New roof for the goats (2)

So here it is! There's a gable end to finish but it looks like a roof eh?

I can proudly claim to have helped to build this - I passed the box profile sheets up to David to attach - a very important job I'll have you know.

I'm posting a picture of how it looked in September last year - real progress (but a slightly depressing reminder that it's not always hot and sunny here!). The shot looking inside features on of Jussi's magnificent doors.

Things are looking good for goats on Sunday. Meanwhile I've taken on some consultancy work which Jussi aint over-joyed about and my underpants keep falling down. Is this because the elastic is spent or because I'm losing weight?

And Jussi has been forwarding me messages from a guy in Caithness who's got some piglets for sale (saddleback x largeblack). I'm torn over this - surely it would be a mistake to take on pigs on top of goats at the same time - too much learning to cope with all a once? But then again we'd manage wouldn't we? And have some fabulous pork/ham/sausage for the winter. The jury is still out on this one - what should I do what should I do?

In and around Wick

We headed off in the van and spent most of the day running messages for friends and buying more kit for goats. Bleedin' expensive all this animal husbandry stuff ye know.

We also visited another goat keeper. I've met a few now. They are all mad.

When Ailsa got bored of being in the van she was given the camera so here is a picture of Wick, and of a small wind farm outside Thurso (with apologies for the fly-splattered windscreen).

Snaehoha

Hidden in nearly every clump of grass around the croft is some old piece of machinery. Its a joy to unbury them and wonder.

I reckon this magnificent beast - named Snaehoha by Ailsa - was a turnip shredder to open neeps and the like for feeding to animals. It has lost it's plunger - but I wouldn't have thought it would be too difficult repair and we will if ever we need to. It is a magnificent looking thing.

We are bringing together a vast amount of scrap iron as a result of unearthing these tools of crofting past. One day, I tell myself somewhat foolishly, I will build a wind sculpture out of it all. It will clang away all night and frighten off all the ghosties, whilst providing a sort of aural security blanket - once we're accustomed to the din that is.

New roof for the goats

Here is a not so particularly useful picture of David the joiner putting on a new roof for the middle of our three outbuildings. This will be finished by the weekend (despite the thunderstorm we are currently enjoying - though I doubt David is). This level of joinery is far too advanced for Jussi (and me - but then I'm not far short of useless anyway).

Jussi spent yesterday making beds for the goats out of pallets. We can get used pallets free from Allens of Gillock, and you can make anything from a good supply of old pallets. At least Jussi can. I'd hoped Ailsa would take piccies of Jussi's work - but her feet are far more interesting.

Fences

One of the people who have promised us goats visited on Sunday - they seemed happy enough with the set-up we have here, and had lots of useful suggestions about how to improve things. It looks as though we are on for the goats and on Sunday we'll make the 8+ hour round trip to Aberdeenshire to pick up 2 saanens and 4 british alpines.

Unsurprisingly the fencers haven't come up with the goods but we have 200m of electric fencing as back up. There's four wires here and as we were putting in the bottom level I was saying to Ailsa that I should really cut back the undergrowth before we lay this wire - but I didn't.

Then I decided that I needed to cut back the undergrowth (which otherwise shorts the fence) and got out the strimmer. I would say I was almost 1/4 of the way round before the strimmer caught the fence and mangled it. Then I had to dismantle the strimmer to get all the wire out of it, and splice the shredded fencing back together.

Note to self: - I really don't have to be quite so completely stupid. I knew it would happen and it did and it took an hour or so to undo the damage caused.

"What can I do?"

Oh the joys of school holidays. Ailsa was bored so I sent her out with the camera and asked her to take some record shots of how things are progressing. She took over 50 pics - 22 of them of her feet. The next four posts feature the useful piccies. Here are some thistles - we've yet to try to eat them.

Her best friend has returned from hols to discover they have chicks - so Ailsa spent all day Sunday ferrying them around (completely unnecessarily by the sounds of it), falling in mud and being attacked by what Ailsa calls gad flies (we call them clegs or horse flies). Yesterday she helped me to put up the electric fence.

"Daddy, when you lie on your back in the water like that, your nipples look like udders"

There - proof we went swimming yesterday - I couldn't make a comment like that up.

It was great fun and we spent nearly two hours in the water. The water was warm in places and freezing in others. And we finished it off with a fish supper. Fab.

Crops

We've had a good crop of visitors this week - Struan and Grannie Denise from Dunbar and Wick on Thursday, a neighbour last night to help with a grant application and Rowanne and family from Dunbar today. And a good smattering of trades people getting things moving on the croft for good measure. And the weather has been perfect - hot and sunny with a warm warm breeze. In fact today it is too hot to be outside just now so I'm in hiding until late afternoon when I'm hoping we'll all go off to the beach and get some of that North Sea swimming experience.

Hopefully the weather will stay tomorrow when we are expecting one of the people who have offered us goats to visit. They want to assess our set-up to make sure the goats are coming to a good home. Fingers crossed for that one - although there is still the spectre of the outbreak of goaty TB to scunner these plans.

Cleaning walls

These are the walls Jussi has been cleaning down. A nasty job indubitably.

But we have a wee problem - this end wall of the three outbuildings collapsed after the old roof was taken off in preparation for a new roof. One step forward two steps back - but remember, the man who made time made plenty of it.

Heraldry

When we are hugely successful and world renowned we will have a coat of arms made. It will feature rampant thistles, cucumber passant and invisible goats.

But lo - the cotyledonous leaves are leaving - these are real leaves man! We'll have cucumbers before the end of the world. The eagle eyed amongst you will spot that there are in fact two thriving cucumber plants in this picture. Riches!

Well done Lulu and Christian

Jussi has had a bit of a rough time over the last week - with all sorts of conflicting messages about the arrival/non arrival of goats and battling to get trades in to do much needed work in preparation for said goats. Of course trades the world over have a motto "There's no hurry - the man who made time made plenty of it" - but up here they've really taken this to heart. Things are coming together, and reasonably quickly - but it all feels so agonisingly slow if you happen to be in a hurry.

Lulu and Christian leapt forth and rushed in as Jussi's moral support. Although Jussi took care to visit the bottle bank before I got home, there is enough evidence to suggest that alcohol played a fair part in that supporting activity. As did a very creamy fish pie the cooking vessel which I somehow ended up washing up.

So thanks to you for the support, the bespoiling of the thistle party, the straw, and for not being too thirsty and leaving a fair few tinnies for my refreshment.

Someone has been reading my diary

I've been on holiday, and someone knew about this in advance and told all their friends about it so that they could party madly while I was away. Personally I think it was the thistles what did it and they recruited lots of support to binge on my garden - including buttercups, dog rose and the ever pervasive ground elder.

Sunrise 04:51, Sunset 21:54

I'm back - and boy is it hot up here. Fabtastic. I've got loads to update you with and the return of the camera will mean there'll be piccies to enhance the whole experience.

But I've just had a call from a consultancy firm asking if they can add me to a team they are pulling together for a tender. Of course I said yes - which is why, on this glorious day, I'm sat in front of my laptop rather than being outside - and why am I blogging instead of doing the little bit of preparatory work they've asked me for? Mmmmm

Delays

There have been some delays. Most importantly, the goats are delayed. I just had a call from a new goat-keeping friend to say that there's an outbreak of TB in goats so movement may be restricted for a while. So - no goats tomorrow.

The joiner was coming to put a new roof on the stable yesterday, but he got delayed because he had to finish off something else first. He offered to do it today, but he was keen to go to the Caithness Show in Thurso and I didn't have the heart to make him work instead, especially since the goats are not coming yet. He'll be here on Monday (fingers crossed).

The fencing, of course is not done yet either, but at least the materials are here and everything is ready to go as soon as the grant application is put in and approved. That's assuming I can get hold of the fencer.

Meanwhile, I've started clearing up the main stable. I've moved all the wood I (and the previous owner) had hoarded in there, taken out all the mucky stuff and started on brushing off the walls. It's starting to look good and it's a cracking Plan B if the roofing is delayed some more. And I have restored power to the croft! Simon's demolition work had left a lot of the wiring frayed, but now it's all lovely and safe again. The joiner will be pleased when (if?) he turns up. And I can use my new power-washer to clean the stables!

Neighbours

Jussi here - my first post! I couldn't leave you guys hanging like that, wondering whether the bale is still in the van etc., so here goes.

The bale is not in the van anymore! I called our favorite neighbour, and right enough, he had a tractor with a loader sitting in his shed. Said neighbour is working, so he couldn't come and help. He asked if I had driven a tractor (no) and whether Simon is around (no!), so he got another lovely neighbour lined up to help. First thing this other neighbour arrived with the tractor and got the bale out. Sorted. I was happy. But that wasn't enough for him. The next day I was expecting a delivery of fencing materials, 1/2 lorry load's worth of materials. I had been warned that the drivers would swear a lot if they had to unload the lot by hand, so I was keen to keep the tractor. But the tractor was nearly out of diesel. So the neighbour drove the tractor all the way over to his place, put some more diesel in, and brought it all the way back. And all that before going offshore in the afternoon!

Lovely neighbours.

The fencing stuff arrived the next day and they managed to unload it fine. The tractor didn't help as much as I'd hoped and there was a bit of swearing, but nothing too bad.

Back at the croft

Jussi is working her guts out.  Today she's been to Gillock and bought a van full of stuff including roofing materials for the goat shelter - this will be fitted on Friday.  On top of the roofing material is a giant bale of straw she managed to buy near Wick.  But how to get it out?  She's thinking of tying a rope around it and driving away.   But she's trying to find a neighbour with a forklift to help her out.

Oh and she's bought feed and feed bins and all sorts of other bits..... she even found some free pallets - something she has a wee bit of an obsession about...

She might get round to blogging - I'll do my best to find ways of blogging if she's too busy - or knackered as she is now - to keep you up to date.

Art attack

Ailsa and I are in Hull and so far we've managed to go to Hornsea - decided it was too windy to row on the mere but we had fun in the sea and fantastic fish and chips ( the best ever!) and mushy peas of course.

Today we've been at the Yorkshire sculpture park.  Great fun - lots of room for Ailsa to run about - but unfortunately she walked Ted into a Sophie Ryder sculpture and he know has a very nasty looking cut on his nose (Ted is blind - Ailsa was leading him and was a bit too enthusiastic about the approaching art.

The Deep tomorrow.

Soooo busy

That I can spend a couple of hours catching up on others blogs. Here's a veg patch to die for...

And another post from the same blog - these guys are totally strapped for cash but still manage to hold to their principles. I think we might have to do some thinking about how much we compromise our ideals. Then again shopping locally would nigh on double our food bills and we still wouldn't be buying local produce, and we'd lose a lot in quality and variety.

api.home

This blog is getting quite a few referrals from "api.home". Can anyone tell me what this is?

Panic

The trip to Inverness went well - though I seem to have got a bit of Ness's revenge (a bit like Montezuma). The van now has a tow bar - what a proud moment - if only Jussi hadn't taken the Camera to Hamburg I could fill the blog with stunning tow bar piccies.

Tomorrow I go to Edinburgh, then on to Hull then Durham returning late July. And there's so much to do today. The place is a tip.

I'll not be blogging for a couple of weeks - but there's a lot happening while I'm away and I've invited Jussi to keep you up to date with the grand arrival of GOATS! Can't promise she will - she'll be busy like. And she'll be panicking like something that panics a lot and is really funny but I can't think anything just now.

I'll leave you with this little thought provoking thought from Tom Waits who's currently trying to shake the cottage down curtesy of a very loud iPod - (one of the very great joys of living no where near anyone):

When you hear sweet syncopation
And the music softly moans
T'aint no sin
to take off your skin
and dance around in your bones.