Another week slips by... and another good one I'm pleased to report. As usual, I'm having a blog beer on a Sunday night in the static. The evening sun is blinding me through the windows and the caravan is baking hot. When the sun is out (and the outside temperature is in double figures) it is basically too hot in here. Makes me wonder what the house will be like as it is very well insulated and has a lot of sun-facing glass! In other parts of the country the solution would be simple... open the windows but... there are evenings here when you might not want to do that. Why? I hear you ask ... Well, anyone living (or possibly just holidaying) in the North West will know the answer immediately... the wee bastard midge! These tiny insects have a population explosion on a still August night and, unless there is a breeze, they will find you! They are attracted to CO2 and so, if I open the window, I'm going to either have to stop breathing or receive the unwelcome visitors en mass. Maybe this is a design flaw in our house plan. We shall see. On the positive however, a midge has a terminal velocity of about 4mph so it doesn't take much wind to see them off and we are not short of wind here so hopefully it will only be the odd evening - 1st world problem as far as I'm concerned anyway.
The last few days have been pretty bad (midgey-wise) and it has certainly resulted in some of our work being postponed. We do have the defences - in the form of repellant and nets but it is a lot easier to simply avoid exposure. As we are in good shape with the project we can afford this luxury ... for a bit anyway!
Despite the midges best efforts to thwart us, we have still managed to do quite a lot. Julia has painted the garage floor. It was briefly green, with the primer coat, but it is now "hilarious orange"! Yes, her Dutch roots even extend to Coll...
The real reason for painting it is to seal the floor and reduce the amount of concrete dust. This is important as we will have a lot of electronics in the garage and brick dust + computers = Failure = £££ + Grrrrr....
The orange is certainly striking - it looks a bit like Luton airport and for those of you who've never been to Luton Airport, it looks like an Easyjet hangar.
While Ju has been on her hands and knees painting I have, (yes you've guessed it!), been escaping the midges in Digby, my beloved the high castle! I've been moving earth from all around the house site and building it up to meet the new foundation walls. This has involved the movement of 100's of tonnes of soil but now we have the land meeting the house with enough of a margin to comfortably circumnavigate the construction in a telehandler. This is an important milestone and ticks a crucial box for the scaffolding erection and the kit install. We have buried a lot of field drains underneath the mounds of earth so fingers crossed, when it rains, the whole thing won't revert to a quagmire!
The sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed the 4 "gaps" in the foundation wall. These are for the steels beams which will be bolted into the concrete footings. It is a necessary modification to the Heb Homes design in order to support the large corner windows in the sitting room. We had the steels manufactured in Fort William and they have just been delivered here ...
It is next week's job to install them and bolt them down to the footings with these big muvas ... 16 of them in total...
In addition to the landscaping, I have also been excavating the ground to install the sewage treatment system. This was a big worry as the risk of hitting bedrock, which would stop us from having the necessary fall from the house outlets to the tanks, was very real. I prodded around with a pinch bar for the best part of a morning before settling on one spot to start digging. The good news is we have found enough depth to achieve the 1:55 gradient needed without having the chisel away bedrock so we have really lucked out with that.
The sewage kit we are installing is very advanced. It is called an Ecorock system and consists of 2 tanks. The first is a 3000 litre primary tank and the second is a filtration system. In theory, the water coming out could almost be drunk but instead of that (!) it will be filtered into the ground through a 25m2 gravel soak away. A lot of work to deal with a wee bit of human "output" !! We chose this system as it doesn't need electricity to run and gets very good press.
Other imminent tasks are the cutting down of some rocks within the house footprint and the installation of pipes, inspection chambers and damp proof course/membranes. This is an inspection hatch - you are probably familiar with the lid but not the underground bit!
More on all that next week (hopefully). In the meantime, on to other news...
This week was a week of many birthdays including mine which resulted in some really fun social gatherings. We went to dinner with close pals, a drinks party with a good few of the islanders and we went to the cafe with our neighbours for Taco night! They were all really good fun and needless to say resulted in a few slow mornings. The usual piss-taking birthday cards arrived from family and friends... some of which were very amusing...
I was thoroughly spoilt for my birthday and am now the proud owner of a super-dooper new fishing rod which I hope will result in a much greater Pollock yield. Julia needed help with that which gave Rob a perfect excuse to visit a tackle shop when he was on the mainland. I gather the purchase was therefore a boon for all!
In addition to this, I am going into the brewing business with my new home brew beer making kit. I've got 40 "blank" bottles so I could make my own labels too... branding ideas welcome!
The drinks party was to celebrate Romayne's birthday and it was a "5:30 'til 8:30" affair. Needless to say, that was island time and we left at about 01:00 am.
We also were given a lobster from Dougie and Jane this week which, due to the busy evening plans, became a delicious lunch. We need to get our lobster pots into the sea for more of these beauties!
I also have to report something very unusual on the island. A motorbike! But not any bike... a really classic cool one - a big Moto Guzzi twin ... one of my boyhood dreams ... one never realised (yet!) ...
We also caught up with a few pals this week via video links and, in one of the chats, I forgot to take off my midge net hat which amused Stevie (who was nude sunbathing in his Yorkshire garden). Stevie asked me to post the image from the call on the blog so here it is...
Next week we are going to the mainland (eek!) to see my Mum who we haven't seen since March and also to go to my good pal Mark's 60th birthday bash. It is going to be weird after over 5 months on the rock. We are taking the trailer too which we will fill with building stuff (if we can get organised enough) and Julia will likely have lots of household supplies on the shopping list too.
We have had such amazing weather recently with the high pressure hanging over us and we feel really lucky to have been able to work on our project in shorts and T shirts but there is one downside. Our pal Dave Bell (aka Dinger) is currently in the middle of the North Atlantic solo rowing his boat from New York to Falmouth. He's been alone at sea now for 90 days and this weather system is not helping him. In fact it has added about 10 days to his e.t.a. and increased his risk of exposure to more stormy autumnal weather as he approaches the UK. If the good weather breaks soon, at least there may be a silver lining for Dave! You can catch up on his amazing story here ... https://ny2uksolorow.co.uk
So it is off to bed for me and, as usual, I will leave you with one of this week's sunsets...
Have a great week everyone!
K&J x
Another belter of a report. Midges, dutch flooring, beer, birthdays and all.
Belated Happy Birthday Keith. And here's to another great week for you guys.
See you Saturday Ju. Carolyn xx
The project seems to have leapt forward quite suddenly. Jolly interesting!
Not sure what to say this other than you look as ready as you will ever be, and are way further forward than many us thought you would be, you are doing great and nobody is as yet buried in the cement. Enjoy the party and mainland.
Cheers