Thursday 29 July 2010

The builders are here - day 20 & 21


Monday and Tuesday. The view up the drive is changing - that new high bit is to accommodate the stairs, and having stripped off the kitchen roof, and added new joists to strengthen it, it has now been re-roofed. The main thing to note is the sunshine - we aint had none since. And I wonder if any of you can tell me why builders have to eat 13 amp fuses - I mean loads of 'em.

While they are doing this I'm working from home.
Cramming 18 odd hours of work into a week at home is something I'm finding incredibly difficult. Maybe I'm too honest with my timekeeping(!) or something - but there are just so many distractions - and perhaps the overhead of running the goats is more tiring than I'd ever admit to Jussi? NEVER!
But I got a pay cheque yesterday. Over £600! I mean the luxury - getting this every month - riches. Hopefully the bank will come to the village tomorrow and I'll get it put away. Excitement!

Monday 26 July 2010

Home alone...

...give or take twenty odd goats, four hens, two cats and two guinea pigs.....and three or more builders - they all need looking after you know. Jussi has taken the girl to Hamburg - how will I survive?

But hey - let's gossip. There's a family out west who are not universally respected for their entrepreneurism - though thrusting and successful business people they are. They're not universally respected cos it's the done thing to be down on people who make the effort and succeed. People who try and fail are far more admirable. Amongst their many enterprises they are nearing the completion of a couple of new holiday homes - built on land even less suitable for farming than even your average croft, and built, I think, sympathetically but not traditionally - you know, the sort of thing HRH would have kittens about.

An excellent use of land - and a great way of investing in bringing people and their gold to this backwater eh? Well - maybe -. The only problem is, so it is rumoured, allegedly etc... the problem is they don't own the land they've built on. I mean obviously no one else was using it so who cares eh?

Not uncommon this. In fact there's a bit of a scandal going down Assynt way. One of the local movers and shakers over there, a crofter, applied for planning permission to decroft some land and build a couple of houses and everyone was supportive - permissions granted no problems. Until, that is, someone noticed that the land she decrofted wasn't hers in the first place, its common grazing land - so - aaah - pistols at dawn, toys out of the pram. The crofter has now accused the crofters who share the common grazing she was trying to build on as 'fickle and vindictive'. Fun and games.

All these problems arise because the crofters commission doesn't use maps. So when it comes to deciding what land belongs to where it tends to come down to what Angus remembers his grandad telling him when he was a lad. Not altogether legally watertight. The Scottish Government wants to introduce map based records, but they want crofters to pay for it. Turkeys and Christmas perhaps.

One of our neighbours 'accidentally' put up a building on some common land. All the shareholders scratched their scalps, pursed their lips and agreed - "ach it's fine". We're far more civilised over here - barbarians out west so they are.

Saturday 24 July 2010

The builders are here - day 15 to 19











lots of work being done


drains in, roof off, waterproofing walls, ...





And the joiner joined them too



but this editor won't keep pictures in sequence, so you'll have to work that out yourself

Saturday 17 July 2010

New arrivals


Meanwhile, I found the Swallows' nest that we couldn't believe wasn't there with all the tweetering, swooping activity in the byre. They're growing fast!

The builders are here - day 12 to 14

Well - not on day 12, but they told us they wouldn't be here well in advance and apologised. How good is that?!
Day 13 was St. Swithun's day and they were back in force. As you can see - one of the more miserable days we've had lately.

But day 13 and 14 were concrete-pouring days and now we have floors!



The builders are here - day 10 and 11

On day 10 and 11 they put down the damp-proof membrane, drains, insulation and a wee scattering of hardcore, leaving gaps for the walls.




Most of the office is now outside.

Saturday 10 July 2010

The builders are here - day 9


packed floors with funny bits where the walls are going to be! And they did take out more stuff (off the walls!) but the wee office stayed where it was.

Thursday 8 July 2010

The builders are here - day 8

That's the last floor out
(the wooden one) and more stuff going in. I like the way they have a wee office thing that moves around. It's in the dairy now. Where will it be tomorrow?

The builders are here - day 7




They're putting stuff in! (that's the whole kitchen side)
And still taking stuff out (in the porch)


Prick

[posted from 'Ull - three cheers for Lord Prescott]

Took me mam to Asda and parked the car next to a solver Porche - registration number

P14NSS

Mmmmm.

Wednesday 7 July 2010

The builders are here - day 6



Look! no stairs!

And no walls or floors either!




























See? I'm not alone! (spot one of the 34)

The builders are here - day 5




Floors still getting dug and walls are coming out!

Holding the Fort

Simon and Ailsa have made it to Hull, so now it's just me and the beasts. I can't really say I'm alone, as there's 34 of them, all wanting food, attention, ...

Friday 2 July 2010

Bookings

Oh just how may of you are planning to visit but haven't quite told us yet? Well here's news for ya - July is booked, partly by visitors or promises of visits not actually confirmed, partly by our holidays and partly cos I've got lots of WORK - I mean a job + consultancy work - I'm gonna be busy.

But we're short of bookings for August. Jussi and The Girl are away for the first week. The Gala weekend is 7/8 August (they'll be back and we'll be showing the goats).

Gityerassessuperetheresasandcastlecompetitiontobewon!

The builders are here - day 4



Removed sinks and old oil burning aga (free to collect dear readers). Dug out more floor and drainage bits. I've offered to help but they wont let me!

The builders are here - day 3



Removed the partitions surrounding the kitchen - breaking into what will be the dairy and the new shower room.

The builders are here - day 2


Taken up the concrete floor and dug down for new damp course and insulation. There was a better piccy than this but it's rubbish - well I know what I mean.

The builders are here - day 1

Sparky came and stripped out the electrics - put in a new temporary board with sockets for tools and extension to byre for milking machine.

It has begun.

Synchronicity

I've been off-line for ages. It happened one day as I was settled at the laptop and The Girl was going up to the goats. Crash!

We both got electrocuted. Lightening somewhere nearby found earth through the laptop (AAAARGH!) and the metal gate the girl was opening at the time.

AAAAAAAAAAARHG!

And it blew up the modem. It's taken BT ages to replace it - but they have - and we are back on line. If you've emailed me of late it might take a while to plough through the millions of Bob54's offering colour TVs and Bitrokid looking for wetroom floor off-cuts. But I'll get there.