Machinery

We were fortunate that there was in place an old sheep handling system used by Pat's father which we were able to make serviceable by renewing gates and rails. However, we were forced to buy cattle and sheep hurdles (gates) for handling livestock, weighing crates, a shedder, footbath, feed rings and haikes and a cattle crate.

For the tractor we have a general pupose tipping trailer and a bale trailer, a topper, a fertiliser spreader, a couple of mowers (of sorts), a transport box for goods and animals, a land leveller and various attachments for the loader. A heavy roller has recently joined the collection having been delivered in Spring 2006.

When he was living here, Iain attended night school at Inverness College and is now an accomplished weldor. Ably assisted by Neil, particularly with a practical input into design, he has fabricated many of our implements and accessories including the transport box, the land leveller and various attachments for the loader.

Buildings

The buildings were old, consisting of a barn, cattle fold and turnip shed; a silo; a shed for storing grain and for bruising it before feeding; and attached to that shed, one of the original croft sheds for housing animals (they shared a fireplace so it must at one stage have been a house and shed together); There were also two "nissen" sheds one of which was a workshop and the other providing more animal housing; and, another building extension used for animal housing.

Part of one of the nissen sheds blew down in a gale just before our arrival and the workshop had to make way for our extension to the house. A wood shed and dog kennel were replaced by new buildings in which there is a workshop/garage and a general purpose shed.

The electrics were old and had to be replaced which we did by re-routing the supply from the new extension. We also re-wired the old house when we discovered that electricians employed in the past to re-wire had only replaced the front covers with new cables joined on to the original wires.

In 2003/4, we put up a new livestock building, half of which houses the cattle in the winter and they come and go when they wish; the other half is for storing hay. In the spring time the storage section becomes a lambing shed and, later, it serves as a shearing and general penning area to guarantee that the sheep remain dry.