SNOW!!!!

Quite extreme conditions today for training two consultant ecologists from Edinburgh! It was however great fun.

Cold!!

The Scottish Mud Club were on site today, not even 4 inches of ice on the big pond could put them off!!! Forecast is possibly for some snow this week so lets hope we get some for a bit of fun.

Winch

An early Christams present for the green Land Rover, expertly fitted my Mike Aitken 4x4 in Ladybank, tel 01337 831114 if anyone else wants one.
I'll probably get a chance to use it with the Scottish Mud Club who are visiting us on Sunday!!

If you down to the woods today............

Your are in for a big suprise!!

Reivers 4x4 Club

We had the Reivers 4x4 Club up from the Borders for a visit today. Lots of fun was had in brilliant off roading conditions, bit of head scratching going on in the photo pre a recovery.
Going to be a very sharp frost tonight!

Site news

We had Tay 4x4 Club up visiting our site last weekend and 21 vehicles turned out for the visit. Thank you to everyone who came along as they had great fun on the hill and used a lot of the new tracks, there is mud everywhere now so it's nice and mucky for the winter.
I've made a lot of new tracks with the JCB over the last week or two and I've also been clearing bushes from some of the older tracks that were very overgrown so if you have not been up for a while there is plenty new stuff to try out!
The top picture is of a recovery a few weeks ago that involved using the digger to help a Club Member who had slightly fallen over!
Bottom pic is some of the Tay 4x4 boys at the bottom of the new dump slope.

Argocat

Some of you may have seen this Argocat on the hill at home during the bad snowfalls over the last few years. It belongs to my neighbour Alan and has been a lot of fun in the snow but it really proves it's worth when it comes to grouse shooting, it cuts out all the hard work walking up from Loch Tay to the top. Means we can relax and have a leisurely lunch!!
No one seems to have made it up the new slope yet?????

New slope

SEPA have been at us to tidy up the old farm dump area at the north side of the site which I have now done with some very expensive loads of mixed waste having to go into landfill at the Binn Farm. It is now looking a lot better and we have taken the chance, while we had a digger on site, to open up a new slope and make the track at the bottom a bit more difficult.
I could not get up it and a new club member had at least 10 goes last night and didn't make it.
There's a challenge for the weekend!!

Mad on Mud Club BBQ

July 2012 BBQ

2 x Woody

We had a good turn out for the Summer BBQ and at last we had a sunny day although with the strong wind we had to take shelter in the quarry to get the bbq to stay alight. Alan Stewart kindly provided the burgers and rolls and I had to provide a glass of wine for him!! Amazingly wet still on site with water levels that we normally only see in the depth of winter, all very good fun.
Second pic is our bird feeder just outside the front door being raided by the woodpeckers, they are great fun to watch but very shy. They peck so violently that bits of peanut fly all over the place and we now have a family of pheasants who have started picking up the scraps under the feeder.
For those of you who don't know we are the new landlords at The Gateside Inn, my son Ross is the manager and the food is fantastic. Even though I say it myself!!!

Muddy but sunny Sunday

SWATC Club visited our site at the weekend, sadly with a very poor turnout, only two cars one of which was the organiser!
Welcome back to the Club for the Balfours and Bruce Wood who rejoined last weekend after a short break of a few months.
Still plenty of mud and water on the hill. Also a very good number of Roe deer seen on the west side on Sunday morning, just lying sunning themselves! I just got the camera out of my pocket when they saw me and cleared off pronto.

Steed

The Scottish Mud Club came for a visit last weekend, lots of vehicles and lots of fun. Thanks to Debbie as usual who organises it all.
We had the new Steed pickup local dealer launch last week, Auto Services Perth, Auto Ecosse in Dundee and Brenwood Motor Company from Kirkcaldy all took part and the vehicle was pretty useful on the hill.Well worth considering at the price and big and spacious inside.

Sunday 29th May

Pic shows us training Generator Power drivers for 4x4 and using trailers off road, god drivers and attentive trainees.
This coming Sunday 29th April the Scottih Mud Club are visiting us again, normally good fun to watch!!
All the best, walter

What a difference a day makes!

Blizzard condtions on the hill today, I walked up this evening!
The snow drifts are about 3 feet thick and are solid with wet heavy snow. Not good for driving through but if I had big tyres on I could have make it.
W

Spring has sprung

What a cracking view from the top of the site yesterday. Most of the farmers locally have finished the spring sowing now in what must be nearly a record short time. They will be hoping for the same weather for lambing and calving which starts about now.

With snow forecast tonight it might be a very different picture I post tomorrow.

I have been busy elsewhere for the past few weeks hence the lack of blogs but I'll get back to it now. Lots of members using the site, mainly the new boys who have joined since february.

Just had to put a new engine in our main training Land Rover, ouch!! Especially just at our year end! All the best, W.

Club visit

We had Tay 4x4 Club visiting on Sunday, 15 vehicles out plus our own club guys.

Great day for it and lots of fun had, annoyingly my camera was playing up and I did not manage to get any really good photos but you can see one of them gathering in the car park.

We also had Garry from Ayrshire using his voucher which we donated to a help the Heroes auction last year.

Club Visiting

I hope we are going to get some snow soon, I have not had a chance to play in it all winter. Except briefly on skis!!
Tay 4x4 Club are coming to visit our site on Sunday next 29th January from about 10am.
The site is fantastic at the moment with mud everywhere and it's very wet, really good fun just now.
all the best, Walter