The team on Skomer has been completely overwhelmed by the
generosity that has come our way in over the last few months! And this kindness
has come in so many forms too.
It seemed that our firsts few weeks on Skomer were filled
with endless discoveries of things that needed fixing or replacing, the
frequency seemed high even for an island, but these things happen. The next discovery
was much more uplifting… all the many people who were keen to help, even though
one of these tasks involved digging and septic tanks!
But onto Skomer’s fantastic tractor (AKA Trundle) that is
much loved but after 17 years on an island had seen better days and had become
a money pit. So with the latest maintenance work quoted at £5,000 we decided
that a new vehicle was needed.
The Friends of Skokholm and Skomer, knowing how busy the
team is on Skomer but also knowing that they had the expertise and contacts,
offered to organise the fund raising for a new vehicle, which we gladly
accepted – thank you! This included a just giving website, which over 136 people donated to – thank you! And the many hostel guests and day visitor who also donated – thank you!
Additional funding was also provided by Milford Haven Port Authority via
their Port’s Community Fund – Thank you MHPA! Even more funding also generously
came from local poet Peter Brown who donated 100% of the price of his latest
book The Beetles – Thank you!
The Friends, particularly Steve Sutcliffe and Mark Burton,
then meticulously searched for the best replacement vehicle and after many that
were just not good enough for Skomer, found a great 3 tonne dumper – thank you!
Many members of the Friends have also worked behind the scenes, coordinating, amongst many things, the finances and the vehicle fund raise page – thank you! Steve (maybe we should start calling him the law-abiding, successful Del Boy) to all our surprise also managed to find a generous company that has donated a brand new Kawasaki Mule! Which as it happens we called Valery – thank you Valero! Thank you Steve!
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| Sylwia warden, Steve Sutcliffe from The Friends and Nathan warden - photo taken by Jo from Valero |
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| Steve, Chris and Phil |
Sarah Parmor our Visitor Officer was clearly very excited to drive the dumper loaded with our guests' luggage to the Sales Point for the first time! Pretty cool eh? :)
Photo credit to Andrew Hughes our regular weekly volunteer.
Look at those lovely cheeky faces.
We miss you guys!
There is a long list of major jobs, of which some have already been completed with Chris and Chris's very skilled team. Thanks guys for your hard work and great humour!
Fingers crossed we can come up with some great ideas and get funding to carry out the rest of the important works, which will enable us to run the island more smoothly.
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| Dan, Steve and Mark in action. Anna supervising. John, Tom and Lyn on the barge. |
There were many people also involved with ideas for modifications of the dumper
and Dan Jones expertly put these ideas in place – thank you.
Upon its arrival (via Dale Sailing’s barge – thank you!) the
dumper was immediately put to good use and carried materials for the new roof
and septic tank repairs at the farm, which it excelled at! It is also very
satisfying how much luggage can fit in the dumper’s bucket, although we hope we
don’t lose the Tetris skills gained by loading luggage in Trundle.
Also, a huge thank you to all the people who have donated
and helped that we have not mentioned above, we are so grateful!
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| We said goodbye to our tractor, which is now in Dan's good hands. |
As always we are extremely grateful to everyone involved!
Keep on smiling and let's continue to do great things and to be kind!
Skomer wardens
Sylwia and Nathan
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