Tattie holidays

It is always a bonus to have good weather, but especially as the days get shorter and we move towards winter.  It has been magical!  Traditionally the October holidays were the 'tattie holidays' as families would go and help farmers pick the annual crop of potatoes.  I can remember doing it as a child in Angus!   It was an amazing sight to see the lines of pickers bent double hawking potatoes into their baskets.

Have you ever stopped to walk into the Druids field and look at the cup markings on this?  It's not far from here, and we can point you in the right direction!

I know this isn't as big as the Old Man Of Hoy.. but I call it the Old Man of Ensay as it is near Ensay port.

Farmer has been taking advantage of the good weather, and getting all his sheep work done.   The tups (rams) have had a check over, a bit of a foot trim and medicine if required.   They need to be in peak condition for their winter task is about to begin again.

The ewe hoggs we are keeping for breeding have come into the cattle shed to learn how to feed.  It seems nuts, but the ewes do not automatically know that the lovely lamb pellet or ewe nut in the trough in front of them is actually for them to eat.  They have to learn.   Usually you put a few older ewes in to the pens with them so the ewe hoggs can copy them.   They are very skittish when they first go into the shed, not used to being inside, and not used to close contact with Farmer and his dogs.  It is much easier looking after them indoors - they are going to get caught in brambles!

Flocks of Fieldfare have been seen this week at Calgary, and Prasad has seen some here, so I expect we will lose all the Rowan berries soon.  I always hope the rowans will last long enough to attract some Waxwings as I have never seen one!

Extremes

By the time I finished the last blog post, I looked out of the window again and ended up staying up until nearly 2am taking a few more photographs.  When I finally went to bed, the light show seemed even stronger but at that point tiredness prevailed and I went to sleep with the northern lights playing their light tunes through the window.   What an amazing experience.   The skies are so unpolluted, it really gives us a good opportunity for star gazing and spotting the northern lights. 

Then we had a day of wild storms.

The surgical operation on the innards of the wind turbine were not wholly successful the other day, so a return trip yesterday to re-programme it again - but again unfortunately, it was unsuccessful.  It has now been switched off as the engineer has gone off to sing in the National MOD.  He will hopefully be back on Monday.

The rowan trees are beginning to thin out now.  The wind burned off quite a lot of leaf, and I did watch a hooded crow fly past the office window yesterday with a huge bunch of rowans in its beak.

Hazel nuts.

This morning dawned bright and clear, and beautifully still.  One of those very magical days.

I found this duck in the garden.

 And this hoverfly was at Calgary. Loch Cuin was mirror calm this afternoon.

It is the Mull Rally this weekend, and my occasional forays away from the farm this week have seen a build up of cars and campers.  The roads quite busy at night as the teams recce the routes.   They will all be relieved about the weather as the forecast is good.

Farmer finished his 3 day spraying course.  And passed his exams.  Next year he will go and spend some time spraying the garden escape cotoneaster that threatens the Slender Scotch Burnet Moth habitat near Kilninian.

The cows came in for blood testing this week as we are trying to establish whether we are free of certain cattle viruses.  At the same time, Farmer was able to treat them against ticks and fluke by injection. This evening they were all spread out in the Black Park field grazing happily as the sun was setting.

These lovely animals are our new heifers.  They will arrive on the farm in a months time.  We quarantine new animals on to the farm to make sure they settle in okay before joining the rest of the herd or flock.

Silage, seals, sharks and sheep on a Sunday

Silage has been baled, thanks to a helpful nearby farmer with a huge tractor and baler, and here in this photograph being wrapped by Farmer and his brace of (much smaller) tractors.

This year we made silage in a far smaller field than last year so the number of bales is half the amount. This is an expected outcome, as we manage our fields in a traditional system, using the old fallow method to rest the fields one year in four, and hopefully create a more natural balance. The fields are not all the same size - so the yields will always be different! We don't use artificial fertiliser so rely on FYM from in-wintering our cows to feed the soil fertilitiy. From a flowers point of view though, the yield is huge, as the bio-diversity of these fields seem to improve year on year.

The silage is now wrapped and safe from the weather. The ends of the plastic wrap are tucked in to keep it airtight so that it can start to do the heating up and fermenting necessary to pickle the cut forage. At the end of every winter we have piles of silage wrap and farm plastic waiting for collection, to go off to Solway Recycling (who turn them into picnic benches).

Next task for Farmer is to take each bale back up to the stack yard before the bale starts softening. The Cheviots gimmers are let into this field to nibble the 'aftermath' - the sweet grass that comes after the silage is cut. Lamb sales in other parts of the country bring our attention to our own lambs and when to gather. The lorry is booked to take our lambs on the 21st September to Oban.

The heather has been vivid again this summer. Across the burn from the Treshnish farm steading is this pretty bank of heather. We fenced the sheep out of this area about 8 years ago, and it has taken all this time for the heather to recover, and for this young rowan to take seed.

A Sunday morning walk along through the Black Park and down to the shore on the northern side of the Point. Heather, late flowering birds foot trefoil, devils bit scabious and harebell in one of our in bye fields.

In the Black Park, huge clumps of knapweed.

...and colourful devils bit scabious with the yellow of hawksbit.

Walking along the northern shore, we can hear seals calling. There are 5 lying in the sun at low tide on the rocks - we don't see them here that often. A basking shark slowly cruises past a few metres off shore, and gannets drop like missiles into the water. Rocky outcrops with ungrazed wild flowers. Bees buzzing in the sunshine. One of those magical walks.

And a bowl of salad leaves from the garden with edible flowers to accompany a sunny Sunday lunch out of doors when we get home!

Lanark Tup Sales, sun shines on the turbine

Lanark Mart: RING 1 in full swing.

An important part of the farming calendar is making sure you have the right number of tups (rams) and that they are fit and healthy for the tupping season (which starts in November).

Inevitably you may need to replace some of the older ones and it is always good to introduce some new blood to the flock, perhaps some improved breed characteristics too. So, to this end, this week we went to buy some new tups at the Blackface tup sales held annually at Lanark Market.

This is an all day event. Before the sale starts, everyone wanders around the Penning Areas - looking at what is on offer. Alot of time and effort goes into ensuring the stock look their best for the sale. Every animal has been shampooed, preened, brushed and shined, made to look its best. Dyed wools, neatly clipped, oiled horns, clean feet and legs, horns branded with their unique number, any blemishes carefully concealed. These guys have never looked so good.

Each pen of tups has the name of the farm on it - with all the mystique of a vineyard. Names well known in the Blackface Sheep Breeders world - Allanfauld, Dyke, Troloss, Midlock to name but a few. Reputations formed over years and generations.

To the uninitiated like me I am ashamed to say - a tup is a tup is a tup. I am not sure I can tell a prize winner from a loser but those in the know, will know - and can hazard a guess at who might sell a tup for the highest price.

There are 2 sale rings. To sell your tups through ring 1, you have to have reached a certain average price in ring 2 at previous sales. This is enough of a hint for us to know that we will stick in ring 2 for our selection.

Early on in the day there were not so many buyers around, but during the course of the day the market filled up, like a huge party slow to get going. By mid afternoon the whole place was buzzing - both rings busy, and great chatter in the bars and restaurant - deals being done, acquaintances being renewed, hands shaken, laughter shared and a great kindred atmosphere. Buyers come from all over Scotland and northern England - we weren't the only folk from the Isle of Mull there, and I heard the auctioneer calling out names from the Isle of Skye too.

So we spent most of the day in ring 2, except for recreational visits to ring 1 to see if any exciting prices were being reached (£17,000 was one we heard!). By mid afternoon we had bid considerably less for 6 average but healthy looking tups -including one from Chirmorrie - no. 533, whose 'pedigree' you can see here.

At the end of the day, the tups were loaded into a lorry bound for Mull and we made our own separate way home.

We got home to brilliant sunshine and clear skies - wonderful October holidays weather.

One or two neighbours have been over to look at the turbine already. We do enjoy showing people round the turbine, the woodchip boiler and where the conversations lead; and we are happy to show our holiday cottage guests round if they are interested. Here she is, looking towards Calgary beach.