the accidental smallholder :: diary archives

Dalmore: a history

When we bought Dalmore, we decided it would be interesting to do some research into the hisory of the house. Given our current circumstances, we asked Angus Council's Archives Service to do a search of the Valuation Rolls and we got the report back last week. We also bought some old OS maps of the area.

The first mention of Dalmore Farm and House is in the 1889/90 Valuation Roll, when it was owned by The Right Honourable Earl of Dalhousie of the Panmure Estate, per John Sheill, Brechin and the the tenant is listed as Robert Findlay, farmer. By 1893/94, the farm was listed as part of the Pitskelly Estate, owned by the Earl of Dalhousie, and Robert Findlay was now listed a a market gardener.

This remains pretty constant until the 1921/22 Valuation Roll, when ownership was listed as The Right Hon. Earl of Dalhousie of the Panmure Estate per R.R. Webster Baillie, Panmure Estates Office, Carnoustie and the tenant as Finlay McLaren, The Nook, Barry.

By 1953/54, Dalmore Farm (part of) and house is owned and occupied by Finlay McLaren. From 1958/59, the owner occupier was Mrs Mary McLaren and by 1962/63, it was owned and occupied by Lt. Col. Ian McLaren. Lt. Col. Ian McLaren owned and occupied Dalmore Farmhouse and Dalmore Bothy in 1966.

Our next step will be to look for the 1953 sale of the property in the Registers of Sasine, at the National Archives of Scotland and in the Census records.

Shearing

Our sheep were shorn last night. We have a lovely bloke called Duncan who shears them - pity he doesn't go as far as Angus. Last year we had three to do, this year there were twelve, although four were Carol's Ryeland x Shetlands. However, Carol's seem to have inherited the Ryeland fleece!

I could hear Duncan muttering under his breath things like "Never seen as much bloody wool on a sheep", but he soldiered on. There were a couple of nicks but nothing serious and within ten minutes, they were all grazing. The lambs are the funniest because they don't recognize their mothers. Actually, I find it quite difficult to tell them apart, although I don't resort to sniffing their bums.

We've kept Buddy and Dickie in our paddock and the ewes, lambs and gimmers are in the big field where there's plenty grass for them. The lambs should be well big enough to avoid the horse and we've sectioned off a "sanctuary" for them.

They're now ready to go to Dalmore. All we need now is a trailer!!

Little things mean a lot

I had a brief visit to Dalmore today. My contribution was painting the garden gate - not much but it was rather tatty. Really NOT in keeping. It's a nice gate, actually, in cast iron. It was a bit rusty and pale blue - an hour, a wire brush and some Hammerite and it's a lovely dark green. Actually, I've still got a wee bit to do next time I go up, so that's on "the list".

I met another of our neighbours, which was nice - and she was lovely. And we were treated to a close-up view of a Chinook helicopter as it came in to land at Barry Buddon, perhaps from RM Condor. I don't know what our horses and other livestock are going to make of this!

Paddock Paradise 2

Dan walked the perimeter of the 5 acre field today with the GPS - it's 600 metres long. So roughly three circuits will be a mile - sorry to mix metric and imperial - a few of those a day should do Smokey no harm at all! Or Bugsy.

I have to get down to some serious planning now. We cleaned out the field shelter on Saturday and the fencing is in reasonable order. The biggest problem is the grass, of which there is too much, and the location of the water.

Poultry flitting

Well, the hens have been moved to Dalmore this weekend (21st May). The house has been rebuild, painted, sprayed and puffed and been given a new Onduline roof - hopefully this will fox the red mite, as well as improving the ventilation. John built a temporary run for them until we get the fencing in the paddock done.

Dan brought the hens up on Friday night. He had to wait until they went to bed about 10pm before he could box them for travelling. The last one went in the new house about 1.30am! Naturally, I slept through all this.

On Saturday morning, it became apparent that they didn't understand that they were meant to stay INSIDE the fence. We spent a few fraught hours herding them back in, but by evening the Black Rocks and the Warrens ahd decided to stay put. Snowy, the White Leghorn, remains to be convinced.

Today (Sunday), she's still getting out - we know not how - but the rest have settled in fine. Sheep next!

Lists and lists

Dan's taken over my role as chief list maker! I came home to Alloa yesterday to see to hens, sheep, horse and cats - Dan is still at Dalmore as we have a heating engineer coming today. Before I left, I was given a "To Do" list - to add to my own list and the RHET list.

The cats must have missed me - Bertie brought me a dead bunny at 11.30pm, just as I fell asleep. I insisted that he wasn't eating it under the bed and a tug of war ensued with me holding the rabbit's back feet and Bertie gripping the head for dear life and growling at me. In the end, I picked Bertie up by the scruff and put both of them out the back door. However, this morning, he'd left me the skin in the living room. Yeuch.

It rained here during the night and Dan says it's tipping down in Barry. Still, it will bring the grass on at last. The sun's coming out now, so I'll cut the lawn this afternoon. Or is that not on the list?

Siting the hen house

There are three small paddocks at Dalmore. The hen house is going in one of them. After much deliberation, we've decided to upgrade the fencing on one, for now, to poultry proof stock netting, so that the chooks are a bit restricted in where they go. The vegetable garden is quite far away, in poultry terms and will be rabbit netted around the perimeter, but we think this is the best idea for now.

To do this, we're dividing the largest of the three paddocks into two, which makes them all roughly the same size, maybe 1/2 acre each (that's a guess, for now). We'll put water in the four and gates between and rotate the sheep round them too.

So the house base is in place and I've sprayed again with Poultry Shield - there's an odd mite or two, but far fewer than before. Linda's going to give it a coat of clear wood preservative before John reassembles it. It's on skids, so we will be able to move it round the paddocks if we want to.

There's a ready-made sand dust bath - all natural - near the house and I noticed a wooden sand rake in one of the sheds, so we'll be able to rake it every day to keep it tidy. I'm really looking forward to getting the hens up - must get an "Eggs for sale" sign for the road end!

Tidy, tidy

Well, Dan and I are up at Dalmore again, boots loaded up with pots and plants.

And dogs. Happily, our two and John and Linda's two are getting on rather well. Tess is the grumpiest - no surprise there then - but even she's coming round. She's a bit scared of Kimi, but Kimi is so easygoing, she just ignores Tess's shenanigans. Fillan's just bonkers and as long as he can run, he's happy.

We've now got tomatoes and cucumber in the greenhouse and peas, beans and courgettes ready to plant out in the vegetable garden.

Yesterday, Dan and I walked the fences again, taking notes of what needs to be done. We've decided to focus on the paddock for the hens and the two acre field, where we'll put the sheep initially. Today, Dan's been pulling out old fencing, ready for John to repair it next week.

I've been working along the west range. The looseboxes are now emptied and swept. There's some stuff to come out of the roof space which will help the ventilation, but I don't "do" ladders. I was accompanied by swallows, so we'll have to be careful not to disturb their nests. The boxes are large and in good condition - if a little high for a Shetland. I don't envisage them being in much though. The concrete floor needs a wee bit of attention but that can wait.

The byre is also emptied. There's room for six cows - the old neck chains are still on some of the stalls. Emptying the looseboxes and byre meant more skip runs and an increase in "stuff" in the cart shed - at least it's moving in the right direction, though. Out.

We've abandoned the inflatable mattress in preference for a real one and we had a much better night's sleep. Our other job for this weekend (!) is to make a detailed list of what we want done in the house, for our builder.

The weather's still fabulous - some rain at night but glorious days. i wonder if it's always like this in Barry.

Workies

Dan and Mark, and Ben, who's 15, were at Dalmore today helping John get the furniture out of storage. They fancy themselves as "workies" in the white van but they're more Crane brothers than Mitchell brothers. When they should have been eating rolls on square sausage, Mark was sharing some dried prunes. With a little fork. So Niles!

They did get loads done though. The workshop is now empty, cleaned and secure, so all the furniture is in there. John and Linda have cleaned out the greenhouse and started digging the walled garden, which will be our temporary vegetable garden. John says it's a pleasure to weed - the soil is very light, so I suspect a good dose of organic matter will be required in the autumn. He's got the maincrop potatoes in already.

Dan brought the van down here, and he, Mark and Ben have loaded up the hen house - which has been pressure washed and sprayed with Poutry Shield - and a pile of other stuff out of the garage. Heavens knows what time they'll get finished unloading.

Just as well they've got the prunes to keep them going. So to speak.

Commuting

I've been up to Dalmore today, with Lorna, our daughter. She has special needs and will be going to a lovely day centre in Arbroath after she leaves school in June. She got to see her new bedroom - and stairs are a bit of a novelty.

John and Linda have been working away, sorting stuff out - I think they're on first name terms with the guys at the skip site. Until we get the trailer, we're packing the car for every trip, so this morning I brought up the petrol lawnmower and some other bits and pieces.

The weather is still fabulous and it still feels like being on holiday. John and Linda have a routine where they work from 6am until 2pm then have the rest of the day off - this is self-imposed by the way, not at our request!

The dogs are loving it but are exhausted - the flags on the range were down yesterday, so John and Linda took them down to the lighthouses on Buddon Ness. Hopefully, we'll get down there soon too.

Our first morning

Well, at least we'd no cats wakening us with squeakies. Our inflatable mattress had a slow puncture, so about 3am, we wakened lying, effectively, on the floor, but wrapped in rubber and unable to turn over. Still, we were so tired, it didn't really matter. And I have built in padding anyway.

Just as I fell asleep last night, there was a burst of gunfire from the range. It took me a minute to realise that we weren't in Alloa and that there was no need to panic.

Dan and I are going back to Alloa today, so John and Linda will be left to get on with it. Until we get the sheep and hens up, we're really commuters. I'll be up on Tuesday and John and Linda are gettng their furniture out of storage on Thursday, so Dan's coming up then to help. And we'll be back next weekend.

It's another sunny day - we've been sitting outside the caravan and it feels like being on holiday.

Dalmore

Well, we're finally here. We got the keys today - there was a minor glitch when our mortgage money disappeared into the financial ether rather than into our solicitor's bank account - but we're in! And it's wonderful!

The house isn't as bad as we thought and it's bigger than we thought, now that it's empty. The previous owner had lots of stuff. I mean lots.

Dan's folks, John and Linda - I will refer to them as such now! - had their caravan on site and the kettle boiling immediately. It's great having them here. The weather is spectacularly good - sunny and warm, with a wee bit of a breeze. The Army are here too, but I suspect we'll not notice them soon.

The previous owner is still pottering about and still has stuff in one of the outhouses. It's a wee bit awkward, but the remaining stuff is going on Tuesday so we're prepared to cut a bit of slack.

We've started on the west range, which has the garage / workshop, looseboxes, byre and cart shed, clearing out the remaining rubbish. There's stuff all over the place so the plan is to bring it all to the barn - skipping what's rubbish and putting all the same stuff together, so we can see what we've got. There are dozens of bread baskets, drinks bottle crates, galvanised buckets, old metal dustbins and piles of timber.

Dan's brother, Mark, his wife Mo and the boys, Ben and Lewis are coming over later for a "wee swally" then we'll be having an early night in our new home - on the inflatable mattress!

One week to go!

Well, five and a half days to be accurate. And the tension is rising! And Sunday is project planning day, so we'll be reviewing our to do lists tonight. It all seemed ages away and now it seems to be rushing towards us, headlong.

I'v been sorting out dull but essential things like insurance and electricity, while Dan's been working on the PV and heat pump contractors.

The RHET stuff is pretty busy just now, too - not surprisingly, schools want to visit farms in the better weather, but farmers are busy at silage and a lot of the stock is turned away to far fields, so there's not so much to see in bye.

I've also got a VAT return to do - I don't know why this makes me sweat, but it does - and it's almost my business year end, so a visit to my accountant is due.

Bring on the chamomile tea, I think!

Turkey poults

We took some time out yesterday to call on our chums, Andrew and Janis. It was great to see them and their replacement telly - an incubator! Andrew is the keeper of the CSSA incubator and is just hatching turkey poults. They are cross bred white, bronze and blacks - the breeder runs all his stags and hens together over winter before seperating them in the spring, so the first eggs are of indeterminate breeding.

I thought they would be really ugly - I think turkeys are pretty ugly, to be honest - but they are lovely. Some are brindle and some are black with yellow undersides. They are much calmer than poultry chicks - and very curious. While we had our tea, little heads were poking out of the brooder to see what was going on. One stands on the feeder so he can see better.

Andrew and Janis are raising our pig this year - they have four saddleback weaners, which look like fine little pigs. The boar is white with a black head!

They keep Shetland sheep - the lambs are like little goatlings. Andrew described one as looking like he was made of five pipecleaners - pretty accurate description, too. They're real chicken chasers, too.

Looks like the CSSA incubator is going to be put to good use, though.

Finished lambing!

Jura lambed last night, well, early hours of this morning. When I went out at 6.30am, she was all done and dusted - tup lamb, on his feet, but looking a bit bedraggled. They're in a mothering pen now. I haven't seen him suck, but she's plenty of milk and his belly feels full. I'll check him in an hour. Jura's the spookiest of our ewes and doesn't really welcome human intervention so I don't want to stress her.

So, same as last year - two tups, one ewe, except Juno and Jura have swapped boy for girl and vice versa. I'd have liked more ewe lambs, as I'm trying to increase the flock size. However, Dan will be pleased as I don't now have an excuse for keeping the tup lambs and he'll get his freezer lambs.

Red mite

Damn, we've got red mite in our big hen house. I was cleaning it out this morning when I spotted the wee b*ggers. Squished a few as revenge, but decided that wasn't a great solution.

In some ways, if it was going to happen, this was as good a time as any. My hen numbers are quite low - about 25 or so, and although I was planning to restock, I haven't done anything about it yet, in anticipation of the "flitting". We also have three other houses that have been sitting empty since last autumn - these should be able to accommodate all the hens at a squash. Finally, we were going to dismantle the house anyway for moving. The plan was to dismantle, move and reassemble in one day, but now there's a new plan, which is probably better.

I'll clean out the house; we'll dismantle it; give a a good spray with insecticide and leave it open to the elements for a week or so, then give it a good spray before we reassemble it then give it a puff of diatomous earth once it's in situ.

Then we'll move the hens up into a nice clean house, giving them a wee puff of DE for good measure.

I think the roof is felt, so we'll probably replace it with Onduline or something. I always advise against felt, beacuse it can harbour mite. Should have taken my own advice - a case of "do as I say, not as I do". Hey ho.

The hens look fine and are laying really well, so I suspect it's not TOO heavy an infestation, but I've bought some Poultry Spice for them, to give them a wee boost, bless.

The whole thing's blooming annoying - just shows you, take your eye of the ball etc etc.

Horses and pigs

The son of our livery yard owner has just bought two Saddleback weaners. Where has he put them? In a pen next to Smokey's field. This is good in the long term, as we'll have pigs and Smokey at Dalmore, so he can get desensitised now. But in the meantime, it's a bit hairy.

There are four horses in the field; Smokey, Wallace (Welsh Section D), Jack (Welsh Section A type) and Jeffrey (large coloured cob). Jack is the least bothered; Jeffrey was dripping with sweat the first evening. I've never seem a horse sweat like that - it was dripping off him.

This is Day 3 and Smokey was much better this morning going into the field. I gave him some hay to stop him bolting off down the field; he ate it quite calmly but he's obviously not sure. The horses have two small fields and the dividing gate takes them quite close to the pigs. I've been shouting Smokey through so he can come through at his own pace - gallop on Night 1 and lovely elevated trot last night!

I don't know what it is with pigs and horses. Would pigs have predated on horses in the mists of time? Can't imagine so. Anyway, they can't live at that level of excitement for long, so I expect calm to return sometime during the week. Hopefully.

My new toy

We've got a petrol mower. I rarely cut the grass because a) I find it hard to start, b) it runs away with me and c) I hate the noise. But all has changed!

Dan's mum bought a Qualcast Panther 30 - fancy name for a hand cylinder mower. Since they are caravanning and have no lawn to cut, it's residing in our garage. The grass needed cut and Dan's very busy, so I decided to get the hand mower out. And it's great! I'm chuffed to bits with it.

It takes me about 40 minutes to cut the lawn. On a sunny morning like today, that was very pleasurable. It's funny how certain things take you back, but my Gran had a similar lawnmower and she used to let me cut the grass when I was a child. Using this one takes me right back to those days. It was lovely.

Mind you, I wouldn't like to have to cut the field with it - I'd have to take a picnic!