Our first Ba

Over about the last week or so the shops and houses in the streets around the Cathedral  were getting added Christmas decorations
And then there was an article in the local paper about the Ba accompanied by a notice from the Council and a note of thanks from the Ba Commitee

 

The  goal for the Uppies is  Mackesons corner, a  gable end that happens to be situated on the road on the way to work. So would they be closing the roads, I asked. After all , up to 300 men and a Ba would be quite an obstacle to get around. Or alternatively I'm told if my car  happened to be in the way they  are likely to go over it. Silly me , of course they wouldn't close the road. it could be seen as some sort of encouragement or endorsement of the activity. 

A few minutes before 1pm the Uppies arrived  .

So we found a vantage point. Wind we were all expecting and were dressed appropriately . What we weren't expecting  was the intermittent horizontal sleet.

 So the players waited for the  1pm chimes and the Ba to be thrown. 

an then the pack settled against the Town Hall door and stayed where it was or about 15 minutes 

If you are watching from near the scrum you need to be pretty quick and agile - if it breaks and they all start coming towards you , they aren’t going to wait for you to get out of the way - and quickly.  The pack moved down  and across the Road, but after 30 mins ended up almost where they started 

And it seems to be important that you taper your shoes onto your legs - or perhaps your trousers to your shoes . 

Wet, cold and  shivering  and wet, we left after about 90 minutes. They were still on the Green outside the Cathedral. So home for lunch and then followed the progress  on the  Radio Orkney Facebook  page. 

There are some accounts of the Ba on a number of websites ( try google)

 the Stromness Dragon has an account from the Mens Ba in 2012 and there are lots of photos on the Bagame website

We'll be back in on january 1st ,  and dressed for the sleet as well as the wind 

An interloper

Its been spotted eating the hen food and going across the field.

I think I may need to learn to shoot !

63.6

Its been a bit windy over the  last few days. Of course its nothing exceptional that gets reported in any of the local news.  But the anenometer  came up with a new highest wind speed  - 63.6 mph .

There is a storm coming in the next 24 hours - the are saying up to 90 mph ( but that's the Western Isles , so we may not be as bad )  . Watch this space for a bulletin !

Red Sky in the morning

and this is whats coming

whilst its already been to the Western isles

But the red sky is quite appealing.

I wasnt expecting this

so we had a bit of a storm with winds reported  to be up to 90 mph. And then we had a bit  of snow. What i didnt get a picture of is the hail falling horizontally.  And when 60mph hail hits you  it stings a bit !

Up the road

In the drive

 

Along the drive

A trunk road

Of course we don’t live out at the back of beyond, miles from civilisation. We live  on a A road -  the main road between 2 important  villages. OK, its not Dual Carriageway ( a picture of  a rural dual carriageway is here ) but there is a passing place at the end of the drive, see

  
and on the way home there was a small ( well - quite large )  problem - a tractor had broken down.

But its OK really -  I looked at the verge and it wasn't too soft, and the dyke by the side of the road was set back a bit.


And the alternative  to reverse,  and find another route to come up the other side of the hill would have been 5 miles or so .


And of course there wouldn't be a problem.  As advised by the neighbours who were there as well ,  If I ended up in the ditch there are plenty of people around with a tractor who could pull me out .

 So tractor  negotiated , ditch avoided I was on my way

Phones' back. and a small silver lining

The phone went down on sometime Tuesday  night during the storm.  Its been difficult to find out how widespread the problem has been , but  from  listening to  a number of course, we think  quite a few on the Harray side of the hill were affected.

The Openreach van ( all the way from Inverness)  arrived on sunday morning.  After a few minutes he discovered the total lack of phone was that the microfilter on the main connection had blown.  But he detected  another, different remote fault. this could be what the BT line test had found when i tried it whilst we had no phone. But  why didn't BT find it when we started making a fuss about the line ?

 So we left him to it, plugging some stuff into our phone line and disappearing, I assume to the nearest roadside cabinet  3 miles away. And when we returned there was a note reporting the problem as fixed.  The Broadband still isn't wonderful but here's the proof that things have improved

and its not just a one -off ( so far).  Usual speed of approx 1.5Mb/s before and 1.9-2.1 Mb/s after  !

so an improvement of 20% or so. 

But there is a downside as well. My online server has failed during the storm.

So I've taken it apart, rescued the hard disk and am in the process of retrieving all the  information from it. rebuilding it is a project for the next few nights - but of course I cant just pop out to get the bits - its mail order for anything I want .

 

Some weather photos

From few days ago , when we had snow .

And  rainbow whilst we were  trying to round up the ewe. 

To catch a sheep........

We've been given ( not quite, but close enough)  a 4 year old Shetland yow- Orcadian for ewe .
And after a couple of days in the field , we noticed she had a limp.
So the job was to catch aforesaid ewe, inspect feet, treat as necessary and then let go.

So you start with a large field with a solitary sheep in it

and a pen made of sheep hurdles, and you have to get one sheep into the pen.

Wily things, sheep. this one  will dash along the fence if people get too close , except when the way is blocked ( eg by people) and then they will wait until you think they are cornered and then dash *across* the field. Or vice versa. And  then go and and in the furthest corner of the field , wait for you to approach, and then decide to descend . And they will do this a few times . 

But in the end she was out-manoeuvred   and penned.

 
The easy bit is immobilising them - just turn them on their back

 Feet inspected, cleaned and treated with antibiotic

No phone

we had a bit of a storm  yesterday.  Some of the ferries were cancelled

With some thunder and lightning overnight on tuesday  (not very common here , I've been told) , and the power went off very briefly a couple of times . We weren't alone - quite a bit of our bit of Orkney was affected .

 And  on Wednesday  the landline wasn't working - no dial tone. So I reported  it to BT , they tested it and I got an automatic message saying its their kit that has failed and someone was sorting it. I was also  pointed to ' MyBT ' bit of the website (the bit  they tell me how much I'm paying for a 1.6Mb/s connection) for updates .

 So here you go - I've logged into MyBT - the log out button is in the top right hand corner , ergo I'm logged in - and they tell me  this - no faults .

Wrong. Still no dial tone . So I 'test the line'  , and i get this

So there is still a fault.  BT cant really do anything about lightning strikes, and Im sure im not the only one affected. But its a pity they don't put as much effort into  ensuring there existing customers get  good information  - nofault/fault information is reminiscent of the up to 16Mb/s  weasel words when they flog you the connection - rather than continuing to  try and push additional services i don't want.

We've been without for 18 hours so far . And with the poor mobile signals, coummunication with the rest of the world can be challenging at times.

In Memoriam

 RIP 2 November 2013

the mystery of the vanishing ducks - a witness

a neighbour has spoken to us . To paraphrase

I was awake at 6 am and went outside.

 I heard a dreadful, commotion  of the ducks quacking wildly.

I looked down the hill and I saw a flurry of feathers in the air.

 Sounds farly conclusive to me. I think we now have some ex-ducks. I'll leave it a few days and then post an  in memoriam mesage. And i'll find some photos of the deceased

The mystery of the vanishing ducks - a suspect

The European Otter (Lutra lutra) eat fish and anything else that moves  near water. This can inlcude water birds. The burn is an otter super-highway.

So its likely that the pet ducks  were taken by the otter.  So the next project is to lock the ducks up at night. Last time we tried that, they were too stupid to cotton on . So we will have to try again.  Perhaps the ducks would have received a Darwin Award , were animals eligible.

The burn is very nice, but.........................

The mystery of the vanishing ducks

We've had seven ducks, as described here. But over the weekend , during the day when we have been out , seven has become 5.

So 2 are AWOL.

They always stick together as   group, so we don't think  the absent ones have wandered off by themselves , and they are too big and heavy (and probably too stupid)  to fly away .

On one bit of the lawn where they waddle around  are some  scattered feathers.

And they  don't seem really keen on the fast-flowing burn , so we don't think the missing 2 have gone exploring over the edge of the pond

 There is another small pond surrounded by trees, just downstream of where the are now but no sign of them there.

trees next to the pond

 And we have had a good look around the pond and the land adjoining

moorland above the pond

But might there be a track through the moorland for a predator or interloper.

So whats happened to them :

Absconded  or Abducted ?