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Erlend built a lovely pen for the flock in our old tied byre. Here they are using the feed fence to eat silage.


The sheep enjoy the delux pen - complete with outside exercise arena!



We had all of the yows scanned. Twa of them are having singles, 17 of them are having twins and 3 of them are having triplets. It seems our ram knows how to do his job well !!!!

On nice days I love to wander around the lawn and walled garden peeking at the various bulbs and Snow Drops to note their progress. I am so thrilled that flowers show up in FEBRUARY!! Even back home in Massachusetts (my home state) we never had flowers in February!! Not even a *hint* of flowers until March at the earliest.

My ankle has been bothering me a thousand times more then before. The physio therapist has been using accupuncture to try and address the angry nerves because PT has caused the nerves to go ballistic. But...this is part of the fun of healing. I'm doing my best to stay positive and cheerful but ...

I can't help but admit that I'm struggling with a bit of (severe crushing) cabin fever and a feeling like an utter failure as a wife. I cannot stand on my feet more then a few minutes at a time and so my house is a wreck. I have to choose between cooking the meals, cleaning, or going outside. I can't do all three: I can only do one and then back I go on my ever-expanding rump to rest this blasted ankle.

Sorry to whine. If I don't say something I'm afraid I'll go mad.

Anyhoo, here are some photos of my "flower tour":


A bonnie patch of Snow Drops!


Some daffodils are starting to arrive!

I can't wait to see all of the daffodils in bloom in April! Erlend says it's super lovely. And I can't wait to see the Blue Bells and the Crow-cah-sez (Crowcas??) and those mysterious white flowers. I planted pink lillies indoors and Erlend planted more tomatoes. It's going to be a blooming spring around here!! HAVE A GREAT DAY!!

We adopted Zeb while on our honeymoon in August. We found him at the SSPCA in Inverness and spirited him away to the farm. He now lives on about 300 acres of prime cat-chasing land and will live out his life being loved. He's about 7 years old and comes from Glasgow - so he's loving rural life!!

Here are some photos of Zeb:

Here is Zeb taking his first look at Orkney as we head back to the farm from the ferry. He enjoyed the ferry so much he peed all over himself and was having a mental breakdown when we fetched him from the ferry kennel. We'll never take him on a boat again!!!!


King Tut was not impressed with the new arrival. He still isn't. As a matter of fact all 14 farm cats think that Erlend and I are the spawn of Satan ever since we brought Zeb home.


Erlend shows Zeb how much fun he'll have living wild and free without being in a cage or on a leash most of the time! I can't play with Zeb - for some reason he gets really rough with me and plows into me. Erlend clocked Zeb at 45+ miles per hour so it is not fun getting plowed over by Zeb!!


Zeb's whole goal in life is to eat the cats. Here is Brodgar giving Zeb the evil eye while I am telling him, "Don't even THINK about it!" Erlend created a safe zone in the tied byre so the cats can rest peacefully while Zeb sits below their straw-filled perch and drools.


Our first Christmas was celebrated with even Zeb getting a gift!


Zeb is a bit weird - which means he fits in just fine around here!!

Here are some photos of some of our 14 farm cats. The rest are too elusive to catch on film!

Brodgar and King Tut staying warm


Sweep in the garden last spring (Erlend sent me this cute photo via email. Look at the daffodils!!)


"Can Head" Katie, Sweep's mum.


A bunch of the cats chowing down in the old dairy


Cute little Katie without a can on her head


Millie perched on the garden wall. Her mother is "Molly" and looks almost exactly alike.


Brodgar hiding in the grass looking upon the caddy lambs in absolute horror. "What ARE those noisy digusting things??"


Molly the robot cat sent to Earth to spy upon us farmer humans...
"Take me to your leader..."

Well...I considered the fact that my handsome farmer husband might be happier with a messy house and a cheery wife vs. a mental wife and a clean house.

So I ditched the attempts at housework and went outside these past two days. (I have to choose between doing a bit of housework or going outside - my ankle isn't ready for both yet.)

And WOW what an improvement in my mood!!!!!!!

Here are some photos of my latest flower tour. I have no idea what most of these are...but that doesn't make them any less delightful!!








(The above is a photo of our wee tomato plants!)

The ankle is doing well! I've been puttering around the garden and with the help of Erlend and a neighbor boy we've cleaned out a lot of the bruck. And Husband has pruned a lot of the trees.

We found a crocus in bloom twa days ago! And look at the daffodils - they are ready to explode! And of course we can't forget the Snow Drops. I seem to have become obsessed with them. I visit them every day. I need to get a life...

But then again, when you have a garden why do you need to go get a life?? I already have one!!!!


Purple - my favorite color!

The daffodils have grown so much in the past week!

Snow Drops **Drool Drool** (one corner of the garden containing trees, apple trees, Snow Drops, black current bushes and ... bruck.)

Folk think I'm Amish. I'm not Amish: I'm desparate. Desparate to keep the wind out of my ears - and my hair out of my eyes all while keeping the hat on my head - rather then blown off to Norway. I love hats - but hats don't seem to work well in Orkney. I couldn't imagine life without hats so here is the solution I found:

We could call it, "Little House On The...Island."



I have a whole variety of bonnets in all sorts of prints and colors. I just LOVE them! They are old-fashioned but who cares! (Hmmm. I look a bit cheeky in this photo. I was trying to take a picture of myself which isn't easy!!)

I just received some patchwork jeans sewn by an American lady in Colorado. I love color and having pannels of patchwork in my "breeks" really works for me:


These are the "Earthy Tone" breeks. The seamstress did a really good job with the patchwork! I'll toss up some more pictures of the three other pairs of breeks when we have some good weather. (In this photo the breeks are not quite finished yet - but you get the point!)

"Ya'll" is such an Orcadian word hehehe! (I'm trying to blend in but it's just not working...I can't get the Norwegian vowels when I speak and this ya'll stuff keeps creeping out. And I'm certain that they are "toe-may-toes" and not "toe-mah-toes"....)

So...what will I give up for Lent this year? I usually last about twa days and then I break my Lenten fast and have to start all over again.

I can't fast from chocolate. I get to insane when I do that.

And I can't fast from coffee or I'm useless.

Maybe I'll give up early rising!!!!

Or...I can give up scraping out the sheep pen!!!

Just kidding.

Hmmm. I have no idea what I should give up for Lent. I'll have to think about this one.

When he's not trying to eat the cats you can find Zeb chilling in his basket. This pooch has it all figured out!!

This morning we woke up to find a dead calf which is always a major bummer. And poor mummy moo, a bonnie red coo, is boggling her head off and trying to find her calf. It was premature - we aren't supposed to be getting calves just yet. It's always awful when something dies on the farm. Farmers come across as hardened uncaring souls - but they are big softies!! They are affected by dead animals just as much as anyone else.

And another coo, a bonnie black lass, has some kind of trapped nerve (the calf in her belly is probably on the nerve) so she's down with partially paralized hindquarters. Wur cousin is coming doon with his bucket loader so that he and Erlend can move the coo to a deeply bedded pen. Hopefully poor madam moo will be ok.

Well, Cuz is here with the bucket loader. I hope they can get the poor lass moved without incident. Sometimes coos decided not to play along and even the simplest task can turn into a three-ring circus act!!!!!

Two years ago Erlend and I met through "The Orcadian." It was a cold dark winter in Alaska and I never would have imagined that I was going to meet my soul mate and move to an island in Scotland!!

In my quest for a pen-pal I ended up with a husband!

Two years - wow! Time flies!!

This is "Red Coo" and she is THE tamest coo on the fairm - until she has a calf. Then she becomes evil !! But once the calf is older she returns to her tame placid self again.


This is Coo #103 and she is also a very tame coo and she does not go mad when she has a calf.


This is "Blue", a Shorthorn cross heifer. Every now and then she allows me the honor of giving her a scratch.


This big white lady is "Yeti." She's the biggest coo in the herd - and the biggest scaredy-cat! Notice how she's hanging out in the back of the pen - as far away from me as she can get.


Here is a pic of some of our calves. (Red Coo was trying to kill me while I took the pic - her calf is in there!!)


This is the poor lass with the trapped nerve. She's a tame coo and won't be much of a hassle to relocate to a comfortable pen.


Breakfast time!! The slaves have done their job and now the kye can stuff face.

What a lovely place I now call home! I've never had such a plesant winter in my entire life! Ok, maybe I had a few plesant winters in the Middle East with the temperatures hovering around 80F but anyway...as far as NORTHERN places go Orkney totally rocks when it comes to winter time!!!! What a lovely day it is today. I really enjoy strolling around peeking at the burn (I always hoped I'd live next to a brook!!) and saying howdy to the kye/sheep and looking at the view from the top of the silage pit. And of course let's not forget my obsessive visits to the Snow Drops and my "flower tours" around the steading. **Sigh** I love it here. I'm so glad I ended up here on this windy green rainy isle.


The wooly Ladies after being fed their breakfast of silage.


One-eyed King Tut. I couldn't figure out why he was perched on the feed fence and staring at me with only one eye. It turned out that he had silage in his eye and amazingly he let me pick it out! He's always been an easy-going cat.


I would not dare pick silage out of THIS kitty's eyeball! I'd end up in intensive care at Balfour Hospital. Look at that expression on her face!! This is one of our new barn pusses that we adopted from the Orkney Cats Protection at Christmas time. They are all settling in very well. Two of them are very wild so I hardly see them - but this puss and her black-and-white brother allow me to see them now and again. I am a good cat slave!


Here is Erlend (my handsome farmer!!) ready to feed more kye their breakfast. He is a good coo slave!! He's parked in the silage pit. I love the view from the top of the silage pit - I can see for miles in all directions! There's something to be said for the lack of trees!!

HAVE A GREAT DAY !!

This is a passage leading from the old stone "tied byre" to the upper court where we have bedded calving pens awaiting the next burst of calves!

During the summers of 2002 and 2003 I spent a month with the Benedictine Nuns of "Our Lady of the Rock Priory" on Shaw Island, Washington State. They are SO cool! This is their website if you are curious to see photos: (You have to click on links to see photos)

http://www.rockisland.com/~mhildegard/

They raise sheep and llamas as well as Kerry and Highland kye. And they spin and weave!! This is where I first became interested in weaving, knitting and crochet.

After my first visit I purchased a small child's loom so I could give this weaving stuff a try. I was living in a wee cabin in Alaska so I did not want to buy a big loom - plus, why make such an investment when you don't even know what you are doing?? It is a very simple loom so even though I enjoyed weaving I did not gain any real weaving experience. This is a photo of what it looks like:



My mom taught me basic knitting back when I was a helicopter mechanic in the Navy. I was knitting one evening when a bunch of burly aircrewmen asked me what I was doing. I showed them how to knit and soon had all of these manly-men knitting away! It was quite a site. I've since forgotten everything about knitting.

I purchased a book that teaches how to braid wool rugs but I need more hands-on instruction since I'm not much of a book learner. It's a great book though, titled, "The Shepherd's Rug." I'd love to invest in some Shetland sheep so that I could braid rugs - but I don't want to ask Erlend if we can by Shetlands until I know how to acctually do the craft!! Back home in America I can find dozens of places that teach weaving, rug braiding, knitting etc. But what about here in Orkney??



The one big setback is my bad ankle - it keeps me from being able to drive. And Erlend is very busy so he can't be driving me around much!! So normally I'd get out and look around - and have a life hahaha!!

The final batch of sheep in the footbath. We found foot rot running amuck in our flock in October and have been battling it ever since. We've vaccinated them against foot rot and given them foot baths about every week since bringing them inside. (We also foot bathed them for four weeks straight back in October.) Their hooves seem to be healthy and happy and maybe, juuust maybe, we've wone the foot rot war!!


I couldn't resist a photo of Magnus the ram. He's such a sook! And he's also a very good ram - most of the Wooly Ladies are having twins and three of them are having triplets! There are only two Wooly Ladies having singles!!! Goooooo MAGNUS!!

Our bonnie lass has been moved to a deeply bedded pen so she can rest and recover from that trapped nerve. She can move around enough to shift her position so she's not desparate! We bring her buckets of water and make sure her food is close enough for her to reach while lying down. She's a young coo - only 5 years old - so she *should* do well!

Moo!

Erlend decided to take one of the twin calves from another coo and have him be adopted by the coo that recently lost her own calf. This sound simple - but like usual, it turned into a rodeo!!


Erlend came bursting out of the side door of the byre being towed by a very wild calf! You wouldn't BELIEVE how strong these little buggers are! (Zeb is trying his best to herd the calf but he's far more Borzoi then Collie!!)


Hang in there Erlend! (Zeb get out of the way!!)


The Rodeo pauses for a moment of rest...


You can lead a calf to the udder but you can't make him drink.


Then again we have sooks! This little calf was hungry and obviously had no problem snatching a meal from a complete stranger!

Now calf and coo are bonding in another byre. The coo was calling for him today and getting mad at Zeb whenever he got near the calf - which are good signs!

So...Erlend slaves away all day and half of the night on the farm - and then comes into the house and works hard at putting up wall-to-wall shelving in our middle bedroom!

This house is beautiful but very small. I'm used to big New England houses with big basements and sheds and walk-in attics so I've had to get really creative as I get moved into an Orcadian stone farmhouse!

We decided to convert our "boxroom" into a room full of shelving to help keep lots of my crafty, art and music stuff (as well as books!!) organized - and out of the way!!

Erlend The Mountain Goat perches on top of a pile of wood that is on top of a rickety old barn table - all while wearing slippers. I'm impressed!!


Hmmm...what's going on in there??


Tonight the Mountain Goat Theater will be featuring, "The Boxroom Ballet" brought to you by Erlend, Husband of Moo.