Easter 2014

At last!

The start of the Easter break saw our first of two trips. We set off in the early hours of Saturday morning complete with a trailer (over?)load of scaffolding and new tools. The first difficult moment was having to reverse onto the ferry with a 15ft trailer and an audience of impatient foot passengers also waiting to board. I'm quite proud of how it went, especially as no expletives were called for. There was, however, no repeat of this problem on our return as the trailer was quagmired at the bottom of a very slippery slope down to the house. Repeated attempts by Alex Boden, our friend and local farmer, failed to move it.

The deal for the house included a myriad of other materials and artefacts. Inside was like a mini builders yard

and there is still a shed full of fixtures, fittings and tools on Skye awaiting collection. Oh and somewhere on the island is a dumper truck that we own as well. In addition we had also become the proud owners of a 4 berth caravan that had, in its past, travelled across Eastern Europe but had laid empty and unattended for the last 12 years. We opened the door that first day with more than a little trepidation but were amazed at the condition we found it in. The cooker and fridge still worked, some of the electrics worked and it wasn't damp. After two pairs of marigolds and a bucket of elbow grease...

we had a comfortable place to sit, eat, plan and enjoy the view

So at the end of a busy day it was back to the bothy for a well earned dram 

enjoy the view

and a well earned rest

Day 2

Next day the focus was on the scaffolding. I had some relevant bits and an idea how they fitted together. We finally managed to erect it at the front and back of the west wing and on part of the front of the house.

Then the first big job inside was to empty all the rooms of the accumulated rubbish, debris and bird poo.

became

Time ran out and we had to leave the island to go back to Aberdeen for a few days...minus our trailer of course.