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As ever ..


So, have we all recovered from the self inflicted hangovers, over indulgence in leftover turkey sandwhiches & turning green at the mere sight of a bottle of whiskey ?


Its nice to have some sense of normality return once again & to no longer be chained to the kitchen.

Work must yet again be done, Tis seed time. Here I sit trying to organise 100kg of seed tatties & a decent silage mix to re-seed 2 acre's with, sounds easy doesnt it... Dont be fooled ! Seed merchants who cover this area are very elusive ! I need lime too which is proving even harder to sort out and I havent even started to look for potash.

Ive got the swede seed organised, and the carrots, beans, peas, brussels, cabbage, kale, beetroot, brocoli, parsnips, peppers, chillies, leeks, squash, courgette, tomato, etc, so at least people fodder is covered. If only animal fodder could be so easy.

Tis blowing a mini gale here today but its still pretty nice, its not raining & its not cold, thankfully.

Free on fair isle to everyone feeding sheep.. shot blast hail exfoliation treatment..

Yes, by the time I had been round feeding geese, turkeys, ducks, pigs & sheep my face had reached that point of stingyness where numbness sets in.. Im told i had a lovely rosy glow.

Not a grand day today, found my nankin rooster had gotton on the wrong side of a gust & didnt survive. Its the one breed I really want to spec in up here as there are only 2 breeders with clean lines in the uk, replacing him is going to be a massive headache & may involve being sent up to 4 doz hatching eggs before we manage to hatch another perfect male nankin.

Also discovered 2 of my *hens* are not hens.. The tails on these 2 birds have become so battered with the winds that there are no traces of curled tail feathers left, anyhoo, this morning they both decided to show us just how male they are. No matters, cochin is a good rooster to have around for breeding huge broiler stock, he is a massive chicken.


Am contemplating waiting till this afternoon, expected gusts 90mph+ and taking a trip down to south light with the camera where the waves promise to be pretty spectacular in the SE gusts.

The polytunnel copped it, but we knew it would happen at some point this winter, the cover was old & when the last residents of this house re-covered it, it wasnt done properly, was far to slack, so it perished quicker than it should have. No matters, hopefully by April it'll be warm enough to re-cover it.

Also lost the last norfolk black turkey stag, dern thing lacks the brains to go inside at any time.

So, did anyone else watch Hugh's chicken farm over on C4 ? Excellent program, I only hope it continues to show intensive chicken raising in the true & repulsive light it has thus far. Gotta admire the guy for having the strength to set up intensive on his own, I certainly havent the cold heart enough to raise animals in conditions you wouldnt want to keep rats in never mind a product destined to become food someones next tikka masala.

Seems to have taken its toll.


I am so tired that I just cannot believe how tired I am, nights spent fetching glasses of water, fresh tissues & taking temps & never having the chance to catch up on that lost sleep.

Im eating far to much meat too because its in the freezer & cheaper than buying veg /salad from the store.

(insert tinkly music bit) ooo lurv is in the air




I've been keeping up with some of the debate going on in the aftermath of Hugh's chicken run & jamies fowl dinner's. Do you know that rather to many see keeping free range poultry as animal cruelty & sub standard welfare, our birds can get out and get wet/muddy (Dirty !) they have free access to weeds (Does that make them Hippy Henny ?).

What can one say to such miss educated stupidity.





Its all gone very romantic around these parts. Softens the heart to watch such arduous attempts by our feathered men folks



But as ever, there is always the odd one out




Big Big Big day today !!!!

Last june Robyn incubated & hatched & reared 2 lines of cuckoo maran bantams... Today .... We had the first egg from one of the hens ! "Can we get the breeding pens up & going now mum" was what I was getting within 10 mins of the fantastic egg find. Managed to put her off for another 3 weeks, better for rooster boy if the other 2 hens come into lay first before we put them in a wee family group & besides, having the maran bantam girls laying may just spur the croad langshan bantam lass into lay too.

Robyn also reminded me of a promise I made to her last year. We have to source and hatch out some hardy Muscovy ducks. Any island bloggers up this way can sell us some Muscovy hatching eggs ?

A good hard one too ! brilliant, just what the hen coops need to aid in mite control.


Ducks seem to have settled into the fact that they are now within the duck pen for the mornings, they get out in the afternoon to range about. Good to see that they are now even sleeping inside the hut at night rather than forming a huddle against the wall like they used to.

Him has a day away from the mills today, they are waiting on parts which hopefully will arrive tomorrow, so perhaps we can get something done today !

Finally managed to get the pigs moved yesterday. They are now in the small field beside the house working over a plot to break up the ground where we are going to be building our barn, its going to have a deep concrete floor, so they can only make it easier to get going with the digger. While they are doing that we will work on making them a perm winter area/farrowing area on the other side of the small park which will be walled in, have a good sized concrete standing & a grass area at the bottom. Should make a nice nursary area for wee piglets.

The first incubator went on this morning, nothing special as yet, just a random selection of eggs from all groups of hens for the purpose of testing each roosters fertility. The maran bantam is laying really well now so we will run a few hatches from her to bring the bantam maran flock up to 15 hens.

As if putting up with the daily weather induced stress isnt enough, i got up this morning feeling like someone had ran me over with a tractor & not an inch of me did not ache, every breath is a painfull struggle & my nose feels like someone has forced a few demi john bungs up there.

Not a brilliant time to be feeling like this, next week is the start of a long spell of meetings & courses for both hubby & I, lasting right up until May, and neither of us can really afford to miss any. Hubby has safety training for the boat & his basic fire training to do & I've a regional crofters commission meeting & a 2 other training days to go on, and eldest daughter has an app to finally go & see about braces, so I really hope I can get out to go with her next monday, hope i feel better too.

Well, after a sound sleep of some 14hrs I am feeling more than a little bit like myself again, I can move without ache and the ability to breath is returning.

The good news - The first batch of eggs to go into the incubator - 100% fertility and a few of them are from new stock just starting to lay.


Something to pass on for uk folks - Get your kids to make the school aware of this - http://www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk/Default.aspx


We are trying to get the High school kids home tomorrow, the weather is really closing in for a really awful spell yet again & it looks like its going to last a while so tomorrow am will prob be the only chance they have of getting in all week, trouble is, despite the parents requesting an am flight home, they put on an afternoon flight, when the hail, heavy snow & thunder is due to strike, so chances are that the kids will not get home at all. Will just have to sit here with fingers & toes crossed & hope something happens to delay the weather an or so.

Heavy snow & blizzard warnings out for orkney/shetland over the weekend..

We say....


Woohooo Bring it on !! We didnt take sledges with us when we moved for them to spend year after year in the shed getting dusty. We need snow !

Kids got home, some last min adjustments to flight times & they were home on the first plane in this morning, much to everyones relief as the weather has now closed in again. Daughter is full of the cold so retreated to warm cosy undertheduvet land with the company of lemsip & strepsils & the tv remote. Son, has yet again taken a stretch, the christmas sweaters are now starting to look a tad short on the arms.

Anyhoo..

Today was a big day !

The ducks must have caught light of my calling them exhibition strain & caught the whisper of "into the freeze with them" for this morning.. we got... The first big white duck egg !