Summer is here :-)

After 21:00 now, I’m showered and in my PJ’s but Billy is still in the ‘bunker’ with ‘Tallboy’,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallboy_%28bomb%29

I thought ‘Fat man’ was more appropriate but probably not PC these days,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man

Aye, the ‘bomb’ in the ‘bunker’ is being plumbed and filled as we speak and the available space is rapidly diminishing. By the time the 100lt expansion vessel goes in there and the spare inverter and battery bank then there’ll be little room for much more than the freezer.

There has been much progress this last couple of days at Sonas and the weather has been fantastic, sadly I missed almost a full day of it on Monday whilst I visited the hospital.

 

Still, it was a beautiful drive there and there was little in the way of traffic. This is looking over Loch Duich towards Ratagan from the causeway at Kintail.

This is Ratagan looking down Loch Duich towards Inverinate.

A much depleted Loch Cluanie, though I dunno how, with all the rain.

This is the most interesting thing I saw in Inverness, an old forestry commission tractor that would be just grand about the croft

Home on the last ferry,

 

to find the ‘bunker’ lined and panelled and the gable end being plastered.

Tuesday

It was an early start this morning as Lachie stayed over

   

to finish the gable so I could start fitting the solar thermal tubes for Billy. Whilst Lachie was doing this I got back under the Land Rover,

 

 

more welding Just ‘aft’ of the ‘trailing arms’ a couple patches were needed.

 

That done and with Lachie finished I started mounting the 60 solar collectors on the ‘bunker’ roof, starting with the middle one.

Rather than use the pathetic straps that is the norm I used solar PV mounting rails and brackets more suited to the West Coast weather. I just had to modify half a dozen of the clamps to fit the solar hot water collectors.

 

At the top end I just used the regular solar PV clamps through some conveniently slotted holes in the stainless steel frames. The sixty collector tubes will not be fitted until the pipe work is finished, the evacuated tubes can get incredibly hot very quickly and that heat will have nowhere to go.

 

Molly’s task in all this was guarding Billy’s van

 

Well, as I said at the beginning, I came in before 21:00 after the sun had set, Billy was still out there long after 22:00. Not sure how long right enough as by the time he called me to check something out I was three quarters of the way through a nice ‘Cab Sav’ and now it’s Wednesday!!!