All shuttered up :-)

That’s it, 22:40 and I’m just in after shutting the hens in for the night for wifey, I did try earlier but they seemed to be in ‘party mode’ and did not want to go in. A bit like me really, for it was well after 21:00 when Molly, Charlie and I finally came in. Charlie being one of Molly’s pups that we’re looking after for a week or two.

Aint he cute all we have to do is keep him away from the hens and he’ll be just fine.

The day got off to a cracking start and just kept getting better

and by 8:00am it was too warm for the overalls so after cleaning out the pigs I ditched them and got on with some more bedding cutting.

Then I took a bag of seaweed to the hens who wasted no time in scratching their way through it for all the ‘jumpers’.

Next job was to go and check the hydro pipe for leaks etc on the quad but when I got to it the Honda was pouring fuel out of the carburettor over flow.

 

Removal of the carb revealed it to be full of crud

 

but, even hovering all this out and a big dollop sat on the float

failed to cure it.

So in desperation I cleaned up the valve seat with a twist drill, I know ‘rough as a bears ar5e’ , wrong angle and all that, but living on islands a hundred miles from anywhere as turned me into an ace bodger Any port in a storm they say, well it worked just fine (eventually) so off we went.

Stopping for a wee rest on the way, the ‘pit stop’ of choice being ‘Finlay’s rest’, a little overhang at the base of a cliff at the top of a steep climb out of Tarbert. Apparently some dude called Finlay, or was it Hector used to have a wee snooze here. Easy to see why as it’s very comfortable and in the lee of the prevailing winds.

 

 

It’s just in the middle of that map where those shadows are.

 

 

 

These are just a few of the fine views around Loch Arnish today but I can hardly even keep my eyes open.

So here’s a rare treat for you,

four dolphins off Raasay today, caught on camera by Fiona Gillies,

why on earth would you go anywhere else

Treated like cattle at airports with delays and security check when this is on your doorstep, I just don’t see the point

And whilst that was happening at the south end, we had a coastguard display at the north end

 

Though I was way to busy shuttering up the base of a new generator shed to pay much heed

A great start :-)

Summer is most definitely here at last, we had a good dry spell in April but there was no heat with it, today has been a roaster Back to the T shirt and sandals without even my trademark overalls for most of the gorgeous day.

It got off to a shaky start right enough, that box of wine we bought in Portree yesterday taking a severe hammering. I only wanted to get a bottle but wifey managed to sneak a box in whilst I wasn’t looking. Fortunately I’m loaded with Tramadol right now so alcohol is out of the question

Day one

Lying in bed until 7:50 I left wifey to feed everyone whilst I nursed the sore head I’d tried to fix with Paracetomol a couple of hours later. Swearing I’d never drink again I finally got up and wifey put some life into me in the form of a poached Arnish egg. Unlike most people I usually awake hungry if hung over, actually I wake up looking for something to eat most mornings In fact I’m permanently famished and really do need to eat every couple of hours, by rights I should be about 20 stone but I’ve been around 11 for years.

Anyway, feeling a little guilty at having let wifey do all the morning chores before she headed to work I got on with some ‘chook work’.

  

A couple of ‘Houdini’s had been escaping over the gate so I put some bars on the sides to see if that would stop them.

 

Of course I just had to have a look at the egg situation

And I must confess at putting them all in one box to take a picture of all SEVEN

After that Molly and I went down to Tarbert to retrieve a piece of driftwood before the kayakers burnt it Regular readers may get the impression I’ve a problem with these people, well I don’t OK, I’ve rescued loads, they’ve burnt one of my telegraph poles, they clog up the car park at Sconser and bare their ar5es for the locals but I’ve done the same myself Not as a canoeist but as a diver, yup, been rescued, bared my ar5e and probably done worse than burn driftwood. It’s only now that I realize what a plonker I was back then, but if you spend all your life doing a 5h1tty job in the city for five weeks holiday a year, you are going to do your sport whatever the weather

This old bit of wooden salmon cage will make a fine bench up at the new house

Whilst down there we had a good look around the old sheep fank and dipper there.

Just check out the stonework on that wall by the dipper, it’s built over a small burn, the water of which could be diverted to fill the trough at the other side.

A plugged steel pipe in the bottom allowing it to be drained once the dip had been finished with.

The stone and tin shelter being much as it was when last used some twenty five years ago

when corned beef was obviously the lunchtime snack of choice

There were even some old ear tags marked S.A. which I suppose is South Arnish,

a couple of old shearing stools, a stirrup pump and something for elephants

The boating season is here

With three weeks ahead of me and a planned trip to see Bill on Rona http://www.isleofrona.com/ 

for some special birthday presents, I thought I’d better sort my mates boat.

The indestructible ‘Pioner Maxi’ has been suffering a recurring problem of the steering seizing up when not used for a few weeks. Some years ago I fitted a new ‘Morse’ cable and it wasn’t much better so today I dug out the old cable and made up a device to fill it with thin oil using an old yoghurt pot and an electrical cable gland. A hole was drilled in the pot to take the gland then the cable poked through it and the gland tightened up. Once sealed I filled the pot with a mixture of oil and diesel and kept working the cable too and fro and round and round until the lubrication was throughout the cable.

  

Removing the old cable and cleaning out the pivot tube prior to fitting the new (old) one

A file then a piece of rope with a rag in it worked as one would a rifle and ‘pull through’ and the ‘worm wheel’ given a good coat of grease.

All  of this done whilst I left the Lister ST2 7Kw generator running a few hundred yards away at http://www.uniquescotland.com/raasayschool/index.html . The solar hydro system there works so well that the generator seldom runs so it’s good to give it a couple of hours use every few months to keep its batteries charged up. My Trace SW4548e has an ‘exercise start’ facility that you can set to run the generator at up to 90 day intervals to do the same, though I’ve never actually used it.

That done and with slick steering we went back home for food and to cut the grass

 

at our beautiful house http://www.iosea.co.uk/3sarnish.shtml that is still for sale

Then I went up the mast to replace the rubber band on the wind turbine

You can see Lewis and Harris from up there

but it’s a long way up and I’m getting too old for this 5h1t

Bedding and fences

A reluctant but necessary spell on the phone to window people http://www.treecraft-woodwork.com/ and the VAT man was also achieved prior to a risotto then a wee sleep Just an hours lie down after dinner but it left me fit and fresh for the ‘evening shift’ of feeding

 

fence repairs and cutting rushes. Can you believe that a fully grown sow burst that fence which is only seven years old!!!

 

A good pile of bedding filled the trailer just in time for the sun going down,

what can I say