Cuthbert and Cato

It's a bit  muddy everywhere . We've had 150% of the usual  Februaruy rainfall. At least its been dry ( and sunny) for the last 4 days and one of the fields no longer squelches when you walk on it.

So with Cato and Cuthbert running out of grass and not keen on hay  its time to move them.

A barrier in case they want to explore down the road

And then they follow a bucket !

And end up with the  others, including another ram. So they are going to have to sort themselves out over the next day or so .

Indoor hens

We have had quite a lot of rain  so far this winter . Its a bit muddy . Just as muddy as it was in 2015 

And we have moved one of the hen houses to make it more accessible in the winter . But this means that we are walking over the same ground . Did you know that you can get standing water on a slope ?

And the hens are in this bit. And theyu have stopped laying - related to the hours of dalylight ( not a lot up here) at this time of the year and there isnt a lot fo food avaialble to them - bugs dont grow in mud and cold

So we have brougth some of them inside.

We can feed them , give them additional light and hopefully get them back into lay . So a run, constructed with sheep hurdles and netting , some nesting boxes, and food and additional light ( on a timer) and we shall see what happens over the next week or so

the pond

It has been muddy and it still is muddy in places. Its been cold, wet and miserable , and still is wet and we have had, and still have , quite a bit of mud .


We wonder if the pond not filling/draining properly has something to do with a particularly squelchy bit , so  it tiem to sort it out .
first empty it  - just dig out the retaining wall
 

 once that was done, there was  quite a lot of silt in the  bottom of the pond.   So it would need taking out

 Someone has clearly been here before . I found this pie buried next to the pond . I've no idea where it goes - it didnt seem to be carrying anything  from wherever it originates.

And I found the place where water runs into the pond from the bank,


And there is a lot of drainage in the channel that clearly exists for the run-off from the pond.

But im not digging too much of that out.
So  once the silt has been dug out, a drainage channel cleared, its time to put a dam back and see what happens.

Something has been done

this is what it looks like now . And the picture from a few days ago is here


A trench that drains the water into the existing course and the pond and then onwards has dried up a lot of grass.

  So that is a temporary solution. We will need to do something in the longer term . On te other side of the lawn is a ditch - the opinion is that it was dug  to try and control the flow of water down the hill and divert it into the burn.





And i think it has silted up .  That, with all the rain we have had this winter means the grass isnt draining where it was and instead is finding its own way out.  So i think a summer job will be to dig it out a bit .

Bit like the Somerset Levels really .

something must be done

But what ?

There was an article in the local paper ( but there isnt an online summary on the Orcadian website) this week stating it has been the wettest year of the century.
The data comes from Keith Johnson , and there is a website - www.orkneyweather.co.uk .
On his website are a lots of graphs and tables, including the rainfall in Orkney.  And the graph here shows its the wettest year so far with rainfall in Birsay ( a few miles from here )  of 1266.8 mm ( almost 50 inches)

And its been wet and muddy for us as well. Here's the post from January .

The rainwater flows down the hill.  There are a couple of burns that over the year have got   quite full at times .

We had some snow and ice in January  . If you look closely at one of the pictures there is a little stream flowing across the drive.

As the evenings are getting lighter , ive been thinking about gardening.  So i had a look at the small garden and raised beds . All the water that has been flowing across the drive has been going somewhere  - and its been going into the vegetable garden .

across the drive

And then goes across the lawn

and is held up be the wall

and on the other side, carries on 

 


 until it gets to the vegetable garden , where it hangs round a  bit, rots the grass and converts soil to mud.
















Something must be done.


But what ?

Mud

Mud ( and wellies)

To my follower, there has been a bit of a gap.  there are approximately 2 hours less daylight here when compared to balmier climes. So  if you want pictures of black, then fine.

And so far this winter we have had a lot of rain . And there is the well-known formula

rain  + soil =mud

So we are doing mud quite a lot . When i stand in some , my wellies disappear. 

We've got about 10 separate places where you can loose your wellies in the mud

And wander off the drive a little, and you get mud , and there is standing water in all the fields

 

 And the sheep and hens are living in mud

.


and the paths through the fields are mud .

Fed up about mud ?
how could you tell ?

Muddy Ducks

Since the otters got Victoria **(see footnote for explanation about the name), the ducks have been prevented from venturing onto the adjacent moorland, where we think the otters roam.


So they have been restricted to the area we call the lawn. The lawn is a bit muddy at the moment  -well, almost everywhere is a bit muddy.
The  remaining 3 ducks have been restricted to exploring the lawn.

And they have been  very assiduous in exploring . And getting very muddy



** Well, the drake is a Saxony Duck that originate from the Saxony region of Germany so he was named Albert after another famous character in British history from the same area. So if the drake is Albert, the duck has to be Victoria, after Alberts' famous spouse .