Spoke too soon?

In the last post I was saying how well the work had gone (with a few glitches) but the last few weeks have been a different story. The major problem has been that the company doing our work (ROK) went into administration two weeks ago which was a huge shock up here as they are a big company and had full order books but as is so often the case, problems in one branch of the company, plumbing and heating in this instance, pulled the rest down. We feel so sorry for the guys we have got to know well over the last few months. In particular, our decorator had been in every day for weeks and the project manager had been involved since the beginning of the year so it is hard to have just had them all pulled off the job with no warning.
All credit to our insurance company though who have got in another decorating firm so the dining room was started yesterday and already have made good progress.

The same week that the news broke about ROK our plumber started work on Sarah and Joes bathroom and our en-suite and more problems came to light. Because of the design of the house (possibly because of its listing) there are no external soil pipes which means there are limits to how much the plumbing can be changed and the plumber found that there was insufficient fall to install the showers in both rooms and so both have had to be raised on plinths which created extra work. The same day they also found that the water pressure was too low for the shower we had purchased. We were just sorting out that issue when the fire installer came to tell us that there were problems with the 'straightforward' change from an open fire to a woodburner in the living room. He had taken out the fire, expecting to find a large fireplace behind in which to install the log burner, only to find that for some reason the previous owners had filled it in and concreted it, removing the original lintel in the process so there isn't enough width to install the stove. We looked at various options, none of which really appealed to us and he is coming back on Monday to see if he can install a new lintel and reconstruct the fireplace. It will be very messy and may not be successful - we will see....

Despite all of this the house is beginning to take shape again with carpets down now in Mum and Dads sitting room, Richards study, my workroom, the middle landing and the hall downstairs - I am just about keeping 'paint drying time' ahead of the fitters and am currently on the stairs trying to complete them before the runners and the mid landings are done on Wednesday. Because of the amount of traffic in the house I can't usually paint until the evening so it complicates things a bit...

We had to vacate our rented accomodation last Monday - more packing and cleaning, and are currently camped out in Sarah and Joes spare room living out of boxes as our room is inaccessible at the moment and it is still very dusty everywhere with work on the bathrooms ongoing.

Mum and Dad arrived into the middle of this last Wednesday along with a frightening number of boxes and after three nights in a hotel decided that they would rather brave the chaos here and are now gamely unpacking and steadily finding new homes for their belongings. Fortunately, because Pickfords had packed for them, a number of the boxes were found to contain vast quantities of paper and only a few items so the number of empty boxes grew rapidly and I was able to take around thirty back to Pickfords yesterday. It has been an enormous change for them and we hope they will be very happy here. They are getting used to a welcoming committee of chickens and Rhema is having to learn not to lean on them, as she is prone to do!!

Today Joe and Sarah will be here and hopefully by the end of the day Joe and Richard will have constructed a plinth to raise Mum and Dads fridge to a better working height as well as the doorway into Sarah and Joes 'flat'. This has to be done before the carpet is fitted on their landing at the beginning of December and as they are going away on 29th and have to move out of their rented house next week there isn't much time..

The weather has generally been good up here with frost some mornings but clear skies and little rain which has made all the comings and goings easier and minimised the damage to the new carpets!!

Last, but definately not least we have been thrilled over the last few weeks to share Daniel and Julies joy at the arrival of our new grandson and we can't wait to meet him next week when we head south for a few days. We are grateful for the technology that gives us skype but it is no real substitute and we are looking forward to seeing the Winchester branch of the family as well on that trip.

It has been such a long time since I updated this ...where to start...?

On my return to Moy it was a quick turn around and then we were both back down south for a joint birthday/ruby wedding of some good friends. It was lovely to see so many of our 'old friends' and have time to catch up properly with them. Richard and I indulged ourselves with a couple of nights at the hotel where Sarah and Joe had their wedding reception courtesy of loyalty points (great things!) and had the pleasure of the company of a few friends for afternoon tea there which was good fun.
Since we got back it has been go, go, go, with work progressing well on the house and many decisions to make. We had been assured that all the work with the exception of the library/dining room would be completed by 15th .....hmmm...at the time of writing we are still waiting for the lime paint to arrive for all the walls and the library ceiling has seperated from the lathes twice and is now waiting to be redone for the third time. The plasterer was late starting and that has held up other aspects of the work which has been frustrating. Our garage is now covered in a thick film of lime plaster as they didn't think to throw sheeting over all of our belongings before they started mixing -doh - note the sophisticated labelling of the plaster additive!!


We are told that the paint will be here on Wednesday and then there are four rooms ready to paint before the carpet starts to go down on Friday. Mum and Dads room will then be almost complete, which is just as well as they are moving up on 10th Nov! All that remains there is to paint the inside of the fitted wardrobes and the doors. I completed stripping all the hinges for the shutters and I am re-hanging them as the woodwork in each room is completed. There were around ninety hinges in total, complete with original georgian screws which I have also cleaned up ( 90 hinges, six screws in each = a lot) as well as all the brass catches and finger pulls for the sash windows. It was a lot of work but the result was worth it.
















All the doors including all the built in cupboards are painted with a dark stain/varnish which I thought I would have to strip off before repainting but a bit of research on the internet (what did we do without it?) has revealed an alternative method of treating them. Some of them are fairly new doors (twenty years or so, which is new compared to the age of the house!) Time will tell if it is durable or not.....so I now have 21 doors to repaint on both sides and six which need to be stripped before repainting - somehow I don't think I'm going to get it all done in time...


There have been other glitches along the way, apart from the library ceiling coming down twice - re-hanging the shutters and then finding that the plasterer had put too great a thickness of plaster in the reveals so that the shutters wouldn't fold flat against the walls, the electrician leaving a cable for a light behind the plasterboard, marking the position and then the decorators painting over his mark - (we still haven't found that cable), the rain, which came down for days while the outside was being painted , the perfect floor which was hacked about by the electrician and the door to the lounge being left open by the electrician (again) while the dining room ceiling was being taken down - (the dust has to be seen to be believed), to name but a few, but, on the whole, the work has gone well and we are pleased with the standard of workmanship. The guys have all been easy to have around and Rhema has loved having so many people to make a fuss of her - I may have to check their vans as they leave!


Today the scaffolding is coming down so we will get the full effect of the newly painted harl (pebbledash) . I was up the scaffolding the week before it was done pouring bleach over the stonework to try and avoid a repeat of the algae stains which had marred the old walls. I had hoped to clean the windows while the scaffold was still up but they beat me to it.




The weather has been pretty miserable this year and we have already had a few snow showers with it settling one morning when I was also greeted by the worrying sight of two snow ploughs parked on the Tomatin road. We are all probably overprepared this year but our snow plough is already attached to the lawnmower (which did feel a bit silly as I was cutting the grass yesterday in brilliant sunshine) but Cairngorm is already well covered, although not quite enough to ski yet and we don't want to be caught out again this year.





Yesterday we decided we really should weigh the turkeys to get an idea of how they should be priced and were pleasantly surprised to find that their feathered weights varied from 6-9kg. They are about 20% less when they are dressed (thats dead, plucked and with all the superfluous bits removed - not wearing a top hat and tails!) so in six weeks they should be perfect. They are sharing the paddock with the tups now and I was concerned this morning as I drove out, to see them dust bathing in the ashes from the bonfire - normal activity for poultry - except this fire was still alight - could we be the first supplier to provide ready roasted turkey....however as my friends up here pointed out, on a cold frosty morning being able to bathe in hot ashes was probably the turkeys idea of a five star hotel... We have had some amusing incidents with them and they certainly don't seem to be as bright as the chickens. We returned home one evening just at dusk to find them perched along the gate at the house end of the paddock. Unfortunately their house is at the opposite end and once they start to roost they get very dozy and unco-operative. Getting them across the field in the rapidly fading light was a herculean task as they would sit down and refuse to budge every few feet and then wouldn't leave the shelter of the long grass. They wouldn't be enticed by food - or threats of becoming food and Richard was heard to remark that any doubts that he had about being able to kill them were fast vanishing! In the end he had to carry them up one by one and after that we made sure that we got them in well before dusk - until tonight, when they all decided that they would go to sleep on the banks of the burn and wouldn't budge. I went and collected some grain in a sack and walked back across the paddock shaking it and calling the birds when to my horror realised that all the tups were galloping towards me, obviously intent on relieving me of the corn. By this time I was on the bank of the burn with turkeys on one side of me and tups on the other, neither group moving and in fact one of the tups, sporting an impressive set of horns was nudging me towards the edge. I decided it was time to call for re-inforcements and phoned Pete who nobly appeared on his bike, at which point the tups ambled off and the turkeys obligingly trotted off up the paddock to their house -maddening!

The chickens are beginning to slow down on their egg production as the nights draw in - they have done so well and deserve a rest but remain great characters - one of them followed me to church on Sunday and had to be shooed out of the porch causing great amusement.


It is, of course that time of year when the leaves fall, and fall, and fall - 57 wheelbarrows full so far and at least as many still on the trees I would guess, but the lawnmower is good at sweeping them off the grass and it is great to have a working machine finally. This year we will remember to keep the battery charged in the cold weather!
I have moved back into the house and am sleeping in Sarah and Joes spare room. Richard is still at Culloden but we have gradually been moving some of our things back and as our tenancy expires on Nov 14th we are very much in the final weeks.

STOP PRESS.......... The scaffolding has gone and the house is looking great, the lime paint still hasn't arrived and the dining room ceiling is being taken down again tomorrow. We are going to seal the workmen into the room and they will take all the plaster out through the windows in an effort to minimise the dust.

Holiday destination with a difference!

Well - what a difference a few weeks makes! We have had numerous visitors since the last entry, Daniel and Julie with Julies parents and two of her sisters with their husbands and children were the first to move into the timeshare in Aviemore and I enjoyed joining them for a meal to celebrate Daniels birthday. It felt momentarily strange to be a visitor to the lodge where we had spent so many holidays but good to see it still being enjoyed. Everyone came to Moy for a BBQ later in the week and although we had a few spots of rain we were able to enjoy it and the children enjoyed catching the chickens (not to put on the BBQ although we did have trout caught by Ben)! They were followed by Mum and Dad with Vanessa, John and Micha and we were once again grateful that we are still able to use the kitchen here as we were joined by Sarah and Joe and gathered for a cooked breakfast one morning and a roast dinner for their last night. While they were all in residence in Aviemore the Miles arrived with their caravan and stayed with us for three days at Moy. (more roast dinner!) It was lovely to see them although I think their children were more pleased to see Rhema! Josh volunteered to cut the grass - I showed him how to use the tractor and we didn't see him again for some time - great job Josh - thanks - come again - stay all summer! Mum and Dad then moved into a local hotel for a few more days giving us time to make some more decisions regarding their imminent move up here and Tim, Ruth and the children moved into the lodge......

We enjoyed having Bethan and Toby to stay for a couple of nights while Tim and Ruth did some serious walking - not the kind that we did on the last day when it took us all afternoon to cover a mile (flowers to pick, pooh sticks to play, feathers to collect......). Joe's Mum, Kaye has also been up for a few days, staying with Sarah and Joe in Culloden and they came to the local flower show where I made my mark. Those of you that have taken jars of jam home from here can legitimately call it 'award winning jam' !

In between establishing ourselves as a holiday destination the work has been cracking on in the house. Although the plastering hasn't been done yet, the decorators have stripped and lined most of the walls in the affected rooms and I am ecstatic at having men who not only take the light switches off the walls before wallpapering but the radiators as well. Not only that but they take the catches off the windows before painting them!!!! The house is encased in scaffolding and the repair to the harling is in progress. Unfortunately the harling on the North side of the house was found to be 'blown' and is having to be stripped off. This isn't covered by insurance (ouch) but at least it was discovered now - the surveyor said it wouldn't have lasted another winter. I am starting to strip the shellac off the banisters and balustrade which is time consuming as there are three floors and I can only work once the workmen have gone for the day. The hinges, catches and finger pulls on all the shutters are also being stripped and as there are approximately sixteen items on each window and six windows worth - well, a lot of nitromors and steel wool!!


There has been the odd hitch with the work progressing so quickly - the ceilings were papered one afternoon when we were out before the electrician had been to move the light fittings (doh!) but on the whole things are going well and we are hoping to be back in the house at the end of October. I am still camping here which has worked well and has certainly made caring for the birds morning and evening much easier but there is a decided nip in the air then and the shops have started stocking snow shovels. The first snow fell on Cairngorm last week so not long until the ski-ing season begins! By way of compensation we have had some fantastic weather and the starscapes are amazing as it is so dark at night.




One particular dark night I elected to take a torch across to the tent and was startled by a large animal running across my path - about the size of a cat but not the shape of a cat, low to the ground and with a pointed head. I swung the torch around to get a better look but there was no sign of it and then by chance I caught a glimpse of a field mouse scuttling away - it had thrown up a huge shadow in the torchlight - out of such experiences do Loch Ness monster stories grow.......


We still have tups in the field from David (our local farmer) who are doing a good job of mowing the paddock even if they do occasionally worry me by playing dead.
The chickens continue to lay well and we are inundated with eggs - possibly spinach flavoured after they got under the netting one afternoon and demolished the lot - no wonder they seem so content. We are still picking mange tout and kale but tomatoes are only just ripening and the runner beans, although covered with small pods are unlikely to grow to maturity. We haven't had time to finish the polytunnel and as we are forecast another severe winter I am tempted not to expose the polythene to the elements if I'm not going to have the time to use it much this winter - we shall see. The turkeys are growing rapidly and seem content but I was disconcerted to see a pine marten running away across the paddock last night when I was going to shut them in. Pine Martens will attack poultry so we will need to be very vigilant about shutting them in before dusk. Pete says he has a humane pine marten trap but the problem then is what to do with it - could we be about to have the first sighting of a pine marten in Sutton.....


This week-end I am going to the Drug Proof Your Kids update in Glasgow with a view to running the course here next year. It will be interesting to get a Scottish perspective on the issues surrounding drugs and alcohol and I am looking forward to brushing up my knowledge. I'm driving down to Sutton as soon as the conference finishes for a few days work which may be my last for a while as we will have our hands full moving back in and doing all the extra decorating bits as well as putting the garden to bed for the winter - remember the leaves this time last year?

I'm getting a couple of long shifts a week up here now so am gradually making the transition...with everything else that's going on it's more than enough.

Summer visiting starts!

My trip down started with a four hour hold up on the M25 due to an overturned minibus. It is amazing to think that it took me only an hour and a half to get from Inverness to Gatwick but then another four hours from Gatwick to Sutton! As usual I managed to meet up with a number of old friends in between shifts which was lovely and was comfortably lodged in the guest suite at Richards Mum and Dads flats.

I made it back to Inverness twenty four hours before Tanya and Daniel arrived for a packed eight days. I have been barred by Tanya from posting most of the photos with her in but this one is allowed - we had another jam making session and she is now thinking up a suitable label for her own raspberry jam.

It is always a risk, when we have guests here that we will wear them out with all the activities available and we certainly did a lot, with trips to Loch Ness, Landmark, the Cairngorm Railway and the reindeer herd, as well as Loch Morlich, the local park and playzone, not to mention fitting in a full English at Moy and a meal at the Boathouse at Loch Insh which those of you who have visited in the summer will remember. They helped pick the fruit and veg from the garden and we are able to eat fresh produce every day now. In fact the mange tout are growing faster than we can eat them! The weather is still unpredictable up here but apart from a drenching at the reindeer we did pretty well. They left on Wednesday afternoon suffering, as all visitors do, from the fresh air induced sleepiness of the Highlands.

On Sunday I went to Inverurie to pick up the trailer tent which had been borrowed by the youth group from Kings church where Richard, Sarah and Joe go. Amazingly it was only a couple of miles from where we needed to pick up the turkey poults so my journey back was accompanied by much cheeping! They are now comfortably installed in the run which Peter has built and despite some nervous moments as we tested the electric fence all seems to be well with them. We did wonder at one point whether we had managed to electrify the whole fence and whether the birds would be cooked well before Christmas day, or whether I was going to have to explain to Trish how I'd managed to electrocute her husband!

They aren't the most attractive birds so hopefully we won't get too attached to them. The farmer I picked them up from told me that he had sold forty a couple of years ago to one man but in the end his wife wouldn't let him slaughter them. Of course, come Dec 26th no-one is really interested in turkey and they eat an enormous amount and are visibly bigger after just a week. We are certainly realising why free range turkeys are so expensive to buy.

Richard has been down South watching the cricket with his best man, Rutton, an annual event for them and after a few days back here has gone back to Sutton for his sister, Vanessa's wedding on Saturday. Daniel, Julie and Chads en masse are arriving on Saturday which we are really looking forward to. They have only seen the house in the snow and although of course it is still uninhabitable, they will at least be able to see the gardens this time.

Work is beginning to pick up for me with another long day yesterday and five more shifts booked over the next two weeks. It is encouraging that there seems to be so much work when initially it seemed that there would be very little but I am hoping to spend a bit more time at the house over the next few weeks and will be putting the tent up again in the next few days. Camping here certainly gives me a lot more time in the garden which is romping away at the moment. I did have a willing helper to cut the grass but unfortunately 'rain stopped play' and as it hadn't been cut since I left for Sutton two weeks ago it is now quite a job again......hopefully tomorrow....

ut

Turkey House progresses

While our friends down South have been sweltering we have had a mixture of weather with bouts of torrential rain alternating with beautiful clear spells. All of that has meant that the garden is lush and the grass is growing apace. Fortunately the new lawnmower (after a false start and a swift trip back to the workshop!) is equal to the task and it is a relief to have a machine that doesn't collapse after only twenty minutes or so. I am slowly getting used to the fact that the seasons are about six weeks later than we are used to and that planting and harvesting has to be adjusted accordingly. We are just collecting strawberries for example whereas they are probably finished now down South. We have had the first of our new potatoes, mange tout and courgettes and have just harvested a good crop of garlic and onions which are drying out ready to be plaited when I return. Jam making is in full swing with strawberry and blackcurrant jam and blackcurrant jelly already made. A neighbour gave me a lovely bag of gooseberries, one of Richards favourites, so apart from gooseberry fool I have made a batch of gooseberry and clotted cream ice cream to join the strawberry and banana ice cream and blackcurrant sorbet already stashed away in the freezer - mouths watering yet?

Three of the outside raised beds are now planted up and netted against the marauding pigeons, chickens and rabbits and the polytunnel, while not complete is on the home straight.

The chickens are very good at hoovering up any fallen berries in the fruit cage and I am wondering if we will start producing blackcurrant flavoured eggs soon!

Unfortunately, having got to the point of fixing the ventilation nets and roll up sides, we realised that part of the winding mechanism was missing so work has ground to a halt again while we wait for it to arrive. We have a good supply of manure from the farm on the estate so I am looking forward to getting those beds planted up in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile Pete has been busy constructing the turkey hotel ready for Richard to pick up the poults next week. It seems predator proof but we will see.

At this time of year there seem to be endless games, festivals, concerts and parades, one of which we witnessed on Saturday when not only the piped band but also the local troops marched through Inverness on route to the Highland games.

Work on the house has still not started, much to our frustration. The hold up seems to be that due to the size of the job a new loss adjuster has been appointed and so it has taken a while for him to familiarise himself with the details. Richard is meeting with him this afternoon so hopefully we will see some action soon.

I have been camped out at Moy with Rhema for the last week enjoying getting an early start in the garden and maximising the best parts of the day ( the midges are troublesome on still days at times and I am on a mission to find an effective detterent. This years fragrance is definately citronella girls! A garden flare planted in the ground nearby worked quite well but there is a risk of setting fire to ones hair.....) I have five nights work in Sutton again now so am heading South once more.

We had a great time in Germany with Daniel and Julie. The play was superb and although it was, of course all in German we were able to follow it fairly well - after all, we do know the story! The scenery was awe-inspiring, only marred by the weather which was wet for most of the time, the only dry day being our last, in Munich. It was good to sample some of the gastronomic delights of another culture and Julie was a wonderful translator although we did all attempt a little German, no doubt trying the patience of the waiters, who of course all spoke English. I hasten to add that in the photo they were all taking part in a wine tasting !!



We picked up Bethan and Toby before we drove back to Moy and needn't have been concerned at how they would cope leaving Tim and Ruth as Bethan announced firmly 'I'm going to Scotland', got into the car and seemed eager to get going. We had a lovely ten days with them and were fortunate to have good weather which meant we were able to get out and about with them a lot, joined by Sarah and Joe when they were free.


The children were entranced by the chickens and Bethan was so pleased with the egg that she collected that she carried it around in a basket all morning and was only parted from it when I scrambled it for her for lunch. After that it became a daily routine for them to go over to Moy to collect the eggs and Bethan, after her initial pronouncement that the ride- on lawnmower was 'a bit scary,' had a great time with me whenever we were there. Toby was teetering on the brink of walking all week and was under strict instuctions not to start until Tim and Ruth got back - he did oblige but still managed to get everwhere at great speed. Tim and Ruth were able to have a few days with us as well and as they hadn't been to Moy since the demolition started, it was quite a shock for them to see it.

We were sad to see them go but they will be up again in August which will come round soon and it was soon all systems go again in the house and garden. The removal of the plaster and lathe walls and floorboards has turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it was discovered that we had severe wet rot in five of the joists where they entered the stone wall below our bedroom and the lintels above the dining room window were also affected. The timber was so rotten that it crumbled at the slightest touch and it was only a matter of time before it collapsed, potentially taking the wall with it! As a result we decided it would be prudent to have the rest of the house inspected and the floor in what will be Mum and Dads sitting room was found to be badly affected with woodworm. This has meant that the whole floor in there has had to be lifted, sackloads of the dust-like 'deafening' removed and all the timber sprayed before new insulation and floorboards were put down. The floor has been levelled at the same time and so at least we are now confident that the front two rooms are properly treated. We finally have listed buildings consent to start the re-instatement and it is due to start next week. As soon as the front two first floor rooms are completed we will need to move all the furniture into them from the back rooms in order to allow those rooms to have the carpets and floorboards lifted to check them out. Barring any more nasty surprises we expect to be back in the house in October although there still may be work continuing externally at that stage. The surveyor and buiders have all been fantastic to date and I'm sure they will do their best to complete the job as soon as possible.



I have been very frustrated by all the constant driving back and forth between Moy and Culloden although it only takes about fifteen minutes and in the end put the trailer tent up in the garden. Unfortunately we then had some of the strongest winds that we have experienced since we moved up there and although the tent held up well I experienced the Scottish equivalent of a sandstorm with recently dug over soil turning to dust and covering everything in the tent. It was good to be able to get started early in the morning though and I had a very productive few days. the scaffold boards are now treated and assembled as raised beds and have been filled with a mix of rotted grass cuttings (dumped by the ton by the previous owners) and manure collected from the local farm. The more observant of you may notice the absence of the polytunnel around the beds - in fact we are further on than the photo shows. Richard had arranged for someone to complete the polytunnel while we were away as a surprise - which it certainly was. When we stopped off at Moy on the way back with Bethan and Toby I could tell that something wasn't quite right but we didn't have time to stop at that point and check it out. When I went back and measured the diagonals there was a 30cm difference meaning that the tunnel wasn't rectangular but twisted and the poles hadn't been sunk to the correct depth. Fortunately the constructor realised there was something wrong and hadn't put the polythene on but there was no option but to dismantle it, dig out all the poles and start again. Many hours later we are back to where we started and I am hopeful that we will get it up next week.

We were fortunate to be able to pick up a substantial pile of birch logs which had been cut down during the construction of the all weather pitch in Tomatin. They will be very useful when we are back in the house - it gives new meaning to 'just going out to pick up a few logs'!

The chickens remain as silly as ever and are often to be found trying to all cram onto the same perch or into the same nesting box. With so much land one wonders why they all decide to have a dust bath in the same patch of ground? Inspired by the success of the chickens we are going to go ahead with the plan to rear some turkeys for Christmas. Pete is busily constructing a run in the old riding school in the paddock and we will hopefully pick up the poults in August. Fortunately Trish (Petes wife) has a contact who will despatch, pluck and gut them for us when the time comes - we won't give them names......

The new ride on lawnmower was delivered today and I am told has a cup holder - important point..... hopefully now I will spend more time cutting the grass and less time sorting the mower out.

I have finally done my first shift at Raigmore which was a steep learning curve as although many things are the same there are also major differences in the way drugs are made up, the paperwork, where things are kept and, of course, the staff. I have two more shifts booked this month and am currently in Sutton for four nights at St Helier. I will be back down at the end of the month for another five nights so it is a busy time,

Polytunnel starts!

With the rest of the household back from Menorca I flew down to Southampton on Saturday and we all met in Winchester for Tobys dedication which was a lovely day, very hot and a 'breaking in' for im and Ruths new barbeque. We drove home overnight again so that Joe could be at work on Monday morning - madness!

The groundworks for the polytunnel required demolishing a concrete manure store and digging up the base as well as levelling the area which we decided needed the use of a digger rather than us with spades. We had intended to hire a mini digger but were fortunate that Pete has a friend with a very large digger who was willing to come and do the honours. He made short work of the demolition and levelling althought at one point we wondered if he was going to find the legendary tunnel from our house to the island as he went down to such a depth in order to bury all the debris!

With the base completed we needed to dig 0.5metre deep holes to take the base plates -easier said than done given the amount of stone that we encountered on the way down. All of them are complete now and I have constructed the timber doors ready to insert once the structure is up. There were 19 packages of parts and it resembles a giant meccano set for grown ups - not surprising that the first instruction in the 56 pages is to sit down with a cup of tea and read them thoroughly!!

We won't be able to get any further as we are off to Oberammegau today to see the passion play with Daniel and Julie and will be bringing Bethan and Toby back with us for a week afterwards .While I'm sure they would be keen to help, the finished result might not be quite what we are looking for!

The chickens continue to lay well and in fact, at the moment are producing more eggs than we can use, despite a batch of baking for the community coffee morning and several cooked breakfasts! There are rumblings about possibly rearing some turkeys for Christmas next .....watch this space!

Free range!!

A number of people have asked what our temporary house is like so here are some photos. There is a lovely view of the firth and the lawn certainly takes me a lot less time to cut than the one at Keilingha!

On which point the ride on lawnmower has broken again which meant that I ended up cutting the grass in the walled garden with my trusty old petrol mower which started first time despite not having been used since last summer.

Everything is growing fast now that the snow has finally gone (although it is still possible to ski on Cairngorm). The cooler temperatures have meant that things are even more delayed in the garden and as I write this we still have masses of daffodils open even though plants like the rhododendrons are beginning to come into flower!

The rest of the family are away in Menorca this week so I am taking the opportunity to get to grips with the garden a bit. Because everything is so much bigger things take a surprising length of time, nearly four hours to prune all the roses for example, but it is good to begin to get a sense of what is in the garden as I missed much of it last year due to travelling backwards and forwards to Sutton such a lot. Richard won the battle of the polytunnel with the authorities in the end. It seems that the only reason we needed a building warrant was because of the size and if we made it slightly smaller we didn't need any consents - they just didn't tell us that!! The (slightly smaller) polytunnel has now arrived and we are going to hire a digger to level the ground behind the stables and hopefully get it up next week with the help of Pete. At the same time we will level an area in the walled garden where there are already some fruit trees to erect the fruit cage that we took from Tim and Ruths garden. I was given two ready made raised beds and one of them has already been planted up as a permanent asparagus bed. The crowns are putting up shoots already and it is frustrating not to be able to harvest this year but something to look forward to.........The rest of the vegetables are doing well and are going to have to be planted up potager style this year as the vegetable garden won't be ready in time.

The chickens settled down really quickly and we average 2-3 eggs a day from the four who are laying. One, the black rock, is too young to lay and won't start for several weeks yet. The white star lays white eggs, the speckledy, speckled ones and the others lay brown so we have an attractive mix. The first eggs were quite small but they are getting larger as the girls grow.

Today I decided to let them out for a bit as Rhema pretty much ignores them in the run. They were a little tentative at first and stayed close to the run while Rhema took cover behind a pile of pallets but now they seem quite comfortable with each other and enjoyed pecking around the car parking area and dust bathing in the border I had been weeding.

Chickens have an instinctive fear of birds of prey and they became quite agitated as our dive-bombing swallows swooped low overhead - it seems the chickens are as brave as Rhema!

The swallows sit on the garage roof waiting for me to let my guard down and leave a door open. The previous owners used to let them nest in the garage and stable roof but the mess was unacceptable as we need to use the buildings so Richard has sealed off the hay loft from the rest of the buildings and we hope that they will be bright enough to find the (large) hole in the door and use that instead.

Never a dull moment!

Phase one of the pond clearance has been done with a thick layer of leaves and mud having to be taken out. This is now staying by the side of the pond and burn to allow any pond life to return and also, hopefully to dry out a little before being composted. There will then be a second session once the water has cleared and we can see a little more what needs to be taken out. Richard was wearing a pair of ordinary marigolds but they really weren't up to the job and he has earned his 'grown up' gloves which come up to his armpits.

To those of you who tried to contact me last week I have a confession to make - having spent the day gardening in the rain I went back to Culloden, stripped off my wet clothes and put them straight in the washing machine while I went to have a bath. On coming downstairs I heard a banging noise coming from the washing machine and realised that my mobile phone was still in the pocket of my jeans - more haste, less speed!! Needless to say, it doesn't work, although my sim survived, so although I now have Tims old phone I have lost a number of contacts which were on the phone as well as all my photos and texts.

We had a busy trip down South again with a funeral on Friday, a visit to the 'Grand Designs' show in London on saturday, dinner with Matt on Saturday evening and then down to Winchester on Sunday, having picked up our Chicken coop and run from Richard and Judith on the way. It was Ruths birthday and we were looking forward to a relaxed couple of days with them but it wasn't to be......

We had just sat down on Sunday night having put the children to bed and were in front of their log fire as the boiler had failed a few days before. We noticed some tar dripping from the chimney and Tim suddenly said 'I don't want to worry you, but I think the chimneys on fire', with which there was a roar from the chimney and smoke and flames began to pour out of the fireplace! As a team we did well with Richard calling the fire brigade, Ruth and I scooped the children up, the lodger closed the doors and Tim threw several pans of water on the fire by which time the room was filled with smoke to within a couple of feet of the floor.

The fire brigade arrived in about five minutes and went in with breathing apparatus. Tims quick action had put the fire out and the firemen were just about to start a huge fan to clear the smoke from the house when the fire broke out again and the firemen had to go back in. Fortunately it was able to be extinguished quickly and we were amazed, when we were able to go back in, at how little damage there was. The house smelt very smoky but we were able to go back in and sleep there although neighbours had offered to put us all up for the night. The firemen returned at 23.00 to check that the chimney was cold which was reassuring. They said it was one of the more aggressive chimney fires that they had dealt with and that we had done all the right things. Perhaps all that mandatory fire training is useful after all.....Once Bethan had recovered from the shock of being whisked out of her bed while soundly asleep she was able to watch proceedings from the house over the road and was very interested to see the two fire engines.

We were able to wash all the curtains on Monday but spent most of the day out of the house allowing the smell to clear and it was noticeably better by the time we left to drive back overnight.

I brought young vegetable plants with me which Bethan helped me plant and dropped some off with Daniel and Julie on the way past Eynsham arriving back at Moy at about 06.30 to drop off the coop and then on to Culloden where we stopped just long enough for breakfast and a shower before returning to Moy to assemble the coop. The dehumidifiers are now in place and the firm are optimistic that it may well only take a couple of weeks to dry out the house so we are hoping that the re-instatement will be able to start more quickly than we thought.

The chickens are now installed in the coop - we intended to buy four initially but somehow ended up with five!! One of them laid an egg on the way back to Moy which was very exciting. We are looking forward to a regular supply and once they have got used to their new home we are hoping that they will be able to be free range. Part of that will be getting them and Rhema used to each other before we can let them loose together. Initially Rhema was very excited but this morning she pretty much ignored them so I am hopeful that it won't be too long before we can let them out together.

Sarah and Joe were supposed to be moving into their own place in Culloden today but due to some communication breakdown the existing tenants aren't moving out until Monday which was a bit of a blow as the furniture is arriving this morning......should be interesting...

Like many people we stayed up to watch the election results come in but when it was clear that there wouldn't be a clear result I gave up and went to bed at about 3.30...after all I'm now a farmer and have chickens to let out....

Moving away from Moy!!

One of our friends has commented several times that the blog is called 'Moving to Moy' and maybe we should think about changing the name as we are actually here now. Maybe it was prophetic that we didn't as we have now moved out of the house at Moy and will hopefully be once again 'Moving to Moy' in a few months!

We had a frantic few days re-packing everything to the point where neither Richard or I want to see another cardboard box for a while but the removal men were great and not only moved all our furniture into the unaffected rooms but moved all the personal bits and pieces that we were taking (including my industrial sewing machine!) to the new house at Culloden. It is about 15 min drive from here - 11 miles. Sarah and Joe are with us for a few weeks and then will be moving into their own place about 15 mins walk away.

On the day we actually moved I was taking part in the SWRI (Scottish Womens Rural Institute) choir competition which meant a few hours packing then off to don the tartan! It was the first time that Inverness had entered a choir and we had good fun, despite the last minute stress of our conductor getting stuck in Dublin due to the volcanic ash flight disruption. Being good SWRI stock she made it back in the nick of time by train, ferry and car but none of us knew when we turned up at the venue whether or not we would have a conductor!! We did well although not placed in the top three (must have come fourth then!) but will probably continue to meet as everyone enjoyed it so much. Our local branch continued with a fundraising coffee evening on Friday which was well attended and raised £290 so we were very pleased.

Consequently I spent the day baking at Moy as we have been able to keep the kitchen and utility room accessible. It has saved having to move all the kitchen equipment and ingredients to Culloden as there really isn't the space to store everything there. I am having to get used to buying provisions in 'normal' quantities after thirty years of being able to bulk buy and Sarah and I will need to kit out two kitchens, having just managed to amalgamate all the baking powder, sugar, foil etc.

The builders were here for three days and have stripped out all the affected areas. Georgian houses have another layer between the floorboards and the ceiling below which is packed with a layer of ash about eight inches deep which acts as sound/heat proofing. The layer below our bedroom had to be removed as it was wet which was very messy! We were very pleased that the damage to the underlying timbers doesn't seem to be as extensive as was first thought so hopefully the drying out process will be much shorter. What may hold things up is getting listed buildings consent to re-instate all the walls and floors - can take up to three months...

We are going to replace our en-suite bathroom and Sarah and Joes bathroom while there is so much mess around so hopefully those will be able to be done while we are waiting.

Unfortunately our puppy plans have been thwarted as the litter was very small with only one bitch in it which the breeder was keeping to continue the line. We are very keen to have a dog with a good temperament and so would rather wait than take a risk from a breeder that we don't know. Rhema has been such a lovely dog that we may wait until there is a puppy available with similar parentage.

We are still on track for the hens though and I am told that the coop and run have arrived in North Cheam so we will look forward to picking them up next week-end when we go down for a family funeral.

The wildlife is abundant here, sadly often seen as roadkill, but it is not unusual to see deer by the side of the road, especially at dusk and the birdlife seems to be getting more prolific by the day. The swallows are back and although we are pleased they are here we are going to try and limit their nesting to the hayloft as the previous owners used to leave all the stable doors and the garage open all summer which meant that everything in any of them was covered in bird poo!

Our red squirrel is getting very bold and prefers peanuts from the bird feeder by the kitchen window although there are two squirrel feeders elsewhere in the garden. We have a fantastic collection of birds that visit including a huge number of siskins which can empty the thistle seed feeder in a couple of days and we now buy birdfood and nuts in sacks. Richard was given a nesting box with integral camera for Christmas which he has set up in the front garden and although we are not expecting it to be used this year it will be exciting to watch in due course as he can keep an eye on it from his laptop wherever he is in the world.

The days are noticeably longer here now - light at 5.30 and not dark until 21.00 so we are looking forward to some long days gardening here (well I am!). I am expecting to be here most days as there is much to be done and the weeds don't just stop growing. Tomorrow Pete is going to come and help us dredge the burn and the ponds and clear the overgrowth of pondweed before it becomes too prolific. We are still waiting to hear if we can erect a polytunnel and in the meantime the remaining greenhouse is bursting at the seams with veg. I am beginning to see what an advantage growing under cover will be as they are protected from the birds and slugs so much more. The council have been and inspected the site so hopefully we will hear next week. It seems unbelievable that we even have to get permission since it will only be seen by the sheep in the field behind us!!