#Laverockbank Cottage

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We had our first real frost of the season overnight. Here are some people enjoying the chilly morning.

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There have been calves up here with the cows all summer (like our friend Tinyhorns), but about 3 weeks ago I spotted a brand new, very small calf with its mama in the field down by the barn. Yesterday, as a special gift from the universe, Tiny Red and his mother were united with the other cows in the field right in front of our house. This morning, he was right outside our living room window, having arrived to send his greetings to @thejunesky.

Just so you appreciate how small he is, that black creature in the first photograph is another one of this year’s calves.

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The sunrise & misty haze were lovely this morning.

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house history

I found a book (Rev. Archibald Allan’s History of Channelkirk [1900]) about the immediate area around our house. It includes a whole chapter about Hartside (the current name of the farm that surrounds our house); this chapter includes a discussion about Over Hartside, which is (or was) the property on which our house is located. Allan suggests there has been some kind of house at Over Hartside since 1478 (“The year of Lord George's death brings also into view the Nether Hartside, which has continued down to our time; implying, of course, the existence of Over or Upper Hartside in 1478.”). When Allan was writing in 1900, the leasehold on this property had been held by one family since 1780.

But the really important thing here is that if Allan can be believed, I’m not the first person who’s found this house in a state. His description is as follows: “Above 70 score of sheep are under the care of two shepherds, who alone occupy Over Hartside. The land is deeply cut into by several ravines, and varies in elevation from 800 ft. to 1533 ft. above sea-level . . . Over Hartside bears many signs of having been a place of considerable size at one time. Traces of building extend all round the present cottages, and huge decaying tree-trunks give an air of past dignity long ago faded.”

Sadly, there are no pictures of the property as Allan found it. The tree trunks and traces of past buildings are long gone, although the air of faded dignity remains. I believe the house we live in now is the product of merging two shepherd’s cottages that were up here near the end of the 1800s.

This house was called Over Hartside until at least 1908. We’re thinking about changing the name back. What kind of hopped-up clown would strip almost 600 years of historical association off his house? Why would you do that? Especially when Hartside Farm and Nether Hartside both still bear those names?

[elephantbitterhead]

I guess this means it’s autumn?

Three (3!) mice had to be escorted out of the house this morning. I’m pretty sure that that when we dump them out the front door, they immediately run back to wherever they entered the house in the first place, laughing all the way. In fact, we may simply have removed one mouse three times.

More extreme measures are clearly needed. I really need to get the house renovations to a point that will permit us to stock it with feisty murder cats.  

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Leicester (long faces) and Beltex (squatty heads) rams hanging out down near the farm this morning. They’re looking pretty spiffy, dyed that tan color and all neatly clipped where their fleece grades into the shorter hair on their necks. I think this is because the Kelso ram sale just happened and they may have been there, but I have no idea & this could just be random ram glamour.

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Let us enjoy the adorability of Eyebrow and Tinyhorns, rather than dwelling on the destruction of the power-pole tether.

Eyebrow has the sweetest face. Look at that great hairdo and those floofy, poofy ears. Those little horns on the calf are as cute as they can be -- and look at his eyelashes! His kitty whiskers! His tiny teeth!

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Look at these handsome fellows.

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Rams down near the farm this afternoon: nos. 1-3 show Leicesters, no. 4 a gang of Blackface. All of them are naturally a kind of dirty, creamy white -- not that anyone would mistake the wild orange on the Blackface for their hatural color.

As I understand it, dyeing them up like this is a traditional thing related to showing and selling them. It used to be the case that this aberrant coloration  proved they’d been dipped (i.e., treated for a variety of parasites and/or diseases), but much of that is done with different treatments now and the dyeing is just a callback to days of yore. Sometimes the Blackfaces are dyed a beautiful dark brown, which I really like. I’m not sure what’s up with the ones in the 4th picture. They look like they’ve been in the Cheetos.

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It’s supposed to pour down rain while blowing a gale later, but right now it looks like I live in a butter commercial.

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Look who busted the tether to the power pole, just as predicted. Now they’re all sprawled sadly in the mud of the good old scratching hollow (now newly more spacious, sans tether) or staring disconsolately at the limp tether.

What a bunch of jerks. Adorable, but still giant, unintentionally destructive jerks. Jerks who do not care at all about maybe cutting off the power to my hermit hut & more importantly cutting off the hut’s precious, precious internet access. 

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There is some kind of conference/blockade happening at the end of the driveway this afternoon. I’m not sure what’s up, but the ladies were certainly interested in my company, especially once I knelt down on the ground.

The close-up lady in the last two pictures is the same person on the left in the first two pictures. She let me pat her snout ~two whole times~. I think we’re developing a special relationship because she’s always eating over our fence, and I’m always asking/telling her to cut it the hell out. I don’t mind as long as she sticks to grass, but she seems to be developing a taste for flowers.

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I spent this afternoon scything down the areas of tall grass in our back garden. I have to cut them down while they’re still at least somewhat alive, or else they spend the winter tying themselves into knots of dead grass that I have to laboriously pull out with a rake in the spring. I mean the various sections on the left only. The stuff on the right has not been touched by human implements for who knows how long. It’s layer-upon-layer deep in knots of dead grass. All those knots would be bad enough, but given the kind & amounts of trash I’ve found in other thickets on this property, I’m kind of afraid to get in there. Maybe next year.

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My wee nettle child has performed like a champion. That’s 8g of seed, probably somewhere between 200-300 seeds. Two years ago, this plant was a single less-than-thriving volunteer beside the coal bunkers; I managed to get 6 seeds from it. This year, I got one successful seedling from those seeds. That single plant was the source of all these seeds, most of which I harvested by hand with a very dainty pair of tweezers.

Next year, though -- next year via these seeds there will be an impenetrable forest of large-flowered hemp nettle thriving somewhere on this property. At that point, I think (read: hope) I can leave it alone to thrill the bees and maintain itself.

[elephantbitterhead]

this nonsense must cease

I just had to call Scottish Power to come out here & put some kind of cow discouraging device on our power poles and their tethers. We’re the terminal pole on our line, so there’s just a steel tether tying it to the ground. The cows are violently in love with scratching on that tether, so much so that the pole visibly sways to & fro, occasionally nipping our power out momentarily and filling me with (unreasonable, I hope) thoughts of it crashing down on our house.

We’ve already had to replace the tether once because the cows scratched through it. Apparently Scottish Power considers this an emergency, so there’s supposed to be someone out here tonight -- while it’s still light, I hope, for their sake. I’m curious to see what the cow discourager is. The cows are going to be super disappointed, but I feel they’ve brought this on themselves.

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I found a Silver Y moth while I was gathering knapweed seed this evening. It’s the first one I’ve seen up here. I hope its presence is evidence that my garden diversification plan is working.