Sheep / Smokey / Barn
Posted: Monday 25 January, 2021
Monday 18th January
A pleasant day, turning to rain in the evening.
The new paint didn’t take, so Tara and I moved most of the feed store “stuff” back in. It will take a few days to arrange it to our satisfaction. Graham the Joiner was here to view the planned renovation of the outside WC.
It’s now 21 days since Blizzard was served and there’s no sign of her coming bulling again so fingers crossed, she’s back in calf. If she holds, she’ll be due 8th October, which is a move in the right direction.
Tuesday 19th January
Frosty this morning, no wind. The ewes are fine; tup lambs away nt Monday, scanner here a week Wednesday.
Ewes.
Bambi and Kit.
Starting to find my way around the feed store; it’ll be a wee while before it feels comfortable. I was in the looseboxes for tup mix this morning before I remembered it was elsewhere. I suspect that might happen for the next couple of days. I had a bit of a clean – bin tops and the like. Looks braw.
We’ve decided to go ahead with the rebuild of the outside WC.
Wednesday 20th January
I need to bake. The Christmas cakes are finally finished and the tins are empty apart from crackers, which just won’t do with a cuppa.
And a photo of Smokey, just because. Well, because he had a brush and looks less feral.
Smokey.
Thursday 21st January
Not a bad day – certainly not compared to elsewhere. Dry, but grey with a bit of a breeze that’s drying things up – sadly not the Home paddock, which looks worse than ever. I wonder of the major land works for the offshore cable is affecting things.
Friday 22nd January
Glorious morning – sunny, dry, brisk breeze. Up sharp – Dan away with a trailer of muck to the farm, then picking up a bale of hay and a bale of straw, and then down to East Pitkerro to feed and bed the steers. Cleaned out the caravan – I’ll be glad when this bird flu is over. Then it was off to Forfar to collect a tonne of layer pellets, which Dan helped me unload. With the flat trailer now empty, I could muck out the cattle, who had been let out to enjoy the sunshine.
Dave the Spark popped in to disconnect the light, heater and water heater in the outside WC, ready for Graham. This will be our last project like this for a while.
Picked up two bales of hay at teatime, so the weekend is clear to get on with the tidying down after the feed store work.
Saturday 23rd January
Glorious sunny day again. Spent most of the day moving the last stuff into the feed store; Ave’s going back to her owner on the 17th February, so Tara will have a lot of her stuff to sort out and pack. I’ll be sorry to see her go; she’s a nice horse, but really needs to be retired now.
Tidied up the byre a bit, but the main focus was the barn and what a difference we made! There’s actually room to work there now! Not quite finished but close to. There’s a lot of wood to be processed as well, but at least there’s room to do it now.
Barn looking tidier!
Sunday 24th January
Another gorgeous day – very cold, but bright sunshine. Had a rubbish night’s sleep – there’s work going on along at the railway overnight and it’s very noisy and very well lit. Not conducive to good sleep. Considering it’s the second least used station on the network, it gets an incredible amount of attention.
Facebook reminded me that it’s four years since Meg, our collie, died. Couldn’t help but shed a tear.
I baked – just scones and ginger nuts but it felt good.
Dan went off to the skip at lunchtime with the gleanings from yesterday, after spending an hour building shelves in the byre for the boxes of apple juice bottles. Hopefully we’ll be able to fill some bottles this year!!!
