"The eagle has no fear of adversity. We need to be like the eagle and have a fearless spirit of a conqueror!" Joyce Meyer

This island we have chosen to live on is a stunningly beautiful and amazing place. While I'm there, I always try to remind myself how lucky we are. Sometimes I don't need too much reminding

"I take the invasion of my personal space very seriously." Kid Rock

Bloody bracken! We are reluctantly host to about three acres of pteridium polypodiopsida. Chris' new jungle buster seemed a way forward

till his tractor disappeared into a gulley

and Charlie's JCB was called for

"Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water." W. C. Fields

The concrete water tank started to leak so I decided to invest in a new 3000 litre plastic one. Shuggy excavated the site

et voila. 

The supply is from a small spring - just a trickle - but enough to keep the tank filled. The water is crystal clear but I'll probably get a UV filter 

"It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one." George Washington

   Sorry to anyone out there for not having kept up to date over the last few months. No excuses, just that apart from moving slowly forward with the project we have finally sold the house in Aberdeenshire and this has led to much to-ing and fro-ing across Scotland in cars, vans and trailers. 

Where to start!

The kitchen ceiling has been part taken down to make a mezzanine at the house end

I fitted a Belfast sink in the pine unit, plumbed in water and waste before fixing some old tiles we have been collecting

Then Brian came and fitted radiators in the kitchen

This meant the kitchen floor could be laid

 I used the old fireplace as a cooker surround, fitted some more old tiles and hung the new lights

"Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it." Tom Lehrer

A while ago Shuggy was looking for the pipe to the septic tank. He found it, breaking through one of the sections with the bucket on his digger. 

Having found it and checking that it ran all the way to the tank, it was on my to do list to effect a repair. I immediately bought a length of 6 inch pipe and two rubber connectors for clay to plastic. Two years later...

"In Scotland, I have a huge barn full of woodworking tools. I love working with my hands. I basically just make myself bleed a lot. I'm very accident-prone." Greg Wise

We're trying to reuse, recycle and incorporate as much as we can from the things we found when we first went into the Manse. Adapting and fitting this has given me a great deal of satisfaction

Unfortunately it meant moving the two sockets on the wall yet again - hopefully for the last time 

"At times it is folly to hasten at other times, to delay. The wise do everything in its proper time" Ovid

 So, after a quick consultation with Ovid, we agreed that now would be the proper time to evidence significant progress since the last update; not only in the kitchen but also around the outside of the house