Happy New Year!! We wish you a healthy, happy, safe and
prosperous 2017.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every person who has visited our croft this year, whether it was via tours buses with amazing tour guides, our fabulous overseas visitors came from all corners of the globe. Our local, regional and national visitors who arrived from all corners of the UK and whether your visit was to pop into the shop, meet the sheep or participate in one of the several courses we ran this year.. Thank you.
We must also say a very special thank you to all of those tradesmen and suppliers who without whom none of what we have achieved would have been possible. We would like also to say a huge thank you to our family and friends who's ongoing support is just amazing... Sometimes we feel overwhelmed with the kindnesses we are shown and we can hardly believe that another year has passed and the
progress we have made here on the Croft is just immeasurable!! So here is a
brief look at 2016 here at Eilean Oir Croft, Isle of Skye.
January
2016
Last New Year’s Day (2016) we were up with the larks and
did our usual chores – feeding the sheep and walking the dogs ironically, we
first footed ourselves (as Kapitein was once upon a time a very dark haired guy - as per tradition - and as we did last year) so here’s hoping we have as good 2016 as the previous
year.
We did receive visitors later that day. Then off out again
to feed the sheep again. Thankfully we didn’t have to dig drainage ditches this
year.
Ironically, we have had some lovely weather here during the
month of January – a refreshing change. Here is Stamford aka Wolfie watching
for seals on the sea shore just as the sun was setting.
We had huge issues on the island with our Broadband access.
But, we were not the only ones here on Skye with problems, this saw a new
dedicated Facebook page has well over 1000 people who have had similar problems
and are taking BT Openreach (who have the monopoly and are the only supplier of
Broadband) to task. We have been very lucky in so much as our local MSP Ian
Blackford has taken it up with BT directly and there is to be a public meeting
on Friday 5th February. I do hope they manage to get things sorted
as soon as humanly possible so we can all go about our business. And they did
sort of sort it… All thanks go to Brian for his ongoing fantastic support…
Storm Gertrude struck Scotland in the latter days of
January!! We had winds in excess of 80 mph! And mainland Scotland has had gusts
in excess of 125mph!! Even the Forth Road Bridge was closed. Ironically,
yesterday was the day the concrete floor was being laid within the agricultural
shed! The wagon came down at 07:30 yesterday morning and after three and a half
loads of concrete he left and just before 10:00pm last night. Neil Montgomery,
another fabulous tradesperson from Bernisdale another friend of John MacLeod,
arrived with his team and they barrowed and tamped down the concrete all day.
The only break they got was when the wagon had to go to refill with cement, gravel
mix and water.
Norman,
working with the Lazer Level
Ross’s
brand new wagon
Cammie
barrowing concrete into the lean too.
What we didn’t know was that once the concrete was laid,
they needed to use a ‘polisher’ (they call it a Helicopter) which would smooth
and even out the top layer of concrete to give it a good finish. Ah, but, you
have to wait for the concrete to dry! These guys worked, worked and better
worked well into the night. At 11.30pm, Neil said that they would have to come
back through the night to finish the job as the concrete just wasn’t quite dry
enough!!! You can imagine our amazement! True to their word, they arrived back
at approximately 01:00 am and worked until 4:00am in the morning. They did this
amid storm Gertrude with the winds howling and the rain lashing down. They
are truly an outstanding team I am sure you will agree. And the shed base is
amazing, just perfect!!
And finally for January…
We were up very early one morning because of the very high
winds. We had a severe electrical storm at around 06:30 am and the lightning
struck just above the caravan!!! We were very lucky indeed, we both just got a
very big fright at the huge ‘crack’ as the lightning struck. Thankfully all was well.
As soon as it was light we were up checking for any damage
and we were then able to go and see that the sheep – and the hens were all ok.
I am pleased to report, barring a waterlogged field, due to the subsequent deluge of water, all was well.
February
2016
The new Agricultural shed completed, and as the winter
weather was quite harsh, we moved the sheep into the purpose built lean too. I
think they thought it was a Palace! We put the girls at one side and the boys
(in the foreground) in the other. I know they were very comfortable as they
didn’t wish to go out into the paircs in the morning! I was working in my
workshop when the ‘Big Fella’ decided to pay me a visit!!
I don’t know if those of you who have visited us here will remember that we had some trees
between the caravan and the shop? Well, our old friend Magnus and a ‘tree
surgeon’ Ali from Staffin came to inspect them to find that they were extremely
dangerous! We did suspect this as they weren’t your average tree! They were in
fact overgrown Leylandii hedging, planted over 25 years ago. During high winds,
one of the trees lifted the land surrounding its roots as it swayed with the
gusts of wind! This is not a protected species of tree (as it was never
supposed to grow into a tree). The decision was taken to clear fell the trees
for our safety. We decided to have the trunks logged and the remainder was fed
through a machine that chops up the leaves and branches to make chippings –
these are suitable for composting and making natural walkways.
The day came and Ali had to go up the trees to remove the
thicker branches to secure them so as they wouldn’t fall onto either the
caravan or the shed! He was amazing to watch. Magnus was the ‘ground man’ to
guide branches securely to the ground without touching either the caravan or
the shed.
Ali up the tree
Magnus
logging and chipping.
Billy the posty brought us a rather large package, our first
consignment of Shetland wool I am
thrilled to be able to sell such a prestigious brand of knitting yarn which is
produced from their native Shetland sheep. This has brightened up the ‘shop’
with an array of colour – and of course, they have send me many patterns. As I
teach Fairisle knitting here, it is just perfect
and is the most appropriate yarn (and patterns) to work
with.
March
2016
My dearest friend (buddy) D’Nanty Sue came for her first
visit of the year way back in March. I love it when she is here…
She works hard on the croft while she is here, even helping
to clean the lean too and preparing it with clean bedding. She was also on hand
to help Kapitein (on a very cold day) with the windbreak around the vegetable
plot. It was so cold, she even shared her hat with Sammy!!
We also had some other visitors to the Croft. Karen and Rob
from the ‘Scottish Farmer’ magazine decided they wanted to write a feature
about us. Karen is especially interested in the sheep and how I use their
fleece for wool, knitwear and tweed. They duly arrived and the sun shone for
them. The magazine came out with me on the front cover – complete with my
favourite old orange jacket!! I was amazed!! It was super to welcome them both
and the article is lovely. Karen is coming back to do some knitting too in the
not too distant future…
My next adventure was off island for another very special
occasion. I had been nominated in 2 categories in the Scottish Rural Awards –
Business Diversification and Rural Enterprise. The ceremony was held at Dynamic
Earth in Edinburgh and both of my daughters, Dionne and Nelly agreed to travel
from Northumberland and come with me, sadly Kapitein had to stay at home to
look after the sheep, dogs and hens.
Dionne,
Me and Nelly all dressed up for the ceremony.
I was truly amazed when ‘Island at the Edge’ was chosen
from hundreds of nominees to become one of the 6 finalists in the two nominated categories. We were told this was a fantastic achievement and we all enjoyed the evening, I shan’t forget it in a hurry – we all had
a lovely time, and we met some other small start off businesses from the Outer
Hebrides too.
While I was in Edinburgh, I went to visit Gordon NicolsonKiltmakers on the Royal Mile. Gordon is who made Kapitein’s kilt in our
Tattersall Tweed. He is currently piloting a new venture, ‘Kilt School’ a SQA
(Scottish Qualifications Authority) Qualification to make kilts. We have been
in discussions about running this course up here on Skye at Island at the Edge.
And for me to offer Traditional Dress Hire and kilt making facilities here too.
This is a wonderful opportunity and will develop further during 2017.
April
2016
Lambing started in earnest with ‘Guffy’ having twin lambs,
closely followed by another ewe lambing just as the most horrendous snow storm
hit!! Thankfully the girls were in the lean too so were more protected than in
years before. We had an interesting lambing this year, what with Mastitis,
breach births – back legs first, difficult twins it just went on and on. We
were thankful when lambing ended and we counted our blessings.
May
2016
We received our very first large ‘group’ of visitors here on the
croft, comprising of Rare Breed sheep breeders all the way from Germany.
We spent three days prior to their visit getting everything
ready. Kapitein had a couple of helpers and together they tidied up the whole
croft and stacked logs neatly away. I prepared fleeces and rovings (wool prepared
for spinning) for a spinning demonstration in the agricultural shed, got my
shed ready and gave Kapitein’s kilt a much-needed press in anticipation of our
visitor’s arrival. Our dear friends and helpers all arrived just before the earlier than anticipated arrival of the bus.
We had 37 people and one guide arrived at 09:00 in the
morning. They managed to park their huge 55 seat coach off road at the entrance
to our croft. And then we divided them up into 3 groups so Kapitein could take
one to show them around the croft where they got to meet the sheep including
lambs in the lean too, one of our friends had the second group and took them where they were shown how to spin and saw demonstrations about the differences between the
fleeces and myself and Sarah had the remaining group and showed them how to
knit a Gansey telling them all about the heritage and what the motifs mean (the
designs knitted into the garment). The groups were amazing and huge fun, we all
laughed a lot and they presented us with books, literature and a small hand
woven mat made with their own wool as a farewell gift, what a lovely thought.
They left at 11:00 am and traveled to Dunvegan Castle
where another warm highland welcome awaited them.
We all had some hot soup and coffee for lunch as we waited
for the next group of 41 and 2 guides arrived at 1:30pm. They too parked their
huge coach up at the gates and were divided into 3 groups. And again, this
group were amazing fun and as the first group, presented us with some lovely
gifts.
We were all very pleased that they had enjoyed their day,
as we had too, but as we waved off the final coach at 4:00pm, we all needed to
sit down and have several cups of tea as we reminisced about the day.
Not resting on our laurels. We have been running several courses
on everything from learning to crochet and knitting to a first for us an
introduction to spinning. This course was run by our friend Anne Salter, a
renowned spinner and teacher of this skill. We all learned about choosing the
right fleece, preparing a fleece and spinning with a spinning wheel, a drop
spindle and another spinning device that Anne has invented – based on a
football rattle. All of us had a wonderful time and we even managed to spin
some fleece into wool.
And finally for May…
You may remember I was a finalist in the Scottish Rural
Awards. Well, my daughters and I made it into the ‘people of note’ section of
the Scottish Field magazine during this month!! One of our customers has
likened this to being in the ‘Hello’ or OK magazines!! Either way we all feel
very privileged indeed.
June
2016
We had a mini
heatwave here on the Isle of Skye. This has been recognised by the Met Office
that we were the hottest place in the whole of the British Isles with
temperatures of 27c!! What a coup this was.
Whilst the sun shone, we welcomed another group of visitors
here to the croft. They came on the cruise ship Zuiderdam which came into
Portree harbour and one of our tour operators, Tour Skye brought on a
pre-booked tour, several groups of ‘knitting and craft’ ladies and gentlemen
here to the croft. One very, very special lady arrived with the first group. A
very famous lady called Hazel Tindall – she is the world’s fastest knitter and
has held this record since 2004. She knits with the wonderful Jamiesons and
Smith’s Shetland yarn and she knits Fairisle.
We took delivery of our very own digger. This is mainly due
to our needing to get lots of small jobs done that require a digger. Kapitein
has never used one before but he took to it like a ‘duck to water’. His first
job was trenching in the water pipe ready before the installation of the Poly
Tunnel (Greenhouse). He also carried on and trenched in over 100 metres of
electricity cable from the back of the agricultural shed to the caravan as he
could complete another big job, which was to move the Generator, battery pack
and solar panels to the agricultural shed. What a star…
Ably assisted by Calum MacRae, joiner extraordinaire, the Generator was swiftly
moved into the shed. The battery pack has taken a battering through the 2 years
it has been outside, so this is the best option.
We waited with bated breath for the arrival of our KederGreenhouse. Kapitein had been working for several months getting the foundations
ready. This was a very precise job, and we really hoped everything would fit
when Dean and Lee from Keder were setting the framework down.
We watched the weather forecast and realised that the
wonderful heatwave we had been enjoying was coming to an end!! This didn’t mean
a storm was brewing, but more of the ‘usual’ misty and wet weather we usually
have here on Skye with a slight 30-40 mph breeze.
The day arrived and the guys travelled up from Evesham in the
south of England. They arrived here on the croft at 3.30 in the afternoon and
told Kapitein that the foundations were perfect!! He was extremely happy – and
so was I…
The following morning the boys arrived on site at 7.10am and
started work immediately. I can honestly say, I haven’t met such fast and
precise workers for a long time – they put up these greenhouses on a regular
basis, but to watch them work was amazing.
And since they have installed it, Kapitein has planted several
seeds, bedding plants, slips and cuttings so we can ‘hopefully’ have our own
vegetables this year.
Visitors tell us that we have made phenomenal the progress this year, in the next installment, I will tell you all about the progress on our house build and the
trip of a lifetime… Japan…
Until then, Bliadhna Mhath Ur - Happy New Year.
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