Hammers,Holes, Piles & a New Man About The House

We don't feel strongly about many things when it comes to building materials however in the case of pebble-dash (or "harling" as its known up here) we utterly hate the stuff. Sincere apologies to those that have & love it but its just not our thing.That said, for years it was the only practical insulation available for use on stone walls up here, so in that sense its served its purpose. In the 21st we're now installing insulation on the inside, and its made of millions of glass bubbles (made by the Pyrex company). More of that on a later entry. (bet you can't wait!!!)

Anyhow, after 4 hours of brandishing a lump hammer yesterday

Me and Gareth managed to smash off most of the pebble-dash from the front of the house. The picture below shows some remaining harling on the right .... but the lovely original stone face appears for the first time in many many decades.

Both Steve & I had been dreading this job as it could have taken much much longer than it did, certainly not the few hours it did so consider ourselves very lucky. Just the 2 gable ends to go and a little at the back of the house and we're done !

Another milestone day tomorrow begins with the arrival of Robbie Readimix and his 38 tonne concrete wagon - its coming to offload a few cubic metres to create our foundations or footings.

Sadly (for Fred) he loses the hired digger and dumper tomorrow as all the digging & major earth moving is now complete. He loves his toys, but he's also been using them to level off the drive and surrounding ground, create some new steps up the side of the new extension and shifting more of the big boulders around.

Just to give you an idea of the amount of earth we've had to move, the shot above show the Cuppaster Quarry that we as crofters have access to. We've been allowed to put some in there, quite a bit actually. This can now be re-used by other local crofters who need earth to lay a track or fill holes for example.

Colour Charts ...

Now, with Steve down in Merseyside over the last week, Fred was in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up drawing the short and only straw to stand in as my surrogate "Man About The House" . As all ladies reading this will know, a woman always needs someone in the vacinity to whom they can witter onto don't they? (even if it is only the dog ... although she's not here either!)

Under the circumstances - and to be fair - Mr Cheshire been a gem of a stand-in and has made me a fair few cuppas which has been impressive. However, in Chapter 1 of the important manual for all new couples "A Husbands Role" it clearly states that a husbands job is to listen intently, appear engaged and lend an interested ear as their wives twitter on about paint and colour charts.

I'm very disappointed to report that Mr Cheshire has clearly not read the manual and failed miserably on this task scoring "nil point"

by glazing over after a measly  9 seconds =(

Did I glaze when over he started talking about mortar plasticiser or bat straps? No !

Well, I was also sadly lacking in the Spiderman department yesterday ... (yep, thats Steve!)

What was 15inches from my feet in the bath MID SHOWER causing me to scream the house down?

Yep and it had 8 legs. Fred to the resuce again (previous glazing over forgiven at this point)

Well SOMEONE had to get the flaming thing out & it sure wasn't gonna be me ...

Hurry Home Spiderman ... the spiders have started appearing ... aaargh !!!



64 pizza's later ...

A successful evening was had by all at the Burravoe Hall this evening with around £150 raised for the public hall funds (pays for the upkeep and improvement of the hall). Alan & his wife Jackie organised the evening and I was the extra pair of hands.

As there's no proper restaurant on Yell, the 4 public halls on the island  regularly organise different "food" evenings. Anyone can then go along to buy the food, either eat-in or take home, but all freshly made to order. As all the halls have licensed bars, its a nice social event to get out and meet up with folk. Even the elderly ladies from the sheltered housing were getting a delivery tonight as they couldn't make it out!

The blurry picture shows me in the excellent kitchen with Alan (a professional catering facility) although I spent most of my time after 1830 taking orders in the bar and getting to chat with my new neighbours.Alans a passionate and very capable amateur who made all the pizza bases - if only Viviana could have been there to give us her opinion! She'd have loved them I know.

The Yell summer social calendar's really kicked off here now, next Saturday is the Burravoe Regatta with the barbecue and beer tent opening at 12noon. I suspect our crew will be drawing straws to see who's driving. Personally, I think Fred should think of his health as I'm not convinced his liver's recovered yet from 2 weeks ago ... is looking a little yellow !! (plus its becoming a bit of a habit him getting drunk each time he visits the Burravoe Hall.) Looking forward to a good day though - bring it on !

Its late, I can't sleep ...

I don't know about you guys and how you would be feeling, but after living and working with my husband for 7 weeks solid, it seems very strange not to have him around.

Nothing would normally disrupt my healthy sleep pattern, but clearly tonights an exception. It's daylight outside (or Simmer Dim as they call it) and I can't sleep ...

Even the hot water bottle's not helping :-(

The recently borrowed book from the community library is  starting to get a bit gorey, so I've put that down.

So, I've got to thinking ... mainly about how many times - over the last couple of years - my memory has deserted me - in fact not just deserted me, but squarely mislead me into thinking something happened when it actually didn't. I fear for my old age. I fear for poor old Steve getting the blame every time I can't find something.... there's only so many times you can carry the can for your wifes absent-mindedness :=(

At 47, this is how I feel (Sarah in Hebrew means "princess"? so the tiara is very appropriate!)

But you know me ... well,  most of you do ... and I'm never low for long - even at 12:50am . Tomorrow I'll be doing my bit to raise funds for the local public hall in Burravoe (these halls really are the heart of the community) ... what will I be doing?

Yes , chopping and prepping food for a Pizza Night, organised by our local stonemason who - I have to say - is a very gifted amateur cook, and I'm one of the helpers. Shame none of you are up here to taste the output of our hardwork as I can vouch for his abilities in making very nice Italian food.  I'll let you know tomorrow how it went, hopefully quite a few should come along to eat - or maybe takeaway a pizza. I know one customer who will be waiting there with his knife and fork. Yes, Mr Cheshire.

Uh oh .... its now 01:00 and I'm talking about food.... time to try and sleep again I think.

Nite x

Sunshine , Sadness & Solar Power

Well we've had another mild and sunny week this week which has been good to work in. After a couple of days of helping Fred dig the foundations for the extension and porch, Steve & Digger set off for a short trip to Merseyside to visit parents and collect some bits and bobs needed for the building works.

We're lucky enough to have some stunning wildflowers here and it feels like we're completely surrounded by them - the sunshine has really brought out the blooms. We have fields of wild flag iris's which are just the green leaves at the moment, but this evening I spotted one of the first ones to emerge into the sun

There are also dozens of wild orchids.Much of the land has been untouched for generations, the main reason being that the some of the fields leading down to the beach have been a little bit wet for sheep to graze on (they get foot rot!) so the flowers haven't been eaten! So far I think I've spotted 3 or 4 varieties - not sure of their names but thought you may like to see a couple of pictures of them.

So , that's the "Sunshine" bit, now the "sadness" bit. 

You may remember that Fred parents are up in Shetland, seeing us and touring around. Well their dog Max1 - aged 13 - made his way to doggy heaven this week.

He'd spent last weekend with us all & Digger & Max2 (Freds dog) down at the beach, but as an old boy he'd not been right for a little while. He had a peaceful end & I'm told the vet was very good and let him go to sleep in his bed in the motor home. He's now resting - looking out to sea - behind our Lamby Shed, so there will always be a little corner of Yell that's his. RIP Max1, a handsome soft old boy.

Finally, the portable solar panel appeared today as Janet & Joe arrived to stay for the night on their way down to mainland Shetland. Thankfully, permament sunshine is not required, just daylight, so they should be ok for a bit of electric in the motor home for a while

Tourists for a day

After an early start this morning clipping sheep hooves, we returned for a quick wash and brush up although  it took a little longer to clean Digger after an hour spent down rabbit holes

As I mentioned, we're having a Royal Visit with Freds parents up here in Shetland at the moment, so today we spent the day being Yell tourists with them. With 5 adults and 3 dogs comfortably piled into the Discovery, our first stop was Aywick on the east of Yell to see the White Wife - a figurehead salvaged from a shipwreck off the coast of Yell about 95 years ago.

 "I see no ships ! ".

x Us x

Moving on, we  headed north to Winddog Cafe in Gutcher in the north of Yell for a bite to eat (lurvly food)



then onto the award winning Breckon Sands. My camera doesn't do the beach justice, but here are a few shots. Beautiful aqua blue sea and white sand. The cows looked on as the dogs had a complete ball below on the beach!

After a fond farewell , we returned home for a fry-up - earnt after all the walking and climbing we'd done !!

Last derelict pictures before we start to rebuild ...

So, with the old extension completely demolished now,

out came "Paddys Motorbike" (pneumatic drill) to break up

the old floor. Foundation laying begins next week.

This has to be one of the campest pictures ever taken of Mr Cheshire. Hope my Manchester mate Jon doesn't get an eyeful of this - Fred may get a bit of a following on Canal Street ... !

A view below of the back wall  most of which

(to the right of the scaffolding) will be coming

down to allow for the extenstion to be built.

Fred's standing where the new staircase will be installed

Gareth (next door neighbour) proves again that

he's a complete homewrecker after demolishing the

porch in about an hour. Looking at how he

handles his sledgehammer (yes, he has his own)

I somehow think I won't be arguing with

my neighbour .. =)

BBQ a la Building site (minus the roof & extension)

So , a week of dismantling before the digger & dumper arrives again next week and things start being built!

Below, next door neighbour Gareth helping out as the old roof trusses are removed

Hmm .... looking worse than derelict !

Internal view of of the now empty crofthouse ... plenty of daylight !

The 40 year old extension is finally flattened

All done for the day? yes ! Right, time for a BBQ !!

Oh yes, this week saw the arrival of Freds parents - his mum is fondly known as The Queen by Steve

And it was the lovely Janet & Joe that suggested an impromptu Building Site Barby - perfect !



I'm ashamed to say that whilst Steve tried his best to be polite in front of Her Majesty

...he couldn't avoid the inevitable. The picture below shows his reaction

to the sound effects of performing the first metallic wheelbarrow echo-sound bottom pump.

All Digger wanted was his flipping burger !

Good Times !