More haggis :-)

No sign of the snow yet but apparently it’s on the way shortly and through the night, sure the road has been well gritted but darling wife is on early shift tomorrow so staying in the ‘toon hoose’ That leaves me in charge of the two dugs with Leah curled round my feet under the table and Molly warming the bed. It also means complete silence in the house with just the occasional whirr from the fridge or freezer, pure bliss, normally the TV is on at this time of night belching out some pish Mancunian, Glasgow or Yorkshire accent from the likes of Corrie, River City or Emmerdale. Still it could be worse she could be addicted to the American pish and its canned laughter I am not a fan of the TV and I’d quite happily do without one, did so for years and I can’t say I’ve missed out on anything bar a few episodes of Red Dwarf. Well that and the Russian coup of 91 or was it 93, perhaps both even, I know I discovered those on their anniversaries  same as I did with the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. Still, I’ve always found that you only discover the truth behind any news story a couple of decades after it actually happened. The Suez crisis, Lockerbie bombing and Sadam’s WMD’s to name just a few. Can’t wait to read about really happened with Brexit and Alex Salmond in another decade or so

Not quite the ‘Old Girl’

Having fixed my tipping trailer yesterday by drilling 5mm countersunk holes in the 3mm thick steel galvanized sheets and screwing them onto the 19mm phenolic ply with 5mm stainless screws,

 

I stole the neighbours Nissan. OK, I borrowed their Nissan as I’m awaiting a new alternator for it and it’s only usable with care, care equating to leaving it running, not using the lights, heater, radio, wipers or even brakes unless you have too, which is kinda hard as it’s automatic Anyway, with the alternator not charging you have to keep electrical usage to a minimum or the fuel solenoid shuts off the diesel supply and it conks. So, I had its own battery on charge all night and took another one with me along with jump leads and a battery charger.

My own trusty stead the ‘Old Girl’ has been indisposed at Tayside Land Rover http://www.taysidelandrovers.com/ since April having a six week job done

   

The new galvanized bulkhead, chassis, B posts and doors seems to be turning into a bit of an epic

I never really realized just how essential the ‘Old Girl’ was until I had to do without her, there aren’t that many vehicles that’ll legally tow 3.5t up and down Calum’s Road. Luckily the neighbour’s Nissan Patrol 3.0D is one of them and whilst it’s certainly comfortable by heck it’s thirsty!!!! I put £60 worth of diesel in it and it only went just past half way and by the time I got home it was well below it

 

Fuelling the tank up, collecting dog food and cement from Portree then filling up the trailer with 2tons of aggregate at Sconser taking up most of the day really. SI I got back to the ferry terminal in plenty of time to admire the beautiful stonework on Hector’s bothy cum takeaway, which I’m sure is gonna be a valuable asset to those queueing for the ferry when it opens in the summer.

   

 

I was back on Raasay for 13:20 but by the time I’d had a look at me Mate’s lighting tower,

   

called at the Raasay sawmill to admire my timber and visited darling wife in the ‘toon hoose’ it was almost dark when I got home. Still, at least I didn’t have to make dinner, Wifey had managed to rescue some leftovers from the Burns supper so that was me sorted with more of that excellent haggis and some cock a leekie soup.

All I had to do first was tip the aggregate, park up the Nissan with the battery on charge and mend a puncture on the Subaru.

  

The tyre was only just legal and the puncture was right next to a previous plug so I just fitted a new tyre, no use messing about with tyres at this time of year and I had a new one at hand.

 

That was it really, after the most excellent haggis, neeps and tatties (shame there was no whisky sauce left ) I went back out to the shed and chopped up some threaded bar for the legs on me boat shelter. Time now for another glass of San Pellegrino and to settle down with a good book, this one being ‘Stalin’s Gold’ by Barrie Penrose about the sinking of and subsequent salvage of HMS Edinburgh  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Edinburgh_(16)

Snow in July!!!!! :-)

Well that’ll be the good weather by with now Hopefully not for long though. Spoke too soon, that was two weeks ago and it’s ‘peachy again’ Yup, that’s when I attempted some blogging again, halfway through my ‘on shift’ aboard Hallaig and it was snowing!! Well not really, we were doing some major painting round the portside of the car deck.

  

The hardest bit of which is cleaning up all the ‘snowflakes’ left behind by the power washing.

  

Luckily the trusty MV Hallaig has a large enough car deck to still ship plenty of traffic even with one lane closed. Having said that this was before the ‘Glasgow Fair’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Fair and English school holidays. The Glasgow Fair fortnight being Raasay’s busiest period in the summer, when all the Raasay ‘ex pats’ return to their family homes

Truly finished

My good mate and master builder Lachie Gillies took full advantage of the weather and came over to put the finishing touches to Sonas.

 

That’ll be the ‘ingoes’ around the 20 triple glazed windows finally done It’s been one of those jobs on his ‘to do’ list for a couple of years, don’t worry Lachie, I’ve got hunners of jobs been waiting much longer than that

  

The Raasay House sgoth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgoth Oigh Niseach, four hens in one nest box and the gaff rigged cutter Eda Frandsen https://eda-frandsen.co.uk/ moored in Loch Arnish.

  

My son exploring more of the Arnish sea caves

 

and wildlife, in and around Loch Arnish.

Everyone should have a digger

That was the ‘fortnight on’ as for the ‘two weeks off’ well that’s half way by with and much of it has revolved around Calum, the Kubota.

  

A bent drag link on the neighbours Nissan Patrol being straightened with Calum’s blade and bucket.

 

A broken tyre valve being replaced on the Searider’s trailer.

  

Then the more traditional uses for a 3 ton machine,

  

laying a field drain in one of the hen enclosures. Something that would have been impossible in a normal ‘soggy summer’

 

The Portree fishing boat Green Isle after a lobster or two in Loch Arnish and Molly helping ‘haul rocks’ in the dumper.

 

The latest addition to ‘the fleet’ an old but low mileage Forester from Devon.

 

The ‘Egg Chariot’ ready for this afternoon’s trip to Harris and the ‘dog sitter’ with 75% of the pack (Molly is still in bed)

It’s a ‘dogs life’ hey, Leah, Charlie and Bonzo ‘full of beans’ and Molly having none of it

  

Land Rover still very much ‘work in progress’ at Tayside LR http://www.taysidelandrovers.com/Home.aspx

Anyway, ‘that’s it’ for now, gotta pack the car as we’re off on our ‘jollies’ this afternoon St Kilda here we come https://www.kildacruises.co.uk/ (hopefully)