主播大秀

Roondy strae bales - aftermath of the barley harvest

Er..I mean...Barley harvest. After several really late nights (3am and so forth) all of the barley is in, crimped and stored for future feeding of kye. I love living on a farm! It's so incredibly cyclical. We are absolutely plugged in to the Earth and her seasons.

Wow, I'm tired. I'm so tired I slurred my typing. Hoo's hid gaan, ya'll? I've been missing in action indeed because this computer is either about to blow up or it's posessed by demons. Somehow, tonight, I've been haunting plenty o' Island Blogs and enjoying them! The demons must be asleep...


Erlend sporting his new afro hairdo...

Strae is good. We use our barley strae to bed cattle and feed dry coos. (weaned coos that aren't nursing any more.) Here's Erlend moving strae. Set to "Batman" tune: Danah na na, Danah na, na, STRAE MAN! Sometimes my neighbors hear me shriek...they don't understand what it's like living with such an interesting husband. Having "Strae Man" creep up on you is enough to shave ten years off of your natural life span...

I'm gearing up for the Harvest 主播大秀 dance that's coming! I can't dance to save my life but I sure love how Orcadians get down, get down, get down, get down tonight! They are such PARTY folk! My first harvest home was last year and I was absolutely blown away. So blown away, in fact, that I've hired a friend to sew me a bonnie cotton dress for this year because it's such an excellent excuse to dress like a girl. I like doing that.

Erlend says that Harvest 主播大秀 used to be called Muckle Supper. Intriguing. I love languages.


On the eighth day God said, "Let there be strange slitty things in the clouds so the sunlight spills forth so interestingly..."
So, we moved our flock of lambs + four yows (the rest are in the hills up at the other farm) and they promptly slithered through a gap in the fence (figures they'd find it...) and ended up chowing on a neighbor's lawn. If you are bored and/or depressed I'm telling ya: get sheep. They'll keep you on your toes!


Erlend (sans afro) and Davey the Bool. ("Bull" for us non-Orcadians) Davey is an interesting bool - shy yet he sure does roar a lot when things get jiggy around the farm! He's a bool but as far as bools go, he's pretty laid back. I would be too if everyone led me around by a big ring in my schnoz...

I'm so tired. Goodnight, ya'll! Have a lovely day! -Moo from, "Things go Zzzz in the night..."

Usually I can write my way through "Writer's Block" even if I only pound out a measly page or two. I've learned not to walk away and quit because then I lose the thread and it takes weeks, even months, to get back into writing. I don't know if that's the same with everyone who writes? But that's me. Just the other day I was telling Erlend that this is literally my work! I am working - and being very disciplined so I can get this book finished. I have coffee breaks and I go for my daily walk and I work with my calf and sheep but the majority of my time I'm typing away! I have to admit, sometimes it's really really fun and other times it's drudgery. Like now, when I have writer's block haha!

This weekend I am going to give myself some time off because I've been working at this book like an Iditarod wheel-dog for months. (http://www.iditarod.com/)

Today's the sheep sales so we will still be doing something productive hehe! We hope to buy about fifty sheep. I hope to get some photos if the camera will work!

Even during the drudgery days I'm honestly having the time of my life writing this story! It's a folklore fantasy set way way way back in time in Orkney and I'm weaving as much of the local myths into the story as I can. I've come under criticism along the lines of, "That will only sell in Orkney!" but you know what? I'm not writing this book to become rich and famous. I'm a hopeful Story Teller. (Take it or leave it, that's fine by me.) Yes, story tellers are compensated to a certain degree with money or food or what not. That's to be expected seeing as how it takes time to tell a story - or in this case, write a book! If I somehow by the grace of God (and maybe an act of Congress?) get this wacky book of mine published, I don't care if it doesn't go much further then the shores of Orkney. I'm writing because I want to tell a story.

I think the most difficult part about this book is the research - I'm an incomer so these myths and place names are not familiar to me. I have to admit, I'm nervous because I do not want to slaughter the Orkney dialect and I do not want to make a mess of the local folk lore. Being Native American I understand how much you must respect them. It's not cool to trample on anyone's culture or heritage!

The only reason I'm setting my book in Orkney and utilizing Orcadian mythology is because I live here now. This mystical beautiful place is my home. It is only fitting that this story, which has patiently waited inside of my mind while I was busy at University (and therefore couldn't focus on writing a book!), should find itself brought to light in Orkney! All that I can hope for is that I can tell it in such a way that Orkney does not reach out and slap me!! "Bad American! No biscuit!"

Steer Training News: My calf Jiggy is bonding with me in leaps and bounds! I just returned from a training session and you won't believe this: Jiggy let me halter him while he was lying down!! It gets even better: I squatted next to him and he was totally relaxed and loving all of the scratches I was doling out. He allowed me to scratch his throat! Imagine the trust required to allow me to rub my hand up and down his throat! I was also able to cup his chin and lift his head. He wasn't thrilled about that but he didn't make any move to get up and run away. Finally, I gripped his hind legs several times and he did nothing. So I gripped and lifted his hind leg. Nothing. I gripped, lifted and held his hind leg up in the air about six inches and...? Nothing! He didn't care one bit!

He's still nervous when I walk up to him when he's on his feet but I must say we are making lots of bonding progress! Whenever I brush him or scratch him he licks my boots and legs - a great sign!!

My friend Frances was just giving me instruction on how to walk up to Jiggy so that I do not come across as agressive and it worked very well - he didn't run away as much. I'm still learning him that he is not allowed to touch me with his head for any reason. As soon as his head so much as brushes against me he gets a shove and a scolding! (Cattle shove offenders away with their heads. They are very picky about personal space.) This is vital because cattle use their heads for communicating everything and I can't have him rubbing me or butting me when he's bigger.

My first attempt at teaching Jiggy to walk forward with the halter and the lead rope was a total disaster! No amount of poking, bumping and poking his backside with my driving stick got him budging so much as an inch. He just stood there and stared at me like, "I'm not going anywhere, lady!" I'm going to have to rethink this and re-read the training books so I can figure out how to get him moving - he's growing bigger by the day!!!

Here's to oxen! Hip, hip HOORAY!

Sheep sale at the mart yippee! I'm so farm chic - I bounded out of bed this morning as thrilled as any kid on Christmas morning. We headed out at aboot 10ish and took a good look at all of the sheeps on offer.

I knew nothing last year when we bought sheep and this year I knew a wee bit more, but not much. However, the only way ya learn is to dive in and give it a go! So under the heavy scrutiny of sheepie folk who were far more in the know then myself, I dove into two pens of Texel gimmers and checked their condition and their teeth and their hooves. I felt like a total dork as I bumbled around and I'll admit: running leaping sheep scare me! They are heavy powerful critters! In the end I only aquired three hoof-shaped bruises on my foot and the lingering stench of sheep dip. Here is a pictoral tour of the sheep sales. Allons!
Laissez les bon temps roulet! (Dat Cajun for Let the good times roll! Sheep sales are soooo fun!)


A sea of woolly Cheviot gimmers greets us as we walk into the auction mart byre and begin our ogle fest.


Erlend oggles endless pens of yow (ewe) lambs in an attempt to choose which cross breed would work best on our farm.


Who dat??


Mule yow lambs


I don't know what it is about me - I always get intriqued by strange things like this photo of bulging sheep wool. While the busy world buzzes around me, I'm squatting in the isle studying this odd kind of stuff and chuffed to bits! So, here is one of several studies of "Bulging Wool" for you to enjoy! Hopefully as much as I did...


bonnie peedie Shetland yow lambs


The ears!! They kill me! I think these are Border Leicester x Cheviot yow lambs.


When I saw this bulge of wool I was absolutely thrilled to bits! While Erlend was in a sheep pen acctually doing something, I was once again squatting in the isle with my back against a pen and eyeballing this scene. What can I say? I'm easily amused...


colorful horned Jacob yows


Another comfortable sheep. Maybe it's the contrast between the soft wool and the hard metal and concrete that catches my eye? Hmm. It's a mystery!


These sheep are Jacob x Texel yows and their color really caught my eye. I think I'm a texture person hahahaha!


Erlend studies the teeth of a Texel x Blue Faced Leicester/ Sheltand yow lamb.


Watching the world go by...(I think these are Border Leicester yow lambs...)


A gathering of hooves.


The auction ring doing brisk business...


A whole bunch of yow lambs! The bidding was fierce...

The bidding was tough! Erlend lost out quite a few times as he locked horns with other farmers with the same sheep in mind. In the end we bought a batch of Cheviot x Texel yow lambs and those Texel x Blue Faced Leicester x Sheltand yow lamb.

We bought 64 yow lambs. Why 64 and not 65? Because one lot of yow lambs contained 19 of the wee woolly beasties. The twentieth was either AWOL or that's just how it worked out hehe! Right now Erlend is readying a pen for the yow lambs in the "sloping floor" byre so we can get them bucket trained. We've spoken with some friends who are going to try and help us find a semi-retired sheep dog that knows the ropes (because we don't) and wouldn't mind helping us out with our flock of 100+ cheeps. ("Cheeps" is so much easier to yell into the wind then "Sheeps" !!) UPDATE: Ooooo! Good news! We were bidding on a pure Texel gimmer and we thought we lost the bid - but wouldn't you know it, Madam Gimmer was amongst the yow lambs! So I have one more cheep to add to my own small private flock of Texels YIPEEEE!

Erlend has Zeb the Farm Dog to trot around with him all day and I'm hankering for a smaller pooch to accompany me - and I loooooove Cairn Terriers. I contacted the Cairn Terrier Rescue and told them we have 300 acres and a house and would love to welcome a well-behaved Cairn... but never heard from them. I've contacted a lot of animal rescues here in Britain and never hear back from them. It's odd. Maybe they cease to exist but their website is still running? I prefer rescue rather then purchase because at least I'm giving an "unwanted" animal a home! Zeb was adopted and so were ten of our fourteen cats! (Only two are inside-outside cats. The rest are wild barn kitties who skulk about the farm keeping the rats and rabbits away.)


Molly says: "If you get another dog I'll personally hunt it down!!"

My quest for a Cairn shall continue...

The foot and mouth outbreaks came from where? Which lab?? Yeah ok, moving on: the government tells us they'll help the farmers who must now kill their lambs in mass quantities because the sheep market has crashed. And now? Hmmm "No sorry we aren 't going to help." A local sheep breeder sold his top ram for one TENTH of the usual cost - 1,600 gines (I can't spell that word) when last year it was 16,000 of the gine things! (Is that the same as pounds?!) Anyway, big business is making an absolute KILLING off of this foot and mouth crisis because they know A) Farmers are desparate to sell off their sheep and cattle before they starve and B) Therefore we HAVE to accept their sickeningly low prices or else we have to slaughter our stock because we don't want to watch them starve. How many more farmers are going to be ruined? Farming is dying a death and yet...we can stop it if we acctually tried.

How? Easy: Responsible Consumerism. I'll get to this in a moment...first I have to make a few points. And yeah, this is not a carefully composed essay - this is me blithering away:

Now that I am a small business living in a rural community I've been slapped across the face by a harsh dose of reality: we are a dying breed that is circling the drain. Erlend and I were discussing the future of our beloved farm and we came to the horrible reality that there is no future. Once we retire and sell the farm we'll watch it get bulldozed into over-priced houses that only rich incomers can afford to buy.

Why won't our future kids take over the farm, you ask? Because the Single Farm Payment that helps pay our bills (it's not free money that goes into our pockets thank you kindly) is not transferrable to our children. So even if they are dying to farm they won't be able to because they can't afford to.

Here we are working until nearly midnight every day, weekends and holidays included, as we attempt to provide British lamb and beef only to be ripped off by the big businesses that then sell our produce to the consumer for insane prices. If our lamb weighs over 24kg we are not paid for any of that extra wight - but the consumer sure is! The markets demand lean meaty lamb and the only way you can get that is to cross with big rams like Texels and Suffolks. So we get fleeced, you get fleeced and big buisiness rakes in the 拢拢.

Speaking of fleeces! What did we get for our wool? Less then fifty pence a fleece. How much do you pay for wool rugs and sweaters?? Exactly. We are literally paying to sell our fleeces and you are paying out the nose to buy wool. I know there are producting and processing costs but give me a break - less then fifty pence a fleece for me and how much do you pay for the end product?? How is that justifiable? I don't sell my fleece - I pay to sell it. We made no profit what-so-ever and instead we had to pay out of our own pocket to have the fleeces shorn, shipped, processed and sold.

Here we are living the rural dream life and it is a dead end. Local Orcadians cannot afford to buy a tiny one-room house and so they are forced to move south and work at big businesses while the wealthy come up here and drive the locals out. Meanwhile, big business after big business arrives and kills off the locally-owned small shops that once did brisk trade. And why? Because we are so obsessed with buying as cheaply as possible without carefully considering all of the stuff involved with our purchase.

How to save our small businesses and rural communities? RESPONSIBLE CONSUMERISM ladies and gents. Don't read any further if you are a Politically Correct type that can't handle someone stating their opinion without being warm and fuzzy...

The only way to win this battle is if we, the consumer, stop trying to get as much as we can for as little as possible. First of all, we don't need as much variety as we think we do and so if we simplified our menues and our wardrobes we would not "need" to shop so cheap for sweatshop goods and imported produce. It's a sad fact of irresponsible consumerism that we automatically head for what's cheap without thinking about our communities and local producers - let alone, "Who made this and under what conditions?" When you reach for something on the store shelf are you asking, "Was this produced by a child in a sweat shop?" or "Will buying this cause us to become more dependent on the imports from other countries?" How many times does that thought enter our heads? Hardly ever. Instead we are saying, "This costs 拢1.20 and that costs 拢3.45 so I'll buy the first item and save and then I can get even more variety for less!"

And thus another five year old child and his pregnant mom toil away for 16 hours in some sweatshop without water or food - and another British farmer or producer folds under and looses their business.

THINK, PEOPLE! It's not enough to save a bit of 拢拢 - we have a moral responsibility towards the rest of humanity, to the animal kingdom and to our environment.

And if you don't care about the sweat shop kids at least think about animal welfare - what conditions is that meat being prouduced under? How are the animals being fed, housed - and handled! Here in Orkney a farmer gets convicted for striking a beast and rendering it dead. How many beasts are rendered dead through beatings on farms overseas where we buy their meat because it's cheaper then the meat produced locally under the watchful eye of animal welfare regulations? Do you want to eat a hen that spent its life stuck in a tiny cage vs. a local free range hen because you can save a few pounds? THINK!

And think about our environment! How as this item produced? What materials went into the making of it and where did the waste go? Are you really saving if you buy cheap and pollute the world??

It's not enough to stop thinking at this point. We also need to start thinking in a more communal sense rather then in an individual sense because we are the ones who inhabit our communities - and we make or break our communities based on our actions as consumers, farmers, producers etc. We destory ourselves or we save ourselves but if we don't wake up and smell the coffee we can kiss our happy rural small-business lives goodbye and have no one to blame but ourselves. Don't wait for "someone else" to help - get cracking and help yourselves!

Until we can allow ourselves to pay more for locally produced foods and products and we let go of the idea that we "need" such variety in food and goods, we'll never get out from under the community-destroying crush of the Big Businesses. It's interesting to me how our society claims to be so independent and "I'm such a unique individual!" but we are led around by the nose through our irresponsible consumerism. The big companies that sell cheap say, "Shop here!" and we obey. The advertisements on TV and in our media say, "You need to have this!" and we obey. But honestly, do we need? Or is it just greed and good old fashioned, "I want"? Can we take the time to assess our real wants and or actual needs - and act acordingly? Or shall we continue tearing down our own communities by our "money saving" actions and our "need" for the latest hot popular thing? (Fill in blank: clothing, food item, car...whatever the advertisers have convinced us we have to have...)

See the picture of the bull with the ring in his nose? That's us. The Big Businesses tug on our rings with their low prices and slick advertisements and we plod along to their bidding. "It's cheap!" and "I've got to have it!" are the stones that pave the way to farms and small businesses dying a death right under our noses while we wring our hands and wonder why our communities are being turned into expensive playgrounds for the rich where locals can't even afford a tiny flat. Well hello! The answer is right before our eyes and *we* - not "someone else" like the government - are the only ones that can fix the problem through responsible consumerism. If you act like a sheep you can't complain when you follow the flock over the edge of a cliff after being given plenty of warnings...

(And that's not to mention world poverty and how irrisponsible consumerism keeps entire nations locked into crushing poverty. Hmmm! And if pictures of starving kids with flies walking around their eyeballs doesn't move you, think of the starving animals wandering the same muddy streets and the eccological devistation visited upon their lands...)

As a farmer I have a major bone to pick with the big businesses that destroy small communities without a second thought - and the irrisponsible consumers that destroy their childrens' future in order to save a pound. There's nothing worse then watching a family lose their business/farm and then they have to go and work for donkey's wages for the big business that ruined them! And then their kids have to leave town and go find work far away because there is nothing for them except working at a low-paying job that keeps them living at home with their parents until they give up and move sooth because, hey, if they get married and have kids they'll never afford even a small house with no land here in the small rural communities! Look what happens when the local economy collapses: property prices rise through the roof and the locals are driven away to live in cities and towns while their beautiful rural homes become only for the rich. I'm watching this happen right before my eyes - and if I am blessed with children I'll end up having to move sooth in my retirement in order to be near them because they won't be able to live here in Orkney - who can afford the prices! Oh but did you hear the great news?! Another big chain supermarket is rolling into town...We'll save so much money when we go shopping!!

As a society we have become so incredibly pathetically spoiled. We want our cake cheap, we want to eat it too - and we want it now. We don't care what the act of satisfying our demands does to our neighbors and our communities - as long as we, as individuals, get it cheap and fast, who cares! We lack foresight and discernment. We don't care about sweatshops and animal welfare in other countries - all that matters is we save a few pounds shopping at the big places and those little stores, hey! It's their fault they carry all that Fair Trade and locally produced stuff that costs twice as much!

The big businesses offer cheap prices for products yes - but at what cost to us as persons and communities?! Like I keep saying, we can't sit around whining for the government to bail us out - the answer lies in our hands and unless we get up and DO something we'll continue to wring our hands and moan as we watch this ship sink right under our feet. Sure, Britain will have lots of animal, human and environmental welfare regulations - but what about the rest of the world that provides us such cheap savings on their imported goods? What are they doing to protect people, animals and the environment?

Even if you think I'm an opinionated wind-bag I hope that this post causes you to pause and think the next time you walk past the small shop selling local and fair trade and reach for something cheap on a big buisness shelf.

Responsible Consumerism...

I saw a Moor Hen on the farm today! She was scurrying to the burn and looking so cute and black and chicken like. I also saw a Bull Finch in the walled garden perched up in a tree singing away. I love birds!

So do the cats...

All fourteen of them.

On Sunday Erlend and I are heading down to Pluscarden Abbey for another visit. We are staying until Thursday and I'm sooooo happy! On Wednesday Erlend has an organic farming meeting in Dunkeld but I'm going to remain behind at the monastery and work on researching Orkney folklore for my book.

Five days without boggling escaped cattle, wild screaming sheep or telephones ringing off the hook.

Bliss. Pure bliss.

Erlend and I have returned from our five day visit at Pluscarden Abbey down near Elgin and it was soooo peaceful. Several of the monks and I shared our Latin study resources - I'm studying Latin, French and Gregorian chant. Brother D---- suggested one of the Psalters produced by the Benedictines of Solemes (the saviors of Latin and Gregorian chant!) which has the psalms in Latin on one side and French on the other. PERFECT! I've ordered a copy that will come in in who knows when.

To my joy and delight while making this visit to the Abbey I was accepted by the Oblate Master as a novice Benedictine Oblate. Yay! In a year I can be considered for full Benedictine Oblate status and I'll become a member of the Order of Saint Benedict - a lay Benedictine attatched to Pluscarden Abbey!

Erlend attended his organic farming symposium on Wednesday and right now, as I type, he's at another organic farming meeting in Kirkwall. WE'RE GOING ORGANIC YAHOO!!! (Somehow...by golly we'll find a way!)

While doon sooth Husband and I also sourced some small businesses for products but out of respect for the IB "no advertising" policy I won't name names. Suffice it to say: We found great organic honey from one place and a wonderful organic non-pastureized cheese from another place, a lovely small dairy with Ayrshire cattle making cheese the old fashioned way. As soon as I tasted the "Sweet Milk Cheese" I almost keeled over and fainted from sheer delight. NEVER have I tasted such cheese before!! Now we'll order from these two small businesses and the only "downside" is that instead of having a wide variety of cheeses we'll settle for one or two because of having to mail-order from this dairy and beekeeper.

Trust me, we'll survive.

Ok, time to eat that leg-o-lamb we have roasting away in the oven! Cheers!