One door closes

Farmer was invited to help gather on the Isle of Eorsa last week.  Eorsa is the teardrop shaped uninhabited island in Loch na Keal.   There is no house - though there is a 'hotel' shed for shelter!  

There have been sheep on the island for generations.  It is hard work having a flock of sheep that you can only access via a boat in good weather.  The ewes thrive despite that and Eorsa produces good healthy lambs.  But finally Iain Thomson 'the singing shepherd' has decided to call it a day.   He tried to find someone else locally to take the ewes on and continue the tradition but there was no one who was able to do it.    So the gather on Friday was to take not only the lambs off but the ewes as well. 

Iain.

On their way out there, with A and his dogs.

Eorsa. From the Gribun side.

 

From Eorsa to Inch Kenneth with Gribun on the left of the photograph.

Looking up Loch na Keal.

In the fank.

Sorting lambs and ewes.

Looking for the barge.

Tea time.

Loading the barge.

On the barge.

Farmer took this photographs on his phone.   The day went well, and they had to wait for the tides, so it was dark by the time they landed back on Mull.   They will be sold later on in the week.

For Iain, the Eorsa door closes and a new door opens.  We wish him well!  

A farming shopping trip

Dingwall Rare Breeds and Poultry Sale. Where every self respecting Poultry fancier goes for their hens and ducks.   

There was lots of choice, and some beautiful birds, but Farmer and Daughter had other things on their minds. 

We started the day off with a delicious breakfast from the very efficient Teddy's Cafe.  Perfectly cooked bacon rolls in very fresh baps.  They even had decaffinated tea.  Their cake selection was wild!  There is a queue ALL day long but the staff still served with a smile even at 3 in the afternoon.

I was left to look at hens and ducks whilst Farmer and the girls headed into the real pens to check out the animals for sale.  The catalogue had been carefully scrutinised so they knew what they were looking for.

The lots they were interested in were a good hour or so away, so there was plenty of time to sit and look.  The sale ring was crowded.  Daughter and her pal were sitting quite high up with a good view of the ring, and of the farming/crofting/smallholding community.

This handsome Billy goat sold for £20.

The Valais tups went for a lot more. We decided they were handsome and their lambs would be adorable, but we weren't sure they would like the west coast rainfall. 

This plan had been hatching between Farmer and Daughter for quite some time.  Herdwicks.  There was one lot they really liked the look of - and luckily these are exactly the ones we got.

Aren't they gorgeous?  They seem so calm.  Hopefully this bodes well.  They are living in the shelter between the veg garden and Studio garden.  Farmer let them out in to the stack yard today and they seemed quite interested 'in the bag'.  This is a good sign as it means they know how to feed.

Yeseterday we had to go to Lettermore Forest which meant passing the Fank project.  We stopped to look around and it was beautiful.

A foxglove flowering on 6th November. 

I hope he isn't thinking 'what have we done?'.

Certainly Walter is quite happy about them - unlike Jan who ran in the other direction when she saw them.

In the afternoon I went to collect Coco.  An astonishingly beautiful view up Loch Tuath to Ulva Feryr with Ben More beyond.

Today I had to go to Craignure.   I love the reflected light on Calgary Bay.

And on the way back an errand along Loch na Keal.. looking very wintery.

STOP PRESS!! We have some spaces left for Christmas and New Year and are offering a lovely Festive Discount.  

Farming dilemmas

A mixed week weather wise. Today is cloudy and gales are forecast.  The branches on the trees around the house are bending away from themselves, with their leaves turned outwards.  I expect the garden to be littered with fallen leaves tomorrow!

The hill is looking autumnal, with this sheltered Rowan tree dripping with berries.  The heather is going over and the bracken has turned reddish brown.   The grasses are tinged with reds and oranges now too on the boggier bits of the hill.

The lambs are sold.  Farmer was disappointed, but actually I dont think he did too badly considering. Certainly not our best sale, but not our worst either.  You can have expectations, and you can have hopes - they can trip you up when the reality is less than both.

Over the last few years we have become aware of the price difference between Cheviot and Blackface lambs straight off the hill.  It seems that the buyers won't want to pay a lot for Blackface lambs and if you were to add up the difference in lamb sale prices between the two, you might wonder why on earth we were still breeding Blackface.  Someone told us that the buyers like buying Blackface lambs as the prices are much lower and they can make more money on them.   That is pretty depressing if you are a breeder of Blackface sheep.

So why on earth do we still keep them?  We have Cheviots on the in-by fields and like them, they are relatively trouble free and easy to deal with, though heavy on Farmer's bad back in the fank and at lambing time.  It is an ongoing conversation in the farmhouse kitchen at the moment, going over advice we were given when we first starting farming here, advice we have been given more recently, thinking about all the pros and cons.  Watch this space!

The last gather brought in 13 'roughies' off the hill.  J very kindly sheared them for us last weekend. 

One evening we took off with our bicycles and went to the 'Secret village'.  We are happy to tell you where this is when you are here, but I won't write its location online!

The hens and turkeys are all happy when the sun is shining.

The misty low clouds give Gribun added drama on a damp day when we went off down to Iona for the day. We wanted to show a house guest the Abbey before she goes home tomorrow.  Disappointingly it wasn't sunny so she didn't have that magical glowing turquoise experience crossing on the ferry, but it was still very lovely - as always.   I hadn't been inside the Abbey for a few years and the newly renovated Museum was really good. 

We watched the comings and goings of cruise boat passengers being ferried back to their ship and the Iona Seafood fisherman landing his crabs, while we waited for the ferry to come back.