The Mays 2007

Well, here we are again- a bit earlier in the evening so cup of tea to hand rather than a glass of wine. It has been a very difficult year- I won’t bore you with the details as, lets face it we all have problems. Before any or all of you start to worry we are all still here except for poor Jester who died after an operation in the summer- yet again “vets” are a four letter word in this household.

The winter carried on as it begun- ‘orribly wet. Calving happened without any great traumas. A couple of the cows did take me by surprise – I am usually pretty good at knowing when they are going to calve. One lady was very laid back about the whole thing. She was lay down with the rest of the cows with us mucking out the shed around them when I happened to see the water bag come out. She got up, the bag burst, we put her into a pen and an hour and half later there was a brand new baby. As we were shipping sheep that day it was a good job she managed so easily. There was one hectic night when I had a cow calving in the shed and a ewe lambing in the field and Stew away south….One of the abiding memories of this year’s calving was milking Nina at night and being serenaded by the blackbird who lives here.

Lambing too was fairly free of excitement although it didn’t start off so well as the first lamb was premature and there was mad Millie. I ended up asking my neighbours son to come and catch her for me- twice! We put her in a pen after she had lambed. Next morning as I climbed into the pen she leapt out. Quick, iodine the lamb’s navel, notice that it was a boy put it on the grass and scarper. She did come back for it and everything seemed to be fine. Next day the lamb didn’t seem to be lively enough so got Scott back, by now he had developed a determined glint in his eye about catching this mad ewe. Any way, as it turned out the lamb was deformed – the speed of its initial handling meant that I had not been able to check all its bits so he had to be put down. I kept mad Millie in for a couple of days to make sure that she was OK- I didn’t dare ask Scott to catch her again. Luckily the weather turned really warm which made the rest of lambing much easier. This was especially useful as they had taken up lambing at night which can get tricky with black sheep.

 It also meant that we could turn the cows out earlier which was OK until one morning when I was getting a ewe and her lamb into a pen when I heard a “moo” where there shouldn’t have been one and there were the cattle heading away up the lane. Right, get ewe and lamb into pen and then run after cows. Cut across the field and called the cows and that stopped them going on up the road. Turned them back up the lane for home but then they wouldn’t go past the garden as there was Jester barking at them. Of course I was the lane side of them, not the house side so I couldn’t slide through them and collect Jester in case they turned round and went back up the lane - that run, twice before breakfast, no thanks. Luckily there was a fair bit of grass on the bank below the house. Once they were settled on that I was able to sneak through them, collect Jess, get the lane side of them and let Jess loose. They were back in the field in no time.

One of the highlights of the year was the arrival of Freddy, our new Jack Russell. Quite quite different to Jack- taller and short haired but just as much of a character. Ratting abilities not yet proven- still thinks that his role is to deafen them but he is now just over 6 months old so I suppose it is still a tad too early to start his career as a serial killer. Buddy was somewhat peeved when he first came – sort of what the hell have you landed us with now looks but they are getting along great these days and are playing together really well. We took them both to Shetland in October to stay with the friends of ours who also happened to be the people who bred Freddy and I think this when they bonded properly as they spent a couple of nights in the car on the boat. Buddy was amazing as it is rare that he has been off the farm; Freddy just though it was fantastic that all his best people had moved on together. Like Jack he has his cuddly moments- as I write this he is curled up in his bed on my desk. At other times he can swear mildly at empty tonic bottles and atrociously at empty water bottles. Where Jack had paws I am convinced that he has springs-all of a sudden there is a puppy on my lap either at the table or at my desk.

The other highlight of the year was I did travel for about the first time since we moved up here, what’s more a good portion of the trip was done on the back of Stew’s motorbike- a yellow one....or for those of you interested in the finer points its a BMW K1200RS and yes it does go a bit. It was great fun and not a bit scary, even on the motorway, just somewhat rough when the speedo went over 80. It was the best fun doing 50-60 when I could sit up and look around more and on roads with bends so he had to slow down. The bike is a wonderful way to travel – you see, smell and sense a lot more and folk talk to you especially when the helmets come off and they see all that grey hair or little hair at all. The very best bit though is that first pint after you get off… particularily after chugging round a gridlocked Aberdeen on a Friday night. I had forgotten how beautiful bits of mainland UK are. Talk about culture shock - there were people driving with their windows wound down and some were wearing shorts! This just doesn’t happen in Orkney- and we turned the heating off in every room we stayed in. I hate to disillusion you but you guys don’t know what a bad summer is – we didn’t see any black holes in the fields where the tractor had got bogged down doing the baling or fields blackened generally through lugging the crop off. It started raining here in July and quit about the third week in September for about a month although it did still have practice days. It has taken up serious throwing down of water since with the ground wetter than I have ever seen…. Calling all Ark builders out there.

Particular highlights of the trip: lounging in the pub garden in Herefordshire that first lunchtime, pint at hand, sitting under the beeches at the pub in Gawston, pint to hand, 50 yards from the church where we were married, being with Stew in that same church – OK no pint this time- 19 years later, the run over the Cat and Fiddle, laying under the enormous beech tree at Bolsover Castle, the run up through Kielder Forest and the night in the 4 star country hotel. It had been a long ride and I seized up sat in the comfy armchair waiting for dinner so had difficulty moving when dinner was called much to the consternation of the French waiter. He asked what had happened, I waved at the motorbike: “Madam, how could you do that to yourself!” Easily I thought, easily. Next day was rather special as we called in at Rosslyn Chapel- amazing, have never before been in a religious building that felt so joyful. We then spent a couple of days in Dingwall, near Inverness at the Scottish Crofting Foundation’s annual gathering. I provided much entertainment after the dinner when trying to get out of my finery back into bike gear for the run back to the hotel after rather too much booze– all that Stew’s fault as he poached the spare bottles off the empty table next to us. All I remember of the trip back to the hotel was receiving orders of “don’t lean” and retorting drunkenly that I’m not! The girls were glad to see me next day. Stew has just bought me a glass of cider through- what a star. Stew is currently home permanently which is brilliant although he is not too enamoured of shit shovelling- the prime occupation on any Orcadian farm this time of year.

Other departures this year have included the two Erisaky ponies. I sold them to friends in Shetland primarily because here they were always having problems here with laminitis and I thought they would do better on poorer ground but Sundance and Conker are still doing well and actually seem happier without the ponies stirring things up.

Well I am at the bottom of the page and Freddy is still asleep so I‘ll let the spell checker rip on this and wish you all the best for the season and here’s to a fantastic 2008 but get that Ark built just in case! If you come for a visit, forget the wellies, thigh length waders are needed.

PS Does anyone knows someone who would fancy a week or two farm and dog sitting in return for free accommodation and food- must like beef and lamb-as I would quite like to do travel again.