The Buildings are Still Standing

Happy New Year everyone! 2011 has started (well, awhile ago), and the buildings are still standing. Last night we weren't to sure about that. A force 9 wind were shaking the buildings and as I was lying in bed I could hear the tiles on the roof flapping about. An inspection is scheduled for this morning, just to make sure that the buildings are actually still standing.

Biggest news at Camas: Etinée Fisher was born on the 23rd of January. She is a beautiful little girl and we are looking forward to welcoming her down to Camas!

Anyway. A new year and a new season to plan. In about two weeks we are going on tour to visit most of the groups that are coming to us in the summer. Some old friends and some new. I hope to see some of you then!

Josef

More snow than I have ever seen at Camas!!

We've finally caught up with the rest of the country and been blasted by blizzard conditions today. However, it did mean we had the chance to build a snowman with a spiky hairstyle made of Pavilion Shed icicles!

Josef and the chickens checking out a huge piece of ice, Growler checking out his new house!

Hard-working cats?

I should also say that although the cats may appear to be lazy (lots of eating and sleeping going on there) they are certainly good company in a very quiet Camas, and we've had hardly any evidence of mice in the buildings now for weeks despite the cold, so I think they're earning their keep and deserve a mention too. Keep it up Boo and Growler!

What's missing in this picture?

Hello from an icy Camas! It's giving me a new appreciation for the merits of chicken wire...and making me remember to say a (very belated) thanks to all the work weekers who spent much time and effort at the end of October chicken-wiring planks and digging out ditches to improve our track...although sliding up and down it in the last few days it's obvious that track work is a never-ending task!

Amongst all the other work week tasks such as painting, collecting seaweed for the garden beds, wheelbarrowing firewood and peat, making cushions, bringing the boat in for the winter, it was also time to say goodbye to one of our volunteer huts...sorry Darragh, Rachel, Andrew and many others, but your old lopsided home is no more! Don't worry we already have plans to replace it with a brand new one in March. Meanwhile Josef is busy using some of it to construct a cat shelter and feeding station, while other parts are currently keeping my office warm from inside the wood-burning stove!

So I returned to Camas a few days ago and I'm spending a few days doing handover sessions with Mary before she goes on maternity leave and I become Acting Camas Co-ordinator. Not long to go now until baby time! We're happy to have appointed Rosie (one of this season's hardworking 4-month volunteers) as the new Environmental Programme Worker and she will be back with us mid-March.

The garden's still providing us with plenty of salad (in the polytunnel) also leeks, kale, sprouts...no doubt Becky will be popping in at some point to check we're looking after it! Boo-cat is getting friendly again, this morning he let me pick him up and sat quite happily on my lap in the polytunnel. The chickens seem happy enough to keep on laying unless the weather is really wet and cold.

That's all for now...hope everyone's enjoying the snow...we don't have any!

Emily

4 - 2 = 2 and a gingerbread house

A few days ago, four became two. Emily and Beccy finished for the season, but they will both be back. Emily in December and Beccy in the spring. Nevertheless it was a sad day. Emotionally, but also on a mathematical level.

- There are 3 meals in one day: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.
- There are 7 days in one week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... I think you get the picture.
- That equals: 7 * 3 = 21 Meals in a week.
- Subtract the breakfasts because they involve very little cooking, 21 - 7 = 14.
- Subtract the two non-breakfast meals we have on Iona, 14 - 2 = 12.
- Two days a week are days off, and that makes it easier to not do any cooking without feeling guilty, so maybe we can subtract an average 25% of the days-off non-breakfast meals that I was supposed to cook if it was a work day, 12 - (4 - 3,5) = 11,5, in the case of one other person (25% of 2 meals = 0,5 meals).
- There are only two of us here, which means that I have to cook 5,75 meals a week. 11,5 / 2 = 5,75.

I have to cook

((7 * 3) - 7 - 2 - (4 -3,5)) / 2, Meals a week!

Instead of the previous

((7 * 3) - 7 - 2 - (4 - 3,25)) / 4, Meals a week!

That is a difference of 2,9375 meals a week!

Needless to say, I got grumpy. Not only should I get cold, lonely and only see sun a few hours a day, I was also going to cook 2,9375 more meals a week. I needed to get all these frustrations out somehow. All this energy, frustration and adrenalin bottled up inside me.

I built a gingerbread Camas.

As you do.









Ginger bread Camas (up left), ginger bread south building (up right).

Ginger bread northbuilding (down left), gingerbread Camas (down right).












/ Josef

Day Trips

Blogblogblog…

It was quite a while ago I wrote on this blog. It was quite a while ago anyone wrote on this blog. Lots have happened. The first chapter will be called

The day we went on a dear hunt

One day, we went on a dear hunt. Actually, it was a dear rut. I am not exactly sure what a ’rut’ is. I asked one of the rangers that was leading the way. He explained it to me, and I answered: ”ahh, ok… I see”, but I didn’t. It has something to do with the dear mating season. But we were told that we might see some stags fighting, and that was enough to get me sold.

I’m getting ahead of myself. The day started of with a road trip.
With a tank full of petrol, a bucket full of crisps,a car full of people
and 50’s rock classic blasting from the speakers we started off on the scenic route towards Salen. Possible spotting of eagles, a very exciting jump with the sharan over a bridge, we arrived at the waterfall by the Ulva Ferry just in time for the crisps to be all gone. We climbed trees, and were off again to Calgary Bay and some sort of art-in-nature thingy. It started to rain, we got soaked, we headed of to Dervaig, saw a lighthouse (from very far away), visited a very small bookshop, went to Tobermory, ate fish and chips, and got ready for a dear hunt, I mean rut.


When Cally had finished peeing behind the car, we walk into the wild. The wild in this case was a few minutes walk through a small woodland. Some of us saw a big stag just in front of us, before it ran away. But I think all of us saw a couple of more stags walking around on the surrounding hillsides through binoculars. No fighting though.

Darragh drove us home safely through the dark, and we arrived back at Camas late that night, happy after a very nice day trip. A few days later we were very sad to see our last four volunteers leave us. They have been brilliant and we have all had an excellent season. Darragh, Cally, Rob and Tom, come and visit us! And also Jeayeun, Ros and Rosie, come!

The second chapter is called

The day we went to a Lighthouse

One day, we went to a light house. Not any old light house, we went to Ardnamurchen lighthouse. For those who don’t know: Ardnamurchen lighthouse was build out of granite from the Camas quarry. Needless to say: We were all very excited.

We went on the ferry from Tobermory to Kilchoan. It was a very exciting ferry ride. According to one of my colleagues, the ferryman was pretty hot. But that wasn’t what made the ferry ride exciting. A force 7 wind from west was forecast. And we did feel the waves on the ferry. It was rocking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. If you stand on one side, for example, the left side. And you jump just when the ferry is starting to rock to the left, it is quite scary. It feels like you are jumping very high.

We were jumping for thirty minutes.

When we got to the light house, we got to go all the way to the top. We stood in the little glass room where the light is! How exciting! Some facts about Ardnamuchen lighthouse:
- It was built in 1849 and designed by Alan Stevenson.
- It stands 36 meters tall on the most westerly point of the british mainland.
- It has two light flashes, flashing every 20 seconds.

After leaving the light house, we had lunch and went to a wild life center thing. There we crawled though a fake wildcat tunnel, looked at birds, drank tea and got bitten by a plastic shark.

All in all a very good day!

The next chapter is very short.

A very short Chapter

We are now trying to fill our 2011 season. It is looking good so far, but we still have weeks we want to fill. If you are someone, or know someone, who might like to bring a group to Camas, get in touch!
If you would like to volunteer at Camas, get in touch!
If you are interested in the program worker job at Camas, get in touch!

The end.