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Well March is here and the crocus are popping up thier heads in the garden and the days are getting a lot lighter and a great deal more enjoyable. We have had at least 3 days where the sun has shone all day and not a drop of the wet stuff.

Hooch has been bounding all over the place with his nose high in the air sniffing the many new smells and even the sleepy cats have been following me up the track for an early morning constitutional with Hooch. I even ventured out without my coat on this mornings walk, and what a lovely morning it was.

On the top of the brae I could see almost all round the island , the Shapinsay Ferry heading towards the village bobbing around in The String passing Hellier Holm, The Castle rising above the trees on the headland and the wifeys sheep next door happily chewing the grass.

I had taken my camera and snapped away merrily getting quite carried away. The cats were tormenting the dog by running in front of him and then darting under the barb wire as he chased them. I am convinced that they enjoy the chase.

Back at the house Mr B was busy eating his breakfast, Bacon fried bread mushrooms and a newly laid Duck egg, even they had started laying again. I wonder if there will be any ducklings this year.

I was having an artistic day so I decided to play with the pics I had taken and have chosen a few which I think look better in Black and White.

The House building will soon be back outside and the continuation of the roof will hopefully progress. It will be nice to have it finished by the end of the year but we shall see.

With all this talk of Cat Blogs etc it reminded me of an episode that happenned not long after we moved here.

I was dragged up in a town well more like a city and you can imagine having only seen pet cats I had never encountered any other sort.

Not long after we moved to Barebraes I went round the back of the house to find cowered in the long grass a peedie white cat looking very scared and thin. I returned from the house with a plate of cat food and a cat box and managed to entise it into the box. After being shut in the box it started spitting and hissing and looking scared and a little bit miffed.

Because I was unsure if it had some disease I decided to place it in the barn away from the other cats and waited for Mr B to get back.

Some time later and after checking on the cat it seemed that it had calmed down and looked quite placid.

Enters Mr B, Lets take a look at this cat then" he says

So off we go to the barn and he endeavours to open the box, all hell breaks loose!!!!

The cat comes screaming out of the box all claws and fangs flailing around and runs directly up a nearby wall and I swear across the ceiling of the barn and proceeds in spending the next few minutes trying to get out of the barn.

By this time Mr B and meself have pinned ourselves to the nearest wall in terror. The cat then proceeds to enter a 6metre long peice of drainage pipe that happens to be laying on the floor in the barn

Oh No

a cat in a pipe

What do we do

hose pipe it out with water ?
shake it out?
comperessed air ?
I think the SSPCA would not think highly of either of us

We resorted to getting a long stick pointing the pipe out of the barn door and gently pushing the cat out.

The peedie white cat took off so fast over the brae that we never saw it again

I will think twice before doing my good samaritan bit ( or will I )

It Blew and it Blew

Have you ever laid in bed and heard a jet engine in your loft?
Well I could have sworn that there was the entire Red Arrows in mine on Saturday night / Sunday Morn. We were told from the trusty Met Office online that we were in for severe gales and possible Hurricane storm force winds and they weren't wrong. I sat up all night unable to sleep from the noise of the howling screaming wind hoping that it would go away long enough for me to fall into a deep enough sleep that I wouldn't hear it. Mr B snored all through it. I kept Hooch company in the living room and we shared a few biscuits and a huggle. The wind was still wailing at 7am and now we are to have snow so they say. Well the wind is from the North now and mighty cold it is too.

I see from Runestones other blog that the winds in Sanday hit 85 miles an hour with an average 63 mph. Hope that Hermits geese havn't seen any of their eggs or nest flying off.

The cats were pounding on the door this morning to get out of the weather and Hooch had to be turned out of his warm bed reluctantly

As you can see from the expression on his face he wasn't too pleased

I bet that you lot thought that We had been sitting on our laurels since closing off the roof till springtime, (that's if it arrives) Well now that the new living accomodation is semi water tight etc we have been trying to get our heated floor circuit in and the final 4 inches of mortar and polystyrene in place. Its a long winded process and because we both have part time jobs is a little disjointed and slow.

We layed the blue plastic membrane on top of the concrete floor followed by a layer of 2" thick polystyrene and then had to lay a tubing system on top of this that would carry the hot water around the floor to heat the house and my cold toes in the winter. This was a slow business as we have a 600 metre roll and you are trying not to dent the polystyrene too much or kink the pipe. When this was laid then we had to pour on a mortar mix of a further 2" on top and crown it with the flag stones that we aquired from a third party. ( No not the roof of a neighbouring hoose)



The flags were a mixture of sizes the largest being 1.32 m x 1.2m square and I can tell you were very difficult to move lift and lay. As there were only Mr B and meself the task took nearly 3 days and a lot of heated exchanges and tired aching muscles.

Lots of people would say why bother, why not just put down Linoleum or tiles but we think that the hoose wouldn't look right without me flag floor or me Rayburn.



We have also made a hole in the trusses to take the staircase and started putting in the electric consumer units. Now we are going to have a relaxing weekend finishing off the floor and looking forward to the next task , screeding the rest of the floors Aaaargh .

update: Finished floor Sunday evening 8pm pics to follow

Yes the floor is finished all we need now are walls, electric,water,a ceiling and a few doors but apart from that its done. The Rayburn has been polished and moved to a place nearby its final resting place and the heated floor is just waiting for the hook up and gentle filling and raising the heat in the pipes which can be done in a few weeks time. The next task will be the bedroom floor and then the shower room and bathroom, by that time the weather should be good enough for the rest of the roof to be exposed and the new roof completed. It all sounds so easy doesn't it.



Well another ton of sand has been delivered today along with more bags of cement so I can guess what I will be doing for the next few days. OH JOY !!!

Now we have resisted to eat any of our animals up until now, but when needs must I guess you have to be heartless and forget all your morals and take the plunge, We have a few ducks and when they were purchased we were hoping for more females than males but alas the males outnumbered them.



The mad axeman of the house decided that it was time we gave the female ducks a chance and the householders a free meal.

So off to the byre with said duck tucked under his wing. a few moments later out he comes with a dead duck. I hung it up and plucked out all the lovely white feathers and down then it was taken to a neighbour for a lesson in disecting and getting ready for the oven.




After preparing and plucking we tucked into a lovely meal of Roast Duck.




This blog is to celebrate Mjcs new aquisition, may all his ducks grow into succulent fat ducks