Here we are at last at the end of a particularly busy period. It is so long between posts that I forget how to post anything, so bear with me. I’m starting this on the 13th October, who knows when I’l get it finished. Much to do!!!

We had an upgrade of the internet that we have here in July, which gave us weeks of problems afterwards. So we have decided to try to get a faster more reliable system installed, it is now October and we are not much further ahead but we are getting there, so here we were fitting a new distribution box above the new house 15th Aug’.

With the able assistance of Richard’s very inquisitive Turkeys

Now wiring is just like the blog, to get power up there we need new cabling and switches. I don’t normally do electrics but needs must. Not much power required. Lots of headscratching!!

In the middle of it we had a fine view of one of my yachting friends (a Norwegian Yacht this time) anchoring between the moorings ending up with his stern brushing my boat. A gale got up overrnight and he had disappeared by first light.

Not only blogs, electrics and everything else we do here, baking is another string to the bow. Just follow the instructions, easy as that (not).

The summer has been poor but there were good breezy days too, thank goodness but now in October it has been pretty grim.

The new boat had been busy, this time collecting the serviced fire extinguishers, an annual job. Also collecting the Water Sampler, our water testing had fallen behind and with poor weather it had been a job to get Adam over. All passed though.

Back to the wiring, in an effort to tidy up some of the off grid stuff I had ordererd this red junction box to gather all the positive leads and cover them, althouigh only 48 V we do not need any sparks with gassing batteries.

Richard and Zoe had been out on their wee boa fishing , but also collecting lots of flotsam and jetsam. This time a whole bundle of rope, I think it was floating? Obviously a creel line that got tangled up, it would have been costly had it got into any boats propellor.

Especially this one, one of the many cruise liners that berthed in Portree harbour this year.

I was off to a meeting in mid August and always enjoy a stay at the Pier hotel Portree. Best value, great food, A proper breakfast./ A good team ably looked after by Effie.

Back to Rona and my pointed nose pliers turned up after many years of searching the garage. They had fallen off the bike no doubt and were found (I do not know where) by one of our cottage guests.

We had been struggling with time and weather to get the new boat out of the water, to sort a few things, change gearbox oil and give it a pressure wash. Especially when we did not have a trailer. I put an advert into the Skye Free Adds looking for one, low and behold, Dan (Skye Boat Tours) had this old trailer up at the croft. He offered and I grabbed it, seeing the potential for a converstion.

Back to Inverness to my Son’s fortieth birthday, we called at his yard (Iain Cowie Plant Hire) and were press ganged into helping get his it ready for the big party on the weekend (we had ours with the family on the Thursday before). I heard that the weekend’s entertainment was a good one, glad we could help.

Back to Rona, I was getting dizzy by the end of August. Coming and Going. With stalking guests coming it is always a good idea to have a look around to assess the deer population. More on the Deer page about this years activities. It was nice to spend an hour just sitting down in our High Seat watching the wildlife, it was a lovely night, no midgies.

We had a couple of TV crerws out this past while, BBC ALBA came over first, they were filming an outdoor, climbing programme. It seemed to go ok and we await a nod to when it is on the TV.

Back to the ‘Yachtie’ issues. It is not all bad (ref, previous post). It is good to get positive feedback now and again, but overall it has been a good year with only a small minority still due to pay, we know who they are.

The turkeys have taken a keen interest in the back door, not a problem BUT they do leave their calling card and have taken a delight in tipping out the plastic/cans recycling.

We get all sorts here and it is not unusual to see a wee dinghy coming into the harbour once a year. These guys were lucky with the weather but I have no doubt that if poor weather had sprung up this boat would have handled it, Frank Dye many years ago crossed the North Sea in one amongst many other adventures, Mad or what? : Ocean-crossing wayfarer: to Iceland and Norway in an open boat [in a 16ft Open Dinghy] Worth a look.

Note the guest carrying a Rona Venison Box, for details on how to order some of our wondeful Rona Venison, click onto the facebook page @Isleofrona wild venison

Well that was the end of August, it took a while to get my head round ‘How To’ but I got there. September next.