How to get ready for bed

I start getting ready for bed by waking at 5.30am, pootling about the house doing this and that, then start the chores.

On a Sunday, the Other Half comes out about halfway through and does the pigs while I return inside to make the pancakes for breakfast, supervise one of the boys setting the table and try to persuade both of them to get changed out of their pyjamas before breakfast.

With breakfast out of the way, the next stage in getting ready for bed is to put on a load of washing, answer my overnight emails, further encourage the boys to get dressed and then to head outside again.

Spring sunset

As I was heading out to make sure the pigs were bedded down and lock the chickens up for the night, I saw the sunset was starting to look exceptional so I picked up the camera on my way. It was the right decision as this is what greeted me when I reached the pig huts.

And still more planting

We had a glorious spring day today, sunny but cool, so what better to do than start ploughing the first furrows for the potatoes. Of course, us being us, we only started the fun stuff after doing other jobs, like planting another 875 onion sets (825 sturon, 50 jetset). We’ve now planted 200 shallot sets, 1,150 onion sets, and a couple of dozen rows of seed onions (mainly spring onions and gourmet varieties, all in the vegetable patch). The shallots and onions in the field are in the first six, flat-topped, ridges. 

Not much today

I’ve covered this morning’s highlights—the nursery nature walk— in a comment elsewhere, while the afternoon was spent planting, fixing, repairing and entertaining.

I did try to write a post about why we bother doing what we do, in response to a few comments, but I’ve run out of puff tonight so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

If you’re missing the vicarious pleasure of looking in on a mad crofter’s life, take a look at Life at the End of the Road. Paul’s a grand bloke who lives on Raasay with his family and an assortment of freedom-loving pigs…