A Tribute to "Stuarty"

I hope you do not mind but before I add anything else to my blog today, I would like to pay tribute to one of our friends who died last Tuesday.
We only found out yesterday evening from another friend that "Stuarty" those of you who knew him will no who he is from Skye died last Tuesday.
I do not know the full details as to how he died.
Stuarty was one of the nicest quietest most modest people you would ever want to meet, he had a bit of mischief in him and at 60 years of age it seems a great waste.
I first met Stuarty in the Torlundy Auction Mart in Fort William about 8 years ago, after I bought a heifer through the ring that was Effie, she was the rowan heifer who I have mentioned a few times in my blog previously.
After I had bought her my husband and I went to see the previous owner who we found out was called Stuart Nicholson or "Stuarty" as he liked to be called, we give him a lucks penny, this is something most buyers do when they purchase a beast through the ring they give something back to the seller for luck, usually £5 or £10.00.
Anyway Stuarty did not want to take the lucks penny, but we told him we would be highly offended if he did not take it.
He told us about Effies history and her mother and he said he knew we would be good to her, which we have been even though she has been bad to us with her temperish ways we would not part with her.
Every time we seen Stuarty after that at the market he would make a bee line for us asking how his heifer was doing, I started taking photographs down to the mart for him to see her and also pictures of her off-spring, we would also let him know when any of her off-spring where at the sale, so he could go over to take a look at them.
He had a big soft heart and would shead a tear on the odd occasion when he looked at the photograph, saying I was a kind kind woman with a good heart.
I think Stuarty was of the same stature a good man gone for ever never to be replaced.
He loved his animals as we love ours with passion, and he was happy that his heifer went to a good home.
Stuarty also had a mischievous side to him and although he was not married liked the ladies, and was not adverse to tweaking my bottom as well as any other poor unsuspecting female that came within his sights.
We missed him at the last sale for what ever reason I do not know, I cannot remember even if he was there at all, but it would have been nice to spend the time catching up with him again.
We never know what is around the next corner for any of us, life is to short and sometimes very cruel, that is why there is no point in brooding over spilt milk, or holding grudges or arguing with one another, because you never know when you will get your calling.
I for one will miss Stuary as will many others who were his friends we will all miss the chatter and laughter we had with our great friend from Skye.
Stuarty I hope you are in heaven tonight watching over your friends and making new ones too, but please don't tweak the angels bums, and if you have to do it, do it with that mischievous look you have, they will laugh all night.

Rowan Skye for Effie

Well Effie did it again, she gave birth to a little heifer calf this time she was kept in a week before the birth.
We did not want to have the same shenanigans as we did the last time when she gave birth to Buster out on the common grazing's, that was an event that happened almost to the day last year under my posting "Wild West Hero".
We noticed that she was letting down at the weekend, that's when the bones start to loosen so the calf can get out, she was also putting an udder on, so in she went to the calving pen.
Effie is a cow that likes to think she is boss, she shakes her head and snorts at you when you go to fasten or unfasten her chain.
Her bark is much worse than her bite, unless like any of them they have a calf then the hormones kick in and they become unpredictable.
Even though you may have been around the same animals all their lives, they change when young are born, much like any mother they would die to protect their young.
Effie has always had character, when I first saw her she was 6 months old about 8 years ago, at the Torlundy auction mart, we were not supposed to be there that day as we were not selling, but my husband wanted to go and see what the prices were like.
Well Effie came running into the ring with fire and temper in her, there was not many people there that day it was rather quite for some reason, or most of the buyers had gone for tea.
My husband was sat at the front talking to a couple of friends & neighbours, like they do at these events, talk about the weather the price of feed and fertiliser you know that sort of thing.
I was sat at the back of the auction ring on the top row to get a good view of the cattle coming through and take a note of the prices for the weight and breed, this was to compare what we may or may not get at the next sale, more like a rough estimate really.
Anyway Effie came running in to the ring, a beautiful Rowan coloured calf with a cute face, she slammed on the anchors and looked around she started mooing loudly and running around, she stopped and stared up at me and started calling again, fate took a hand in Effie's future, I started to bid on her, we had no intentions of going to market to buy but I could not let her pass by, someone else started to bid, the price went up slowly, but I got her for £110.00 which was a bargain at that time.
The auctioneer asked who's name? I said my husbands name, my husband then swung around in mid conversation and looked at me as though to say you never did did you?
Well I did, she came from Skye, the man who owned her was and is the nicest person you could ever meet, he asks me about her every time we bump into one another at the sales or shows, I give him a progress report on her births and babies, he feels the same way we do he loves his animals and treats them like family.
Effie came home and grieved for her mum for nearly a week, nothing we could do appeased her, once she settled down she turned out to be a wonderful cow.
She nearly got her marching orders after last years near catastrophe, but we relented and let her have one more chance, as you do when you love someone or something.
Effie gave birth on Monday night, we went in to check her about 6:30pm she was pacing about, she does not like you watching her so we left her to it for a couple of hours.
We went back in about 8:00pm and there she was a beautiful Rowen coloured heifer the spitting image of Effie.
We did not stay long just enough time to check to make sure she and baby were fine, give her some extra nourishment and water as she gets agitated.
We left them to it...... in the morning Effie and calf were up and watching the door, calf had been fed and washed spic and spam by mum.
She might be crabbed and moody but she looks after her calves and makes an excellent job of them.
We decided to call the calf Skye, as her mum is from Skye, Skye's father is a Limousin Bull called Ronwick Iceman, the last calf Effie had was also from the same bull we called him Buster, he is near Elgin and has grown in to a wonderful beast, he is being finished off at the moment to go to market for food, that is the part I hate so much, letting them go for feed, but that is our way of life and the boy calves unless they are pedigree always go to market for meat after all the nation has to be fed.
I will post some pictures of Effie's Rowan Skye that is when I can get near her.
When I posted about Effie the last time and the tagging rules stating that you had to tag in 3 days of the calf being born, the rules have been relaxed a little as so many people were getting injured, now you are allowed 21 days if you have a cow that is wild, but you have to notify the authorities which cow is involved and so on, more paperwork!!!!
Anyway crabbed as she is we still love her, and I don't care what anyone says, she has been a good cow, pop's her calves out with no problem, fate took hold of our hands that day and put us all together, my husband always says "what's put out for you will not go by you", neither did Effie ;-)

Spring has Sprung

Well it's me again with more news from the Croft.
We have been ultra busy this month, so I have not had much time to sit down to the blog as much as I would like.
But I will update you all on the events of the past month.
We have had another three calves this month and another one still to arrive.
We have also had some lambs from the pet Cheviot's.
Where to start??
First as promised the pictures of the calves born in February in particular Effie's calf, remember the one that we could not get in and she attacked my husband.
We called him Buster in the end.
He pushes his way in and swaggers about like he owns the place, he will not hang out with the younger calves but he likes being around the larger calves, you know the type a bit like the small kid that wants to be a big kid and keeps getting pushed around but will not give in, he just keeps going back for more, well Buster is just like that.
His mother is a Short Horn Cross, Buster is a Limousin Cross his father is Ronwick Iceman, the is a beautiful rowan colour with a white blaze on his chest and forehead.

Buster, Boris & Penny

Boris is a white Charolais cross, his mother is called Diamond and she is a first time mother who is also a Charolais cross, his father is Simpsons Greg.

Penny is a Limousin cross, her mother is Diana a Shorthorn cross, Penny's father is Ronwick Iceman also.

We have had another two calves since they were born, one of which needed a helping hand or should I say three pairs of helping hands, she did not want to come out into the big wide world.

Her mother started in labour in the early evening, but in the early hours she was still trying to get the calf out I felt around inside to see if the calf was coming out the wrong way, but it appeared that she was so big that she was stuck at the elbows, we had to call the vet in to help out, as mother was to tied to push any more, so the vet arrived, we tied ropes to the ankles of the calf and gently eased her out into the world.

Mother and calf are doing fine, I will post some pictures of them as soon as I can.

As I said earlier we also have some lambs too, not any trouble with them they came into the world without any help at all, every one doing fine.

So far we have had all girl lambs smart cute as anything.

This is Sharon with her lambs, may they be the first of many and grow up to be strong & healthy.

"Oh what a beautiful morning" NOT

As the song says "Oh what a beautiful morning".
Well I can tell you it has been the most miserable year I have ever had the pleasure to live through so far in my life.
We have had nothing but rain, rain and more rain, when will it end.

We have had people staying in the Caravan this week they must be fed up too, what can you do you cannot change the weather for them I am sorry to say.

We had a cow abort a calf at 7 months last week, the Vet does not know why, I would like some answers but no-one can help it's just one of those things I keep getting told.
She has not been very well since, we keep dosing her with Penicillin but she is still not responding as quick as I would like.

God only knows if we will ever get another calf out of her as she is only a 6 years old Limousin cross out of Heartside Jacko.
I would not like to think that we will have to put her away to the burner because she cannot produce.
Maybe I will hunt out some of my old herbal remedies my dad used to use way back before some of the modern stuff came onto the market.

We live in hope.
We have a couple of others due anytime now, they are in the Byre pacing at the moment, I am taking no chances with these as one of the mothers is a first calfer and the other is a second calfer.
Once the calves are born we will leave them with mother in the Byre to bond for a week just to make sure everything is okay, we don't want a repeat of Effie do we?
Speaking of Effie we called her calf Buster and what a little scamp he is, he gets into everything, and chases the dogs around wanting to play, nothing like his mother at all in temperament anyway, but colours he is very like her.
So he will have some new playmates. let's hope they are boys, as we had 80% heifers last year and we cannot keep them all.
But I hate to see the heifers going to market as you know they could end up in the abattoir, it is different for the boys because you know that is expected of them.
As long as they have a good healthy start in life and are treated with great respect, love and compassion, I know we have done our best with them and they have not suffered in any way I think everything in life deserves at least that, especially when they are going to do man a great service at the end of their short lives.

All doing well

It was a week before Effie the cow came in of her own accord.
Or should I say because she was hungry, her belly got the better of her.
She brought the calf home too which was a miracle with the weather we have been having it was touch and go for him.
But he is a hardy wee crater as they say in the Highlands.
He has all the makings of a good show beast.
Anyway he is home dosed for pneumonia, Scours and so on plus he got both of his ears tagged a little later than the three days, but I think safety is better than getting killed.
So all are well fit and healthy, as for my husband a little sore but nothing that will not heal as they say.

We have had nothing but rain here for weeks on end it seems.
I have to start preparing the caravan for holiday lets soon, that is another job along with everything else we do, sometimes there seems to be no end, but I'm not complaining.
Let's hope the summer has some beautiful days to offer.
The wild birds have started to migrate in, our fields have been full of all sorts of things, we have even had Lap wings this year, the geese as usual have paid a visit and a few others I cannot identify at the moment.

The Deer have also been in the fields a few of the Stags are still fighting amongst themselves but no injuries to speak of.
God I cannot wait for the warm lazy days, the garden is starting to come to life with Snowdrops, Daffodils and Crocus's popping up every where.

I sat and watched the Buzzards on Sunday, they were screeching overhead and gliding on the wing, there used to be only one or two of them now it seem there are about eight all sharing the Mountain side, the Crows go in for the odd skirmish but usually come off second best.

Speaking of Crows I did not realise how intelligent they actually were until last year.
Our dog was out in the field with a bone, I could hear him barking for about 10 minutes, so I went to investigate, here he was fending off a cheeky Crow who was trying to pinch his bone, as I stood for a while I realised there was two of them one would distract the dog the other would sit on the fence waiting for the dog to leave the bone and chase the other Crow.
Eventually the dog left the bone long enough for the second Crow to steal the bone, away it flew on to the Telephone cables above, the dog barking frantically to get his bone back and jumping up and down.
The Crow dropped the bone be accident dog picked it up and high tailed it off across the field with Crows chasing after him.
Well the dog won in the end because he buried the bone in the field.

"Wild West Hero"?

Saturday 10th February 2007.
The day I nearly lost my husband.
We were missing a cow (Effie) from the herd she had been missing a couple of nights.
We believed she had gone away to calf, even though she was a little early.
We were not too worried as she could not go to far, the nights had been dry and not so cold even though it was a little windy.

We sorted out the rest of the cows and sent them out they decided not to go down onto the Mointeach Mhor on this occasion but down the old dirt track in the opposite direction from our missing cow.

We set off to find Effie and bring her home; we managed to find her way out in a hollow so she could not be spotted easily.
She had a Bull calf he is a beauty, his mother is what they call a Rowen cow Purple cream and rusty red coloured.
She is a Shorthorn Cross, Limousin breed, the calf on the other hand has flashes of White running over his rump, a white blaze on his forehead and white under belly, he is a rusty red colour with white markings running through his coat.
He is quiet a stocky solid beast, his father is Limousin.

Now usually when the cows have calves they come home a day or two after, we check them to make sure they are all right feed them and leave them to bond with their offspring.
But for some reason Effie has decided she is not going to come home or share her calf with anyone.
Usually they are all quite placid, handled since birth and good-natured.

I say usually, Effie decided to stand her ground; she had taken the calf to a small island which is circumferenced by a river that has snaked a path around the land over the years, except for a small entrance at one side. The calf was lying down at the back end of the island making it difficult to cross the river at any point.
So we had to go over the small inlet. Once over Effie seemed quite willing to move, we got to the inlet and she turned towards my husband and put her head down, we knew this was a bad sign and started to back off, best not to agitate her anymore than necessary, as the calf or ourselves could get hurt.

It was to late, she made a charge for my husband catching him full in the back and knocking him over, she turned quickly and put her head down again and charged into him as he lay curled up in a ball she butted him and pushed him along the ground, I in the meantime tried to fight her off, I never thought she would do any harm to me for some reason I never thought I was in danger??? I struck her on the nose with my stick really hard to distract her, she turned once more and stomped over my husband and ran off to the back of the island with the calf.

I helped my husband up who was as shocked as I was as this had never happened in all of the years we had both been around cattle.

Thankfully he was okay a few bumps and bruises but nothing life threatening, he had the good sense as he Say's to tuck up into a small ball so she did minimal damage.

Now we have decided to leave her until she comes home herself, usually when hungry.

Now I have to make a stab at the officialdom out there who tell us in the Beef industry that we have to tag all new born calves within three days or be penalised for not doing so, this entails clipping a tag with an identification number in each ear.
I would like to hope and pray that no-one would get hurt doing this, but I know this is not the case, I know of at least four friends that have been badly hurt trying to tag calves, as the mother has become over protective.
This unfortunately is a fact of life, any species be it man beast or insect would quite rightly protect their young from harm.

I would like to take some of these people who sit in their offices making up these rules; down to do a real days work with their hands instead of their idle brains an see if they could catch a calf and tag it without mother trying to kill them.

Sometimes I thing we as a country have become over protective, what happened to sensibility and common sense.