Windy hill chickens - first flock(s) of my own

[CombNWattles]

At least one of the Hylines had also worked out there's a world on the other side of the fence, so I opened up the back gate for a bit this afternoon to let them all into the back strip of field.
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Dang it looks gorgeous there jealous

 

[kattabelly]

Dang it looks gorgeous there jealous

Winter's on the way, soon enough it'll more often look like this (only less green) when it's not too windy to even open your eyes.

 

[kattabelly]

Change of plans with the cockerels. I messaged the breeder about something else and he's happy to swap both my Barred Rock cockerels for a couple of pullets since he mostly hatched female chicks from that cock. He said I could have an unrelated cockerel too in the spring, though I'll probably ask if I can have a few hatching eggs instead if I decide to take him up on that.

 

[kattabelly]

That's both Sussex pullets laying now at just over 21 weeks old. Yellow Legs (egg on the right) laid her first double yolker yesterday too.

 

[Perris]

this makes where you live sound very enticing, even for those of us not hooked on Jimmy Perez stories
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/...-cleeves-scotland-orkney-shetland-jimmy-perez

 

[kattabelly]

this makes where you live sound very enticing, even for those of us not hooked on Jimmy Perez stories
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/...-cleeves-scotland-orkney-shetland-jimmy-perez

That's a nice article but I hate how everyone always bangs on about Brodgar and Stenness and Maeshowe. There's so much more here and standing stones are (imo) far less impressive than the brochs and other structures that are actually recognisable equivalents to things we build and use today. Rousay especially absolutely deserves being known as the "ancient Egypt of the north" - I was lucky enough to volunteer on the Swandro dig a few years back and visited this year just as they were frantically trying to finish uncovering some new finds on their last day of work. There's an Iron Age earth house that's open to the public maybe 100m down the road from the place I buy chicken feed, on the small industrial estate at the edge of town.

And for a storyteller I'm kind of surprised not to read any mention of language or oral tradition!

And "on Orkney mainland" is really jarring to read, to the extent it kinda ruined the rest of it. No one would say that.

 

[thistlewick]

The brochs aren't as accessible - the ones in Scotland are a teensy bit moreso.

But Brodgar, Stenness and Maeshowe are all a stones throw from the main town, easy to get to.

I personally loved Skara Brae -- when I visited someone lost a glove into one of the houses and had the complete gall to jump down into it and fuss around to get it. Pretty sure I was very 'colorful' at him.

 

[kattabelly]

The brochs aren't as accessible - the ones in Scotland are a teensy bit moreso.

But Brodgar, Stenness and Maeshowe are all a stones throw from the main town, easy to get to.

I know, local people aren't able to get to work or hospital appointments on time when the big cruise ships are in because the bus is packed with tourists doing the Maeshowe - Stenness - Brodgar - Skara Brae circuit.

I wouldn't say the broch at Gurness, for example, is all that unaccessible though - especially for the campervan lot or anyone who brings or hires a car. I think lots of people just aren't even aware of their existence.

 

[Perris]

I think lots of people just aren't even aware of their existence

guilty as charged

 

[kattabelly]

guilty as charged

I'll let you off seeing as, afaik, you aren't actually planning a visit Look at this, but!

That's the Midhowe broch in Rousay - on a clear day you can just about make out Gurness broch over the water, on the west mainland. You can walk around inside, through the actual same doorway that was being used in the Iron Age. You can see where the outer wall and the support for the first floor (second floor in US English iirc) were added at a later date, and the niches that were probably used for storage just outside, and the places they laid a stone upside-down so its narrow edge sticks out slightly further at the top than the bottom and it can be used as a hand or foot hold during building maintenance. Real people lived real lives here and it's such a shame that people writing travel articles completely ignore all that.