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Rare breeds and fancy fowl

I never expected to see the Northern Lights on our excursion to the Rare Breeds Sale at Dingwall market this weekend. That was an added bonus, thanks to Farmer and Daughter agreeing to go out hunting...  When I realised there was a good aurora forecast I asked a Scottish aurora Facebook page where we should go for a bit of dark skies, and within seconds we had been recommended to go to Arturlie Point, which is only a few miles out of the city.  It was also right next to the Inverness Sewage works!   Straw bales lay where they fell in the stubble fields next door. Aurora hunting cars came and went down the single track road, shadowy figures with tripods silhouetted as their headlights swung past.  It was interesting to be aurora hunting on the mainland, compared to standing in a field at Treshnish on my own!  The aurora was fading in front of our eyes, so we went off back to our bargain beds at the Premier Inn, for tomorrow was going to be a long day.

We arrived good and early at Dingwall Auction Mart, a new and impressive purpose built facility away from the town. 

The cages were filling up when we arrived - all sorts of fowl, all colours, shapes and sizes.   By the time the bidding started, the hall was mobbed with eager poultry fanciers and keepers.  We walked along the rows of cages looking at the breeds we were interested in, and finding lots more than we had bargained for. 

These ducks seemed very affectionate despite the strangeness of their surroundings.  Preening and almost cuddling up to each other. 

Farmer and Daughter kept sliding off to the Livestock section to look at the many different Rare Breed sheep and goats, not to mention the ponies and horses, and one Dexter cow with calf at foot.  

Our poultry bidding went well - we bought a trio of Cream Legbar (blue egg layers), a trio of Silver laced Wyandotte (purely because they look so pretty), two Cuckoo Maran (dark brown egg layers). I wanted to buy a couple of hens for some friends too, and was surprised, having won the bid, we went to collect them and find that they were not quite what I thought they should have been.  I thought we were buying Barred Plymouth Rocks - in fact we bought Buff Plymouth Rocks! 

There were lots of Herdwick sheep.

Quite a few Jacobs.

A pen of Kerry sheep - not Irish, but from England/Wales border country.  

Some gypsy ponies for sale.

And these pretty Toggenberg goat kids nearly came home with us... but my radar must have been working overtime as I sat down next to Farmer and Daughter, and caught Farmer in the middle of bidding for these two.  I am hugely relieved he didn't get them! I suspect though that it is only a matter of time before we do have some goats here.  Farmer is thinking that they would be good at eating down the vegetation in the graveyard - whilst I worry about what they would eat if they manage to escape! 

The huge area between the poultry and the main ring was packed with market goers, with a long queue  of people waiting to order their full breakfast or cream filled donut from the cafe whilst groups of folk stand catching up with friends.  Once we were loaded up we headed off to Beauly to have lunch at a fantastic Deli there, with friends who were also on a hen buying mission.

We did some errands in Inverness before heading back down the road to Oban for the late boat.  Along Loch Linnhe we caught glimpses through the clouds of the Northern Lights but the clouds took over by the time we reached Oban with time to spare.  

This morning we let the new hens out for the first time.  Here are the beautiful Wyandottes.

Whooper swans at sunset

Aurora borealis 7/8th October 2015

This aurora is visible to the naked eye.  The weaving and dancing light with spires shooting heavenward make me gasp with delight. 

The camera captures more than the naked eye can see.  But what we can see is still magical. 

Calf sales

It is a while since I last wrote a blog.  We were about to sell the cows I think, and I planned to write a long and hopefully comprehensive blogpost about the decision and what made us finally decide.  In effect what happened was that we sold the cows on the Tuesday and at crack of dawn on the Thursday Farmer and family set off for the October break holiday, so I ran out of time.

I will write in full about the cows going at some point but until then, some photographs.

Heavy hearts and sunsets

We are preparing ourselves emotionally for a difficult few days ahead as the cows are going through the market on Tuesday in Oban.  They are being transported tomorrow to Oban in a big lorry and drag trailer.    I am dreading it.  I know Farmer is dreading it too.  I won't write any more about it now, but I will write about it properly soon. 

It would be great if we were able to get a fair and decent price for our lambs so that we wouldn't need any kind of financial support from the EU, but with the way things are we couldn't keep farming without it, and neither could most hill farms, particularly on economically disadvantaged islands. 

We got £26 for some of the lambs we sold on Tuesday, which was roughly what we received for the first lambs we sold in 1995.  Our costs certainly haven't stayed the same.

Our farm has been assessed as a Region 3 farm, (mostly unimproved grassland) so in order to receive our farming subsidy we have to prove we are actively farming by keeping a certain number of ewe hoggs over the winter. They must be homebred and ear tagged and we can be inspected at any time by SGRIPD. (Scottish Govt.)  All this is fair enough - it is public money and we should be accountable - however farmers in other land regions (1 & 2) under the new CAP reforms don't appear to have to jump through any hoops to get their support.  So we feel a bit disadvantaged, and although we are extremely grateful for the support we receive because it means we can keep on farming, if I am honest, we quietly resent the stress it puts upon normal farming activity.   

Farmer and J are working away ear tagging and treating our ewe hoggs this afternoon so that we comply with this new scheme regulation.

The rest of the week in photographs...