Turning of the tides - and a Happy New Year

This post will be short. Running out of year, before the New one rolls in. Farmer and family are off, before dawn tomorrow, to celebrate Hogmanay with friends and family - a tour round Scotland before school starts again on the 9th. So if there is not a New Year post for a week or so after we get back, please excuse!

The photos on this post are from yesterday (the tin shed near Penmore on its roof - blown out of the ground) and from earlier in the year.

Weather related issues have dogged the last few days. High winds (again and again!). Yet more powercuts! Yesterday's was caused by a fire on a hydro pole between Calgary and Ensay, which burnt through the pole. The hardy team of engineers managed to do a running repair - by lowering the top section above the burned out bit, and bolting it to the rest of the pole, thus securing the line.

Powercuts, coming when you least expect or want them, makes you realise how dependant we all are on electricity. Being connected to the national grid means that the turbine is automatically switched off in a power outage so having our own turbine and solar PV does not mean we are safe from the effects of powercuts - no smug, we are alright thoughts here! But without the electricity the woodchip boiler cannot work either (no controls, no pumps to circulate the heat) and as a result of yesterday's powercut, we discovered last night a safety feature we didn't realise it had - if the power cut comes whilst the boiler is firing, the boiler will 'boil over' and dump the excess hot water on the floor of the boiler room - so that it doesn't damage itself! It soon regulated itself once the power was restored. Thankfully 6 of the cottages have wood burning stoves and we are planning on putting in stoves to the other 2 in the coming year.

Lucky not to lose the 'solardome' greenhouse in our garden in yesterday's blast, as one of the windows blew out, but thankfully the rest of the structure stood up to the challenge.

The grass in the garden has gone yellow, from salt laden wind and excessive rain! Windward side of escallonia hedging salt wind singed and threadbare. Natural selection in the sycamore trees clinging to our garden edge, as dying branch tips hasten to the ground whipped away from tree centre by sudden gusts too strong to withstand.

Lots of candles at the ready for the next powercut - just in case!

The cows are safely in doors - dry and warm, easily fed - as long as you can open the sliding doors. Wrestling with gates in the wind that are almost impossible to open, fighting with feed bags and feeling the full force of battering rain or hail as Farmer goes to feed the hoggs is something else.

The tups are still working but they will be taken out in a week's time, and the ewes will be sent back to the hill once more.

We have had a fairly epic year all in all. Enjoyed almost all of it. Loved alot of it. Hated certain bits of it. And stressed about too much of it. What next year has in store time will tell! We don't expect to win any awards or get quite as much publicity as we got this year. But we will keep on keeping on at what we do - and a few things more than we have done before! 2012 bookings are looking good for a busy season ahead - lots of repeat guests which is always lovely, and some new faces too who we look forward to meeting.

During the coming farming year, we will be monitoring the fields and seeing how the new grazing management is affecting the bio-diversity, we will hopefully be doing something clever with excess wind power heating water for the district heating - and we will look forward to welcoming some of you here in the coming year. Happy New Year!!!

24,000kWH and rising

The promise of an Indian summer would perhaps have more aptly described as a monsoon. This is the burn next to the farmhouse. It has been running full blast for days. Luckily a little trench digging recently has meant we have not flooded the house again.

This is where you realise what a very sad individual I am. I wouldn't say I am academic enough in my approach to merit the term 'geek', but I do enjoy watching how our turbine performs. Our Proven 6kW wind turbine was installed around the 18th of October 2009. As part of the application for SRDP funding we had to submit a budget/business plan. This needed to show that the turbine installation was viable. We based our plan on producing 10,000kWH per annum and so we were very pleased at the end of year 1 to have generated just over 12,000kWH.

Earlier this summer when we discovered that a set of springs needed replacing (found one of the springs embedded in the ground near the turbine base, having blown off in a late May gale), we had to put the turbine brake - and wait. It took 2 months for our installers to get the okay from Proven to come and replace the springs under warranty, and as a consequence, we didn't produce any electricity for those 2 months. During that same 2 month period the year before we had generated 1,700 units. So for the second 12 months, date to date, we were bound to be down on production.

It was mid August when the turbine was repaired and spinning again. And I have been watching the generation meter and wondering whether or not we would catch up and amazingly - this week 10 days ahead of its second birthday - we have passed the 24,000 unit mark - short of the mid October anniversary - and in only 10 months of full working mode. Suffice to say, we are delighted!

The weather has been very unsettled and varies from one day to the next - in extremes! Yesterday we woke up in Glasgow to brilliant sunshine and had the most beautiful drive up to Oban with Farmer laid out in the back of the car. Autumn colours and brilliant blue skies. This morning woke up to low mist, dull sky, warm still air. Cobwebs dripping with misty droplets. Everything still and slightly dank. Now the wind has picked up again and it is raining hard. The rain does interesting things to the colour of the bracken.

Farmer's operation was a success, and now the challenge for him will be to do what the doctors order, and rest accordingly - for the next 6 - 8 weeks. So the focus in the farmhouse is definitely on convalescence and recovery. School holidays started yesterday so it could not be better timed.

On the farm, life must go on though and thankfully we have good help and support. On Monday the Dervaig Contractors brought the cows and calves in to the cattle shed in order to separate them, as the calves were going to market the next day. Cattle have extremely strong maternal instincts and taking the calves away is heart-breaking to watch. They take several days to calm down once the calves have gone. Lots of calling and mooing and searching. From past experience of post-weaning calves (and several destroyed fences) Farmer now leaves all the gates open from Haunn to the farm which allows them to rove.

This year somehow, a gate was closed by mistake and one cow was accidently left in the Haunn field whilst all the others were up at the cattle shed - Jamie managed to get her back to the others and brought the bull and No 63 up from 'the bottom' so the whole herd was back together. And another - just as I was leaving to go and catch the ferry in order to go and visit Farmer in hospital - got caught between a fence and a wall. Luckily both Dervaig Contractors and Jamie were able to sort that out for me.

The Dervaig Contractors took them to Oban Mart for us, and they were 2nd or 3rd through the ring. Prices were better than last year, but still down on the year before (the last year of our organic status). It is not a great feeling to know that your quality animals have not reached the price they deserve, and there are many possible reasons for this. Whilst not being pedigree Aberdeen Angus, they are nearly all pure Angus, where most of the west coast cattle are continental, and perhaps this is what the buyers who come to Oban expect, or to that particular sale, expect. It has sharpened our resolve to try and forge a relationship selling direct to the same farmer each year. We did this in the last years of our organic status, and it meant the animals went directly to a farm, missing out on potential trauma in the market, and that we knew what price to expect before the animals left the farm.

Anyway they have gone now and usually the cows would be enjoying the aftermath of the silage ground. But we still haven't finished silage making yet! I think we may have to abandon it though. Walking across the fields with splashing underfoot. The mess of taking a tractor into the fields just now would be unthinkable.

Good to see smoke coming from the Heating Station again. We have had a few issues with a pump recently and are grateful yet again for the oil back up boiler so that at least the guests can be warm - we really hate having to resort to it but we don't feel that we can expect our guests to give up their warmth whilst we sort out the tiny occasional niggle in the system. (There are vague but exciting plans afoot to lessen our dependence on wood-chip..... more of that later in the year....) The nearest panels to the Heating Station are the solar PV (Photo voltaics) and the ones on the farmhouse roof are the solar hot water ones.

Patterns in bi-annual foxgloves. Loved how these leaves almost spiral out of the ground. When so much vegetation is going into its dormant and dying off stages, it is lovely to see the beginnings of next summer's flowering plants already.

Mid March ravens, hares and school children

We had a visit today from 20 pupils (P6s and P7s) from a nearby primary school.   They are doing a  renewables project, so they came to look at both the wind turbine and the wood chip boiler.   It was great to have a chance to show them round.  We had arranged a wood chip delivery which gave us a chance to show off the electric sliding roof on the fuel store.  And now that the wind has remembered how to blow, the turbine was actually generating when they were here.   Lots of notebooks and pens, and an impressive amount of note taking!  And this being Mull and island education being so good, they were going to stop off at Calgary beach to eat their packed lunches on the way back to school.  What a life.

On the farm, life goes on - still a couple of cows to calve - considering we only have 12 cows, this has been a very slow calving period.  The gathering is planned for next week.   Spring cleaning cottages.  Last minute maintenance.   Farmer had to do a bit of ditching down by the old boathouse - just near this fantastic rock.

Spring equinox approaching in a few days.  Very low tides, and matching high tides.  Strong winds forecast.  The season is finally changing.  Hooded crows seem to be paired up everywhere you look.  Dozens of frogs playing that game of 'chicken' - frozen in my headlights driving home in the dark.  The little lochan next to Duill and Shian has clouds of spawn in the shallows.  I haven't seen a wild primrose yet, and the snow drops in the garden around the farm house are still flowering - they seem to have enjoyed the prolonged cold this winter.  Watched a raven in our neighbours field, on the ground, pulling at something I couldn't see, its heavy head and beak almost animal-like as it turned to look back at me.
A feral black cat prowling the farm yard at the moment and upsetting the house cat.  Bold as brass, sitting out in the grass as Farmer went out to start his day this morning.  I haven't seen a hare this week but last week disturbed one ahead of us on a walk near the Cruachan - this habitat is not high enough for the resident hares to need to turn completely white, but we do see some funny half white ones every now and then.  There is more information on hares on Prasad's blog.  And finally Treshnish joined Facebook and has its own Page.

The woodchip story

The first load of chip is delivered.

When it all began....The Treshnish woodchip story began about 10 years ago when our architect John Renshaw suggested we had a good location for a centralized heating system powered by biomass. At the time it seemed to be too big an undertaking for us, plus there was no woodchip producer on the island at the time. So we put the idea on the back burner.

2005

In 2005 we had a Renewable Energy Study done to highlight possibilities on the farm for utilising small scale Renewables. Our goal was to produce enough electricity ourselves to offset the usage by the Treshnish and Haunn holiday cottages.

2006

In 2006 we embarked on a project to install a small micro hydro turbine on Treshnish lochan, applying for and being awarded a grant, finding the man to manufacture the turbine and install it. Unfortunately though, it turned out that the information within the Study was flawed and we didn't have enough head of water or flow to run a turbine however small. This was hugely disappointing. So back to the drawing board we went.

2007 Failed funding - 2008 successful funding

Over the next couple of years we looked at the other options and the one which stood out was the biomass, particularly as now there was a woodchip supplier on the island - within 15 miles of here. We tried for the Low Carbon Buildings Programme grant in 2007 but that didn't work out so we waited for the launch of the Scottish Rural Development Programme in 2008 and submitted our woodchip project in the first round of grant applications. It was worth waiting for as we were one of the first projects to get approval.

Now the Treshnish Renewables project could begin.

We chose Highland Wood Energy as installers. Based in Fort William, they seemed within easy reach and they had already installed 3 other woodchip boilers on the island. Our Froling 70 kW boiler with 1,800L accumulator tank housed in a shipping container was the first system of its size and kind to be installed on the island.

Work inside the cottages started in November - removing old storage heaters, fitting wet system plumbing and radiators (by a very experienced Salen based plumber), redecorating, laying reclaimed Junckers flooring. The outside work started in December - digging trenches, laying the pipe, backfilling the trenches, landscaping. The boiler should have arrived on 2 March. It eventually arrived on 17 March. Guests expected 3 days later. (A few anxious moments to say the least..) The boiler was lit for the first time on 19 March. Guests arrive the next day to warm cosy centrally heated cottages. Huge sense of relief!

Step one: Digging the pipe work trenches.

We lived with open trenches for most of the winter. The highly insulated pipe could only be ordered once the trenches had been dug and then measured as different sections of the project required different pipe sizes!

Step two: the insulated pipe arrives.

Step one: Digging the pipe work trenches.

Then it was delivered to the road end, as the trenches cut across the track so lorries could not drive in to the yard. The pipe was lifted off and brought in on the tractor and trailer, these huge coils of pipe.

Step three: backfilling trenches, leaving joints open.

The pipe was laid and the joints were sealed - a complicated system of heating and shrinking to ensure they won't leak at some point in the future. Then the trenches could be filled in. The joints had to be left accessible to be able to double check the seals under pressure once the boiler was up and running.

Step four: Arrival of Heating Station.

The container, weighing nearly 8 tonnes, arrived on the back of a lorry. The driver overshot the turning but thankfully stopped just beyond Burg and turned round.

It was lifted off with the HIAB, a slow motion aerobatic dance operated by a quiet and confident driver.

Step Five: Commissioning the boiler.

The benefit to us of installing a containerised system is that essentially that you have the boiler and the boiler house/fuel store delivered all in one go. But it still took time to commission it once the container was sited - connecting the underground pipe work, the water supply, putting up the shiny stainless steel flues and so on. Everyone worked very hard, long hours, to get it ready on time.

Step Six: The first chip delivery.

Couldn't light the boiler without chip so it was time for a delivery! The chip comes from Mull timber, processed and dried at Crannich Farm, in Glen Aros. The woodchip arrives in a 'scissor trailer'. The tractor reverses the trailer up to the side of the container. We use the 'remote' to operate the sliding roof from below. The trailer pours its 10 cubic metre load effortlessly into the fuel store. Over and done with very quickly!

And so, now the boiler could be lit for the first time! We expected some celestial sign, a significant fireworks display,a crashing drum roll perhaps? After all, this was the beginning of something very new and exciting for us..but no, it was lightly quietly and efficiently and off it went!

Living with Woodchip:

6 months on, now all the hot water and heating for the farmhouse, the 4 Treshnish cottages (Shian, Duill, Studio and Shieling) and the Laundry/Office is provided by zero carbon sustainable biomass heating.

Looking back: It all felt very daunting when it arrived. The boiler was huge. It looked bafflingly complicated. There were a few hiccups but they were ironed out, and now they are a distant memory! Gradually we have got used to the enormity of the boiler and how it works. We know what to do on the rare occasion it stops. (And we know who to call if we need to!) We check it every day, usually twice, more out of interest than necessity! We clean out the ash bins once a week. And once a month we have to clean the combustion chamber with a hoover. It is a living thing in the way that a fossil fuel oil boiler is not.

The local plumber is on hand should we need him and Highland Wood Energy provide a great back up service and are at the end of the phone with supportive, well experienced technicians - so we are not 'alone'.