Make Hay Whilst the Sun Shines !

After a number of warm summer days here in Shetland, this week has seen another red letter day on the croft.  With the combined showers and warmth of recent weeks, everything's been growing madly from the grass to this years lambs.

I'm sure you've all seen the huge black sileage bales sat in farmers fields, well this is fodder for animals during the winter period when grass doesn't grow.  For those actually cutting the silage (we've employed someone to do it) they have a real job to pick the right time to do it. With some grass being over 2ft , last week was chosen for it to be cut. These bales are another "red letter day" in our little journey towards being a working croft.

We've had just 5 acres cut with the remaining being left for them to eat for the next 2-3 months. The cut grass was left overnight with Ryan coming back the next day to bale it. The grass should have about 50% moisture and when cut and wrapped into the black bales, and will start fermenting within a couple of days.  When you finally start feeding this to the sheep in a few months time, it provides a moist and highly nutritious fodder at a time they really need it. The main reason for doing this is that sheep need feeding during winter, and as most of our ewes will be pregnant they will need decent nutrition overwinter .

Not  a great picture above, but meet Errol The Peril.  Houdini more like, bit of an escape artist - note the husband stood a good distance off. He's a great looking ram with a .... fine .. pair .... he'll get a chance to go to the ewes this year. Errol that is.

Here's a pic of the long awaited hen house ... made almost entirely of recycled wood from the old house.

We added the metal roof last weekend - we still have waterproof felt to add to the walls on the outside, but its huge !!!


We've put stones around the edges, as theres a gap with it being elevated. Didn't want them getting underneath to lay their eggs!

24 nesting boxes and perches either side for them to roost on. Very homely ! The roof structure is made from the old roof trusses. Very proud of ourselves !!!

Gorgeous orchid like Monkey flowers to end with =)

s,s,d xxxx

Mareel .... it's nearly here

http://www.facebook.com/#!/MareelShetland


It's a very exciting time for us here in Shetland. After many years of discussion, debate, disagreement & delay ..... very soon Shetland's marvellous Mareel Arts & Entertainment centre will open in Lerwick. It's an awesome looking place - like nowhere else on the islands.

Shetland is an inspiring place culturally, and is literally bursting at the seams with local talented folk of every age, many of whom are renowned in their field. Jenna Reid, Aly Bain ... click below and have a listen to Fiddlers Bid :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUkXJ7Kp6ZY

 

 Because of this and the Isles musical heritage, it attracts world class artists and musicians from all over the world already - now there will be a world class venue for them to perform in. Excited just doesn't cover it - and if you come up and visit us we'll treat you to a trip here !

.... oh yes .... and we can't wait to get to go to a proper cinema again too !!! yay !!!!!

S x

Well Folks - Cuppaster's blog is back !

Time has rumbled on since we last posted some months ago, but at the request of many friends and family we'll be posting again here on the blogspot.

The dog poses for her latest portrait entitled  "The Digger In The Woodpile". Poor thing's tied up and not looking happy as she's still recovering from an operation on her leg to have her ligament re-attached.

This peerie rescue dog has had the time of her life living here with all the freedom, however she's had to pay the price for being so athletic and is 3 months into a 4 month recovery period.

Here's a snap of our rather scary Shetland ram looking a bit raggedy on a recent summer evening.

Suffice to say neither of us will enter his field without a crook with which to push him back if he gets too close (doesn't like having his horns tapped with the stick). He has a field to himself as he's very much the Alpha Male and a bit aggresive and brimming full of testosterone, so come November he really does enjoy the freedom earning his keep with the ladies! The polite descriptive term being "tupping" ... to the rest of us "a Good Rogering"

One of the unusual properties of the Shetland breed of sheep is that their fleece starts shedding itself come summer.
Looking at the rams neck,  the old fleece has started to come away but is still on his back (he'll be getting clipped shortly to remove it), however his new white coat on his neck is just appearing. He'll look pretty skinny when clipped, so pics to follow :-) !!

The last pic below shows Monty the cockerel surrounded by some of his gals .

 

We started stocking up with hens around three months ago since which time we have lost around 18 to otters and a ferral cat. Pretty grim really, details of which I will spare you, however they have now all been relocated to a lovely new hen house and secluded field protected by extra fencing.

I'll post a few more shots of the Hen House soon - we think it's a wonder to behold ! Constructed of 90% recycled timbers from the old croft house, there ain't another like it in Shetland ! I remember the rusty old green shed that stood in the garden of my childhood home at St.Annes Grove in Fareham which was little more than a rusting corrugated iron heap; who'd have thought I'd be installing corrugated iron sheets onto the roof of our new Hen House. Looks very vintage!

Catch up soon - hope there's still a few of you watching this !!

S & S & Diggster xx

A House , A Hoover and Hello Girls !

A HOUSE

Almost wind and water-tight. Our building site is now a HOUSE !!!!

 Fred & Steve have achieved so much in the last weeks. Slates on next.

We've been very hampered by the weather at the moment, mainly the wind which has rarely been a gentle breeze of late. Without a safety harness (!) health and safety has to come first when clambering around on a wet roof in a force 9 gale. So Fred & Steve have been busy with some internal jobs,

Remember this photo from a couple of months back ? This will be our living room ..,




Here it is now .... just waiting for the concrete floor to be laid

Internal walls of the old house now rendered and ready for the Foamglas insulation (the glass bubbles!)

A couple of other internal shots - this our bedroom

Photo taken in the hall area - window on left looking out onto Alans Wall and the Lamby Shed, stairs will start just next to the window

A HOOVER

Words fail me .... other than "a womans work is never done"  =) !!!!

HELLO GIRLS !!!!

 Rambo welcomes our new arrivals . Considering he's a vasectomised ram, he was MIGHTY interested in the Shetland ewe lambs that we picked up yesterday. Very, welcoming !!

6 gorgeous ewe lambs. This years lambs, so they won't be tupped (mated) until this time next year. The Shetland breed have 13 different colour markings and we've decided our Shetland flock will be a mixture of Moorits (all black) and coloured.

Sheep settled out up on Grind croft , Digger keeping an eye on them ...

More arrivals next week, some breeding ewes from Hascosay hopefully

Watch this space !

Yell 2011 Agricultural Show

"It's not the winning, it's the taking part ..."

OK so I didn't expect to win any prizes, I've never entered a baking competition before or a photographic competition come to think of it ... but I thought I'd give it a go. You know what I mean, enter into the spirit of it ; make up the numbers. So ... when I saw 3 of these =)

I won a second  place for my chocolate sponge 

                                                    
                                                         

2nd place for my quiche







             2nd place for my picture of Rambo eating "High Tea" on top of a wall !

And a "Well Done" for my picture of the Schoolhouse

                                    

                                            Seriously Chuffed !!

  Who needs the sun with Mr Stripey at your show ?

Weather started well getting wetter as the day progressed. We took our neighbour John down with us, here are some shots from the day .


This is what you CALL a set of horns !

Below is a pure bred Cheviot YEAR OLD tup (a male lamb bred to do the business basically !) One of the largest breeds of sheep. He was a major prize winner and a big nosey lad !

Working dogs are very important so it's only be expected that they're also judge too.

Show winning Pure bred Shetland ewe; looked gorgeous after having a wash & blow dry earlier in the day!

Its hungry work being penned up and look at all day - an old crofter feeds his Shetland gimmer

A Shetland coo with "calf at foot" - another prize winner from Burravoe, she was a healthy fine looking coo.

Of course, Shetland ponies. Mum with her foal - they're so little you just want to put them in your pocket!

A prize winning & very vocal cockeral. Not sure what species he is but he wasn't happy at being looked at!

A fine day - who knows in future years we may even enter livestock! Just to make the numbers up of course.

Sunday I'll be sorting through our pile of salvaged roof tiles we removed, swiftly followed by undercoating some fascia boards.

 Enjoy the rest of your weekends

A Changeable last week but lots got done ...

Fred & Steve (with help from their mate Gareth) have been working hard on the roof all last week and have made real progress in a few short days - it's finally looking like a house again. However  -

in the topsy turvy rollercoaster world that is "Fred-Cheshire-Land" we have to have to accept that the downs are there to make the ups so enjoyable =). This is how I feel  sometimes on a very good day .

All in all Thursday proved to be a bit of a pooh day when Fred realised that the plans vs the actual building were 16 inches out regarding the position of the stairs. Seriously not good news - however many times you say it out loud and shut your eyes, cross your fingers and pray.

Thanks to Cuppaster's excellent Vodafone mobile coverage there then followed roof truss manufacturers talking to builder: builder chin-wagging for 1 hour to chief building controls officer followed up by a semi-helpful conversation with the architect blady blah blah.
  


Sorted. Why so  important? well in such a small house you have absolutely no headspace to play with so this - for a  day only at least - was quite a problem. Problem solved though.



Saturday we spent an enjoyable evening in the Booth of Sound, this is the small croft house near the Ness of Sound, the little island near the Schoolhouse we're renting. We shared a drink with and got to know some new friends. Peter, also a guest, recently moved to Yell and is our Dutch neighbour who lives at the end of the Cuppaster Road; a school-teacher by profession he and Steve started talking about getting boat to get out and start doing some sea fishing ... maybe something like this? watch this space

Nick - who owns Booth of Sound - works as a judge in the field of child protection. Even from just a few meetings we can see he is an interesting & very passionate man immersed in his work around the world that really makes a difference in peoples lives.

He loves dogs, so when we visited we took Digger and Max, who along with his 2 cocker spaniels made for a cosy evening in front of the peat fire in his living room. Whilst it may have been blowing a gale force 9 hooley outside, and whilst we may have DRIVEN the 500m to his house for fear of getting stuck in the bog, it was  - nevertheless - SUMMER. So Pimms was my tipple of the evening.


                                                            Thankyou and goodnigh m'lud =)

xxx

A Bucket, A Big Boudoir and a lovely pair of Valleys

We've had some pretty grey weather up here recently , "the worst summer in 15 years" according to the locals. So the fact that less than 2 working days have been lost to weather is testament to Fred's ability to grit his teeth and get on with it (whilst hating every moment & having a good grumble!)

So at the end of a day, when its dark wet, miserable and blowing a gale force hooley outside .....

I suppose plonking a bucket by a cosy fireplace is as good a place as any to sit and enjoy a quiet fag.

The house continues to take shape and the man of many talents and his hardworking little

scouse mate has been busy

And ..... at a spacious 5m x 6m

This is the master boudoir. It will have 2 large velux in the roof & a window in the gable end.

Here's the man hard at work

If Steve Wilder is looking at this - hope you like the look of our valley =)  !!!!

S&S xx