Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
George Clarke’s Micro Designs.
Last weeks most amusing distraction, apart from ragwort pulling, was a day filming with George Clarke the Restoration Man. He is making a series on Micro Designs which will be aired later this year. The Beermoth is the focus of this episode and seeing as we had a beautiful day and lots of (I thought) witty banter, it ought to be pretty entertaining. It also brought to light a few other projects we are considering that he would be keen to cover – of which more later…
Heritage Commercial
There’s a lot of motorised activity going on down on the farm this month and the Beermoth is once again setting the PR pace. Here she is with a 4 page feature in this months Heritage Commercial magazine. The niche nature of the publication will be offset later this month with a more fashion / interiors related piece and her first TV appearance.
She has been joined today by this very pretty Jaguar XK140, the folk staying in the ‘moth have driven it all the way from Hampshire in a 1950s motoring pilgrimage.
Bygone Drives.
Over the last few months our friends at Bygone Drives in Aviemore have been on my kind of buying spree. Do you need a Bentley, a Range Rover or a convertible MG while you are holiday? Of course you do.
The Bedford is back.
Regular readers, of which I’m sure there must be at least one, will know that I’m a sucker for a motorised project and may have already met this 1962 Bedford. Last year it starred in a movie called 500 miles north, in which it broke down a lot between Warwickshire and here. It’s very pretty but under the skin is a terribly botched conversion to Ford power. In order to finish the film in a few weeks we have to finish the camper, remounting the engine, fitting more suitable steering, rewiring it and generally making it nice. Hence Jimmy Whitmore is here, alternative fuels whizz, ace fabricator and the only mechanical person I know who would be totally unphased by the horribleness of the task. I have been known to speak too soon, and with the house rented out and the new estate office conversion at a midway point there are certainly more important things to do, but with Jim about a few of the inhabitants of the Inshriach abstract motoring stable may find their way back on the road over the next fortnight.
Back to business.
That being the serious business of gardening. The vegetable gardens were a little neglected in the run up to the Insider and by July the dock was head high, the nettles and ground elder fully rampant and the mint and currants and last years new fruit trees almost invisible behind deep grasses. Nothing that a couple of weeks attached to the strimmer and garden fork can’t sort out. Out of the 40 odd beds in the gardens we did at least manage to turn and till and rake the first 5 early in the year and get plug lettuces, purple broccoli and some peas in and now we are planning to turn and plant the rest as we go, with any luck leaving us with a bumper crop of hot leaves, rocket and other goodies late into the season.
The Insider.
Before life returns completely to normal here is a lovely memory from the Insider courtesy of the Paul Simon Treatment.
The Insider Olympiad.
That was a pretty special weekend of sporting shenanigans. Huge thanks to all of those who made it happen, the streams of volunteers, the lycra clad musicians and the many professionals beavering away behind the scenes to make it the best Insider yet. Gold medal for remembering that it’s a good idea to have lovely photos of such an event goes to Louise Bichan and just to proves that we weren’t making it all up here is a review from the Scotsman and Northings courtesy of Sue Wilson. Everyone’s a winner.
One week until the Insider.
Insider 2012 is nearly upon us, day tickets have pretty much sold out and weekend tickets are selling fast so if you want one get on the website and snap one up. At this rate there will be no tickets available on the gate but we are planning on keeping back an allocation of day tickets for anyone who can prove that they have a PH22 postcode (ie utility bill and ID). In the meantime here is the full line up to whet your appetite for next weekends sporting shenanigans.
Harry and Sophie.
Slightly belated Congratulations from all of us to Harry and Sophie who got married a few weeks back, many of you will know them for spending 18 months living in the dogshed here, helping us out and being generally lovely.
The Beermoth is back.
My intention, much to peoples surprise, is to keep the ‘moth roadworthy, improving it, replacing bits and generally making her generate the money for her repairs by renting her out. After our marathon journey north last year there were a few issues, the lack of brakes being the main one, the fact that she was running like a dog being another. It took a day (in October last year) to figure out how to jack it up, then 5 minutes to find out I didn’t have any spanners big enough to get the wheel nuts off. To the rescue came Mechty and Graham and she was jacked up and stripped down, revealing leaking cylinders and ruined shoes.
First mission was brake linings and this is not a case of popping down to Halfords, they are absolutely enormous. Some super sleuthing on the part of CV components in Inverness tracked some down the right size and they rebuilt the shoes. Stage 2 was the cylinders. New seals were no problem but life is never so simple and the cylinders ended up being machined out and treated to stainless steel liners and pistons so the back brakes, at least, should now outlast the truck. I also tracked down spark plugs, made up new HT leads, rebuilt the distributor and fiddled about with the timing until she was running a bit better. All this ran a bit over time so she was three weeks late into rental, thanks go to the boys for swinging back in and helping stick her back together and to everyone who has been so understanding about either being postponed or put up in the new bothy.
On the cosmetic side Aaron Sterritt made up a new chopping board and a little oak cupboard for inside, the bed got new rails, the floor had a coat of nice osmo wax oil and after a dozen attempts at matching the colour the back wall had a coat of paint. The only sacrifice I am going to have to make in the name of practicality is that the Rayburn is going to have to go. It’s so beautiful and spot on date wise but even for the moth it is just too heavy hanging out the back like that so in the workshop at the moment sits a lovely (and still not insubstantial) Quebb stove awaiting a scrape and a lick of paint.
Rest assured the Rayburn wont go to waste.
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