I awoke today to the distant chug of Harry our Lister HR2 12kw generator. Harry starts automatically when the battery bank supplying the house gets low. It must be a couple of weeks since he was last running as we’ve had good summer breezes for the wind turbine but with the exrta washes from having 3 children in the house just now and the electric oven going for the odd treat of oven chips we,ve been using more power than normal. Normaly the only indication he’s running are some lights outside and a voltmeter in the kitchen as he’s well away from the house but this morning I had a window open upstairs and heard his reassuring beat. In some ways I miss relying on the generator for all our mains power. We’ve allways had the small 12v ‘Rutland’ that kept the lights going but for anything like the washing machine or power tools it was out to the shed about 50m away to swing the old SR1 Lister into life with the starting handle then it was back out a few hours later in my wellies and pyjamas to stop it. I did this for around 10 years until I rigged up an ST2 Lister that I could electric start (still in the shed) and stop from in the house with a switch. This was pure luxury but I did miss some magical starry nights, several displays of the ‘northern lights’ and of course dodging all the toads in the autumn! The house also felt like it came alive when all the lights came on at once with its steady heartbeat. Talk about rose tinted glasses! most of the time it was pishing with rain, I was forever lugging barrels of diesel about and allways smelt of engine oil! Still it was good to hear it for a change on this still damp misty morning.
The ‘wee chunks’ were waiting by the Land Rover this morning, they probably heard Harry start up and thought it was breakfast. This batch of 11 that we weaned on Monday have allways been a bit more wary than the spotty pigs but they’re getting bolder by the day. The gate on their field has been left open since mum was moved so they have got a good area to grub about in and can still see mum and the other pigs if they want.
Leaving 11 disappointed piglets behind I set off down ‘Calum’s road’ for work
After which it looked like it was going to be a pretty wet day, however after one almighty shower at 8:00ish it turned into a right bonny day. After a spell of grubbing about in the engine room bilges with a mop and hoover I had a run along to the harbour site where the big crane was busy lifting the batching plant.
With his work done the big black landing craft who’s name I can’t pronounce came to pick him up and land him at Sconser where once ashore he headed slowly for Inverness just in time for the Friday afternoon traffic!
After spending the rest of the day with two mops and several pairs of latex gloves trying to unblock the starboard toilets I went home shattered!
And even the Storr looked tired!
