New water feature for the fifth

The main focus of work this week has been the removal of almost a mile of old fencing some of which was so badly overgrown with grass it had to be dug out. Very tiring and cold work in grotty weather relieved by drinking many cups of tea!

There was a bit of excitement on Tuesday when the fuel tank arrived and was moved into position. This will store red diesel for running the greenkeeping equipment. Also of note has been the reappearance of the old duck pond by the fifth due to the melting of the snow. Will this become a permanent feature?....watch this space.

If it's not gorse, it's conifers!

Claudia working on a 'special branch operation' and not content with creating a European Gorse Mountain, Jon shows off on Mount Branch!

Timber..Tree felling on the first

The first shot shows the first fairway including the delightful toilet/shower block. This is hopefully to be demolished otherwise there will soon be a whole new meaning to the phrase 'drive through.' As mentioned previously the snowy weather has brought construction to a halt but Jon & Claudia have been hard at work felling the stand of trees to the right of the shower block.

The second picture shows how the view of the land has been opened up following the removal of the conifers. Once work is more advanced, Jon & Claudia will be planting some trees but intend to use native varieties such as oak.

There has been a bit of drama at Gardeners Cottage this week. First of all Jon managed to fall down the stairs..he promised me he just wasn't paying attention and had not been drinking. Then on Thursday the roof of the shed collapsed forcing Jon to do a bit of digging to rescue the bikes. Fortunately no damage was done other than to the shed of course but it did make us all pause to think about the poor souls in Haiti.

The pipe froze again

Oh yes it did and the tealights were drafted into defrosting duty again. Hopefully the problem has now been solved by an emergency purchase of lagging from Wickes.

Jon has continued to fell trees but hopes that the majority of the snow will have disappeared by today allowing him to get back to course construction. The land has drained well with the exception of a couple of areas where there is a bit of 'permafrost' beneath the surface.

The picture is from last year and shows the old drainage grip across the fourth green being filled in.

The burn on the second fairway

I particularly like these two pictures which were taken at the end of last year. They show very clearly just how much work has gone into clearing overgrown vegetation and the difference it makes.

Tollie in the snow

The picture shows the view down the side of the old scout hut and croft house (which will in time become the workshop and clubhouse) towards the sea.

Although the land is under thick snow there is still plenty of work that can be done. Jon is continuing to fell trees, apparently these are nice and dry at present and therefore good to work with.

The farmer has removed the last of the sheep, Jon says it was fascinating to watch him working his two dogs. He did feel sorry for one poor sheep which got totally stuck and had to be handballed through the snow until it could walk by itself. The departure of the animals means that the fencing can be taken down allowing the land to be seen as one large piece for the first time.

Pyromania

Just in case you have been lying awake wondering A. What have they done with all the gorse and B. Exactly how do you defrost a frozen pipe using tealights!

Jon & Claudia report temperatures down to -18 degrees C and around 18 inches of snow...though this is nothing compared to the Swiss winter of 98/99 when Claudia had to leave her apartment in Flumserberg via the first floor window as the snow was so deep.

Keep watching...have lots more pics and info to post over the coming days.

What does the golf pro do at Christmas?

Answer....he plays Little Miss Santa...scary!!!

Jon & Claudia took a well earned rest over Christmas and traded the frozen wastes of the Highlands for a snowy West Yorkshire. After some quality family time and completing a number of jobs for Mum they returned home last Wednesday. Nobody else was risking the A9 but with true "we're from Switzerland and no snow beats us" attitude they arrived home safely after a marathon 11 hour drive.

Thursday was spent digging out the drive to the cottage and also defrosting the waste pipe from the bath which had frozen on the outside of the building. Using his ingenuity, Jon rigged up a suspended platform on which tealights could placed in order to effect a gentle thawing. As a result, sales of deoderant will not be increasing in Dingwall this week.

Finally, my apologies for the lack of entries over the holiday period. There wasn't a lot happening in Scotland and we also had a few internet problems of the husband induced variety (Needless to say these were sorted out by two women and reading the instructions!) Happy 2010.