A new year

 Happy New Year! 

Feeding sheep on cold winter's mornings

Frosty ground and a dusting of snow on the hill behind Ensay 

New feed buckets 

One each 

Waiting.. waiting..

Hungry hens on ground covered with hail 

Breakfast view, January 8th

The Aurora tree in the morning 

Afternoon light 

View from the Shepherd's Hut

View of the Shepherd's Hut 

Morning light, 5th January 

That wonderful winter blue sky

That wonderful winter night sky 

And a strong Aurora lighting up the sky, to the east and the south and the west

Putting the hoggs through the fank

December days

 

November notes

I am writing this in late December, the ground is saturated from a lot of rain, and I had forgotten until I looked through the photographs I had made in November that we actually had some good weather!  So much so, there were several days I was able to fly my drone.

The annual Scottish Blackface Breeders Association Stockjudging competition was held at Fidden Farm near Fionnphort this year.   It was well attended, and lots of young families which was lovely to see.  It was the weekend, and the teenagers from the Ross of Mull (normally at school in Oban during the week) were out in force.  

There wasn't much room round the ring for taking photographs this time, but I did sneak off when the raffle was being drawn and flew my drone over some of the (closed for winter) camping ground.  What a beautiful place.  Erraid is the island in the background - you can see the row of cottages built by the Stevensons to house the builders who worked on the epic construction of Skerryvore Lighthouse.  They used Ross of Mull granite from nearby quarries. 

Back home and I flew the drone a few times, over the Treshnish shoreline and also at Calgary. 

I was in Tobermory one calm morning, and flew the drone over the walled garden in Aros Park.   This is the view over the treetops in Aros Park towards Tobermory Bay. 

We had some cold weather too! 

In mid November the first tups went out. The Suffolk tup went out with the field of Cheviot ewes, and our new Herdwick tup went out with the Herdwick ewes. 

The female lambs (hoggs) born in the spring of 2024 will grow into next year's young breeding ewes.  They are in the shed now.  Inside they 'learn' to feed - to eat sheep nuts and hay.  

Nuts and hay are not their normal diet and it is important that they know how to eat it, so that in future if they ever need to be brought in to the shed due to illness they will know what the nuts and hay are.   That way we can look after them better. 

 

Autumnal October

After lamb sales, it is time to think about tups.  Have we got enough?   We have 3 different flocks of sheep - and they each need new blood every now and then.  

We bought a Suffolk tup from Lettermore on the side of Loch Frisa, a handsome Herdwick from James Rebanks in Cumbria but we still needed several Blackface tups.  

We went up to Glengorm and bought a tup from there, and we bought one from the Dalmally Tup Sale.  Then our friend RM gave us a tup she didn't need any more. So we had all we need. 

Still days.  Some sunny, some not.  

And some very strong auroras.  99% of Aurora activity is seen to the north but on this particular night the activity was so strong, we could see it to the west (as in these photographs) and the south. These pink rays were visible to the naked eye.