crofting life

The nights are drawing in now

2011-09-01T19:34:00.007Z

The nights are drawing in now.
It's been a while since my last visit, I have been busy for what seems like an eternity, I cannot believe it is September already.
Work commitments have kept my busier than usual, the company I work for is building a brand new Sawmill, so I am working longer hours away from home, as it takes an hour to get to work and an hour home again my time is limited on the croft, but that should soon change I hope.
Our summer seems to have been short this year, we had terrible rain in June it never seemed to end, the trouble with the rain is once it starts it forgets to stop.
There have been a lot of tourists in the area this year, we cannot capitalise on this industry as we live down a dirt track and people cannot get of the beaten track with some of the low profile cars that are on the market today.
Although the people we do meet on walks etc always say they love it down here for the peace and quite, not to mention the views that are so spectacular in the summer time especially.
We had cut a lot of peat for the winter fuel earlier in the year, and thought we were going to lose it because of the rain, but the sun came out for a couple of weeks so we managed to get it all home and stored.
We took the dogs down to the peat fields, but after an hour they got bored, they never went down again, they lay on the road and watched from a distance.
It is hard work cutting peat as you have to lay it all out flat on the ground to dry, it is a spectacular thing to see the peat field mounds covered in a blanket of drying peat.
When he peat gets a crust on it we then have to stand it up into little pyramid shaped mounds, so that it drys on the outside.
Once the peat is completely dry we either build it into a large peat stack for storage or bag it up and carry it home.
Because the weather has been unreliable we decided to carry it all home.
We do not have all the modern conveniences of quad bikes and the likes, everything is carried out of the peat field on our back.
My husband carried the majority of the peat out, I helped as much as I could, I am not weak by any means but it is back breaking work, so I did my fair share.
The feeling you get when it is all stored in the shed is quite exhilarating knowing you will have plenty of winter fuel to keep you warm through the winter months.
The little things are sometimes more pleasing and important than the big things that we all take for granted.
We have had 4 of calves since my last entry, there is one due immanently, so I have been on maternity watch.
The expectant mother is a first time calving Heifer named Helen, so we have to bring her in this week just to make sure she does not have any problems during calving.
We had to say good-bye to her mother Angela this year, it was heartbreaking sending her to market.
She was blind in her udder so even though she could have more calves she would not be able to feed them herself, that would be down to human intervention, which is what we did last year with her last calf Hope, who is doing well and will be kept to be the next generation.
It was a shame she had to go but sometimes we have to be hard even though it hurts to let them go, it was hard enough looking after Hope last year as her mother used to chase me when I went to feed her, because Angela thought I was stealing her baby away from her.
That's why she ended up with the nickname pshyco, because she had funny ideas about things.
I miss her in the field with the others, she was always on look out duty, any sign of something she considered to be out of the ordinary and she would take off for the hills with the rest of the heard, in particular when the vet came to visit she knew his vehicle when she saw it and would take off like a bat out of hell, that is unless you got her in before hand.
But she always knew there was something in the wind because you had interrupted her routine, so even when she was tied in the byre she would watch the door and skitter everywhere until you let her back out.
When we sold her at the market my heart sank as I knew she would not be long on this earth, something I never do is check the electronic movement data once the cattle have been sold, but on this occasion I did just to see if she had been kept, but Angela got three days after we sold her and was taken to the abattoir, I will not look at the electronic movement data again.
My babies will all be kept in my heart forever as I remember them.
She has left good breeding stock behind her so she will live on in them and I can see her in some of them in particular Hope, who would not have been here if it had not been for our perseverance and intervention.
She has turned out to be a credit to her mother.
I have only showed the sheep once this year due to a persistent back problem, I took them out to the last show of the season in Fort William last Saturday, they all behaved perfectly on the day.
I won overall North Country Cheviot with a 4 year old Ewe in milk, called Teeny.
She was sired by Balnakiel Snowman and her mother is Sharon, one of my founder Sheep.
It was the first time I have ever shown her, I spent two days dressing her and clipping her up and she turned out really well I was not expecting her to win, in fact I was not going to take her at first but I am glad I did now.
Anyway what do you think?

My rams have summered well in Morar, not far away from here.
Every time they see the car drive down the track they come running down to the gate to greet us.
Creag Mhor my first ever ram who is now 4 years old is over there along with Sandy and three of Sandy's offspring, Monty, Charlie & Rory.
Sandy's three sons will be sold in November for breeding rams.
They are so friendly and greet you like old friends, I will miss them when they go.
Monty is the bossy one, he pushes the others about when he wants your attention, he likes to be clapped.
We took him and Sandy to the show and Monty beat his father, he shows great potential already for a year and a half old.
We are starting to get ready for the winter coming in, sheds cleaned out bedding being stored and repairs being carried out ready for the animals coming in when the nights start to close in.
At the moment the cattle are enjoying the dry weather and are spending a lot of time out on the common grazing.
Something I thought was quite funny is they way people think about things, that happen on farms and crofts.
My husband was in the shed one evening and the midges were really biting bad, he had a Midge net on his head to protect him from the biting bugs.
A visitor came down past the shed, where some of the calves were standing outside the gate waiting to come in and get fed.
The visitor started to panic and tried to drive past the calves rather rapidly when she saw my husband come out of the shed.
He asked her to take care and slow down when she was going past.
The next day the visitor came back and stopped to speak to my husband, she apologised for her bad driving and explained that when she saw the man (my husband) with the Midge net on she thought he was from the abattoir or something and was there to slaughter the calves????
Why would people think that something like that would be carried out in the middle of nowhere and especially in front of an unsuspecting visitor.
It makes you wonder what people really think what happens on farms and crofts.
Maybe my little bits of information will educate some people how things really work, then again maybe not.

Well it's that time of year again!!!

2011-04-03T13:02:00.014Z

Well it's is that time of year again.

Lambs have been popping out everywhere.

We put Sandy the dad out a couple of weeks early this year to catch Myran the matriarch first,

We have had 14 little packages so far 5 girls and 9 boys, 1 set of Triplets to Sharon one of our founder sheep she had two big boys and a dot of a girl who I called Dotty, what she lacks in size she makes up for in noise as she is the loudest of the lot.

We have had 4 sets of twins 6 boys and 2 girls, the rest have singles.

Myran going on past births usually has 1, but I think looking at the size of her she may have 2 this year.

She is lying in the sun in front of the house this afternoon, like lady muck.

I say sun what there is of it between showers that is.

Hopefully the rain will stay off for a while, as it is great entertainment watching the lambs gadding about the field racing back and forward to see who is the fastest.

They are such inquisitive little souls, I love watching them out of the kitchen window, I could stand there for hours watching them play, you know they are healthy when they are running about and playing.

It makes your heart burst with pride when I see new life come into the world, I love them all to pieces.

They are all showing off and have their own personalities.

I go into the shed in the evening and watch them all settle down, the Triplets snuggle up together in the corner whilst mum stands guard.

Some of the Twins sleep on mums back when she lies down, I found one in a pen that belonged to the next door pen, she must have been laid on her mums back and mum must have stood up and coped her over the gates into the next pen, boy her mum was mad and making such a racket because she was not with her.

The 3 Tup rams I kept back from last years crop are making a nuisance of themselves at the moment, everywhere you turn one of them is following you about, I think there dad encourages them as he is not much better himself.

They will be going away soon until later in the summer when they will leave to be sold for breeding.

Cheviot's are such beautiful faced sheep, they look at you with doleful eyes as though they are reading your mind.

Nelly is one of the smartest, if I shout her name she comes running to the fence for tit-bits, I

usually give her the carrot and turnip peels, she loves it, but a couple of the younger ones have twigged on to this also and they come running to the fence to try and get there before Nelly, they have no chance as she is fast on her feet and most of it is gone before they get there, she is like a hoover to watch.

The cows have been busy too, we have had another two calve since the new year, Miss prissy and Eddy.

Miss Prissy got her name because she walks on her tip toes like a lady la-de-da so hoity.

Eddy got his name because he is like Eddy the eagle he thinks he can jump the cattle grid, which he has tried to do on numerous occasions instead of using the gate like the rest of the heard.

Luckily the grid is more of a deterrent as it is not really deep so any animal that goes in it can scuttle out of it.

It is only there so people can go over it instead of getting out of the car to open the gate and drive through, it also stops people leaving the gate open and letting the cattle back in the park, which is what used to happen a lot in the past.

Then you would find cattle in the shed if a door was left open, or worst still in my garden eating every bit of greenery they can find.

The weather has been hit and miss so far, we have had a lot of rain over the past couple of weeks, but when it is dry it is beautiful, you can see things starting to bud, our crocus and daffodils have popped out and the blue bells are coming up now.

In March last year the heaths were burning in the night sky all around us, this year I have not seen one at all as yet as it has been to wet to burn anything.

I found a couple of ticks already on the Cullan our collie, horrid things, Freachan the Jack Russell loves to be in amongst it when you are trying to find ticks on the collie he is so nosey.

The cows have started to stay out on the odd night it has been mild, but they are still coming home in the morning, it has been a long hard winter I cannot believe it is April already, where is time going, one minute it is Christmas when you next blink Easter is nearly upon us.

Some times I wish I could stop the planet and get of the merry -go -round for a while, to sit back and smell the Roses.

But we all seem to have no time for anything that is important and held up by inconsequential bitty things that hold us back from doing what we desire, things that make the heart and soul feel good about, like enjoying the smells and sounds of nature, standing in the sun and watching the animals grazing and relaxing in the warm heat, and as I have been doing this morning watching the lambs run around the fields and playing.

Well nature moves on and the grass will soon burst into life, the heather will fill the air with it scent in the Scottish Highlands, and I have to go and clean the byre, I will leave you with some pictures I took this week.

Just as I finished inserting the pictures a hugh wind came up and the heavens opened, the mum's came running over to the shed with the babies for shelter, how's that for smart!!

Alive & Kicking

2011-01-22T16:41:00.003Z

Well I did not realise it has been so long since I last posted anything on my blog!!.

I had a computer problem for a while & with being busy all of the time it has made it a little difficult to juggle everything.

Firstly I would like to wish you all a belated Happy and Prosperous New Year, may all your hopes and dreams come true.

Secondly, I would like to thank all of you for being so patient, and thank those of you who have asked after me.

I am still alive and kicking or as someone once said, I'm still above the ground.

Since my last visit we have had a few new arrivals on the croft, the twins are both fine.

It was hard in the beginning as the youngest who we named Doddit had to be bottle fed to kick start him until he was strong enough to feed himself, we were also still bottle feeding Hope as her mother was unable to feed her because she had lost her milk.

So every feed time was a frenzy in the shed, impatient calves who are hungry don't understand wait, they charge at you and knock you flying in a mad rush to get the bottle first.

But now they are both fending for themselves.

Doddit is just as good as his brother Hoddit, it is hard to tell the difference between them, but they are both gentle calves.

We had two more heifers in October, Skye had her first calf which was a little girl we called her Kyle, she has a really bad temper like granny which is Effy the cow that put my husband in the river.

Bunnacaimbe had a little girl too, we called her Duchess, she is the spitting image of her mother, she also has a soft nature like her mother.

They all pal about together.

Pal our heifer had a little girl two weeks ago, we called her Pollyanna, she is a beautiful red colour, and so nosey.

Skye had her calf out on the common grazing's, she came in one day with the heard and my husband said she had had her calf and not brought it in with her.

We went out to look for it and chased Skye out to bring it back, we spent all day wandering about looking for it.

As dusk started to come in we found it, she jumped up from her hiding place and ran literally for the hills.

My husband chased after her, I brought the cows down to the bottom of the hill, so the calf would hopefully see them and join up with them.

Just before the calf came around the back of the hill where the cows were now grazing, she decided to make a run for it over the top of the hill and missed the heard altogether, by the time we got to the top of the hill she had vanished into thin air.

She must have laid down in the long undergrowth to hide herself.

By this time it was starting to get dark so we had to give up the search until the early hours of the morning.

Skye was standing out on the common grazing's where she left her calf the day before, we spent another two hours looking for the wee so and so.

My husband spotted her in amongst our neighbours cattle, we went to catch her, as the heard started to move off home over the bridge, she ran towards my husband who was waiting at the pass so to speak, she tried to make a jump for it and jumped clean into his arms.

After a bit of a fumble and rugby style tackle we managed to get her into the back of the landy.

We got her into the shed, whilst my husband went to get her mum, as she must have been hungry by now, I started to make the pen comfortable for them both, the little bisum charged clean at me pushing her head into my legs and grunting wildly like a grizzly bear.

I have never in my life ever had a calf do that, my husband said she is like her granny as two peas, mad as a hatter.

She has calmed down now, I suppose it must have been as much of a shock to her as it was to us.

After all she had not seen a human until we rolled up and tried to catch her.

I am waiting for my sheep to lamb, Sandy did well last year, I hope he has a repeat performance this year, he has been busy.

Craigy my other ram was on his holidays again in Newtonmore, he came back today, I missed him, he is a big softy really, he has made himself at home already, letting the young tup rams know he is back by bawling at them from the shed.

I just hope everything goes well and the lambs are all healthy, I hate to lose any of my babies, be it cow or sheep.

They all deserve to breath and run around, but nature can be so cruel sometimes, when you least expect it something comes along to pull you up with a sharp shock.

I cannot wait for the spring to come, I love to see the lambs running around and the smell of the flowers that start to bloom early.

Pictures Are

1 Hoddit & Doddit

2. Duchess

3. Hoddit & Doddit with mum Rosie

4. Mima Myrans Lamb taking in the sun last summer

Thank you for reading look forward to you popping in again.

A first for Creag Mhor Croft

2010-07-12T19:56:00.003Z

I thought I would share something with you all.

There is a first time for everything, after all the years of breeding cattle from father to son on Creag Mhor Croft never in the past has there ever been TWIN calves.

That is until this week, two beautiful Limousin bullocks.

We nearly only had one but for fate stepping in at the right time.

Rosie was heavy in calf, but did not look any fatter than usual, I brought her in last Tuesday as she never came in to the park with the others, so we decided to make sure she had the calf in easy reach just in case things went wrong as they sometimes can.

We kept her in for a day and night but let her into the park as she was not going to part with the baby under public scrutiny.

Any way she walked off onto the common grazing's on Wednesday morning, so things were going to progress shortly.

Anyway later in morning out popped a soggy Red wee boy, my hubby went to check everything was okay and took some nuts over for her.

We thought nothing of it and left her to bond with her new arrival, she licked him furiously cleaning him up.

Later on just before dusk, she decided to move down towards the old house with the rest of the heard.

We thought the little calf was quite hardy to manage down there with her.

We went to bed thinking everything was Rosie, "pardon the pun".

Next morning we did our usual duties, feeding animals and getting ready for work and so on.

Just as we were about to leave the house My hubby noticed the calf up by the fence.

But when he put the binoculars on Rosie down with the rest of the heard, he noticed that she had her calf.

So she must have had the second calf and walked away from it.

We gathered it up and took it down to her in the back of the Landrover.

She knew it was hers but was not keen to let it suck her, so we gathered both the calves up and put them both in the back of the Landrover and took them both back to the shed with mother following behind.

Once we got her into the shed my hubby cinched Rosie up so we could get the second calf on the teat to get a drink of milk.

Once he had a few goes at it he got the hang of it quite quickly.

We have kept them in for a few days to bond with one another but they all appear to be doing well fingers crossed.

We have not got a name for them as yet but that is no problem I'm sure we'll think of something.

Rosie and her new family.

Starting all over again.

2010-06-27T13:37:00.004Z

Well we are flying through the year and as usual I am playing catch up.
Nearly at the end of another month and already preparing for the Winter.
For the past three months we have had little or no rain we have five burns that usually run water all of the time but as of today there are only two trickles one of which supplies the house & shed water, if it had not been for my husband installing a dam above the house a couple of months ago we would be totally dry.
The grass is not growing at all, the cows and sheep keep coming in every morning from the common grazing's just to get a drink from the bath we had installed at the back of the sheds with running water.
As I am typing this someone up above must have heard me because we have just had a humongous down pour for about two minutes, which has now subsided to a drizzle.
It will help the grass along for the animals at least.

A poor Blue tit just struck the living room window, I took it in and put it in a box with an old woolly hat to let it hopefully recover, he is sitting quiet at the moment, it must have given him one hell of a headache.

We started cutting the peat the first week in May, we moved over to the front of the house this year, in the old peat fields, where my husbands family and the next door neighbours used to cut years ago.

With the weather being so dry it has been amazing how quick the peat dried out, we built a stack which we did not really have to, we could have taken it in already, but the tourists on the train like to take pictures of the stacks so we did not like to disappoint them ; )
Anyway the peat will come in soon enough, the amount of peat that has been cut this year will be shared with a friend who gave us a hand to cut it and stack it.
There is enough to keep us going through the Winter anyway.
We have a few old trees to cut up and stack, funny preparing for Winter already when we are still in summer, but as the old story goes, the busy ants gathered early whilst the grass hopper played.

We ended up with a pet lamb from someone who could not look after it and a pet calf who's mother could not feed her.
The lamb was abandoned by his mother, we called him Fleck as he has little black fleck marks all over him, he is outside in the garden in a pen through the night because of the foxes, in the day he is in the field unless he sneaks in through the side gate into the garden.
The Cheviot's being the snobs they are will not let him mix with them, the wee lambs come down the field when Fleck is out to show him who is boss, as they are a lot bigger then him, but once he gets his horns I am sure he will be showing them who is boss, he is already starting to test his head out on the Jack Russell.
He is quite a smart wee cookie, if he gets in the garden, and the back door is open, especially when the midges are bad, (which they are at the moment I am sure they have flippin teeth,)
Anyway if he gets in the back door he goes behind it and slams it shut, then promptly plops himself on the floor behind the door I presume to keep the midges out, he is so comical when he does it.
I don't mind him lying there when the insects are bad, but he will have to get used to it because he is not taking up residence in the hall even though he does think he is a dog.
One of his other bad habits was discovered by accident, I could not understand how my washing kept landing up on the floor in the garden, then after I had just put a few items on the line and come back into the kitchen , I looked out of the window after spotting the washing bouncing up and down there was Fleck running the length of the washing line jumping in the air and head butting my washing off the line again.
He greets you in the morning, and he and the dogs greet me when I come home from work, you could not be bad to him, we had to ring his bits not only because I did not want him getting my sheep pregnant later, but it is supposed to make them less violent when they are older, we will see.

The calf was another matter, her mother Angela, had her out on the common grazing's she was very protective of her little girl, so we left her alone but kept going down to check on her, after a couple of days we noticed she was not getting enough milk, we tried to bring her in but she went wild and started to chase us away, we put the dog out to send the cows homeward and left them to make there way back, we went out for a couple of hours to give them time to come in, Angela was more likely to follow the cows in if no one was about, you have to be flyer than her if you want her to do something she does not want to do.
Anyway we came back home and there she was in the park, we shut the gates to keep the cows in and went to look for the calf in the park using the Land rover as she would charge at you if you got anywhere near the calf.
It took us a little time to find out where she had hidden the calf, there she was tucked up nice and tight in a ball in one one of the dry drains.
Once we found the calf we put the cows out Angela went along with them not realising we had found her calf she thought it was safely tucked up.
Once we got the cows out of the park and shut the gates to keep them out we went to get the calf.
She was as light as a feather when we lifted her into the back of the Landy, we took her to the shed, I had a colostrum dried milk sachet which I made up for her, but she would not suck the bottle, my husband put the stomach tube in to get something into her, she must have got something from Angela, but not enough to keep her alive if we had not intervened.
Later I got her an effydral tonic to give her a boost, she took it from the bottle hungrily.
The next morning I went into the shed half expecting her not to be up but there she was standing waiting to be fed.
So now she is getting bottle fed, but we are letting Angela in the park with her, just to keep the bond between them.
Angela goes out on an evening, then comes back in through the day to be with her calf.
Although when we were out for the afternoon on one occasion, someone very thoughtlessly left the field gate open and Angela took the calf out, we tried to get her back in but to no avail, it was getting dark and too dangerous to try as Angela was becoming hypertensive.
So we decided to get up earlier in the morning to get the calf back in to give her a feed.
At about 4.45am the next morning, I was woken by a moaning noise, I looked out of the bedroom window and there the wee calf who we named "Hope" was standing looking at me.
I rushed out to the shed with a bottle and she followed me in to get her feed, tragedy avoided.
Anyway she will not get out of the park again, she is doing well and growing all of the time.

In between all of this going on we had the Arisaig Road to the Isles Agricultural show.
Once again it was a beautiful day, it was just a pity there was not as many competitors in the commercial cattle lines this year as there used to be.
My husband was the only local competitor taking part, the other two competitors came from a lot further afield, although the Highland cow classes were well attended, as well as the sheep classes.
I managed a Reserve sheep champion, being beaten by a Suffolk this year.
The classes were well entered and the competition was close.
My husband managed a first in class.
It's a pity that the Agricultural show was not as well attended as in previous years, for some reason there are no locals attending even though there are plenty of cattle and sheep in the area.
If we do not take care we could lose something that is important to such a small community.
There are not many events through the year that people get to meet and catch up, change hints and tip or even just support something that is for both locals and tourists to enjoy.

Well that's me caught up for now, I hope everyone out there who reads my blog is happy and healthy.
"Don't chase the money chase life, it's for living"

PS the poor wee bird did not make it, I buried him in the garden.

Don't Quit

2010-04-10T17:03:00.002Z

I would like to share something with you all that sums up some of the termoil we all have in our lives, when we think we are at our lowest then sometimes it is good to know someone cares.

A good friend gave me this on an embroydered card whilst I was ill and after I lost my father.
I do not know who wrote it, but I hope they do not mind me sharing it with you all, as sometimes we all need our spirits lifting at some point in our lives.
So here goes.
When things go wrong as they sometimes will.
When the road you're trudging seems up hill.
When the funds are low and the debts are high and you want to smile, but you have to sigh.
When care is pressing you down a bit.
Rest, if you must, but don't you ever quit.
Life is queer with it's twists and turns, as everyone of us sometimes learns.
Many a failure turns about when he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow you may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out.
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt, and you never can tell how close you are, it may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit.
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Take a long deep breath and relax

2010-04-10T16:08:00.004Z

What a beautiful day it has been today.
The Lambs are out playing Sandy and Craigy the two rams have made friends and are out in the park at the back of the shed.
The sheep are lying back in the sunshine and relaxing and we are taking a long deep breath and relaxing also today.
It is not often we get time to just take in the air and have great quiet day.
Usually we are running here there and everywhere.
My husband drove up to the black isle last night to deliver a trailer, he got back late on in the night, I had to drive to Fort William to collect some things from the feed store.
So we could have the rest o f the day to ourselves.
Dolly one of the older cows, had a calf last weekend, not the brightest tool in the box, I do not know what it is but some of these calves seem to be a lot harder work than they used to be, we seem to have to do everything for them.
Dolly's calf was born out on the Mointeach Mhor common grazing, she is a beautiful red Limousin heifer.
But the first night she just would not suck the teat, we had to stomach tube her just so she would get the colostrum from her mother, that was a battle as well.
Anyway Dolly has a large udder as she is half Frisian cow, so there is plenty of milk there.
Well the next day my husband had to take milk from Dolly to feed the calf again, this carried on for a couple of days, stomach tubing as she just would not suck, although yesterday she showed signs of having a go her self, even though it was a little suck with a tongue hanging out it make it hard for her to make a seal, if she would learn that the tongue is meant to stay in your head she might get on a bit quicker.
Last night my husband took some more milk of Dolly, I put it in a calf bottle, she struggled and struggled not to have the teat in her mouth.
I remember my father telling me that the best way to teach a calf to suck is to cover it's eyes with a blindfold, because when a calf sucks from mother it is in darkness under her belly.
But also when you put the teat in it's mouth make a seal around it's mouth with your fingers, A. to hold it's tongue inside it's mouth, and B. to make the tongue half moon to cause the calf to suck.
Well she started to get the hang of it, slowly but surely she sucked half the calf bottle.
So I let her out of the blindfold and guided her towards Dolly's udder, no she decided she was going to have none of it.
I decided to go and feed the sheep and leave her with mum for a while to decide what she wanted to do.
I came back around half an hour later and peeped in the door of the shed, there she was having a go herself.
Even though it was a little go at least she seems to have got the gist of what she is supposed to do to get her fed.
We will have to make sure she gets a good feed from the bottle of expressed milk until she gets the idea.
But as I said hard work when you have a lazy calf.
Molly's calf has come on in leaps and bounds, she is a really smart calf and knows how to get into the shed between the cows when they all come in, she then plonks herself down on a nice bed and that's her for the night.
Myran and Katy are still hanging on to their lambs, they have decided to be awkward and make me wait, they will chose the worst night and the earliest hour to have their lambs, I can garentee that.
Myran is the queen of sheba's granny, as I said before they have an air about them as though they are royalty and as such should be treated as though they are royalty.
Hopefully they should have lambs before the next weekend.

All go way out West

2010-04-03T15:41:00.005Z

Well it's been all go way out here on the West coast of beautiful but wild Scotland.

Thank you Kevan for your concern, which has prompted me to stop neglecting my duties and let you all know what we have been up to during this cold and bitter weather.

We have had quite a few additions to our now ever growing family.

Since I last posted we have had three new calves and up to today we have also had eleven lambs, with three sheep still to lamb.

The biggest surprise was Nelly our Gimmer she gave birth to triplets and is managing to feed them all with out any interference from me.

Although in the beginning I was giving them a little extra milk, they were not suited with me meddling.

You see Nelly has a false teat, but they all dive underneath her and grab what they think are all working milk dispensers, it is really comical watching them play pass the teat, but they seemed to have worked it out for themselves a sort of rota system.

Chirstie was the first to lamb, she had a single female a snob if ever there is such a thing in the sheep world, she is just like her granny Myran, struts round the pen like she is the queen of Sheba.

Chirstie managed without any help from us and her milk must be really good as the queen of sheba has had a couple of wee squeals with constipation.

Nelly was next to go I gave her a little help with the first lamb, she took to it straight away, I went around to the front shed to get the Iodine for the lambs navel, when I came back to the shed there was the second one popped out no bother, both little girls.

After a while we decided to go for a cup of tea to warm the cockles.

When we came back to the shed to admire Nelly's new offspring we were leaning over the gate talking back and forward then noticed a third head poking out from under Nelly's tummy.

How we did not notice in the first place was bewildering as he was as noisy as all of them put together.

So that was it for a couple of late night shifts, three girls one boy.

Then a couple of nights later Sharon and Poppit delivered twins in the early hours, Sharon had two girls, poppit had one of each.

Claire followed suit the next night with two girls also.

Teeny came around to the lambing shed last night of her own accord to let us know she was going to give birth.

She had a little girl too, late last night.

They are all doing well and noisy as anything.

They are developing their own personalities already.

Nelly's little boy has taken to lying on his mums back when she settles down, the only problem is, when she stands up he is not quick enough to get down and stands there on her back screaming like he is scared of heights.

After I numbered them all, ( lambs and mum are spray painted with the same number so they do not get mixed up whilst out in the field) some of them were allowed out yesterday for the first time.

The lambs were running around the field racing each other, jumping in the air and playing tig.

It was a beautiful day yesterday and today was dry but not as warm.

The weather has been really cold and hard on the animals, it has snowed and the ground has frozen. The animals have had to be fed a lot more to keep their energy levels up through the cold weather.

My husband has a lot of work, but cannot up until this past couple of weeks put a stob in the ground because it has been so hard, if he did put stobs in the ground whilst it is freezing, they would just slacken off when it thawed out which would make the fences very slack.

A couple of weeks ago we had a really dry spell which was good for a heath burning, there was plenty of them going on too whilst the opportunity was there, sometimes you cannot afford to hang around these things have to be done as soon as a window comes around, if you hesitate it could be weeks before the opportunity comes back around and then it might be to late.

The weather is so unpredictable, but this year there will be a lot of fresh grass on the common grazing's after the burning, hopefully.

The poor Deer are finding it hard too, they have come down from the hill looking for food.

Some of them look weak, I have noticed that they are fighting amongst themselves also, as they

are in competition for the same blade of grass.

There has been a lot of Deer strikes too on the main road as they search for food.

We had 28 of them cross over our field a few days ago to get to the common grazing.

The cows have been wondering about a lot looking for grass to, the harsh weather has slowed everything down, the grass is not coming yet.

The calves are all doing well, Molly had a beautiful calf she is the spitting double of her great granny, who was a rusty red and white Simmental called Marie Claire.

We have named her after her great granny, her father was a Simmental called Dernean Jacob, he has always, produced beautiful coloured and quick learning calves.

Molly being a first time mother was a little slow on the up take as to how to feed the calf.
We had to sinch her, which entails tying a rope around her middle just above the udder, to stop them kicking either you or the calf, but Molly decided to act like a bucking bronco, she soon settled down.

Nature is a wonderful thing sometimes, Molly's udder was so full it must have hurt, she would have been tender when the calf first sucked, but once the calf relieved her of some milk she calmed down and let her take her fill.

But she was not pleased in the beginning, once the calf had the idea the sinch was released, and away they went mother and baby bonded.

There has been lots of other things going on, but they are stories for later.

I will leave you with some pictures of Nelly and her triplets for you to see what I mean about your own bed.

The queen of Sheba, The proud dad Sandy and one of the heath burnings.

BBBRRRrrrrrrr it's cold out here

2010-01-31T20:53:00.005Z

Freachan & Cullan above Creag Mhor

Wee Wendy & Tougs

Cullan & Creag Mhor in the snow

Freachan washing Sandy & Craigy

BBBRRRrrrrrrrr it is cold out here, I don't know about you lot but my thermals have had some use this month, I know they are passion killers, but i would rather that than be vain and freeze to death.

Well we have had snow at last here, it had to come at some point as we have had very little up to now.

Freachan thinks it's great he loves it so much out doors, to him it is just a big playground of fun.

Cullan being older and wiser looks at him like he should grow up but more that he is cracked, alas poor Cullan he forgets he was exactly the same when he was little too.

Well we have been waiting for Beauty to have her baby she was due on the 28th Jan.

We sorted the cattle out this morning fed them and put them out for a drink, we kept Beauty in because we did not want her going away and having the calf on the sly, then decide not come back home with it, they do that hide them from you so you spend hours looking for them, it was to cold to be having a calf outside anyway.

My hubby checked her bones this morning and said they had moved her udder was solid too, so in she stayed.

Pal and Wee Wendy are still in, as Wee Wendy is a bit small to be out in the cold snow, we don't want her to go down with pneumonia.

So we cleaned the byres ready for the cattle coming back in later.

I was filling the feed buckets ready to go in the stalls for the evening, I went into the shed where Beauty was tied in the stall, with two buckets in my hands, I looked down and there was a head and two feet sticking out, by the time I put the two buckets in the adjacent stalls and turned around the calf had popped out behind mum.

It is a little girl jet black like her full sister Gemma, a quick learner too just like her sister, straight to the teat no messing.

We put them in the calving pen together so mum could give her a good lick to dry her off and bond properly.

They will stay in there until the calf is steady on her feet and knows who her mother is.

Calves sometimes can be a little fly too, they go down the line behind the cows and check to see if they can steal milk from someone else, they usually get a firm kick from the none to keen cow.

But new Born's have a stupid sense when they are born, and will go in to any stall to get a drink from an unsuspecting cow, it's not the calves fault it's just one teat look much like another, but they learn quickly after a few short sharp kicks.

Tougs our other calf is doing well too, he has started demanding his food, and will push you about if you do not give him anything before you feed everyone else, as you go in and out of the shed with hay he tries to catch you with his head.

Freachen our Jack Russell has opened a beauty salon of his own in the ram shed.

He has taken to sitting in between the two Ram pens on the hay, the Rams have learned that if they put their head up to the pen gates Freachen will give them a wash every morning, ears, nose and eyes, boy don't they look clean when he has finished.

Know there is a race for the first wash, Sandy demands he gets washed first by charging at the pen and just stopping short so Freachan pays attention to him, Craigy just stands up on the pen wall to dominate the space, so poor Freachan is stuck in between the two Rams not knowing who to do first.

It usually works out without to much of a to-do.

Water, Water, give me water

2010-01-19T13:46:00.002Z

We have been in the grips of a really cold snap, fortunately we have not had the snow others have had, but it is still cold enough to freeze the do-da's off a proverbial brass monkey.
We lost our water about 10 days ago due to the cold weather, as some of you might know we are not on the water mains like many of our fellow human beings, we get our water from the mountain behind the house, less fluoride or additives that way ; )

We have a very large water vat half way up the hill, which is a beggar to keep climbing up to when the water goes of for something stupid like a bit of bracken stuck down the main infill pipe to the vat from the burn.
But it keeps you fit.
Anyway with it being so cold the ground has been frozen solid, and I could actually walk on the ice all the way up our burn outside the house, never been able to do this for years, the ice was about 3" thick in places.
Every time I burst a hole through it to get water for the animals because the byre water supply was off to, I had to burst the ice again in the afternoon because it froze over so quickly.
Anyway we have a 62mm plastic hose that runs from the vat on the hillside under the train track underpass, then it is dug under ground about 3 feet down to the house.
About 20 feet from the house the hose changes to a 3/4" bore, at a Y piece that supplies water to the byre and the house, this is where it appeared to freeze and cut off our supply.
Well the byre water came back on after about 6 days the house water supply was a different matter.
In the end my husband had to go out on Saturday with a punch bar that he uses for fencing and try to break the ground up around the smaller hose.
After much huffing and puffing he managed to get daylight to the hose, another hour later and banging of the pipe, also pouring hot water and salt solution down the pipe, a low groan and gurgling noise was heard to come from way down the pipe, all of a sudden the water came blasting out with shards of ice being pushed out from the pressure of the water.
Once the air was out of the pipe he reconnected it and hey presto we had water again.
The tank in the attic void was filling nicely, once it was full the hot water was put on, I for one was sick of having what they call a sink wash, I needed a long soak in a hot tub ahhh.
One thing to remember hubby dear, don't turn off the cold water tap over night again when it's freezing outside if you want to keep the water to the house ; )

Pictures as Promised

2010-01-12T14:48:00.005Z

A few pictures as promised earlier.

1. Pal first time mum and baby Wee Wendy.
2. Wee Wendy one day old.
3. Little Cracker Freachan pinching a present from under the Christmas tree.
4. Freachan waiting for his treat.
5. Cullan wanting his dinner.

Walking on Thin Ice

2010-01-10T17:44:00.003Z

I am beginning to think that I am being tested by someone above.
My life is like an adventure or thriller novel which ever way you want to look at it, I seem to have more than my fare share of near misses and catastrophes, I think someone else should take the lead for a short while and give me a rest.
Why I hear you ask?
As some of you may know we are in the grip of a cold Winter, luckily we have not had as much snow as the rest of the country, perhaps that's because we are sheltered by Creag Mhor or because we are at sea level, what ever the reason we seem to have had more Black Ice and flash freezing than anything else.
Well to start this from the beginning, yesterday my husband was away for the day, collecting cattle feed, it was quite a cold day but not as cold as today, I started to fill the buckets for the cattle coming in in the afternoon, I thought I would bring them in a little earlier as the clouds looked rather threatening in the sky.
So away I went across the Mointeach Mhor to bring them in, it was easy to walk down as everything is frozen solid including the peat bogs which you usually have to walk around.
As I got closer to the heard, one of the cows Rosie was on the other side of the river hooting and mo-owing, I looked around the heard and realised Rosie's calf was not amongst the calves, I ran towards the river which is frozen solid, about 3" of ice thick in places.
There was Rosie's calf Ruby, on the other side of the iced over river bank, she must have crossed over to be with mum and broke through the ice, but the bank was to high for her to climb out.
She was trying to get up the ever higher bank which was covered in gorse and heather making it very difficult for her to get a grip.
When she came to rest her head was perched on the ice that's all I could see, if she slipped off the ice she might have gone under and not been able to get back out.
I thought the best thing to do was to try and guide her back down a little way to a lower side of the bank, I knew I might be in for a wetting crossing the ice to help her, so I took of my big jacket, for two reasons, one to stop me sinking with the weight of it wet and two to have something dry to come home in just in case.
Well the just in case was right, as I crossed the iced over river, Ruby began to dance about, she caused the ice to fracture, then all of a sudden a four foot square piece gave away and tipped up in the air, I slipped off and into the water, what was worse was I did not realise it was so deep, I went up to my neck in the freezing water, I could only just touch the bottom, the gasp that I let out must have been heard in Glasgow.
Now in a way I know this might sound strange, but I expected it to be really cold, as years ago I used to do a lot of coastal Scuba Diving so I knew how cold it could be, but it was the shock of it and not being able to get a proper footing that worried me.
Anyway I give myself a second to collect my thoughts and decided what to do, I waded up to Ruby who was now calm she must have sensed I was in to help her, I grabbed her tail and pulled her around in a half circle to face her towards the lower bank, she was only being held up by the ice, as she could not touch the bottom at all, she was now wading in the water, and everything depended on her having the strength to pull herself up, the dogs were barking and whining, Rosie was really agitated be now, and I was absolutely freezing.
Well Ruby did it she scrambled her front half up and I shoved her from behind the rest of the way, she got up and ran to mum without a thank you or glance back to see if I was okay, that's gratitude for you.
Well I was so cold I had a bit of a time getting back on to the ice where I fell in, I was once told that if you fall into and iced over pond always try to get out where you went in as it carried your weight up until the point of entry so it was 99% guaranteed to hold your weight on the way out.
Well I managed to slide up onto the ice and roll over to the bank back where I came from, all the while the dogs were going mad.
I got onto the bank, freezing and shacking with the cold and shock, I stripped of my jumper and shirt and put on my jacket, my wellingtons which were more of a hindrance than a help under water were full, and I had a nightmare trying to get them off with the suction, I tipped out the water and put them back on.
I ran for home my teeth were knocking together so violently I thought they might push them back into my gums.
I managed to get home, and stripped off the wet and freezing clothing, the towel and coal fire where a blessing.
I found it hard to sleep last night with flash backs of the days events, I was also in agony, I have bruising covering the back of both my legs, from my bum to the back of my Knees.
But these will heal, the calf Ruby is well, she got a good rub down too, and a penicillin, just to make sure she does not go down with anything nasty.
As a result yes I was walking on thin ice and lost one of my nine lives, but all's well that end's well.

Upcoming Agricultural Events

2010-01-09T15:25:00.002Z

For those of you who may be interested I have listings of some upcoming Agricultural Events.
These events need your support as more and more of them are disappearing due to one thing or another.
So if you have time on your hands then maybe you would be interested to see how much work and preparation goes into these events, not only by animal handlers and exhibitors like us, but behind the scenes too.
There is something for everyone and it makes a great day out for the family, the kids will get to see animals they never thought they would see close up.
Anyway that's enough of that, the listed shows are events my husband and I have visited ourselves or exhibited our livestock at over the years.
You never know you may bump into us at one of the Agricultural Shows.
If you want me to list any you know of in your area, then send me an email and I will see what I can do. I will list Event/Date and contact number.

Northumberland County Tynedale Park Corbridge 31 May 2010 Tel 01434 604216
Road To The Isles Show Camasdarach Arisaig 12 June 2010 Tel 01687 450655
Royal Highland Show Ingleston Edinburgh 24-27 June 2010 Tel 0131 3356212
The Great Yorkshire Show Harrogate 13-15 July 2010 Tel 01423 546231
Cumberland County Show Carlisle Racecourse 17 July 2010 Tel 01697 747397
Tiree Agricultural Society Show Rural Centre Isle of Tiree 23 July 2010 Tel 01879 220321
Sutherland Show The Links Dornoch Sutherland 24 July 2010 Tel 01862 810162
Biggar Show The Showfield Biggar 24 July 2010 Tel 01899 810262
Nairn Show Kinnude Farm Auldearn 31 July 2010 Tel 01309 641121
Turriff Show The Showfield The Haughs Turriff 1-2 August 2010 Tel 01888 568830
Black Isle Show Mannsfield Showground Muir of Ord 4-5 August 2010 Tel 01463 870870
Lorn Show Near Oban 7 August 2010 Tel 01631 770228
Grantown Show Heathfield Park Grantown on Spey 12 August 2010 Tel 01343 555113
Orkney Show Bignold Park Kirkwall Orkney 14 August 2010 Tel 01856 771441
Appin Show Stalker Croft Appin Date TBC Tel 01631 730365
Lochaber Show Torlund Home Farm Near Fort William Date TBC Tel 01397 708508
Christmas Classic Thainstone Centre Inverurie 29-30 November 2010 Tel 01467 623786

I look forward to seeing you there.

Catch up and a Happy New Year

2010-01-02T17:18:00.003Z

Firstly I would like to wish my faithful followers a Peaceful and Prosperous 2010.
I have not published for a little while as those of you who follow will know, I have had a rubbish 2009.
My father is still very much in my everyday thoughts, not just because of this time of year but also because he would have been 70 years old on the 4th of January.
My illness is still hanging on and is getting to me, my fuse is a little shorter than it was before, because the specialists cannot seem to ease my problem.
But this year I have to move on one step at a time to get on top of all these soul destroying problems.

We had a quiet Christmas, not through choice I might add.
The snow started on Friday 18th December, we had a flurry of snow which persisted through the night.
Then after that we had snow on and off but not huge amounts like they had down south or in the North of Scotland.
But the problem became worse when we had low temperatures, this caused the dirt track to become an ice rink.
So luckily we did the Christmas food shopping in Fort William.
Because the weather was so unpredictable we decided to stay at home, there was nothing needed that was so important to risk life and limb for on the road.

We are having to let the cows out of the byre one at a time because it is so slippery under foot, once they get out on to the common grazing's they wander off for the day, the sun in the afternoon is melting the snow out there so they are finding something to pick at.
Once they come back in they get a good feed and a warm bed.
The young calves were fluke and mite dosed today, I must say they were really mild tempered, what a difference there is between calves weened in the winter and calves weened in the summer.
Winter calves are in the shed through the night so they get used to you being around them and will let you stroke them.
Summer calves are out on the common grazing's all of the time and do not have the human interaction so are a bit more fiery when you try to do anything with them.
So that is the calves in for the duration now once they are weened from mother.
The mothers are all in calve and some of them are due imminently.
One of the heifers "Pal" is due right now so we are up through the night checking her to make sure all is well.
The old crofters used to say that the cow will sometimes go into labour when the moon is at it's fullest, but Pal is still hanging in there.

Our sheep now nine of them are all in lamb, Sandy the Cheviot ram went out at the beginning of November and has worked well, lots of Green markings on rumps that's the main thing, so we should be expecting babies around about 1st April, (no it's not an April fool).

We lost poor old Snowy the big White Charolais this year, she went out on the common grazing's with the others in the morning and never came back in the evening, we went out to look for her and there she was, at first we thought she was a sleep, but she was not old age comes to us all we can never escape it.
She was one of my husbands father's last original cows, we both had a soft spot for her, she is missed even now, her great grand daughter "Pal" inherited her stall and she fills it just as much as Snowy did.
Lets hope she follows in her great grandmothers footsteps.
Penny one of our other heifers gave birth to a little boy a couple of months ago, not that he is so little, he is also Snowy's great grandson, he is a beautiful fawn coloured Charolais and we named him Tougs.
He is soft natured like granny, and full of mischief, nosey too.
When I get the camera down-loaded I will post pictures.

It will soon be time to take the tree down, it is beautiful, a traditional fat six footer
I will miss it this year, as it is one of the nicest trees I have had for a long time.
We are all snug this evening in front of a Peat burning open fire, as we have been through the Christmas holidays.
All that hard work in the spring has come to some use, Peat has a beautiful aroma when you go out into the night air, it reminds you of so many things from your child hood.

My New Year resolution is to keep blogging more frequently than I did last year.
Anyway I will close for now, wishing you all a Happy New Year and pop in anytime to find out what we are up to.

Blue Tongue Information

2009-09-10T08:22:00.004Z

Yesterday I read an article in The Crofters a journal of the Scottish Crofting Foundation printed in Skye.
It was in connection with the Blue Tongue vaccination.

Alasdair MacMhaoirn is seeking information with regards to strange phenomenon's that have occurred in you animals that you believe may be as a result of the Blue Tongue vaccination.
With his kind permission I have copied his article below.
Heading effects of Blue Tongue vaccination.
Alasdair MacMhaoirn seeks more information.
From time to time there are reports in the news about alleged side effects related to the Blue Tongue vaccine.
In all cases these have been discounted by authorities, but still the stories persist.
Any perusal of the Internet will lead to numerous examples and one site in particular, http://www.campaignforliberty.com/, has some very interesting points; among them that our own midges may be different from foreign ones and our native breeds may have a resistance. Apparently all cases so far have involved imported animals.
My own interest began when I was speaking to a fellow Highland breeder who, for the first time, experienced unusual problems.
As he told me, he has been raising cattle for years in the same area, Easter Ross, and this past calving was the first time he encountered two unusual problems.
The first problem was that one of his calves had a malformation in the jaw.
The breeder said that he had never seen this before in his stock, so it is natural that he wondered why.
The other problem is called "brittle hoofs".
It was as if the calf's hoofs were to delicate to walk on.
Again, he had never encountered this problem before and wondered why it should suddenly arise.
In both cases, the only new factor was the administration of the Blue Tongue vaccination.
I mentioned the problems to a local vet who discounted them immediately.
However it occurred to me if possible indications of problems are ignored in the first instance, then there will never be an accurate record of possible side effects which may then be investigated.
For example, I believe that it is acknowledged that GP's under-report drug reactions within the yellow card system.
Consequently, I thought it might be interesting to invite readers to contact me if they suspect that the vaccine may be causing problems.
I'll collate what ever responses I get and see what can be made of the.
Names need not be mentioned if preferred.
Please let me know if you suspect any problems at: alternatives.clinic@toucansurf.com
or post to Alternatives 39 High Street, Tain, IV19 1AE.

I have reported a couple of instances myself, with in a month of the vaccine administration we lost a cow in calf, for no apparent reason, she dropped where she stood, no warning what so ever.
To this day it cannot be explained.
Smaller more insignificant but unusual, one of our calves who's parents were both black ended up with an unusual colour splash on her hind quarters, like a grey bleach splash on a totally black background.
A pure breed Cheviot also had the same thing across her rib cage but it was a dirty brown splash mark, like a negative of the calf's marking.
I know for a fact there are others out there that have had unusual problems also.
I think this is a worth while exercise of an independent kind, after all the ministry pooh pooh that their vaccine may be the reason for some of these problems, but until the information is gathered then how will you know that you may not be alone, there could be others that have suffered the same unusual occurrences for no apparent reason.
So no matter how small the phenomenon give Alasdair the information for him to collate.
Hopefully he will publish his findings in The Crofter.
Thank you for reading.

I had to let go

2009-07-23T09:50:00.004Z

I have not posted anything on here for a little while, as we had a tragedy in our family a short while ago and it is taking me a while to come to terms with it.
My illness has also hindered me from doing certain things as well, but grief is a hard thing to live with.
This is a personal tribute to my father.
He died on 12 July aged 69 after a short illness and we said good bye to him on 21st July when he was laid to rest.
My father had a hard working life, he started in the coal mining industry at the age of 15.
From there he moved into farming.
He loved the label Countryman because that's what he was, he liked nothing better than rolling his sleeves up and mucking in.
He always had his shirt sleeves up, that was a habit he never got out of even at the end.
He was brought up on the fells in a place called Tindale Tarn. (See attached link)
From there he moved around and settled in Calthwaite near Penrith.
He worked on a farm which had a large Frisian dairy heard, Black face sheep and as I recall from childhood memory a large selection on bulls which were chained to the ground in the fields.
I believe they could have been Charolais which were part of an AI centre.
Growing up there as a young child held a lot of fond memories for me.
One of which was crossing the fields from our home which was Rose Cottage in Low Plains, to our soon to be new home which was Lott Cottage, as our family was about to receive a new arrival imminently.
Dad said he would take me to help or hinder tidying up the new home for the flit.
At the time I would have been just over 4 years old, it was cold and wintry, late November early December time, the snow against me was quite deep, over my wellingtons anyway, my knees were chapped with the cold snow wetting through my dungarees.
My father had a firm and yet comforting warm grip of my small hand.
I felt at the time that I was doing a marathon, "why do parents insist on walking so fast when you have to do three paces to their every one"?
I remember starting to sob under my breath, (big girls don't cry at least not in public anyway), because I was so cold and tired with the trek over the snow covered fields.
My father looked down and I felt a tug on my hand as he swung me into the air and lifted me onto his shoulders, "there" he said "is that better now you can see what I see".
He said something that always stuck in my head, which comes to mind now and again, it was something like, Mums and Dads are learners too."We don't get a manual when we arrive on the planet on how to do things in our lives, but we have a journal at the end of our lives when we leave".
I took it to mean sorry for dragging you through the snow I forgot I was bigger than you ; )
But what ever his meaning it stuck with me.
We arrived at our destination, at was a large cottage with two bedrooms an outside privy, and a shed for animals which was situated under the back bedroom.
When he opened the door about five sheep came scampering out and nearly flattened my dad.
I asked if they were living there too, dad said they were about to be chucked out.
The floor in the house was flagstones covered in sheep droppings.
There was a pot sink in the vestibule as you walked through the front door a fireplace in the living room and that was all.
It was dark and damp, but soon to be our new home.
This was the start of many happy memories for me, I loved Lott Cottage and hated it when we eventually left years later.
My father was a great personality he filled a room with his stories and reminiscences from old.
He believed in telling the truth as no good ever came of telling lies, however hurtful the truth could be, lies they always come back to haunt you.
He brought us up to speak our minds, never to be afraid of doing so.
He was a strong character, but towards the end he became agitated because people were doing things for him when his mind said you do it has body would not let him, it broke our hearts to see him suffering in such a cruel way, a strong willed man reduced to a broken spirited shell.

He was always there for all of his little girls when ever we had a problem or we just needed to talk to him he was there to listen and offer what advise he could.
It's been a short time since I said good bye and I still have to stop myself from picking up the telephone to speak to him.
Life still goes on sometimes it sweeps you along like a raging river whether you like it or not.
The grief will always be there sometimes like a dense cloud cover sometimes like a small cloud.
But never far away.
I had to say good bye to Dad which was heart breaking to do I had to let go of his warm comforting hand for what seemed like the first time in my life.

My Spoilt Brat

2009-07-18T14:46:00.003Z

Well you better believe it Fraochan has turned in to a little brat ; )

He has taken over everything, even bossing cullan our collie dog about.

Even though he has been a great addition to our little family, he makes you smile even when you just look at him.

Fraochan has taken to sleeping between us in bed and if you do not make room for him he scratches your head until you do move to let him in.

He will not eat normal dog food he has decided that he will sit beneath the dinner table and bark until you give him something of yours from the plate.

He will dive into the dog dish when Cullen has finished eating everything and avidly scrape the sides of the bowl like he is starving, when you put something in the bowl for him he sniffs his nose at it and walks away. : (

He loves Malteser's and gets huffy if you come out of the shop without any in your pocket.

We found out he will attack you for an ice cream, the minute you get into the car with a cone in your hand he is on your knee trying to take a chunk out of the ice cream before you even get a taste of it.

He loves the bath but is not keen of the sea, I think he deliberately goes and gets dirty just so you can put him in the bath.

If he hears one of the Tornado planes shoot past over head he will come running in and jump on your knee for protection : 0

Mischief is his middle name, I can put something down and he will pick it up and run out into the garden with it, he has been caught burying his food in the garden as well as my socks.

Cullan has grown attached to him and very protective of the wee man.

He also runs along behind you and taps at the back of you ankles with his feet to pick him up, he likes to get a birds eye view of things rather than a view of tall grass only.

He makes us laugh out load sometimes, and it's hard to tell him off when he is naughty because he looks at you with those big brown eyes which would melt the hardest heart.

I have a screen saver with wee whiskey playing in the sea with cullan, I still miss him terribly and Fraochan will never replace him but he has filled a hurting heart.

Creag Mhor Caravan

2009-07-18T10:15:00.004Z

I have added a link on the right hand side of this blog for our caravan. (See Creag Mhor Caravan) It gives an idea of the area that the van is situated.
I get many people ringing up and sending emails asking where we are and what it is like.
I do not mind explaining and going to the effort of letting them know we are not on the beach front.
They all appear to be exited and do not mind that we are not on the beach front in fact as they say it is just what they are looking for?
Well that is until I mention the fact that we live down what I call a dirt track, yes it is not a tarred road, but you do not need a pony and cart to get down the track either as someone once asked? a car is quite adequate I think ; )
So I decided to post a video of the caravan and part of the track it is not a great quality video but you should get the gist of it.

I have also posted a couple of pictures of the "dirt track" just for information below.
It is secluded and private, ideal for couples (although it will sleep six) who like peace and quiet away from the madding crowd.

The track goes all the way up to a place called Scammadale by Loch Morar.

It is a beautiful walk or maybe if you are energetic a bike ride.

There is great fishing in the area, and I have had many parties of anglers staying in the van, it is ideal for them to leave their fishing rods fully extended and left under the van without worrying about them getting damaged, lost or stolen.

Anyway see for yourselves, I am sure you will be more enlightened.

Phew

2009-06-22T08:59:00.005Z

Well I appear to have been a bit remiss again?
I have had an illness I cannot seem to shake off.
It started with a very bad flu in February, and ever since then things have not been altogether right.
Things in my immune system did not go back to how they should, so since then I have been prodded and poked about by the doctors to try and get to the bottom of this cough which sounds like a hippos roar when he is in full charge if you know what I mean.
So I have not had the full lung power I should have, inhalers seem to have become a part of my life at the moment, lets hope not for ever, I feel a lot better that I first did, and hopefully I will be back at work with in the next week or so.
In the mean time I have had to stay away from animal foods, hay, straw, barley etc, even sprays such as deodorant can set of a chain reaction to misery.
So I have confined myself to outdoor things fresh air is the best cure so they say.
My husband and a friend have been busy cutting peat again this year whilst the weather is good, they went for it big style this year, we have a very large peat stack and a medium sized one that is still to finish.

Our Peat Stacks

The steam train crosses right behind our peat field, and every so often you can see a camera flash from the train, they must be taking photographs, as this is something you very rarely see on the mainland these days.
A couple of weeks ago the steam train went trundling past whilst we were beginning to stack the peat, my husband said that it was not going to make the bough of the hill to Arisaig Station, he was right, it had to come all the way back down the hill to build up steam to have another go.
We had a lot of people waving from the train and taking pictures, they probably thought we were nuts, or maybe some of them did not even have a clue what we were actually doing?
Anyway the train coincidentally driven by a cousin of my husbands, set off at a great pace, leaving behind him a fire on the track hillside, which tends to happen a lot in the hot weather, better for us if it happens on our side of the track as it burns the old bracken and heather away without us having to set the fires ourselves.
Anyway my husband said he was not going to make it again, and sure as anything here he came trundling back down the hill towards us, they stopped where the fire had started and some of the men piled off the train to put out the fire, whilst my hubby's cousin built up the steam on board the Jacobite ready for another go, mean while the natives on board the train were shouting out things like, "can we have a tow"? "do you take bed and breakfast" and such like, all good banter.
Once the fire was extinguished the Jacobite Steam Train was reversed down the track to the level crossing at the bottom of the hill.
Alec Iain my husbands cousin let off a loud whistle and the Jacobite Steam Train thundered into action she flew up the hill at a tremendous pace roaring all the way, she clanked and hissed past us in the peat field with great flutes of steam trailing behind her, there was no stopping her this time, Alec Iain saluted on the way past as she climbed the hill with great majesty, leaving behind her little pockets of fire on the banks of the railway track and a deadly silence after all the excitement.

Jacobite Steam Train behind our house.

Phew well she made it into the station after all the commotion, I bet the people on the train loved every minute of their train ride, it does not happen that often maybe two or three times a season when the weather is just right, the tracks become slippy with the heat and well you know the rest.

Stock Judging Event Torlundy Fort William

2009-05-11T09:10:00.004Z

This is for the locals who read my blog and anyone else who may be in the area.
There will be a stock judging event in the auction mart at Tordundy this Friday 15th May 2009 at 7:00pm.
All those people who are interested please try to make an effort to go along and support it.
It is not often these events happen and they are getting less and less.
Local support and participation of these events is always needed or else we lose them.
Even if you have not got a clue or you have never clapped eyes on a sheep or cow, come along and have ago it is great fun even the kids would enjoy it.
A night out for all the family what more could you ask for?
Meet people old and new for a good old natter.
There is refreshments in the interval and raffle prizes to be won.
Nearly everyone goes home with something, even a big smile.
So come along and see what it's all about.

Look what I got

2009-05-09T16:36:00.007Z

Awe look what I got.

His name is "fraochan" which is Gaelic for White Heather.

He is a 7 week old Jack Russell.

His colours are perfect, he has a little kink in his tail, he had his tail jammed in a door when he was a couple of weeks old.

After losing Whisky it has been a little hard for me to think of having another dog, but we really needed to jump in at the deep end because our collie Cullan was missing another dogs company.

He was looking unhappy when we were out and about with him, he was always looking for his pal.

He still sits by his grave on an evening in the garden, it was becoming heartbreaking watching him moon about.

So hence Fraoch, they both took to each other like ducks to water, and run around the garden like lunatics, not to mention the house, it is taking a bit of getting used to as Fraoch is small and follows you about everywhere, one minute he is over there next he is behind you feet, he moves like the wind.

We gave him Whisky's bed and he loves it, he dives in and digs around the edges hiding his dog biscuits is something else he has decided to do.

I suppose this comes from being part of a large litter, they are competitive for food.

Anyway we love him and so does Cullan that's the main thing.

He is so curious I introduced him the the sheep, he never batted an eye, that might be a good sign, he eats everything so he has to be watched all of the time.

He likes to lie down at the top of your head and curl up in a small ball.

He has such a good nature.

I will keep you posted with his exploits ; )

All go on the West Coast

2009-04-29T18:49:00.010Z

Once again I am behind with everything, there is a lot more than meets the eye to keeping this blog up to date, sometimes there is to much to say and other times not a lot at all.

So I will fill you all in with the going's on here on our West Coast Croft.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Since Gemma was born we have had another two additions to our herd.

Both females one is a Simmental cross we called Helen, the other is an Aberdeen Angus cross she was born on Monday, as yet we have no name for her.

Helen is the rowan cow named Effy's offspring, she is a fiery little red thing with a white face, her father is Dernean Jacob.

Effy as usual popped her out with no help from us mortals what so ever.

The thing with Effy is she likes to let you know she is the boss, for all the thrashing of her head and snorting she is a bit of a coward really , but she is not to be trusted, once she smells fear in you that's it she's got you and she will chase you down and run over you if you let her.

Anyway she was tied in her stall to give birth, for two reasons our safety and just in case anything went wrong, as we would not be able to help her with the calf if she was loose.

Effy gave birth we checked the calf over, tagged her ears and put Iodine on her umbilical cord, so she did not get any infections.
Once she was all done we put her in the birthing pen, then released Effy so she could bond with her baby, once Effy was released we retreated out of the byre and waited for her to make her way in to the pen with the calf, once she was in the pen the we rushed in to secure the gate and that was her locked in, she snorted and took a run at the spars on the pen but other than that she was quite calm, she made such a fuss of Helen how proud she was all the time licking her an moowing at her, poor Helen kept getting knocked off her feet by her mum licking her so hard.

The next thing was to make sure Helen sucked her mum if she did not suck we were in bother as it would be impossible for us to go in the pen and help her out as Effy would attack you, after all how is she supposed to know you are only trying to help, so we stood for a long while watching and waiting with baited breath for Helen to do the deed.

We were saved little Helen stood up under mummy, after a bit of sucking at Effies leg and around about she managed to get on the teat, sucking furiously that was us both happy shook hands and walked away knowing everything was going to be alright.

In the middle of all this we have had to do the Blue tongue injections.

We did the first injection in March what a nightmare, once the cows know you are up to something they start skittering everywhere.

So we gave them a bucket in the stall and started with injecting big Snowy she was not to bad, once she finished her sweets (cow cobs) she was let out of the byre, we went down the line repeating the same process each time, Angela and Effy were the worst to do, they were kicking and bucking making a load guttural noise once they were done the cows were all put out on the the Mointeach Mhor to calm down, they get so worked up over a tiny little jab, I don't know what I am talking about I get the same way, it's the anticipation of it.

Next the sheep, that was fun, they were all in the next byre, trying to catch them is the hardest part, they run between your legs and take you off your feet, like little moving battering rams, each one was turned out of the byre after they were injected, thank heavens they only have to be done once, the cows on the other hand had to be done again in four weeks.

I had to take note of missing ear tags on the cows, as this is the time of year that they tend to loose them because of the feed rings, they must pull them out when they put their heads in the ring, some are torn out which I think must be really painful, others like the small round button tags seem to pull right through the ear, on this occasion we had at least twelve tags to replace, this can be quite costly every year but it has to be done or we get penalised by the government inspection agencies people if the cattle are missing any tags, so it is something that must be kept on top of as no excuses will be excepted.

So when the cattle had the second injection we had to tag the ones that had lost theirs, we also gave them their spot-on to keep the ticks at bay and a liver fluke dose to keep the worms and slug/snail larvae out of the cows liver etc.

We lost one of our in calf cows after the first blue tongue injection, she was due to calf in three weeks, it was Wendy the Black cow which always looked like she was malnourished.

She came in on the Saturday with the others and had her feed, there was nothing coming over her, I actually remember commenting to my husband that she looked really well like she was blooming, we were looking forward to seeing her calf as she always gave us a good one, well she never came in on Sunday morning with the others, my husband thought he could see her lying out on the hill on the Mointeach Mhor, he started to shout on her whilst looking through the binoculars but she did not move, I headed out to see what was wrong, just in case she had decided to go in to labour early, all the time I shouted on her but there was no response from her, as I drew closer to her I knew there was something wrong, I started to run up the hill, there she was poor wee Wendy flat out stone dead, no sign of a struggle or calving just laid out like she was asleep.

My husband could not come down to see her, she was his favorite of all the cows, he was heart broken and inconsolable as was I.

I sent my husband away and asked a friend to come over and give a hand to bury her.

We spent the best part of the day digging the resting place for poor Wendy and her unborn baby.

Once it was done we started to push and pull her toward the hole the final push was so traumatic for me, we had seemed to struggle for so long to get her into her resting place that the energy was sapped from us, I thought I could not go on anymore then just as she was on the lip of her resting place she seemed to sit up and take a last look around before she rolled over and laid out.

That was it for me, I broke down it was so emotional watching her sit up, digging and pulling took it out of me.

We covered her over and I said a prayer for her and the baby, I hope she rests in peace in the land of green fields and plenty.

Then nature took over and Joanna one of the Heifers gave birth the a tiny and I mean tiny Black Aberdeen Angus, I am not sure what happened to her but she has what can only be described as a White lightning strike flash across her bottom and down her back leg.

Joanna is a beautiful red colour and the father is Nightingale Quinton a Black Aberdeen Angus, so where the white came from is any ones guess, maybe it is a side effect from the blue tongue who knows, all I care about is that they are both fine and healthy, as yet we have no name for the tiny wee crater.

As yet we have no lambs, the first ram we hired did not seem to work so we exchanged him for an older ram that knew what it was for, hopefully we will hear the patter of little hooves shortly, we are keeping everything crossed.

Poor Rabbie, got a urinary infection, I had to call a neighbour who had had the same thing happen to one of their rams, they came over to do a minor surgery on poor Rabbie, which entailed snipping a tiny piece of his manhood off called the worm.

I can tell you he was not the only one that was relieved that night, he is doing well and no side effects, I would like to thank my neighbours for their help that night without which I would have surely lost my wee Rabbie.

The weather has been a bit hit and miss, over Easter it was really sunny, although there was a lot of high winds from the East, we lost quite a lot of our slates from the roof of the house so that was another job that had to be taken care of sooner rather than later, an expense you could do without but when nature throws a curve ball you have to run with it.

So at the moment the weather does not know what do do, blow a gale, rain or shine, it's about time it made it's mind up.

Anyway a couple of pictures of the wee pets ; )

Helen and as yet no name.

Introducing Gemma

2009-03-10T08:03:00.003Z

This is Gemma she was born a fortnight ago.

Her mother is Beauty a Limousin cross who's father is Ronwick Iceman.

Gemma's father is an Aberdeen Angus called Nightingale Quinton.

Now for some reason she has come out a browny colour rather than black like her parents, but we will not hold that against her.

She is fine, fit and healthy that's the main thing.

Her mother loves her and hates her out of sight, she is Beauties first baby and she cannot get enough of her.

Gemma on the other hand loves nothing more than to run around the croft legs flying this way and that prancing up and down annoying the sheep and generally causing havoc.

She runs around at full pelt never walks, she slams the anchors on just at the last minute.

Now this is entertainment for her, but her poor mother is beside herself chasing about after her trying to keep her in check.

I think we will have our hands full with this one, she is so full of devilment, every time you open the byre door on a morning to feed the others if Gemma sees even a crack in the doorway she pushes her nose through and is out and off running into the other sheds out into the fields back around to the byre, all the while her mother is hooting and hollering for her.

Not a blind bit of notice does she take.

If she is not annoying the sheep she is chasing the dog, it's like watching a whirlwind or Tasmanian devil, she kicks her legs about like a prize bucking bronco.

It's good to see new life around the place again, it takes your mind of the sadder things that happen to us all at some point in our lives.

We are expecting another three calves over the next couple of weeks so lets hope they are all as mad as Gemma ; )

Natures awakening

2009-03-10T06:53:00.006Z

Shelduck addition

Well the birds are out in abundance on the croft, and around about.

The top picture is of a buzzard of some kind, which had just caught a rabbit, I could not get any closer to him as he was a little weary, there are also two herons down on the common grazing's, they are here quiet often now, they are in the burns a lot of the time taking out the small fish that are swimming about.

The oyster catchers were down on Traigh beach the other morning just sitting enjoying a dry morning for a change.

The Red Bull Finch was sitting on the Landy just singing his heart out also enjoying the day.

The bottom picture is of a Buzzard watching for the Rabbits on the croft that seem to have taken over the hill behind our caravan.

I have also spotted a Barn owl in a particular place every other evening about the same time, but as yet I have not managed to get a good photograph of him as the light is not to good yet, maybe later.

We have the usual Robins, Wrens, Black birds and the noisy Chaffies.

But I am waiting for the Sand Martins to come back, I spotted a place on the common grazing's by the river that a colony of them were nesting in last year, hopefully I can get a few good photographs of them flying in and out of the sand banks this year.

The Cuckoo will be with us soon last year he appeared down here about the 18th April there have been three in the area on the mountain behind us, I do not think I will ever get a picture of them as they are so illusive.

The Corn Crake appears in the spring and there have been odd birds that as yet I have not been able to identify, one of my friends from school was a great bird watcher he would have known what they were in an instant, I remember when we were younger he memorised a British Bird book for a charity event at school, but he never got out of the habit and carried on learning everything he could about the bird population, each to their own.

I just love to here the dawn chorus in a morning it lets you know you are still alive and spring is about to burst out in glorious technicolour.

Shelduck or Tadorna comes from Celtic roots and means "pied waterfowl" he is an addition to the photographs I posted earlier, I manage to get a picture of him after trying for some time.

There has been three of them around the Traigh beach for a little while now, they are quite shy, but I persevered and waited I think it was worth the wait don't you?

Pop Goes the Weasel

2009-02-24T12:27:00.003Z

Well what a shock I got this morning.

I went into the shed to feed the sheep as usual, we have a large fish bin situated in the corner of the shed that we store feed in for the sheep.

As I went in the bin and scooped up some of the hay, I was scarred out of my whits by a loud shriek that came from the bin, I dropped the hay and shot back out from the side of the bin and watched in silence, all the while this shrieking noise was getting wilder, I could not as yet see anything but the hay was flying up and down where the creature that lurked within must have been running around underneath, probably just as frightened as I was.

The sheep by this time were running about and butting me because I had the audacity not to feed them after going in the bin for their breakfast.

So I had to go around to the shed to get breakfast for them, as I was not going in the bin again until I had a bit more light to see what the creature was.

The dog was running about the bin I had to chase him out just in case he jumped in the bin, after all by this time I had still not seen the creature so I was not going to chance him getting bitten by this invisible noise.

I put the sheep out a bit later and went back to the bin in the corner, by this time I was armed with the hay fork just for protection you understand, I prodded the hay a bit but nothing stired, so I thought it must have got out, but just as I was walking away, there was that shriek again.

I went back and peered over the side, and there he was, I am just assuming it is a he because it was complaining so much, and a female would not have been so stupid as to have fallen in the bin in the first place ; )

I rushed back to the house to get my camera so I could get a picture of him.

Well here he is.

I believe he is a weasel but if you know better let me know.

I have put a couple of planks in the bin to encourage him to climb out of the bin, I went back to check a little later but he is still in there, see I told you he is a boy he's got no smarts at all.

He is only young yet the piece of wood in the second picture is 4" wide so you can gauge his size from that.

Let's hope he gets out soon, old whiskey must have know he was about the place, as he was going mad a couple of weeks ago around the back of the sheep shed, there are some sheets of corrugated iron there, so whiskey must have smelt him under there.

Speaking of smelling, the bin will have to be fumigated as the little so and so has urinated all over it and it smells absolutely disgusting.

Black Friday struck our house

2009-02-19T18:34:00.004Z

Our home will never be the same, Black Friday struck our house with a vengeance.

What started out as a normal day turn to a nightmare for us, that we will never forget.

I have not been well over the last few months, I have had some sort of viral infection with flu like symptoms since October last year on and off.

So I was at the Doctors having a consultation and looking at some of the results that have come back from the Lab but again have shown that there is something wrong but as yet it is unidentified.

After my appointment I went down on site where my hubby was working to fill him in on the Doctors findings so far.

He had the dogs with him and decided to go home for lunch, so I went to get somethings for a light lunch from the local shop.

On the way home I stopped at a neighbours to ask if they had seen the coal man, as he has been a bit illusive of late.

Anyway I set off down the track towards home, when just before I got to the gate at the bottom, my hubby came running around the corner shouting and screaming, I thought the cow with the new calf had got out or something, I wound the car window down and I went into a state of disbelief, slow motion, all the time, my hubby was saying he had run over our Jack Russell, I could not take it in, I thought I was dreaming.

I rushed home and there my poor wee crater was lying in his bed gasping for breath, dying before my eyes, I wanted to sweep him up in my arms and hug him but I could not do it for fear I would make him suffer more than he already was.

My hubby called the vet who asked us to take him nearly 35 miles into Fort William to put him down, I was not going to let my poor wee boy, suffer anymore than he had to, I called the local Doctor and asked him if he could put him to sleep for me.

The Doctor came over straight away and met my husband at the road end to do the deed.

He stayed with my husband for quite a while consoling him, our Whiskey would have been 14 years of age this week.

After the Canna trip and his accident he had never been right, he was stiff in his joints which slowed him down a bit, he was also getting a bit deaf and blind, but he was all there in everything else.

My Hubby still does not know how it all went out of control, the dogs usually get out of the car and run down the road to the gate, but Whiskey had not bothered to do this for a while, probably because he was so stiff in the legs, but on this occasion for some reason he decided to get out of the car and do the run.

My hubby got out of the car to open the gate and Whiskey was there christening the gate post as usual.

My hubby got back in the car and drove through the gate when he felt the car lift in the air slightly and Whiskey started to scream in agony.

He must have wandered over to the back tyre and pee on it, being as slow as he was he must not have been able to get out from under as quick as he used to and tragedy hit.

My hubby brought him home in the back of the car after the Doctor had put him to sleep.

I took him out of the car with his favourite blanket wrapped around him, I hugged him so hard and weeped for our loss, my hubby did the same, we have lost our baby, the big fella, Cullan did not know what to do, he is still grieving as we are as he misses his pal.

My hubby took them to the beach every morning for a long walk and a swim, Cullan, used to go in and fetch a toy from the sea, he would drop it on the way back in for Whiskey to carry back to the beach.

All the time Cullan was out getting the toy Whiskey would be barking with excitement waiting for Cullan to give him the toy.

We went to the beach on Monday the silence was deafening.

Cullan is still dropping the toy for Whiskey to collect up, it was so sole destroying and pitiful watching Cullan looking for the wee fella.

I cryed my heart out we all miss the little man who had a big heart and character.

He will be a hard act to follow, he had been all over the Highlands, Lowlands and Islands.

He had been to the top of Ben Nevis and walked over hills and glens that a lot of people have never ventured in their lives.

He had the courage of a Lion and would not concede defeat easily.

But he was our wee boy and will never be forgotten.

We buried him in his favourite spot in the garden, he used to lie in a particular place in the garden in the spring, as the sun came over the back of Creag Mhor it would shine in the garden and he would bask in it's warmth.

Nothings Gone with the Wind

2009-01-28T11:28:00.003Z

Well would you credit it, the night I wrote the last blog entry we were forecast with severe weather warnings of winds up to 100 miles an hour in the Western Isles.
So we went out battling the already picking up wind and moved everything that was practically movable.
The trailers were moved over by the caravan as there is more shelter over there from the hillside.
The doors were battened down the cattle & sheep were indoors all snug.
The electric went off for a short while and the cows were mo-owing when all the byres went into darkness.
Once the lighting came back on they settled down, the young calf was frightened as he had not experienced anything like this so it was all new to him, he snuggled in with his mum for protection poor wee crater.
The thunder rumbled and banged over the top of the house at about 3:30am and the whole sky lit up, you could see everything in the virtual false daylight, the dogs were running about the house barking with fear, we put them in the bedroom with us, just to reassure them everything was going to be alright.
The wind did pick up but not as much as we thought it would, we have had worse in the past.
We lost a couple of slates from the roof but nothing major to speak of.
I went off in the car still in darkness the next morning and I was met by the cattle trailer in the middle of the road, it must have broken free of the tether, the wind pushed it about 20ft up the road before it came to a stop.
My husband came and pushed it of the road out of harms way, no damage though that's the main thing.
Anyway all the animals were okay no harm done, and everything is back to normal, except one of the lights on the side of the byre over the cattle crush, which we use when the AI man comes around seems to have blown to bits and come off the wall?
That's another job I will have to catch up with when the weather is more settled.
Electricity is my job, plumbing my husbands, so we seem to be able to cover most of the repairs between us, no need for outside contractors unless it is beyond us.
When you are working a croft or farm you have to be more self sufficient and be able to carry out some of the work yourself, or you will just be a constant dripping bucket, every penny as they say is a prisoner in this economic climate.

Missing in action

2009-01-17T17:32:00.003Z

Well I've been missing in action for a little while, for some reason I have been neglecting my Blog.
Firstly I would like to wish all our friends old and new and those I am about to meet a Happy and Prosperous 2009 lets hope it's a good one.

I have had a few trials and tribulations already this year, so I hope it does not get any worse?
I lost my Tup Lamb Raff a couple of weeks ago. I do not know what was wrong with him.
He seemed to start of the previous week with a depression of some sort, he went off his food, first his sheep nuts then the hay, he was drinking water in large quantities.
He had all of his doses and I gave him sheep supplements to boost him up a bit and penicillin along with a Steroids from the vet.
But nothing would lift him, one of my friends suggested that he could have a copper deficiency.
So I tried Copper supplements, but nothing would lift him.
He died after a week of nursing and still no answers.
Rabbie his half brother and only other Tup missed his companion, he became very distressed when my husband took Raff out of the Byre, Rabbie has settled down a little but appears to have developed a habit of knocking over his water trough.
He loves to be scratched around the ears and would stand there all day letting you scratch him.
I love going in to the byre and seeing the greeting I get from my animals they are always happy to see you, not least because they know they are about to get fed.

Tom Tom my little calf is coming on in leaps and bounds and has become a bit of a pet or should I say pest.
He is a beautiful Rusty Brown and White patched calf, when the weather is a little better I will post a couple of pics.
He follows us around like a little dog and comes into the feed store, before you know it he has got his head in the fed bags helping himself to the tasty contents.
Then he starts to butt the hay bales and pulls bits out of them.
Once he has had enough he lies down on the loose hay and makes himself comfortable.
I said I will have to fit wheels to him as you have to push him everywhere.
He loves a scratch under the chin and a brush up but he absolutely hates the rain, as soon as the slightest shower comes over he runs for home and makes such a racket until you let him in.
If it is raining when we have to turn the cattle out of the Byre he digs his heels in and will not move out.
I am going to try and Halter him this weekend to see how he would walk for the shows this year.

Angela our Simmental is due any time now so Tom Tom will have a little friend to play about with.
We hope Angela has no problems this year as she lost her last calf, the calf seemed to start out okay but was not thriving and would not suck a all.

We are starting to organise everything for these Blue Tongue injections, I feel sorry for those people who have hundreds of animals to do it must be a logistical nightmare for them, not to mention very costly, not only do the cows have to be injected twice within three weeks but the sheep also have to get the injection once, all these people with sheep still on the hills will have a great task to make sure they get every animal in for this injection.
The worse thing is that once the seal is broken on the bottle it has to be used within eight hours so timing is critical.
Then we have to do it all over again in three weeks, then every year after until we are instructed by the higher powers that it is no longer necessary.
I think a lot of the smaller outfits will get rid of their stock as it is becoming harder and harder to justify the cost of keeping a few animals it is an expensive hobby.

We have had a run on ear tags also due to the feed ring in the winter, these tags are a lot flimsier that the used to be, it was not so bad when the cattle had to have one tag only, but now they have to have a tag in each ear, so they manage somehow to pull them out when they eat in the feed ring, it leaves some of the cattle with badly ripped ears, which must be rather like a women having her earring ripped from her ear. It must be very painful for them, then you have to put another replacement tag in for them to rip out AGAIN.

We have had an influx of Stags on the fields this Winter, they come down of Creag Mhor mountain behind us when the dusk falls, at the moment there is about twelve come down on to our fields, next door have about the same amount.
The new road that is being built from Loch Nan Uamh to Arisaig seems to have deprived them of their usual grazing haunts so they have found shelter on this side of the Mountain.

The weather has been really ferocious over this past couple of weeks, the wind is so strong, the hail stones cut to the bone when they hit you in the face and the rain is never ending.
We have had flash freezing where it has rained in buckets and then the temperature has dropped below zero and left about 3/4" of sheet ice on the road, we had to let the cattle out of the back Byre straight on to the field because they would fall over on the thick ice and could hurt them selves.

Roll on the summer, I cannot wait for the flowers to start blooming in the garden, the song birds to start busily building their nests and rearing their young, nature is a wonderful thing, whatever happens the seasons keep moving and mother nature offers us wonderful things to see.

As time goes by

2008-11-28T10:25:00.002Z

Where have I been?
As time goes by between each entry, I realise I am not as selective with my time as I should be.
For one reason or another things always seem to get in the way.
I hate the dark mornings as nothing can be accomplished until there is some sort of day light.
For us it is a little harder in the Winter hours, I leave for Fort William every morning at 7:00am and do not return until 6:00pm so my week days are taken up with a full time job outside "Crofting Life".
My husband sets too with the byre when I leave,the animals have to be fed and cleaned out and that takes up a lot of the morning for him.
Once the animals are turned out he goes out to his work, luckily he is a self employed fencer so he can pick and choose his hours, but at this time of year everyone is thinking of Christmas so work is a little shy, especially now with the "Credit Crunch" everyone is tightening their belts.
What have we been doing over the past month?
We have ha a lot of problems getting the cows in calf this year, for one reason or another they keep coming back into season, hence we had to take two of them to market as it is some time since one of them produced a calf.
Jinny and Bella, they were taken up to Fort William the night before the sale as we had two bullock calves that were going to the sale the next day also.
Bella has the luck of the devil, they were housed in a pen with other cattle one of which was a Highlander, they must have ha a spat during the night as Bella had her tag torn from her ear, it was pointed out that she could not be sold because she had no tag, after a minor dispute with the official we told him she would return home with us.
So Bella through no fault of her own had a reprieve, it is hard to let go of them as they are such friendly animals, part of the family and they all have their own habits, Bella is good as a substitute leader she takes the others way out on the Mointeach Mhor, she has always had the wander lust in her.
Jinny was a little harder to bare, I helped bring her into the world, she had her stubborn ways about her, she was also very fiery but I hated parting with her.
She lost a calf when she was seven months pregnant, we tried her with AI'S and the bull but she must have gone wrong inside, so she had to go.
I could not go into the ringside and watch my baby going under the hammer, I knew she would be going straight to the abattoir.
Such a waste of a beautiful animal, Bella came home and never spoke to us for days, she must have know her card was marked, well she will get one more chance as she has always been good at holding the bull in the past.
We have spent a lot of time over the past couple of months cleaning out the large drains they have not been done for a few years so it was time they had a flush.
We have kept the cattle off the in bye land this year as they make such a mess of the fields in the winter, so we are letting the ground have a rest, I must say the fields are looking the best they have in a long while, hopefully next season there will be plenty of lush grass for the cattle to graze.
We managed to find a main leader water pipe under the big field, we opened it up and cleaned it out, we also found a lot of the chains to the leader also, this in it's self was a great job done, especially with the rain we have been getting, the fields are not flooding touch wood.
The old tractor went away she gave up the ghost and decided not to go, someone who likes doing them up made an offer for her, so away she went, hopefully he will get a lot of pleasure out of bringing her back to her former glory.
We seem to have a lot of heifer calves this year more than usual, but Dolly came up trumps again this week and gave birth to a beautiful chocolate brown and white Simmental boy, he is a hardy little creator, straight on to the teat no messing hence no pun intended Thomas "Hardy", Tom Tom for short.
My husband went into the byre an there he was sitting up looking at him as if to say "who are you disturbing my sleep", well it's the first thing a man does isn't it, lifts the calves leg to see what he has a boy or girl ; ) not that it matters much nowadays, the subsidise have all changed, but the habit hasn't.
The sheep have a new boyfriend, we decided to put the ram out a little later this year, but as yet I have seen no signs of any luv between them.
I am quite surprised how mild it appears to be, the cattle did not come in until last weekend, they have been in at the end of September before now, they are still wandering about on the Mointeach Mhor, Bella bless her has her uses, but they are coming home in the evening to be in the nice cosy shed on their nice comfortable beds.
Well I cannot sit around here all day, I have a byre to re-illuminate, the outside needs some more lighting so I bust strike whilst the iron is hot and the weather is calm.

New Openings

2008-09-13T16:24:00.003Z

We spent most of last weekend digging out the large drains that run adjacent to the croft.
Our new neighbours kindly let us use their digger to do this.
It the first time in a few years since the drains have been cleaned out.
The banks were covered in Bramble bushes, bracken and rushes.
Because the Bramble have grown on the bank side they have eroded them quite a lot.
So it was a little tricky getting to close to the edge of the bank side to clear them out.
Well the water is running well now, I noticed a few tiny Brown Trout in the burn and thought that at some time the Trout must have travelled up here to spawn, they are a very hardy fish indeed, hopefully they will come back later on and find it much easier to travel up the newly cleaned out burn to spawn again in abundance with much more ease.

My husband also dug out a path on the common grazing's down to the old lazy beds field, this will be of great use to us and the cows especially in the winter months.
The old trail out to the lazy bed field was deep furrows which were made by generations of cattle walking down to the field, it made it hard work when we needed to bring the cattle in for any reason, because you were stepping on turfs that were up to a foot high all the way down to the lazy bed field, a bit like stepping on high stepping stones for at least quarter of a mile.
Well now we can walk out to the field with out any bother at all.
Also I noticed that the cattle have taken to lying down on the path as it is sandy bottomed but also provides shelter from the wild, they can be smart at times.
We are going to sort out the rushes that have appeared in great clusters and re seed the lazy bed park, this park used to be used by the croft for growing all of the vegetable in the bygone years, the ground is very fertile down there, but needs to be tended to to keep this fertility.
Also we are going to feed the cattle down there in the winter month so that they stay down there and do not hang around the gate on the croft making a nuisance of them selves.
Well we also picked a few more of our home grown potato's, some were Kerr's Pink and the others were Red Roosters, it has been a good year for growing potatoes, they tasted absolutely delicious, well your own home grown food always does taste better than shop bought.

We have got a few more jobs to do out and about but that's a story for another day!!

Lochaber Agricultural Show 2008

2008-09-13T13:37:00.003Z

Well it's the last show of the season and what a hectic season it has been.
But a most enjoyable time we have had, not only for the showing but meeting new people, old friends and competitors.
We all put a lot of effort into these shows, without the competitors and the crowds there would be no shows at all, everyone should make an effort at least once to experience the Agricultural show events, not just for the nostalgia and history but for the truly enjoyable family day out.
We spent the day before grooming and washing both sheep and cattle for the final show.
We took Penny a cross limousin, she is so easy to handle and will let you do anything to her, even her feet got a polish.
We also took a Ewe in milk Myran, her lambs Chirsty and last years Ram Craigy.
We took two Tup Rams Rabbie & Raff, a gimmer Babs and ewe lamb Nelly.
There was a bit of a mix up at the beginning because Myran was not breed locally she was entered in the open and the others were also entered in the open class, the mistake was pointed out after two events had already taken place but I felt it was unfair to swap into the local class when the events had already started, some people might take exception to the move.
I said it had been noted for future reference and would not happen again.
Nevertheless I came way from the event really happy with our outing.
There was a lot of entries in the individual classes.
We got a second for the Ram Craigy, a first for the Tup ram Raff and Chirsty the ewe lamb in the open North Country Hill Cheviot section.
Raff and Chirsty have not been beaten in any of their classes this year which is some going.
They were both up against a 2 shear ram and a ewe for the champion but were beaten in the end.
I was not disappointed as they will get their outings again next year and a lot of people take part in these shows and go home with nothing, it is nice to go home with just one rosette at least you have got something to show for all of your efforts.
It proves also that you do not have to throw big money at an animal to win either, it also proves that no two judges have the same opinion about an animal be it cow, sheep or dog.
I have seen animals take champion at some of the big shows then second at others and nothing at all at other events.
As long as you know in your heart you have done the best you can then nothing else matters.
Our Heifer Penny got second in her class and stood out really well.
It was a spectacular day the weather was absolutely blazing hot, there appeared to be a lot of wasps about this year and most of them converged on the show field.
We watched the terrier race which was won by a cute little terrier, which according to the owner had been trained be dragging a fox tail behind a quad bike, she was a game little dog anyway.
It's great also to see the kids taking part a couple of the little boys took their pet lambs into the unusual pet show and won a rosette.
The kids also come up and ask questions about the animals and want to pat them, they should be encouraged to experience what maybe an unusual animal for them, as some of these children probably never get this close to any kind of livestock.
After all they are the future and the way things are going with this granny state of ours they probably will not be able to touch any kind of animal including dogs, just in case they get some kind of allergic reaction to it.
Well that was the end of the Agricultural shows for this year, now it's time to batten down the hatches for the autumn and get everything ready for the winter season.

Whisky's trip on Canna

2008-09-13T10:57:00.004Z

It's been a little while since my last entry and there is a lot of catching up to do.
So I'll start with our trip to Canna three weeks ago.
We decided to take a trip to Canna for the day as neither of us had been there before.
After the hectic few weeks with the Agricultural shows it was a little bit of quality time out for us both.
We had one more show to go the following weekend so it was a nice break.
We took the early ferry on the Saturday morning leaving at 7:30am from Mallaig.
The crossing was really smooth and the day looked to be quite promising.
We took the dogs for a run out too.
Cullan the collie was a little anxious about going up the gang plank as he had not experienced one before.
Once he got on the deck he made a run for the seats and got under them, he can be a bit of a baby sometimes, Whisky on the other hand never batted and eye.
We had to sit outside in the shelter with the dogs as they were not allowed in the passenger quarters.
So we had to take it in turns to have breakfast on the way over.
We arrived in Canna about 10:30am we had the reverse problem with Cullan he would not come down the gang plank without a lot of coaxing, once he was back on dry land he was like a little puppy, he has traveled on ferry's many times before, but never had to endure the gang planks or open staircases.
Well we decided to walk along the road to the other side of the island on the way we met an obliging couple who gave us a brief run down of the things we could see whilst on the island.
We decided to visit the Celtic cross and old grave yard.
I took some pictures of the cross, some of the etchings are still visible, on one side there appears to be a man on horse, back something that looks like a wild cat, and a couple holding something between them.
On the other side it is a little more eroded and I could only make out what looked like a large crab at the bottom but I was told later that the pictures appear to change in the light and could be mistaken for something else.
There was also a long tall stone that I was told was a punishment stone.
On one side it had two holes and a small kneeling stone at the base, the victim had to kneel down in front of the obelisk and place their thumbs into the holes.
No one appeared to know what kind of punishment was endured, why was the victim to be punished? what for? did the victim have to stay there for a long period of time? did their thumbs swell up inside the hole? were they flogged? only the ghosts of the past can answer these questions.
There used to be about 400 inhabitants on the island years ago now there is about 30-35 and they have no real knowledge of their history as it has been lost in the sands of time.
We went around the grave yard whilst we were in there Whisky our Jack Russell got a sniff of rabbits on a steep hill behind the grave yard, now Whisky is getting on a bit and not as agile as he used to be, he decided he had got out of his depth and turned to come back down, but he mis-footed and fell about 15 feet, I heard him whimpering as I got over the barbed wire fence and started to climb the hill to find him, he had hurt his front paw, and could not walk on it it was not broken, his leg must have cushioned the fall.
Anyway I had waterproof jacket in my rucksack I made a sling up like they do in Africa to carry their babies, so Whisky spent the rest of the day in the sling being carried around like a baby.
We came down to a farm yard and my husband as he does stopped to talk to the occupants, they were the MacKinnon family, they were very informative and told us all about the island and what they do, we have seen them at the auction mart but never had the opportunity to talk to them.
Their cattle are beautiful, we were told that they do not buy hay for the winter, they strip graze out there.
They have an abundance of fenced off portions which they rotate the cattle around on every 10 days, the cattle appear to know the routine as they are waiting at the next gate to be let in the field on the 10th day.
We said our goodbyes and told them we would catch up with them later.
We walked around to the small Island of Sanday which is attached to Canna by a new bridge.
The original bridge was washed away in the storms a few years ago, it was nearly a year to the day after the storms that the new bridge was installed, the old bridge can still be seen as you walk along the shore line of Sanday.
The children had to be taken over to Sanday by boat for school, when the tide was out they could walk back over the mud flats to Canna it is also possible to drive a vehicle across the flats.
St Edwards Chapel is at the point of Sanday, a very majestic building with stone carvings by Thomas Nicholls, it is one of the first buildings you see coming in by ferry to Canna.
We had a flask of tea and sat down to drink in the atmosphere and scenery, it was so peaceful.
After walking back to Canna over the bridge we called in to see the MacKinnon family again, my husband mentioned to Patrick that he saw a farm away out on the point of Canna at the other side and would have liked to have seen it, but the ferry leaves again at 6:30pm which would have been tight for time, Patrick kindly offered us the use of his wife's Land rover, we decided to borrow it and visit the cafe first for lunch before we set off on our excursion.
The hospitality and the meal was second to none and well worth a visit, we enjoyed the company of the other diners there and departed with full tummies and a warm glow.
Patrick pointed us on the right road to see the old steading's.
Part of the road goes along side a cliff edge and is quite a long drop, we decided to park up at what the locals call the hairpin bend and walk the rest of the way in.
What a spectacular view something not to be missed, there was even Highland cattle grazing right on the cliff top edge enjoying the view.
We sat down for a while and enjoyed the warm weather and cool breeze from the sea.
We set of back as time was ticking on and we still had a couple of places and cattle we wanted to see.
We drove back past the cafe and headed in the opposite direction we had just come from, we wanted to see Coroghan Jail (Castle) which was reputed to have been built by Donald MacDonald 13th chief of the Clanranald to imprisoned his second wife Marion MacLeod because of his extreme jealousy.
I managed to climb up the small but rough pathway, although I did not climb into the structure, as I thought it looked easy to get into but I think it would have been more difficult to get out of because of the way the doorway was positioned over the top of the cliff.
We headed back to Patrick's and said our goodbyes as we had a ferry to catch.
Walking back we decided that we will have to come back again next year for a couple of days to take in the rest of the islands beauty.
We did not have to much of a problem with Cullan getting on to the ferry as we went on via the slip way, but he had a little stammer coming back off in Mallaig.
We would like to thank everyone for their kind hospitality on the island.
I have posted some of the pictures I took for you to peruse at your leisure.
We took whisky to the vet's he had not broken anything thank goodness, but he is still hobbling about, Whisky got more than he bargained for on his trip to Canna.

A Tribute to "Stuarty"

2008-08-17T19:33:00.008Z

I hope you do not mind but before I add anything else to my blog today, I would like to pay tribute to one of our friends who died last Tuesday.
We only found out yesterday evening from another friend that "Stuarty" those of you who knew him will no who he is from Skye died last Tuesday.
I do not know the full details as to how he died.
Stuarty was one of the nicest quietest most modest people you would ever want to meet, he had a bit of mischief in him and at 60 years of age it seems a great waste.
I first met Stuarty in the Torlundy Auction Mart in Fort William about 8 years ago, after I bought a heifer through the ring that was Effie, she was the rowan heifer who I have mentioned a few times in my blog previously.
After I had bought her my husband and I went to see the previous owner who we found out was called Stuart Nicholson or "Stuarty" as he liked to be called, we give him a lucks penny, this is something most buyers do when they purchase a beast through the ring they give something back to the seller for luck, usually £5 or £10.00.
Anyway Stuarty did not want to take the lucks penny, but we told him we would be highly offended if he did not take it.
He told us about Effies history and her mother and he said he knew we would be good to her, which we have been even though she has been bad to us with her temperish ways we would not part with her.
Every time we seen Stuarty after that at the market he would make a bee line for us asking how his heifer was doing, I started taking photographs down to the mart for him to see her and also pictures of her off-spring, we would also let him know when any of her off-spring where at the sale, so he could go over to take a look at them.
He had a big soft heart and would shead a tear on the odd occasion when he looked at the photograph, saying I was a kind kind woman with a good heart.
I think Stuarty was of the same stature a good man gone for ever never to be replaced.
He loved his animals as we love ours with passion, and he was happy that his heifer went to a good home.
Stuarty also had a mischievous side to him and although he was not married liked the ladies, and was not adverse to tweaking my bottom as well as any other poor unsuspecting female that came within his sights.
We missed him at the last sale for what ever reason I do not know, I cannot remember even if he was there at all, but it would have been nice to spend the time catching up with him again.
We never know what is around the next corner for any of us, life is to short and sometimes very cruel, that is why there is no point in brooding over spilt milk, or holding grudges or arguing with one another, because you never know when you will get your calling.
I for one will miss Stuary as will many others who were his friends we will all miss the chatter and laughter we had with our great friend from Skye.
Stuarty I hope you are in heaven tonight watching over your friends and making new ones too, but please don't tweak the angels bums, and if you have to do it, do it with that mischievous look you have, they will laugh all night.

Here we go again

2008-08-10T17:37:00.003Z

Well here we go again, August has been a busy time for us so far.
We have been showing at both the Black Isle Agricultural Show and the more local Strontian Agricultural Show.
We were meant to show at the Lorn Agricultural Show on the 2nd August but the weather was against us from the start, there was high winds and heavy rain so we did not want to cause the animals any undue stress with the long journey.
Luckily the Black Isle Show day was forecast for better weather it was held on Thursday 7th August.
I took three days holiday from Wednesday to prepare the sheep we were going to be exhibiting.
We spent all of Wednesday washing clipping and preening the one's we were going to show.
We decided to take Myran and her ewe lamb Chirsty and her Ram from last year Craigy now a one shearing Ram.
We also decided on Babs a Gimmer (a Gimmer is a sheep that is between a lamb and a ewe sheep) and Raff the Tup lamb. (Tup is a ram lamb).
Well we had to set of at 4.00am in the morning as all entries had to be on the field by 8.00am
So you can imagine it was a long day for all involved, one of our friends went along to lend a helping hand as he had never been before, so it was a bit of an eye opener for him.
We used to enter in the Crofters section an did really well, but we were asked to compete in the North Country Cheviot Hill Section instead so we did.
The entries in the individual sections were large on average 18 exhibits in each section, mostly big estates and large farms and a couple of crofters.
We were little fish in a very big pond, needless to say we were up against it and we knew it.
Well the crofters never even got a ticket all the big names were in the driving seat.
So I am not ashamed to say this little fish will not be swimming in the big pond for a while yet ;-)
I was put well and truly in my place and some people like to let you know that in their eyes you are not worthy of swimming in the big pond.
But that's life we all have to start somewhere, just as they did once upon a time and probably were made to feel the same way too, what short memories people do have.
Anyway we were not ashamed of our little flock they did us proud and strutted their stuff, and comments by the audience were warmly received, but then they are not the judge on the day if they were we would have got at least one ticket ;-)
The weather stayed dry except for a little shower that passed over in the late afternoon.
Once the judging had finished and our animals settled down we had a wander around the show ground, our friend picked up a few bargains as did we, there is normally something you can find that you have always wanted at these big events.
There was plenty of stalls to draw you in and browse around.
We went to have a sit down meal in the large food tent, it was very enjoyable, after that we watch the sheep shearing competition, one competitor sheared 8 sheep in 6 minutes 14 seconds, that's some going it takes me half an hour at least to do one Ha Ha.
Anyway we had our fill enjoyed the day and loaded up at 4.00pm as the exhibits could not be removed until then.
We arrived hove at about 8.00pm, once the animals were fed and tucked up for the night that was us, done in and ready for bed.

Strontian Agricultural Show was held on Saturday the 9th August.
We were showing a Heifer called April who as you can guess was born last April, she is a beautiful Charolais cross sandy coloured with a white blaze on her face, we spent the night before cleaning and trimming her up.
We also took two Gimmer's Babs and Poppet the twins from last year, Nelly and Raff twins from this year, Craigy the ram and wee Rabbie the Tup lamb.
My husband was showing the heifer I was in with the rest of the family;)
The cattle classes were well entered and there were some fine exapmples of the breeds on show.
April our Heifer did really well coming first in her class and third overall being beaten by another Heifer.
The Heifer was later beaten by the Texel ram for the overall Show champion.
All of the classes for the sheep were well entered with over 15 entries in some sections, I was really surprised after the lows of the Black Isle I got a first and second for Raff and Rabbie the Tup lambs, poor Rabbie was pulled out first but was swapped over with Raff, I said "poor Rabbie you got demoted " and everyone laughed.
Nelly the ewe lamb got a first in her class of about 16, Babs also got first in her class and was runner up along with a ewe sheep, Raff and Nelly to the Texel Ram that won the overall sheep and show.
Craigy the ram came second to the eventual overall Texel.
Poor Poppet never got a place, never mind we still love her she will come good yet she has the potential and the style, she is just a little bewildered by it all as it is only her second time out.
When it was all over we had a wander around, I could see Craigy laying down as usual he is not put out by all the fuss I think he enjoys all of the attention really.
We went over to check on them wee Rabbie was making a racket as usual, Craigy gave a deep Baa and Rabbie went quiet? It was just like the older said to the younger " Just sit down and relax we'll be going home soon so stop complaining" ; )
Any way that's the Lows and the Highs for now.
Our last outing or the year showing will be Lochaber on the 23rd August, so we might see you there if not I will let you know how we did.
I have posted slide shows of both Back Isle and Strontian for you to see some of the competitors.

Thank You to Iain from Nairn

2008-08-10T15:21:00.005Z

This is a big hank you to Iain Fairweather from Nairn.
Iain kindly allowed me to use some of the photographs that he had taken at the Nirn Agricultural Show this year, after my camera decided to play up.
He kindly got in touch with me to offer some assistance.
Iain is a professional photographer in Nairn and also manages the visit Nairn site.
I have added his links as a thank you for his help.
I have posted some of the pictures in the slide show opposite, but the one I wanted you all to see was the picture of the two old age pensioner mannequins that were on display at the Nairn Show.
As I said previously the person who thought them up should have got an award for ingenuity.

Arisaig Highland Games 2008

2008-07-30T19:16:00.003Z

The Arisaig Highland Games and Clan Ranald Gathering took place today.
I have posted some of the pictures I took of the events.
A parade through the village to open the games took place at 11 am with all of the Clan heads in the prosesion behind the Local Lochaber Piped Band.
My husband and I went along to the games field as my husband was the piping steward for the day.
I wandered around taking photographs of some of the locals and some not so locals who were also competing from as far a field as America.
The oldest competitor in the Heavy section is a local man in his early 70s well done him for showing the young boys how to do it.
Every year he says it will be his last but I for one would like to see him come back next year.

The piping competition was well entered by both adult and junior pipers and the winner was an excellent piper he won three of the four events.

There were two ladies also entered one senior and one junior, the senior came from America, unfortunately she went away empty handed, the junior on the other hand came second in both her classes, well done to her.

The weather started fairly calmly but became a little blustery later in the day with the odd rain shower.
It did not dampen the spirits of the audience though they stuck it out, they were very vocal in their support of some of the local competitors especially the oldest competitor, he seemed to rally at their calls and put on a tremendous performance.

We presented a new trophy the Creag Mhor Trophy for the Caber Tossing competition this year, this is in remembrance of my husbands father who was also a competitor of the games in the past.
My husband presented the trophy to the two joint winners this year, who tossed a coin to decide who took the trophy home for the first six months ; )
Once all of the festivities had finished we helped clear the field.
It is so quiet once again, now the crowd have gone.

To all those who took part well done for supporting the games and keeping them alive.
To the visitors who came thank you and hope to see you next year.
I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did?

Not so lucky Heron

2008-07-27T20:46:00.003Z

I thought I better let you know what we are up to as it's been a while since I have put anything on here.
Well it's been all quiet on the Western front at the moment.
We have had some brilliant weather here with the odd days of cloudy and wet outbursts.
It's good for the grass and keeps the midges down we hope.

We went to a wedding in Girvan a couple of weeks ago and it was a brilliant day for a wedding.
The other guests on our table were all men that worked for a company called Barr Construction that worked on the Arisaig to Kinsadel By-pass a couple of year ago.
My husband made friends with a few of them whilst they were in Arisaig and kept in touch when they finished the road.
One of them got married after a long long engagement, we were honoured to be asked.
The only thing that was missing was the good old Scottish Ceilidh band, but it was a great day and night anyway.

We managed to finish the second new bridge across the burn last week, which is a strong and sturdy structure, It will probably outlast us two anyway.
Well we thought the cows would use them as the original bridge had been down for a while, even thought the bridge was down the cows still insisted in coming up the burn on the opposite side of the burn, but cows have a mind of their own and the day after we finished the first bridge they decided to come up the burn on our side and never used the bridge at all, well you cannot win them all can you ; ) even now they still have not used the bridge.

Yesterday we went to the Nairn Agricultural Show, the show had been relocated to a new venue just out of Nairn, we thought it was a lot better on the new ground as parking was a lot easier and the show ground had room for more attractions.
It was very hot and sticky weather, it was a brilliant show, I had some pictures to post, but my camera decided to throw a wobbly and I lost everything, I was so fed up all the memories lost.
The overall show champion was a beautiful Clydesdale Horse, it was in against a Suffolk Sheep and Belgian Blue Bullock.
I had a great picture of the Suffolk which could be seen between the legs of the horse like little and large, I had pictures of at least thirty vintage tractors and a comical picture of two dummies that were made to look like and old man and woman sitting on the back of a tractor on a back box the old man dummy was holding an accordion and the old woman a wash board, such a shame.
I lost all of the wedding photographs I had taken also and a picture of a Heron standing on top of our Byre roof this morning.
Someone told me it was good luck to have a Heron on your roof unfortunately on this occasion I think the luck flew away with the Heron.
We have a few shows left to compete in ourselves over the next couple of weeks so hopefully I will have sorted the camera out by then and post a few more of our memories.
I will keep you posted how we do.

Here there and everywhere

2008-06-29T15:37:00.010Z

We have been here there and everywhere over the past couple of weeks.
We visited the Highland show in Ingliston near Edinburgh a week last Thursday.
We like to go down on a Thursday as that is when all of the judging of the animals takes place.
There was some splendid examples of all breeds of animals on show.
We switched between the commercial cattle and the sheep judging, as the both were being judged at the same time.
Fortunately we did not have to walk far between show rings.
The winners were:
Commercial cattle
Supreme Champion cross Bullock Silver Lining.

Supreme Champion Black face Gimmer from Milnmark Corsack

Supreme Champion Hill Cheviot from Hownam Grange Kelso

Show supreme Champion Charolais Cow Dunesk Unesta from Brechin.

Congratulations to all the winners and well done to all of you who took part.
Without you all, these show would not exist and the public would not see the amount of work that goes into turning these beautiful animals into fine examples of their breed.

We wandered around the cattle stalls to have a closer look at the exhibits.

There was a very large turn out, but it was pointed out that there was a little less than last year.

Could this be something to do with the cost of fuel?

It was a wonderful day out, the weather was not to bad maybe a little cold in the later part of the day.
We also had a wander around the machinery stalls, well some of the tractors on show would not get through our gate never mind down our road, even if we did manage to get a tractor that big down here we would sink it on our peaty land, these machines are for the big boys not the likes of us, a little grey furgie is more suited to us ; )
Well the show was a great diversion for the day, but we have things to do at home, so back to the grind I am afraid.
We had to repair an old bridge this weekend that had fallen apart later last year.
It has been across the main burn for over thirty years, it is made from old railway sleepers and one of the main sleepers holding it up broke into.
So we had to dismantle it all and rebuild it again.
The cattle being cattle have followed the same path year after year, instead of coming up on our side of the burn they come up on the opposite side, which means they stand on the opposite side mowing and calling because they cannot cross the burn.
So we had to go let them in through the top field which belongs to our neighbours.
Who said cows are bright, not always they are not.
Anyway we decided to bite the bullet and repair the old bridge.
We had a couple of Green heart sleepers which were discarded by the railway a couple of years ago, so we used them as the main supports for the bridge.
Green heart wood is extremely hard and strong, so hard that it cannot be worked with standard tools.
Being extremely durable in marine conditions, Green heart is used extensively in the building of docks and in similar applications and was an early choice for fly fishing rods.
Anyway it took most of the day to rebuild the bridge as you can imaging we were working above the burn which is about six foot deep, luckily the water was only a foot deep at the time as the weather has been rather dry.
But as there is only the two of us it was hard work dragging these 8ft wooden sleepers up a bank and across the supporting sleepers.
We managed to get it finished last night just before the heavens opened thank goodness.
Now lets hope the cows have common sense to use it : )

It's Show Time

2008-06-15T19:43:00.006Z

Well it's that time of year again when we go through the paces of preparing the cattle and sheep for their annual outing to the Arisaig Road to the Isles Agricultural Show.

The first show of the year for us, so there is a lot of preparing to do before the big day.
The cattle were shaved on the Tuesday before the big day.
This involves shaving their faces and tail tops.
Clipping their underbelly and combing out their coats.
They were washed and groomed up on the Friday night, what a blessing that it was a mild day and there was no midges out to eat us or the calves.
We decided to take two Heifers both just over a year old, one Limousin cross named Penny and a Charolais cross named April.
They are both placid and easily handled, once they were all cleaned and dried they were penned in deep straw to keep them clean for the next days show.
The sheep on the other hand are a different matter.
We decided to take Myran a Cheviot Ewe, her Ram Craigy from last year, also her Ewe lamb Cirsty from this year.
We also took Claire's Ewe lamb Babs from last year.
They were all sheared a few weeks ago, to give this years coats a chance to come through.
Craigy was first on the block, he was trimmed up again to shape his fleece, his hoofs were clipped and he wash shampooed up with a bright white shampoo to make him look really white as Cheviot's should.
Myran and Babs were next with the same routine, I must say they were all well behaved, by now they are used to this routine as they have all been through it a couple of times.
Cirsty on the other hand was a little fighter, she hated getting a wash, we had a large trug bucket for her, I think I got wetter than she did.
But they all came out like little snowballs ; )
They were all dried up also and bedded down on thick straw to keep them clean.
Now being crofters you have to be inventive sometimes, we only have one cattle float which is not big enough to carry all of the animals so we manufactured the other trailer we have to make a sheep trailer to transport them to the show, if I might say it looked quite the thing and did the job really well.
My hubby unloaded the calves and penned them up, then gave me and hand to unload the sheep.
The classes for both cattle and sheep was very strong as is usual for the Arisaig show.
The cattle started first in the big ring and the Black face sheep in the smaller ring.
Whilst all this was going on my daughter and I set about touching up our sheep.
Whitening their legs and faces with a powder mix, to make them white and clean looking.
They are very patient animals and stood well for the finishing touches.
Mean while my husbands class was a strong class and he picked up a third and forth rosette for his efforts, he was beaten by a supreme beast.

Never mind there is always next year, it's the taking part that counts, without the entries there would be no show at all, these people come from miles around, with the price of fuel as it is and the fuel strike that is going on, I take my hat off to them all for turning out to make the day a special one.
My classes were also strong this year too.
Craigy my Ram was first out and beaten into second place by a beautiful Suffolk owned by a neighbouring crofter in Arisaig.
Both the Ewe lambs also picked up second places too.
Myran on the other hand went through all of her classes to win over all Sheep Champion again this year, she was up against a strong Black face Ewe in the final.
Myran is a great show off, she stands in the ring and strikes a pose and that's it, she takes it all in her stride and wonders what all the fuss is about and why all of these people are looking at her.
Well we were pleased as punch that she did it again, it is a great feeling to win something after all of the effort you put in to preparing the animals for a show.
She went into the ring for the overall show animal with a Highland Bullock also owned by a local to the area.
It took a long time for the judges to debate and choose a winner.
The Highland Bullock took the prize and a well deserved congratulations goes out to them.
We were very happy with what we had already won.
After all the fuss had died down, we took a walk around the show and had something to eat, it is a long day and unfortunately you cannot get away to have a walk around until you finished with the main events in the rings.
This years main ring attraction was a sheep dog demonstration, which was really entertaining, the dog handler had seven dogs working in the ring at the same time, quite a hard task to do with two dogs never mind seven and three puppies too.
There was speed ball events, and dog agility events, quad bike challenge and much more.
All in all a great day out for everyone.
The end of the day came and we loaded up and came home, we let the animals out for a feed and had an early night ourselves after all of the hard work we needed it.
Thank you to everyone who came up and congratulated us on our win, also to the many friends that came to support the show from far and wide, I am sorry I did not get around you all to spend some time with you all but will catch up with you all later.
Also a big thank you to my Husband and Daughter for all of their help.

It's Show time

2008-06-14T05:40:00.002Z

Today is the day of the Arisaig Agricultural Show.
This is a local show and well supported.
We have a couple of heifers in the cattle side of the show and a selection of sheep also.
The show day has always been renowned for having good weather, and it seems like that tradition is going to upheld today.
We have been really busy over the past few days, the sheep are white as snow this morning.
Myran has been very good, she has been through this all before so she knows what is going on, Craigy also was really well behaved while he was preened and trimmed to make him stand out in the crowd.
The heifers were washed up and scrubbed last night, we shaved their heads and trimmed their tails earlier in the week.
They all look fantastic this morning, they and wee have nothing to be ashamed of, they will all hold their own.
Keep your finger crossed that we get a prize today, if not well.
There's always other shows to go to this year.
I'll keep you posted with the results of the show and photographs.

Do Midge's have teeth?

2008-06-03T21:05:00.004Z

Since my last posting we have had brilliant sunshine all the while.
It has been beautiful in Arisaig and Lochaber.
The only hing to spoil it is the flipping Midge's in the evening.
I ask myself if they have teeth because every time they bite it feels like I just lost a chunk of skin.
This year the Midge have been absolutely ferocious, the dry weather has brought them out in droves.
We have been really busy as usual here on Creag Mhor Croft.
My husband cannot remember the last time he managed to get all of the peat we cut, bagged and stored so early in the year.
It is bone dry and all gathered except for about 10 bags, we managed to collect 52 bags in total so far, we also gave a few away too, so not to look to far forward and rush the year away, we will not have to worry to much about heating our bones in the cold evenings.
Everything has become so expensive this year our fuel costs £1.30 per ltr at the pumps in Fort William, the red stuff for the tractor has gone up to 75p per ltr.
We hired a small digger last week to sort out some of the drains on the common grazing's because they were not running away quite well, it was so dry down there that we nearly got to the river Caimbe.
We managed to bury our water pipe to the house from the burn and do all the other little jobs that needed to be done, my husband cleared away the manure heap and leveled off the gravel we had stored for around the byre, what a difference the machinery makes to the jobs that would take forever by hand.
I went around weed killing the rushes which seemed to have popped up every where this year, the grass is not growing due to the lack of rain, not that I miss the rain, but we could do with a bit now just to help the grass on a little.
We had our first cattle sale this year and sent 3 of our bullocks away, we were supposed to send 4 but I took pity on the poor wee crater Rump Ramp Romp, he looked at my through the hay frasach on the morning of the sale with his big doleful eye's wanting his sweeties from his bucket, he always gets his food in bucket because the bigger calves push him about, he is not the bonniest but he is the smartest of them all, after all he is still here isn't he?
We the other 3 went to Fort William sales, what a day it was, I have never seen so many people there at the same time, it was really humid in-doors.
We had a really great trade, the prices for beef was nearly double last year prices.
Anyway they all went to good homes, lets hope they all have a good quality of life even though it will be a short one.
I have pictures to post of the day when I get a little more time.
We also went to the Stock judging competition this Saturday past, it is something we love attending, it gets you out for a while you meet friends old and new to have a good blether about the price of cattle, weather up and coming shows and so on.
Well my husband took the overall male winners cup and I won the over all female cup so it was a double for us, and to top it all I got 4 numbers on the lottery and won £97.00 what a lucky weekend we had.
We have been busy clipping our cattle and sheep for the up coming agricultural shows, the first one kicks off on the 14th of this month just outside Arisaig on Camasdarrach, the show has been blessed with good weather every year lets hope the tradition holds.
Also a small foot note to Simon thank you for your comment, I too had a go at the water divining, your right it does work for some and not others.

It's all go on the Croft

2008-05-17T16:26:00.006Z

It's all go on the Croft at the moment.
The weather has been absolutely tremendous for the past three weeks.
We decided to turn over the ground behind the caravan instead of the front this year and planted potato's and carrots, already the early potato leaves are popping through.
We have split the lazy beds into three sections and sowed a few beds of potato's a week to ten days apart, to give a longer productive season.
We have been trying to locate the old clay drainage pipes that my husbands father put down about 50 years ago, some of them have been blocked, we can tell this by the amount of water that is sitting on the surface of the land, also because they are orange clay pipes in some cases you can actually see and orange coloured silt that is pushed up to the surface because the drains are blocked.
Well knowing a pipe is there or there abouts is one thing but finding it is another.
The field in the front of the house has been excavated over the past year trying to locate the clay pipes.
It is important to open the bottom field drains first, so when we open the back top field drains the water will run freely out to the burns at the end of the bottom field.
So eventually we found all of the drains on the bottom field, it takes a lot of time an patience.
We do it the old fashioned way, which is with a long thin steel probe with a pointed end and a T handle at the other, a hand shovel and a fencing shoveler.
Once you have a rough idea where you think the pipe is you push the probe down into the ground pointed end first of course, our ground is quiet peaty so it is not as hard to pull the probe back out, you keep prodding around in a left to right movement each prod 2" apart until you here that distinctive metal against stone noise.
This is when the hard work starts, we dig a hole down to the pipe, my husbands father put down 1 leader pipe with 8 chains to it in the bottom field alone, all placed 4 foot below the ground, so you can imagine how much earth had to be dug out to get to each of these chain pipes.
Once we dug a large enough hole to get into, the pipe is separated and opened up, we push an plastic pipe up the way and down the way to clear out the dirt and silt.
Sometimes the plastic pipe gets stuck and will not go any further down the clay pipe however hard you push and pull, so it is out of the hole and locate the clay pipe further down the field and dig out another hole and repeat the process all over again.
Well we managed to clear all of the pipes in the bottom field, now we have to sort out the back top field, we have already started this and opened up 2 chains, as this is a larger field we expect to find a lot more chains here.
A leader pipe is about 6" internal diameter which goes across the field diagonally from one corner to the other, the chain clay pipes are approx 2" internally which come down from the top field and are attached to the larger leader, my husband's father appears to have put all of the chain pipes at 15 paces apart, which makes it a little easier to find the approximate area of the next chain clay pipe.
To think he did all of these fields with just a shovel, no modern diggers in these days.
As they say in the Highlands he was a hardy man.
We cannot use a digger on the field as it would get bogged down and make to much of a a mess, so we have to do it the hard way too.
We have also taken advantage of this dry weather and stared to harvest the peat for the winter fuel, because it has been really dry, we have managed to store some of it already, My husbands father dug the peat fields right up until he was 87 years of age, which I think was a great achievement for anyone to do.
I never met my father in law as he died before a came here, but I have heard stories about him.
He was a strong character and worked hard all of his life, he was also a fencer as is my husband.
We have also sheared our flock of sheep and clipped their hooves, dosed them tagged the lambs ears and docked their tails.
I hate docking the tails, I feel so sorry for the poor lambs they give a little whimper when you do it, I do prefer to dock them rather than put a rubber ring on them and wait for the tail end to drop off, this must be even more painful for them, as some of you may know what it is like to put an elastic band say on your finger and leave it for a while how much pain would you feel if you could not take it off.
I have lots of other bits to add to this but I will do it when I have a little more time, I have added a photo of my husbands father scything the land with the peat stacks behind him.
Known locally as Alec Creag Mhor he was 87 years of age when this photograph was taken.

What a difference

2008-04-27T15:39:00.006Z

What a difference the long days make.
We have been basking in sunshine for the past three weeks, and it has been great for the soul.
We have had a new calf born since my last visit she is a pure white Charolais cross, her mother diamond is doing well, we called her new baby Trudy, her father is Thrumpton Unstopable.
We are waiting for Annie to calve any day now.
The cattle are starting to stay out over night on the odd occasion but still coming in on a morning for breakfast.
The rain has done so must damage this year and the grass is slow to grow.
We are not the only people suffering from grass shortage it is happening all over the country, farmers and crofters alike are feeling the pinch of the purse strings with the amount of feed we are still having to buy in to keep the animals going until the grass takes off.
We are doing our best to help the grass on a little, last weekend we spent two days spreading manure out one one of the six acre fields, by hand, the ground is still pretty soft so Tractors are no good as it will make a mess of the ground.
We have a small quad which we attached the harrows to, this spreads the manure more evenly, I must admit what a difference it made to the ground just with the harrows.
(Harrows for those of you who do not know are like a bed of steel pieces linked to one another that have spikes sticking out underneath, when you drag them along behind you they deep rack the ground helping the manure/fertiliser to impregnate the ground)
Anyway we spread the manure, Harrowed the field now we have to keep the cattle off which proves difficult sometimes, if you leave a gate open they are in he park, how they know the gate is open him upstairs only knows as they seem to have a built in radar attached that says go home and cause chaos.
Well if we keep them out we have done our part and all we have to do is sit back and watch the grass grow fingers crossed.
We decided to use the manure on the fields this year as like many others artificial fertiliser has become far to expensive to use, some farmer on the East coast are using straw on the fields instead.
So for the past couple of weeks while the weather has been with us we have been working like beavers to get as much manure out as possible, it's a pity we cannot get the roller out yet but the ground will not take it.
Oh while I remember we decided to call Myran's little lamb Chirsty, she is such a little bundle of joy as they all are, Wee Rabbie and Katie come to me when I shout their names, they love to get a tickle under the chin be fussed over on a night before they settle down for the night.
Unlike Craigy, who has decided that I am to get a butt up the bottom when he cannot get his own way, unfortunately he will have to go to a new home after the shows are finished this year, or else he may get amongst the young hog lambs (his sisters) and breed with them.
He is up to mischief all of the time, if the garden gate is left open he is in and starts feasting on my flower beds.
Yesterday we hand clipped the three mother sheep, this was a military exercises on it's own, Myran is not to hard to clip as she will stand on the head halter she is to big anyway to get a good grip of, Claire was easier to do as the fleece was coming to the rise as they say which means she was ready to shear, Sharon as usual had to be awkward, fighting every move, and flinching and jumping at the sound of the shears clicking, I might add that not a drop of blood was drawn or skin caught in the shears, so what she was flinching for was beyond me, because every time she did flinch I jumped too because I thought I caught her skin.
Not only a trauma for her but for me also.
Anyway I am suffering from a stiff hand today after all that fighting, pulling, pushing and clipping, I am glad I only have a hand full of sheep, next year we will have to invest in an electric clipper, then what will Sharon do?
Next weekend we plan to shear the hoggs and Craigy, that will be fun and games, they will all need their hoofs trimming as well.
So lets hope it goes with out to much of a drama.
Below are pictures of Diamonds calf Trudy, also Boris Diamond's calf from Last year.
Trudy

Big Brother Boris & Trudy & Diamond

Myran is a mum

2008-04-17T13:29:00.005Z

Well Myran had her lamb, she gave birth on Friday evening about 8.30pm on the 11th April to a little girl.
We are still debating on a name for her, but she is all there and beautiful too.
The other four lambs are running around like nutters, they give us great joy when we go into the byre.
They are always running around and jumping everywhere so exited.
The weather has not been kind to some lambs this year, I have seen the odd ones dotted about on the way to Fort William that have died, probably due to the weather or the hooded crows.
We have been seeing reports on the television of Ravens taking the lambs eyes and tongue before they are even out of the mother, the Ravens have even taken the mothers eyes out whilst laying down in labour.
I feel sorry for the people who own the sheep as this is yet another hardship they are having to endure, as the sheep and lambs are having to be put down humanly.
I think how fortunate our little flock is to be kept in through the night whilst they are small so the foxes and birds do not take them.
Although since Saturday we have been having some glorious weather, lets hope it hangs around for a while.
We put Sharon and Claire out with their twin lambs on Saturday for the first time, the lambs where making such a racket, going out into the big wide world must have been something of a shock to them, all that open space for miles around, one of the little ewes I called Katie was making such a din she kept running back and forward first along the road to her mum Claire then back to me at the byre, she was not sure if she should be in or out and could not make her mind up.
Well she settled down after a short while and the four of them started springing about in the field and jumping over the burn at the other end.
They raced each other up and down the field, it was great to see them all healthy and running about, I could sit and watch them all day.
I have called Claire's Lambs Katie and Rabbie, Sharon's are named Nelly and Raff, as I said we are still thinking of a name for Myran's lamb.
I took some photographs which I promise to post later once I get a few of Myran's wee lamb.
We have been busy clearing the byres out, the cows are gradually staying out through the night, they must be finding something to eat on the Mointeach Mhor, they are still coming in on the morning for their breakfast of supplements, grass is not enough just yet.
So we have managed to clear out and wash down the big shed, all by hand, we have been spreading the dung on the fields by hand too as the ground is to soft for the tractor as yet.
Myran will stay in until her little pride and joy is a bit stronger.
We were surprised when she popped out as she should no signs of going into labour earlier on when we went in to feed her.
We went back over to the byre after tea just to check all was well for the night before settling down ourselves, my husband went into the byre I was sorting something out in the back byre, when I heard him shouting, I went around to see what was happening, and there she was our little gem, my husband said Myran was pushed against the wall and the wee one was half in and half out of mum, my husband gave her a helping hand and let mum do the rest, Myran was so proud licking and making low hum noises all the time.
I snipped her cord put Iodine on her "belly button" just to make sure she did not get any infections.
But all is well in the lamb shed thank goodness, we are waiting for a couple of calves to be born hopefully I might have some news this weekend.
Craigy and the ewe hogs are all fine, and have quietened down since the new arrivals appeared.
It will soon be time to clip their wool and trim their hoofs, that is a job I do not look forward to.
Lets hope we have a long mild summer this year the land needs a rest from all this rain we have had through the winter.

Some pictures as previously promised

2008-03-29T20:29:00.013Z

Teeny
Creag Mhor

Our finished shed
Bella Stealing Hay

Cullan and Whiskey enjoying the viewfrom Creag Mhor Hill
View of our Croft
Babs Poppit

Skye Effie the rowan cow's calf
Pal, Prince & Rump Ramp Romp

Pal & Rump Ram Romp

Easter Twins & Twins again

2008-03-29T18:19:00.010Z

Well it's great news from Creag Mhor last weekend, we had four new additions to our small flock. Sharon and Claire two of our Cheviot's decided to have their babies through the night last Saturday.
We were not expecting them for another week or so but they decided that nature was going to step in and send our little packages early.
Well all three sheep including Myran were in the lambing shed, all settled in for the night, no sign of anything unusual so away to bed we went.
Early Sunday morning last years lambs were making such a commotion we thought something had got into the main shed with them.
So we rushed over to the sheds to find out what all of the noise was about, I was still putting on my waterproofs when my husband shouted over to come quick, I rushed over to the shed and poked my head in thinking all sorts of things, what did I see four new baby lambs running about in the shed.
Everything was so exiting in the shed last years lambs were calling out noisily, the babies were calling out, mums were calling out, we were calling out, you can imagine the racket in there.
We had stalls ready for the new mums to settle with their own lambs so that they bonded.
The only problem was who had had who and which mother's had had them?
Well we finally decided or thought we had which lamb belonged to which mother, Myran was eliminated right away as she was not dirty in the rear end, so she was put out with the hogs (last years lambs).
We watched for a while to see which lamb went to which mother, and put them in their separate pens as I said to bond.
Well we thought we got it correct but we did not, we got there in the end and managed to sort them out.
Sharon and Claire had both given birth to a girl and a boy each.
Sharon's little girl was really small and Claire's little girl was the opposite, the boys were the opposite way round Sharon's was Large and Claire's was small.
Anyway we let them settle down for an hour or so just to make sure they were alright with the lambs they had with them.
Sharon's little girl was so small and weak we ha to intervene, so out came the milking jug and bottle.
I milked Sharon to take some of her colostrum from her to give to the newly named Nelly the lamb.
Nelly took all of the milk, the others managed fine after a little tickle on the bum, we tickle the bum under the tail to make them move towards the teat, it is like their mother nudging them to encourage them to suck, it is far easier than trying to hold them on to a teat with them fighting against you and getting themselves all stressed out.
Well they have come on in leaps and bounds (no pun intended) so I have put a few pictures up for you to see.
Myran last years Champion at the Arisaig Agricultural show is still hanging on to her lambs, as usual she has to be last.
Raff the ram has done a great job, we are so proud of him, needless to say he is proud too....

Well here they are...

Sharon with Nelly & Raff

Raff

Claire with Katie & Rabie

Nosey Katie

Rabbie

Raff & Sharon in Luv....

A day at the sales wahay!!

2008-03-18T20:57:00.007Z

We had a day away on Saturday 15th March, we traveled up to Dingwall for one of the implement sales that is held at the Auction Mart every so often.

It was a beautiful day and has been since Saturday.

It was good to get away just for a day, we have not had a day away from the croft since Christmas other than collecting Animal feed, this was a day away just to enjoy.

I have never seen so many people at one of these events, it was impossible to park in the car park, people were just abandoning their cars at the side of the road because they could not get in, we were one of those people also, typical farmer mentality abandon your car anywhere and don't bother if it causes a nightmare for anyone else ;-) well we managed to get up onto a grass verge near the entrance so it was not to bad.

The sale started at 10am there was everything there that you could ever wish for if you had silly money to spend on some of the things on offer, a two year old Valtar tractor worth about £22,000 went for £12,100 bargain if you had that kind of money.

We were on the look out for a couple of items, my husband got his calf feeders and I wanted a lawn mower as my old one had decided it could not cope anymore, well I got a bargain, petrol lawnmower all singing and dancing, I am not proud as long as it does what it is designed for I will not complain.

These sales are great for catching up with old friends and meeting new people, the crack as they say was great.

The Auction mart has a well maintained cafe and was busy all day, even though we had to queue it was well worth the wait.

We left about 4.30 and got home about 7.30 it was close to a 200 mile round trip which I can say I truly enjoyed, just to get away for the day and have a sunshiny day too what more could I ask for.

A few pictures of the trip up to Dingwall and the venue:

On a High Horse day!!

2008-03-11T10:33:00.007Z

Well it has been absolutely unbelievable this terrible weather we have had has been none stop, it can be so depressing waking up every morning and seeing nothing but rain bouncing off the ground and the wind blowing the trees about as if in a bad mood.
The fields are flooded and bare looking, here we are having torrential rain and places like Australia have had nothing but droughts for the past year.
We have been told on the news lately that we have enough grain in the United Kingdom to last 40 days? grain is at an all time low because agriculture is no longer as the boffins say "in fashion". Some experts are calling for a better investment in to agricultural activities, to reinvest in our future, this is highly impossible now, land is being sold at a great rate of knots for building offices and so called affordable housing, if land is not being sold it is slapped with a compulsory purchase order to put a road through or build another airport runway, so I am afraid that agriculture like everything else will fall by the way side and everything will come from one of our European counterparts, like Steel, Coal, Electrical, Electronics, Beef and Fishing has already been gradually coming in from anywhere except the UK over the past few years.
I do hope that someone in the powers that be corridors, will stand up and fight for our corner and way of life, all they have to do is reach out and speak to the people on the ground instead of the I know nothing about anything but I can talk a lot of rubbish brigade.
These kind of people do more damage than good and have not got a clue what it is like to be you or me or your neighbour who toil away each day doing what we do for this industry, Okay we might be small fry in the grand scheme of things but we all contribute something to the agricultural sector, we contribute to our economy, we provide a service for our nation with very little thanks or gain.
This weather is making life very difficult for all, we are still feeding our cattle and will be for the next month at least, we had a delivery of hay on Saturday, I took a days holiday on Friday from work to help clear the byre for the hay coming in.
We have both been working none stop lately and have not had a lot of time to do anything else, the hay man dropped our hay at the end of the track which is about a mile away from where we live, the road to our house and beyond is so badly pot holed that a wagon full of hay cannot get down safely.
So we spent most of Saturday taking bales down to the byre in between rain showers, we used a quad and trailer as it was faster than the old jeep, our tractor has decided to give up the ghost so we will have to spend more money getting that sorted out.

We managed to get a few bales down before the heavens opened up again, so Sunday was also taken up with fetching and carrying bales to the byre.

Some people do not know how fortunate they are living right next to the main road, anything we have to get delivered if it is in a wagon forget it, the item has to be man handled on the back of a trailer and taken down by us, this is all time consuming when we could be doing something else as equally important.
Nevertheless we do what we do with out complaint and managed to get the bails down to the byre, the cows came in when they saw all the activity they are so curious when they see something strange they have to go over and have a look to see what is going on.

Some pictures our Hay at the end of the road and a couple of pictures to show just what we have to contend with every day.
A car is no good here only an old work horse 4 x 4 can cope with this road, fun for the tourist once in a while but not for the people who live on it

Rowan Skye for Effie

2008-02-27T07:50:00.004Z

Well Effie did it again, she gave birth to a little heifer calf this time she was kept in a week before the birth.
We did not want to have the same shenanigans as we did the last time when she gave birth to Buster out on the common grazing's, that was an event that happened almost to the day last year under my posting "Wild West Hero".
We noticed that she was letting down at the weekend, that's when the bones start to loosen so the calf can get out, she was also putting an udder on, so in she went to the calving pen.
Effie is a cow that likes to think she is boss, she shakes her head and snorts at you when you go to fasten or unfasten her chain.
Her bark is much worse than her bite, unless like any of them they have a calf then the hormones kick in and they become unpredictable.
Even though you may have been around the same animals all their lives, they change when young are born, much like any mother they would die to protect their young.
Effie has always had character, when I first saw her she was 6 months old about 8 years ago, at the Torlundy auction mart, we were not supposed to be there that day as we were not selling, but my husband wanted to go and see what the prices were like.
Well Effie came running into the ring with fire and temper in her, there was not many people there that day it was rather quite for some reason, or most of the buyers had gone for tea.
My husband was sat at the front talking to a couple of friends & neighbours, like they do at these events, talk about the weather the price of feed and fertiliser you know that sort of thing.
I was sat at the back of the auction ring on the top row to get a good view of the cattle coming through and take a note of the prices for the weight and breed, this was to compare what we may or may not get at the next sale, more like a rough estimate really.
Anyway Effie came running in to the ring, a beautiful Rowan coloured calf with a cute face, she slammed on the anchors and looked around she started mooing loudly and running around, she stopped and stared up at me and started calling again, fate took a hand in Effie's future, I started to bid on her, we had no intentions of going to market to buy but I could not let her pass by, someone else started to bid, the price went up slowly, but I got her for £110.00 which was a bargain at that time.
The auctioneer asked who's name? I said my husbands name, my husband then swung around in mid conversation and looked at me as though to say you never did did you?
Well I did, she came from Skye, the man who owned her was and is the nicest person you could ever meet, he asks me about her every time we bump into one another at the sales or shows, I give him a progress report on her births and babies, he feels the same way we do he loves his animals and treats them like family.
Effie came home and grieved for her mum for nearly a week, nothing we could do appeased her, once she settled down she turned out to be a wonderful cow.
She nearly got her marching orders after last years near catastrophe, but we relented and let her have one more chance, as you do when you love someone or something.
Effie gave birth on Monday night, we went in to check her about 6:30pm she was pacing about, she does not like you watching her so we left her to it for a couple of hours.
We went back in about 8:00pm and there she was a beautiful Rowen coloured heifer the spitting image of Effie.
We did not stay long just enough time to check to make sure she and baby were fine, give her some extra nourishment and water as she gets agitated.
We left them to it...... in the morning Effie and calf were up and watching the door, calf had been fed and washed spic and spam by mum.
She might be crabbed and moody but she looks after her calves and makes an excellent job of them.
We decided to call the calf Skye, as her mum is from Skye, Skye's father is a Limousin Bull called Ronwick Iceman, the last calf Effie had was also from the same bull we called him Buster, he is near Elgin and has grown in to a wonderful beast, he is being finished off at the moment to go to market for food, that is the part I hate so much, letting them go for feed, but that is our way of life and the boy calves unless they are pedigree always go to market for meat after all the nation has to be fed.
I will post some pictures of Effie's Rowan Skye that is when I can get near her.
When I posted about Effie the last time and the tagging rules stating that you had to tag in 3 days of the calf being born, the rules have been relaxed a little as so many people were getting injured, now you are allowed 21 days if you have a cow that is wild, but you have to notify the authorities which cow is involved and so on, more paperwork!!!!
Anyway crabbed as she is we still love her, and I don't care what anyone says, she has been a good cow, pop's her calves out with no problem, fate took hold of our hands that day and put us all together, my husband always says "what's put out for you will not go by you", neither did Effie ;-)

Jinny's AI

2008-02-24T12:28:00.022Z

Jinny our Limousin cow was bulling this week.
This means she is in season and ready to be served.
To recognise when a cow is in season is not to difficult even for a novice.
A cow shows signs of this by jumping on the rear of another cow, or mounting them as they say, the cow in season usually stands for the others to jump her.
When there are a few of them together it can be difficult at first because it is like a wrestling match to see who can get there first.
This usually occurs in the day time or early hours of the morning.
Later in the day things get a little less hectic, and the cow in season sometimes pairs off with another cow and they spend most of the day jumping one another.
We once had a heifer that took it upon herself to run all the way up the road to our neighbours looking for the bull, luckily for us he was not at home that day, as she was to young to be in calf as yet.
Once they get the notion in to their heads it is hard to get them to do anything you want because nature says find the bull, anyway it took us most of the morning to get her home that day.
But the next month she came into season she paraded herself at the gate like a little floozy taunting the bull next door, next thing he jumped the gate and did the dirty deed, we had to get the vet to come down an give her what they call the morning after pill for cows, she was only 12 months old at the time, which is far to young to put in calf, although there are those out there that think this is okay to do, but at what cost, maybe a calf or both can be lost at birth.
Well back to Jinny she was ready for the bull, we called the AI man who comes up from Fort William 40 miles away to do the deed.
He usually comes down to our place between 8pm & 10pm depending on when she first showed signs of bulling, or how busy he is at the time, sometimes he has come up at 6am the next morning the window is only open for about 18hours at a push, once it is shut that's it for another 21-28 days.
Well our AI man arrives, I have sandwiches, scones and a flask of tea waiting for him as he is a busy man sometimes it must be hard for him to stop and eat sensibly.
We already have the cow in season ready and waiting in the crush, sometimes this is easy to do sometimes it is a bit of a nightmare depending on which cow is going into the crush.
Usually we can tempt them in with a bucket of nuts other times they have to be run in between the gates, where a metal bar is slipped in behind them to stop them turning back or kicking.
Once she is in the crush we can relax a bit, we spend a little while passing the time of day and putting the world to rights whilst the AI man has a break and a cuppa.
We then decide which bull we would like our cow to be served by, Ronwick Iceman was our choice, a good strong Limousin bull.
The AI man has a large tank like a fat old milk churn full of liquid Nitrogen which keeps the semen straws frozen safely in the back of his pickup, it has 6 compartments inside the churn and each compartment is full of a wide variety of bulls, all waiting to be used to bring life into the world, you can still get semen straws from bulls that died up to 20 years ago as long as they are kept in the liquid Nitrogen, science is a wonderful thing especially for people like us, where keeping a bull is not an option, because of limited space, neighbouring bulls and extra feeding.
Anyway the AI man gets to work, firstly he will put his elbow length gloves on and put a lubricant on his glove fingers, he then inserts his gloved and lubricated fingers in to the cows rectum very slowly, this is to encourage her to empty her bowels this makes things a little easier when inserting the straw.
Once she has emptied her bowels, he puts his hand inside her rectum again up to below the elbow, the has the seamen straw inside a long thin metal syringe type instrument, which he inserts in to the vulva, one he finds the Fallopian tube through the rectum wall he inserts the syringe and pushed the end of the syringe to release the sperm.
He gently removes his hand and that is what we hope is job done, unless she repeats, which means we have to go through the same process all over again, but this is not as common as you would think.

Jinny in the crush head secured and bar behind her.
This stops her moving about and kicking.

Hand inserted into the rectum to clear out her bowels.
This allows better access to the uterus.

Syringe is inserted slowly using the hand inside the rectum
feeling through the rectum wall
to guide the syringe into the correct position.

Syringe is maneuvered into the correct position.
Then the plunger is pressed to release the sperm.

What a difference the day makes

2008-02-20T10:39:00.006Z

Well we are flying through February, the weather has been absolutly beautiful for the past couple of weeks, well really dry anyway.
Some days have been really cold, but at least it has not rained that is until today.
We have had a busy time, the other night we stood out in the garden and watched the sun setting, it was a funny kind of sky, it appeared to be all yellowish in colour, it felt like we were in for a big storm, but nothing happened.
I posted a few pictures of our sheep on the web site the other day, I have a few of the cattle to do also, it is just finding the time to do these things.
Maybe once the cows go out in the spring things will quieten down a little bit.
Speaking of cows, they have spent the odd couple of nights out already this past couple of weeks, there must be something tasty down on the Monteach Mhor the gaelic name for our common grazings. (It means Big Peat Bog pronounced monchuck more) well anyway they have been out and it is good to get a little restbite from cleaning out sheds everynow and then.
But it has been really cold through the night, so the food to them must take priority over the cold.
My Heifer Molly lost her calf, the other day, it was such a struggle for her, he was a large Simmental calf, we had to get the vet out to help deliver him because she and we could not do it any more.
The Vet had special approval to come through the road works as the road has been closed every day for the past couple of weeks, because they are building a double track road instead of the old single track.
Unfortunatly it was to late for Molly, we worried about her in case she would not get up after the time she spent trying to deliver him, but she is a strong young cow and she got up after the vet gave her some injections.
Her mother Angela lost a calf also, a beautiful Limousin heifer with a white patch on her face, we called her Chainer which is gaelic for Fire.
But for some reason she would not suck and her mother did not want to feed her, we tried everything to keep her going, I sat with her from midday to late in the night, before she died.
I am heartbroken, so I will not dwell on it to much, because I find it hard to put it into words.
You put your heart and soul into them and you lose them with in a blink of and eye. Some people could not care less if their animals were well looked after or fed correctly, to them they are just a piece of meat with a price on their head.
Angela has been back and forward greiving for her lost child for the past couple of days, she will grieve less in time, just as we do.
Time is a great healer, and time is stretching on now, the days are getting longer, our Crocus's and Daffodil's have all sprouted up and flowering at the moment.
It's good to see a difference in the day.

Annual Sheep Judging Event

2008-02-04T15:23:00.000Z

We went to our local Auction Mart last Friday in Torlundy, to take part in the Sheep Judging Competition.
It was a horrid night when we set off from Arisaig the snow was falling quite fast, but by the time we got down to Lochailort about 8 miles away the weather cleared up, so it was a really enjoyable ride down to Fort William.

It was a little windy coming into Glenfinnan but nothing to bad, which makes a change from the past couple of weeks.

We got to Torlundy about 7:40 there was quite a large crowd of people there, some of the old die hards and a lot of youngsters, it is good to see the young ones taking part in the local events after all they are the future Farmers and Crofters, they need all the encouragement they can get.

These local events are not supported as well as they used to be, people never seem to be able to make the time as they have other comitments, all work and no play makes for a very dull land boring life.

The Judge was Mrs Rosemary MacLachlan from Strontian, the sheep were mainly Black face, there was an entry of Mules and an entry of Texals.
The event was really entertaining, you have to pick the same as the judges choice to enable you to get high scores.
There is a flock of 4 sheep in the ring say 4 rams, 4 ewes or 4 tups and so on.
Each sheep in the group of 4 has a coloured band.
ie: 1 will be Green which represents X, Yellow represents Y, Red represents A and Blue represents B.
For every one you match with the judges choice the more points you will get at the end of each round.
Well I managed to come 4th overall, and first in the women's section, which I was not expecting, I thought I had fluffed it, so I received the winners shied and a bottle of wine, which was really nice.
My husband won the hamper in the raffle draw, so we had a change in forture for once.
It's is nice to win something for your efforts even if it is only a rosette, but I was pleased, my father was also pleased, as he is a member of the Black Face Sheep Society, he said "Well all my talking about the sheep must have stuck in your head somewhere" so I think I will give him the credit for winning the Sheep Judging Competition.
Congratulations Dad for helping me to be a winner and making me what I am today.

31 turbulant days of January

2008-02-04T14:43:00.000Z

Well January is over with no sign of a let up in the weather.
We have had rain storms, thunder and lightning, snow, frost and back to the rain storms.
When will it all end, the land cannot stand much more of this, it is like a giant sponge, because the ground is very peaty, you sink down to the top of your wellingtons.
There is nothing more infuriating that trying to pull your foot out of the ground and you end up leaving your wellington behind, it is so energy draining when you are trying to do something.

The Burns (Streams) have been flooded most of the time, there is so much water coming off the mountain behind they just cannot take the water away fast enough.

The cows have spent most of the time in this month because most of them have young calves, or are about to calve.
They are better off in the dry sheds and not standing out mooning about. (No Pun intended)
They managed to get into the Croft park twice this past fortnight and still to this day we do not know how they managed to get through a gate that is secured, we think someone opened it and let them into the park, unfortunatly for us, the hay shed was open, they managed to get in and totaly desimate the front rows of hay bales, twice.

The price of feed any kind of feed has gone through the roof this past few months, I do not know how other people are coping, the consentrates are almost £60.00 a tonne above what they were last year, fertilizer has gone up to £300.00 per tonne someone is making a lot of money out of the agricultural sector, and it sure isn't us.

We had lightning storms a couple of weeks ago during the night, they were right over the house, I have never heard anything as loud when it banged, the collie dog was so frightened he nearly burst the bedroom door down to get in, he jumped on the bed and dived in between my husband and I and could not be moved for anything, what's the old saying two's company three's a croud and it sure was crowded in there.

We spent most of last weekend cleaning out the calves shed, it is no fun when it is wet and windy, it had to be done by pitch fork and took a good half a day to do, I now have muscles on top of the muscles I did not know I had.

Bob the Seagull has been back a few times, he is looking rather thin, he comes back for a feed when nothing else is available, we have two resident Crows that do not miss anything, as soon as they see me throw something out for Bob they are on it like vultures and do not take one piece at a time they shove as much in their beaks as they can carry, one gathers the other chases Bob, I hate them they are just greedy theives, none of the other birds get anything when they are around.
The fat chaffinches seem to do well out of the cows left over seeds from the hay, they never complain. We have a Robin that sits on the windowsill outside the kitchen tapping to let you know he is there, if the back door is left open he sneaks into the back hall where the dry dog food is kept in a bin and steals some, thank god the crows have not figured that out yet, give them time I am sure it will not be long.
Anyway we have had 31 turbulant January days things can only get better.

In with the new out with the old

2008-01-17T11:35:00.000Z

Well another year has come and gone by so fast that I am not sure if I blinked and missed most of 2007?
We had a very busy time during the Christmas holidays, I had two weeks holidays from my normal work, which I might add also passed very quickly.
We went to my husbands nephews place in Forth for Christmas dinner, his wife did an excellent job of making us feel welcome, she prepared a wonderful meal for everyone.
The children were all exited and had a great day too.
We did not stay as we had to get back to see to the animals, we arrived back late, the cattle & sheep were fed and watered for the night.
We spent a few days driving far and wide collecting feed for the animals, as I have said previously it is cheaper for us to transport ourselves sometimes, we do not mind it as it gets us out and about visiting with friends on the way, that we have not seen for a while.

On New Years day, we had my husbands sister and family over for dinner, it went without any hiccups, and past the day away, we were first footed by someone that works with my husband, he is dark complexion (from Portugal) a stranger, we have only known him about 7 weeks and he came bearing gifts, a box of chocolates for me, lets hope we have better luck this year.
In with the new and out with the old.

My husbands cousin died just after Christmas which was a shock to us all.
He was in hospital in Glasgow for a short time, he seemed to be picking up a bit, but we were told that a hospital bug got to him and he died on Sunday 6th Jan.
I had to take a couple of days off work as the funeral was going to be on the beautiful island of Uist just of the West coast of Scotland, as this was were he lived up until he died.
My husband had to catch the ferry from Uig in the early hours of Tuesday morning as the funeral was on the Wednesday, transportation to and from the islands is a bit scarce during the winter months, so he would have to travel back on Thursday.
I stayed at home and looked after the animals.
My husband said that he had not seen anything like it, when the coffin came over on the ferry to Uist late on Tuesday night from Barra there were at least 50 cars waiting on the Pier for the arrival of their now departed friend, brother, cousin, neighbour.
I suppose they all wanted to welcome one of their own back to the island for the last time.
He was a kind quiet man so I have been told, I never got the opportunity to meet him, we were supposed to visit him over Christmas in the hospital, but as usual, other things get in the way, of the smaller important things, so regretfully I never got to speak to him.
Time is always eaten up by what we feel is important at that moment, and then we have to live with the regrets later.
I know he will be sadly missed by a lot of people including my husband.
We have all been suffering from flu bugs at the moment, so things are a little harder to cope with as the bug is so debilitating, but never the less we soldier on, there are others out there who have worse lives than us and we should be grateful for the things we have in our lives.

Our neighbours had to have their dog put to sleep last Saturday, he was a beautiful friendly collie called Max, they are so distressed with the lost, I feel for them, it is like losing a child, companion and friend all in one go.
Our collie always jumps up at the back window of the car when we pass by their house to see if Max is out and running along the fence line, which is what he liked to do when cars passed by his house, he is still jumping up at the window hoping for a glimpse as he has no idea that Max is no longer there.
We will miss him also, as he always gave us a warm welcome when we paid a visit to the family.
We have lost two collies in the past few years, even though they are not there in body they will always be in our hearts.

So over this past Christmas and New Year period it has been busy here in Arisaig.

Maybe you will join me through the next year of our lives.
I look forward to you visiting again where ever you may be.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-20T15:38:00.000Z

My Husband and I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2008.

I would like to thank those of you who do spend a little time reading my ramblings.
But I also get great pleasure out of reading back some of the things I have jotted down, it is like a diary for me, only a diary that has no secrets.

To all of our friends old and new who have taken time to read and comment.
Merry Christmas may you all have Good Health, Peace & Harmony.
We hope good fortune shines upon you all for the coming year ahead.

Kindest Regards

Anne & Hughie Creag Mhor

Boiling Pots & Dolly Tubs

2007-12-20T15:13:00.000Z

Well it's that time of year again, no not Christmas although it soon will be.
No that time of year when the weather is cold enough to freeze the crown jewels off a monkey.
We have had such a cold snap since Tuesday our water to the house has frozen solid.
We are back to the old ways of fetching and carrying water from the burn until it thaws.
We installed a 62mm Dia plastic pipe three years ago so we would not have this problem again we hoped.
But like all things that are sent to try us, it failed!!!

I have never known it to be so cold so fast, we used to have a few hours in the morning of frozen pipes until the heat of the now turned sun would thaw things a little bit, but not this year.

So we are back to the old ways of "Boiling Pots & Dolly Tubs " Boiling water to wash everything, including ourselves in the Dolly tub in the kitchen, it reminds me of the days as a child sitting in front of the open fire in the old tin bath on a Sunday night, in those days we used to bathe once a week in the bath and then have a good old wash down in the evenings in the kitchen pot sink.

I forget how much we take things for granted, then suddenly we are hindered by the slightest thing, because we are not joined up to the village mains water.
Our water comes from the burn, which I might say taste absolutely beautiful, even more so when it is freezing cold.

Well it is one of life's oh so small burdens for us, as we can buy water from the shops, not so for the poor souls in the countries where they could not even find clean water any where to drink let alone wash in.
So I will not grumble about our loss, I'll just keep boiling Pots and washing in the Dolly Tub for now.

Double Trouble

2007-12-08T18:39:00.000Z

Well as usual you set your stall out to do something and sods law steps in and turns everything upside down. Bonny one of the cows that was due to calve went into labour in the early evening. We sat with her until 2:30am as I wanted to video the birth for those of you who had never seen a calf being born.

We decided to take a break and go for a cup of tea, as she looked as though she was going to be a little while yet.
Low and behold there he was on the floor of the calving stall when we went back 20 minutes later. She decided she did not want an audience, well he is beautiful we called him Cocoa as he is a deep chocolate colour, his father is a Limousin called Ronwick Hawk.
Well we thought we would wait for the second calf to be born a couple of days later and try again, but Dolly decided to go it alone and showed no signs of calving, when we went in to the Byre the morning after, my husband thought it was Cocoa laying in the parlour, but then he saw Cocoa having his morning drink, he realised it was Dolly's calf, we called her Pal as she is the double of an old cow we used to have but she die 3 years ago at the ripe old age of 20,
she used to be the leader.
Maybe Pal two will take that roll on when she gets older?
Pal's father is a Simmental called Dernean Jacob.
So videos unfortunately will have to wait for the next one later this month.

But I have a couple of pictures.

Cocoa .........................Pal

They have become best buddies, Cocoa follows Pal around everywhere, where there is one you are usually sure to find the other.
They have taken it upon them selves to investigate the feed store in the mornings especially if your back is turned.
Pal is like quick draw MacGraw, she fires her back legs out so quick if you blink you will miss it, She does it in a playful kind of way, like a child that does not like being told what to do.
At the moment they think it is great fun to annoy the Jack Russell, who does not take kindly to being sniffed and jumped around, so the skulks off swearing away to him self.
The Collie on the other hand loves the attention, he can be found quite often licking their faces, particularly after they have had a drink of milk.
I love watching them charging around the Byre, when they are outside everything is new to them, each day brings a new adventure for them something else to discover.
They are both fit and healthy.
God bless mother nature for the miracle of life and our double troubles.

Not enough hours in the day

2007-11-23T14:05:00.000Z

Sometimes I wonder where the days go?
Since the clocks went back it has been none stop.
We both work full time and run the croft as well.
So other things have to take a back seat in the Winter months because there are not enough daylight hours to do the jobs you want to do in the evening.
So for us most weekends are used as catch up days.
Unfortunately for us this has been impossible too as we have for the past three weekends been at our work.
My husband is a full time Fencing Contractor and at the moment he is busy until way after Christmas in the local vicinity thank heavens, this would cause even more work if he was away from home at the moment.
I on the other hand work in Fort William which is a good 35 miles from home, my stores department is going through a refit so I am having to work weekends to get it into shape.

The cattle are all in through the night they started coming in about a fortnight ago.

My husbands father used to have an old saying "better a dry back than a full belly", which I think is so true, they thrive a lot better indoors when the weather is like this.

We have been getting up at 5:30 in the morning to feed the cattle and clean them out, my husband lets them out before he goes to work, he is back home before me in the evening and feeds them in their stalls when they come back in, by the time we have fed the cows, sheep & dogs it is between 8:30 & 9:00pm before we sit down to feed ourselves.

For the past few weeks we have seen nothing but rain and wind, this week has been really kind of mild for the year.

Last week our burns and fields flooded because the water could not get away quick enough, we had Geese and Ducks floating around in what was supposed to be our fields.

But last night it was really cold, my fingers where stinging they felt like frozen sausages.

Well the cows are loving it indoors on a night the calves think they are on holiday.
We have a young calf we called rump ramp romp, he is always last in and last out, he will not go out until he gets his bucket of nuts on a morning, he spends most of the day on his own, although I have noticed that he has started to play about with a much younger calf of late.
Friendship at last from one of his own kind.
His mother does not seem to bother with him, that is until her udder is full, but she can call as much as she likes, he makes her come to him, after all she does not bother with him the rest of the time, it's probably his way of getting revenge on her for ignoring him the rest of the time.

The lambs are getting used to us being around them, the tup craigy is so demanding, when you go in the byre he starts butting the gate and clambering up on the rails to get a scratch on the chin, Poppit one of the Ewe lambs has started taking food from my hand, she stamps her feet on the ground to let you know she is waiting for you to give her a titbit.
The other two lambs are still a bit nervous, but they will come around, they always do.

We are waiting for two calves to be born, one was due on the 20th the other 22nd but as usual they will come when you are really busy or least expect it.
The old crofters used to say the cows usually go with the full moon, if that is the case we should have action stations tonight, I will keep you posted.
I have just purchased a new camera that does movies, if I can manage to figure it out and it is not to dark I am going to try and film the birth and post it for those of you who have not seen a calf being born. fingers crossed.
Anyway must crack on there is not enough hours in the day to sit playing on this all day.

Updates

2007-10-30T12:26:00.000Z

It's been a while since I last put anything on the blog.

We have been so busy over the last few months.

We have managed to finish our new hay shed just in time for the winter hay delivery.

Once again the weather was with us when the hay arrived.

The two hay men are from Stirling and the hay smells absolutely wonderful.

This was the hay we saw being bailed a few weeks before in the fields.

I love the smell of fresh hay, it conjours up all sorts of memories from my childhood.

The hay men stayed for lunch, and we had what they call in the Highlands a good old cheildh (natter or gossip to the outside world).

The weather on the west coast has been a bit hit and miss, sometimes it is glorious other times the heavens open and it pours it down for days on end.

This is a great hindrance when you are trying to do anything.

We have kept two heifers back this year to add to the herd as some of the older cows will have to go away, we also put the young calf in with them who lost his mother a few months ago.

We called him Tefal, I thought he had a big head but he turned out to be a rather nice calf as did they all.

He cried for his mother for days on end, but the heifers soon settled him down.

We are going to winter him, so he will have a good life while he is here after his turbulent start.

He can be quite cheeky when he wants he looks at you with those large doleful eyes and my heart just melts.

The heifers have been good to him and looked after him, usually they can be bullies with the younger calves but I must say all three have been really quiet easily handled calves.

We called the heifers Joanna and Beauty.

Joanna has a striking resemblance to a cow we used to have except she is soft natured her name sake used to be rather crabby.

She is a lovely Red colour, Beauty is jet black and she also is soft natured.

They like nothing more than a good brush, they would stand there all day and let you brush them if you let them.

Love is in the Air

2007-10-30T10:31:00.001Z

Myran

Claire & Sharon
Time waits for no man and things will move on even if you are ready or not.
Well it's that time of year again, and our Cheviot's are in the mood for love.
We have managed to acquire a beautiful ram who we have called Raf.
He is a two shear and stands well, he has a great set of horns which is sometimes unusual in a Cheviot ram.
He has been chosen to serve our Cheviot's this year.
He is quite a handsome chap and I hope they feel the same way too.

Already Claire has been served so that is one down two to go.
To some it may be a bit of a laugh as we only have three in the foundation flock but last years ewe lambs have come on in leaps and bounds, they are the next generation and anyway we love them all.
The Tup Ram who we called Creag Mhor has already started to show great potential.
He is really friendly and loves nothing more than a good old chin scratch.
We will miss him when he has to go away, but we are not letting him go anywhere for the present.
Poppit, Babs & Teeny the ewe lambs are still a little timid but they are all little beauties.

They were all rather noisy when we seperated them from their mothers, but that was only to be expected, just like any child would cry when they are taken away from their parent.

The Highlands & the Islands

2007-09-17T09:59:00.000Z

Where to start.
Lets start with the Highlands.
We have been so busy this past couple of months time seems to have slipped past us so quickly.

The country has been hit with foot & mouth restrictions again, which is devastating in it's self, but for those of us who rely on the cattle & sheep sales at this time of year it is absolutely sole destroying.
Our livestock sales at this time of year help to support our winter months feed bills and such, so like everyone else in the country we will all be feeling the pinch at the moment, you can only pull your belts in so far.
A lot of the farming industry like ourselves will be feeding livestock already as the grass is scares due to the torrential rain we have been having of late in the east and west of Scotland.
Our fields are holding water which is making it impossible to even put round bales out with the tractor.
I suppose the festival goers would love all that mud, but not our animals or us.
Some farmers cannot even move animals across the road to fresh pastures because of the restrictions, so they have been feeding earlier than ever this year.
Lets hope the industry can get back from this without to much hardship.

On the Croft.
We have been busy trying to complete an extension on the Byre for feed storage, it has been slow going because of the weather, but we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, most of the hold ups are due to deliveries of materials, because we are in such a remote area the suppliers cannot guarantee when we will receive anything, this is because they like to try and fill their delivery wagons up for one big run rather than a half loaded wagon.
Then again they cannot fill the wagons to much as we have three small bridges on the road to Arisaig which all have height restrictions on them.
At the moment there is a new road widening project on the go for about ten miles of the single track road, we were told originally that the three bridges would be altered to take the new European standard wagons, but for some reason this has been put on the back burner, so we will get a wider road but we still will not get a good full sized hay delivery because of the bridge heights, well we live in hope that this will all change sooner rather than later.

The Islands
A couple of weeks ago my husband and I went out to Eriskay a beautiful island off the west coast of Scotland.
My husband had a job to do for a friend out there.
The weather was warm but not hot, which was better as if it had been to hot we would not of got to much done.
We took a ferry from Mallaig to Armadale on Skye, then from Uig on the other side of Skye to Lochmaddy on Uist.
The sea crossing was calm on both occasions and the scenery was beautiful.
We did not arrive into Eriskay until late so it was to dark to see much.
The next day we cracked on with the fence that my husband was out there to do, the ground is mostly rock in some places but once he found the sweet spots as they say he was on a roll.
We went out for a meal in the evening to the Pallahar Inn in South Uist it was delicious and we certainly had worked up an appetite.
My husband took me to meet some of his relatives on the island, his mother was from Eriskay originally before she settled on the mainland, so there are still quite a lot of relations still out there.
The people on the island are so warm and welcoming nothing is a bother to them, they all made me feel welcome too as it was my first visit to the islands, they were all pleased to see him as it had been 11 years since he was last out there.
We went to see my husbands Aunt Margaret and her son Iain, who gave us some of his home grown organic Maris Piper potatoes, he gathered the seaweed for fertilizer from the beach himself.
I can say they were the best potatoes I have tasted in a long while, not like the supermarket potatoes that are all battered and bruised by the time they reach the shop.
Iain's mother was in fine form, a woman of 85 years of age who to me seems as though she had a hard but rewarding life, nothing will come easy working and living on the outer isles even back in her younger days there will have been great struggles in life, it was nice to meet them both, in such a warm and relaxing atmosphere.
We also went to visit my husbands other cousin Joe and his Wife Marie ann.
He was not expecting us as we had told no one that we were going out to the islands, so it was a surprise for him to see us standing on his door step.
We spent quite a time there as they had a lot of catching up to do, but a thoroughly enjoyable evening mostly talking about the "good old days"
I myself would like to say thank you to all of the people we met and who made us welcome, let's hope the next visit is not as short as the last, but not so long till we are back.

Make Hay whilst the Sun shines

2007-09-05T15:05:00.000Z

Well the weather has been a bit hit and miss during the past couple of weeks in Arisaig
Some days have been absolutely glorious and others, well you would think Autumn was coming in early.
As the weather was good my husband and I went down to Stirling last week to see the chap who we purchase our hay from.
Both himself and his wife were furiously making hay whilst the sun shone.
His wife was driving the tractor & hay bailer, whilst he was driving a loadall machine with a telescopic arm that could pick up eight square bales of hay at a time and stack them on top of one another.
We could see well covered haystacks all over the land.
His wife continued on whilst we had our trailer loaded up by her husband.
There is nothing that beats the smell of freshly cut hay.
They had been working none stop to gather the hay before the bad weather set in, if I might say so they were doing a fine job.
It is a long time since I sat and watched a square hay bailer in action.
In those days not so long ago the square bails dropped into a bed all higgledy piggledy, now the bed on the back of the bailer sorts them out into a kind of shoot once the eight shoots are full the back door opens and they are left behind in a nice neat squre.
The loadall comes along with the special grab that fits over the top of the bails collecting all eight bales in one go, which are then stacked on top of each other.
I think they were five rows high I could not be sure as I was busy trying to keep the dogs away from a prospective lamp post as you might say.
In the past men worked on the pile of bails stacking them by hand, I remember my father coming home with husks stuck in his back from lifting the bails and stacking them, my mother used to spend half the night taking the husks out of his skin.
Them days always seemed to be long hot and dry, these days we seem to have to race more against the weather.
We sat for a while our host had a flask of tea and home baking in a picnic basket, which in true Highland tradition we delightfully excepted, we were talking about the price of feed and the demands already being made for it, all the while we were watching the hay bailer, tractor and his wife working away in perfect harmony.
I could have sat and watched all day but unfortunately we did not have the time and we did not want to hold back the workers when they are trying to beat the weather.
The animal feed will be in short supply this year what with the flooding down South and the East coast not growing well either because of the wet climate.
We got home not to late and unloaded the trailer, the next day we put some of the bails out for the cattle and sheep it smells beautiful.
As they say the proof is in the pudding, our animals are fussy and will not eat just anything, they never left a bit so looks like they have given the Creag Mhor seal of approval.

Screaming out load

2007-08-13T09:09:00.000Z

Where do I start today?
I have been walking around in limbo since Saturday morning.
It all started in the early hours but we were unaware of a problem until we got up at 6:30am.
We have been rebuilding our feed store as the old one was getting past it's sell by date and has more leaks than Wales.
So we were keen to get going as soon as the light came in.
My husband got up to make a cup of tea then came running in to the bedroom saying he thought the old cow was dead as he can see a cow laying on her back with legs in the air.
We rushed to get dressed and jumped in the car, our road is an old dirt track road with large pot holes on it so we would probably have been faster running.
On the way down we passed the old cow a white Charolais called Snowy chewing the cud on the road side.
As we drove through the heard our minds were rushing trying to place which cow was missing.
Then I saw the orphan, his name is Tefal he is coming up for five months old, he was stood on the side of the road with his head hanging and calling every so often with a mournful heart breaking sound for his mother.
It was Pearl our three year old Simmental cow white and golden orange coloured patched.
She was laid in the middle of the dirt track with her legs in the air.
Her calf was running up and down the road calling all the time for his mother.
We ran to call the vet, he said he would come up as soon as possible, it is an eighty mile round trip for him to get to us.
Meanwhile we went back down and covered her with a tarpaulin.
The vet arrived later in the day, my husband called in on our neighbour and asked if he would bury her for us, he kindly said yes, his son came down with the digger.
In Scotland in certain places we are still allowed to bury our cattle because of the difficulty removing them from the peat bogs and so forth, so I was quite relieved when we were told we could bury her at home.
The vet thought that she had an eptopic pregnancy which burst one of her main blood vessels, she would not have felt a thing as she seemed to drop where she stood with out a struggle.
I could not take it all in she came up to me at the fence the previous night with her mother for a scratch behind the ear, she did not show any signs of illness or that anything was wrong, I wanted someone to explain to me why my young cow had died, without seeing anything.
The vet said we would not have been able to do anything for her it was so sudden.
My husband said he supposed it is like humans some are born to live to a great age some are born to die with out reason.
Our neighbour started to dig the hole after the vet had taken samples from Pearl.
He said he was sorry for us as he knows how much we care about our animals and left.
I could not stand to watch our young cow being put into a hole in the ground.
I walked away and left my husband and neighbour to do the dark deed.
As I was walking back up the track towards the house Tefal came running down the road again calling for his mother, I could not help it I broke down into floods of tears my heart was wrenched by this pitiful baby without his mother.
I heard myself screaming out load until I could not scream any longer what a waste what a sad sad waste.
He is still mourning for his mother this morning poor soul, but he will be spoiled by me his surrogate mother, I will watch out for him.
All of the heard went out on to the common grazing's by Pearls grave last night they lay down around about it, it's funny how they do that for a while like they are saying good bye then after a couple of days they leave.
It will take a little time to get over the shock of loosing Pearl but I will have her calf to keep me busy and occupied.
We never got much done in the end on Saturday as neither of us could concentrate on the job, I ended up hitting my thumb with the hammer so hard I nearly fainted, instead I let it all out the pain the loss the heartbreak, the deep scream from within, my husband grabbed me and hugged me, it does not mend anything but it makes you feel someone is there to catch you when you fall.

Waiting with baited breath

2007-08-06T11:23:00.000Z

We heard this weekend that there has been an outbreak of the deadly disease Foot & Mouth again.
It appears to have broken out in the Guilford area in Surrey England.
We were supposed to be attending the Agricultural show in Lorn near Oban on Saturday the 4th Aug but we received a call from one of the organisers late on Friday evening telling us that there has been a movement restriction put on all Cattle, Sheep & Pigs because of a suspected outbreak.
Well we watched the news bulletins all through the night to find out what we could, I know we are a long way from Surrey but this disease can spread so quickly if not controlled straight away.
This time all movements were banned as soon as the outbreak was confirmed not like last time when shows and sales were still going on.
Millions of animals were slaughtered needlessly because of panic by the government agencies.
Hopefully it will have been stopped in it's tracks.
I think all the Agricultural sector at this time will be waiting with baited breath to see what happens in the next 10 - 14 days.
I don't think many more of us could stomach another catastrophe like the last one.
It will be even harder this time if it does get out as we are going into the Autumn quarter of the year soon and the animals will require feed and if movements are still suspended that means we will be feeding surplus animals through the winter because we cannot sell them until the movement bans are lifted.
We have been told by the press agencies that the outbreak is suspected to have come from a Government testing laboratory 3-4 miles away from the outbreak.
Isn't that ironic, we are penalised and jumped on from a great height if our quality procedures are not adhered to in any way and the government let the most vicious of bacteria escape from their laboratories who will penalise them I ask myself?
So we are all praying that this is a one off incident and no more outbreaks will show up, but god help us if it gets hold.
I worry about people traveling up on holiday over the border from the south this disease is an airborne virus and can travel for miles.
It all has a knock on effect even to tourism which parts of our area depend on.
In our area most of the livestock is on small farms and crofts, this would mean devastation for our area if it broke out here.
We just seemed to get back on to an even keel and import, exports on the go again when bang we are dropped from a great plateu into darkness again.
If this is our governments fault they will have a lot to answer for by the agricultural industry.

The Wanderer Returns

2007-07-23T08:35:00.000Z

The Wanderer being our Belgian Blue cross called Bella.
She takes to wandering off like a nomad, not exactly part of the heard but always there or there abouts.
We bought her about three years ago with a calf at foot, she is so placid and easy to handle you would think she had been here all of her life.
Well she returned with a beautiful brown and white bullock calf on Saturday his father is a Charolais called Simpsons Greag.
She was about a week early but I am not complaining he is so pretty.
We called him Jocky he has a brown spot on the side of his cheek and two ringled eyes as they say up here which means that his eyes have rings around them.
I struck up the lawn mower and over she came for the cuttings.
That is her party piece, it does not matter where she is if she hears the lawn mower from anywhere home she comes for the free dinner.
She is so fly that she will walk around the back of the heard and come in the long way round so that they do not see her and she does not have to share, the others have not twigged as yet but it will not be long before they do.
We could not see the calf later in the morning and went out to look for him in the park.
There he was curled up in a small ball in amongst the tall grass all that you could see was a little piece of white from his forehead.
If you did not know he was there you would have walked straight past him.
I always find it amazing how the cows manage to hide their calves so cleverly.
Well I have a couple of pictures so I will post them later on this evening.
I really must get my act together and post the pictures for you to see.

Gathering Winter Fuel

2007-07-16T12:00:00.000Z

It only seems like 5 minutes that I last entered something on my blog.
But there you go life on the Croft has been so busy that I do not have as much time as I would like to dedicate to putting thoughts down.
So I have a bit of catching up to do with myself.
We were cutting Peat in the late spring on the Croft it is a great alternative to coal & oil for us in the winter.
It is hard work but rather rewarding in the end, just imagine on a cold winters night you sitting in front of a raging fire with a distinct smell that only peat gives out wafting around the room.
Peat cutting is almost extinct in our neck of the woods, I think there is only one other Croft doing it, the chap is in his 90's and still cuts peat, a hardy character and not many of them left.
Peat gathering used to be a great annual event for the crofters, everyone used to help one another gather but no-one seems to bother much now, maybe they find it to hard work for very little gain, why bother when they can buy fuel from a merchant instead without the hardship.
The tool used is called a toirsgian (pronounced treshcan) it is a Gaelic word which I believe means peat knife.

We have been rather fortunate with the weather this year and managed to get the peat dry rather faster than usual.
Peat as I said earlier is cut with the toirsgian which is a long wooden handled tool that has a thin metal blade on the end of it, on the left side of the blade as you look down on it there is a right angle piece of blade pointing outwards away from you, there is a small notch on the right this is used rather like a spade, you use your right foot to push the blade into the peat which is a little strange to get used to as we all tend to use left foot to push a spade into the ground.
It is far better if two of you gather peat as it is quicker and easier.
Firstly you have to remove the heather and other plant life from the top of the peat.
The toirsgian is pushed into the peat, the toirsgian cuts a brick shaped block of peat about 10" long depending on the size of the blade you have, the user then passes the block of peat over to the collector who uses a fork to pick the peat up and then place the peat in a gathering area, it is spaced out to dry for a short while turning it every so often so that it is dried on all sides, then placed into
stacks which are shaped rather like huts.

Once they are dried out the shrink to about half the original size, they are gathered up and stored away in our old byre for the winter.
We give a few bags to some of our older neighbours as they love the smell of peat, and as I said it has a distinct smell, the older folk reminisce about bygone days and old friends passed.
I too love the aroma especially at Christmas time it makes the season feel more festive.

Road to the Isles Sheep Champion

2007-06-18T13:33:00.000Z

Myran Creag Mhor & Creag Mhor himself.

Meet the new overall Sheep champion of the Road to the Isles Agricultural Show.
This was her second outing, her Tup lamb Creag Mhor was second in his class and they make a perfect unit.
It is the first time in the Agricultural Shows 12 years history that a Cheviot has ever won the overall Sheep Champion, this honour is normally bestowed on the Black Face Sheep.
We entered her with her first lamb, she was so well behaved and stood with grace and elegance, I was so surprised as to how well they behaved, I was even more surprised to lift the coveted Trophy.
She was breed on Skye, by Mr & Mrs C Carter of Sarsar Farm in Waternish on the Isle of
Skye, her Sire was owned by Mrs Joyce Campbell of Armadale. Sharon & Claire who were also from the same flock came 2nd & 3rd in their class so we were ecstatic
We spent all of the day before clipping and washing all three sheep and four lambs.
They were like white clouds when we finished with them.
I went into the Byre the next morning to find them all lying down except for Creag Mhor the Tup.
He was trampling all over their backs with his dirty hoofs, he causes so much havoc for such a small thing.
He has even started jumping on my car bonnet he thinks it is great fun to jump on anything and everything at the moment.

Bye Bye Babies

2007-06-06T11:16:00.000Z

We said good bye to some of our babies on the 1st June 2007.
It was time for some of our cattle to go to market which is the bit I always hate.
I know you are supposed to be hard and some people would say money orientated, but I would keep them all if I could.
We had two bullocks and three heifers plus a three year old Charolais Cross cow in calf to a Limousin Ronwick Iceman.
We spent most of the previous night washing and clipping them, just spending our final hours with them as we always do, talking to them and brushing them up, I now it sounds foolish but that's what we do and I think it settles them down a little bit as they know something is going on.
They are all around about the 9mth old mark and all well behaved.

Trudy the Charolais was the choice between two cows, we have not got enough room for her and she would not tie in a stall.
She is a bit of a bully with the younger ones and was not frightened to put her head down to you on the odd occasion so we decided to keep old faithful.
She held herself well in the ring and we got a very good price for her, even though my heart sank when the hammer went down.
The good thing is we always make a point of finding out where they are going and who is getting them, she is going to be kept as a breeding cow so I was really happy that she will be going to a new home.

Jasmine was the other one I would have liked to keep, she is a simmental cross, chocolate brown in colour with white patches all over, she is really placid and spoiled.
They were all bidding on her everyone likes a coloured cow, she did best of all in the ring.
She also went to a good home for a breeding cow.
All the Heifers will be used for breeding cows, unfortunately my boys will end up the way all boys do.
We said our final good byes after they had all been sold and told them to be good.
I hate walking away from them I feel like a mother abandoning her children, or having them torn away from me.
Sometimes I feel so empty after they have gone, because you are always looking for them amongst the heard.
It is usually quiet in the car on the way home as we are lost for words.

I always remember my first cattle sale on the way home it was hell, I had a black Aberdeen Angus Cross called Prince, he was Angela's son, he had preformed really well around all of the local Agricultural shows we got a couple of reserve champions with him.
When it was his turn to go to market I cried all night, he had been my pet, always there around your feet.
When he came running into the ring, he slammed on the anchors and looked at all of the faces watching him, he spotted me in the crowd and bellowed continuously until he went out, he never took his eyes of me.
I left the ring with him and followed him to his pen.
I clapped him, brushed him and talked to him, I think he was as heartbroken as I was.
My husband said it was time to go we went to the car I could hear Prince calling they were loading him onto the wagon he spotted me on the way up the ramp, he ran to the back of the wagon and poked his nose out of the little slats on the side, calling all of the time for me to come and get him.
I will never forget how hard it was to walk away from him, I cried for 4 days solid and could not sleep or eat, I still have a little tear for him even whilst I am putting this down in words.
It is the worst thing in the world to feel loss even if it is an animal.
But even if it is only an animal they can give you as much pleasure and happiness than some human beings can.
I would like to think that I am a guardian to all of the animals that are in my care, and as such I have a responsibility to be kind, gently and compassionate towards them.
What we sow in life we will be rewarded for in Heaven as my nan used to say.