september

i cant believe how the summer has flown by, we are now into winter, its cold, very wet and windy,the evenings are drawing in and its dark by 7.30pm.the animals are all tucked up nice and cosy in their houses all bedded down with straw.Last wednesday morning in the middle of gale force 10 winds and driving rain, the last one of our Little North ronaldsay sheep had a baby girl, she is black and the size of a kitten.Kath the lady who was staying in the cottage on holiday named her Molly.Molly and mum had to stay inside for a few days until the weather calmed down. Saturday morning they went out and are doing fine. Molly is growing really quickly. All the baby chicks and ducklings from the summer are all now fully grown and are now able to cope with the horrible weather.Erland our little foal is really big, he is a pest to his mum so spends most of his time with Puzzle and Diamond.Diamonds tummy is huge her baby is due in march next year.The ponies had their feet trimmed yesterday by the blacksmith, erland was very intreasted and watched what was happening.Bertie and Eddie the young shetland boys are becoming monkeys now, they like to help themselves to what ever is in your pockets, so i always have to have something tasty in them.Theres not much more news for now, but i will update my blog soon(i am going away next week on holiday to the sun in Tenerife for a week and am leaving my animals in the very capable hands of Tony and Tula who are comming to farm sit for me)i will think of you all while i am lying on my sun bed drinking pina coladas(makes achange from Highland Park Whisky)

shows

sorry, its been a few days since i updated everyone on the animals, we have been getting ready for the shows. 20 ducks were all bathed in shampoo and conditioned to make their feathers nice, then blow dried and kept clean ready for the South Ronaldsay and Burray show.Jedward chicken and mr Frizzle chicken were also bathed and blow dried ready for their big day. Bertie and Eddie the Shetland ponies, were shampooed and polished all ready for their big day. Wednesday morning, the show day, we were all up bright and early to get ready to load the animals. The ducks and chickens were no bother to catch and were penned ready to leave in the van. Bertie and Eddie decieded to be silly and would not let us catch them, so we had to leave for the show without them. Claire won champion waterfowl with her big drake, all the other ducks won lots of 1sts, 2nds and 3rds. Jedward chicken got 2nd and mr frizzle won 3rd place, Vinnie the puppy got 2nd in the gundog class and Brakken got 3rd.Dominmo the ferret won 1st prize in the pet show. County show day,5AM I was very clever!!! or so i thought!! i fed Eddie in the horsebox so he went in no bother, Bertie had other ideas and ran off taking his food bucket with him, no way would he be caught, so we had to leave for the show with just Eddie. Eddie won 1st place in the miniture shetland class, he was very well beahved and we are very proud of him, Vinnie the puppy won 2nd place in the dog show and jake came third, so it was a good day all round. Bertie was very happy to see Eddie when he came home.So thats the shows over for another year, all ducks and chickens have all been put back up to the pond, Bertie and Eddie have been turned out in a big field and me, im ready for a very large glass of wine.

chicks

This morning one of our chickens who has been missing for a month arrived home with 8 little fluffy chicks, mum chicken is very proud of herself.

swim

Frank Chalmers, the man who tried to swim accross the pentland firth 2 years ago, he left from the rocky shores of South Ronladsay and was to land on the rocky shores of the mainland of caithness, he swam for 7 hours and the at the last miniute the tide changed and took Frank further away from from the coast of scotland so he didnt quite make it as to qualify for the guiness book of records you had to go from shore line to shore line.Frank stayed with us for a month in our mobile home, with a camera crew filming his everey move. A dvd was produced about Franks trip called Crossing Hells Mouth, this is also to be shown on the 3rd August on TV on BBC4.Frank returned again last week to try the swim again, this time he was within 1 mile of the scottish mainland before the tides changed again and carried him further out to sea. Frank is going to try again 1 more time this week providing the weather and tides are good. You can see a clip of Frank on You Tube.or buy the DVD from Meerkat productions.

North Ronaldsay lamb

monday 19th july, today our little North Ronaldsay Tads had a little baby girl, called Maria, jasmine who was on holiday staying in the caravan named her.Maria is very small but very cute.

Animals

All the animals are doing very well, the bigger of the ducklings have now moved up to the big pond, to be with the adult ducks, they are enjoying swimming in the big ponds.
The ducklings in the shed have now moved to the paddock outside the cottage and are loving been spoilt with titbits by everyone that is staying in the cottage.

The sheep are waiting to be sheared, after all the rain we have to wait for their wool to dry, hopefully it will be soon as they are very warm.All the lambs are growing very fast and some of them are huge.

Eddie and Bertie the foals from last year are now in training for the shows, they have to learn to walk properly on a lead rope,get used to having their feet checked, and generally behave(which is difficult when you are just 1 year old)Claire and Grace are busy every night brushing the boys to get their coats looking nice.
The first show they will be going to is 11th august (Hope Show) and then on the 14th August is the big county show. Prince Erland (the foal) is getting very big, hes a real cheeky monkey.

Baby North Ronaldsay

28th june
today May our little North ronaldsay sheep had a little white baby girl called Bella, she is lovely.

This morning a duck that had gone missing arrived home with 12 baby ducklings, they are tiny but very cute.