First Coal Fire of the Season, Composting of Bovine Straw, and My Calf!
Posted: Saturday, 24 November 2007 |
Winther hath arriveth! (King James I am not...) And so it was with great delight that I built our first coal fire of the season on this blustery morning! I can blog about it now because my fingers are no longer stiff and numb (hehehe!). Look at that photo...feel the warmth...see the glow...oh I'm telling you, central heating has NOTHING on a real roaring fire!
As you all know, Erlend is converting the farm to organic - which is going to take about five years. At the moment he is working on composting all of the nasty straw that the cattle so kindly decorate for us. Here is "Torf" our youngest Aberdeen Angus bull helping us with the beginning of the compost process: we toss paper and boxes etc into his pen and he poos all over them for us and then stomps them into a nice composty texture. (Thank you for doing your bit, Torf!)
And here is our...uh...compost pile? Ok so, I hunted Erlend down and asked him why our compost mountain turned into a composte mole hill. (Impressive, eh?) Erlend told me he has moved the compost heap up to the other farm and THAT explains the underwhelming photo below... Anyway! Erlend composts the poo-straw and flips the piles over every two weeks or so and then he stuffs the "dung" into a big machine that slings it all over the fields. I think I'm going to really love being an Organic farmwife because the animals and the people all work together to farm the land naturally!
Erlend was in the barn and so I was finally able to get a picture of my wee future ox! He's a month-old Holstein stot (steer) and I've named him "Isadore" after Saint Isador the Farmer. Here Isadore is gulping down his breakfast of warm milk. Isn't he sweet?! He's deffinately sweet - but he smells!! (Don't tell Isadore I said that...) My other stot did not want to be an ox - he made that very clear and so he's been released back into the herd. Erlend bought this new calf for me last month and so far so good...
Comments
Isadore - wis that no Samantha's mother in 'Bewitched'? maybe I am mixing memories here. The coo (you'll be glad to ken) bears no resembelance.
Ruthodanort from Unst
Why name a steer after a male saint, but then add an e to Isador? You might as well call the male calf Sue... # Cute looking calf. # Pic. 1: zoroastrian altar fire, is it? The things that take place in Orkney!!
mjc from NM,USA
I can feel a correction comin on......hope Muness doesn't read my last comment.
Ruthodanort from Unst
was Samantha's mother not called Isadora? and a witch b**ch she was too
scallowawife from thinkin hard
Saint Isidore's Day is vendredi 4 Avril, according to this very useful calendar I have in my paws.
Flying Cat from a saint for every day
Good to know that St. Isidore's Day is not April 1st. If I were a saint, I would not mind my day is celebrated. Except for the 25th of December, of course: unfair competition, it would be. No. 8 is supposed to be good luck according to the Chinese, though I like 6 myself.
mjc from NM,USA
Put a "when" in my comment above, and the world will fall back on its axis .... No resembelance at all to the typos some folks make, eh Ruthodanort?!
mjc from NM,USA
Scallowawife, yes, but as I'm learnin norsk I make an 'e' at the end o a word soond like an 'a'. So same shi..
Ruthodanort from Unst
So...I traded my quiet cabin in the Alaskan woods for the howling winds of Orkney and life on a farm. 
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