A great couple of day’s in Gigha to receive the shepherd’s hut and get an update on the progress on the removal of render. Either my fairy Godmother or the Genie who grants wishes was looking over me for the duration as it all ran as smoothly as I can imagine, let me explain.
We got to the island to receive the trailer form a friend on the island in good time. Few issues with the size and shape that I couldn’t foresee without getting eyes on, but I was told to stop being a ‘computer jessy’ and make do. Back on the ferry for 12:30.
I had spoken to a receptionist in Norfolk, where the package originated, who had struggled with Scottish place names but was hopeful that Trevor would arrive around 2.30 / 3.00. Trevor’s arrival pretty much coincided with our own, Trevor proclaiming he’d managed to cut 2 hours off the satnav pleased as punch. Let’s call this wish granted number 1.
The next issue with the trailer became apparent as soon as we saw the package on the fork lift. We somehow needed to raise the level of the base so the package could be dropped flush on top to allow the forks to be retracted once dropped. Wish number 2, Big Jessies Tearoom came up with four pallets that allowed the package to sit flush as desired, ‘ya dancer’ as we say in Scotland.
By some miracle and the flexibility of cargo straps the 10ft trailer somehow managed to cope with the 4m package. Wish number 3 granted. This allowed us to be back on the ferry at 2:00, the best example of Just in Time management I can think of!
Next hurdle to overcome getting the trailer to as near as possible to the proposed site as possible. I handed the reigns of this one over to my good and long standing friend Paul. A bit of planning had gone into this knowing Paul had some experience of managing trailers in his days as a park ranger so I’m going to claim this one as good management. However, I have to give credit to him for reversing into and down the Manse drive and the narrow gate at the end as can be seen in the image below:
The rest is history but it involved Paul and I carrying the cargo from the end of the drive into the walled garden where it will be stored until the foundations are laid and the build itself can begin in July. Pictures below show the accumulation of the build parts to this new location over the next 4 hours – a job I thought may take us the full 2 days I had allowed if at any point before the drive we needed to split the package.
Middle Age Musings 