The happy farmer's away....so the animals come out to play....

It’s a sure sign the happy farmer is away on the mainland, word must have got out, and so those cheeky animals have all taken it upon themselves to play up, again!

It started with a phone call in the ‘wee small’ hours, a message to inform me that Muffin, the cheeky pony, was out of ‘barracks’, and patrolling the farm, munching away on the grass beside the single track road. The thought of going our into the very wet, pitch dark night armed with a torch for a search light and a bucket as incentive, did not appeal, that coupled with the fact that I am scared of horses, and Muffin, who refuses to abide by the pony club manual, would almost certainly refuse to play ball and be caught by me, so I opted for the easier option of ‘phone a friend. The sleepy happy farmer’s reassurance put my mind at rest, he reminded me that there would be no traffic on the little single track road at that time of night, that Muffin would not stray too far, and that most importantly I hadn’t a hell’s chance of catching the little ‘B’, coupled with the fact that if I did, he was sure to stray once more. So a fitful night of half sleep and pony nightmares ensued, as I was woken by every tiny sound that echoed round the farmhouse.

This morning Muffin was highly visible. He was stood at the shed doors, chomping his way through the soaking sugar beet, looking as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He will stay around there until teenage daughter arrives home off the afternoon ferry. He will happily do anything for her, and will immediately go home to barracks ‘without passing go’ once she gets hold of him.

Poor Muffin, his troubles started yesterday, I could hear him frantically neighing and galloping around the fields, all alone, and quite bothered. Initially I worried something must be up with Hansel, his companion, as the two are inseparable usually. Kitted out in ‘all weather gear’, I braved the lashing wind and rain, and made my way out the hill to check on the other horse. With the Happy farmer away on the mainland, somewhat unwillingly, my ‘farming duties’ had commenced. I was very relieved then to see Hansel in the far corner, by the burn, happily grazing away at the grass, and could see why Muffin was also making such a scene. It was pure, ‘unbridled’ jealousy. In the neighbouring field was another pony, stood next to Hansel, with only a fence between them. Muffin was galloping and neighing at the other end of the field, trying desperately to catch Hansel’s attention and coax him away from his new playmate, but to no avail. Today, Muffin was teaching Hansel a lesson, Hansel stood by the gate watching longingly as his ‘pal’ Muffin filled his belly full of hay and sugar beet.

Later on as I drove son to the bus stop, we saw one lone, ‘protesting’ sheep. Well, at least we decided she must be on a protest of sorts; probably about the speed the traffic races at  along the main road. That feisty old girl was insistent on toddling along the white lines up the middle of the road, stopping every now and again, and flatly refusing to budge for any passing traffic. I couldn’t see her markings at such a distance, so am unsure if she was one of our clan. Luckily the drivers here are very used to meandering livestock on the roads; it is part of island life.

Until next time…..

We are now offering beauty treatments of a particular kind on the farm....

It appears we are now offering beauty treatments on the farm. Mist the sheepdog and Ruby the pup are both sporting beautifully shiny and glossy coats. After much pestering Mist finally gave in and decided to share her beauty secrets with Ruby....at least one egg a day apparently, but preferably more, and the fresher the better. Now I have been searching for Charlie's nest for a while, but could not locate those eggs anywhere. The other three 'ladies', Henrietta Eggberta, so beautifully named by youngest, and her pals, Joey and Frankie (yes youngest informed me when I questioned the origin of the names, that she loves the fact that you can use 'boys' names for girls) have all been laying away somewhere in the hedgerow.
Ruby the pup took the liberty of trying out her new found beauty treatment, and appeared the other day, not with a glossy shiny coat, but a sticky, gooey, egg covered coat, matted with the odd bit of egg shell here and there. Thankfully those eggs were fresh eggs, a must have tip from the sheep dog obviously, so we were at least not subjected to a week or so of rotten egg aromas in  the farmhouse. Ruby has obviously realised her mistake and has not come home covered in egg again, but is laying egg shells all over the place when she relieves herself, and has been known to add a very particular scent to the farmhouse with the odd bit of wind in the evenings.
She did kindly lead me to one of the hen's nests, but being a trifle greedy she helped herself to all of the eggs, so the hen has taken her nest off elsewhere.

Meanwhile Charlie is not put up nor down by all of the fuss, in fact I rather suspect she positively encouraged those dogs, as she has now deserted Eggbert Henrietta, Joey and Frankie in the hen coop, and has taken to roosting in the dog kennel with Mist the sheepdog at night. However do not be fooled Charlie does not think she is a sheepdog, no that nutty hen is in training to be the happy farmer methinks, as every time he leaves the door open to his building work, Charlie is in there strutting about, clucking away expressing her approval of the new extension, inspecting the building works.
Horror of horrors, you don't think she thinks he is building her a new hen house do you???

Gobbled up by Sea Eagles....almost

The morning started with a cat fight, literally. Spog, the cowboy, I mean cat, was standing guard in the middle of the single track road, I was alerted to his presence as I made my way over to the pottery in the sunshine. It was the high pitched yowls that did it, Spog positively strutting, prowling back and forth, circling, and looking ready to draw his gun at any moment. Suddenly Henrik appeared from nowhere, and darted across the road. Spog was like lightening on his tail, the air filled with the hissing, spitting and shrieking as Henrik cowered into the hedgerow and Spog stood over him, tail wagging, menacing eyes fixated. Of course I completely ruined the moment, venturing in, easing a very angry Spog out of the way with my foot, as I rescued Henrik and lifted him up over the dry stone dyke and into the garden. Spog was not impressed and spent over an hour prowling around the entrance to the farm, before finally giving in and arriving at the back door for some breakfast.

Youngest and I have taken to walking Ruby pup in the early evenings. We head across the field to join the path that leads to the tree swing and then onto Lilly Loch, where Ruby gets to dive into the cool waters after sticks.

Ruby is trying ever so hard not to chase those sheep, and is being discouraged by Meh Meh, the pet lamb, who now lives in the field with the other sheep. The happy farmer moved her and her wooden kennel into the field a few weeks ago. Meh Meh, joins the rest of the flock to graze during the day, but at night, or if the storm clouds gather, she can be found happily chewing the cud in her little kennel. This causes some entertainment for the children as she has grown rather a lot, and her huge belly and legs, hang out over the edges of the kennel as she continues to squeeze herself into her living quarters, a privileged sheep indeed. Meh Meh always makes a bee line for Ruby when she spies her, and refuses to be chased away by her, instead gently head butting Ruby if she gets over excited.

The other evening as we made our way through the field, youngest drew my attention to what seemed to be a large animal in the burn field. I couldn’t quite make out if it was a small roe deer sitting on its hind quarters, or a large group of hares all boxing. We walked slowly across the field and quickly made the shape out to be two very large eagles, sea eagles in fact. We stopped in awe, they were absolutely huge, one, on spying us, gracefully flew off and up into the air, however the other sat for seconds longer, and having read how a sea eagle attacked someone in Perthshire the other day, I did begin to wonder whether I shouldn’t turn and head back for the safety of the farmhouse. I really did not want to get gobbled up by one of these majestic animals, and I do tend to have an over active imagination, but just as my worries were bubbling up to the surface, the second sea eagle took flight, and joined its partner, we watched in awe as it soared off, high up above the hill, where it swooped and soared with its partner for quite some time, looking more like buzzards in the distance. Sea eagles have gradually been reintroduced to Scotland over the past few years, and I knew they were in the vicinity, so felt very privileged that they had chosen to swoop in on the farm, especially as they decided not to gobble me up in the process.

Until next time…..