Winter feeding and energy planning.

It is always a bit daunting when winter feeding starts. It is not a job that you can not  stop once you have started - until the weather improves in the spring and the grass starts coming again. But the cows are in good condition and Farmer doesn't want them to lose condition as winter gets underway.  

So earlier in the week, the cows got their first feed of the winter - a bag of Hill Cow Cobs.  This means they can be fed on the ground, in a different place each day, no need for the troughs (better for Farmer's back) and with the ability to move the feeding spot each day there is less chance of poaching the ground when it is wet underfoot. 

They run for the bag!

Time to stand back and check how they all are.  

This cow was very ill as a heifer, and didn't go to the bull until she was a year older than the other heifers.  Since then though, she has had successful calvings every time. She is very calm and having been so ill, she is quite used to being at close quarters with humans.

Coming to have a look.

The weather has dried up after a week of fairly grim wet weather.  It has been lovely the last few days, and particularly good sunsets.  Calgary Tearoom was open this weekend for a Christmas sale, so we headed down there for tea and cake - and a walk at sunset on the beach.

This view of Treshnish Point is at the corner just beyond Calgary tearoom, before the road drops down to sea level.  When we first moved here, my stomach would turn over as we caught sight of it, in a sort of ' oh god what have we done?' way.  It still catches me now, 18 years later - no regrets at all - but still moved by the headland's powerful shape and drama.

The sunset. 

Calgary headland.

And Treshnish headland again.

The moon and the T LEC CAB sign.

Lichens at Haunn.

Another view we cannot tire of.

I went to a Visit Scotland energy saving event at the Tourist Office in Craignure earlier in the week.  I took leaflets from the Green Business Tourism Scheme to hand out to anyone who was interested in joining.  It was a horrendously wet day and not very many people ventured out, even though Brian from Energy Saving Trust was there with lots of information.  He and I know each other from the school closure threat days, so we chatted and he gave me some very useful advice about interest free loans for businesses (including farmers).  This was good to know as the last time we tried to get one we couldn't because we farmed.   More form filling though.  We are going to have one of their energy audits done. This will give us a chance to apply for the interest free loan. We will be especially looking at Toechtamhor which is a higher user of energy, being bigger and of a different construction than the other Haunn cottages.    We have plans to put better windows in, using the same airtight method as we used in the farmhouse - and possibly an air to air source heat pump to reduce electricity consumption.

Studio is already for the builders to arrive to do some eco-improvements in the living room and downstairs bedroom - we are increasing the wall insulation and putting in a wood burning stove as well as a window in the north wall of the bedroom.

We have had kindling supplied for the last 10 or more years by a sawmiller from Salen.  Unfortunately he has just told us that the next 10 bags (for our Christmas and New Year guests) will be his last delivery.  This is because of the difficulty he is having in sourcing dry wood.  So now we are looking into what we can do instead.  If the community woodland supplied them we could buy them from there, but I don't think they do them either.  So if we cannot source them on the island - what to do? Do we stop supplying kindling altogther, and get guests to bring their own? Do we supply firelighters instead? You can get eco ones, but we are having problems finding out where they are made and where they come from.  Do we provide an axe and allow guests to chop their own kindling?  

The hoggs are doing well on learning how to feed, and they will be able to go out again soon.  The field in this photograph is one of the fields Farmer is finding it difficult to put the hoggs in - because of the brambles. Hoggs will often get 'caught' in the brambles and whereas the stronger ewes can pull themselves out of them, hoggs tend to get stuck. This is a side effect of our environmental management agreement which prevents us from grazing cattle at certain times when the brambles are growing. In areas where the cows can graze during high summer, the brambles are kept in check.   So the Black Park is one of the fields where the brambles are spreading, so there is an increased risk if the hoggs are in there.  Even with daily checking. 

Farmer has been out checking the tups.  The blackface ewes and tups are on the Point - so he goes with Jan and walks quietly through them, spying through his binoculars to make sure every one of them is present and correct. 

Farmer used his new livestock trailer this week. He took some left over lambs and cast ewes to the sale in Oban.  We managed to get an all-time record price for one lamb - but not in a good way - £2.  This would not have even covered the cost of getting it to market. 

We had 3 nights this week when there was no one staying at Treshnish apart from us. This is the first time since early March.  It feels very different when there is no one here, but this weekend some regulars have come across from Edinburgh for a long weekend, having seen the weather forecast (good here for the next few days) and other regulars are staying in West Cottage for a week - they only ever come in the winter!  

And up it goes.

It was a wild, wet and windy day for most of the day, not quite as dark as yesterday but with some interesting tropical downpours at times.  

The installers - Border Hydro - did a fantastic job of ignoring the wet and cold conditions. They just got on with what needed to be done, as did Jim who was standing by with his digger, as did Farmer who dug out the cable close to Shieling by hand.  

SSE provided John and Ian to connect the new electricity supply to the house. 

The Proven 6 in the background. This new one is a Kingspan 6 - only different in name - essentially the same machine underneath.

And thankfully, the wind dropped in time for the turbine to be raised into position, so that she could be commissioned.

She looks great standing up there, and in satisfying visual proportion to the electricity poles that pass her in their regimented line.  

An exciting step towards Treshnish becoming an equal supplier/user.  I cannot believe it is 7 years since we began on the quest to get to this stage - nothing is ever straight forward but it was worth persevering.

Sincere thanks to Border Hydro, SSE and On Site Generation - and to Farmer.

A satellite broadband blog

Tiny burnet rose hips.

We have been having issues with the broadband this month, so this is a very short blog with hardly any images! We can only get satellite broadband here and as part of a Scottish Government broadband for all initiative, we had a dish installed about 3 years ago. It was a huge step up from dial up, and if it was slow to regular broadband users, it felt super fast to us. It is expensive though - we pay £57 a month for 25GB data download and a speed of between half and one MBps (when lucky). It meant we could install wifi in the Phone Room for our guests which we were really happy about, and didn't intend to charge for it.

The last couple of months have been touch and go as to whether we had enough download capacity, as we received emails warning us that we had almost reached our limit and therefore were about to be 'throttled'. (charming!). They usually come around the 26th-28th of the month so we would just manage to eek the supply out til the next month's quota began. However this month we had almost exceeded the limit half way through the month! Eventually I had to remove the router from the Phone Room in order to ensure the office could still get connected when it needed to. Daughter has been banned from Facebook (says its killing her social life) and Farmer was no longer allowed to use his iPad!

I am hoping that with the end of the school holidays and moving into the autumn months that internet usage will go down a bit, and we can stay as we are for the time being. But we will have to investigate alternative suppliers to see if we can increase our download package. Wifi in the Phone Room will be switched on again on Saturday!!

Farmer has been monitoring the grass and flower situation in line with our SRDP grazing regime, and it was time yesterday to move the cows into the New Field. They calmly waited for him to open the gate. It was interesting to see that they had not eaten the Devil's Bit Scabious as there was still lots in the field they had been in. They would be allowed into the Black Park but, like this time last year, it is still looking spectacular and we feel reluctant to let them in there just yet.

Lodestones.

Grass of Parnassus singly so elegant (above) and stunning in quantity (below). You could hardly move for them in the field near the Point.

Autumn is creeping into August

Sheep work was top of the agenda this week in advance of the lamb sales in Oban yesterday.

The first task was gathering. The weather in the last week has been mixed - watching the forecast and trying to avoid low mists and at times heavy rain! The sheep were held in the hill park over the weekend, and Farmer, helped by John and Jamie, sorted them through on Monday.

In between the showers it has been lovely, but you want dry lambs the night before the sale, and like the sale ring experience that too is a lottery. We were lucky, it rained at times, but we put dry lambs in to the shed that night, to be loaded into the lorry at 5.45 am next morning.

Jamie and Farmer in the fank sorting lambs.

Farmer took samples of faeces while the different groups of ewes and lambs were in the fank, and sent them off to SAC Auchencruive to be tested - to see if there were any signs of fluke or worms. The results from the cheviots came back yesterday - clear of any sign of either parasite, and we are hopeful the others will be clear too. This means there is no need to treat them for worms or fluke at this point in time. They will tested again in November.

Almost as big as its mother, this ewe lamb will be kept for future breeding. We have kept about 100 back this year. We dont have our own livestock trailer so we rely on filling a whole lorry with lambs, about 240 lambs. It costs over £1 per lamb to get them to market. Once they are loaded on the lorry, you cross your fingers and hope that you get a good price, because there is no way you can bring them home if you don't like the price you are being offered.

There is a sense of relief once the lambs have gone, and Farmer came home saying that the prices seemed okay. (Not much we can do about it now except accept it anyway - decision made, so you have to look on the positive side!)

Now the ewes can rest and recover before they meet the tup again in November. Last year because Farmer was laid low with the back problem and pending operation, we were dependant on others to help as and when, so the lambs were sold a month later last year.

Heather thriving along the side of the track. Once the lambs have gone, the sense of autumn really begins to creep in through the back door without one realising it. With the prospect of winter ahead, and the memory of the wet and wild storms we had last winter, I tend to want to hold onto summer for as long as I can, but walking with Farmer and the dogs this afternoon, the colours of the walk definitely felt like autumn. And actually I realised I had begun to celebrate it despite not wanting to lose the summer feeling either. Trees with branches dripping in rowan berries. Brambles beginning to ripen. Hazel nuts.

Farmer has been spending hours cutting bracken and above is a bit he cut near the farmhouse.

Coco is growing in size, and strangely Jan, who mothered her when she was smaller, tries to ignore her now. Cap has never paid her any attention at all, despite her subservient approaches.

The trees are heavy with rowans this year. We have some picked and frozen for jelly making later on in the year.

This alder must be nearly 12 feet tall, natural generation is working. And the woodland beginning to really expand up the hill to the fence line. It seems lush and verdant even as it turns the corner into autumn.

The birches are spreading too, and gaining height.

We enjoyed a family day with uncles and cousins on Kilninian Beach on Sunday. We had the beach pretty much to ourselves most of the time we were there, and it was nice to see that the beach still looked clean after the Ulva School beach clean in June (sponsored by Treshnish and Haunn Cottages). Our children running wild on the low tide black sands and returning after dam building, to scoff bonfire cooked Barge Specials (recipe stolen from Jean's cafe in Lochaline, of black pudding, bacon and tomato in a white roll), before heading off into the waves (how to ruin a bicycle in one easy but very enjoyable move). Farmers Daughter kept on finding luck pennies on the grass (and sharing the luck), and her final find before we left for home was an HTC phone.

We sent more to the recycling this week than we have done before. So thank you to all the guests who carefully separated their rubbish! And thank you to Craig who collected waste plastic off the beach at Port Haunn and carried it back to the Haunn cottages, and brought it up to the farm, and the recycling shed, by car.