The 12kW ‘tumble drier’

Well it’s 5:40am, the hens are done and I’ve just ‘flashed up’ our new ‘drier’,

It’s pishing with rain, which makes a change from snow,

but it’s presenting a challenge in the washing/drying department.

 

At least it was until we started utilizing Harry, our 12kW Lister generator, with two large fans running and the heat given off by his air cooling he makes a fine ‘tumble drier’ The SMA 6.0 H ‘off grid’ inverter has a function on it that enables you to run the generator for an hour. This we’ve found is the ideal way of drying our clothes, at least until the weather improves. Not only that there is a tapping direct into the alternator so when he’s running we’ve a 3kW heater on in the caravan. A perfect start to a chilly morning prior to work

 

The view from our bedroom window.

Moving oil to the Schoolhouse the easy way.

 

How to roll a barrel up hill over the wheel arches using a ratchet strap, necessity is the mother of invention. I usually use a piece of wood but forgot it, this method is far easier.

   

Fresh back from Hawaii, and with a drop in temperature of more than 25 degrees Lachie starts work in a blizzard!!!!

  

A blocked jet on the ‘Stream Engine’ hydro turbine, sorted in a few minutes and probably something to do with me fitting a new filter screen last week.

All the sockets and switches fitted yesterday

The ‘ships carpenter’ made a shelf for the portable ‘air con’ unit last week as temperatures in the wheelhouse soared. This week the heating is back on and I’ve seen the gritter out on Skye!!!!

Seen and heard :-)

Almost May, the cuckoo is here, we’ve just moved into a caravan and it’s started to snow!!!! The temperature has plummeted  and it’s boodly freezing Still, it’s warm enough in the caravan thanks to the renewable energy powered electric heating. I would not like to be heating this little box with gas, a kilo of gas burnt produces a litre of water, so we’re not suffering the usual problem of condensation. The heating is off now and even at 7:00 there is a little of the sun’s heat making itself felt in here.

I actually saw the cuckoo at Brochel on Monday before I heard it but wifey and MiL heard it on Monday, me, I had to wait until Thursday to hear the echo of it’s call bouncing around the rocky cliffs of Torran. The cuckoo is something we all look forward to but by the middle of May it can drive you nuts of a still morning. The natural amphitheatre of the hard Arnish hill amplifying and repeating the call to a degree where I swear the bird is talking to its own echo.

An unscheduled  trip

Well, it certainly was a busy enough day yesterday, up at ‘stupid O clock’, a spell on here then out to do the hens on a fine spring morning.

  

Went to check out the view from the house and was totally amazed at how warm it was inside, far warmer than the heated van and that’s without the 600mm of loft insulation in it

 

I’d spotted a window on Gumtree that would be suitable for the shed, a new Scandinavian one, it wasn’t quite the right size but when I phoned the chap in Inverness he said he had more. With both of us suffering a bad case of poor phone reception it wasn’t actually clear if I’d be able to collect one on Saturday. So, instead of doing what I would have liked to and gone to ‘snecky’ early I hitched up the trailer and went to collect some oil for the schoolhouse and a mate at Eyre.

By 10:00 I’d heard back from my man in Inverness so swapped the Old Girl for Phoebe and caught the 10:55 ferry. Long gone are the days when a trip to Inverness was virtually impossible during the day. Now with the Skye bridge and a ferries every hour you can even do Glasgow and back on a Saturday.

I got there before 14:00, came away with a cracking hardwood, double glazed window, did a quick shop at Lidl, called on my parents and was home for 19:30

I was ‘well chuffed’ http://www.gumtree.com/p/doors-windows/gilge-double-glazed-window/1108603057

The chap has quite a few of different sizes and I can vouch for the quality, a similar one the the one above would be anything between £600 and £900 and that one was £275. Mine was only £140 and is absolutely perfect for what I want.

After that it was a night with the wife ‘internet shopping’ on our ‘interstellar’ broadband that saw £800 spent on a Liebherr fridge and freezer. Sure, you can get reliable appliances for half that price or less but living ‘off grid’ makes every Watt precious and these are the most efficient appliances currently available according to http://www.sust-it.net/ .

Anyway, it’s almost 8:00 now and I’m off out into the cold

Bit different to yesterday’s view