The Mays 2008

Here we are again- its come round quicker than ever or is that just a sign of getting older? You know, along with policemen and lorry drivers looking like infants.

You know how I said that last year had been a difficult year, well this has been worse although the good news is that it seems- touch wood and fingers crossed – to have turned the corner and things are picking up. To get the bad news out of the way first we lost Conker and then my mother in the first quarter of the year. Enough of the details, we all do have problems of some sort. Any way onwards…

Calving happened without too much excitement – or at least none that I can remember. We lambed inside this year for the first time – no option, the poor blighters would have had to be born with water wings if they were to have any chance of survival. Not convinced that it is much easier than lambing outside – just different. We had our first caddy lamb and our first case of mis-mothering – much rarer outside, as it is more difficult for them to deny all knowledge or to pretend that it belongs to someone else. The caddy lamb – goes by the name of Bilco- is a great salesman for the knitwear and is now very famous in a certain part of the Sates. A customer had been longing to get closer to a sheep – just remember that the customer is always right- and here they were able to cuddle Bilco and have their picture taken with him.

Mum’s funeral saw me doing travel again- by every mode possible except pushbike, horse and cart and camel. Ferry from Shapinsay to Kirkwall, plane to Aberdeen, bus into the centre of Aberdeen and back out again- there were 8 hours between flights-, plane to Luton, bus to Luton train station and then train to Bedford. Culture shock started at Aberdeen – we had to wait for our luggage. It was grand to spend a lot of time with Dad and meet a lot of the folk who had looked after him so well after Mum’s death. At the funeral itself – as is often the happy-sad way of such occasions- it was really good to meet up with a lot of folk I’d not seen in 20 years or more. The return trip was much quicker- a 4 am departure from Dads to Luton for 5 am – thought there would be few folk about at that hour in the morning – WRONG!!- there were thousands and thousands. The noise levels are such that Luton doesn’t do announcements- no one would hear them!  Into Aberdeen for just after 8 am – time for a bit of breakfast and then down to the departure seats for Kirkwall. These were right at the end of a long corridor so a lounge it wasn’t . Very glad when someone else turned up – sure I was in the right place then. They were a super couple on their way to visit their daughter on Shapinsay for Easter- very kindly let me share their taxi from the airport to the ferry so I met Caroline’s parents before I actually met Caroline.

Reorganised life here a bit with all the difficulties. I have now got a job with the island Development Trust - part time – in theory! I do actually work from home and just lately haven’t clapped eyes on my boss for two weeks or more. I thought we might make more money by renting out our big cow shed than by continuing with the herd at its present size. So in September I sold on half of the herd plus the bull to a lad from Westray looking to put some thriftiness into his herd and to make for easier calvings. Of the calves at foot 4 were heifers and one a steer so it made a good start for him. He must have been quite happy as he went and bought more heifers from another herd in Orkney. I may well decide to increase numbers again but this time start them off out wintering- if I tried that with the existing crowd they would fire me!

We had a decent summer this year which made everyone much happier. The big news on the island has been the big house- Balfour Castle- and the home farm going on the market.  Wrongly named as castle it actually is an exceedingly large Victorian manor house and has never had a bow and arrow fired from it in anger yet! Potentially all fairly devastating for the island as the Castle is run as a hotel and tourist attraction and so employs a few folk and supports the ferry and a number of the farms rent shed space in the winter and buy their straw from the home farm. Any way the very latest on the sale is that the Castle alone has been sold and while the owners will only be here occasionally they are to put in a couple to manage the house so that it will continue as a hotel and tourist attraction. Even better, apparently they are considering opening a pub at the Castle. The old pub has been closed for the last couple of years. It was unusual as it was in the Gatehouse to the Castle. While the buyers have also bought the Gatehouse- it was leased-they are looking to turn it back into a Gatehouse- really it was too tiny to be a pub.

Did travel again in the autumn – Crofting Foundation Annual Gathering. This was another case of “Can’t get there from here” as it was on the Isle of Barra in the Western Isles. So flight to Inverness, collected by Norman from Shetland and then after collecting a couple of others drive west right to the far side of Skye to spend a night at Uig. Ferry then next morning across to Lochmaddy on North Uist – really strange getting on a ferry I didn’t know. Coach drive then across North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Eriskay. Ferry from Eriskay to Barra, accompanied by a school of dolphins and baby. Unfortunately the weather was awful for both trips, so saw little out of the coach windows and we crossed Skye both times in the dark. It was grand to meet up with folks I’d met at the previous gatherings and they do enjoy a good blether- the noise levels on the bus just kept on rising. Most of the time was spent in Castlebay which all fans of the film “Whiskey Galore” would have recognised- the high street hasn’t changed a bit! Our last night was spent at a Celidh- they are really good dancers there and do far more complicated dancers than are ever attempted here. Not sure what the other crofters thought when one of the guy’s who had been brave enough to dance with me earlier gave me a brief run  through of the Shapinsay Polka, which to my shame I had not heard of, as we walked along the corridor back to the rooms. Mind you when I saw how complicated it was I wasn’t surprised that it wasn’t danced here, and even less surprised that Isobel, our dance teacher, a wonderful lady in her seventies, didn’t attempt to teach it to us. While local culture and music is very important here it is even more so in the Western Isles and much of our entertainment was provided by a very talented group of teenagers.

Meeting folk from other Islands continued on into the autumn when we – the Trust-organised a couple of meetings here which were addressed by Andy from Gigha. Gigha is an island, similar size to Shapinsay out on the western side of the country. In 2000/1 the community set up a Trust and bought the entire island. As a means of securing more revenue they were the first community to establish its own wind farm and that was were the connection came in. Shapinsay too is looking to install its own community owned turbine and we took a step nearer this week when we received planning permission. The meetings were a great success. Andy was a really nice guy and folk really enjoyed the chance to blether to someone from another island outwith the Orkney group. So much so that we had to liberate him from the boys so that the girls got a chance at him and eventually had to kick folk out. I was the only one to get a kiss on the cheek – definitely a perk of the job- when I dropped him at the airport next day.

 An interesting year ahead – just  £1.5 million worth of finance to organise so that the Trust can put up  wind turbine….

So remember those wellies if you want to visit or take a look at www.farmofgarth.co.uk  to avoid the wait at the airports