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.