In our more pensive moments we think of Island living as a microcosm of ‘normal’ life with lots of elements accentuated – the need for cooperation, partnership and mutual dependence in particular. There is strong dependence between the three of us… I depend on Rich to haul firewood and gas bottles up the perilous path to our house; Rosie depends on me for regular feeding; we both depend on Rosie for almighty grins.

But – as I have lamented before – three isn’t quite enough to keep an island going. We are very lucky, therefore, to have various partnerships beyond our rocky shores. One of these is the Coigach-Assynt Living Landscapes project, known as ‘CALL’.

One of Europe’s largest landscape-scale conservation projects, CALL is a partnership with seven other contiguous land owners from here northwards. It includes community groups and non-governmental organisations and aims to bring environmental and economic benefits to the Coigach and Assynt regions.

One of the partners is the John Muir Trust (JMT), the wild land conservation charity, who owns and manages some amazing wild areas. As well as working at all levels from peat bog to parliament, JMT organises work parties of volunteers to get their hands dirty, carrying out management tasks on its own land and – lucky us! – on that of its project partners.

So, one Sunday evening in October, 15 eager souls arrived with tools and tents for a week of hard labour. They say ‘many hands make light work’ but these 30 hands did more than that. Some of the team were total novices, some are almost ‘professional volunteers’ but together, with a bit of expert guidance, they rattled through jobs that have long been mouldering on our ‘to do’ list.

Sections of path which have been squelching and slithering for years were reconstructed with smart drainage culverts and proper surfacing. Tumbledown dry stone walls were resurrected. 12 years’ of over-enthusiastic birch regeneration was thinned to encourage light and diversity. Innumerable bags of rubbish were collected from the island’s south and west coasts. Our elderly fence should now be ready to hold the imminently arriving sheep. And all this with impressive spirit, humour, and disciplined lunch breaks.

Rosie and I spent the week strolling around making grateful comments. The team working on Tigh an Quay pier, which was rebuilt by Frank Fraser Darling (and his long-suffering wife Bobby) in the early 1940s, found a stone inscribed by the famous naturalist and author. It reminded me that in his book Island Farm (1943), FFD recalls the many friends who visited the island, always ready to lend a hand or some elbow grease.

These JMT volunteers may be the most well-organised and productive, but we have always been astonished by how eager our friends and visitors are to help. Perhaps it’s the novelty of manual labour for those escaping their desk-bound life. Or perhaps people instinctively know that a little bit of working together goes a long way in a small island community.

Read more about the CALL project at: http://coigach-assynt.org/; John Muir Trust at: http://www.jmt.org/

This article first appeared as a column in the magazine Scottish Islands Explorer.