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. 

 

A chance at summer

After a pretty wet summer September has given us some warmth and lovely dry days.  

September is a busy month on the farm.  Long days in the fank sorting lambs in preparation for the weekly or fortnightly trips to market in Oban.  Early starts loading lambs into the livestock trailer, setting off in the almost dark to catch the ferry, along with dozens of other farmers and crofters heading in the same direction, with the same goal.   With each journey back from Oban the fields are emptier and the transition to the winter slowly begins. 

The latest farm biodiversity contract we have with the Scottish Government started this spring, and allows us to make silage any time after the 1st of August.  

Over the last few years we have noticed that the fields seem to be more fertile than they were a few years in to managing the grazing.  We have realised that we were almost being too protective of the fields, and the late cut silage we have made for decades has been quietly increasing the fertility of the grazing.  The other change is that by cutting so late in the summer we seem to be encouraging plants like Meadowsweet and Knapweed, which flower later on - the early summer flowers are being throttled by the secondary flush of grass growth. 

Being able to make silage in August rather than September, was, we hoped, going to allow the early flowering plants to successfully set seed, before the usual flush of late summer grass growth.   However the weather in August did not give us the chance to find out if this was going to make a difference!  After a very wet month we finally made silage in the Haunn field on the 31st August.  It will be another year before we see if it makes any difference. 

Still days, warm air and sea haar. 

Clear sky nights with wonderful Aurora visible with the naked eye. 

At the end of September our last guests of the season stayed in the Shepherd's Hut.  It is closed now, water turned off and the bath put away until the spring. 

This last photograph is the skull of a large Cod, found on the shore by F and N, a couple from the Netherlands who are great friends of Treshnish.  What an extraordinary find.