Well, it has been a long time since I last posted. The weather has dominated our lives over these past 3 montths. Storm, unbelevably high winds. Destruction everywhere. We came of quite lightly as we battenned down the hatches and don't really have anything yet. People on the island lost caravans, shed roof, trees, wind turbines, green houses and polytunnels. No one was hurt. For two nights I slept on the floor and covered myself with cushions as I was so scared the roof of the hut would fly away or the windows would blow out. But we were lucky. Testament to building skills and most importantly perhaps, the choice of sites. A little hill can afford amazing protection. January it rained and rained and rained. Talk of, "How can we sell this wet stuff to the south of England" came up a few times. Moving around on the land became difficult as the ground, once it has a boot in it, won't easily let it go again, and walking became quite hard. Handy stones were put down on the routes we use most often, from the big shed to the building site, from the end of the road to the hut and to the cludgy. The cludgy (composting toilet) has withstood winds of 125 miles per hour and now clad with currogated iron looks like it will last for 50 years or more. It is a "throne" indeed. The month of February I became ill. All that dampness went for my lungs and together with what was probably flu, the aches and pains, the incredible back pain, the coughing, the difficulty with breathing, the weakness, lack of appetite. I thought I would never recover, but I have, miraculously. Lungs still feel a bit shallow and burny but am up and about and working again.
The gaelic course I had promissed myself I would do when I had a lap top and a place to sit down with paper and pen has just begun. It is hard, but I feel good about it and about myself for doing what I intended. I am also working on developing a new product that I can manufacture and sell from Lismore. More about that later. I have also started practicing homeopathy and massage on Lismore - something I said I wouldn't do, but, when someone asks it is hard to refuse.
A group of us islanders has started a choir also. So busy lives all around.
As far as the build goes. The foundation are finished! It took 3x as much cement and block work as first anticipated as the holes in the ground kept getting deeper and deeper as rock turned into rocks and rocks turned into this strange "rotten rock" which is disolved rock which looks like rock when you first see it but then when you touvh it it is soft and you can poke your finger right through it. It is oily also.. Strange. Geology is something we have come to appreciate while living here, as something that needs a lot more study. I will post the pictures soon. Cheery...
As far as the building is concerned
The gaelic course I had promissed myself I would do when I had a lap top and a place to sit down with paper and pen has just begun. It is hard, but I feel good about it and about myself for doing what I intended. I am also working on developing a new product that I can manufacture and sell from Lismore. More about that later. I have also started practicing homeopathy and massage on Lismore - something I said I wouldn't do, but, when someone asks it is hard to refuse.
A group of us islanders has started a choir also. So busy lives all around.
As far as the build goes. The foundation are finished! It took 3x as much cement and block work as first anticipated as the holes in the ground kept getting deeper and deeper as rock turned into rocks and rocks turned into this strange "rotten rock" which is disolved rock which looks like rock when you first see it but then when you touvh it it is soft and you can poke your finger right through it. It is oily also.. Strange. Geology is something we have come to appreciate while living here, as something that needs a lot more study. I will post the pictures soon. Cheery...
As far as the building is concerned
RSS Feed