Category Archives: Stones

Stoned

We have tonnes of work to do

Whilst a lot of the country was suffering under drifts of snow, we too were suffering but it was thanks to mud.

The yard was a disaster zone.  To get to the fields we had to squelch our way through it.  The dogs were covered in it and we were worried about vehicles getting stuck.

In order to fix the problem we got the local quarry to deliver 20 tonnes of gravel and they left it on the track outside.  The only way to get it in, was by shovel and wheelbarrow, then spread it out with a rake.  After a couple of hours the barrow suffered a puncture which put a stop to the work until a new wheel could be obtained.

We were in a bit of hurry to get it done as the scan man, was coming with a trailer load of equipment, to scan the pregnant ewes and goats.  He needed to be able to drive in and out easily, we couldn’t have him getting stuck.

Just in the nick of time, we managed to get most of the yard covered, although there is still plenty more to do.

Thanks to our hard work, the scanning was a great success too.  We were delighted to discover that all but one of our 17 sheep were in lamb and both of the goats that had visited the billy, were in kid, with twins or even triplets.

The stoneage

We find ourselves with a stone circle

We have a 3 acre paddock that produces our hay for overwinter feeding.  We don’t graze the sheep on it until after haymaking and we also use it as a “garden” for the dogs.  They walk around it, chase balls and birds in it, and it gives us plenty of space to try out any new products we may have.

As far as we know the grass in this paddock has been growing undisturbed for at least 30 years and so this year, with our hay crop getting smaller and the quality diminishing, we made the decision to re-seed it.

Although we did consider doing it ourselves for a while, luckily we saw the light and opted to ask for help. We are lucky enough to have a neighbour with all the equipment necessary, and he came in and did it for us.

First of all he had to get rid of all the “stones”. Although only a small sliver had been showing above ground, these stones were more like huge granite rocks and some of them weighed a couple of tonnes!  He spent a long time digging them out and moving them to a huge pile.  There may now be a new mountain range in this part of Scotland, we certainly had enough to make our own stone circle!

Once they were gone he had to plough through a very dense root system, which proved impossible, so he had to resort to an industrial strength rotavator before he could continue.

After rotavation, he ploughed, then out came the discs which broke up all the ground.  All this time he was still discovering more and more stones.

Next came a series of rollers (and yet more stones), followed by the seeder and finally another roller.

It was a long job, expertly done, and one we could never have accomplished on our own, since we didn’t have any of the machinery or knowledge necessary.

All we have to do now is pray for rain and wait for the grass to grow.

In other news, we have had to increase Fin’s medication as although he has improved, he is not healing as we hoped he would.

We have also had a lamb with flystrike.  It was horrendous but we think have managed to save him as he now seems to be recovering.