From the peat bank

A dry-ish morning had us heading out to the peat bank early on.  We are hoping to get the peats cut over the next couple of weeks, give them the summer to dry out, and then stack them at the house for our winter fuel.  Many people do still cut their own peat - as one of the other Mums in the village said - "It's just so worth it"  And indeed it is - so off we went.
Our peat bank is a good bit out of the township, at the side of the main road, so our newbie flounderings are visible to the entire community as they drive by, tooting their horns and waving, not to mention the various camper vans and tourists who slow down just a bit, hoping to see some traditional crofting :)  Maybe I have appeared on someone else's blog post about their holiday?

Anyway let me give you a wee insight into our day.

 

These are our tools.  The flat spade for lifting the turf, and the tarisker is the blade shaped tool, which is the actual peat cutting implement.  We have 2 tariskers - one is the working one, and the other is an older one which has recently had the shaft replaced and we wanted to try it out.  We also have a spade which is designed for cutting the peats on your own.  It was made for us by one of the men at John's Gaelic group, and we were trying that out today too.  Normally only the tarisker and flat spade are required.

The first task is to turf the bank and expose the peat.  The turfs are placed down in the trench made by last years peat cutting, and they will regrow and so aid the regeneration of the moss. Our bank has not actually been cut for several years, so it has overgrown quite a bit. John was out and did the turfing a few days ago, so it was straight to work.

Anyway - the next stage is to cut the peats, using the tarisker, or peat iron.  This is really a two-man job - one to cut  and the other to catch and throw the peat block up onto the bank, but I needed John to operate the camera. Hopefully you can see the process, as demonstrated by yours truly here. We take turns at cutting and throwing.
In the past this was very much a community event, as whole villages and families all gathered to cut everyone's peats for the Winter.  Nowadays it seems to be smaller groups or husband and wife teams going out for a couple of hours when they can.  While I would appreciate a whole clan of folks helping out with the cutting throwing and laying out to dry, I was secretly relieved that my clumsy and slapdash methods did not come under too much scrutiny from the village elders.

And then a wee rest and a shared cup of tea -

before we set the day's harvest out to dry. 

We'll keep cutting over the next couple of weeks, as the weather permits and then we should be able to lift them and stack them into little piles to dry out completely, but more on that another day.  

It is beautiful stuff when it is cut though - like rich, dense, chocolate fudge cake.  You could almost pour some double cream on that.
Aye, you fair work up an appetite after a morning at the peats!

The Secret Life of Books.

Not much to report this week.  The weather has not been great, so we only got one morning at the peats, and various other matters kept us away from the croft.  James had a big day out with the Croileagan to see the Lewis Chessmen, do some artful stuff at An Lanntair, and go out for lunch, then he had a birthday party the next day.  John is involved in a tractor renovation project with a voluntary group, and I have had a bit of a cold. The blogging muse has been a bit lost somewhere in all that too, hence the short break.
 Still - no lolling around.  Our "stuff"  arrived from the mainland yesterday - the contents of our storage unit, that we have lived quite happily without for several weeks, were delivered. Our tidy, comfortable but small home was soon completely cluttered with boxes, cartons and baskets.  You may recall that it was mainly boxes of books, but I was quite surprised by the sheer number of candle sticks and holders I seem to have collected!  Anyway, we have almost found a place for everything, and any homeless items are now - well - in the loft - where else? Isn't that the way of things?  We move stuff from one attic to another. Sigh...

And so to those books. It was great to fill up all those empty bookshelves, and cover the wall with colour.  I am not one for deliberate placement - colour, subject, letter of the alphabet sort of coding.  Nope!  They just go up as they come.  It does mean that it can take a while to find the book you are looking for - usually you find two or three other ones along the way - often on a completely different subject. This haphazard system does throw up some interesting combinations too. As I sat back and contemplated my now full bookshelves I noticed some pretty unlikely bedfellows.
I am sure Tom Nairn would enjoy being beside Keir Hardie and Noam Chomsky, while Kazanstzakis could have a good old discussion with his older compatriot Homer. However, on another shelf, the younger Greek author might have a harder time from the Rev. Horne and The Coventanters.
I do feel a bit sorry for Hildegarde of Bingen - sandwiched as she is between Warren Buffet, and the neuroscientist Dr V. S. Ramachandran,who writes here about Phantoms in the Brain, but  I  am quite sure she will be able to hold her own.
"What are people for?", wonders Wendell Berry.  He may find some answers in the dictionary of Philosophy, but I wonder how he is faring with Gillespie Strang, that grasping, manipulative archetype of destructive capitalism on the other side of him.  Hopefully he in turn has been influenced by the Ten Poems to Change your life.
Two volumes of Schopenhauer - The World as Will and Idea (a fabulous charity shop find of my husband) are separated by a number of slim paperbacks, which include A Start in Smallholding, The Eclipse of Scottish Culture, Poultry and waterfowl problems, Essentials of Latin grammar, issue 189 of the now defunct Gaelic magazine Gairm, and The Tibetan Art of Living. A fair number of different ideas there I would think.
And, finally the very intellectual and serious grouping of Confucius, Rousseau and Frankl is hopefully enlivened by Miss Lillian Beckwith, and her patronising, yet delightful stories of Morag, Erchie et al.   Yes - a Hebridean Idyll - that's what they all need!
xx

Not all work

We have had some time off and some fun on the beach.  These were taken at Ardroil beach on Monday.  Oh those Bank Holiday crowds!

A fabulous day - sunny, warm and never ending.  Such a busy time - just being.

So many  interesting and beautiful things to find on the beach.  

So many dunes to clamber up - and slide down again!

And the ever replenishing tide.  

This moment...

A single photo - no words - capturing a special, long awaited moment.  A moment that I want to pause, savour and remember. Wishing you a joyful weekend.

Joining in with Soulemama again this week.

Growing

Potatoes planted

and more potatoes

A cool shady seat for a tea break

Strawberries, salads and herbs

and parsley.   

The essence of Spring!

Our first harvest!

and the result.

Lots of hard work, taking advantage of this wonderful sunshine. More beds dug out today, ready for the carrots, onions and beetroot.  Temporary raised beds will serve for the rest of our veg crop, as we wait for the drainage work on both fields.  Now our focus shifts to the peat banks - no doubt the subject of a future post.
Not many words today - I am so tired - in such a good way. xx

Ladies and Gentlemen....

Elvis is now in the hen hut!

Errr - thankyouverymuch.

Early on May morning

Let us renew ourselves.

Beltane blessings on this beautiful dawn.

Here...

And straight to work. During our prolonged absence, the pigs had done a grand job clearing the potato patch for us. They have moved back to their home croft now, but we will be taking delivery of our own two in August. The top half of this field is really good growing land, and once the new drainage ditches are dug, and the rushes are dealt with, then the rest should come into production as well. Not really sure of the best way to oust the rushes. Digging them out is just too much - their roots, while not deep, are very tenacious, to put it politely, so not an option. Chemical treatment is the most often proffered advice, but not really what we want to hear, and also, so much of the land around us is already rush covered, they would soon be blowing back with the wind when they set seed. Our neighbour, suggested cutting them back, before they seed and pouring some rock salt into them, so we are going to give this a go first, and combined with good drainage, we are hopeful that we can at least keep them at bay. He is determined to sort out his rush problem too, so that should help.

Our first early potatoes are now in. 25kg of Duke of York, or Eersteling, as my republican leaning husband prefers to call them. We have differing views on potato planting methods. I prefer to dig out a trench, lay the tatties in and then cover them up again. John is very influenced by the no-till school, and prefers to dib them in. In the end we worked out a fairly efficient system which satisfied his no-dig tendencies, and my slap dash lets get this job done style. Using a narrow spade, he dug out a small hole for each potato, while I followed on putting in the pots, and adding a good handful of our potent seaweed and well rotted manure (horse/cow/sheep) mix. John then lightly raked the sods back over the top, and it was done and dusted. Just the Kerr's Pinks, which are a maincrop, to plant over the next couple of days. Not sure how they will work out, but they seem to grow well enough here, if the Crofters' Market stand is anything to go by. No time to chit either!

Maddie Mor agus Maddie Beag are doing well. They have grown quite a lot since we last saw them. They still came running up eagerly when they saw the red trug, so we know they have forgiven us. Some happy news today is that one of our other neighbours is giving us a ewe with a lamb! Oo-er that means 3 sheep to shear now!! Our little group of livestock is expanding rapidly.
The acrobatic sheep in the second picture is my neighbour's. He was herding some of his flock into his trailer, to move them to another field, and I guess she just didn't want to go.

What else? Baking! when we arrived back, I had the pleasure of opening several packages from the well known online book retailer, which I had ordered thinking I would only be away for a couple of weeks. Among them was the River Cottage handbook on Bread, by Daniel Stevens. What a marvellous book. Everything works! I have never made such soft springy loaves, and I feel almost confident enough to try these scones out at the local show.

And our Good Friday picnic on the croft. Hot Cross Buns (from the Bread handbook) and cups of tea all round.
On with the potatoes and then off to the peats - see you there!

Bread

We made some bread this morning. James was in charge of the mixing. He decided against waiting for the dough to rise, and added some broken up dried spaghetti to the mixture. I couldn't quite find that method in the River Cottage bread handbook, but if you decide to try it, the result is a very chewy, yet crunchy but extremely tasty loaf.









And there isn't any left now, sorry.

Hoping to be back online properly tomorrow. See you then. x

This moment

A moment on Earth Day. I am happy to be joining in with Soulemama again this week. I hope you have a wonderful and blessed Easter weekend. xx