As they are also
a rare breed I thought that they would fit in quite nicely and, when they’re
old enough they would be great fun to drive. We also decided to have Hebridean
sheep. These are small black sheep with horns.
Well I was told that the medical service here was second to none but did I really have to check it out on New Year’s Eve? Hogmanay, as you would expect in Scotland saw some serious drinking and this soft southerner was found lacking. Down I fell, on a glass so needed stitches. Apparently it is custom for someone at this particular party to “disgrace” themselves in some way –at least I’ve got my embarrassment over early. So I now have two scars on my right knee-just yet another sign that I really am getting younger-only kids have scarred knees!
January progressed in quite a mellow mood, weather-wise. It really is beautiful here when the weather is kind. It was all to change! The last Saturday in January saw the worst gales for fifty years-winds of 127 miles per hour were recorded at the airport. Luckily Stew was home and was able to prevent the stable roof from being blown off and me from being blown away! Winter began in February- it blew and rained all at the same time- there were five good days in the whole of the month. It says something about the weather when you can remember precisely which days were decent.
March started in much the same vein but did pick up towards the end of the month. March was mostly spent planting trees-250 of them. When I was feeling somewhat overwhelmed at the thought of all that planting and bemoaning my fate to the guy I was buying the trees off, “nonsense” was the reply “I’m 70 and can plant 300 trees a day!” So I duly picked up my spade and got on with the job. The trees are mostly willows and alders with a few hawthorn, wild cherry, rowan, mountain ash, downy birch. They seem to be doing OK. March also saw the arrival of Bert, Daisy’s-my first cow for those of you who have forgotten-son. He was the only calf due this year.
April was a quiet month. We did have a visit from the FWAG (farming and wildlife advisory lot) which was really useful- started me of with recognising some of the birds and flowers that are to be found here. I was initiated into the dreaded IACCS forms for the farm. This involved re-doing the farm map so a lot of April was spent pushing a measuring wheel around the fence lines of the farm thinking at times that I could have done with a snorkel! Anyway it all got done and I got a gold star from the Department or least they did not tell me to start again and try harder! After dealing with the Inland Revenue so often the amount of help that they were prepared to give was a very pleasant surprise. On the other hand after the rigidity of the tax system, the way the Department seemed to make up the rules as they went along was somewhat disconcerting but useful and amusing so long as you wound up on the right side of the current thinking!
May stared with the most glorious two weeks and I began GARDENING! I took up growing veg in a serious fashion and most things were quite successful, so much so that I've only just started buying veg again. Another new activity taken up during the spring was driving ponies. There is such an organisation as the “Orkney Carriage Driving Group”. Sounds terribly posh but it is not. As it is considered “good form”- joking apart, it is safer as well- to go out with a groom then people are quite happy to take you out driving with them. The lady I drive with always lets me take the reins and is surviving to tell the tales! My horses are both fine, by the way. I started riding and working them again in May.
June saw dramatic weather again- gale
force 8 winds on Tuesday 13 June. Interestingly, the sea “smokes” when wind
speeds are consistently over 70 miles per hour. I sat in the kitchen and
watched my neighbour’s newly sown field go northeast! He tells me that, much
to his own surprise, it did recover. A major problem with that particular dose
of weather was that it was dry-it was actually a beautiful sunny day-and so
vegetation suffered a lot damage with salt burn. I made my mind up regarding
what other animals we were going to have in June. I had a very brief trip a
little way south to look at a couple of young Eriskay ponies. As they are also
a rare breed I thought that they would fit in quite nicely and, when they’re
old enough they would be great fun to drive. We also decided to have Hebridean
sheep. These are small black sheep with horns.
Stew really likes them, thinks it appropriate, as he is the black sheep son of the black sheep of the family. Stew started a new contract in June, based in Fife so at least we are in the same country. Also flat rentals are such in that area that we have been able to rent a flat for him so a respite from bed &breakfasts.
The first of the sheep arrived in
July, two older ewes and their crossbred lambs which are destined for the
freezer
. The fog also arrived. Glorious sunshine can quite often be followed
by fog, almost as if the weather cannot cope with being so beautiful so it has
to revert to being bashful. Stew started two weeks holiday at the end of July
so that he could be home for harvest- unfortunately the weather refused to
co-operate with such intricate planning and only came pleasant in the second
week. To dumbfound the forecaster the day of Shapinsay show was gorgeous and
Sundance duly obliged by becoming the champion horse at the show. The
forecasters had a bad week-thank goodness- as the county show was also a
lovely day. By this time we had had two fields cut and by the dint of a lot of
hard work by the Rendall boys and Stew all this haylage was baled before Stew
headed south again. It was then down to me to lug the bales in- they were big
round bales so were done mechanically. It was the first time that I seriously
drove the tractor. Yes all the fences and all the buildings are still standing
and the seventy odd bales were lifted out of the fields and I only used a
little silage tape, not even one roll despite the teasing that I received from
the Rendall boys! In between all this the rest of the sheep arrived, three of
whom are ewe lambs and are so cute, and very tame to a bucket. The other three
fields were harvested the following weekend and then the hard work really
started as all three had ragwort in the crop. As this is poisonous I spent the
best part of four long days picking the ragwort out of the swathe. Funny, I
still like yellow chrysanthemums! Stew came back that weekend to help, thank
goodness. The morning after we finished harvesting Chris and Karen Wilson from
Shropshire arrived with their two sons. Poor Chris had to earn his holiday –he
was set to lugging bales while Karen and I caught up on the gossip! Tip- avoid
August for a visit unless you want to increase your experience of tractor
driving! We all had a great time- doing some of the tourisity things you need
the excuse of visitors in order to make the time to do. We managed a barbecue
on the beach-unfortunately, after a lovely day, the fog came in along wit the
midges. The visit sped past and all too soon I was sat on the Shapinsay ferry
waving the Wilsons good bye at the pier.
My first venture into competitive pony driving happened at the beginning of September- Helen volunteered me to drive in the clubs first ever one day event. Luckily she was brave enough to be groom. We do not talk about the dressage but after that disaster things got seriously better-thanks mainly to Helen – and we finished fourth in the marathon and fourth overall and yes there were more than four entries! The two Eriskay ponies also arrived that month and Sundance decided that some serious mothering was in order.
Conker, once he had noticed that they had arrived fell
in lurve, big time! The yearling- June- slip of a girl that she is bullies him
something rotten.
Unfortunately, at the end of the month she decided to play
cats cradle with the wire. I came home to find her the wrong side of the
fence, on her back, and with all four feet caught in the wire. A huge vets
bill and a lot of care later she has made a complete recovery and is back
keeping Conker in order. A sad event in September was the death of Stew’s mum,
from lung cancer.
October was spent finishing cleaning the cowshed and other preparations for winter and starting to catch up with the accounts work. November has been spent either slaving over a hot calculator or wielding a mucking out fork and pushing a wheel barrow-oh the joys of farming! Luckily we have escaped most of the lousy weather that the South has experienced. Granted the ground is sodden but we have not had the winds –so far- that we had last year though there were no ferrys one Tuesday in October. There have been some very generous days- on Thursday –7 Dec- I came back on the top deck of the ferry which is uncovered, without a coat. The sunset was stunning. I keep saying that we moved here for the weather! Stew breaks up for Christmas next Friday and will be home for three weeks – yep the list of jobs is on to its second toilet roll! On Monday I have another three heifer calves arriving. They travelled down from Shetland on Friday and a kind farmer on mainland Orkney has kept them over the weekend
.
As the Post Office is pleading for Christmas post to be away this weekend if possible I had better finish and let the spell check rip on all this so that it stands some chance of making sense! Remember if you do fancy a visit bring wellies!