzes past your ear. The other part is a philosophical choice in making small moves and therefore small mistakes. In learning about the land we inhabit and taking our lead from nature. In working in harmony rather than against and trying to tame.

Recently our washing machine died. It has been a marvelous, wonderful addition to Croft 3, brought here for us by friends who had found it on freecyle, bought it up as part of a trailer full of other items they re-homed here on the island, saved from landfill and given a new lease of life here, where it changed our life dramatically. Getting it up the hill was a feat for Ady, who after wrangling with it for a while decided that putting it on a tarp and dragging it up that way was far easier than trying to manhandle it. We then spent a while working out the plumbing and power required and it has always needed two different generators to get it running (one to give it the high energy boost to get started, the other to see it through the power hungry spin cycle!). It has been a boon, used three times or more a week here on the Croft since January. We will need to replace it and are looking for another second hand replacement to do just that.

Having ascertained it was beyond repair Ady set about breaking it down into parts. Long ago we would have tried to sell a second hand appliance before taking it to the tip. Having gotten more enlightened at the concept that 'there is no away' when throwing things away we may have latterly tried freecycle but had never had to be very creative in our thinking of ways to repurpose things until we moved here. Here an old freezer is an honesty larder to sell produce from, an old fridge makes a perfect insulated cool box with some refreezable ice blocks (or old milk cartons filled with water and frozen then refrozen again and again), and an old washing machine can be broken into parts and uses found for all of them.

Ady created a new fire basket / barbecue to sit in front of. The smoke keeps the midges at bay, rubbish can be burnt rather than going to landfill and food can be cooked on top by free, sustainable wood rather than bottled gas.

The plastic sleeve which housed the drum (and was infact the bit which had broken) is a perfect container with built in drainage to fill with soil and grow veg in - great for tatties, or placed high enough that carrot fly cannot reach them would be ideal for carrots or other roots.

The innards are very useful - all the wires and cables have been removed and will prove handy for little electrical jobs. The pump still works and will be useful for moving water around the croft at some point. Ditto the motor which is also still operational and will be used for some future project.

The washing machine glass door has been careful set aside as it's quirky feel will make the perfect window for a bathroom one day - slightly obscure glass, thick, in it's own frame and with  a story attached will make for the ideal addition to our forever home when we build it. The heavy blocks which keep the machine from dancing round the kitchen when on the spin cycle are perfect for the base of a cob pizza oven. Currently they are being employed to weigh down a tarp covering a generator but I have my eye on them...

Which leaves the actual casing of the washing machine - metal with a hole in it... what use could it possibly have?

Simple. Filled with straw (well actually cut and dried reeds from the croft, used as animal bedding) and positioned in one of the many chicken houses dotted around the croft it makes the perfect nesting box. As demonstrated by the half dozen eggs being laid in it each day.

I like to think that washing machine symbolises us in many ways. It's experiencing a very different way of life to the one it used to know but no less useful, meaningful or worthwhile for all it's unconventional and unusual take on things these days...

Back to life

A full on return to 'normal' life this week, infact I can't quite believe it's only a week since Davies and I drove off the boat and arrived home.

We are in full thrust of tourist season and along with the day visitors, campers and holidaying folk we also have various contractors putting the finishing touches to our community bunkhouse, the selection of people (we have coined the phrase 'integrated randoms') who visit Rum regularly enough to not be strangers and to sit, beer in hand at the shop telling us full time residents just how we should be doing things and sharing their fair weather wisdom... I understand from folk who have lived on Rum far longer than I that some of these people do indeed make the transition to actually living here properly so I will try not to sit in judgement too much. I wish they would extend the same courtesy. We have also had an influx of VIPs this week. Our co-land owners SNH had their new chairman and various other high level employees visiting the island at the beginning of this week. That made for some formal and more informal meetings for some of us, me included.

We were interviewing for our new Bunkhouse Manager, our Community Development Officer was over on one of his residential trips, it was our monthly residents association meeting. I helped at the Teashop, did my regular shop and post office shifts, Ady had a shift at the castle, we had an uneventful wildlife watching wise but very bumpy and rollercoaster-equse Sheerwater boat trip.

Suffice to say we did not listen to all five Popmaster round live at 1030am this week!

As ever though, it is the moments spent on the croft, in the company of our little family unit which make for the best times. The antics of the Croft 3 creatures forever make us smile. We have integrated the new ducks with the old and it has worked really well at calming the rather skittish new ducks who are now much calmer and come out to greet us for food rather than quacking in terror when we pass.

The geese have taken a liking to the paddling pool I picked up for Davies and Scarlett. It's not for geese but nobody told them that!

Just as well we have a river to swim in aswell as a paddling pool (which was bought more for outdoor bubble bath type activities than actual paddling anyway)

The deer are still about - although cautiously as it is now the start of the deer stalking season. A hind walked past this evening while we were having dinner though.

And while I'm here and sharing photos here are a couple of other recent ones.

The car on the ferry. It was exciting to finally have it on board, and daunting to realise just how LONG it looked from above.

The Grand Decant - if you are going to drive 600 miles and foot the cost of a ferry crossing you may as well make it worth your while and fill the car right up!

Close encounters. I will never, ever get tired of the excitement of getting this close to minke whales.

Carbon footprints aside it was very exciting to see our beautiful country from the air. Davies and I enjoyed our flight experience very much.

Meanwhile Ady and Scarlett were enjoying a rather different view

Scarlett at the Royal Highland Show. Sheep are definitely our next planned livestock aquisition.

Extremes

Having barely caught our breath from our Cob course and visiting friends mainland visit in May / June we were off the island again, hence our silence.

With just one night to ourselves after we arrived home before we had a tag team off WWOOFers with us we packed ourselves up and left Rum again to visit friends and attend the Royal Highland Show - something we had been planning since last year when we intended to go but never quite made it. We have friends who live close enough to the showground to travel in each day so it was a perfect opportunity to spend time with them and go to all four days of the show.

When in Sussex we used to go to the South of England Show every year and it was a real highlight of our year - plenty of animals, agriculture, stands showcasing or selling the latest clothing, gadgets, technology and ideas in farming and working the land. It was always a long day of walking round the showground, rushing to take everything in and arriving home sunkissed (I think it was sunny every single year we went!) and exhausted. But a day was enough to take in more or less everything and I confess to wondering quite what we'd do with four whole days at the Royal Highland Show and how we'd possibly fill them. I was wrong! We could have spent at least four more days there and still found things to do. From food demonstrations and tasting with chefs, endless free plastic tat to collect, demonstrations of machinery and ideas, three different arenas with constant shows (falconry, sheepdogs, gundog training, stunt bikes, horses showjumping, cart pulling, cattle and horse and sheep and goat judging, donkeys, rare breeds of all descriptions, mini llamas, poultry tents, chainsaw sculptures, pole climbing, sheep shearing, farrier displays, craft tents, rural skills displays) and endless tents with quizzes, games, activities and giveaways. It was a fantastic four days and  we're already looking forward to next years show.

Ady and Scarlett came home from the show and had a good few days home on the croft swimming in the river, barbecuing dinners, attending a couple of community events and generally tending to the croft. Meanwhile Davies and I continued on our mainland adventure and flew south to collect our new car, before taking a couple of days driving it all the way back up to Rum. An epic road trip of the type that films are made about. Not made any quicker or more straightforward by the fact that we had been advised not to take the car over 50mph.

I must confess that the final 48 hours on the mainland were the type which make me eternally glad I don't live there any more. All the worst bits - traffic jams filled with angry, impatient and rude drivers, supermarkets filled with expensive items and harassed shoppers, motorway services selling overpriced items of poor quality to an endless stream of autopilot people. Never have I been so pleased to sink into a seat on the ferry and catch my first glimpse of Rum across the water. I drove the new car off the boat and onto Rum flashing the lights and beeping the horn with delight! I have no intention of leaving again any time soon!

Normal blog service will be resumed soon - I have much real life catching up to do first but expect photos of the croft 3 creatures and our gorgeous scenery to be reappearing as soon as I have caught my breath.

In the swing

In April just as the tourist season was beginning to get going we were all feeling a little overwhelmed. We didn't feel properly recovered from the incredibly challenging winter we'd just come out of, we are still grappling with uncertainty about what will happen to us this winter and we seemed to be running to stand still with all the various projects on the croft, along with our other commitments and things we are involved with on the island. Added to that we were missing friends - we have some amazing friends here on Rum and are very fortunate to live in such a community but there can be a tendency to exist in a bit of a bubble here - focused only on what happens here on Rum. Every visitor wants to ask yet more questions about life here, every conversation is based around some aspect of life here, it can be a pretty intense existence. Whilst we share our day to day lives with our fellow islanders and have much in common by virtue of living this rather unusual lifestyle on a remote island with the specific challenges that can pose we are also fairly exceptional in many of our life choices and philosophies - our low impact lifestyle and ambitions of self sufficicency, our livestock keeping, our parenting choices and educational philosophy, our politics, beliefs and ideologies mark us out as different. Some of the very things which define us most and are very big parts of who we are are the aspects of us which can make us feel the most isolated at times. We all miss being with people who get us, who have known us and supported us with our life choices, people who feel like us, who share our interests and passions.

Our mainland trip ticked a lot of those boxes for us. We had a soul feeding 3 days with a huge group of friends catching up on each others lives, talking about anything and everything, sharing in jokes and reliving past shared memories of holidays, parties, funny stories. Then to our cob building course where we were instantly among new friends, talking about low impact building, green ideas, permaculture, alternative ideas. A group of people brought together by a common interest, learning alongside each other, sharing life stories and dreams as we trod sand and clay and straw into building material and used our bare hands to build walls together. Within four short days we were parting as friends, exchanging contact details and arranging to meet up again, to help each other with future projects, to stay in touch.

Now we're back on Rum and meeting our very long held ambition to be WWOOF hosts. 3 years ago we were WWOOFers ourselves, just starting out on our adventure and thanks to the generosity, sharing and teaching from our various hosts we learned new skills, experienced a wide variety of lifestyles, traveled the country and ultimately decided what we wanted to do next. We knew then that we would one day love to be WWOOF hosts ourselves and 'give something back', pay it forward, spread the word, share the knowledge. For a long time we were really nervous of inviting WWOOFers here and although we have had a lot of interest we have turned people down, worried that our livestyle is too extreme, we are unable to offer suitable hospitality, we didn't have enough here to enable folk to have the sort of experience we'd like to be able to provide. But we remembered the more extreme places we stayed, recalled that what made a great WWOOF host was excellent communication in advance and during the WWOOF, something different and interesting and varied. So we bit the bullet and offered a small selection of WWOOFers the chance to come and WWOOF here with us. We put together a big document packed with information about us, about the croft, the island, the work you might be involved in, what we would expect from WWOOFers and what they could expect from us. We have been very clear about the facilities here, the challenges and issues.

On Wednesday we welcomed our very first WWOOFer to Rum. Rather poetically it is his first WWOOFing experience. So far it has proved to be an excellent match - he is up for all the tasks we need to undertake, we have struck a good balance between working alongside him and passing on skills and knowledge along with setting him up on tasks which are time consuming and prevent us from getting on with other things. His help has freed Ady and I up to get way more done than usual and having another pair of hands has proved very useful. It is very motivating having someone else working with you so our output between the five of us has been way greater than just a quarter more than we would achieve usually.

We have had a good tidy up in the polytunnel, sown more seeds, harvested plenty of things, potted on various seedlings and tended to some with added feeds. We have overhauled the herb spiral building the walls up a little, adding some fresh compost, created a netted surround to stop all the birds sitting in it, scratching it up and eating all the crops and then restocked it with this years supply of herbs all grown from seed in the polytunnel. It looks fabulous.

We have also built a mint circle nearby on the same design and have plans for a borage and nasturtium circle next to them too. The spiral has lemon balm, spearmint, oregano, majoram, tarragon, savory, dill, thyme, rosemary, lavender, coriander, basil and parsley.

It's certainly not all work though and in the same way as we had some amazing experiences while we were with WWOOF hosts we are making sure he gets the same chance to explore Rum and get a flavour of what life here is like. So far he has been on the Sheerwater boat trip with us (first minke whales of the season!), met most of the islanders, enjoyed Friday evening beers at the shop, will be coming to a birthday party with us next weekend and is spending tomorrow off exploring some of the hills with another islander to spot wildlife and the amazing scenery. He's eaten eggs, salad, bacon, herbs, strawberries and peas from Croft 3 and tomorrow will be trying our pork. Also on the menu at some point will be Rum vension along with plenty of home baking, jams and the chance to come foraging with us.

From our point of view we also wanted to meet new, interesting people who might bring us new ideas and approaches, look at our way of life here with fresh eyes and work with us to make our plans come to fruition. We're only a few days in but so far I think this is working out well for all parties.