I Love Volcanos

Having our beautiful Skye skies free from contrails is wonderful. I can't help thinking how much we would gain from a much reduced air travel industry. I can live without beans from Kenya (although perhaps the Kenyans need the trade, hmm), I don't wish to go to Thailand or Mexico, if I want to go to Europe I can go on a boat.

I'm sure I'm not alone.

Rubbish - on Various Levels

Don't get me wrong, the holiday makers are great. They bring in cash & create employment. I know, you can here a 'but' coming here can't you? Yes, there is a but...why is it that at Easter, just when the tourists start to fill up the roads there is a huge rise in the amount of discarded pop bottles, coffee cups and food wrappers on the sides of our roads?

Why would you come on holiday to a spectacular and beautiful place and then dump your rubbish out of the car window? I know it can't be locals because we just don't see the rubbish during the winter. OK there is a little bit, but it's very sparse. I just can't understand the mental process that must happen. I keep asking myself, is it me? Does no one else see it? But I know that cannot be true.

So, message for today, if you just happen to be reading this (though I doubt you will be) and are considering throwing your plastic bottle out of your car window as you drive round Skye - then please don't. And if there is a bald, beardy bloke in a big green pick up behind you - just don't! I'm watching, waiting.

My other rubbish gripe. Sea-bourne rubbish. The amounts of rubbish which wash ashore at Camasunarie are staggering. I hate to point fingers but most of it clearly comes from fishing boats. Yes, I know stuff gets washed off the deck, I know gear gets lost but not that much surely? Oh, and milk cartons - holy cow...how do so many milk cartons get into the sea?

Just some of the enormous pile of junk recently gathered from Camasunarie. It's heart breaking. But the good news is that now, as you come over the hill, the hillside and beach are far less littered. Let's try and keep it that way.

So, message number two. If you are at sea or near the sea, please don't chuck stuff in, make sure gear is secure and retrieve anything you happen across. The planet will be very relieved!

Rant over, thanks for reading.

Elf and Safety!

A salutory lesson in making sure your PPE is up to standard. I've been working with a rusty old chainsaw helmet visor for a while now. It's battered and slightly holey but what the heck. Yesterday, while snedding a larch I'd just felled a splinter flew off, straight through the visor and got stuck under my eye lid. Cripes I said, that jolly hurts.

After a number of abortive attempts to clean my eye I took myslef off to casualty. The larger bit had come away by the time I was seen but they washed the debris out and found that it had left an ulcer on my eye. So now I've got a patch for two days and some antibiotics.

So, lesson learned - don't take chances with your gear!

Mind you, I now have unlimited opportunities to do pirate impressions.

The Almost Conquering Heroes!

Well done the Elgol Primary quiz team. After a stiff competition with some real stinky questions our four valliant warriors have made it through to the next round! Portree A cam out as clear winners but there was a tie for second place. The tension during the sudden death tie break between Elgol and Staffin was amazing, parents all now on Beta Blockers.

So, we're all off to Dingwall soon and in the mean time, there will be no frivoloity, just reading reference books between now and then.

New Head Teacher Needed!

As the deadline for applications draws near I thought I'd give a little reminder about our need for a new head teacher. Here's the link:

http://www.highland.gov.uk/yourcouncil/employment/jobvacancies/mw-10-152-p.htm

And here's another view from the school:

And once again!

Well, here we are at Saturday and it's seems like we've had a penny a litre on fuel every day this week. Today it's 122.9.

I'm going to get a pony.

Yet again....

Another day, another price rise. Diesel today is 121.9.

Thank heavens for Nissan who have announced hat they are to start production of an electric car in the UK.

Price of Fuel - AGAIN!!

The price of diesel in Broadford this morning was 120.9ppl.

I went into the Coop and bought veg oil at 93ppl instead.

These prices cannot continue.

Keeping Warm in Older Houses

First in an occasional series about how we are trying to make an older stone built house a more pleasant place to live and to reduce our carbon footprint. In the future we hope to be installing retro-fit wall insulation and an ultra modern wood fired heating system. So far we have insulated the loft - here's what we learned:

One of the problems with older houses, especially stone-built houses is their failure to conform to modern standards of efficiency. In a quest to improve this we are currently engaged in a number of improvements which should see us warm and cosy through next winter as well as costing us much less and reducing our carbon footprint considerably.
The first and easiest task took us to the roof space to improve the loft insulation. The old loft insulation was very threadbare and rather patchy, indeed, there were some parts of the loft with no cover at all. What existing insulation there was consisted of ancient rockwool type which was beginning to de-nature and was nowhere deeper than 50mm. This was covered with a layer of dust and vermin droppings.
The loose fibres and dust make a good quality respirator essential. Other essentials for putting new loft insulation in an old house: a pair of big, sharp scissors, overalls and illumination (I found a head torch to be the most useful). A few boards are also very useful and knee pads make the job much more comfortable. If you don’t like cobwebs in your hair, wear a hat!
Tip of the day – put a large dust sheet under your ladder – the amount of mess which falls from the hatch is remarkable!
When installing, apart from it being a pretty unpleasant job, there are very few pitfalls. The two main things to watch out for are the electrics and airflow.
To make sure your electrics stay safe all cables must be put on top of the insulation and that you cut around light fittings to allow any heat to escape. If the cable is too tight to get the roll of insulation under simply cut the roll at the cable and start rolling out again.
Airflow is critical in an older house so that you don’t get a build up of moisture. Make sure your insulation roll end does NOT but up to the roof. Always leave a gap to allow air from the walls to circulate. If you don’t, extreme cases can lead to dry rot.
It’s not complicated, even if it is hard on the knees and it makes an instant difference to your comfort levels and fuel bills. Insulate your loft today, there are a number of grant schemes running and some very good offers at the major DIY stores.

And now it's 119.9!

I'm off to Ebay to buy filtering equipment for used veg oil!

Price of Fuel

Yet again the price of fuel has gone up here on Skye. Diesel is now at 118.9ppl.

I know we have to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels but until someone comes up with a realistic alternative for the everyday world we are stuck with diesel and petrol. Can we therefore have it at a price which is affordable?

As soon as a hydrogen or electric double cab four wheel drive pick-up is available I'll be first in the queue but until then...

By the way, my pick-up is not a lifestyle thing. I need the seats for the school run, the back for carrying ladders, firewood, tools, dead deer, dogs etc and four wheel drive to get to remote locations (if you want to see what four wheel drive really means come with me) and hauling trailers.

We need a new Head Teacher!

Our wee school (20 pupils) in Elgol on the Isle of Skye needs a new teaching head. After 20 years our current head retires - and she'll be a hard act to follow. So, if you think looking out of the window and seeing this from your classroom might be nice then have a look at the job description here:

http://www.highland.gov.uk/yourcouncil/employment/jobvacancies/mw-10-152-p.htm

Elgol Primary is a very special little school, the children are wonderful and the parents very supportive, if you've got what it takes, have a look at the ad!

It's still blinking freezing here. Ground is still hard as rocks, the gritters still ply the road and I can't get any painting done as the temperature doesn't rise above freezing most of the time. Still, as each frozen day goes by another million midgies meet their maker! Hah!

Well on the way to getting the new and improved Wildpeople up and running (www.wildpeople.co.uk) we're not quite there but it should be very soon. Just waiting for the hosting company to sort out their php (no, I don't know what it means either).

H is still fizzing about his offer of a place at a very prestigious school - all we have to do now is find a way of funding it. So, if there are any philanthropists out there who would be willing to put a very enthusiatic boy through the best education imagainable, well, we're all ears (trying not to grovel).

Off to look at some window frames! Hey-ho, the world of high finance must wait.

Insulation

Well, it seems like the loft insulation has made a difference, as too have the bits I've placed between the radiators and the walls. Even so, we are still golloping heating oil like crazy and can't wait to get on to a wood fired system.

The news today featured an item about loans for eco-friendly heating. I'm going to investigate further this evening. The last quote we got for putting in a flue system was over £3000!!

School Matters

At long last and with the help and forbearance of Ali next door we can now access the internet again - phew!

A long parents forum meeting today, lots of useful stuff. Main topic of discussion was our current head's replacement. Interviews will be held in the spring. So if you just happen to be reading this and would like to be a teaching head in the wonderful little community of Elgol on the Isle of Skye, keep an eye on the Highland Council website for the advert. It should be coming out in the next week or so.