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 ?

It rained a bit last night

50mm ( 2 inches or so )  to be more exact.
And other parts of Orkney have a bit of flooding . The Radio Orkney  facebook page  has some pictures .
Our bit  had quite a lot of rain - the burn is fuller ( and louder ) than last time

and the pond has overflowed again - but unsurprisingly the ducks are nowhere near.

But a few other places have excess water around .

steps to the garden

Drive

And on the main road down the hill the ditch at the side can't cope , so the road is flooding in places.

and the hens are really unhappy in the quagmire

why would you want to do that ?

The car had to go to the dealer to get looked at and have the funny noise emanating from the front somewhere to be diagnosed. So  I rang them and arranged a date and duly arrived and delivered car.

And was  given a lift the few miles back to Kirkwall. And shortly after that I was rung with the diagnosis.
And then a conversation a bit like this.

• Garage " would you like us to drop the car off  ? "
• Me "oh, yes please , that would be helpful "
• G: where shall we drop it off ? 
• Me : In the carpark ?
• G: Yes Ok then 
• Me:  and what about the keys ?
• G: We'll leave them under the seat.

and when i went out to get the car, about 7 hours later, it was still there and the keys were  as described .

According to other people I spoke to, alternative answers to the "what about the keys ? " question would have been

• In the glove box
• Behind the Sun visor 
• In the door  compartment
• under the Passengers  seat

Lock the car, find me and give me the keys ?

"Why would you want to do that ? "