A bit windy

heres the windbreak to try and protect the trees .  Its been there through  since last year.  Didnt do much for the apples from the trees though .

Heres a tree, being protected

 And heres the windbreak after last nights' storm ( storm Deirdre)
 70 mph gusts where we  are.

 And the Orkneyharbours.com website gives live weather updates

Here's last nights' winds

 60knots =69 mph.

in the paper (again)

RIP Boris

We have been planning which rams should be put to ewes for tupping - and Boris' was on the list to get some action with some ewes.
Until one morning, he was  found in the field, dead, lying in a littel rivulet that sprung up -weve had some rain recently

The surrounding  grass was undisturbed.

the only injury we could see was to a horn - but they are rams ,  hormones are starting to flow and there has been the usual pushing and shoving and little bit of head-butting  like here 

The Vet carried out a post-mortem -  no obvious cause of death.

But sheep sometimes do 'just die'

Abattoir update

there is another post about the abattoir and the petition  at
the Orkney Abattoir blog

Got another one !

I look at the tunnel traps regularly.
The sign that there is something in it
- you cant see through the tunnel to daylight at the other end

So have a look at whats inside

 

A stoat.
A young female,  I think

 And the ducks are OK

A fitting sheep

The sheep scared by the fireworks. continued to deterioriate.
He was brought inside and received TLC.
In spite of that  he started to have seizures , which became more frequent.

After being seen by the vet , the conclusion was that there was no chance of any sort of recovery, and he was put down.

sheep and fireworks

We all know that pets and fireworks don't get on.  Anyway , sheep and fireworks don't get on either. 

Neighbours has their own bonfire party, and finished with some bright , sparkly fireworks shooting in to the sky. This spooked the sheep that were in the adjacent field, and they all went charging around . One crashed into some sheep hurdles. We spotted him by torchlight,  in the dark,  standing away from the others and not moving much. 

Next morning , it was still separate from the others  and not active. And we could go right up to it - certainly not normal behaviour in sheep. 

And he was standing in one position, and very unsteady on  his feet . 

closer inspection revealed the injuries 

So what to do ?

If its  head injury of some sort, there is no specific treatment.  If its concussion  it should strt to recover in a day or so .

Prop him up, keep him warm, ensure food and water is available .

 and wait and see  if he improves.

The new duck run.

So it is eventually finished.

They have access to water , and it is hopefully stoaf-and otter- proof.

We wont take the indoor run down yet, in case there are problems  with this . But it ould be nice to reclaim the space and not have the hassle of buckets of water

Egg update

between 5 am on Friday and 2pm on Saturday ( when a neighbour was passing and noticed the lid was off and the box empty), money was removed.
There were 2 boxes of eggs for sale , so we assume 2 x £1.50 + 50 p float = £3.00 was removed.

As we are a mile off the main road, someone has driven up, stopped their car, removed te money and then gone on their way.    It probably  cost them more in car use and petrol than they have taken from the honesty box.

The new duck run

We've lost lots of ducks through the summer to stoats .
They have been brought into the shed and have lost no more - but its not sustainable through the winter .
So we need a stoat- and otter- proof run for them.

The location is the same as the old one

- but I'll have to think a bit about access to the water in the pond but doesn't allow stoats and otters into the run.


So the first stage is to put the wooden frame

And ten its just a matter of going round and attaching  fine (1/2" hole) chicken wire to the whole thing, sort out access - a door and a bigger removeable side in case we ever need to get the house out , and then go round and ensure there are barriers to them digging under the frame (I think  large old slate roofing tiles, pushed down into the ground should do it ) .

And then do something about access to the water.

caught another.......

The tunnel traps remain in place.
And I've caught a rat !

Gee, thanks

We've sold eggs from the end of the drive for a few years now.  And we can't keep up with demand  and actually eat very few eggs ourselves.

The price has had to go up ( feed is mode expensive ) and at the current price we  barey  break even . But nevertheless, the hens keep parasites under control and we have eggs when we want them.

And one of our customers , presumably  the same person as earlier in the year  , pays for the eggs.

In coppers

At least the money is right.

More space

The turkeys are growing , and they need more space, so a run , made from sheep hurdles and some netting to stop the exploring too far afield. Given a chance they would roost as high off the ground as they could - so the roof of the shed  , I suspect 

the initial plan was one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas.
Not sure about that now though. We'll ahve to see about size  at the start of November,

Re-righted

And the van - only minor superficial damage to a mudguard.

Oops

So a neighbour had a visitor and things went a little awry afterwards

 its going to be a bit tricky to pull it out - It needs to be pulled sideways to lift it out of the ditch, held there and then pulled forwards  ( or backwards) to get it on the track .