isleofronalog

It is not often we get a spell of weather like this but it reminds us how lucky we are to live here. Last nights swim time and then making up venison orders into the night. Christmas is coming, consider venison instead of the Turkey this year.

We can send it anywhere in trhe Uk 24 hours later still frozen, but someone has to be at home to sign for it. Although with Track and Trace it can be picked up at the delivery offices.

Only one late delivery in two years and even then after three days the venison was defrosted but perfectly okay. Royal Mails fault but now we have perishable labels on they put it in their cold room if they have one.

Lots going on just now but I thought I would share this picture of the sun set on Rona the other very cold night.

I just love that blue, it is my favourite colour, especially at this hour.

Been a full week butchering Venison for the Christmas market, orders now being taken. But it was nice to get out of the larder to-day and have a bit of time in the fantastic weather, long may it continue.

Just a short one to-day, more coming soon.

To-day’s shopping outing to Portree, the weather this winter is really behaving itself (for a change). Good to get some dry days and welcome sun. Not to mention flat calm sea. Very unusual. Mixed bag to-day, another load of Rona Venison heading to the mainland. A visit to the Vet. Shopping of course, new tyres, lots of post and the views to-day were stunning. Went for a swim and ended up dodging the very late visiting yacht Queen Bee 11, who was interrupting my swim. Got him sorted though.

Another post picked from FB.

Monday it was butchering, with 6 deer hanging in the larder it was going to be a long week. But rather than hash at iot I had an easier day butchering so as to have four full size haunches. It is not often we sell whole haunches but at ten pounds per kilo it is not a bad buy for Christmas.

But you need the oven to accomodate it!!!!

We have a runt of a ‘pet’ deer. Tufty we call her due to her coat. I think she was abandoned by her Mother when she (the Mother) had lost her milk. Hard to say but I did see her with her Mother last February trying to suckle but no joy

She has taken up residence by the compost pile, the peelings will probably keep her alive this winter.

At the end of a beautiful day all that is left is to freshen up with a swim.

These are Facebook posts, so I apologise if you have seen them. But here is the next day’s story, continuing:

Early morning stalking continues. Down South enjoying the crisp morning.

We were successful, although the wind was not with us, possibly a bit of luck. Back to the larder then taking some time out with an afternoon walk.

Came across this smallish piece of bog wood in a washed out (very shallow) peaty cleft in the rock. High up. It was very bare where we found it. So you just wonder how did this tree manage to grow here.

It must have been a vastly different climate 7/8000 years ago when Scotland had a lot more of the trees that became bogwood. That will be the ‘Great Wood of Caledonia’ that the Re-wilders are always harping on about.

If you read the books by T C Smout and the papers by Dr J C Fenton, you will find out the true story.

Both very good articles.

Busy week, of the 24th Nov. Perth/Birnam for the ‘Scottish Venison Summit’ Sunday last. Obviously the folks at home were sad to see me go. The drive down was lovely on leaving the Misty Isle. Was intrigued to see rhododendron growing well on the Nature Scot Creag Meagaidh Nature Reserve, on the Laggan road. Tescos Perth, could not cope with that. Great Scottish Venison Summit meeting in Birnam Monday, ” Eat More Venison” , looking like some support at last for venison, Lorna Slater made an appearance. Back home Tuesday then stalking with orders for Christmas Venison boxes coming in. Dry Harbour at the end of the week, then back to Big Harbour enjoying the sun going down. The stormy weather is passing.

A friend of mine caught this on the TV the other week and was intrigued to find out more.

On the 3rd of July after much planning Ben Fogle turned up in pouring rain for a days filming. The day went well with lots of twists and turns in the conversation. You always wonder what the production team will make of Rona but decide for yourselves.

They arrived in the rain and left in the rain. The sound man knows Scotland, obviously!!!

Link below to the programme. We are 46 minutes in:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m0010f16/scotlands-sacred-islands-with-ben-fogle

Venison delivery, fuel pick up, shopping for stores to-day and a grey day forecast? Well that was wrong, what a stunning day. Lots of wildlife about, Curlews, early this morning and lots of seals in the bay, rafts of seabirds feeding, porpoises everywhere, deer on Rassay and on the tops of Rona enjoying the sunshine. Two Sea Eagles perched on the shore at the mouth of the harbour. Topping it off with a long swim tonight in the sunset. Great to be out in nature, tomorrow looks cloudy for our day in the forest. But fingers crossed, good to see so much wildlife but no surprise on such a day. Nature is doing very well in this part of the world.

To get days like this at this time of the year is such a bonus. The forecast was for a grey day but it was the complete opposite.

Venison sales are taking off and Christmas is just around the corner, so we will start sorting out our deer for culling. The numbers need to be kept in check and the end result is one of the best sources of healthy protein you can find. Of course we are very particular about our venison and our sales are testament to our handling of the deer and subsequent meat we offer for sale. I wish other were so.

We will soon be taking orders for our mixed Christmas box.

We are off to-day, it is blowing half a gale, but we are hoping it will drop off as X C Weather and Windfinder our preferred weather sites tell us, fingers crossed.

Overall this years weather has been pretty good, a lot drier with this East wind which is always good and we did not have the rain every one else has had (for a change).

So there will be a repeat of soime of yesterday’s photos but here is the story since the 21st of August. Nice to have the time to do this waiting on the ferry, hope the wait is not too long!!

This year it has been about Rona Venison . For sure the deer, especially the calves coming around the house are lovely, the mother here eating a cluster of rowan berries that had fallen from the tree in the wind. But we have a duty to manage the herd and to cull the surplus. Otherwise we would not be doing our job. The end result is our quality venison product. We have had good trade from Raasay House , Skye Wholesale , Donnie’s Tablet shed , not to mention The Harbour chip shop and the many boxes that we have sent across the Sound to Skye this season.

Our newly renovated larder and prep room have worked very well, giving us much more light and space. Easier to clean and store our equipment, excellent. We can send a frozen (under 5kg) box anywhere in the UK tracked, delivered in 24 hours for £14.65. The value of the contents of this size of box is usually around the £50 mark + or -. Best try a mixed box first then decide on what you like best for future orders. Contact us through our FB page or on my email.

We finished the larder just in time for the season opening and it has been a very busy building ever since. Some of the retrieves of the shot deer on Rona have been interesting (more over on the deer page). Thanks to Bryn for the early morning outing to Dhu Chamas to pick two up.

You may be wondering why I have a picture of a Burnetts van on here. Between 1978 and 1986 I used to go to Uist with a truck and Gordon Taylor was the bread van driver (I was the milk man) we had many adventures and stories, maybe in my impending retirement I will get a chance to write them down, happy days and although I had not seen Gordon for a long time, he was hard to forget!!!

As the month moved into September we had the usual suspects beating up their favourite Rowan Tree, interesting to see the deer browse this tree, plucking leaves off at the height it is. The tree survives, deer are the best ‘pruners’. More venison means yet more freezers. Although we are selling a lot of venison, when butchering we need lots of space, the venison business part of Rona has grown arms and legs this year for sure. This freezer was ordered on Ebay, I’m not too sure of Ebay but this dealer had really good feedback so we took the chance. Ordered Mid Week, it was in Skye Express’ depot Portree Friday, uplifted and delivered by MV Rona on the Monday, amazing.

We had a bit of North wind this year and every year there is a time when jellyfish must be at their peak and the beaches around Rona are jammed with them. Still in August this guest from Kuwait had an unfortunate accident, his trainers were very muddy and he slipped on the steps coming back from his walk. He was one of MV Seaflower’s customers. We got the call and attended, but could see it was serious although the casualty was very calm. We called Stornoway Coastgaurd and the Portree Lifeboat attended in no time. Stuart attending to the ‘customer’ very professionally. With pain relief they moved the gentleman onto the boat thereafter to Broadford, not a good way to end your holiday. Two breaks in his upper leg.

Finally in August we had a surprise visit from two Swiss sailors whom we had met 13 years ago.Ursula and Alex Zehnder, since their visit they had crossed the Atlantic to South America, headed North and came back via Greenland, Iceland then Scandinavia. Heading off from here to the boatyard then back to Switzerland. They are retired scientists from Cern. What a life!!!!

September, right at the busiest time Stacey and Grant our new residents arrived, in at the deep end. With a wedding coming up then the stalking it was going to be a baptism of fire. And so it was.

The Wedding

Despite the weather we had a great day. Lee and Mel have been coming here for many years and Rona is a very special place for them, so naturally what could be easier than organising a wedding on the remote Island of Rona. I could fill the blog with photos but best go to Lee’s instagram page or our Facebook Page and search for the photos in the posts, it is all there in glory(or was that gory) detail.

Needless to say it all went very well, we prepared the ‘Bothy’ and the food. The drink was plentiful and it went on until a late time, I can’t remember after 9pm!!!! It was a full day, with a lot of love and emotion, not to mention the men in kilts, plus the lovely service by Rona Burstow the celebrant and Grant Munro the piper.

The week after the Wedding, we started stalking with guests. More on that on our ‘Rona Red Deer’ page soon. Suffice to say it went very well and seems such a long time ago as I write this.

So the year is almost done, all the excitement of 2023 is past, but more could be coming, who knows. Autumn is trying hard to stop the winter appearing as the leaves are still hanging on the trees. The weather has been good since the stalking. But Storm Ciaran is blowing here to-day and the ferry is undecided at the moment.

Work goes on. Last week we took the moorings in, although a yacht arrived here last night!!!! Then tried to hook up to one of the marker buoys. The pick ups are all washed, checked and stored, we now await a diver in the spring to check what is under the water. . One of the boats is ashore, the deer are back to what they do best, eating. Whilst stalking we noted long lengths of fish farm pipe all around Rona, this one was particularly long so we decided to take it ashore, second length from the harbour (or just outside) this week. Many years ago our then ferry MV Spindrift struck one with his propellor and the engine nearly ripped a hole through the boat as it stopped the engine dead. The engine mountings taking the brunt of the force, not good.

Sunday on a day off (aye right) I spotted something strange around the septic tank, it was blocked, not a good way to spend Sunday afternoon. But it never ends, so we are looking forward to our break and hopefully the ferry will come to-day as I would like to attend the John Muir Trust meeting in the Aros Centre tonight, just to hear them justify their killing of deer and leaving the carcasses on the hill. Should be interesting.

And Finally

You don’t see many Dinosaurs on Rona apart from myself!!! A big thank you to Gill and Bryn for their two months input and help on Rona this summer, we know they really enjoyed it and we were thankfull of the help they gave that enabled us to catch up big time.

I’ll explain, Their Grandson has a thing about dinosaurs and whilst here they were telling him all about the Jurassic coast and about the dinosaurs on Rona, even riding a quad bike.