Terrible of me I know, severe lack lack of effort on my behalf on the posting front, just been waaay too much to do I’m afraid. Anyway’s ‘home at last’ after my spell down at Lochaline and almost halfway through a month’s holiday, where did it go?
To be honest, I feel like I’ve been on holiday for months cos my spell down in Lochaline was a bit of a holiday too
OK, the weather wasn’t always great but I was tucked up in my caravan with the ‘wee dug’ just a ‘stone’s throw’ from ‘work’ and getting well paid for the privilege.
Had great views of the Lochaline fire brigade practicing
and the MV Sea Harmony loading quality sand from the LQS http://www.lochalinequartzsand.co.uk/ mine just on my doorstep so to speak. Bit of a ‘ship anorak’s’ paradise down there for sure.
Sea Cargo’s MV Trans Dania https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:286870/mmsi:248907000/imo:8808604/vessel:TRANS_DANIA
The MV Harmen Oldendorff https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:300055/mmsi:255805290/imo:9120334/vessel:HARMEN_OLDENDORFF probably heading for Glensanda.
Plenty of exciting trucks too a couple of nice Volvo’s from Cameron’s of Lochcarron and D&J Campbell of Oban being just two of the many.
CalMac’s Lord of the Isles and Serco’s SD Moorfowl, is it any coincidence that Serco painted their vessels in CalMac colours just prior to the last round of tendering for the CHFS II https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/35746/chfs-vol-2-instructions-to-participants-itt-issue-version-2-0-02-11-15.pdf contract. Luckily for me CalMac won it and by the next time it’s up for renewal I’ll be retired
So Green
Later than expected and not too soon for me, I finally got home on Thursday night, two days later than expected. The annoyance of my unscheduled extra couple of days at work being tempered by the fine weather and lush green foliage. It was as if summer had arrived in my brief absence
The hedge we’d planted last year was really ‘coming on’ with the best efforts of Bambi failing to kill the hawthorn, maple, buckthorn and rose.
Darling wife had made a start on the new garden, the cuckoo arrived on the 25th and I got stuck into ‘wind proofing’, the ‘deer proofing’ having been a great success
The deer being mightily ‘peed off’ at not having Wifey’s plants to feast on anymore.
Then there was the Land Rover
Apart from all that the ‘Old Girl’ has been testing my patience, It’ll be her 32nd birthday this week and at around a quarter of a million miles ‘on the clock’ she’s been complaining. First off the brakes failed in Lochaline, which I managed to sort whilst there. Then on the way back, whilst driving through Broadford the clutch failed due to a leaky slave cylinder! Having used up all the brake fluid fixing the brakes a few days earlier I resorted to filling the clutch system with ATF which not only worked but slowed down the leak. That was until the throttle cable snapped whilst driving home on Raasay!!!! I couldn’t believe it, within the space of three days I’d managed to loose all three pedals Not that I let that stop me, I clamped the broken cable with a pair of Mole grips and drove the last ten miles with no clutch or throttle cable, I kid you not
The first few days at home were spent fixing the Land Rover,
a new clutch slave cylinder, throttle cable and steering damper too.
Pigs on the hill
Then there was the pigs to put out ‘on the hill’.
Some work to be done on their new home and train them to their new feeding trough. The ‘wee darlings’ managed to get lost the first day but are now into a regular routine.
The slip
Of course there was the major civil engineering project of repairing the old fish farm slipway.
Several trips to Sconser quarry for aggregate giving me a good stockpile of 20mm ‘all in’. The tides and weather being perfect enabling me to drill into the rock to insert ‘re bar’ as the tide was ebbing and then mix & pour for a good six hours, adding some ‘accelerator’ to speed up the curing.
These 16mm U shaped contraptions being perfect for tying into the ancient Lewisian Gneiss.
And, I still managed a little gardening