isleofronalog

It is not for me to moan about the weather, in fact possibly we are luckier than most living in the South who are still (in August) sweltering. I prefer the cooler climate but a wee bit, just a wee bit of sun would cheer us all up.

Here is to-day’s mixed bag gallery from the last couople of months.

What we have here is a wee snapshot of the end of June, there were several warm dry days but they seemed to disappear since. Although my next blog unusually is a family summer holiday in the ‘summery East Coast’.

Work continues with Zoe and Richard at path maintenance. Angus MacDowall an old sailing visitor friend and supplier of quality flour from his farm in Drem, East Lotrhian appeared one night on the TV to our surprise. Mungoswells Flour Give it a look. Commenting on fuel prices.

More work around the larder to improve drainage and upgrade the larder. A surprise visit by Calum Stiven of Applenmet who upgraded our internet and then it did not work for two weeks, still not there!!

Who thought we’d see horses in the garden of Rona Lodge, not me. Chanterelle season is here and it should be a good one considsering the humidy and rain.

Big surprise for Lorraine to find an Oak quickly followed by another in the forest by the shore here at Big Harbour. The regen’ romps ahead despite the Deer.

Electrics, Solar, internet and Calum leaving the pontoon all happening in June. With yacht numbers stable which was a surprise because the grey photo here of yachts in the bay is typical. But to-day the 9th of August one almost Gale Bound yacht is all we have at the top of the season. They seem to have dropped off a cliff.

More coming soon Jim!!!

Here’s a few photos to get the blog going again, Been Silly Busy.

Third week in July this was taken, a cracking hind and her stag calf took up residence around the house, lovely to see.

More pictures coming shortly. Plenty rainy days on Rona and the North West so no excuse I guess for not doing the blog.

Most years we have a landing craft. This years delivery had a different feel to it altogether. After months of looking for a couple to join us on Rona we finally had success and on the 26th May 2022 the population of Rona doubled. From 2 to 4.

Zoe and Richard had visited us for interviews and to see how Rona would suit them (and they would suit us). All went well and they upped sticks and left their posts in Orkney to come to live on a much quieter and much more interesting Island (Not that I am biased).

Plans were made, the landing craft was booked and it slowly started to fill up. Even when we were building ‘Tigh na Creag’ we did not have such a big load, heavier, yes but not ‘big’.

Another big surprise was that Zoe had two horses and the horses came too. Plus 1 years feed!!

Landing craft days are always fraught, weather is king, does it come or not. It has to be really bad for it not to sail and with two horses, feed, hens, ducks, vehicles, coal (for Fladda) oil, building material, and, and, and………There is always a feeling of what have we forgotten, will it get here, will the tide be right?

As it happened on the day everything went pretty smoothly. The weather could have been better. We had some really heavy showers just before and especially after the delivery but all in all everything went to plan.

But it does not stop there, almost for a week after we were shifting things around, finding storage for all the supplies delivered, accomodating the horses. Delivering coal to Fladda. Kerosene and derv to the various tanks on the Island. On it went. But looking back now it looks a bit daunting but we took it in our stride and here we are settling down and getting stuck into the long lists of work to do.

Bring it on.

Here’s a thing, a Bon Accord lemonade bottle, found at the back of the generator shed. It brought back happy memories. I wondered how it got there, I see the company stopped producing pop in 2000. When we lived in Buckie it was the pop of choice, we moved to Mull in 1965 it was McColls there (not as good as Bon Accord). Living in Ayrshire 1970s it was Currys I think. No wonder my teeth are not so good nowadays!

May started where April finished with a trip back down to Stranraer to look at a new aluminium boat. The 6 and a half hour drive was tiring but it was worth it as the boat was good. We made the deal and John Mitchell the owner offered to deliver. So here we were on the 5th of May taking delivery at Strollamus boat yard.

It would have been a long drive from Stranraer but John took it in his stride and within the hour we were in the water and heading to Portree.

It was a grey jabbly day, rain too but the boat started and very quickly we were in Portree. We had a check of the boat and assessed just what we had bought. All looked good, the work required reflected the price but all in all it looks a good boat for the future of Rona.

I’m not often down this way on a boat so it was an interesting run down from Portree to Strollamus and back.

Even better on the way back with no plotter, but it is a pretty straightforward run.

Back on Rona the work starts on getting the boat up to safe standard. This will take a little time and since I have taken it home time is in pretty short supply, but every week we move forward. In fact to-day (12th June) I managed at last to get the VHF installed.

The on going work on Rona taking up much time was the off grid supply issues. The well recommended (expensive) Canadian Rolls batteries were not as good as promoted. We installed them in 2007 but half of them were defunct by this year, the storage in them was not coping with the demand with the generator running lots lately, here at Big Harbour. With new folk coming it was wise to upgrade the system. So new batteries were ordered, not Rolls!!

The batteries duly arrived at Skye Express and the weather meant they sat there for a while before I could uplift them. Whilst I reckon I’m pretty fit lifting 24 batteries at 53kg each was a tall order. I left Rona in calm weather and thought it was 6.45am, but I had miss read the clock in the bedroom and it was only 5.45am. I reached Portree at 6.45am, no one about apart from the guys at Skye Express so I loaded half in the the batteries into car and crept down to the pier. I loaded them myself and took off back to Rona with half a tonne of batteries.

After having a quick cup of tea I turned around and did a second run, same again but I had a hand loading this time, unloading on Rona was by the JCB bucket. It was a long day and I can remember crawling into bed and sleeping very soundly that night.

Been a lot of trips to and from Portree lately, so many I have lost count and none of them in the new boat, yet.

The weather changes so fast and the clouds come in quickly but thankfully on all of these trips no drama with the sea.

In fact it has been a very calm May and dry.

With the old Rolls batteries going to the scrappy, it was time to take the duds from Dry Harbour. Off grid power is certainly not cheap and requires a lot of user input.

All my own work. Installed and running. Now a much better system.

With the new batteries installed in the Big Harbour generator shed, the old Rolls batteries that still had life in them were taken up to the garage to give us some extra power. Quite a good use of the standby generator and rather than dump the batteries, a new lease of life. With the larder chill running 24/7 this extra source will be invaluable, all working fine and automatic, just like the main system.

Now the question is, with a new boat, an old aluminium boat and a RIB, do I really need three boats?

RIB for Sale?

The catch up continues. Sunday morning here, grey, wet and windy. A lovely West Coast day. I wonder how the campers and caravanners are fairing after yesterdays gale force winds. Perhaps there was an Exodus.

Looking back it is scary how much has happened during these last three months. A bit of confusion just now as I thought I have already posted this but I am thinking of my Face Book Page . I guess it is too easy to post stuff there so it take me away from the blog, but odd pictures does not really tell the story.

So here we are in April. The time when we have put the moorings in and await the Yachting/boating fraternity. Here I will have a moan yet again. Here is Yacht Emily Rose, Ayla on its sail cover. As always at this time of year we get the early yachtsmen/women. A lot are delivering boats, or going somewhere with the boat to base it there for the Summer. This guy used the mooring and left, they never made any attempt to pay or contact us. Do these folk really think the Mooring Fairy drops these moorings out of the sky for free. I consider it theft, it is no different to not paying for a service or item from a shop. So we await Yacht Emily Rose’s £15, not a lot but every penny helps in our very tight economy here.

Rant over. On a more uplifting note, the Sea Eagles were busy and I can report a successful fledge at the Eilean Tighe nest.

Not so successful these two young stags found at the bottom of a cliff at Garbh Eilean, looks like they pushed each other off the hill fighting?

They were lying together heads locked, I pulled the first antler I saw and found that it had been entwined. Been there a while.

Always expect the unexpected here. On opening the generator shed door at Dry Harbour another mini disaster, the return pipes on the DH generator were perished. Now it is on my list to be replaced annually. We cannot afford to be wasting this precious stuff anymore.

So it continues, the Navarra pick up which was pretty good decided to pack in. We eventually discovered it was the ECU which controls amongst other things the fuel pump, keep it simple for Rona I say, on Rona that is another disaster, with no Garage computers available, we tried our best but admitted defeat, the Navarra’s are no more.

Here they are ready for May’s landing craft, a big loss.

Now here is a major problem on Rona, what gets washed up. On a walk to find the oldest hind on Rona with the camera I came onto a beach up North, I had seen it from the sea but on walking there I was horrified to see just how much debris there was lying around.

So on a calm day after that walk, builders bags were bought and subsequently filled, I think 7 in all. A shocking reflection on folks respect for the sea or lack of it.

A quick walk around the beach at Dry Harbour too whilst delivering fuel collected more. The depressing thing is this was only one small beach.

We took it to Portree of course no one at the dump was interested so we took it up ourselves borrowing one of Dan’s vans. There we got grief for not booking it in!!!!!!

I include here a picture just off that beach, the clear water and lovely stones below, why would you want to spoil that?

On that walk just above the beach I came across this peat bog, it is difficult to see in the photo as it is overgrown and quite filled in. It was very poignant as it hits home how far away from the settlements the folk had to go to cut peat (which they eventually ran out of in sustainable quantities). More on that later suffice to say that the peat bog was filling in well and I wonder how long before it would be viable again. Although I read recently an environmentalist having a go at ‘Peat Cutters’. Do they not understand survival?

Whilst out on the boat in April although cold it is a good time to see nature. It is quiet and the animals more settled.

For us the best time is the Spring and Autumn, coupled with peace and quiet we really appreciate this time on Rona.

But it is not all quiet and boat trips, at last we got the chance to put together new boards for the Museum at Dry Harbour. With a few Rona artifacts We hope the visitors enjoy them.

Dan’s new boat arrived and was quickly despatched to Rona on a Whale Trail trip. We do not usually get visitors on the day trips in Winter but Dan’s Whale Trail has proved popular. A few hardy souls ventured out on each trip and although whales were thin on the sea they were never disappointed.

April is a time to grab a few jaunts off Rona, shopping, holidays and catching up with family, so it was with great anticipation to know we were invited to Glen App Castle for a looong weekend.

The weather was fantastic, location, food and company even better.

The wonderful food just kept coming, we are saving our pennies for another visit sometime soon.

One of the many highlights was the beach walk, stunning day, cold but I managed a swim. One of the few this spring.

Back to reality very quickly, but great memories. We travelled back and had our first trip on Wavedancer, a booked trip to Rona was handy for us to hop on board with the ‘Whale Trail’.

We got back to Rona on the Tuesday. Work continues and by Friday we were caught up (a bit). I had been looking for a new boat and saw this one on the internet on the Friday night. You will see from the picture it gave a Hexham location (for the contact). I looked at it later that night and was really frustrated on scrolling past the Hexham number that the boat was actually in Stranraer, 15 minutes from where I had been the previous weekend . And 6 and a half hours by road from Portree, more on that on the May blog.

Thank you Jim in Ireland for reminding me that I had not posted for such a long time. So here goes a quick one before I do the long update.

Weather to-day is stormy to say the least, the ferry came but it wasa a bouncy one. Well done Ewen.

There is quite a bit to catch up on here given it was the end of March that I last posted but we have been Sooooooo busy, toooooo busy for sure.

It is not unusual to have stormy days during the summer but the contrast from last Saturday is huge. It is blowing 40 knots of wind, the bay is full of spindrift and the boats are doing a merry dance on the moorings, fingers crossed for them, the chains and strops.

Yachts had been steady, a trickle had become a flood with 6 or 7 yachts in last weekend, the sun was shining but it was Northerly, so a lot of yachts were not coming North of Mallaig. I thought Tryptich had anchored but on closer inspectioon I saw that he had bridled the strop. Just checking!!!!

The weather looked to change, I had been back and fore to Portree a lot these last few weeks (hence the busy time) but I could see a change coming, flat calm here and a lovely view as always.

Yet another trip to Portree this week, this time for a hospital appointment I had missed 5 times due to timing, NHS cancellation and weather. Nothing serious just an old manny thing, passed with ease, another lucky one!!

As I approached Portree Thursday I could see yet another liner anchored off, the picture is a bit fuzzy, must be the rain on the window? But it was the black clouds coming that bothered me rather than the chaos that comes with these visits , on the pier. Fingers crossed the weather would not get too blustery for the way back.

It was a busy boat, queues of folk on the pier, buses everywhere, locals trying to get on with life. Who knew Portree would be so busy. Not my idea of a holidasy but looking at the crowds lots of folk must like the sailing life. As it happened no worries with the sea state, just a bit ‘jabbly’.

Back to Rona, we had made the decision to sell our RIB. So there is a little work to do. We bought a new boat and do not need three so the RIB must go, anyone interested?

The RIB has done a wee bit of work for Rona but I have not used it as much as I could or should. The old Voe boat has been so reliable since I put on the new engines.

I was down by the byre Thursday and was imagining Corncrakes in the Irises but no creeking. It made me think about reading Isles of the West by Ian Mitchell. A good read in its day although he was not impressed with Rona (how wrong he was). Although I agree with much he wrote in this book. nProbably more on that later too.

Yesterday we had a bit of a panic on seeing the forecast, we had left a sheet of corrugated aluminium uncut on the roof of the botrhy (I am trying to fix a leaking wall here) and if we had left it I’m sure it would not be there to-day. Such was the wind last night. However all good for now. Alu’ cut and screwed down.

One yacht on the main mooring, both our Aluminium boats on other moorings, the wind continues, the rain too. But we need some rain to keep the dust down. It has been very dry.

So, another blog coming very soon (the weather will dictate that) with the big changes these last few weeks featured that Rona has witnessed, more on that story tomorrow.

How’s that Jim!!!!!!

“The Gaelic word ‘falaisg’ pertains to muirburn/burning of heather which is perhaps most commonly used but there are several derivatives such as ‘falaisgeach’, ‘falasgair’, ‘falaisgear’ and ‘falaisgeadh’.“

Calum was here this week and he kept mentioning ‘ The falaisg’, for sure all week it has been around us, an evocative smell of Spring around the corner. Muir burn to allow new growth from the meagre soil we have in this area.

Tonight (Sunday 27th March) no exception, the sky is full of the smoke and smell, it has been the most ideal conditions for a long time for ‘falaisg’. To-day has probably been the best day this week with no clouds and a cool (smoky) breeze. Looking back it has been a full couple of months since we advertised for new folk, it has been very interersting speaking to prospective residents by phone or Zoom, the next stage is just around the corner.

The work goes on on the ground, the boat came out of the water after the New Year, the weather predictably was poor, throwing up all sorts of rubbish on the shores, more on that later and of course more on Covid too, it certainly has not gone away.

At last in February we got a break, although it was mostly to go to a meeting in Stirling coupled with a visit to Kings Park Hospital there to get a Solar Keratosis burnt off, a success, thankfully. Nice to get away and charge the batteries all the same, talking about batteries, we had a visit to Claude the Lister man in Dunkeld and that was a very interesting stop. But living out of a suitcase gets a bit boring after a while. No chance of swim (my new hobby) it was freezing all down the East Coast.

Soon it was time to head back and after a mega shop we were in the Pier Hotel before heading out to Rona, post Storm Arwen. Possibly one of the most lively journeys for a long time, the sea was pretty high.

Back to work and the wildlife had found a way into the sheep feed. This wee mouse got a stay of exucution however. As for the Dolphin we had two wash up dead in the space of a month. Both in good condition and both landed in exactly the same place, no marks, no obvious clue as to why. Again more rubbish washed up on the shore, I think it is one of the worst winters especially for fish farm pipes. As for storm damage, just a missing chimney cowl. A lucky winter.

The weather continued to play with us, one day very wet, three days wind, then calm, blue skies. Overall a pretty poor winter. But we like the clear days, very much when they come.

It was getting near the end of the Hind Stalking season and there was a push to get our cull numbers, it is a tough time for the wildlife and this poor Heron was in trouble for a week or so before he lost it. The flock of Chaffinches gets bigger and bigger since we started feeding them and the Golden Eagles still maintain their area despite the Sea Eagles.

Stocking up on the venison for the coming season, we had a go at making more Venison Sausages, a wee tweak to the burger mix and with the help of one of our potential workers, Andrea we had 7 kg of sausages. With Claude supplying the new parts for the Lister overhaul we got the old engine refurbished and now it awaits trasfer to Dry Harbour where it will replace the one over there which is due a major overhaul. Having done 20,000 + hours. The winter swimming challenge came to an end in February and it helps to have your own harbour. Making it easier to get access to water whatever the weather. I cannot do the crawl efficiently so make do with breast stroke, hence the long swimming time. I think it is the first time I was first at anything!!!!

The weather was kind this month and it allowed us to get away to the Scottish Gamekeepers association AGM. Lots of discussion and a worthwhile jaunt.

The weather this month has been very good, no lambs this year and that is weird but I am not missing the early starts and death!!! We continued to interview and our guest Matt helped with the first deer count on Rona since 2019 (proper). With building the house and catching up, plus poor weather it has been difficult to achieve. However the days we had were very nice and easy for counting deer. After 20 years of deer on Rona we have a healthy population. Some would say too many. I totally disagree. We have 46 Stags (males) 91 Hinds and 38 Calves. The stags come and go from Raasay but that was the count on the week of the 12th March.

Spring work went on in between visitors, a spring had popped up on this piece of road, it was slowly sinking and turning to mud. The Fish Farm pipes do come in handy after all, three of them together and some Waven coil later we had a solution. More visitors arrived and the boat painting gets finished. Spring is on its way.

Then we had the start of the disasters week, first of all the jeep decided to pack in. My worst nightmare for vehicles, the breakdown is obviously electronic and we have no way of repairing the fault. We tried everything but to no avail. Hours later on the internet we have a wee glimmer of hope but we need to buy a ECU reader or something like that. Then the biggest disaster, we got Covid!!!! We did not know it and I thought it was just a winter heavy cold. In the meantime we were to lift the boat into the water and at that precise moment a hydraulic pipe on the JCB burst, the back actor/crane fell and landed on top of one of the engines. Much to Zoe and Rich’s amazement. Thankfully they were nowhere near it. What looked like a complete disaster turned out to be major damage but sortable. With the help of ‘Cam Marine, James from Portree we were up and running by the end of the week. Our visitors made a sterling job of repairing the cover. In the middle of it all a week ago to-day I thought I should test to see if this ‘heavy’ cold was maybe something else. And so it was. We both tested positive.

Our guests went away and they still test negative which is good, Calum arrived and we set about the Spring work, phase 2. I had tripped in the house just at the start of the Covid infection and landed heavily against the corner of the kitchen unit. I suspected I had a broken rib which hurt when I coughed (A lot). But the work goes on. Masked up and avoiding close contact with Calum was a bit of a mission but he still tests negative. We had good weather so the RIB (Not the broken one) was put in the water. A fault that had developed last year was solved. It helps if the supplier sends the correct replacement propellor!!!

Finally after a busy week and the cold getting better we allowed a socially distanced drink. This morning was the first day since a week ago Thursday when I first started sniffling thast I have tested negative, Lorraine has a bit to go, but we are happy that that episode is behind us.

Finally with the Covid behind us we hope, Spring now fully underwasy we look forward to having more trips like the one to the Jurassic Shore on Skye on Friday last.

Here we are 2 months on, time flies when you are busy, the blog to follow is an update of the last two months. Been a pretty full two months culminating in Covid!!! More of that later. Suffice to say it is the weather to have Covid, looking good tonight out from the Island:

Well Lorraine put a post on Facebook on the new position on Rona for a couple and we were picked up by the Daily Mirror yesterday as a News Filler then it was on the TV briefly where it ceertainly created a bit of interest. So much so that we have had quite a few enquiries and it will take time to go through them all and get back to folks.

But in the meantime I also see that there has been quite a bit of interest in my blog. I hope those now looking at it will enjoy the pictures and stories. It is a wondeful place to stay, very challenging at times and now with me becoming a pensioner with reduced energy levels and a huge workload we are indeed looking for a couple to help us.

There is a full gale outside and I guess one of the strongest this year, the internet is off but we have back up phones. The trip next week may or may not be on, the weather controls everything. It has been a very wet winter and more grey than sun but when it is sunny it is beautiful. It is a great place to live.

I will give an overview of ‘The Job’ soon, but like my blog posting these last few years, that one could take time to get round to.

In the meantime I will finish the latest ongoing post and I am sure there is much on the blog to keep any visitor busy.

Busy Days Ahead

I was going to start this blog bemoaning the last Lister Generator we bought. A twin cylinder TR2, which was what you would call a Monday morning or Friday afternoon build. But, given the interest in our vacancy we have just advertised, it looks like a busy time ahead . Job Opportunity

So here we are doing a typical Winter job during a very typical January. The weather has been as usual difficult, it has been pretty much wet and windy since October with odd stunning days and occasionally cold. But it is what it is so we just get on with it. At this time we catch up on house/machinery maintenance hoping to get some good weather for the stalking. Now that the New Year ceklebrations are past it is time for preparing for the coming season and possibly a wee break away.

Last week Calum came over and we took the week to rebuild the top end of the last new Lister generator we bought amongst other maintenance jobs. This one had barely run for 2000 hours when it started leaking oil from the top end. It turned out that the parts used to build these otherwise reliuable gennies were not the quality that Lister usually sourced and they were what they call a bad batch.

After a bit of a battle we got Lister to replace ‘some’ parts (as it was just out of warranty) but it was up to us to sort their problem, we are less than impressed. I installed the spare generator (a TS2) three days before our annual holiday last year, when the oil leak became critical but it was only a temporary measure. It was not performing as it should and it was up in the garage awaiting its 20,000 hour re-build.

With only one Lister engineer now working full time in Scotland it is difficult to tie him down to come over but he was very helpful over the phone and as we have to do here we just got on with the job.

We have done this quite a few times so on a good day we will exchange generators, but it is time consuming. Fingers crossed our repair is good for a few years now.

We had a full card of engineering to carry ouit but the generator took longer than expected (the exhaust started to fall apart requiring some ingenuity).

Not much to report on our two windmills, yawl bearings were a wee bit worn so we replaced them, some nuts and bolts. Then extra springs at Dry Harbour. But overall the Proven Wind Turbines have been good, with low maintenance.

Our friends at Fladda (Summer Residents) are away just now so we thought after the gales that we should go down and check the properties. All was well, with some nice hinds feeding on their lawn. No Eagles about, hopefully the Avian Flu has not killed any more than the one on Skye.

Although we missed out on central heating anmd electrical work, we did get the outboards looked at. it is the first winter the boat has been left in the water and as I write it is getting a hard time on the mooring in 60 mph winds.

The swimming continues, it is cold but fun. Not so much fun for this Dolphin that was washed up on the shore.

It was well out of the water and would have been pretty rotten in no time so a plan was hatched to put it somewhere less intrusive.

We decided to put it out to the Island in the harbour well above the High Water mark where the birds can deal with it, waste not want not!!

Callum’s week went quick and our next visitor was Steve up from the South for a weeks stalking, on this ferry we had a delivery of deisel. We usually get it from Mallaig by landing craft but at this time of year it is handy to get it on our Ferry Seaflower.

The following week another 1000litres which is always helpful. But it all takes time, putting the pipes out, pumping the fuel, delivering it to its various destinations then tidy up, most of a day.

We were sighting in Steve’s rifle when a hind appeared in this very small block. I was astonished to see it in there and NO we did not shoot it. It looked like it had tried to jump over the fence and had landed on it. The fence was well down but no trees were damaged, I think it had happened that night, if not shortly before we got there with the rifle. Even in a half acre block it is important to keep the fencing tight otherwise the deer will find the weakness. Forest Land Scotland take note!!!!!

After a trying week of weather when we only managed 4 hinds Steve left for home. Of course it was the best day of the week, calm with a bit of sun, but it quickly deteriorated yesterday and to-day Storm Malik.

But every cloud has a silver lining they say, a calm swim of at last 480 yards, as I swam out to the Island to change the card in the trail camera, nothing but Black Back gulls coming to dine on it . The Sea Eagles must have plenty food.

To-day it is Saturday, no days off here. (my choice) I’m in the larder all day finishing off the hinds. Tomorrow we will make burgers then prepare for Calum and Irene to relieve us whilst we head off for a few days.

That is the way of Rona, it is definitely not a nine to 5 job, it is typical of Estate work that there is always something to do should you choose, things turn up all the time. Of course there is down time, for me it is swimming just now that I am enjoying (but not in this storm), reading and trying to sort out the millions of photos, mostly of Rona on my laptops.

The variety is immense, from stalking to engineering, boat work, guests, butchery, the list is endless. It is not ‘A Job’ it is a life.

Now where was I? It is light enough now so I’ll do the rounds and see what has been destroyed last night by the storm (no sleep last night BTW with the noise)