A bit windy

heres the windbreak to try and protect the trees .  Its been there through  since last year.  Didnt do much for the apples from the trees though .

Heres a tree, being protected

 And heres the windbreak after last nights' storm ( storm Deirdre)
 70 mph gusts where we  are.

 And the Orkneyharbours.com website gives live weather updates

Here's last nights' winds

 60knots =69 mph.

Grit

Hens need grit - as explained here .

 

 

Spray, at a distance

a wave or few

One of our excess cockerels went to a neighbour , who said the gizzard was full and the birds needed more grit.  Obvious really - there is a lot of mud here at the moment and the hens will be getting enough of that but anything insoluble will probably be washed away .
And our neighbour recommended a spot that was ideal for collecting grit.
So early one morning , we went with some buckets
Its a bit windy ,so we took a few other pictures as well
































 And some grit for the hens

Red Sky in the morning

Red Sky  in the morning

And a bit later

 and a bit later still , with a bit of snow and a view

 But then the wind  got up a bit ( Storm Gertrude , For what its worth)

And we have horizontal hail here

A bit of damage

Weve had gale force winds for the last 48 hours . The Aberdeen Ferry couldnt get to the pier and spent the night 'parked up' in the bay. So 6 hours on the ferry ended up being 20  hours.

there is going to be a bit of a problem getting  things on and off the Eday  ferry , as part of the approach road has been  washed away 

 And weve had a bit of damage ( other than the double glazed window , where the gale force winds managed to force some rain though the frame  - a job for some silicone sealant on the outside when the weather has improved. 

The winds and rain has brought down so much rubbish that the drainage got blocked and  a bit of the drive got flooded .

An old tree was brought down. So thats the firewood for next year,

And a bit of the wall has been blown down . So there is a job for the summer.



So we got off quite lightly really

Getting ready

 On the Beaufort Scale greater than 55 mph is Force 10, greater than 64 mph is Force 11 .  So it will be Force10.5 !


its going to get a bit windy, so they say. Its really the first decent storm of the winter - 40mph gusts don't   count.
So we have to get ready.
We've gone round and tied down the sheep trailer

And cleared away or immobilised  a number of loose items that  might get blown about

I reckon the chick houses  will be OK - the wind will go through them. And if it does move them , they will end up in the hedge.  We shall see

And Im not alone  in getting ready

Winter 2014

We had a bit of a storm at the start of the week

but that wasn't  too bad - the boats were off but not the planes . Radio Orkney facebook page is the best source of information for this sort of thing

the wind has gone , but we have a bit of snow .
The water around the place all had ice on it , so a forceful welly meant that  the animals would be OK

 The sheep and hens arent too bothered  by it all.

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.

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 .

 

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.

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