New rooves for Middle and West

Hugely grateful to JP, AP, and IMcD who did a fantastic job on replacing the rooves of Middle and West.  Don't they look great?  March 2025. 

 

April moments

 

A new month, a new year

Farmer got ahead of himself after New Year and had the sheep through the fank and back to the hill quite quickly.   This involves bringing all the sheep in from the fields where they have been over the 6 weeks of the middle winter.  The tups are taken off, and the ewes given a health check, complete with a drench and a mineral bolus (slow release tablet).  The soil here is deficient in magnesium selenium and copper so we have been giving them a bolus every year for a long time, and they are stronger for it. 

In the shed Farmer is continuing to feed the hoggs (last year's female lambs/next year's new breeding females).  In the last few days he has been sorting the extras out, and selecting the ones he wants to sell at Tuesday's sale in Oban.  

We also sell the older tups at this time of year.  Sometimes we swop with a neighbour but this year they are going to market.   The remaining tups are in the field beside Shian and Duill - they hang around the gate waiting for a man with a bag (the feed bag), and once they have had their daily ration they wander off to the extremities of the field grazing.  

Weather wise the year so far has had some lovely calm days, so still and quiet -and then some pretty wild ones.  No snow yet but there is snow forecast tonight, so time will tell.  

The Snowdrops are flowering beautifully in the farmhouse garden. 

The cloudy nights don't make spotting the Aurora Borealis very easy.  But actually it is not just the weather - there just hasn't been as much activity this winter as in previous winters, and they haven't been as strong.  Still - the moon is just as bright, and the stars and Milky Way are magical. 

The new year did not get off to a good start for wildlife, with the tragic live stranding of a Cuvier's Beaked Whale.  These are deep water whales and not often seen close to shore.    It was nacropsied by scientists from SMASS and found to have died as a result of parasitic nematodes.  Tragic.  The Coastguard were involved in protecting the body before it was covered up as they are considered toxic.   By the time I heard about it, it had already been covered up.  

Last night/this morning there was a full lunar eclipse and the internet this morning is filled with glorious photographs of blood red moons and eclipsed shapes of moon going into the shadow of the earth.  Sadly we had cloud, so I managed only a photograph from the back door of the super moon as it rose in the early evening. 

Off they go

I don't know where the time goes.  I suppose I have been head down sorting out photographs for an exhibition next month when I should have been blogging! I cannot believe I have written so few this summer - perhaps no one has noticed though, or perhaps there is a sense of relief that I haven't posted as many.  Hopefully this one will be a bit of a catch up on the last 3 weeks!

August has been a mixed month weather-wise.  There have been some astonishingly beautiful days, and there have been some pretty dreadful ones.  At least there is solace in the fact that our visitors have lovely comfortable surroundings if they decide to stay in on the wet and rainy days!

The Salen Show this year was on a wetter day than I can remember but the almost tropical downpours (at times) didn't dampen the spirit of the day - everyone was in waterproofs and there were lots of umbrellas, to go with the smiling faces!  Farmer helped J showing his Cheviots, and he won the Overall Sheep Champion, as well Show Reserve which was very exciting!

Unfortunately our beautiful Silver laced Wyandotte hens didn't recover from the summer moult in time for us to show them.  I hope their timing is better next year!

Farmer has been busy catching up with mowing bracken where he can, and spraying a few small areas on the still days.  The area we want to tackle next year is behind East, Middle and West. Because it is so close to the cottages the helicopter cannot spray there so Farmer will need to do it with his lance - and next week he is going with a group of other farmers to look at a new bracken machine which will harvest the bracken off slopes - apparently.    The idea is to see if this machine would help island farmers to control the bracken and provide material to go into an anaerobic digestor!

The wild Angelica in the wood has been beautiful this year - before the marauding stag gets the seed heads!

 The Heather has been beautiful also - the hill has been glowing all month.

Finally last week the silage was made. Farmer used our old mower to cut the fields - we made it this year in the field below the house, and also in the Coronation Meadow at Haunn.

J had a late night wrapping bales that evening but it was good to get them done in case it rained.  The Devils bit Scabious is amazing this year, though still no Marsh Fritillary butterflies!  Farmer kindly agreed to leave the beautifully thick patches in the middle of the Coronation Meadow so they could flower in peace.

Some gorgeous skies, at sunset and now the nights are dark enough, occasionally the Aurora Borealis again, which is exciting!

Over last weekend Farmer and his team of valued occasional helpers gathered the hill ewes and lambs and got them all sorted in time for loading the wedder lambs on to the lorry this morning along with the cast ewes.  The fields were noisy last night with the hill ewes calling for their lambs.

As I write he and the lambs are on the ferry.  The sale starts at 11am, and he is third through the ring... not usually the best time of the sale as the prices tend to start slowing while the buyers get themselves sorted out..fingers crossed!