isn't technology wonderful

Wet as predicted so catching up on paperwork as well as the day job. The substructure plans do not include enough dimensions for setting out the footings so we have been working out our key triangulation points by trigonometry and this morning I rechecked out the set out positions for the corners of the sunspace foundations by the use of the tangent tables, paper and pencil. My old mathematical tables - logs, sines, cosines and tangents amongst others have been used by both myself and my father when he was at school and at Uni and are Four Figure Mathematical Tables by Cargill G Knott D.Sc F.R.S.E. and dated 1905. That Maths A-level did come in useful after all....though the basic trig. was all done years before.

Obviously we all use the 345 triangle for 90 degree corners but for a dodecahedron sines and tangents are essential back up.

weather or not

Well its getting colder, wetter and more windy. Forecast this week is for alternate days of heavy rain and light rain on the very wet BBC and one day of heavy rain and light showers on XC Weather. On Gigha most people use XC Weather. Gigha is in a wee rain shadow between the hills of Islay and Paps of Jura and the KIntyre ridge - we don't get as much rain as the reference stations on Kintyre or Islay. so the BBC usually overstates how much rain we're going to get and XC is more accurate, but occasionally understates.

Shuttering is finished for the wee roundhouse and half done for the sunspace so nearly there. Trouble is the site is very wet now and the finished strip foundations are getting submerged every day with ground water as the water table is up so I will not be able to do the blockwork without pumping out and hoping the cement goes off before it fills up again. Such are logistics of winter building.

We still have no central heating so it is very cold apart from the front room in front of the fire.

Worst of all is the clocks changing next weekend. I hate winter darkness. We have had two bright days where the sun has not set until 6:30 ish - losing an afternoon hour of daylight from next Sunday is a real pain.

life is still a beach

Little achieved today. Boiler not working this morning so we had to ring the Trust. Funny we were worrried about the concrete freezing but it was Kinnererach which was really cold. Had a visitation from Raymond and Lukas, Trust managers, who then had a good long walk round the proposed Kinnererach crofts and semi-derelict farm buildings here. Later on Andy dug out the trench very neatly for the sunspace - pure beach underneath - pebbles, storm beach and sand and this evening we went to the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust Member's Meeting about the croft proposals for Gigha. We had had a first class briefing paper circulated on the options. The presentations were excellent and the Crofter's Commission adviser pragmatic and to the point. The question and answer session covered pretty much all the relevant details and then we got totally mired in petty politics, point scoring - including some barely concealed personal animosities and red herrings. As usual self interest reared its ugly head. Two hours later and no decision was made - not even a basic in principle one. The discussions on crofts and small agricultural units have already dragged on for several years with no real action being taken except to commission more studies on the options. On this subject, like economists, if you lay all Gighans end to end, you would still not reach a conclusion.

We are actually the only owner-crofters living on the island as the part of our plot not being built on is still croft land. It is big enough for a polytunnel, some raised beds, and our wee sheep fank. We also manage the rest of Ardailly croft and are getting our first sheep soon as well as having made a start controlling bracken with a view to planting trees for wood fuel. We are not Trust tenants as our wee bit of the island is the only bit not under Trust ownership. After tonight we realised how simple our lives are compared with those folk hoping to become new crofters on Trust land. It was not so easy for Lachlan and Fiona before we bought the plot from them but that is another story.

pink hats and concrete boots

We have finished the big roundhouse - all 12 sections, and 8 sections of the smaller annex. That leaves 4x3m sections for the sunspace and 4x2m sections for the annex and only one step to shutter up.

Jayne wore her best pink hat to keep her napper warm cos it was Baltic. Worried it would freeze and ruin our efforts in completing the six sections we had to leave on Sunday but it was above zero, though it didn't feel it. It really was cold with the F6 northerly but we got the job done and home by 6:30 for tea.

and then....

Good start - fresh home made bread, tuna sandwiches, two good mixes in the trench to finish off the big roundhouse stepped section and then ..... hydraulic failure on the tractor. Mark came over, checked it out and confirmed the diagnosis - needs new O ring. So our big day intending to finish all but 8m of footings spluttered to an early close. There's ground water in the other trench but not deep enough to pump out. Then it rained a bit more got very very dreich and we came home early. Self building for crusties is full of aches and pains, tendonitis, bad backs, and many other ailments to do with impending old age - and Jayne feels the cold too so we had our afternoon off - displacement activity was cooking my favourite saffron rice and a curry - we didn't even relax in front of the telly. We may be living the dream but today was another setback. For all those who think it is just a matter of determination and hard work ... well - a bit of luck helps too. Don't romanticise self building - it's tough, constant tiredness, financial aches and pains - vehicle failures - the Cabstar had a new water pump, gaskets etc., 250 miles ago and overheated this week as we went to pick up the cement. It is peeing out water and another day will be wasted going to Arnold Clark's in Dumbarton - they did it so they can sort it out....Though we have had a good week overall we have had several steps forward and several steps backwards. A teetering tightrope walk.. Maybe there is a book in all this - something existentialist - Zen and the art of self building maybe ?

gin and it

Jayne has become something of a gin connosieur. We sampled two bottles last night with Fiona - Lachie was supping red wine as he was driving to Ibrox today to take Alex for her first football game (a 4-1 won over Motherwell as it happened). We finished off the remnants of a bottle of Brecon Gin, smooth and subtle, and knocked off a decent % of a bottle of Shetland Gin. Bit later to bed than we had planned. Today with a wee gin head on her (I was fine, of course) we placed concrete in glorious sunshine in our T shirts. Slow start today but eventually two cubes in the ground, steel reinforcing in place - finish the job tomorrow. After the Archer's omnibus probably unless there is someone interesting on Desert Island Discs - 50/50 chance usually. We do work seven days a week on this build but we try to pace ourselves somewhat over the weekend - we'll still have placed over 4 cubes of C35 using 1.5 tonnes of cement - 60 bags - by the time we get home for tea tomororow. Amazing sunset over Islay - a sun ghost and halo projected above the horizon after the sun had gone down. Both knackered - its been a hard week in the trenches.

shedful of windows

Sea Area Malin southerly F5-7, increasing F8 soon, squally showers. Such is the prime daily directive. XC Weather showed very heavy rain at 4 p.m. and wind increasing to 36 knots. Our windows were due to arrive on the 2 p.m. ferry until the very efficient delivery company rang me and said it would be the 12 o'clock. Good - gave us an extra hour to offload if the 7.5 tonner could just get down the track. Robin was hustled to get the Manitou over to the plot an hour earlier than we thought and arrived pronto. The wagon had five big pallets of shrink wrapped very expensive double glazed windows and doors -heaviest pallet 800 odd kilos, largest pallet 2.3m x 3.1m x 1.2m. Headroom under shed doors 2.32m. Hmmm. Could Rob slide the pallets under the door and into the shed ? Could the truck even get over the very muddy and slippery track and down to the plot. Answer no on both counts. The truck skidded heavily on the cow slurried entrance to the track but the driver persevered and got 9/10 the way down and stopped at Ardailly Cottage - just 100m away. We offloaded each pallet, strapped it tightly to the Manitou pallet forks and Rob reversed them gently down the track to the shed. Small pallet - in no problem. Second pallet at 2.25m high could not get under the doors as the angle meant the top of the windows touched the lintel and diagonally opposite bottom would not clear the door step by 5cm. Miss as good as a nautical mile so we stacked the pallets up outside the shed. It was a little nerveracking getting the 3.1m pallet along a 3.2m wide track. but - all pallets were safely delivered by the island maestro of telehandler. By now it was 2:30 and the windows and doors were all outside the shed with the wind freshening to 20 knots or so. A couple of quick phone calls enlisted the aid of Lindsay, Jane and Andy (plus Lindsay's dog Ash and Andy and Jane's two kids) We would have to offload each window and hand ball it into the shed - largest 3m long 2.3m high and 120 kilos, heaviest patio doors maybe 180 kilos - about three tonnes in all. Within ten minutes Jane and Andy arrived on their quad and Jayne came down too. An hour and a half later everything was safely stacked in the shed, upright with spacers and screwed together. The wind began to come up very fast after about 3:45 and Jayne was left trying to hold the windows upright on the pallets as we removed the stapled fixings. Wee Brandon and Amanda were brought down by Lindsay after school finished and helped Jayne stop everything from blowing over as we carried them into the shed. We had one small 25mm scratch on one window frame as the total handling damage. Five minutes after the windows were safely in store, spaced and screwed together the heavens opened and a heavy squall rocked the shed. Andy and the two J's had headed off on their respective quads and got soaked. This is just in time delivery and logistics with a vengeance. Many hands do not only make light work but trusted friends really do take the pressure off. After badmouthing my contractor handsaws Lindsay might even buy me a better one for Christmas. Everyone who is helping us is part of a self builder's community here on Gigha. Nothing as naff as the big society - Gigha is a small rural community with as much strife and as many petty feuds as anywhere else and is certainly no role model - but some of us really do try and help each other as we are all in it together - and this is not just a meaningless apology for a slogan by the well to do in government. As well as being a stunning place to live our friends make it a place worth living. Curry night at Kinnererach soon.

Photos taken the same day the Turner prize shortlist announced and have a reflective and existentialist feel I think. Maybe our windows installation in the shed will be considered for next year - the £60k first prize would certainly come in useful.

still raining still dreaming reprise

Jayne and I often compete over being at momentous gigs but it was she who saw Mr Hendrix at the Isle of Wight 40 years and a few weeks ago and not me.

My equivalent moment was being at the Brighton Dome for the first date of Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon tour.

We are now firmly in the 'back end' as oncoming winter is known hereabouts. The weather, as predicted, is mostly wet. We had flash floods last week which washed out the Long and Winding Road just by Muasdale (yes it is the road McCartney wrote the eponymous song about) and it is

raining hard almost every other day. We are almost reconciled to not finishing the ground works before Christmas unless there is a long dry spell.

When we went down the plot on Thursday we found the trenches we had concreted on Tuesday more like the 18th at Celtic Manor today.

Spent most of the day in the JCB digging out new drains to stop water running through the plot

By the weekend and after a long pumping out session we had the trenches dry, though the ground is not good enough to carry on concreting. We have not been able to get more concreting finished since due to day job commitments. We have got eight sides of the large roundhouse shuttered - six completed plus the linking corridor so its all taking shape. So we are about half way through laying footings even if it doesn't look like it from the pictures.