Well, here we are again, cup of tea and mince pie to hand. What a year! To start with the low lights: scabby sheep, laminitic ponies and a gouty Stew. The scab appears to be beaten, cross fingers and touch wood- oops any idea how difficult it is to type when touching your head or with crossed fingers? The laminitis is now gone- wrong time of year for it. The gouty Stew was the shortest lived problem. People always expressed sympathy for me when they learnt of the problem, thinking that he would be in so much pain he would be hell to live with. He actually was less grumpy than usual, probably thinking that if he was too bad I’d kick his good leg as well as his bad toe!
Calving happened early in the year with no serious hiccups. Nina appears to have read the right books at last and the other 2 came with the snow. Funny, I always thought that the stork was supposed to bring them. We changed the bull last year plus we AI'd 4 cows so I think we could well be expecting 9 or possibly 10 calves this time. Lambing too went reasonably well and quite quickly, just 2 weeks from start to almost finished – Fern does not count as she knows far more about the job than I do. One of the gimmers-Mary- had two little lambs but couldn’t count to two until one Sunday afternoon when she was suddenly had three lambs and her own mother only one. I grabbed the wrong one to reunite with Maisie and the problem was solved, temporarily at least. Mary then became a very devoted mother forever running round the field calling for her lambs. The boys generally failed to answer, being curled up together with a very smug look on their face, quite happy because they weren’t lost; they knew exactly where they were! The man from the Soil Association turned up as usual at the end of lambing- must be particularly sadistic as by that time I’m so knackered I make even less sense than usual.
One of the highlights of this year was joining the WWOOF-world wide opportunities on organic farms-organization. This is basically an exchange where people come and stay and work in return for their board & lodging and training. Our first visitor in June was Enrico from Germany. A 6’ tall student with a wild mop of hair which brilliant for moving cattle- they took one look and high tailed it out of the field as fast as their legs could carry them. Next came Tommy from Japan. Tommy wasn’t his actual name but I could not get my tongue around his full name so Tommy he became. His particular knack for shifting cattle was screaming something totally unintelligible in Japanese but, heh, it worked! Ros from America stayed with us for the maddest two weeks of the year- harvesting, sheep shearing and the Shapinsay show to mention just a few things she was involved in. Alex was our first Brit and champion hole digger and some aspirations of being a macho man when it came to fetching what was to go in the hole. He will be remembered for carrying a 7’ wooden gate post the full length of the lane as he thought that Stew was going to carry the other. Don’t be silly –Stew was going back for the tractor! Our last visitor for 2004 has just gone, Ella from Cornwall. An absolute ace with a shovel, fork, brush and barrow but her real love was the squeegee board. She was a bit of a wild woman when it came to demolishing fences, taking headlong runs at the more stubborn posts. One of the heifers took a shine to her and would march up to Ella, demand a scratch and has sulked ever since Ella left. All in all they have been great fun to have around and have made a real difference to how much work we have been able to do.
July saw the best
happening of the year when we actually finished the arena for working the
horses on. This has been brilliant and goes a long way to making up for the
loss of riding country when we moved here. Let’s face it we were spoilt rotten
in Shropshire with the quality and variety of rides we could go on. It also
contributed mightily to the next best happening- Conker was Champion horse at
the Shapinsay show. He was such a good boy, especially when it was the first
party he had been to in 6 years. The judge couldn’t believe how nicely he went
especially in the judging of the championship. He had his picture in both
Orkney newspapers and we were on local radio as well!
For Stew it has been the year of the tractor. We have an old David Brown. Two frantic weeks before harvest was spent changing the clutch which involves splitting the tractor in two. This was done with a lot of help from our mate Noel- remember the midden and effluent tank team? In the course of doing the work Noel suggested to Stew that there was another part they should change- something to do with the power steering- but Stew thought that it would be OK for a while yet. Silly Stew! Moving the very last bale from the first field we harvested, the power steering went! To fix the power steering the cab had to be lifted off the tractor very carefully as there were more holes than metal (see next paragraph) and then put back on again. It was done and harvest was managed, helped considerably this year by having our own baler. Harvest was very good with the fields trebling their yields from when we first came here which meant that we only had to cut 3 of the 6 fields we shut up for harvest.
Autumn saw more tractor work with her needing a new cab. We had already spent one winter being able to watch the wheels going round from inside the cab! Only problem was that given her age, it was not possible to buy a ready made job, it had to be created from scratch. Stew and Noel to the rescue again. Even I got involved, slapping paint on. The worst job was actually refitting the glass in the doors and the cab which of course is one of the last jobs and the cows were already in at nights….
The dogs are great; Buddy is lying on my feet and snoring as I type. Jack had a hot date with the island nurse’s Jack Russell but she was a grumpy little so & so and Jack was far too polite so no Jack Juniors yet although we are going to try again in the spring. Jester is calming down and can be a real help with the sheep. In mid May following a generally shift around of animals the teenage sheep got out on the Point which is 35 acres of moorland. Took Jess to see what we could do. The sheep, who had been worked by him all winter, took one look, high tailed it back up the track and under the gate into the field they should have been in! No sweat, at least not this time. In between wwoofers of the human kind we had a visit from Claire and Paul from Shropshire which was fantastic. The older dogs knew Claire well of course and I think even the horses remembered. Claire soon got the measure of Jester. Her answer to his growl –he growls as a revving up for barking-of good morning was to tickle him under his chin so he soon came around!
On the commercial front I’m still doing some accounts work. There is a girl in the village who wants to train as an accountant so I am now getting some serious help and I feel as though there is a light at the end of the tunnel and its not just Christmas tree lights! We sold several of the throws that we had made from the sheep’s wool this summer and I have had a couple of commissions for hand knitted garments from the USA. Major projects for next year include a farm website-www.farmofgarth.co.uk- but don’t bother looking until about Easter and hopefully establishing the farm as a demonstration farm for the Soil Association.
Stew will be taking possession of his early Christmas present tomorrow- a new car, well nearly new. I know, I know, I’ve finally flipped or gone soft in my old age- I’ll let you know which next year
Well, I’m at the bottom of the page and my wine glass is empty- not bad since it stared off as tea… Remember bring wellies if you want to visit!