Crofting Times

Dear all,

sorry for the long absence from Cyberspace. January was full of expectation then disappointment as our house purchase went wrong on completion day. We managed to rescue the process and are now the proud owners of a cute house with interesting drystone outbuildings and 8 acres (plus an adjoining two acre field that we've leased for 5 years from the sellers). Picture of property below - it's five mins walk from a nice beach where there have been seals hauled out every time we've visited.

We've spent the past six weeks knocking down internal walls, painting, ripping up floors etc. We are expecting a second-hand Rayburn to arrive in mid-April - this will form the heart of a central heating and hot water system - I hope, I'll believe it when it's working. Various setbacks and naive assumptions proved have been encountered but nothing too major. We are still living in the place ten minute drive away, which is paid for 'til the end of May.

Work on the house had to take a bit of a back seat as we've acquired some angora goats (from which Mohair comes) who needed somewhere cosy to live - one of the old byres needed new doors and some sprucing up - a some fencing (not too extreme, they are pretty calm as goats go). We went to Caithness to collect them and they are now ensconsed - concentrating on ways of getting into the vegetable garden!

The beast below is Angus - A 2 year old Billy. Still small enough to pick up and turn around when the butting game becomes a bit boring! They are quite charming little things. Much more inquisitive and entertaining than sheep but less scary than big dairy goats. We've got two young females (who will be entertaining Angus in the Autumn - kids next Spring, we hope) and a castrated male who'll keep Angus company when they need to be split up. He's called Hawthorn and is really cute! They get their coats removed twice a year - there's loads of it! Jo will spin some and we'll sell the rest on-line.

We've also added some other little friends to the collection - two Tamworth X piglets. Their job is to rotovate a small field and provide all the bacon and sausages we'll need from September on - may do some creative things like air-dried ham. They are very entertaining to watch and are slowly getting used to Orkney wind and rain (not good this last week - by far the worst weather since we got here in November).
Other animal plans include purchase of an incubator so that we can cheaply get some chickens - some glamorous ones like Legbars to look nice and provide eggs and some boring one for the pot. A polytunnel arrived last week - it's a bit of a gamble, some last some don't, an ugly windbreak made of pallets will soon be blotting the Sanday landscape!

Still exploring and finding more interesting places. Birdlife is still the highpoint. I was really pleased to come across this gang of turnstones foraging on the tideline.

Hope all's well where you are. Looking forward to some good weather this week so I can continue planting out 100s of willows to make the area round the house a bit more interesting.

2009 - Feeling fine(ish)

Happy New Year!

No posts recently as I've had a horrible fluey cold and have been feeling far to self-pitying to be communicative! I'm getting a bit stir-crazy and frustrated not being able to do things to upcoming house and land. The surveyor came yesterday and marked out the bit of land we will be buying (8 acres from a ten acre field). It was funny walking the land - I already resent the rabbits there as illegal tenants! Still on track to take ownership at the end of the month then I should start to have interesting posts to publish.

I tried not to gloat at the arctic temperatures in England over the last couple of weeks - positively balmy here! Here are a few interesting birdie pics to cheer us all up: snow bunting and wigeon (the duck one for the uninterested amongst you!).

I went for a lovely walk with the dog today to a wide bay called Cata Sands, separated from another bay by a range of sand dunes. Anyone that visits will be dragged here - really outstanding!!!! Here's a pic that doesn't do it justice.

Back to surfing the net now. Latest money-making possibility is isolating essential oils to incorporate into soaps - lemon balm (melissa) is really expensive so may be worth a go. Seems do-able with a little investment.

Winterval greetings

Ho! Ho! Ho! Quite unseasonal up here - grey, 10 C and light winds.


We've done lots since the last entry. High point was a great storm last weekend - winds up to 90 mph, more than 60 most of the evening and night. Anywhere else there would have been masses of damage but most things here are designed to be windproof. However, everything has its breaking point - a huge barn up the road lost its corrugatedroof: this was deposited whole in the road 100 yards away. I've never been out in such strong wind before - great if you don't have to work in it. Standing up was difficult, walking into it nearly impossible! Poor dog was nearly blown away. Here are a couple of pics of the dog in action mode and chilling out:

We went to a Christmas Quiz at the pub. We were a bit embarressed to win. This was followed by a trip to the island's bingo club christmas do - we were quite lucky there as well, Jo won some money and I got £50 worth of slow cooker/rice cooker - something I'd been considering buying. People were very friendly and welcoming at both events. The bingo's good as lots of islanders go to it so it's a chance to get used to the accent.


Everything seems to be going forward with the house purchase, we hope to "complete" at the end of Jan (2009!). Lots of birdie goings on this week: ravens in abundance today - the collective noun is "an unkindness", which sounds a bit mean (unless you are a sick rabbit). Lots of lapwings (see pic) and flocks of something that I think are bar-tailed godwits (let me know if you disagree). Still zillions of geese (greylag) and curlews that resist having good photo taken.













We are having lots of frank discussions about how to package, market and price our soaps. We hope to come to some conclusions by New Year and get down to some serious production before we get side tracked by doing things to the new house.



Best wishes to everyone for Christmas, hope you are all cold-free. M and J XXX

Tooled Up!!

Weather: Lovely bright day after a couple of dreary ones

Listening to: Lynton Kwesi Johnson - Forces of Viktry

Quote for the day : "You lookin' at me? I don't see anyone else here........., Punk?" That might be a mixture of Dirty Harry and Taxi Driver; sorry for the purists. If getting an air rifle to control rabbits makes me think that imagine what an Uzi for £100 from a guy in the pub must make you feel like?

No major happenings here. We went to the great metropolis that is Kirkwall yesterday. 1.5 hr on boat each way, good fun and excellent bacon sandwiches. Sea flat as a pancake so nice to watch the islands zipping past. Kirkwall's got most things you could ask for. I got a strimmer and rotovator to be prepared for smallholding next spring (they were on offer!). We found a fantastic shop called Shearer's that had every creature comfort of a foodie nature which one could ask for! A full range of Patak's pickles!

Found this groovy fish on the beach yesterday. It's a lumpsucker (you lookin' at me, Lumpsucker?). Quite common apparently, otters like them. We may have seen an otter the other day but I won't claim it 'til I'm sure.

If anyone has 400 grand going spare there is a very nice peninsula for sale here. We went for a walk there the other day, you drive for a mile over a beach beside amazing sand dunes to get to it. There's a little hamlet around a 16th century house and a range of amazing stone buildings. Apparently the previous owner quibbled about £2000 bill for boat repairs - three years later the bailiffs took his estate away! I can send the full agents details if you are interested. Picture below - the building with the damaged roof is the hexagonal horse mill - what a disgrace to let fall into disrepair!

Must do Christmas cards tonight so I'll leave it there.

Surf's up, wind's down

It's been a scary few days on Sanday. The wind has dropped! This is a cause for comment and a sort of uneasiness, we've got so used to the gales of the last couple of weeks that we thought it was the norm. Beautiful clear skies and views to other islands have opened up. We can see over to Westray from our (rented) house. Stronsay, Eday and North Ronaldsay are all easily visible from different bits of our island.

We went on a cliffwalk to admire some baby grey seals. A bit like a cross between a maggot and a slug but still cute. The mothers take off into the sea as soon as they see you but the baby's lie there looking a bit pathetic, we didn't hang around long so as not to scare them. Here's a typical shot of a mum and pup:

We took hundreds of pictures, including some arty ones with posh new camera, I'll put them on a photo sharing site called Flickr at some point. We've noticed that practically every time we've walked along a beach there have been a seal or two bobbing in the waves, checking us out! We can't tell between the two sorts yet (common vs grey).

The dog is amazing, I can't believe ho she hasn't died of hypothermia! She is in the sea at every opportunity, then dries off chasing the zillions of rabbits that live here. There will be fewer once I get an air rifle! Looking forward to rabbit pie, pate, stew - yum yum!

On a serous note we appear to have bought a house. A cute white stone cottage, which will have two bedrooms when we've finished with it. It has some nice outbuildings, a walled garden and comes with eight acres and three chickens. I'll post some pictures next time. The couple who own it have brought up three kids on the island and want to go travelling, they are incomers like us. We are busily hatching plans. We hope to take ownership by the end of Jan. then can knock down a few internal walls, maybe put in central heating etc. Very exciting!

More soon, dinner time - local beef stew. I'm meeting up with the local pig farmer later in the week, may ask him if he needs a partner. He's based very close to our new house, the pigs are a bit boring (Large Whites I think) but at least they are outdoor reared. We're going to try some seafood next week - local fresh crab £1.20 (£1.50 cooked!), lobsters for £4.00. I hope to get some mussels soon but the tide's been high during the day when we've organised ourselves to go out walking.

Hope all's well down South (that is everywhere from John o'Groats down!).

First entry

Friday 21st November

Weather: Alternate blizzards and beautiful sunshine

Soundtrack: Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode Film Review

We're here!!! First entry. I thought it might be easier to send pictures and boring general stuff to you via this blog rather than sending loads of individual emails to friends and family. Please email for amplification on specific areas. I've stolen the format from a chap on Westray who has an excellent blog - look here: http://the-edge-of-nowhere.blogspot.com/

We've just about got ourselves organised in sunny Sanday. We've confined all the boxes full of books and records to a spare bedroom and are slowly sorting out the millions of bits of paper that we seem to have accumulated but couldn't organise before moving. There was a major problem when we arrived here in that we assumed the house was unfurnished ---- but no! Beds, arm chairs, sofas etc etc. So we have two houses' worth of furniture in one place - it's cosy! The problem would not be so bad if the garage was dry and had heat and light. Still, it's a nice spot and the house is very snug.

This is the view over the computer monitor that I'm typing on

Five minutes later the sheep were hardly visible for snow!

We went to an excellent little concert in a local pub yesterday evening. The Sanday fiddle club - about 12 fiddlers - nice sounds and a very relaxed atmosphere.

Birds - one of the reasons I wanted to come was to see different birds. Highlights so far have been a male hen harrier (didn't have camera) and this sweet little redwing searching about for insects outside the window (sorry it's a bit blurred!)

A few people have asked about the Land Rover. It seemes completely recovered from it's traumatic journey up here. In case you don't know the fan belt died South of Birmingham causing some collateral damage. Here's a picture of the Maroon Monster for Steve.

We are going to see some baby seals on Sunday and to a Fair at the local school. We hope to meet the local pig farmer there to hatch some schemes for next year (and to buy some local pork!). People ingeneral very nice but not at all pushy or nosy. Everyone seems to know who we are before we open our mouths! There are supposed to be 500 people on the island but I'm sure I've been bombarded with more than a thousand names - not my strong point. Added to that there are few (obvious) landmarks and most of the houses have no signs outside. You need to be telepathic to know who/where is being talked about. An example might go:

- You need to ask Frankie about mutton

- Where does he live?

- Second house after the turn, if you come to Anchor cottage you've gone too far

- Where's that

- By the loch

- Does it have an anchor outside?

- Not for many years gone by...........

Still, it's small enough that you can't go far wrong and you usually come across interesting stuff by mistake.

That'll do for now - out into the bleak mid-winter now for milk and eggs at the shop 200 yards up the road - I may be quite some time......