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There will be an Edinburgh delivery available tomorrow if anyone is interested in ordering beef or eggs. Please be in touch by 8am tomorrow (Tuesday 13th February) if you wish to place an order.

Some of our beef are looking for their forever homes, can you provide it? It may well be a week where consumerism is pushing steaks for two but why follow that path? Buy two packets and get your friends round. Or why not order some diced and make a delicious Steak and Ale pie for six? Busy but need to feed a family? Go for a pot roast and slow cook it (and watch everyone drool as the smell wafts through your house). Ideas, cooking suggestions and recipes can all be provided on request.

All deliveries will be provided by a hardy Rose, the Mini Crofter is the most likely to be in red though due to his newly washed snow suit. My romantic innerness really does shine at this time of year…

Having cold weather is nothing new. Discovering that the weather had been cold enough in January to freeze the ring feeder to the ground meant that the usual weight lifting excercises didn’t work (picture attempting to push up the top bar at each gap while looking like a wannabe weight lifter at the gym). I have in the past only once had the ring feeder freeze to the round and been unable to manually unstick it even after several ‘rounds’ of it. However, on that occasion I had the wee dexta so attached a ratchet strap between the two to unlock the feeder but also snapping the strap (although I didn’t feel too bad as I had wondered why I was turning into a light weight lifter). This occasion the next bale was already in the field so the tractor was substituted for a mattock (as you do). There was still hay in it but due to weather and other jobs required over the following few days knew it needed doing regardless. The entire feeder needed dug out before finally managing to uplift it and rolled to the next bale. Anticipated time slot for job: 20 min. Actual time taken: 1 hour 20 min. Och well, the other jobs were not a priority and the weather was one of the few none whites of last month. Weight lifting gym session complete.

The Crofter has nearly been home a week and lo and behold, nothing in the ‘exciting/terrifying/‘no-one-will-believe-me’ category of crofting life has occurred. I don’t count the sudden pick up of the chicken’s egg laying as even remotely in the category. The Crofter has been manning the place with the Mini Crofter while I have been back at work this week. And judging how it’s going I’m wondering if I have an uncanny knack of causing whirlwinds (not personally but some people seem to have smoother rides than others, and those of us in nursing all know that if you’re on shift with certain colleagues you are in for a rough ride).

So, as the midnight oil slowly ticks away towards dawn, I am awake, a mind that’s refusing to close for the night and no amount of counting sheep, eggs or moles is doing the trick. The difference in the morning is yes, I’ll be tired but I’ll be indoors for ‘work’. And there lies what I miss. Crofting means outside, stiff breezes, torrential rain and all kinds of weather to help keep you awake and blow cobwebs away. Instead, it will be coffe and a distant hope that by Thursday I’ll be back outside…with the mattic flattening mounds along a previously dig ditch as I dream of the lawn mower coming back out. Until then, I’ll go back to counting sheep.

We have a mole. Not a mole that steals your secrets and sells them on to foreign intelligence services (I can’t imagine MI5 needing to send a spook to our croft but you never know). But the true, furry types that make mole hills. And no, I’m not making mountains out of mole hills, I was out trying to flatten mole hills so we don’t end up with bumpy ground later on.

Yes, the snow has mostly gone, the landscape looking very different to most of January. Very much greener, but now with mole hills, everywhere! The sun shines, well, on the first day home for the Crofter. No gale force winds, no snow, no blizzards. So, as the ground was bare, out came the tractor for a bit of therapy (for me, not the Dexter). Usually anything involving grass/fields on a tractor is highly satisfactory (well, until you realise you’re driving close to the neighbour’s house with one of them on night shift; oops, head to far side of field away from their house).  As the rain comes across the field in sheets and hits your checks with a sting, you have the satisfaction of your job. The field may not be looking aesthetically pleasing but the hills have been flattened so we can start new with dealing with the problem. Because yes, as much as they look ‘cute’, some of our land has the issue of mounds that were not dealt with in the past and so are now much harder to deal with and cause issues when flail mowing, hay making, or really anything you try and do to improve the ground.

And no, to catch moles you do not need full waterproofs that match he colour of your tractor. I just had them for what is a ‘little’ rain to put you off going out. Dress for the weather and you can enjoy yourself regardless. Shame I didn’t have longer to work on it, I could have done nice neat rows. But hey, the reeds will need topped soon.

Working on a croft means your ‘office view’ is not stationary, nor boring. One regular view is from the tractor although the ability to see out was slightly hampered at the weekend. A friend was up visiting so I decided to make use of her (no, I did not send her out to do 15 hours of manual slog work, I’m not that cruel to guests). I took the opportunity and decided to give the cows their bales a day or two early. Much thought was pondered over this due to the snow level and the forecast of a thaw to come. I eventually decided to go for it and several spinning wheels, sliding tractor and multiple times needing to stand on the diff lock pedal, the task was done.

Well, you then just need to take the bale wrapping off. Normally easy, but not on either bale! The straw bale had had a foot of snow on it making it look like a gigantic sugar coated shredded wheat. And for whatever reason, the snow seemed to just stick to the wrapping. Out came the penknife before moving onto the hay. Hay that I placed into a ring feeder so to unwrap you look like your dancing the maypole. Except, this too was seriously stuck down. So, through the ring feeder bars I went, thankful I haven’t been eating too many pies (yes, you can go over it but leg length means it’s easier to squeeze through. This then changed from a maypole dance to a ring feeder two step. Using force to pull up the way meant if I balanced on the edge of the ring feeder I could get the wrapper off.

Mission finally accomplished, sense of wanting to jump down and act like a Formula One winner: high. Except the postie was due soon and I like to behave as normal as I can when he’s about. Who knows what he would pass on to the neighbours, glen and Strath…

As it turned out, it was a good decision. Breena, one of the cows got a gash in her leg so having clean straw is better. The weather Sunday turned to an almighty blizzard creating snow drifts in all the wrong places. And with that, my back up support (aka mother-in-law) was unable to get out to us today.  Wonder what the view will be tomorrow?