isleofronalog

Well I am not an electrician, but the way it works on Rona is that you have to be Jack of all Trades, Master of None. Many people think that for ‘Deer’ men, all they do is shoot deer. Well they do a bit of that but working on an Estate you really do not know what is going to happen from one week until the next. You think you have a plan but once the season gets underway it is pretty busy and things can go off at a tangent. Especially burst hydraulic pipes!!!!

But this job was planned and it was held up because we were encouraged to apply to the Crown Estate for a grant. I was sceptical about receiving any funds as we just don’t get grants, but, we were encouraged to do so. It of course turned out to be a waste of time and all that our application did was hold us back. We receioved our refusal to-day.

Oh well back to the drawing board. We needed to tidy up the wiring at the Dry Harbour Genny shed and with a potential addition of Solar Panels (under the grant) it had to be done. March the first was the day for the announcement of the grant and as the rewiring was not included we worked towards completing the job before then.

The story before, many boxes, many different cable sizes, much spaghetti. Lots of additional boards and a replacement inverter to fit too to up the power of the ‘Outback’ too. The Outback has done well but we were modernising with a nrew system. Victron. We have it at Big Harbour and it is much more versatile with remote access and lots of Data (if you like that sort of thing).

Although I was there from the start of the system above, even I was confused with what was what. With Grant here now it was a good idea to get a new system installed instead of confusing him too.

With the help of Hugh Piggot of Scoraig Wind it was a good install. Once or twice we had to have a long think about what goes where but overall it was interesting.

First job was strip out then fix a new board instead of multiple bits of ply.

Then onto fitting the equipment in order, as advised.

The Proven Box had to go back up as we hoped to get new Tristar controllers with the Solar, we might have to have a re-think there. Nice to have a new Consumer Unit to replace all the boxes and of course a new Victron Multiplus inverter. We shortened cables and re-routed some to tidy the job up.

An expensive piece oif kit the Cerbo, but a helpful wee box, wifi enabled and full of tricks. We can login from anywhere in the world and see what is happening. But if we run out of diesel then that is beyond it!!!!

Over the years we have collected many tools and now have most of what we need, but maybe a new bench over at Dry Harbour might help.

With emails coming in with diagrams and advice just a WhatsApp away, it was going smoothly.

Shortening cables was okay but trying to find glands in the many boxes of ‘stuff’ we have proved tricky. But we got there and the Windmill box now has everything labelled up and easy to understand although it might get replaced.

Time to let the brake off the windmill. Proven Windmills back in the day were very basic but that may be their forte. This one is almost 20 years installed with liottle in the way of prooblems. Vibrations slackened the foundation bolts but we quickly beefed up the plates and it is rock solid, it has a bit of a wobble in it but otherwise no problems. One blade spring broke which was scary, putting the turbine out of balance but with regular checking, hopefully we will nopt have that to deal with again.

Just about finished with only the Consumer Unit to cover and away we went. We had a couple of extras that we had forgotten about, one was a Shunt on the Negative side, which gives us battery info (I am told) and a new Positive battery cable. These duly arrived and were fitted.

This makes life much simpler and now we are not getting a grant towards solar panels we will have to see what the kitty says, but for sure we need a new set of batteries soon, that will be the next job.

Been as usual a while since I posted but time is always precious. But here we are to-day with snow, first thing.

It was promising sun first thing but we woke up to white and at 11am it came again, but it did not last long. The sun is higher of course now and the snow at this stage wont lie.

Here is Tufty, an orphan or cast out calf, she appeared at the end of the hind season looking pretty poor, we suspected her mother had died (not shot). But we saw her a week after trying to suckle a big hind but the hind cast her off and we think the old hind had dried up. Since then there has been no interaction between her and any hind around the house. There is a pack of 6 that mooch around here. But lately after finding tufty feeding in the compost heap up at the garage, Lorraine has been leaving apples and peelings out, they disappear and to-day we caught her eating them. Hopefully she will survive but she will be stunted forever. A pet!!!!!!

Ewen on Seaflowewr our regular ferry is away just now and with the weather I did not know if I would be able to take Stacey off to Portree. When I found out Tommy and Dave were delivering Dan’s new boat I asked for a lift and they dropped in very timely at 3.30pm and picked Stscey up, perfect.

She is the monohulled version of Dan’s and Ewen’s boat, nice lines and a powerful engine, she looked and sounded very good.

And so to swimming. It is healthy February, no drink January is not going to work here but February is achievable. So a wee bit of a cold start to the swim, in fact it was bloody freezing. But after about 5 minutes especially since my glove ripped open, I was getting used to it.

I managed 8 minutes but only about 50 metres, enough for a first attempt, although if the boat had not started after getting a lift out with Tommy I would have had to swim the distance. The dinghy got smashed up in the storm. It will be interesting getting the boat back out or at least me getting back in. Looking forward to it.

It was a very fine end to the day and hopefully I will get to the dentist in Portree tomorrow.

It is that time of year to catch up and start preparing for the season ahead. This year we have two new residents on Rona who are sharing the load and slowly taking over the tasks that myself and Lorraine have carried out over the last couple of decades. At 68 years old now I am getting just a little tired and don’t have the energy I used to have, so it is time to slow down. I am looking forward to it.

But as I slow down I look back on some of the projects that we have been involved in over these last 22 years. I am sure there will still be more to get involved in before we leave Rona (which will not be for a while we hope) but it will be good to take it a bit easier.

Putting this post together and subsequent “Looking Back” posts, is quite scary to see how far we have come. Enjoy.

The Mission House (Formerly known as Seascape and Skyescape)

I came to Rona in 2022, April. The job was to put up a fence round this property. I was a self employed forestry contractor at the time and was glad on the work. It seemed quite an adventure and most surely became one. Little did I know I would stay on and still be there 22 years on.

The job morphed into coming back a few weeks later to help the builders and after that I went home packed up and took up residence in the Lodge.

My first job after the fence was laying floors, building a kitchen and then the decking. But prior to me coming to Rona there had been a lot of work carried out by the ferry man at that time delivering the material. The fishfarm guys from Dhu Chamas with their boats delivering bigger items. Here is that period.

Since putting this post together I have come across a lot of other ‘first year photos’ , so when time allows I will post the next chapter on the Dry Harbour cottages.

After the party the weather turned sour which was not so good, especially with three very active grandchildren running riot in the house. But we managed to entertain and after three nights in and outside. On Friday morning it was time for them to leave on the ferry that was taking our next cottage/Lodge guests.

Yet again another poor crossing with a big swell and stiff breeze, but MV Seaflower handled it well and on the way back no problem. Probably the worst ferry sailing in MV Seaflower’s time here during the festive season.

Back to work and first thing was to get on with the hind cull, keeping our herd in order and stocking up the freezers for the Spring period when we stick top traditional seasons and we do not shoot deer when they are at their weakest.

It was an early morning start after the kids left, no bad thing, out to the outrun but the deer did not pl;ay ball. For sure I saw them but they were not the ‘right’ deer.

Too many deer are shot on sight nowadays with absolutely no selection taking place. On that I wonder what the effect will be on the Red Deer, in the social make up of the deer hefted to one given area. I suspect lots of orphaned calves, if they survive will be of poor quality without a mother to guide them. Or no deer at all in the forest which will give the so called conservationists the excuse to go and buy cattle/horses/beavers etc to replicate the Deers inpact and turn our country into the zoo that they so desire.

So the work goes on. The boat was desperately needing attention, the tide was right, the weather good so we got it out and cleaned the bottom, changed the oils in both engine and gearboxes. Then late in the evening on the 30th December it floated and we put it back on the pontoon. One more job ticked off before the end of the year.

Roll on Hogmany.

Christmas day was as we like it, quiet. We had a lazy morning then a swim before Christmas dinner in the late afternoon, the weather was very fine for a while then the usual grey day. My son and three grandchildren arrived on Boxing day just in time for the ‘Bothy Binge’.

The kids got into the spirit of things right away, we got the fire pit going, food on the table, then the Boxing Day swim.

The swim was good, the water a balmy 8 degrees. Especially on one of the better days of the festive fortnight. Our cottage guests were over, wet suits were pulled out of the store and half the party went in for a refreshing dook. After that a relaxing drink with a late lunch.

Then the real fun started as the Christmas drinks flowed. In September we had made a bet with Mel and Lee of Purple/Blue Beard fame. We are pretty sure Lee has always had his beard (and hair) dyed on Rona but will have to check. (After the second visit, he did not want to scare us)!! So it is part and parcel of their visit. During their wedding celebrations we had said that we could grow our beards no problem and be ready for dye during their Christmas visit.

Grant and I had a wee competition to see how our beards would grow and I think we were just about even, a bit of getting used to but good fun anyway. So the day arrived.

Lots of fun, for the life of me I cannot understand the folk I see sitting in the hairdressers breathing in ammonia, silver decorations in their hair!! That was the worst bit. But soon it was time for the blue and a trim, good fun. But sadly it is not lasting and by the time I go to Portree this Monday I think it will be back to normal. Maybe just as well.

Finally at a reasonable hour we headed home with the kids and left the rest of the gang to enjoy the Bothy Binge which they did to a late hour, lots of hangovers the next day, but great fun.

Thought I would tag the next photo on as I received it that day. This is from Wayne at Braemore Estate on the Ullapool road. A stunning picture of a herd of mostly hinds that they have on their Estate. It is a very evocative picture because as I read of yet another Deer Consultation where the Scottish Government are trying to basically point the finger at Sporting Estates for our so called nature depleted country. I hate that term and I think those that promote it need to get out more, see what is actually on our world famous ‘bare ‘hills. Blaming our iconic Red Deer for all the ills of the countryside and in the same breath releasing Beavers. The madness continues as they now push for wild cows, horsers, bison, where will it end. More on this subject coming in future blogs.

Back home from Edinburgh we had to prepare the cottages with Grant and Stacey for our festive guests. Lee and Mel, who got married on Rona in September were coming back and our ‘old’ friends Clive and Ali, who helped relieve us for holidays’ in the not too distant past.

But first of all I had to check the trail cameras set out over the remains of our pre-Christmas butchering:

I think Clive would apprec iate seeing the Goldie coming for its annual feed at the camara site.

Well here we are in 2024, another hyear under our belts, year 22. And my pal George said ” If you last 5 you will be doing well” !!

But it is coming to that time when decisions have to be made and the day is fast approaching. If I do pacvk it in I guess I will sit down and write the book. ‘The Real Story of Rona’, now that wiull be interesting.

Anyway, back to December, the New Year and now.

A wee Gallery to start us off:

Heading off to Edinburgh before Christmas, the heating in Escape cottage decided to throw a wobbly, not being too aquaint with it I struggled to get it going but looking back over notes we cracked it and away it went (which reminds me now the guests have left I have to turn it down).

Sad to see the stone astragel in the big window breaking, I always meant to take it away gently, now it is in pieces. Must have been lack of pressure from above, a wee bit of movement I guess.

We have for the last few years gone to Edinburgh for a pre-Christmas break and greatly look forward to it, via the Panto in Inverness where my Grand Daughter is performing. So I will save you the whole story but a really good time was had and we look forward to doing the same next year.

All to soon it was time to head home to the rain. Sitting waiting for Seaflower we were treated to a seal pup waiting for its motrher on the slip at Portree. It was quite unconcerned until the tourists turned up.

So we sat and watched from the car, then these guys decided selfies were in order, which annoyed the pup who left the scene after ten minutes of ‘hassle’.

Once the guy stuck the camera in the pups face he said enoughs enough, Bye.

Early start to-day, away in the dark to Portree. Loading up at 7am, away not long after, stopped on route to chat with the crew on S D Mars, looked like a good shift for them to me. They were telling me of hundreds of dolphins and shoals of Makerel. Into Portree lots of warm water flowing into the Bay in Portree by the look of it. Delivered venison to Tom whose Deer Hound pups (11 of them) were doing well on Rona Venison Dog Food ( a wee sideline but good to use up the trim) gorgeous pups btw. Portree quiet for a change although a few tourists about. Good run back then in for a swim with the seals, happy days. Every day like this makes the winter shorter. Long may it continue.