Woolly Tales - Page 18 of 27 - Auchenstroan Wool

Posted on 7th March 20193rd July 2019 by Adrian Doyle — Leave a comment

George and Ursi – A Dog and Sheep love affair

Every now and then, a story pops up somewhere about dogs and sheep. It’s pretty much always bad news, sheep have been killed by someone’s pet dog. In fact, the biggest threat to sheep is the domestic dog. It happens round here sometimes too. To be honest, one of the reasons I gave up working as a dog behavioural therapist was that I got fed up with dog owners’ unshakeable belief that their pooches could do no wrong.

Anyway, our dogs have been conditioned to respect sheep. George is an Anatolian Shepherd and his breed was created to guard livestock. Haribo is a collie and should be inclined to round them up, but has never shown any inclination to do so.

George is actually very good with the sheep. Given the chance he will groom them, licking their faces and ears and even their backsides. He particularly likes a messy sheep’s bottom! Haribo tends to give them a bit of a wide berth. I think he got butted a while back (before the sheep had got to know him), but he’s getting a bit more confident with them now.

One of our ewes, Ursi, now seeks George out whenever he’s over there. They have developed quite a strong friendship and it’s lovely to see, It is George and Ursi shown in the picture.

So it shows, dogs and sheep can go together. If the dog owners know what they are doing.

That said, when we take our dogs for walks in other places, we always have them on leads around others’ livestock. George and Haribo may be fine with our sheep, but our sheep don’t run away from them. Dogs are hunters and if something runs, they will instinctively go after it and all the training is forgotten in an instant.

I have never forgotten a moment when I was a teenager in Edinburgh. I was heading to the bus stop and passed a huge St Bernard sitting in a driveway. It watched me walk past with rapt attention. Everything was fine until I saw my bus coming and had to break into a run. As I ran to the bus stop, I heard a noise behind me and turned to see said St Bernard hurtling after me. I stopped and swore at it (basically challenged it in dog speak) and it froze mid stride. I slunk round the corner, sprinted and just caught my bus. I looked out the window and the St Bernard was still standing there, mid stride, looking mildly puzzled.

Any dog, no matter how well trained, has a very strong chase reflex.

Posted on 7th March 2019 by Adrian Doyle — Leave a comment

Weather and Frogs

Well, what can I say – February had some unusually warm weather with bright, warm sunny days. It was lovely, even if it was a sign of underlying climate change. We took full advantage including getting in some early seed sowing. We now have brassicas and turnips germinating in the greenhouse. This is helped by the fact that I laid in an electric cable and installed a small tube heater to keep the frost at bay. And those warm February days did turn pretty chilly at night.

The next thing that happened was that suddenly, there were frogs everywhere. The frog chorus met at the pond and started singing their hearts out. Driving up the track at night suddenly became an exercise in frog spotting followed by evasive manoeuvres (or Nicole getting out of the car and helping them to safety). We think we have done quite well because there are no flat frogs on the track. That said, the herons are back. I suppose it’s an early spring feast for them.

The question is, were they a bit early? Because, after the warm spell, storm Freya hit. Torrential rain, wind and it all turned a bit chilly. I don’t think the frogs minded the rain so much. The sheep and hens are not impressed though. The area around the sheep field shelter and feeders has become something of a quagmire. Good job they have a patio! That said, one of the great things here is that they can trundle up the hill where the ground is remarkably solid. They can escape the mud and they do, happily grazing (the grass is growing already) and cudding and generally just being sheep.

Storm Freya continues to wag her tail at us as I write this, but inbetween the rain and blustery winds, we are at least getting moments of sunshine.

And after writing this, I’ll be off to plant more seeds.

Posted on 17th February 2019 by Adrian Doyle — Leave a comment

February on the farm

It has been a much better winter, so far, than last year.Our neighbour did remind me that we had not had the beast from the east by this time last year, but we had had plenty of snow. This year, in contrast, it has almost been spring like on occasions.

For us, this means we can get on with various outdoor tasks. Nicole has been busy making felted rugs (read more here), as well as getting the garden ready for the spring. Not to mention mucking out the sheep shelter.

My tasks tend to be more on the structural side. One of the things we get through a lot of here is wood. Our heating runs on it. Our predecessors bought lorry loads of wood along with our two neighbours and cut it up together, something we have carried on with since we moved here. But with all this land, I thought we should grow our own. We have plenty willow, but it’s quite hard to access. I will be trimming some of that next week. But, in the meantime, I have started a 5 year plan to plant hazel. 50 trees a year. The first 50 went in last week (you can see them in the top picture). In 5 or 6 years, they should be ready to harvest.

Hazel actually benefits from being cut back, it’s a classic “copse” tree. It grows back really quickly. So, with 50 a year, we should be able to harvest enough wood for the winter while , at the same time, remaining carbon neutral.

Continuing with the wood theme, in the winter storms, a willow tree did blow down near the front of the house. We were lucky in that it do no damage to anything.

I finally got round to chopping it up in January. A useful supply of logs for next winter. Many thanks to Nicole’s uncle Kurt (visiting from Switzerland) who helped me stack them.

from fallen willow tree	freshly cut logs

I am also continuing my background task of repairing stone dykes. We have a lot of stone dykes here and a few need attention. This is particularly true of those near the road. My goal is to repair them so far as I can. Sadly, on one corner, the previous owners allowed the walls to be trashed by a tree felling company and I can’t get at the stones as they are buried under branches.

Nevertheless, I shall plug away. Those same storms cause a part of the stone dyke bordering our hen run to collapse. I hadn’t heard of storms taking down walls before, but it also happened to a friend of one of Nicole’s gardening clients. I know this because she commissioned me to repair it, my first real stone dyke job for which I got paid.

Anyway, our chicken run wall was tilting a bit so took a bit of careful rebuilding. I am quite pleased with the result. This is especially so because the stones are quite large and it can be hard to get them to align properly. On the course, it was mostly small stones – dead easy.

I reckon I spend 4 times as long pondering which stone to use next as I do actually putting them in place.

Anyway, it’s quite satisfying work, especially on a nice, spring like winter day.

Posted on 10th February 20195th November 2019 by Nicole Doyle — Leave a comment

Felted Fleece Rugs at Auchenstroan

Over the winter my gardening business goes dormant so I have some time to try out new things. This year I’ve been working on a project I’ve been wanting to do for a while; making felted fleece rugs. These are what I call “sheep friendly rugs”. They look and feel just like sheepskin rugs, but are actually made by “wet felting” individual locks of fleece onto a wool base. You may think this sounds labour intensive and time consuming, and you would be right! However it is also a highly enjoyable and weirdly meditative process. These days Adrian cannot find me for love or money as I spend my days beavering away in my “girl shed”, (actually, the summer house which mysteriously transformed into my workshop overnight). The only time I make an appearance is to pop into the kitchen to grab the kettle off the aga (wet felting involves copious amounts of hot water). This also gives me the chance to have a much needed cup of tea. In fact, thinking about it, you could say that each rug is made up of wool, water, elbow grease and cups of tea! So, armed with this basic equipment, here’s what I do:

I take layers of “batts” (wool which has been washed, carded and teased out) and place them onto a frame to whichever shape and size I would like the rug to be. Then I take my fleece and start selecting nice looking locks and place these onto the layer of batts. This can take several hours as before I lay out the locks, I tease out any hay, seeds and bits of girt or dirt. Then I stand the locks side by side to form what will eventually become the fluffy top of the rug. Once all the locks are in place the fun can begin – the wet felting! I drizzle very hot water all over the locks, taking care not to dislodge any. This will start the magical felting process – the hot water will run down into the fibres and make the base of the locks start to join up with the layer of batts underneath. Then, to really get the fibres to bond, I wrap the whole rug up and roll it using a giant rolling pin, over 200 times! After this, I turn the rug over and rub soap and hot water over the base to make sure the bottom of the rug is nicely felted. Finally, I take the now felted rug and place it into a tub of warm, soapy water to wash out any remaining lanolin and dirt. Then, last but not least, I rinse it out and lay it flat to dry. Magically, after several hours, this dripping wet bundle of wool will somehow have transformed into a big fluffy thing of beauty! If you wish to purchase one of these fluffy delights you can find them here: Browse felted fleece rugs

felted fleece rug - hand made — the sheep approve!

You can read up more on by going to handmade felted fleece rugs.

Posted on 24th January 201924th January 2019 by Adrian Doyle — Leave a comment

Winter weather arrives

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.

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.

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.

Posted on 13th December 201813th December 2018 by Adrian Doyle — Leave a comment

Who’s That in my Bag?

With winter upon us, we need to provide winter feed for our sheep. We buy in organic hay in large bales. This means it needs to be transported over to the feeders and the easiest way is in large bags. Fill one of those, pop it onto the trailer and whizz it across with the quad bike.

The fun starts when we come to transfer the hay from the bag into the feeders. In essence, it means dragging the bag to the feeder and then moving the hay across in clumps. The sheep are quite partial to standing on the slabs we laid and so it can get a bit crowded. It can be tricky moving them out of the way to get to the feeders. .

For the lambs, this just takes too long. So, a few of them have decided it’s much quicker, and much more fun just to eat the hay straight from the bag. Sounds easy, but the bag is taller than they are, so it needs a little spring up on the back legs to get the front legs over the edge and firmly planted into the hay.

Sometimes, when it’s just too exciting, a whole jump takes the lamb right into the bag. Thus, “Who’s that in my bag” has become Nicole’s new mantra.

All part of the fun.

Posted on 29th November 2018 by Adrian Doyle — Leave a comment

Winter weather challenging already

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.

The 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.

Today, 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!!

Posted on 17th November 20181st October 2019 by Adrian Doyle — Leave a comment

RIP Sarka

We are sad to tell you that Sarka passed away yesterday. It was peaceful and gentle, she lay happily between Nicole and myself as the vet gently helped her on her way.

Sarka came to us in 2015. She was the most flighty and fearful of the 11 sheep we had then. A change in the weather was enough to have her in a mild panic and changing fields was always fraught with a little danger. But, over time, she became something of a cuddle sheep, seeking out pats and scratches from us whenever we we were over in the fields. Whenever we went over, she would come trotting over and bury her head in close as she enjoyed neck scratches.

Sarka loved it here in Scotland with acres of pasture to roam and graze. She had a very strong bond with Nicole who considered themselves to be like two peas in a pod.

Last year, Sarka was diagnosed with a heart condition and given only a short time to live. However, under Nicole’s care she blossomed and seemed as healthy as she had ever been. Previously prone to runny poos, over the last year she has been totally fine in that department. Runny poos in sheep are bad news – the smell attracts the blowfly and can lead to flystrike. Indeed, Sarka was the first of our sheep to be hit with flystrike, back in 2015. We caught that early, thankfully.

As the summer was drawing to a close, Sarka seemed to be developing problems in one of her front legs. It was diagnosed as arthritis, even though she was only 6. The vet hinted there was nothing could be done, but Nicole found willow to be very helpful and indeed, after a couple of weeks on a daily intake of willow leaves, Sarka was almost walking normally.

Two weeks ago, she went totally lame in one of her back legs. We had to carry her to a shelter as heavy rain was forecast. She was pretty heavy I can tell you. Painkillers were prescribed and after a week’s treatment, she seemed to be improving insofar as she was walking almost normally again. However, there was the merest hint of a neurological issue – she seemed to be having trouble finding the hand proffering sheep nuts (her favourite).
Despite seeming to eat well and being given extra sheep nuts, Sarka remained painfully thin.

On Thursday, she looked poorly again, head down and just standing in a corner. She was given a vitamin and condition booster by the vet and another shot of painkillers by us. She seemed to perk up, but yesterday morning she seemed to have gone further downhill Later, Nicole witnessed her back legs just giving way.

We had tried everything. There was nothing else we could do.

It was important to us that Sarka did not suffer and so we made the painful decision to say goodbye.

Sarka was a lovely sheep, friendly, cuddly and loving. We shall miss her.

Posted on 14th November 2018 by Adrian Doyle — Leave a comment

Rain, Rain and More 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.

Posted on 14th November 2018 by Adrian Doyle — Leave a comment

Gypsy Caravan Makeover

In 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.

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.

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.