Week Eight

It’s Monday and we have had a message from Lorne to say that he isn’t coming today because our delivery has not arrived yet and won’t be here until this afternoon. He said in his text message: “Just don’t want to charge you to sit about.”

Week beginning 25th July.

Molly is off to Oban to do a shop and pick up some tools and materials we need for the project.

After doing a weekend dry stone wall building course, Pete starts to build a wee wall on the side of the turning space Lorne created last week.

Molly gets back with the supplies so we have lunch, then the man with the sewage treatment works and all the bits that go with it arrives and unloads. This is very exciting for us because it signals that we won’t be using the portaloo for the rest of our lives, yeahhhh!!!!

Molly has made a really tasty tagine and so to help digest it we go for a walk as the weather is now glorious. We are heading west along the single track road that passes our plot and along the way we forage some delicious blaeberries from the embankment on the side of the road.

When the sun shines Argyll is just so beautiful and so we take a few photos along the way.

We are off to bed after our lovely wee walk.

This morning Lorne arrives before we are even out of bed and looking out of the caravan window we see clouds of midges so we have to put our brave faces on and jump into some clothes to go and welcome Lorne and find out what the day will bring.

As we have breakfast Lorne gets stuck into digging the trench for our French drain. This will help to keep our land a bit dryer than it currently is when the rain pours, as it often does here.

Our Isoquick foundation insulation system was due to arrive yesterday but due to a hold up is due this morning. We had arranged for our neighboiur Iain to come with a telehandler yesterday so we were really embarrassed when it didn’t turn up. Luckily for us Iain is a very understanding and patient guy and has agreed to be available again today.

Just as we are starting to think about lunch Pete gets a call from the lorry driver who can’t get his lorry over the wee bridge near the plot. Pete is going to meet him and show him the safe way to our plot.

The lorry arrives just after Iain shows up and immediately we have to do some head scratching to work out how to unload quickly and efficiently so as not to block the wee road.

We really couldn’t have managed without Iain’s help and feel reassured that we have nice, helpful neighbours. We hope to return the favour one day.

While this has all been going on, Lorne has finished the French drain, as far as he can. We will have to move the caravan for the job to be finished but that’s for another time.

After lunch Lorne starts digging the hole for the sewage treatment works and Pete has been tasked with building a wee wall around the drain outlet at the ditch by the road.

Lorne has now finished digging the hole and has started preparing the concrete when Pete offers to help.

Now that all the concrete has been added and covers the mesh to the right depth, Pete gets into the hole to float the concrete. He is not happy and is complaining because he says it is not very nice feeling, like your are sinking or might fall over and get covered in the stuff.

We’ve had our dinner and now we are very tired, Molly hasn’t been feeling well but tested negative. Pete has done a lot of physical stuff and although he doesn’t feel very ill with Covid he is still under par compared to normal. We hope a good nights sleep will do the trick.

We had some sad news this week. Our dear friend and great-grandmother to our grandchilren, Jocely Campbell, died this week. Jocelyn had joie de vivre in abundance and an interest in people, art, nature, her community and many, many other things. We hit it off immediately and always enjoyed her company, her generosity and her stories. As a fan of George Orwell, Pete was so impressed when she told him of her visit to Jura, with her husband Duncan, and meeting Eric Blair (George Orwell).

Jocelyn was a very special person and she will be missed so much by all who have known her.