Well, that’s the ‘wrong cockerel’ finished apart from the stock that’s boiling away on the cooker, sure that was a good 3 or 4 meals out of him and we even took a small dinner around for me Mam on Saturday. We called in there yesterday as we passed through on our way to ‘snecky to pick up the ‘Searider’.
That’ll be us on Lidl’s car park, aint no point going to Inverness without calling into at least one German supermarket. The nice man who sold me the boat kindly towed it to Inverness for us and we met him on the car park at Tesco’s. I cannot emphasise enough how grateful I am for to be quite honest I think driving to Aberdeen and back would have killed me. Jeez, I’ve certainly clocked up some miles this last month, first the courses in Glasgow, then the dry dock return via the ‘Granite city’ and now Inverness and back. Sure most folk probably think nowt of these kinda trips but I hate driving and I’m carp at it.
Anyway, we got home safely on the 16:15 and by the time we’d unhitched the boat, emptied the car and had a delicious chicken curry it was time for bed. OK, it wasn’t even 21:00 but I was pure wrecked and was looking forward to taking the Searider out today.
The right bird at the wrong time
First job whilst it was still dark this morning was to despatch cockerel number two, at least I thought it was. Wifey had changed her mind last night on account of him calming down once the ‘competition’ had ‘gone away’. Trouble is, she came to this decision after I’d gone to bed and neglected to mention it to ‘your truly’. The two cockerels never stopped fighting and taking chunks out of each other so you’d think he’d be happy on his own now with just the two hens, not a chance, he was moping about on the verge of depression, well, at least he was until around 6:00am when I carefully lifted him off his perch, tucked him under my left arm and rung his neck. Something my Granny could do whilst walking and talking at the same time, me, I need to concentrate 
As soon as he stopped flapping I set about plucking him as Wifey had done the last one and I was expecting ‘brownie points’ when she arose. Not a chance, instead of smiles and a thank you, I got a row and lecture on how we were gonna keep him a little longer cos he’d settled down 
A well too late now
And once all the easy feathers were removed by hand I took him out to the shed and finished him off with some pliers. There he hung for a few hours before Darling Wife eviscerated him something like this.
It was a fine day ashore but perhaps a little to fresh for going out in the boat with the wife so I skipped that idea and got on with some work at Torran Schoolhouse instead.
The large rock I placed in the Torran track as a ‘Clown deterrent’ seems to have worked, though it seems to have attracted some other stones atop it Best be careful or it may end up like this
overlooking Loch Loyne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Loyne
I gotta say that I got a little distracted and headed up to the ‘Pipers Rock’ with the wee dug.
The track up there is getting a bit overgrown so it’s good to take the quad up every now and then to help keep it open.
On a good day the views are spectacular, the Glas Eilean with a shower hiding the Storr on Skye.
Our house and our old house from a very, very long way away
and Loch Arnish, Loch Beag and the Brochel loch from even further away.
Torran croft house with golden aspens behind it.
The top,
Piper’s Rock and the wee dug.
pipe alterations to filter the water supply through a bed of gravel.
Tyre trouble
Sure life has got much simpler since I got the 3ton tyre removal tool also known as ‘Calum the Kubota’ but I still hate repairing punctures. Not having to spend ages driving over them with the Land Rover nowadays makes it much less of a chore right enough but I always despair when I see a wheel that aint round but flat at the bottom
New tool on left is much easier than the one on the right So when I noticed that the Yamaha rear left hand tyre was flat on Friday morning I just pumped it up and crossed my fingers. Quad tyres require so little pressure in them that even a slight loss of pressure makes then appear punctured. Indeed most people run quad tyre at far too high a pressure which results in poor traction a hard ride and much skidding on loose surfaces. A typical quad tyre pressure would be around 3.5psi, almost a tenth of what you put in your average car and the difference in grip twixt one at 4psi and one at 20psi is staggering.
Well, it was flat again this morning so I removed the tube and spent an hour or so trying to find the puncture without success, even went in for some chicken curry and left it for another hour but still the tube stayed firm. Reluctantly I rebuilt it in the sure knowledge that it’ll be flat again shortly
I had planned to use Phoebe the wee Daihatsu Terios that is now my son’s steed, however the front left hand out CV joint had just failed on that, so on Saturday morning just prior to leaving Raasay I loaded all my stuff into the Subaru. As soon as I started it up I heard the exhaust blowing 
Well no time to do that at 6:30 AM prior to going to work so I thought ‘I’d risk it’. Upon phoning Wifey I says ‘the exhaust has gone on your car’. To which she informed my that she thought so !!!!! Never actually mentioned it to me right enough 
