What a day…

The plan for the day was to do five or six runs with the Land Rover bowser, providing enough water to fill all the water butts.

Instead, weather and the Wee ‘Un collaborated to reduce that to just one run.

First, all the chores were slowed down by a heavy frost overnight that saw temperatures drop to -8C. The result was frozen water troughs, rock hard ground and frozen locks, latches and hinges, while with the temperature remaining well below freezing all morning everything was refreezing almost as quickly as it was thawed.

A Country Life

I used to be a regular on the forums on the A Country Life website, but stopped posting after a long string of critical messages about what we’re doing here at Stonehead Croft.

A number of ACLers have asked why I won’t come back, so I thought I’d say why.

It’s like going to your favourite pub - there are dozens of regulars who you enjoy spending time with, swapping yarns with and generally being there for each other. But, when a small group decide to make life difficult, it spoils the whole feel of it and you stop going because it can never be the same again.

Out of water again

The cold weather has finally returned with temperatures dropping below zero overnight for the first time in weeks and the ground freezing solid. However, there’s still no sign of rain as we enjoy another morning of crisp, clear blue skies.

Without rain, the water butts have been steadily depleted as the water is used for the pigs and chickens and today the last one ran dry. There are a few dregs in most of the butts, but these are unuseable as they froze solid overnight.

In the past month, we have managed to harvest around 700 litres of water from our vast expanse of roof - an amount that lasts our remaining six pigs about a week. Of course, we still have the water Grampian Fire and Rescue Service delivered but if we start using that for the animals it will be used up fast.

Return of the jinx

Throughout the water crisis, the OH has been fortunate in that her employer has allowed her to the household washing at work.

Working with pigs and having two small boys means that we have to keep on top of the washing, although we certainly don’t do the laundry as often as many people do. The washing gets done when clothes are dirty, not simply because they’ve been worn.

But when the OH took the laundry in to work today, she discovered the Stonehead jinx had struck there as well.