There’s no way one of them Tickcards is working on anything with fur, and I don’t get how just lifting the tick causes it to magically let go. The O’tom tick twisters I’ve got are perfect.

We’re not on mains gas, and Calor gas is by far the most expensive fuel option (so I’m led to believe anyway, no one round here uses it).

Well…got a rough, but good, idea on the capital needed to get this thing off the ground 8O

The adage about picking a number and doubling it applies here, no doubt. Although, to be fair, a very large portion of the budget costs are VAT (reclaimable, hopefully) and contingency (not needed, again hopefully). Now looking at what grant options are available, and wondering whether I’d have any success with crowd funding. I’m going to need at least some outside capital to make it ‘affordable’!

Energy is still a big issue. Probably looking now at running a diesel genny for working the still as a) I can’t be arsed with the hassle associated with a steam boiler and b) our grid connection is crap, ruling out a small solar PV array. Not exactly green, but it’ll have to do at the start.

Need to tidy up a couple of unknowns, and then I’ll be putting in my planning application. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly!

My awesome bits are NSFSTW ;)

This, though, is truly awesome

Wedding #3 (#2 hasn’t made it online yet…). At the start of the year, I would’ve totally fluffed this shot, but knowing my camera and my abilities really paid off with this one. Fave of the day.

Helen and Rob's wedding by Kit Carruthers[/url], on Flickr

Still, at least he’s not Jeremy Corbyn.

Was it photography related?

No, the car I was driving had a ‘No to Named Persons[/url]‘ sticker in the back window. Having a different view on how children should be protected in society does not made me a paedophile, obviously, except for the hard of thinking/political fantasists.

Ironically, I was responsible for getting a neighbour of mine some years ago charged with holding thousands of child abuse photos after reporting his general antisocial behaviour to the police.

(There also happened to be a fur coat there too, belonging to the model I was working with for the day, explaining the random non sequitur on the note)

I feel for you Greg, I honestly do. Not been in that kind of situation, but last year I had a note left on the windscreen of the car I was driving for the day saying accusing me of being a paedophile and “disgusting”. Shook me right up, I couldn’t be further from that description!

https://twitter.com/VitaminCCS/status/791349759831400448

yourguitarhero, good luck! Met the MSc students who are doing some projects for me at HW and they both really enjoy the course.

franksinatra, cheers had heard of them and will definitely get in touch to see if there’s any advice there to be taken :)

singletrackmind, many thanks for your input! Hadn’t thought about a borehole, but I don’t think we’re on an aquifer. No one round here runs off groundwater. As per other suggestions, waste will go off site, more than likely if I can satisfy either the farmer or the AD of suitability. We’re not on mains gas, and no one round here appears to run off Calor. Not sure why, but must be a reason people prefer oil. That’s what I plan to run a steam boiler off, as a leccy-powered heated oil system is too much for our supply. Noted re: maintenance costs. Also noted on glassware, although your accreditation acronyms mean nowt to me :D Not planning on any formal visitor facilities (yet) as that would require an upgrade to the entrance of the farm, additional license, facilities, etc. But probably a longer term project if things work. Good to know about HMRC, I was dreading applying for my licenses with them! And noted on the kit list, hopefully I’ll be given this by the process engineers.

big_n_daft, OK thank you. I’d looked at the SEPA exemptions and didn’t know what counted as ‘Distillery Waste’, so will get a formal clarification. For land spreading, it’s up to the farmer. I’ll provide him with an analysis of the waste and leave it to him to make that call. He’s a conscientious guy, so I’ve no worries there. But we also have a local AD who might be interested. Interested to know how you know so much about this; do you work for SEPA? If you’ve got the time to spare, I’m free 23rd. Email me Kit[dot]Carruthers[@]gmail[dot]com. cheers.

teacake, thanks, I’ll ping you something soon.

kiwijohn ooft!

Carstramon Woods by Kit Carruthers[/url], on Flickr

I would contact SEPA and ask for a copy of the letter dated 04 June 2013 from SEPA to the Scotch Whisky Association signed by Calum MacDonald

Why?

Waste is probably going to go to one of our local farmers under a SEPA exemption but that only covers the wash. Cleaning products and chemicals for fermentation might need dealing with separately.

We’ve had a caravan at Hoddom for 20 + years

So you’ll have been round the mountainbike track then? ;) More than welcome to pop in. Any news of imminent openings will be posted here, hopefully!

perchypanther, no that’s not us (although, long story, that building used to belong to my family), that’s the Quintessential Gin guys. And yes, near us. We’re on the Lochmaben side of Dalton. Presume you know the area – PM me and you’re welcome to pop in sometime on your way past.

cokie, hoping it works out for you. Loads of work, hopefully very rewarding!

And thanks to Craig from this parish for recommending Susanne Masters to me. She’s keen to do some work for me suggesting botanicals, but I’m not keen on her price, sadly. Maybe eventually…

A wee update for anyone interested:

Was at Heriot-Watt today speaking to two of their Brewing and Distilling MSc students, who are going to do some product development and marketing for me. Might actually have something to taste in a few months. That’s the easy bit…

…the hard bit being the cost of setting up a distillery! I took on a process engineering company called Allen Associates, who have put together a design for me for the kit. Quite a challenge for them as they’re used to dealing with the big boys and their huge budgets. I’m at the other end of the scale, but even with the most minimal stripped down kit possible, I’m still looking at the thick end of £100k!

And that’s before I get on to the conversion of the farm building. I’ve yet to get a cost for this, but working on it. Appointed an architect who reckoned I couldn’t do it with the budget I’d set, but that was assuming top-notch insulation, new roof, floor, renewable heating source, etc. I’m torn between wanting to be as low energy as possible, having the place look like a distillery and not an office, and my budget. Work in progress.

Finally, at the moment, I don’t even know if the services to the farm are up to job, so there could be a potential massive cost of upgrading the leccy supply, drainage, water and so forth.

Still, it’s keeping me busy ;)

NACC rebranded/named to CCUK.

Had never heard of a RADAR key, definitely need to look into getting one of those!

Probably available on eBay, but CCUK I believe offers them free to members.

darrimc30, where are you based?

There’s a few support options for your daughter (and you). Firstly, hopefully your hospital has a good GI team. My hospital has a dedicated line to ring the GI nurses when you’re having problems and either are just looking for advice, or it can’t wait until you see your consultant. You should get plenty of good advice from them.

Secondly, there’s the Crohn’s & Colitis UK (CCUK) charity which has a help/advice line that your daughter/you can ring to chat to volunteers for support. They have a specific network for supporting young people and families (https://www.crohnsandcolitis.org.uk/support/support-for-families) although I don’t know how active it actually is, and will depend again on where you live. CCUK have a network of local volunteer groups who offer peer-to-peer support, awareness raising, fundraising, etc. Might be worth looking up your one, if one exists (https://www.crohnsandcolitis.org.uk/get-involved/volunteering). Finally, CCUK (and its members) are very active on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/crohnsandcolitisuk/). In case you can’t tell, I used to volunteer for CCUK (wearing my hoodie at the moment :) ), so feel free to PM me if you want any other help.

Good luck!

I’m an ugly ginger bastard so I get zero dates from online dating! Keeps us out the gene pool, I guess :lol:

Biggest improvement I made to my workflow was to use the Import function in LR to copy direct from my SD cards to the HDD. You can set LR to build the 1:1 previews after it’s imported the photos, so once you set the import running you go off and do something else/surf the web/whatever. With the 1:1’s built, browsing through in the Library module is pretty quick. Shortcut keys G, E and D are my most used ones to switch back and forth between the two library views and the Develop module.

(8GB RAM with LR on a 128GB SSD, photos and library on a USB3 HDD)

Does it come with a crown race?

You mean, not even…?

8)

If your rum needs a mixer, you should be drinking better rum.

Rubbish. Some rums are made for mixing e.g. any white rum!

Tried Kraken, it’s a bit sickly I thought, so didn’t bother with a bottle.

Picked up a bottle of Diplomatico, though. It’s nice. Smells like brandy, tastes like whisky.

Always carry your camera ;)

Sunset rainbow by Kit Carruthers[/url], on Flickr

Powfoot Beach by Kit Carruthers[/url], on Flickr

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Marty_McFly-fi
Wifey_McWiFi

Personal criticism is a bit off, but again, no idea what was said so I’ll keep my neb out!

After Grum’s rather blunt comments, I told myself I wasn’t going to post any more pictures on this thread, but screw it. I love this one and the story is worth telling:

I’ve no idea what the comments were, but I suppose you should be asking the question: “Who am I taking photos for?”. If the answer is “grum”, then you need to address the criticism. If the answer is “me”, then to hell with what other people think.

I rarely/ever have photos of mine commented on, in this thread or others. My photos obviously don’t resonate with the STW crowd, at least not the vocal minority. But I try not to care too much, I just keep taking photos to please myself*.

*Except for paid event gigs :lol:

It shows the photo and text on FB, but only the text and link on Twitter, if you post from IG.

Have you tried Hoot Suite? It’s a social media manager app/webpage where – I think – you write one post and send it out to whichever social media pages you choose at the same time. You can schedule posts etc. I can’t get it to work with my IG account, so binned it pretty quickly, but it does seem to be widely used.

http://www.HootSuite.com

I like it too!

But this is a rum thread, not a cocktail one.

Whatever you say, boss!

Rum should be neat…

Depends what the rum is. And you’re ignoring famous rum-based cocktails like mojitos and dacquiris!

Let’s say that I had a love/hate relationship with Jamaican rum for some years (free bar, student exuberance, early start, mountainous roads…).

Delete your account.

Have you drunk Appleton Estate rum? ;)

The current lineup at home :D

Dark Matter (Marmite, I’m not a fan)
Rumbullion (nicely spiced, good sipper)
Red Leg (bit on the sweet side, but decent)
Don Papa (amazing orangey smell, great sipper)
Smith & Cross (100 proof, actually not bad when mixed with coke)
Appleton Estate VX (first rum experience, bottle brought back from Jamaica 14yr ago!)
Wray & Nephew (overproof, slight banana-y taste, to be mixed)
Havana Club 3 anos (nice mixer, or neat actually!)

Agata by Kit Carruthers[/url], on Flickr

There’s a couple of recommendations here ;)

https://www.dgwgo.com/out-and-about-in-dg/100-things-dumfries-galloway-die/

All my photos from the day are now online for your perusal!

Full set: Flickr

Wee selection: Facebook

Go on then, give us the real one if you aren’t going to use it

Heh, not a chance. Not until I’ve TM’d it :lol:

…but you wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end if said well known person is stroppy.

Aye, I’m wondering if it’d be more hassle than it’s worth.

Like, for example, calling a curry sauce sachet ‘Baby Spice’.