Turning into an epic :-(

Eight fifteen PM now and I’m ready for my bed, sure I’ve been blogging ‘early doors’ of late but I’m back to work on Tuesday and really need to get the Disco finished tomorrow. The ‘little’ welding job I started is (as usual) turning into an epic and we’re off to dry dock on Thursday. So, not only do I need a car, I need one that works properly and me Subaru is also poorly at the moment.

I only started this wee job cos the Disco is such a faff to get on my lift.

  

I use long planks of wood supporting the sills rather than just the rubber pads, they spread the load much better and there’s not the danger of the pads slipping on a sloping steel chassis. In all honesty I wouldn’t be seen dead under this Chinese lift if I’d not put the vehicle on it myself, sure it has safety locks on the arms and lift but it would be extremely easy to dislodge the vehicle and have it crush you if you were not more than a little cautious. Once up in the air though it really does make life so much easier.

Off to bed now but I’ll leave you with the last pics of the day

 

Busy I may have been but it was Sunday after all, so when a good friend turned up we took the dugs out for a walk, making sure of course to take a bag for any ‘shrooms we found along the way.

 

Well it certainly has been the year of the lactarius, these monster ‘shrooms were popping up everywhere. Not held in high esteem throughout Europe they are apparently a delicacy in Russia when pickled in salt. Perhaps that’s what my granny did with them.

We wandered down the Torran track towards the Old Schoolhouse, then just before it, turned right and followed the burn up towards North Arnish. The last time I was up here must have been ten years back when checking it out for a possible hydro turbine.

 

Leah just kept checking it out for possible bathing sites, Molly watched in amusement, Wee Dug is not fond of water and is good to follow across boggy ground cos she generally picks a dry route It’s quite a magical spot up this valley and it is not a frequently visited one, bar the deer of course which seem to use it regularly. With a bit of work it would certainly be a possible micro hydro electric scheme of a couple of hundred Watts but it’s a long way from my house

 

There are the remains of a few old boundary walls up there and once clear of the birch and hazel you come out near an old sheep ffank below the red rocks of Torran.

 

Sure they don’t look very red now but come the late autumn blood red sunsets, they’ll be ‘on fire’

Turning right we then did the short climb up to North Arnish,

 

being blessed with some fine views of Torran along the way. Nice wind turbines no wind

 

I guess this ruin, which was once the Post Office must, if I’m not very much mistaken, be the highest house on Raasay by a long way. It certainly produced people of strength, you had to be fit just to live there

Back under the Disco

Once back home with the first winter chanterelles of the season, a few hedgehogs, regular chanterelles and a birch boletus, I got back under me truck.

 

I don’t usually bother picking the birch boletus, they are really common and nice dried for soups and curries but they’re a bit slimy when fried. However, this one was a nice specimen and would bulk up the sauce I was planning for a dinner with scallops

   

Meanwhile it was back to my pile of steel for stitching to the Disco chassis,

three, five and eight millimetre steel should do the trick