Today I’m sick of it :-)

Well yesterday I was after bottling it but today I’m sick of the sight of it Water that is, a complete change in the weather today kept me in bed until almost 9:00am. It was forecast right enough and I had been rushing around yesterday like a man possessed trying to get all the dry jobs done before the deluge. So when I opened my eyes this morning in the half light of four thirty and saw the wee Rutland wind turbine going berserk I turned over and went back to sleep.

At this point it was still dry but my next stirring a couple of hours later revealed rain drops on the windows. Now when we get water on any of our windows it’s very stormy indeed. With walls over three feet thick, windows set back accordingly into deep recesses and an extremely sheltered location it’s rare occasion when we actually hear the ‘patter of tiny drops’.  Sunday the thirteenth of May was such a day, the swallows that arrived yesterday from a dry and balmy North Africa must have been well miffed Me I just stayed in bed and listened to it.

It was probably well after 10:00am when I actually got dressed and ventured forth to have a look at the chooks.

It would be their first proper storm and I wanted to see how they were taking it, unlike the pigs who had to be dragged out of their shelters to be fed the hens were ‘loving it’. Or at least unperturbed by it all and certainly not taking refuge in their coops.

That’s just over two weeks we’ve had them and a few of them are starting to develop brighter combs, a sign that eggs aren’t far away. I wish they’d hurry up as we forgot to buy any on Friday

A day in the shed

Eventually summoning up the enthusiasm to go out I headed up to the new shed to get on with getting power up there.

It’s only a temporary solution whilst we build the house but it should provide us with an adequate supply for that and the caravan until we get a new system up and running.

 

The large door to the shed may not have been positioned for the best access but today was the perfect day for seeing why I put it there. This south westerly that was raging all day is the one we get the most of and for the whole day I pottered about inside with the double doors wide open without any wind or water entering the shed It’s the same orientation as our house door will be, north east, so sheltered from all the main and wet winds. The water was cascading off the hills, running down the road and travelling sideways through the air but the wee dog and I stayed dry in the big shed

Not just sideways but uphill too

To be honest I spent more time driving up and down in the Land Rover for tools than actually working but by the end of the day I’d got as much done as I could hope for.

Main armoured cable to the generator shed at ‘number 3’ connected up with consumer unit and RCD. Also the SMA ‘Windy Boy GTI’ mounted with AC and DC disconnects almost done.

I should get that finished tomorrow and with a bit of luck we’ll have power up there until we get something permanent sorted.

The early evening saw a little improvement, not in the wind but certainly in the rain which turned more showery. Not that you’d believe it from that picture of Ard Torran but I did manage to wander up the hill to inspect yesterdays handiwork.

 

 

I was most pleased to see around 800 to 1000lts of fresh, clean and lovely water in our newly installed tank over 24 hours, more than adequate for a family of four, even if three of them were women With 3600lts in this tank plus whatever is in the ‘slow sand filter’ I reckon we’re sorted on the water front. Today’s downpour may have swelled the burns but it made no difference whatsoever to the amount of water flowing into the tank form its tiny spring.

Power at last

This wild weather has certainly put some life into the batteries with the washing machine going all day and the tumble drier still on. Even with roast potatoes for dinner and ‘intensive stains’ programs on the washing machine the battery voltage is hovering around 56v

 

and that’s with a 1600w heater on in the porch!!!

There was a little snag around 19:00 when I went to feed the pigs right enough

a large clod of earth having blocked the hydro turbine intake

A large clod of earth moved by a pig no doubt, but it was soon removed and the old Stream Engine http://www.microhydropower.com/ was once more belting out 800w

A quick trip down to the shore ensuring that all was well 40m below the header tank.

And that was about it really, I managed to find my weather station for the first time in months so here’s the results.

 

And now I’m off to bed

I think I’ll bottle it :-)

It really did not get off to a good start today on the tank moving front despite my cunning plan. Unlike the large square fibre glass tank this one would not fit through the gates so had to go the long way ground. Also the shape of this tank may on first appraisal seem easier to roll and so it is on a gentle slope. However on steeper ground the smooth surface ‘skids’ and it has no friggin brakes If you slip whilst pushing a square tank it’s unlikely to roll very far, whereas loosing ones footing with the great round drum could have seen it in the sea, in the Land Rover or worse still through the shed roof

Towing it with the quad was out of the question but if I could get enough rope and a pulley set up perhaps I could tow it ‘doon the way’ so to speak. Initial survey of the route looked promising with a couple of sturdy anchor point being located at the two steepest points. So all I had to do now was find some rope, lots of it and all the same size.

Now during my fishing days that would not have been a problem as there would always be the odd 220m coil of 8, 10, 12 or even 14mm polypropylene rope kicking about the croft. The 8 would be for binding creels the 10 for the ‘snoods’ or ‘droppers’ as they’re called for attaching the creel to the heavier ‘back rope’. The idea being that if one creel got caught the lighter rope would snap rather than the main rope. Even if there’d been no new rope there would have been plenty of good used stuff about the place, but not today

The best I could do this morning before breakfast number one was to go down to the tiny natural slip that is ‘Port Arnish’ scrounge some old ‘back rope’ that had been cut up into short lengths and splice it together.

Whilst splicing the ends it became obvious that this rope was well past its ‘sell by date’, but being a little desperate and optimistic in equal measure I managed to make up 70m.

 

Next job, just before the porridge that had been simmering away all night on top of the stove was a little ‘compacting’ for the bin men

I hate dragging them all the way up here on a Saturday morning so try and get as much in the bins as possible before asking them up.

Bins squashed, belly stoked with oats and honey I set about anchoring my pulley at the top of the first steep hill.

Attaching the loose end to the rear of the quad and trying to drag the tank up the hill just succeeded in snapping the dubious rope. Doubling up the 70m of rope and trying to pull it slowly with the Land Rover’s 9500lb winch had the same effect so it was time to go for ‘second breakfast’ and call in the reserves

 

Four strands of rope and a block an tackle moving it in 3m stages seemed to do the trick, albeit slowly.

Once the Titan 3600lt tank was up to the second level it was plain sailing and we managed to roll it the rest of the way by hand.

 

Leaving it in a ‘safe’ place just short of its ultimate destination whilst we prepared a level area for it.

 

This spot is just below the primary tank that will house the ‘slow sand filter’ but only just so as to loose as little ‘head’ as possible. After getting the site level and ensuring there were no stones under it we rolled the tank into its final resting place.

 

After the long job of bodging fittings and pipes together to make up a clean and uncontaminated pipe to the tank we left it to fill.

A thirsty job that required lots of sampling of the new water supply, and I have to say that it’s as good as any bottled water I’ve ever tasted, perhaps we should sell it along with ‘Arnish eggs’ and Raasay pork

 

 

Of course it’s no where near finished, there’s still a new supply pipe to the barn to be laid and buried, the inlet to be insulated, the primary tank to be filled with ‘filter medium’ and a lid to be made. However it did feel like we’d really achieved something. Believe it or not water has always been a problem here and it took me around twenty years to fully sort the supply for http://www.iosea.co.uk/3sarnish.shtml . The last couple of summers being the only ones that we have not actually run out of water, or at least had to ration it. And that is not because our summers are getting wetter, unlike the rest of Britain we seem to have exceptionally dry springs and early summers, the rest of the year water is definitely not a problem

Soon as tomorrow is supposed to be a pure miserable day of wind and rain I stayed outside as long as possible cutting the grass and doing outside jobs. I’ve a feeling Sunday could be an inside kind of day, torn between wiring up the barn and making up egg box labels.. Already the wind has started to howl the battery voltage creep up and the heating come on.

 

Good job that tank’s got water in it

I wonder what these guys make of it all