A look into the life of Crofters in the Highlands of Scotland.

This is an extract from a Crofter's blog which I came across after reading about a report into whether crofters can be considered the indigenous people of the Highlands and Islands and what benefits indigenous status would bring to the area (read more about this in my blog).

The following is an extract from Crofting Life a blog written by Anne, a Crofter:

View from our back door Creag Mhor Mountain in the Winter

When will it all end, the land cannot stand much more of this, it is like a giant sponge, because the ground is very peaty, you sink down to the top of your wellingtons.

There is nothing more infuriating that trying to pull your foot out of the ground and you end up leaving your wellington behind, it is so energy draining when you are trying to do something.

The Burns (Streams) have been flooded most of the time, there is so much water coming off the mountain behind they just cannot take the water away fast enough.

The cows have spent most of the time in this month because most of them have young calves, or are about to calve.
They are better off in the dry sheds and not standing out mooning about. (No Pun intended)
They managed to get into the Croft park twice this past fortnight and still to this day we do not know how they managed to get through a gate that is secured, we think someone opened it and let them into the park, unfortunatly for us, the hay shed was open, they managed to get in and totaly desimate the front rows of hay bales, twice.

The price of feed any kind of feed has gone through the roof this past few months, I do not know how other people are coping, the consentrates are almost £60.00 a tonne above what they were last year, fertilizer has gone up to £300.00 per tonne someone is making a lot of money out of the agricultural sector, and it sure isn't us.

We had lightning storms a couple of weeks ago during the night, they were right over the house, I have never heard anything as loud when it banged, the collie dog was so frightened he nearly burst the bedroom door down to get in, he jumped on the bed and dived in between my husband and I and could not be moved for anything, what's the old saying two's company three's a croud and it sure was crowded in there.

We spent most of last weekend cleaning out the calves shed, it is no fun when it is wet and windy, it had to be done by pitch fork and took a good half a day to do, I now have muscles on top of the muscles I did not know I had.

Bob the Seagull has been back a few times, he is looking rather thin, he comes back for a feed when nothing else is available, we have two resident Crows that do not miss anything, as soon as they see me throw something out for Bob they are on it like vultures and do not take one piece at a time they shove as much in their beaks as they can carry, one gathers the other chases Bob, I hate them they are just greedy theives, none of the other birds get anything when they are around.
The fat chaffinches seem to do well out of the cows left over seeds from the hay, they never complain. We have a Robin that sits on the windowsill outside the kitchen tapping to let you know he is there, if the back door is left open he sneaks into the back hall where the dry dog food is kept in a bin and steals some, thank god the crows have not figured that out yet, give them time I am sure it will not be long.
Anyway we have had 31 turbulant January days things can only get better.

To read more visit: http://croftinglife.blogspot.com/