In the meantime we've found other uses for our new patio: dance venue, bike riding circuit, slug-free locale for herb growing, half-court hoops venue. It's amazing what one can do with a bit of hard standing in a land of bogginess. We've also taken up crater-making as a pastime--much to the delight of the three year old. It seems finding a home for our 10 person capacity septic tank has been more difficult than expected. Why a 10 person tank for a three bedroom cottage? Flexibility of course. It means we can have 6 more children or exploit the development potential of our croft--i.e. build another house with 5 bedrooms. Likely scenarios? Probably not. But the 6 or 8 person tank we really wanted wasn't made by the manufacturer we ordered the original 4 person tank from. So, to avoid a rather ridiculous re-stocking charge we super-sized our septic capacity. In this age of excess, why not?
Well, I'll tell you why not: rock. Yes, as mentioned in a previous post, we live on a beach. A beach under which large swathes of toridonian sandstone (which is not as soft as it sounds) flow. Furthermore, due to the nature of our "soil" (also mentioned before) over-digging is required to avoid self levelling. These two factors resulted in the first hole being immense but due to the presence of the aforementioned rock, 150mm (6 in) too shallow. So on to a second hole closer to the house to minimize the required amount of fall in the pipework and therefore the depth of the hole. The depth was achieved, albeit with significantly more effort from a digger two sizes too small for the task at hand. Which probably means a significantly larger invoice. Perhaps the re-stocking charge was a less fraught option.
So the timber has been purchased, delivered (to the wrong address of course) and stacked in the byre to dry out for the next flurry of activity due to commence tomorrow. The joiners have finished off with those in the queue before us and we're next. Watch this space... 
