Down on last year.

We sold the lambs on Tuesday. Some reached a fair price, the rest didn't.  Prices were down on last year and some pens of lambs did well but others prices were very poor for no apparent reason. We had more lambs to sell than last year, which was good, but it was depressing (to say the least) to see good lambs go for very little.  An average overall similar to the price we got in 1995...so no new hat for the Farmer's wife this year.

On Wednesday, Prasad took me to look at the Broad Leaved Helleborine. I would never have found it on my own.  This plant was growing next to a fallen tree on the steepest bit of the wood, prone to landslides.

Another site nearby - the Birds Nest Orchid. It hasn't flowered this year - this is last year's flower.

Prasad showed me the root of another, and you could really see where the name comes from - its grassy root - in this blurred photograph.  No sign of a flower on this one, but a good example of the root.

Another Broad leaved Helleborine flowering near the Birds nest Orchid.

The chip store floor has been repaired now, and the marine ply we have used will hopefully last a lot longer than the original floor did!  The circular plate in the photograph below is the top of the mechanism that turns the 2 black 'arms' which push wood chip into the main feed auger and thence into the boiler.

A few lambs to go to the next sale in the field behind Shian and Duill. They wouldn't fit on the lorry on Tuesday.

Jamie came in to shear the roughies that had come in at the last gather.  14 of them! Farmer was a little embarrassed that they had missed them at shearing time, but I was pleased to 'find' them for the livestock records!

The heather is still flowering beautifully.

This pair of zwartble lambs came across the boundary cattle grid from Ensay. They looked so guilty! They have now been returned across the burn.

We are very pleased to have been chosen as one of 7 farms in Scotland to take part in a nutrient monitoring project. We don't know too much about it yet, but I am hoping it will give us a much better idea of the carbon footprint of the farming business and hopefully help us do things in a more sustainable way.