Well haven’t some of you been busy bees.
A flurry of emails with updates this week. See below:
Fergus: Just to let you know that Gordon Hanslip and myself cut some paths in the boulder plantation about two weeks ago as our work day.
Neil McDougal: Neil, Stevie, Fergus and Gordon Hanslip undertook pen work and laying out pipe for water supply.
and where would we be without some commentary from Alistair:
Bob Bruce and I arrived at a rather chilly Tulchan at 10 am today. Bob had brought an extendible ladder and top rest as well as a trestle ladder. What a difference from building rickety scaffolding! What a star!
We quickly got to work starting with the West wall followed by the South. The paint was going on much more easily as a second coat. However the wooden cladding has been drying out and shrinking revealing unpainted wood at the overlaps. We covered this as well as putting a third coat on the East and North walls. I expect we will see further shrinkage over this summer heat waves and next winter’s weather as well. It is likely that we might have to do further touching up or repainting next year to cover this.
Derek visited us around mid day. He inspected the 65 feeders and consulted a map that I think Neil had sent him. By now the sun was out and the paint was drying quickly. He told us though that there had been a frost that morning. Bob also painted the wooden cladding on the corrugated iron shed.
During the day we heard curlews and a cuckoo and I think a peewit.
By 3:30 we were packing up and the bothy was looking very smart. Unless instructed otherwise I would not think that it will require any more painting this season. We finished the already opened canister of paint and also used about 2/3’s of another one. There is also another water based one unopened.
Next date in diary is the Syndicate meal this Saturday at Chapellhill. Look forwards to seeing you all.
Best wishes,
Alistair.