Looking back and forward

A visit from the Mull based accredited wind turbine installer today, to look at the possible site for a 3rd turbine.  We are currently generating about 80% of our usage (including cottages, office, laundry). With a 3rd turbine we will be able to generate the balance and also enough to cover the Schoolhouse, and the proposed cabin.

Our first turbine, the Proven 6kW, was put up in October 2009. Our expectations were exceeded in the first year, and in the second and third.  The Kingspan 6kW installed last November, identical in all but name, has more than exceeded our expectations - generating about 7,000 kilowatt hours more than the Proven.  

We have had many discussions between ourselves, the installers and others, as to why there is such a big difference between the 2, but we hope now that recent conversations with Kingspan might have pinpointed 2 factors which may explain the 50% difference in output between them.    A bit of work to be done but hopefully it will improve things. 

   

We walked up to the proposed site with N to confirm whether or not it would be suitable or not - looking for 'clean wind'.   It appears to be a good site from that point of view, so we now need to start a planning application…

The first thing we needed to do was to take a photograph from a certain corner on the road to Salen, for the photomontage.  Farmer lent his cap to the top of a 5m pole so that it was more noticeable, and I headed off down the road to take the picture.

There has been some exciting news on the wood chip front… Earlier this week a deal was concluded on the sale of the Crannich Woodfuel business to our local community woodland (North West Mull Community Woodland Company).  Crannich Woodfuel have been great suppliers - very reliable and consistently thoughtful and helpful, so we will miss them - but acquiring their business will be a fantastic opportunity for NWMCWC, helping create job opportunities locally.  It is great news for the mileage factor for us in using their wood chip, as it means eventually that the timber will not only be supplied from 4 miles away but will be chipped there (rather than currently at Crannich) before being delivered here.   We already buy our softwood logs from the community woodland, and they are about to start supplying us with kindling as well.  

We had some visitors the other day who were thinking of installing a biomass boiler, and it was interesting to talk to them about their plans, as well as sparking off some reminiscences for us too, looking back to the process we went through in choosing our system, and the installers, and wondering if we would do any of it differently if we were to do it again.  I was reminded of the extreme fear I felt when our boiler first arrived, wondering how I would ever cope with the technology. But now 4 and a half years later, I suppose a relationship of trust has built up between us and the boiler… it has broken down a few times, but (touch wood) we either know what to do now, or failing that, who to call.  

Farmer has been out checking the tups each day, and this afternoon he used Walter to move some sheep from one field to another.    He is keen to please which is half the battle. 

I went to a busy Producers Market in Dervaig - the pre-Christmas one.  It was mobbed, with a good selection of local produce - pork, sausages, lamb, haggis, Christmas puddings and lots more.  

Thin ice.

The last 4 tups went out yesterday. Tupping started 3 weeks ago and the ewes will stay in the fields for another 3 weeks - grazing tools, cleaning up the pasture after the cows. We had a bit of hail before dark, which is still lying, this morning, on the frozen ground. We have been lucky that there has been no snow here, so we have not had the problems associated with hill sheep or cattle wintering outside and heavy snow. I read the Tarset Shepherd's harrowing tale of getting animals safely off the hill, and realised how very lucky we have been to escape the weather that the rest of the country have had.

The Council have closed the Hill Road from Torloisk to Dervaig and the Glen Road from Aros Bridge to Dervaig. We have been quite surprised that they have intermittently gritted the road from Calgary to Torloisk which is usually the last one to receive any attention. We must not complain though as it keeps access to Treshnish open.

The school fight continues... we were due a visit from the Councillor/Spokesperson for Transport on Tuesday. He was going to sit in on a 'real time' school run to verify the actual journey time (as opposed to timing it in a Ford Fiesta, which is what the Council staff did for the Proposal papers). Much of Monday was spent on the phone discussing whether or not the 'run' should go ahead - and why? Because the road was so treacherous. It was cancelled.

Panic in Tobermory because the shelves in the Co-op are emptying fast, and the lorry didn't come yesterday and won't come today either.

Light relief. Stopped to take photographs on my way to Dervaig yesterday. Thin ice on Loch Cuin, up to the high tide mark. Silent still air. Cockerel crowing at Shepherd's Cottage. High pitched cracking from splitting sheets of ice as the tide slowly withdrew out to sea, leaving the curled up over rock paper thin ice high and dry.

Bonfire Night

A still, clear night with a strong yellow moon lighting a shining path towards us across Calgary Bay as we drove to Dervaig for the village Bonfire. Puffs of misty cloud hang above the calm sea loch as dancing flames reach skyward. Silhouettes stand black against the flare and light - dark faceless figures dressed up for the cold. Fireworks reflecting their neon rainbow over the water. Sparklers. Soup and sausage rolls. I forgot to take my camera.

So instead of photographs of the sparklers writing poems in the dark, some sunshine taken late this afternoon instead.

Matt Baker's sculpture 'Seabone' at Treshnish, with Calgary headland and Rum in the background.

It was a truly beautiful afternoon with intense sun setting light. Lovely for the guests staying in the self catering cottages - out walking in this bright sunlight.