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,