Moving to Orkney

Everything you want to know before making the move"

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Blackbird Chicks Print E-mail
Saturday, 15 May 2010 00:00

We're dead pleased to have blackbird chicks in our garden room again this year. I know that blackbirds are hardly rare, but it's still nice to be able to see the cicks and their busy parent close up.

 
Northlink Ferry Cancelled! Print E-mail
Tuesday, 20 April 2010 00:00
We're in Inverness en-route from and ARI outpatient visit and just had an SMS from Northlink to tell us our booking (return ferry) has been canceled and there will be no sailings till Saturday!

Fairly predictably, on ringing Northlink for further info, it took ages to get through to an operator who confirmed we are stranded!

Apparently the ferry has been commandeered by the Scottish Government to rescue people stranded in Norway due to the disruptions to air travel cause by the volcanic ash. 

Now don't get me wrong I have every sympathy for the long suffering people stranded around the globe due to the ash cloud, but stranding one set of people to rescue another seems a bit absurd.

Anyway, well done Pentland Ferries. Took ages to get through (guess they were suddenly getting a lot of enquiries) but managed to get booked onto the 13:30 crossing tomorrow.

I suppose I really shouldn't be moaning as we have at least got an alternative booked. Just a bit shocked at having the carpet pulled from under our feet.

 
Ground Loop Connected Print E-mail
Saturday, 06 March 2010 00:00

Well, they have been and connected the ground source collector now and what a difference. Our daily electricity consumption has dropped from an average of around £15.50 per day to just £5 per day.

So you see there is heat in that ground!

We're very happy with this as it is significantly less than we paid over the last twelve months for electricity, oil and coal combined. Keep in mind that this cost is our overall electricity cost with substantially everything now on electricity (we have a dual fuel oven so the hob is gas, from a bottle).

We're chuffed to bits.

It is of course early days yet and I'll post here how things go on during the rest of the year, but I would highly recommend anyone to investigate the feasability of a ground source heat pump if they are considering a new heating system.

As  little footnote I monitored the ground source heat pump's energy usage on it's own and it is running at around 26-27kwh per day, so just over 2kw per hour, which to heat the whole house and provide hot water is pretty good. This will of course drop as we further improve the insulation, and of course move into the finer weather.

 
GSHP: It's Here Print E-mail
Monday, 01 March 2010 00:00

At last!

img_3492After many months of surveying, planning and so on. the contractors arrived on the 26th Feb at around five thirty and asked if it woudl be o.k. to make a start, they worked until just after eight if that was o.k. Of course it was!

I must say what a good crew they were. Talk about sixty minute makeover! There were six of them and boy did they graft. Non of this stopping for a brew and biscuit for these boys, they were on a mission.

Read more...
 
Clever Mice Print E-mail
Sunday, 13 December 2009 11:59

I may have mentioned before that we have a recurring mouse problem. I suppose anyone that lives in a very rural area i.e completely surrounded by open fields has the same problem.

Every year as winter approaches, so do the mice.

I hate killing them and would hope that the two pet cats that we have inside and the various visiting cats that we have outside that the mice would keep their distance, but no.

So we lay mouse poison. I know it probably isn't any more humane that traps, but I'm afraid I can't face emptying traps.

Anyway...

clevermouseAbout four days ago, we were checking the bait stations and discovered that one of them in the bottom of the cupboard where the immersion tank is, was covered in small pieces of rubble. Strange, we thought. Maybe some rubble has fallen from one of the holes where the Rayburn pipework was removed from and into the bait station. This seemed an unlikely explanation, but good enough.

The next day, the station was topped up again with various bits and bobs, small stones, a nail, etc. Covering the poison!

Today it is indeed burried again. By now the mice? have run out of bits of stone etc and have used some insultation, fur, a twig, see picture.

How strange is this? It seems as though either the mice are burying the food (after all that's how they see it, it is patable) for later consumption. Or, there is a particulalry clever and benevolent mouse burying the poison to stop other mice getting to it.

Either way, it is very strange.

 
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