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Winter weather arrives

dogs in snow

Compared to last year, this winter has been a lot easier. And much of that is down to the weather. This time last year we were up to our knees in snow. And when it wasn’t freezing or snowing, we were up to our knees in mud.

This winter has been almost balmy by comparison. Some days even felt like spring. Still a bit of mud, can’t really avoid it in winter, but not as bad as we’ve known. But it is so much easier walking around on frozen rather then muddy ground.

auchenstroan winter morning

Still, this week the snow finally arrived. Not much, but enough to make a fine coating everywhere. Not quite winter wonderland, but quite scenic nonetheless. We get some quite spectacular mornings.

It reminds me of the old rhyme

red sky at night, shepherd’s delight;
red sky in morning, shepherd’s warning

However, sunrises such as the one in the photo don’t seem to be the harbinger of bad weather here, thankfully.

The dogs love the cold weather, except when they’re having their photo taken. But walking round, they are playful and have a great time rolling in the snow.

sheep in winter

The sheep, well I think they just put up with it. That said, they are still out and about foraging even when the snow is pouring out of the sky.

And, this morning apparently, they got into quite a playful mood when Nicole was over photographing them. She took the picture below which is pretty good I must say.

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Winter weather challenging already

river torrent

I recently wrote about how we had been at the receiving end of some heavy rain.  But it stopped and we had a period of cold and dry weather.  I quite like it cold and dry, the main thing is it being dry.  It’s not a lot of fun looking after animals in the rain and mud.  The hens hate it.  The sheep don’t like it but cope, though they hate muddy and wet ground. The dogs also remain unimpressed by the kind of horizontal rain we get here.

sheep and hayThe good part about living here is that when it stops raining, it does dry out.  In fact, the ground, even in wet areas was just firming nicely.  The sheep happily grazed hay at their feeders not having to perch on the slabs we had laid for them.

But then storm Diane arrived.  The rain has been torrential.  The winds fierce.  10 minutes outside in waterproofs was enough to prove that they were not waterproof at all.  The dogs needed persuading to step out the door, even if Haribo’s favourite toy (ball and launcher) were waved at him.

Fortunately, the repaired gypsy caravan cover, now held in place by 4 ratchet straps, remained in place.  I did watch the livestock trailer nearly get blown away by the wind, so Nicole and I had to go out and secure that.

stroanshalloch burn torrentToday, this afternoon, it suddenly brightened a bit.  I managed to take the dogs for a proper walk and came back with my jacket drier than when I set out.

Nicole had nipped into town earlier and took these pictures of the rivers.  They are the highest and most ferocious I have yet seen.  All the hillsides had random torrents pouring off them.  Impressive, but a lot of water.  I did wonder how things are looking further downstream.

More dry weather needed please!!

 

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Rain, Rain and More Rain

Stroanshalloch Burn after rain

After a period of quite nice weather, the rains came.  A couple of storms, then a period of almost relentless heavy rain.  We are somewhat fortunate in that here, living in the hills, most of it runs off.  But before it does that, it does tend to gather in puddles all over the place.  The run off into the rivers (we have two main rivers here) can be quite spectacular.  The burn above (Stroanshalloch Burn) is usually a gentle wee water flow – now it’s a roaring mass of water.  And that’s the small of the two (the other one is down a steep slope and I’m too lazy (or wise) to attempt to climb down it just for a photo opportunity.

I quite enjoy watching it for short periods, much to the irritation of the dogs.  They are really not that keen on stops during their walks, well human stops anyway – it’s fine for them to stop and investigate some interesting smell for a few minutes.  But if I stop for a couple of minutes, I turn round to find them sitting looking at me with questioning looks on their faces.

I digress.

The sheep have the worst of it.  Gate entrances become areas of liquid mud.  Lots of little streams become suddenly active.  Sheep are not that keen on getting their feet wet and can often be seen negotiating their way from one patch to another in a series of jumps.  Yesterday, two lambs got a bit stranded in a field and didn’t want to come back to the main shelter because it was muddy – we had to lay down some stones and straw to get them back.

On the plus side, the patio (see sheep’s-patio-completed) has proved immensely popular, so much so that it is almost impossible to fill the feeders as the sheep absolutely will not move out of the way if it means putting even one foot in the surrounding mud.  On top of that, the new hay we took delivery of on Friday is also proving hugely popular, so on arriving with a fresh bag, they all pile in (all 28 of them).  It’s organised chaos.

Thankfully, a dry period is forecast now and hopefully the ground will dry out a bit.  As I write this, I can even see it brightening a little.  Next, it will be a case of creating a few more stone paths in key areas.

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Gypsy Caravan Makeover

gypsy caravan restored

bow top for saleIn the summer of 2013 when we moved to Somerset, Nicole was talking about getting a bow top gypsy caravan.  At first, I was planning to build one (no idea how, would have figured it out somehow) but, as chance would have it, I passed one that was for sale at the side of the road.

A quick phone call to Nicole first, then we agreed to buy it.  As we were getting married soon after, some of our kind relatives chipped in to make it into a wedding present.

In the spring of 2017, we moved to Scotland.  The caravan was already showing some signs of wear and tear and I had effected some temporary repairs to some of the paintwork.  Anyway, we had it transported to Scotland (a nightmare is it happened as the first courier, found via Shiply, simply took the caravan and disappeared – Shiply couldn’t have cared less – we had to track it down ourselves and ask a friend in Somerset to go and “nick” it back).  Anyway, I digress, the caravan finally reached Scotland in the summer of 2017.

gypsy caravan -paint peeling off
needing attention

I don’t know if you remember, but that was quite a wet summer.  Followed buy a wet autumn.  Followed by a harsh winter of rain, sleet and snow.  The caravan was struggling in the elements.  The paint was peeling off in a number of places and the canvas was ripped along the side.  It was also getting a bit damp and mouldy inside.

I had been looking for a large shed in which to put it and work on it, but that was proving tricky.  Then, without warning, we had a heatwave.

gypsy caravan - back and sides sanded
woodwork sanded

We took advantage and got to work.  All the woodwork was sanded back – that took a while, even with power sanders.

Then a coat of exterior primer was added followed by some bright red Dulux weathershield.  As you may have noticed, we also decided on a new colour scheme.

primer started
primer started

As the painting progressed, Nicole got inside and sorted out the interior.  There were some marks, damage in transit, plus the afore-mentioned mould. All of that was cleaned away leaving it looking sparkly clean.  Nicole has grand plans for the soft furnishings.

gypsy caravan - red coat nearly done
red coat nearly done

Fortunately, the weather held out and excellent progress was made.

All in all, it took 5 or six weeks to get all the painting done.  Weathershield takes quite a long time to dry, even in the sun, so that delayed things a bit.

The undercarriage was also a bit fiddly, a mix of wood and metal.  Fortunately, I managed to get yellow paints for metal and wood that looked pretty similar.

But, finally, all the base paintwork was done and some of the decoration added.

Nicole had sourced some stencils so we could add interesting artwork to the panels, but before we could get that done, the hot summer ended.  So we have put that back till next year.

We also have had new shafts made (as you may have noticed they are missing from the pictures).  The original shafts were broken in transit, mainly because rain had got through the paint and softened the wood underneath.  The new shafts are in the shed awaiting painting.

gypsy caravan restored
gypsy caravan restored

Finally, I added an electricity supply so we now have a heater in it through the winter.  That should help keep it dry and mould free.  Having read “The Stopping Places” by Damian Le Bas, we were inspired to build a base so as to help keep it dry underneath.  We also bought a made to measure winter cover for it, but a succession of early winter storms soon shredded that and it is awaiting repair.

 

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Stone dykes restoration

stone dyke at house

We have a lot of dry stone dykes here which we really like.  They are basically stone walls made without mortar, just careful positioning and gravity holding them together.

new gateway in dry stone dykeHowever, there are a few bits of wall that need repair.  Last year, I did a course which gave me a basic grounding in how to build stone dykes.  One freezing and snowy day last winter, Nicole and I put this into practice by putting a gate inbetween two fields.  The course hadn’t covered how to do the ends of the walls, but we just copied what we saw elsewhere – basically use big stones.

new flower bedNicole has been working hard transforming the gardens around the house.  The flower bed to the left is close to the front door and can be seen from the kitchen window.  Nicole has reshaped it and cleared the mass of weeds including ground elder.  The plan is to plant roses (which are on order and will be arriving soon).

Now, many of the dykes around the house are covered in a mix of brambles and honeysuckle.  We are not sure if this is by design or simple invasion, but to us, it is a shame to hide these beautiful walls.  So, in a burst of energy over the weekend, Nicole cleared the above pictured wall.  Only, underneath, the wall had collapsed and had, so it would seem, been clumsily repaired.  It was, basically, a mess.

With the roses coming, it was time to act. Thankfully, we were enjoying a spell of bright, if cold, weather.  Perfect conditions for stone dyking.

stone dyke repairs beforeThis wall was tricky, as it turned out, as all the stones were quite large.  This meant the normal process of building two walls sloping towards each other was out of the question.  So, time for plan B – big stones on the bottom, smaller ones on top.

First, I pulled down all the bits of wall that were leaning and levelled off the base.

stone dyke repairs duringThat done, I started on the end.  I poached a couple of large stones from other parts of the garden.  I then had to go and recruit a neighbour to help me lift the big stone onto the end (the one you can see pictured left).

stone dyke repairs completeThat done, it was a case of building up the rest of the dyke.  I think, in reality, more time is spent pondering which stones to put where than actually lifting and placing them them.  I suppose that could be one reason why we do jigsaws as kids – preparation for building dry stone dykes!

I should really have stopped and rested, but completion seemed so close so I kept going.  My back has still not forgiven me!  Nevertheless, I got it finished and we are both very happy with the result.

Now all it needs is the roses and it will look amazing.

But for me, it’s on to the next repair job, the wall that blew down in the storm……

hen run stone dyke collapsed

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Auchenstroan Fashions

Nicole and Sparkle

Nicole modelling PonchoAside from their lovely natures, one of the benefits of coloured ryeland sheep is that they produce amazing wool.  We have been getting ours spun into yarn and Nicole sells it through her Etsy shop.

As well as the wool, Nicole is now making ponchos from our wool, super soft, lace weight knit, un-dyed, organic and non-scratchy!

If you are interested in treating yourself to one of these, please let us know via our contact page.  Thanks.

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Brambles, brambles, brambles

bramble invasion

We have spent a lot of the summer dealing with brambles.  Our hen run was overgrown with them in places and large areas near the house are, well, just overgrown with the prickly monsters.

We decided to act.

We started on the stone dyke bordering the hen run.  It was completely covered in a mix of honeysuckle and brambles.  It took weeks to clear that.  Then the area behind the lambing shed was also bramble heaven.  Lambs can get caught up in brambles and get trapped.  So Nicole spent days digging them out.

Bramble free zone
Bramble free zone

And the other side of the hen run stone dyke was also overrun.  Nicole heroically cleared this area.

But still they come; and come; and come.  It can be hard to get the roots out, so you have to go back and keep cutting them back.  We turned our backs for a seconds and they were invading the lambing shed!

I reckon we’ll be clearing brambles for years to come!

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Getting out more

Clatteringshaws Loch from Benniguinea

We live in a beautiful part of the world (windfarms notwithstanding – don’t get me started), but in the year and a half we have lived here, we have yet to explore any of it.  So, as part of our scaling back, we promised ourselves that we’d make the effort to get out more.

Our first trip was to nearby Clatteringshaws.  Clatteringshaws has a dam (hydro electric, a loch, walks and a visitor centre.  It’s home to one of two Bruce’s stones sited in Galloway. I found a walk there listed on www.walkhighlands.co.uk and printed out instructions.  The dogs were ecstatic – new smells and new places to explore.  We walked up the hill  Benniguinea) through the forest following the instructions.  Of course, we missed our turn and walked all the way to the top!  But it was worth it for the views.

Cleaning HariboWe found the turn off on the way back down and it was a lovely wee path through a mix of broad-leaf and pine forest.  Of course, Haribo found the smelliest fox scat in the area and proceeded to roll in it.  He managed to get it right under the collar and all over his neck.  Cue impromptu bath in a nearby ditch.  Boy, I cannot begin to describe how smelly that was!

Talking of Haribo, he really has chilled out lately.  He came to us with many problems but, aside from a bit of fear aggression, he’s a happy dog now.

Anyway, we had brought a picnic and came down to the loch and found a nice wee beach just down from the visitor centre.  We thoroughly enjoyed our tea and sandwiches.  A day out is definitely a great tonic.  We have, since, also located excellent walks down on the coast between Kippford and Rockcliffe.  These are helped hugely by the excellent we cafe in Rockcliffe.

Clatteringshaws Loch
Clatteringshaws Loch

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It’s been a while

Adrian and Pinkie

Blogs are a blessing but also a bind sometimes.  The need to add updates sort of nags away at the back of one’s mind.  That said, I haven’t paid much attention to that inner voice having not posted anything all summer.  How did that happen – well, one day at a time!

Anyway, here’s a bit of an update.  I’ll add some more detailed stories shortly.

As you can imagine, the summer months were as busy as ever.  Looking after cows, sheep, dogs and hens as well as each other takes a fair amount of time.  Then there’s maintaining 27 acres of mixed woodland, keeping the house sorted, the gardens, the veggie patch – the list of jobs never seems to get any smaller!

gypsy caravan - front
needing attention

So, what have we been up to.  Well, the hot summer months early on provided an excellent opportunity to refurbish the gypsy caravan.  It had suffered somewhat from last year’s long wet summer and then the harsh winter.  Paint was flaking off, the canvas was tearing – it needed attention. Desperately.

gypsy caravan restored
gypsy caravan restored

So, between us, we got to work.  I mainly did the outside.  Nicole sorted out the inside.  And over a period of weeks, we transformed it.  We still have some artwork to add, but the weather closed in so we’ll do that next spring.  I’ll add a more detailed account of this in another post.

chicken and chickLast year, one of our hens produced 13 chickens.  Four of these are females and this year all four of them took it upon themselves to go broody.  Between them, they managed a grand total of one chick.  Pipette, as we called her, has now grown up into a lovely hen.  We are looking forward to her starting laying soon.

The others, well one sat on two eggs all summer before giving up.  Another sat on a golf ball and the fourth lay her eggs under a bush and then abandoned them.  We’re not quite sure what happened, but our cockerel was getting on a bit and he was also their father.  Inbreeding can be quite a problem.  As chance would have it, one of our neighbours had a lonely cockerel (his entourage of hens having been killed by his ex’s new dog), so we took him on as a replacement.

Given we were being run ragged, we had a discussion in the summer and decided to scale back.  As a result, we have sold our cows to a lovely farm just west of Kilmarnock.  The new owners make amazing chocolate, so we’ll be keeping in touch with them.  We also sold our tups (we’re having some time off lambing and also, they are related to too many of our ewes).  They went to a lovely smallholding just outside Peebles.

Talking of lambing, we did well with our lambs this year, 18 in total (10 girls and 8 boys).  We have sold 4 lambs and two gimmers (also to the farm near Kilmarnock) so we still have plenty of sheep.  The 8 boys were castrated and that has made life much easier as we don’t have to separate them.

Other than that, we upgraded the sheep field shelter with a water system (gutters,  drainpipes and a trough).  We had problems with one of our tanks leaking so this gives extra water security.  Digressing, we had to hump a lot of water up during the hot spell – pumping out of the river into a 600 litre bowser and towing it into the fields.  Then the cows drank copious amounts, so it was an ongoing job!  Back on the shelter, we also added a lot of slabs as it can get a bit muddy at times.

Our veggie patch has been a success producing turnips, carrots, parsnips, onions, beetroot, courgettes, kale and brussel sprouts galore.  We did have to remove a lot of caterpillars, otherwise it might have been a different story.  The leeks are coming on nicely too.

Nicole has been doing a lot of gardening and is slowly getting things the way she wants them.  She has ordered a batch of roses to go into new flower beds.  Also, the small flower meadow continued to flower right up till a few days ago.

And, of course, with winter approaching we are having to turn the heating on.  It’s powered mainly by wood, so that means much chopping – we get through a lot of wood!

wood pile and George

 

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Enjoying the summer weather

sheep resting

After the rather long cold and wet winter, we have to say we are quite enjoying having a bit of decent summer weather.  The midges can be a pain on a still summer evening, but they are a small price to pay for the fun of  being able to have lunch in the garden.

All the animals seem pretty content.  Having been sheared, the sheep are not at risk of overheating.  Plus, they are in a field with some tress providing shade.  They hate the midges though.  Nothing seems to phase the cows.  Their new “river” field isn’t quite ready yet, the bracken proving somewhat tenacious.

flowers front of house
flowers front of house

That doesn’t mean we have had much time to be sitting about.  Nicole has got the bee in her bonnet about sorting out the garden.  She has been working hard, furiously pulling out weeds and planting flowers.  The main focus has been around the front of the house and the area leading up to it.

Bit by bit, “inappropriate” planting is being replaced by sympathetic flowers and so on.  Being a professional gardener, she knows what she’s doing and it’s all starting to look really good.

sheep poo pile
One of two sheep poo piles

While Nicole has been gardening away, I was dispatched to clear out the second sheep field shelter.  As I mentioned before, a year’s worth of straw and poo has been compacted.  Nicole’s back has been giving her trouble, so I was on my own this time.  It was hard work not helped by the fact that the shelter is about 5 feet high and I’m 6 foot 1!  That pretty much did for me last weekend (but one).

newly laid track
newly laid track

Of course, having got it out, I still had to move it to our designated dung heap.  But that’s what tractors are for.  I still had to load the tractor using a fork, but it was then just a wee drive and the front loader did the rest.  I combined this job with laying a track.  It’s our main route from the house and outbuildings to the paddock and it gets very muddy in winter.  Finally, it has been dry long enough for it to have dried out properly.  So it was shift a pile of hard standing (using the tractor) one way, rake it, continue over and collect a load of manure, take that back, repeat.

new flower bed - mulched
new flower bed – mulched

This was duly delivered to Nicole’s newly cleared flower beds.

That was Saturday.

Sunday was general maintenance, moving a water trough and repairing the roof on hay bay which had collapsed under the snow.  It was baking on Sunday and I got a proper “farmer’s” tan on my arms.

It’s sometimes hard, with all these things to do, to take a moment and look around.  But I did today and our fields are turning into lovely meadows.  It’s what you get when you mix cows and sheep on pasture.  It’s what you get farming the old fashioned way.  Not to mention a bit of sun and rain of which we have had plenty.

meadow flowers
meadow
meadow flowers
meadow flowers

Also, there was a nice sound of buzzing, lots of bees going about their work.  And they need all the help they can get these days.

Anyway, though it’s a sunny evening outside, I might just watch a bit of the football now, maybe the Spain game.