Week beginning 29th August.
It’s Monday morning and we wake nice and refreshed after a weekend in Edinburgh visiting family and friends.
We took our grandchildren swimming to Dunbar where they have a pool with a flume and a wave machine and we always have fun there.
On Saturday we went for a walk in north west Edinburgh, over Corstorphine Hill then over to Crammond Brigg then back through Cammo Park. It was great to be out with Nicky and Graham after such a long gap between walks.
Our Edinburgh walk reminded us how great it is to have all that green space available right in the heart of our capital city.
An overnight stay and a long overdue catch-up with mum completed a lovely weekend.
Our main task today is to plane down the areas of the sole plates that aren’t level and to do our weekly shop. A nice easy start to the week.
We get the generator up and running by first hammering the copper earthing rod into the ground then connecting the earth wire from the generator to the rod. This should ensure that we don’t get any power surges that could ‘fry’ our batteries and anything else connected to the generator. We can now fire up the generator and connect the cable from it to the caravan. Success, we are in business and can charge the power tool batteries.
Pete starts working on the area around the toilet in the shed but the battery soon runs out. Meanwhile Molly is keeping an eye on the charging battery but it is taking ages and not the 20 minutes we are expecting. This slows the work down to a snails pace and is very frustrating.
We are spending as much time waiting for batteries as we are working and we are barely making a dent in our task.
It’s four o’clock we have given up the ghost and decide to go to Oban for our weekly shop and to do our washing at the garage.
We are at the garage and all the machines are in use so we head to Oban and will do the weashing on the way back.
We are back at the garage and pleased to see all the washing machines free but there is a load in our preferred dryer. This means that by the time our wash cycle is done the load in the dryer will also be done and we can load our washing into the dryer and get home not too late.
Our cycle is finished but no-one has come to take the load in the dryer. We wait a while to see if anyone comes to collect the washing.
We’ve been waiting fifteen minutes and still no-one has turned up so we put our washing in the second choice dryer that doesn’t heat up so the drying takes ages. The whole thing is a terrible frustration and every vehicle that arrives raises our hopes but they are always dashed.
First thing this morning and we are on our way to Highland Fasteners in Oban, yes another journey so soon, but this time to buy a fast charger and an extra battery for our power tools in the hope that we can finish the job promptly when we get back.
We are in luck because they have one, not only that but it charges two batteries at once, we are in business. We also buy a nail gun so David in the shop tells Pete we are ‘Platinum customers’ so are due a bonus – a Tunnocks Tea Cake!
The batteries are charged so we are in business and Pete is on the case. It’s going much better this time and not only are the batteries charging faster, they are lasting longer.
Pete is much more successful with the task this time but a new issue has arisen – the blades are chipped and blunt and not cutting any more. Luckily about 75% of the task is complete but this means another trip to Oban tomorrow, this is not good for our carbon footprint!
We are taking a walk up a track to get a view over the strath so we can get our bearings better. The sun is peaking over Ben Cruachan creating a shaft of red light that hits Ben Lui whose summit is in the clouds..
We start the day by reorganising the storage spaces on the outside of the caravan. Like most folk we just throw inconvenient things in there, out of sight. We need to get better organised outside the caravan as well as inside. It isn’t taking long and it’s a very satisfying feeling. We’ve also put up our awning to create more space which will be particularly useful when it’s wet.
We’re back from Oban and are trying to make sense of the instructions on how to change the blades on the planer. They are very confusing and complicated but we just have to try and see how we get on.
It turns out it’s not so complicated after all and so we are in business again and Pete is doing the last of the planing.
It’s been a frustrating few days but tomorrow is one we have been looking forward to right from when we started building the kit back in June – the lorry is coming with the kit and we are going to erect it with the help of Andrew, a couple of other guys and a crane. We are very excited!
It has been such lovely weather today that we are going to barbeque some sausages for dinner. Woohooo! Living the life.
the output from the generator is probably not a smooth sine wave, like domestic AC, so it will deliver less available power to the chargers.
Thanks Iain, that explains it. Still, having the generator is better than nthing.
hope you enjoyed the bangers! Are they Veggies?
That shaft of light on Lui looks like the inner fire of the land. Magical. What a great spot you are in.
It is amazing here so do come and check it out.
Great to see your progress! Well done!
Thank you Damiana. Hope everything is going well for you. 💖
It’s great to get the lowdown of laundry realities in a week that is to see such a massive development of the house. Was thinking of you all day Thursday.
It was fantastic to catch up and it is fascinating what we all take for granted. I never believed that one day I’d be standing outside waiting ages for my washing at a 24/7 self serve laundrette. A whole new world of experiences.