Soil food and the first calf

A winter weather week.

We have had some wonderful days of weather this week.  And some horrors.  A winter weather week. Work has been progressing well in Shian.  The electrician has nearly finished his part of the project, he just has to come back when the plaster boarding is finished.   

The cottage felt so warm going in yesterday afternoon. The heat from the stove seemed to be warming the whole place.   You wouldn't have known there was a gale blowing outside. 

This is Duill.

The little lochan next to Duill.

Today the weather was very wintery.  We woke to a dusting of snow.  Farmer got totally frozen during the feeding chores.  Walter is getting better at holding on. 

The guests from Middle left this morning.  We warned them about the un-gritted road between Dervaig and Aros Bridge, but then had to use it ourselves.  It was fine!  It looked wintery and the sky was darker than the landscape, but it had started to rain by midday.

Between here and there

The headland from the road.

The rocks from the cliff.

 The reeds at Dervaig.

Do we? Don't we? in the kitchen

The kitchens in Shian and Duill were the first job we did when we moved to Treshnish in October 1994. With the help of my brother A, we ripped out the old kitchens with bulky dark larders and installed the best kitchen we could afford given the time and the money we had.  They have served us well.  About 10 years ago, a local carpenter extended their lives by putting tongue and groove on the fading doors and every now and then since then they have had a coat of paint.  Given that we had to take those units out in order to insulate, we thought perhaps it was the time to upgrade the kitchens.

So off I went yesterday in the sun, to Oban, to see if I could find suitable new units.  To be perfectly honest, I couldn't find anything I like as much as the painted T&G.  I asked about FSC timber. Silence. One kitchen designer had never heard of it.  By her own admission, she had never heard the terminology and certainly no one had ever asked her whether their kitchens were FSC accredited or not.  The other said she would look into it for me, and let me know.  What are the alternatives to non FSC timber doors?  MDF? I am not sure, doesn't that give off toxins?  

It began to sink in, that replacing the kitchens was probably not such a green idea.  Plenty more research required!

  

So now I am in a quandary as to how to make the kitchens nicer, without compromising on the environmental impact, all within 8 weeks.  We will probably put Shian's kitchen back in and paint it.  With Duill, we need to move things around as the kitchen sink is too close to the cooker for modern regulations, so we may end up replacing one or two units.  Time will tell. 

Duill's sunspace was framed up yesterday in lovely sunshine while I was in Oban.  J said it was in the sun all day.  That's good!  This one will feel quite different to Shian's sunroom. It hasn't got a door to the outside so it will feel more like a secret corner from where to watch the lochan wildlife unfold,  and it will extend the private feel to this corner of the shared garden.

I collected the missing cills from Oban yesterday afternoon so J and A were able to start fitting the new windows in Shian.

The twin bedroom waits..

The first one into the sitting room frame.

Today was one of those really clear days, the light was extraordinary, and from Shian we could see Macleods Tables (on Skye) through the gap between Canna and Rum as well as the Uists appearing above Coll.  Magical.

I had a meeting in Craignure this afternoon and with an errand to do at Torloisk, I decided to go the Ulva ferry way.  What a fantastic drive! I always want to capture the view as you get to the top of the hill at Reudle.  The 14% signpost, the cairn and Ben More behind.  I took these photographs on my phone as my big camera is away being mended.

And down beyond Burg the view was stunning towards Ulva Ferry.

What has Farmer been up to, you might ask? Well he has been fighting the lurgy, and after 4 days during which the lurgy appeared to be winning, he is finally beginning to feel better.    We ordered the ear tags for the calves last week. They arrive so fast, within a few days.  With our herd number and a unique number for each animal, and woe betide you if you don't tag them within a certain number of days...  Calving will probably start within the next week or so, and so it is a relief to have the tags ready so that new born calves can be tagged on time.  As our cows are inside this is a lot easier than it is for farms which calve outside.   The hoggs are down in the fields below the house.  The old ewes who Farmer felt needed a bit of TLC are in the Haunn field.

The meeting I went to in Craignure was a Sustainable Mull and Iona meeting.  Before Christmas I helped interview candidates for a job of Energy Advisor and today the job share advisors were present at our meeting.  They are undergoing training to qualify for Green Deal assessments and to give energy advise, as well as organising the next Renewables Fair, which will be in March.  I was late, guilty of enjoying the views as I drove, and even stopping to take photographs along the way.  The community hydro scheme deadline to invest is coming up soon, and we were all encouraged to spread the word and get more investors on board.   I was there to talk about our proposed local carbon offset scheme.. more of that later...

Upcycling in the garden, protecting the hens.

The forecast for early this morning and today was pretty grim, but we don't think it has been as bad here as was expected.  Certainly no flooding, though the fields are totally saturated.

Unfortunately Farmer has succumbed to a cold, feeling a bit under the weather.  Feeding the animals and doing essential chores before coming in shivering and dosing himself with whatever he can find in the medicine cupboard.  

It was still pretty windy today, and I took the camera out between showers into the garden around the house.  The burn (our water supply monitor - when it runs dry we need to conserve; when it is in spate, we have plenty) beside the house is running fast and furious today.

The water gate has been washed away from further upstream.

Hebe cuttings. Thinking ahead.  R has taken them and in a years time they will be planted out in the cottage gardens.

It is not just the rain which has exposed these bulbs. It is really difficult to keep the hens out of the garden as they can all fly over the gate.

Nasturtiums in the dome, they look so beautifully springlike and green.

The snow drops have shown themselves this week.  It is refreshing to see them flowering despite the weather.

And at last safety for those hens.  Plus a bit of up-cycling.  R has used a sheet of tin from the shed behind the trough to repair the trough.  For a tin shed fanatic like me, it is just perfect.  It now means that the hens can shelter under the trough without the risk of the contents falling through the rust.

Progress

The polytunnel is showing signs of storm fatigue.  It has lasted well and part of the reason we think is because we have net ends rather than solid ones, so the wind can get through, but after each storm we expect it to be gone!  We have now regular help in the garden which is fantastic, and takes a bit of strain off Farmer.

R has moved to the area and is working for us a couple of days a week.  He has been tidying up outside the cottages and catching up with all the things we never have time to do ourselves.  The polytunnel is looking tidy, the sage is still flowering! 

This is Duill's sunroom base. It won't have French windows to the outside, which will give it a different feel I think.  But it will have the westerly winter sunsets directly across from the headland, not to mention the mid summer ones straight out over the fence.

A big leap today as the Shian sunroom is sheeted. The opening on the left is the size of the window looking straight out to sea.  It was the kitchen window from Toechtamhor which we replaced this time last year.  It seemed such a waste not to re-use them, and as these sunrooms are unheated and have external doors into the living rooms there would be no energy to waste!

It looks pretty messy just now, but in the summer when the ground has healed it will be just magical sitting looking out on that view.  Shian's sunroom is on the east gable of Shian, in between the wall and the car, in the summer photograph below. 

The old shop in Dervaig was catching some sun yesterday when I went to Dougie's to do some shopping, I know it will be gone one day, I must venture out again when my camera comes back from the menders. 

Loch Cuin, near Dervaig, is a good place for a bit of birdwatching too - as we stopped to enjoy the view for a moment or two on the way home.