The Merry Dancers

My photo of the Merry dancers

Our first experience of the Orcadian Northern Lights ( the Merry Dancers) was tonight. The current photographic equipment just isnt good enough to capture any pictures.

But it was a bit like these images  , but the bands of light  from East to West were higher in the sky.

Not going to get much done tonight - its quite mesmerising to watch.

And another new skill.

Thanks to some help and advice from a farming neighbour, today  I have learned how to convert the above into the below. 

We hatched some chicks back here in September and ended up with 7 males and 2 females.  So the 2 females and one of the males have gonw into a field to keep the worms and flukes under control  , which left us with 6 males.

The poultry club  has some advice on keeping birds for meat.  These cockerels are 6 months old and haven't been kept for fattening - they have had the run of the field.
As the poultry club website indicates , hanging ( as in hanging game ) is  necessary with the older birds, so next time ,that's what we will do .

And the chickens that you can buy in a supermarket
-are bred specifically for meat
-are slaughtered at 5-7 weeks of age. ( Ours are about 26 weeks old)
-By  7 weeks of age are too heavy to walk around much.

So we don't get the yields, but they have had the space, sunlight and a field to explore.  

? Only in Orkney

 So it was obvious the exhaust had a hole in it. You could probably hear it from the bottom of the hill. 


And I was expecting them to replace the bit that had fall off/got a hole in it/come apart.  Usual cost, from memory is ~£100 upwards.

And I took it into the local ( perhaps only) Exhaust &tyres place I've seen on Orkney.

And  a part of it had split into 2, and so they had mended it.
I cant recall anything like this happening when I was 'down South' 

Total cost £40.80

Shame about the 200 miles + and ferry crossing if you wish to take advantage of theis in the future.

Water engineering - part3

Having observed what happened with the heavy rain of the last 48 hours, and that bits of the ground are still as wet, and that the drainage channel hasn't filled up , its time to do something different.

So i filled in the channel

 and dug out another one,  but this time along the path the water had been flowing earlier in the week when we had a lot of rain

 so we shall see what happens

Not the Somerset Levels

A wet hen

But we have had quite a lot of rain, and there are bits of fields under standing water  and there is  a lot of mud around.  And the water that falls has to find its way down to the Bay.

The engineering for the new pond has been successful  - too successful in fact because there is a little stream running out from the pond .

 

 And then the water runs down through the small field. Its good job we moved the hen- house - if we hadn't it would now be in the middle of a  little stream .
  And then the water runs down through the field . We have the burn , but the water is finding its own way to the Bay - we have another ad-hoc  burn .

Looking down the hill as the water winds its way down towards the burn.

And back up the hill

and a bit lower down

But we do also have  quite a lot of standing water around the place . And i haven't taken any more pictures of mud

Water engineering part 2

 The sun is now high enough to get to the 2nd pond, but its still all very wet and muddy - Somerset isn't the only place that has been getting more rain than usual.

 

  

and the pond is filling and draining  - the overflow is coming over the stones, and then disappearing  in a drainage channel  that runs down under the large rock






and the channel that was dug to try and drainthe muddy bit has filled with a bit of water








but the mud is still there and still as gloopy

So  I wondered if the pond was overflowing somewhere else and the water going straight into the  muddy  bit, but on  exploring round the pond directly above the mud  the soil was relatively dry , so its not filling from there.





 So  I think the next step  is to see whats going where with some methylene blue . Add it at the top and see where it comes out.

A new skill

We do get frosts here and it  causes the inevitable damage to the drive - we arent softy southerners who are going to get the whole lot tarmac'ed , so thats not a solution.

So some holes 

And then   some peedie  stane, a bucket , spade and roller

 

and now some  ex-holes.

That is until the next frost , or a car goes over too fast and rips it all up again .