18: Journey Back in Time-Scotland, Highlands, Hebrides, Island, Off Grid I The Scottish Isle. 

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I love how Sassy your wife is while she eats lunch and you tried to get her to engage with you in a conversation about crusty old chains

Dig a collection pit at the head of your water pipes, rock line it and stick a funnel in the end of the pipe and mesh it, also remember solid fuel stoves need ventilation for safe combustion, so install an air vent into the cottage and get a carbon monoxide detector

You know why you’ve got 20k subscribers already? Yes we love Scotland, the work you’re doing, the old cottage.. most of all though we love your sense of humour and your fun loving attitudes ❤ Thanks for another great video!

The pear butter and the sieve: did you know (new to me) that if you put a spoon through the loop opposite the handle, it will stabilize the sieve on the bowl. I was aghast that I had not thought of this myself!

That drainage seems a real nightmare. But that apple crumble and cream makes it all better 😊❤

The wood stove looks great Katie. Nice save!🥰

Katie, you are an amazing gal! You're such a hard worker!! The cottage will be beautiful when you and Scott are finished.

This is why I have to move to the UK ..The way Scott said have a cup of tea and a biscuit melts my heart and instantly puts me in a cozy kitchen with a burning fireplace 😆😚❤

Nice job cleaning the ferns,and asst growth!Powerwash is a great idea! Had a problem like this once,was nigh impossible to stop water seeping in thru the foundation,a muddy mess up against it!Hope its bedrock after you clean it out! It was let go for a while too long.Hydraulic concreted it all, stopped the seepage for me,waterproof!Course not the old way to fix things back when. Not an easy or fast job either!Black mold can be a toxic problem from seepage too.

The stove restoration is something to be proud of. I do question the statement that the only way to clean out the trench is with a pressure washer. It seems to me that a smaller rounded shovel and a very stiff bristled broom would get the job done. I can’t imagine that previous occupants of buildings like this used pressure washers to accomplish this task.

Great show. Get a pick axe and extend the trench so that the exit then is lower then the existing trench and has an open outlet. Water falls away. Don't use your boots get the basic hand tools and you will shift it in no time.

If you dig out the muck from the trench then put up a water barrier either by painting it on or using a rubber membrane then stack some of those rocks right along the house edge. Use some of that roof tin to create a diversion by laying it sideways along the length of the house leaning against it and the rocks. Haul up some small stone from the beach to fill in the trench and add a perforated drainage pipe. I'm sure you want to keep the natural creek coming from the top of the hill but putting in an actual culvert from above the catchments going directly to the sea would be a good investment. You can put in a line to go to your catchment tanks and divert the rest. For the top of your water line take some of your chicken wire and cris cross it over the end to keep the larger debris out of the line. I loved watching Katie making the apple butter!

Loved the sheep traffic jam and all the apple goodies. Stove looking good!

I hope you get those chains cleaned up and find a good use for them. They probably WERE from a pirate ship!

You could, potentially culvert the water away from the cottage with natural terracotta tiling. But, there does need to be some sort of membrane all around the cottage to maintain keeping the water out of it. The rocks still need to breathe. Perhaps a nice stone or brick reservoir for the natural spring would be a better option. There's so many things that could be done, but there are hardly any contractors or workers these days that know the older methods of doing things. I've had to do all these things in the past. I love everything about this place.

Super job with the stove, I really thought it was beyond repair! Xx

There are a few points I'd like to make, especially about drainage. Underneath any stream there is always a 'plume' of groundwater. So the wee burn that supplies your black plastic tanks probably has a plume a few metres below and either side of its path. My advice is to relocate the stream above the cliff, above the colection point for the tanks. Redirect the stream further to the right, towards the BnB cottage/office, but well clear of both it and the cottage. Second point. Do NOT allow the tanks to overflow, as this is simply adding to the load on the hillside behind the cottage. Suggest a cement 'lip' to the concrete and block tank stand, with a drain pipe to carry any spillage away to the burn. By all means clean up the drain/channel behind the cottage, but chip away the concrete as well, because it traps water. If after doing all the above and their is no sing the cottage is drying out, you need to pull down and rebuild the stone retaining wall and this time cement mortar the joints between the stones, and renew and add more French drains at the foot of the wal, with geofabric over them to stop silt intrusion. Run the drain lines well clear of BOTH sides of the cottage. If this still doesn remove enough water you will need to get an elctric jackhammer and a generator to run it, and dig the trench deeper, below floor level ideally. Use the rubble generated to pathc the holes in the path to the cottage. You SHOULD be using the 4-wheeler and it's trailer to get stuff to and from the cottage. Walking and carrying everything is daft. No offence. Quads are tricky to lear to drive, if your not already a motorcyclist of some experience. Go find a Forestry or Rural Services Course teaching how to drive them properly. There are some serious skills to learn there. And fit a rollover bar for peace of mind. If you quad is not a large capacity 4-stroke 4WD version, replace it with one that is. Use the jackhammer to dig away at those exposed boulders on the path. Use the rubble generated to fill potholes elswhere on the path. You need to become a 'road builder'.

Anything Apple or pumpkin makes my tummy happy. It is great to find treasures from the past. Hopefully you will find a use for the heavy chain.

I really enjoy watching when Katie cooks, the home-made recipes, seeing her gran's vintage pottery and hearing her wonderful stories...thanks for sharing :)

You can use the chain as a rain chain for your gutters

From Twin Lake Michigan, yes Scott, we are jealous of that delicious apple crumb!

Hi. That chain you found would make a very good land anchor for your boat. Fix the chain to a large rock and when you bring your boat in ....tie the boat mooring rope to the chain. There is a movie you may like on (youtube, ) not that you have much time but it's about 90 minutes. The movie was filmed in Scotland, a cottage smaller than yours but the film is lovely. Ring of Bright Water is a 1969 British comedy-drama film starring Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna. It is a story about a Londoner and his pet otter living on the Scottish coast. The story is fictional, but is adapted from the 1960 autobiographical book of the same name by Gavin Maxwell. It featured the stars of Born Free, another film about a close relationship between humans and a wild animal.

You should look at Hydro-Electric power.

You two are so funny! Loved when she said whistle …. It’s so jaunty. You whistled and said I think I’m going mad! Hilarious!

My neighbor just had a French drain dug on 3 sides of her house, which is connected to a sump pump which sends the water out to the street. And the downspouts from the rain gutters on the roof are tied into the French drain also. Hopefully this will keep her home from flooding this year.

Yes, Socrates drank hemlock, and the version of the story that I heard was that he chose it for himself as his exit... And so passed 'the midwife of ideas'! So, even then, they lived in interesting times. Plato stuck around though, having written about Socrates (who never wrote anything), and subsequently featured in a saying about philosophy that "Philosophy is just footnotes to Plato". I believe this last was from a fella named Whitehead. I'll stop now... it just sparked a few 'interesting' things which kept me sane whilst I was studying my good vocational degree in Philosophy thirty years ago! 😁

You were right. Socrates died from hemlock poisoning. The stove looks great. I wish I had some good advice to help with the drainage issue. We live in a small community and in the spring, when the snow melts, all of the melt runs from the alley, into our driveway, down our sidewalk and pools around the back of our house and yard. We have pumps that we put out to move it further along. It's a matter of engineering and way too expensive to correct for ourselves and the city is not interested in redoing the alley, so it is what it is. The apple crumble looked delicious. I could almost taste it, but with a bit of real vanilla ice cream melting over the top. Yum. Good luck with the drainage issue.

I core and roast my apples in the oven on low to make apple butter. No need to stir while cooking and overnight they are mush. Then can it. Yum! Slainte.

Make a spice apple chutney

…a great combination of goings on…..😊……reminder to go & pick up my windfalls !

Congratulations on 20 k subscribers. watching from South Yorkshire,

If you ever put up a railing of some kind along a path, or next to your new outdoor steps, that chain could be the "handle", draping along the tops of the rails. That would look cool, and it would be sturdy, if you could get it clean enough to put your hands on. Sheep Jam - haha! I just made applesauce last week and used my conical food mill. It's such a useful item for all kinds of fruit/food preservation. I hope you can get one soon! The stove looks beautiful! Good work on the drainage trench. That's back-breaking work! That spot reminds me of the back of my grandparents' house on the steep hill in West Virginia. Looks just the same. I think they had a concrete retaining wall back there, with a narrow concrete walkway next to the house, and a back door.

Scott, each link in that chain, is worth, atleast, a tener 💰💰💰

I harvested apples, cut them thin, spread out on a baking sheet, sprinkled cinnamon and dried at low heat. They're delicious, no sugar used. I prefer these for making things later, much easier to store, know exactly what is in it.

🙋‍♀️❤️ YES! I'm jealous! I can smell apples from here! Delicious!

The wood stove looks beautiful 🤗 I love anything with apples 😊❤

You'll never stop the water reaching the trench, the only solution is to fix the trench to allow it to flow away, good luck with it.👍

The "so why did you" (drag the chain up) made me laugh! My cat does a similar thing! 😁

The connection between the two rain water collection tanks should be a couple of inches from the base, not at the top. The holes at the top should be used for an overflow pipe that takes any excess water back to the burn. This will stop excess water being collected from drenching the ground behind the croft. You're absolutely spot on that the house and stonework need to breathe. Cement and concrete is your enemy. Better to get that concrete off the rear wall at the bottom. Had the same issue with a 400 year farmhouse in Yorkshire. Any repairs should be in lime mortar and make sure the water has somewhere to drain away to and not sit. It's only there as it has nowhere to go. Keep up the great work. It's a hard slog.

The chain could me some decorative garden fencing.

the chain could hold hanging plant pots along a wall or between trees or use as a keep off this area or as a chain safety fence for your rock stairs painted white / glow in the dark the posts being concrete mushrooms :D ahhh whimsey

Lol caitie had me laughing, looking at the chain like what you think you're going to do with that 😆 🤣 I'd be a bit scared too 😆 🤣

I love homemade apple butter. I have made and canned it. My children loved it on buttered biscuit ❤

Wood stove looks great ..... I need to do that to mine & I now know how to do it.... 🙂❤ Apple goodies look great too...🙂🙂 Katie youre a woman after my own heart.... alot of get up n go....🙂🙂❤❤

I love your videos! I just binge watched 5 of them this morning! ❤

Greetings from Ann Arbor, Michigan - my Grandparent's emigrated from Saltcoats, Scotland in the 1920's. Still close to many cousins there.

If you've got an old car battery charger, you can derust that chain through electrolysis. Simply connect the chain to the negative, a piece of iron to the positive and emerse in a tub of water mixed with soda crystals. Make sure the positive and negative and metals don't touch directly. Leave to bubble away overnight and you'll have a clean chain in the morning - or 24 hours depending how bad it is. Wash off and wipe/soak in old engine oil to protect further. Could have done the stove like that too once the major rust was off, if you'd had a big enough tub for it. Looks lovely now with the stove blacking and window replaced.

Hello from South Florida👋

I am jealous I want pie too❤

Greetings again from Chicago Illinois! Wow so much water! Congrats on reaching 20k!! ❤

Well going to watch more 😊another day loving these vides

Wonderful job on all of your tasks, outside and inside. Yes, I am jealous. The apple crumble looks amazing. Can't wait to see the stove in all it's glory. Best of luck on all of the many things yet to do. From Virginia USA (soon to be Texas, USA).

I've got the munchies for apple crumble now! Has to be cold though, with cold custard!

Hungry for apple pie now! The stove looks amazing; well done!

I would love some of your recipes. Maybe a cookbook!

My grandma used to make lots of marmalades that needed stirring so they wouldn't stick, and to buy herself more time she used to put ceramic marbles in the bottom of her pans. Much less likely to shatter and ruin the batch than glass ones and she said the heat used to cause them to roll around the pan and self stir the pot. Might be worth trying if you have lots to do as well as the cooking. Love the videos

Hubby suggests putting gravel down, water proffing barrier, then a drainpipe...also you need to put in new eavestroughs, since that one has a huge hole in the middle, which allows the water to fall exactly down in the gully! And by putting the pipe going across the gully onto the land, well, of course it will come through the earth and back down to the gully!!!!! If you put in a new eavestrough from the roof going down toward the front of the house into a barrel and from the barrel an underground pipe back to the water's edge...that might solve part or alot of the problem!! Also, figure out a way to perhaps enclose the two huge water collection barrels at the creek and have a drain and pipe from there going out passed the house, down towards the water again. OR get yourselves a huge water collection barrel. Sometimes things seem more complicated then they are.I suppose it is all just a matter of how you look at it. Also, do look up ideas on internet....some are good ones, especially if you don't really know what you are doing or what to do. Good luck. and do make sure to build up the wall again where you removed the stones, so that the earth won't fall back into the gully!

❤Sheep traffic lights❤

You need to install French drains around your house where water is pooling. It is easy to do yourself 😁👍 . I found some on ytube.

Had me lol on whistle part😂

The stove looks brilliant, amazing what a bit of elbow grease can do.

I like your new rusty old chain very much. I imagined it hanging from a couple of iron hooks embedded into the rocks along the old stone wall next to the steps you built a few weeks ago. Swag style!

Hello to the both of you. I also was thinking about a culvert and membrane to help with your drainage problem. Others on here obviously know how to fix it up properly. You'll get there. The wood stove loo😢ks great. I had one, a bit bigger than yours. I had do install a damper on my stovepipe because the fire would start out slow then take off and burn like mad. Was a bit temperamental . I used to make applesauce and apple butter for my family and of course pies and the like. Your apple butter looks yummy. Then again, a crumble sounds tasty too. I still make applesauce spice cake but I can never make enough. I disappears quicker than I can make it. The house smells so good. Makes me feel like Fall really is here. Time for a cozy fire, a nice hot cup of tea and something sweet to go with it. Lols. Good luck on all of your projects. Take care.

Water creates so much work, but to not have it is far worse. Regarding your drainage problems, make sure that water can drain away from behind the house by creating/restoring preferential channels with French drains. You can't prevent water from entering that gap behind the house, but you can make it easier to channel it away so it doesn't sit perched against the house. Good luck!

I really enjoy watching your videos. I can’t wait to see how it looks many years from now. Greetings from Wisconsin, USA

You can make apple butter in a slow cooker (Crockpot) without the constant stirring.

Great episode tonight. You were both so happy

I can relate to looking to see what an higher than normal tide might have washed up. I grew up on a saltwater marsh at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay. Surprising what you can find.

Apple looks delicious. I hope you get your water problems fixed. Good luck you're going to need it. But I believe you will get it done. Can't have water coming in the house.

Corrugated perforated plastic piping... covered with a membrane and gravel or in your case small stones may work... it worked for my home where run off of the neighbor's property was coming under my crawl space..

I don't know if anyone said anything but i would hook up two hoses to your tanks to control overflow they got threaded nipples on top i seen them just run the hoses past your house then use the over flow water in your garden or for whatever.Its a quick cheap fix

Stove looks 💯%😊

Maybe look into a medieval style French drain along the cottage. Or hybridize it with some modern materials. Anyway there are French drains at the Fortress of Louisbourg and at Oak Island here in Nova Scotia that have been quite functional and more importantly, maintenance free, for hundreds of years.

Nice work on the stove! I suspect you might find controlling the burn a little challenging without the top vents, but you could always open up a couple again if needed, or just leave the door slightly ajar 😊 There's nothing better than a hot stove on a cold wet day.

Yes it was Hemlock.

Greetings from South africa

Delicious yum !!

Big job for the barra

Hello John & Katie, looks like your making progress, on the drainage issue. On the side of the house. Katie You're cooking with apples to make various desserts, looks very tasty. Looking forward to see more of your videos ongoing.

Drainage is an absolute nightmare! My idea is to level the ground. This is the only way the drainage can be maintained. That sounds like a very big task. Caring for it alone will be a never-ending job. But that’s how it is as a homeowner! But basically: Another nice video. It's nice to see the ups and downs of a normal couple with a beautiful but labor-intensive cottage! Thanks for that! 😊

Feild drains are brilliant when installed properly. Look up French drain. A small bit of research and some hard labour will see it done correctly. These look like they have been installed without any breathable membrane. This goes a long way. Especially in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 good luck with the project

This is a dream for me. I would love every minute. Hard or easy I would love it

Hey greetings from Cornwall

No i have very bad water situation also,,coming off hills above me,,in the process also of rendering the problem 4' in basement🙄i know you will get it figured out❤

Hot apple crumble 🙂

Like the foolish man, I built my house on a sandhill overlooking a lake. When there is a heavy rain, the water runs through the sand and drains into the lake. The footings of my house block this natural drainage. We solved the problem by installing weeping tile covered in landscape cloth to keep out the dirt. The tile drains the water to the edge of the bank and lets it end up in the lake instead of my house. Love your videos. Good luck!

NOOO! Don’t whistle! You’ll whistle up the wind. Don’t need anymore weather up there 😄 Apple fillings and butter look lovely. Any sauce for pork? 😋 You both have really good boots to put up with what you put them through.

If you do manage to straiten that back wall, maybe you can put a large gutter and drain it off down the sides, I'd extended the wall so that the gutter has good clearance from the house wall perimeter. Bitumen on the lower wall might water seal the bottom section of the house stones/concrete

Perhaps a stupid question but has there been any thought of putting an overflow valve on the water tank systems? That might give you some control over the flow of excess water. I know it’s still a problem but might ease it off a bit. Good luck and be safe all!

So cozy and heartwarming! You can make a literal rain chain, chain rail for a slippery location or next to a stairway.

the log burner looks bang on! well done guys! the transformation look so good.

Thank you for another great video. I laughed several times because you are both have great sarcastic humor. The apple crumble looked wonderful Katie. My youngest grandaughter is a Katie. She was named after Katharine Hepburn, although her Mom spelled it Kathryn

For better flavor with the apples soak them in salt water (not to salty) It doesn’t make them salty at all. It actually brings out the sweetness in them. 😉

That a-le butter looks so yummy.

Yum, apple butter

Hi there....the island is soooo beautifull!! The pictures of ferns and streams so amazing. Those apples looked like a lot of work!!! Got hungry. Looking at your lunch there!! Stove came out lovely!! Nice and clean. Maybe clean the side of the house...put sand and stone for the water to run off? Enjoy your week...be safe!!

Apples! Can Them!

J'adore vos vidéos et vos musiques. l'Écosse semble un pays magnifique , j'adorerais y aller. Bonne continuation et bon courage pour vos projets. 😀👏👏🇫🇷

Keep your doors and windows open when you light the first fire, that lovely looking new stove is going to off gas for quite a while. Stove blacking and high temp stove paint does that. I love the chain the tide brought in, it would look good hanging on the outside of the addition. I have an old one wth blacksmith made hooks on either end. I hand my clothespin basket on the hooks.