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Two friends came first-hoofing on their Highland ponies!

Jan. 1, 2007

I have survived my first Hogmanay!! Erlend almost didn't. He's staggering around the fairm looking a bit worse for wear this morning hehehe!! er...I mean, poor thing.

We almost didn't make it out for Hogmanay but Erlend somehow managed to get all of the calves dosed and all of the kye fed by half ten. When he dragged his exhausted self home for a late tea I surprised him with a home-made fresh-from-the-oven apple pie. THAT sure boosted his spirits!

Our first stop of the evening was to ring in the New Year with some dear friends! I was a bit peckish and much to my dismay our hostess laid out a huge bowl of these unbelievably tasty crisp thingys. And as the hours passed I inhaled the whole bowl!!! I felt like a locust.

While we awaited midnight we were treated to a record containing live Flamenco music from about forty or fifty years ago - the real stuff where the singers sound like they are speaking Arabic and you can just hear the Moorish influence in the music and the singing style. Ooooh it gave me goosebumps!

When the New Year arrived our hosts poured generous glasses of champagne and we had a rousing toast. The radio blared with bagpipes so we all got up and started to dance a modified version of The Dashing White Sergant until we wore ourselves out. So back to our chairs we went - and oh no! Another bowl of those incredibly addictive crisp things appeared. I ate so many of them my mouth withered from the salt!

After we had celebrated the New Year we all bundled up and headed out into the rainy windy night and scurried to another house. A few minutes after we arrived the place filled up with firstfooters - each bearing a bottle of whisky! "Happy New Year!" we all said and shook hands all round. The house was so full I wondered if the walls would burst! We stayed a lot longer then planned and so we had to return home instead of visiting more folk because Erlend had to get up early and feed those endlessly hungry kye! As I stepped out into the wind I realized that my jacket was useless. We had to walk home (whisky!) and I was in misery. Our hostess lent me a jacket that was too small for me so I tied it onto my head so it formed a hooded cape of sorts. That did the trick! We got Zeb The Farm Dog out of the car and walked him home using a length of bailer twine as a lead. He looked rather baffled by the whole situation!!

Jan. 2, 2007

This has gone on for THREE DAYS!! Three fun days filled with visiting loads of folk as we all make the rounds going from house to house, whisky in hand. We almost didn't make it out first footing today because a coo decided to calve right before dinner - roast duck*** at the In Law's! - and then she decided to try and kill her calf. So we had to work long and hard to get her yoked and gated so the calf could sook. FINALLY we were able to get away from the farm and first foot! (And Pepper, the heefer that lost her calf, has adopted this calf that was almost killed by its mum. A happy ending!)

Our first first footers came last night wearing silly hats! Then we were away again visiting folk ourselves. We had a lovely visit with an elderly lady in her wee stone house down the road. Then we stopped by the In-Laws. Then we were off to various neighbors where we talked farm stuff and stuffed ourselves on goodies. I had ginger wine mixed with lemonaide - WOW was it good! At one house we had loads of folk show up and we were treated to a few rousing waltzes on a mooth organ. (What amazing music comes out of those things!!)

Earlier in the day, while being first-hoofed, we arranged to drop off a roondy-bale of stray for one of the Horse Ladies. So we first-footed them in our big red tractor with a huge roondy-bale clutched in the jaws of the shear-grab thingy. (It looks like the tractor has a big dragon head complete with sharp teeth!!)

We made the rounds from house to house, each visit full of laughter and good cheer. Sometimes we would meet up with other firstfooters and other times we were the only ones. When we could no longer pry our eyes open we hopped into the tractor and headed home. For the third day in a row we slept until 10am.

The kye are so used to us getting up late that they no longer roar for their breakfast at 8am sharp.

Jan. 3, 2007

We didn't make it out firstfooting today because a tank burst in one of the barns (the one full of calves sick with pneumonia no less!) and flooded the place. Erlend spent most of the day cleaning up the water-logged silage and getting the tank fixed. So we went to bed early and then...we couldn't sleep!!!!! We were up until all hours of the morning reading books as we desparately attempted to fall asleep. Today we can hardly walk in a straight line we are so tired. (No sleeping until 10am this time!)

Jan. 4, 2007

We woke up to Radio Orkney today! It's been a long time since Radio Orkney was last heard!! They took the holidays off. Sadly most of the news and the letters from the Mailbag were the typical griping and whining. I wish people would write about interesting stuff. Things they'd seen or experienced or enjoyed. We just had Christmas, Hogmanay and New Years - wasn't there SOMETHING to be written about all of this celebration?? Nope. I swear, if I hear one more blasted comment, news bite or letter complaining about TRANSPORTATION I am going to go mad.

Anyhoo, if the fairm allows us slaves to escape we're going to catch up on all of the firstfooting we've missed because of sick kye, flooding tanks and crazy mum coos trying to kill their calves.

*** This was my very FIRST roast duck and it was to DIE for!!! I now have a new favorite food!