Week Eleven – Part Two

It’s Thursday morning and Lorne has arrived and it’s not quite 8am. We are hoping to get the track inspection done on Friday so there’s a bit to do. Lorne and I agree to work together to get the ducting for the electricity main cable laid, then we’ll do the pipe for the water main.

We’ve done the ducting and are making good progress on the water pipe but it seems we have had a misunderstanding – I thought Lorne could do the plumbing and he thought I could do it, but it turns out neither of us are competent to do what is required. So we finish what we can and Molly calls her cousin ‘Dochie’ to get the number of the plumber he knows.

Molly calls but is told to call back after 5pm so Lorne gets on with landscaping and we start fitting the traps for the storm drains. The storm drains take the water that comes off the roofs away from the house into a drainage ditch. The rainwater comes down the roof into the gutters then down the drain pipe and into the trap that feeds the drain. We only manage to do one of the house traps because thre is a trench where the other one is to go and we can’t do the traps for the shed until we render the Isoquick.

The rain has started and luckily we are about finished so shouldn’t get a soaking, as we mentioned before we have nowhere sensible to dry our stuff so getting wet is a problem.

Molly calls the plumber again and gets to speak to Des, who says he’ll come later on to talk to us about what we need doing. Des arrives just before dinner and is very nice and helpful. He agrees to take on the job and says he’ll do it on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday he is refereeing the shinty cup final in Oban so we wish him luck as he leaves.

We’ve had dinner and the rain starts again. Normally we are quite happy spending time in our caravan but tonight for some reason we feel trapped.

It’s another morning but Lorne isn’t coming today because he has to go to help out on another job. Our task is to do the first render coat on the shed and we are hoping it goes easier than on the house, and that the rain stays off.

The rendering has gone well and it’s a late lunch now that we’ve finished that task. For the most part the rain stayed off but not entirely so we have had to cover our work to protect it from the rain.

We are going to Oban to do another wash at the garage and to do some shopping but as soon as we hit the main road there is obviously something up as we have to wait an age to get out onto the road. It takes us about an hour and half to get near to Oban and the garage becaue there are two pinch points on route and the tail backs are enormous.

We load our washing and go into Oban to do some shopping but when we get back we have to wait for almost an hour for the dryer to be free. The only upside to this is that the woman whose clothes are in the dryer doesn’t need to use all her time so we get use of the dryer for free and because our wash is so small it’s dry in twenty minutes.

It turns out that the traffic chaos is because of a fatal accident on another road and the cars have been diverted via Connel Bridge. It’s so sad that someone should lose their life in this way.

The roads here are very dangerous, not least because there are some crazy overtaking manouvers, we regularly see drivers overtaking into a bend where they clearly can’t see if there is any oncoming traffic, and the roads are narrow and winding with huge trucks racing towards you every now and again.

To avoid the traffic we decide to take a backroad that should avoid the pinchpoint near Oban, this might not save much time but we should be able to keep moving and see somewhere we haven’t been before.

It was a good decision because we have enjoyed driving the single track road in quite a remote area, although it is challenging at times because there are few official passing places and the verges are quite wet.

We are home again but it’s late so it’s dinner, a short relax and off to bed for an early start tomorrow.

Today we are heading to Reeth in the North Yorkshire Dales for a memorial service for our dear friend Jocelyn, the great grandmother of our grandchildren.

It’s a long drive but we are going there and back in one day because we need to finish the rendering tomorrow.

The memorial takes the form of a Quaker meeting because Jocelyn has always been a committed Quaker. It is very moving and dignified and quite different to anything we have been to before. There are periods of silence for reflection and then at various points people stand and say something about their memories of Jocelyn. We learn lots about her we didn’t know and it is obvious she is held in very high regard by those who know her – a very special person.

We get back very late, almost ten hours driving there and back, to find that Des has been and done the plumbing work as promised. This is a great relief because maybe now we can get our mains water connected. Although it’s late we stay up a while talking and reflecting on the day before bed.

It’s Sunday and there’s no rest for the wicked, or so it is said, and we make a slow start but eventually get down to doing the final render.

It’s such a relief to get that done and we are happy to clean up all the tools and the cement mixer with the thought that we won’t have to do this ever again!