Then there were 3...

My doe and fawn had another with them this morning...this may be dad although it is a bit early for rutting and also I can see no antlers.

The last 2 days have been very windy and raining, not the best conditions for Sandalfarm but the animals are all hardy sorts. Aryanne is the only sheep not plastered to the top wall, although she is easiest to identify of course. Cloud doesn't mind the rain, it's the mud that is her problem. We have had a reasonably dry summer and the field is in good condition so hopefully mud won't be a problem for a month or two.

Little ram lamb has torn off one of his little ram lamb horns. I'm glad it is cool as it has stopped the flies from infecting it. They get them caught in the fencing, we have often rescued sheep with horns. Why the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence when they are on open moorland is beyond me.

I have only 3 days left to go here at the farm. Ralph is staying on another week to complete on the 16th. Our buyers are looking forward to settling down here and I trust in them my precious animals.

Feeling weepy now. Goodbye Sandalfarm.

A dismal performance.

So the tomatoes I entered are the unplaced ones at the back on the right. They are more uniform and not as blemished as the 2nd winner. I think they had gone over a bit looking rather more red than the others. I did like the Highland cow made of a courgette and leek legs and the mis-shapen carrots...which are supposed to be long and straight. The ones in the foreground were discounted! I wonder why.

The thing is that all of this is what makes living off the earth more interesting and brings us strange gardeners and small holders together.

Another week goes by...

I'm getting used to the space in the house. I don't want to go to a house with 2 lots of furniture squashed in. But I do want to go...

It seems we may be completing next Friday.

In the meantime I have been walking miles, catching up with friends and changing my mind about what days I should go, return for a day's work, collect the rest of the stuff from in-laws' garage, join my walking weekend in Durham and so on. In between all that I have to take Pip for her second injection withing a 2 week slot. (I forgot to vaccinate her last year.)

It's all very boring.

It is peaceful here this Sat lunch time and my highlight of the day is the entry to the Clayton Horticultural Society's Annual Show. Yes, tomatoes. I'll post a picture later with a rosette decorating the plate, maybe.

Meanwhile, here's another rosette. Pip got 3rd in Best Condition at a very busy dog show in Huddersfield. Good Dog!

The new neighbours haven't moved in yet as they are busy stripping the place out and putting right 18 months of neglect. Sadly, they too have no interest in using the field and it will be used for hay only. When so many people want land, it seems a shame to waste this precious commodity. I just have to hope there is someone in the Spey Valley in the same mind set.

What will I miss most...

It's obvious that I love having the animals...some people say, well you will still have the dogs, but working the dog is the best thing I do and today Moss herded a flock of sheep so we could catch an unhappy ewe...see left. Adriane is a little black Hebridean that appeared on a road and was unhappy and left unclaimed. Adriane, a human, posted on the NYSS e mail because this little ewe was so distressed in a a large flock and could be heard bleating pathetically in the night.

I went with Moss and after some good herding from Moss (which in itself is a wonderful thing!) the little ewe was brought to our farm where she was very quickly at home in our small flock of Shetlands.

I think she is exquisite.

The other picture is of m with Cloud. I spend a lot of time with my beautiful and elderly cow. She loves company and I'm better than nobody although she would obviously prefer another cow.

The move to Speyside MUST include some land before too long. Despite the peace and quiet of the Spey Valley, there is absolutely nothing compared to having our own land and the animals to graze it.

What has gone...

A break from my house history for some photos.

A lot of things are staying with the farm; the tractor, the trailer, the truck, the grass cutter, even the livestock, what's left.

I have "let go" my lovely convertible Saab and my handy Suzuki GN 125cc, my commuter vehicle.

In Speyside there is not a commute. Either I can walk to work or it is 30 miles so too long a ride for a 125cc. As for my "Last Fling" (the registration was LF04), we now have a sensible Skoda with room for dogs, tents, kyacks and Dad.

We will have one car, one motorbike, several bikes, a scooter in progress and a kyack!

A History of Homes.

For 2 years I lived in my granny's house with my mum and dad and brother but of course I don't remember it.
Then we lived in a huge Victorian house with a massive garden and an elm tree. It was beautiful. I lived there with the same parts of my family until I was 9.
The immediate family emigrated as £10 Poms and after a short time in a flat that we rented, we lived on the edge of the Australian bush in a bungalow which was set in a developing estate. newly built for all us Poms. It was a 3 bed but expanded to 4 when my granny and her new husband joined us for 2 years. The furniture was stylish Swedish, a foretaste of IKEA and my dad still has the "room divider" consisting of bookshelves, desks, cupboards, LP dividers and so on.
When we left Oz, we lived for a few months in a rented house near my secondary school and I slept in the garden shed with a tin roof, rather than share a bedroom with my older brother.
Back in England, I stayed with one then the other of my aunties while Mum and Dad looked for a business.
We then lived above the business, a shop, in a 17century black and white house. The best thing about living here was that I got my first dog, but we didn't stay long and were soon back in the suburbs of Birmingham in a semi (1950s?).
Mum and Dad went up market to a bigger semi with a beautiful garden in a posher suburb but I had left home and started my own life of "changing homes".
No photos as I don't yet have a scanner.
More later. The farm is at the end of a long list.

Summer holiday.

on


A beautiful summer day with the lavender smelling sweet and the chickens stocked up with rowan berries, when we loaded up the vehicles for our moving trip to Grantown. Queensbury Van Hire is a local firm and we had no problems with their prices or efficiency. I drove the truck and used a borrowed sheep trailer (see above).

It only took 2 hours to load up the van, 1 hour for the truck and trailer the evening before and 8 hours to drive there. We unpacked the following day in pouring rain and it rained all day but so did it everywhere else.

We drove back to the farm the following day, in pouring rain from Perth onwards.

As we drove in convoy we were able to exchange notes on what had taken our individual interest and it was all identical! Bad driving...another Queensbury Van...flooded fields with folorn cows...

Our own cow was standing folornly too but she always looks like that.

Then our farmhouse...devoid of all the home comforts we have accumulated over the last 30 years. Now we don't only have space around us with our land but also within our house. See the photo of breakfast today.