Hoping for a quiet end to the year but the forces of nature conspire to make life in general pretty trying at times.

After the tractor carry on I certainly did not expect to-days (Friday) problems, the motorbike stopped running in much the same way as the tractor did, of course up at the cabin, not in a good place.  Just like that, no power, dead shorts, bad connections, water in the connections all passed through my head. We got the old motorbike out and pushed/towed the new motorbike up to the workshop. The rest of to-days time was taken up trying to figure it out. Of course with the gales no phones so no technical support. After an hour of dismantling and scratching my head I made  a quick trip up to the top of the hill and we can get the Gairloch transmitter, which rarely breaks down.

A quick word with my engineering hotline ( C MacAskill) and the battery was found to be the problem.

Motorbike Workshop To-day.

It never ends!!!

Christmas day started late, the weather wasn’t so hot but it stayed dry for the morning so we took advantage of that and had a stroll round Big Harbour, we were surprised to find a light brown mink in one of the traps, a very unusual colour but it seems a throw back to an albino in the genes.

The Coloured Mink

After that it was back to Rona Lodge to deal with the turkey/phone calls/presents/Fizz and all the Christmas day stuff, excellent!!

Next Dat it was out for a walk, it was such a lovely Boxing Day. We went to the forest looking for Sea eagle nests but no luck, nothing to see there ‘yet’. Only the view from the South side to the Cuillins.

The Cuillins Winter Light

Thursday, back to work, finished the tractor, sorted it out and finished the job I started on Boxing Day, I got my load of gravel down to the muddy genny shed, completed the cabin wiring and was just winding down when L found one of the old Ewes in the ditch, unfortunately dead. 1 hour after I’d fed them, incredible how you can look over the sheep forever and such a simple thing, falling over in the ditch in such a short space of time. They feed in the most awkward places which they would steer clear of in the summer, then slip and go on their back, after a short struggle they give up. She was an old ewe but still a loss.

So now it is Saturday, the weather last night was pretty wild, nothing much in the way of damage, a few creels scattered about, the sheep’s gate down (which they liked) and ‘stuff’ lying here and there. I haven’t been to Dry Harbour yet but don’t expect anything there as it is more sheltered.

Unfortunately our visitors are stuck in Portree and Nikki is stuck here, the outlook is poor but hopefully on Monday first thing we will get them away.

Fingers crossed.