Whoops! there goes another month and still not a lot has happened. Stopped bottle feeding Leo(!) last week as he was having trouble getting it all down his neck. I guess he would have been happy having a bottle each day for the next 6 years. All the sheep have moved onto pastures new for a while to let the croft recover a little. Having said that it does seem to be a much better shade of green than the surrounding land so overgrazing should not be a problem.

My experiments with solar water heating are proving interesting. I have built a panel of about 1/2 sq metre using 15mm copper tube and lots of black paint. I managed to get a double glazed window insert from Wickes in Inverness and sealed the whole thing up. I was amazed to see the panel air temperature shoot up to over 50C (the limit of my thermometer) in a matter of minutes. I then added 50mm of insulation to the back panel and forgot about it. The next day I found the inner glass panel had cracked. I can only assume that the air temperature had rocketed and caused the break. The glazed unit was bedded on silicon sealant so there is no mechanical strain. Anyway I have since discovered that most panels use single glazing.....

The panel is now connected up to my hot water tank and I will be interested to see how the whole thing works. I now have to develop a logging and control unit to ensure that the circulator pump does not operate until the water in the heating circuit is greater than the tank water. To be honest I am surprised that more people do not use this technology - it is so simple. Anyway if it works up here then it will work anywhere !.

Hopefully I will be able to add windpower to my house before the winter arrives. Unfortunately this is an expensive area but I may find a company that will supply a wind generator in return for advertising.

That's all for now. I should have some pictures of the Kinlochbervie raft race for the July page.