Busy busy at Cubbie Towers!

Well it's been a busy few weeks. I can't recall everything in the right order, but in recent weeks I've been cleaning Skorpy in preparation for fitting all the new bits and pieces, and I heard from Peter yesterday that the swing arm is now ready for collection. And then there was the bad news.....he had to punch one of the rusty holes out to about 3" to find some solid metal. While I was cleaning, I discovered a few more bits that need attention, such as some rust spots on the mirror stalks, a few chipped areas on the painted wheels and an awful lot of rust on the thing that connects the zorst into the engine. But they're all tasks that won't stop it from going through the MoT, so I can put them off a while longer......

The NO NUT bit was nothing to do with me. I left it there, and when I went into the shed one day, I found a little man messing around with a torque wrench and UN's hair dryer. I tell you, it all goes on the in country! At least the stupid nut is off now and I don't have to wreck myself fighting with it. I've got the new sprocket and chain ready to fit, but must concentrate on doing the wheel bearings before I forget.

We've had the annual Grumpyones BBQ over at Mintlaw. The weather was fine all day and then come the evening, it was perishing and blowing a gale force wind. Those who went on Mr P's rideout enjoyed the good route and fine scenery, and those who were only able to come and eat all the food enjoyed eating all the food! Thanks to Peter and Lesley for doing a magnificent job of hosting the whole event and also to everyone who made the effort to attend.

Mrs BC and I have been BBQing again when we, well, I, went down to the VMCC Stirling Castle Section BBQ and as Mrs BC happened to be with me, she went too and was made most welcome by the hosts Jill and Iain. And then we went to another barby - this time for the Rare Breeds club that Mrs BC is in. We started off at the New Deer agricultural show, which was on the way to the BBQ, but got there about an hour before the end. We had a nice chat with a friendly Traffic Warden on the way in (it never hurts to chat a Traffic Warden up), but at the gate the little jobsworth tried to charge us full whack to go in for the last hour! So we sulked and went round the corner to watch the showjumping - no charge for that oddly enough! When it started to rain a little and the temp dropped severely we made our way to the location of the BBQ and enjoyed an entertaining evening meeting the ferrets and watching people who should know better blasting up and down the track on a quad bike.



At some point in the last few weeks we went to see a sheep dog trial. It was quite good fun and not quite as depressing as we thought - it showed that even those who trial and work dogs in a much more serious manner than we do, still make mistakes and even their dogs sometimes do what they think the owner wants them to do - much like our Finn.

Muckle Flugga Man (MFM) popped in for a cuppa. And while he was here he built me a shed (I suppose I should clarify, it was the shed that John from Bikeshite.com gave me, the one that was covered in about 6ft of snow for what seemed like months and months and months....), what a nice thing to do. We nearly fell out though when he instructed me to take the less heavy end of the section that had to be heaved up high, but after considering his threat to down-tools if I didn't give in gracefully, I gave in, but not quite as gracefully as I could, or maybe should have. Trouble is, I'm used to taking the heavy end. We nearly fell out once again when he tried to kill me by dropping one of the panels on top of me. The last time someone did that to me I ended up with a broken pelvis - I was a bit luckier this time and caught the darn thing one handed - an image of Superwoman has no doubt popped into your mind.

Voila!

It was around this time that we lost little Red Top, one of the orphan lambs that we'd rescued from certain death after mum Ditzy managed to give birth but was so ill she couldn't look after them. She and her twin, White Top were born early on a cold and misty spring morning, and could easily have been taken by a fox or buzzard. We don't know why she died, which makes it worse as we don't even know if the treatment we gave her was right, or if we could have done anything else for her. RIP little tiny Red Top.

I've also been thinking about the little jobs that need to be done to Cubbie. The front forks are a bit leaky and I think they need more than just new seals, and I'll have to investigate whether or not the rear end is seized. Just before the epic Shetland trip in June I noticed the rear light was sticking on, so that will need some attention. Ivan Rhodes gave me a good tip, which I've failed to do, which is if you find a fault with a bike and anticipate not having time to sort it straight away, just write a note and stick it on the bike somewhere, so that the next time you're going to be working in the shed, you know exactly what needs to be done. I reckon that would save me a lot of time, so must make an effort to try it.

The garden is coming along nicely after the refreshing downpour the other day. I helped Mrs BC plant some tatties (better late than never) and for a while they didn't do much, but with some water and warm sun they've shot up. Looks like we'll be looking forward to new tatties in the winter!

And the wheel fell off my mower. Bother.

So I think you're all up to date now. When I'm not polishing Skorpy I'm writing reports for Old Bike Mart, and when I'm not doing that I'm making or preparing something for the Plus1 and when I'm not doing any of those things, I'm at work. Or writing a blog update.