June 2024

29th

After dwelling in my bungalow for twenty-four hours I was longing to go outside, Charlie calls this cabin fever. I've lived outdoors all my life, and travelling relaxes me so. We drove up to our grasskeep near Selkirk, and began shearing three sheep.

With a rattle of a plastic sheep feed bag it is easy to get most of the flock into the race. We keep sheep in the race that are not going to be sheared as this makes the other sheep less stressed. Sheep here are in good condition, and there is a beautiful view of the Eildon hills.

Sheep with mucky bums get wormed, others are wormed on this grass keep as two of our lambs died from lung fluke last year and our flock recently suffered tapeworm infection.

One side sheared.

This black sheep wool has become lighter with the sun, underneath her wool is grey. This fleece will make interesting twine when I begin spinning this year.

I usually take position as an assistant passing Charlie shears, wormer drench and fly spray, I also help him round up the sheep, open and close gates.

A lamb watches her penned mother ewe; these lambs are more reluctant to enter the pen than their mothers.

Sheared, I asked Charlie why he left the belly wool, he did not acknowledge the question. So of the lambs get weird about their mother ewes being sheared, sometimes they don't recognise them which can cause problems.

We walked to the sheep drinking trough, Charlie wash sheep shit off his hands and filled his water bottle up; I used to drink from the mains pipe, when I was rambling and camping.

Whilst Charlie was busy I walked around the grass keep perimeter, and found tow pieces of yard long plastic twice; why leave these in our field? this hawthorn hedging is strange.

Back at Woodburn farm a ewe was treated with an anti-inflammatory Metacam injection / antibiotic footspray. A wet, mild winter caused the flock problems on Woodburn paddock.

Charlie administers the subcutaneous injection into the neck behind the ewes ear; in a few hours I am happy to know she'll be feeling much better.

The cade lamb pictured below was born with a deficiency we cured with a series of selenium injections. Then a tapeworm infestation almost killed her, we returned her to bottled milk and changed our wormer, a month later she has overtaken other lambs.

This year we have let part of our kitchen garden go to seed, there are turnip and carrot flowers present on 5ft high stalks, the muck also breaking down into soil quiet rapidly.

Our beetroot and onions have grown, but our bean plant leaves have been eaten away. Potatoes are growing faster from seed this year than they did from old left over potatoes.

Late afternoon we done a welfare check on our flock in the Craik Forest and examined a nearby field we'll be using as grazing soon.

24th

Today I travelled to Jedburgh on the bus, the journey cost £5.20 return. I received my B12 injection at Jedburgh Medical Practice. Whilst waiting for the bus to Jedburgh I filmed birds entering in and out of the bus shelter were I was waiting, it almost felt as though they were attempting to frighten me away. Perhaps they were nesting, however this is a bus shelter, for a human that needed shade.

The lady clipping her huge hedge took ages to clip a few branches; I wondered how long the job would take to finish. The bus dropped me in Jedburgh minutes before my appointment. The receptionists were nice but one nurse was in a dark place as she slow walked past me, she looked at her wrist watch then shook the bracelet as if the watch were wet; anti-christ "enablers" used to do this with keys. Dystopic.

In the afternoon I took a ride to Nesbit via a footpath near Monteviot house, ancestral family home of a branch of Clan Kerr.

Me and Charlie walked on a parallel to footpath last night, on the other side of the River Teviot. Riding the mountain bike was proving much easier, and quicker than walking.

I realised that I had ridden onto private ground then searched for the right of way that had mistaken me; people have the right to privacy, whoever they are; that is a human right. This is written in Protocol 1, Article 1 of the UK Human Rights Act 1998.

Article 2: a right to life. Article 8: protects respect for private life, family life, home and correspondence. Article 14: Protection from discrimination of these rights and freedoms. It is written that EVERYBODY within the UK is protected by the Human Rights Act 1998. Anyway, five hundred yards South I returned onto the public right of way. The river looked bonnie, there was a crane, but alas, I did not bring by bridge camera today.

I don't know the name of these flowers but the scent was wonderfully sweet.

I found Monteviot suspension bridge.

Riding over the bridge was easy, however, stopping in the middle, placing me feet onto the wood, the bridge began to sway side to side. Settled my stomach and took two pictures.

East and West.

And along the riverside towards Nesbit.

There is not much to see in Nesbit, I was hot, slightly tired and thirsty, so returned to Ancrum, the cycle track was a leafy green.

The path became a road and returned me to the A68, I crossed and opened a gate to my right, and peddle down a narrow path northwards, turned left then right, over a bridge and I was back in Ancrum. This village became my home, and I'll fight anti-christ "enablers" alienating me into a state of pre-existance.

23rd

Today I completed putting up CCTV surveillance at my new bungalow; other neighbours have these also for their own reasons. My neighbour attached to me says she and her husband moved back to Scotland in the 70s appalled by CCTV in Blackburn, England. Its much, much worst now I told her!

I had planned to drill holes into the walls, but used an existing hole that was previously used for satellite cable to save damage to the building. I have one camera at the front of my house and one at the back, these fixed cameras only cover my property, nobody else's. I have erected cameras to counter visits from anti-christ "enablers".

Charlie returned during the evening, and to alleviate cabin fever he drove me to the River Teviot near Bonjedward. The walk was so peaceful and the river tranquil, I enjoyed wildflowers lining along the footpath.

Returning, once we became in sight of where we had parked out truck, car horns beeped then sped away; but our truck wasn't broken into. My tires on my mountain bike have been pumped to 50psi, my 18 stone is a lot of pang, pang weight!

22nd

Out for a ride around and about Ancrum on my bike!

Exercise deminishes the low feelings inflicted by poor mental health.

21st

It's been almost a fortnight since I moved to the Scottish Borders village of Ancrum; and found I very much like living here.

My bungalow was empty when I signed for my keys, I've already spent near to a thousand pounds on decoration. Yesterday my appliances were delivered and fitted, and I was glad to have received a new fridge, electric cooker and washing machine. I am looking forward to carpets being fitted, as the old floor board smell is dry and stale.

I turned on all the rings of the cooker to burn off a nasty chemical they use to preserve the cooker from rust. The fridge was switched on polystyrene and tape removed. However the washing machine began to spirt out dirty water during the programmes spin cycle; flooding the kitchen floor. Returning from work Charlie sussed the drain pipe had bent.

It's hard to fathom the shear and utter hell I've walked through to get here; in many ways this seems like a dream, that waking up is slowly being realised as a reality. Today I walked Sam through a wonderful woodland down by the River Ale. Its hard for me to write appreciation about where I live, because I know anti-christ "enablers" will decimate it.

I also purchased an ice lolly from the local shop, which is friendly, and not too expensive. Also I visited the fort. The walk around the north side of Ancrum, in places is as bonnie as the south of Ancrum, There are many areas I have not been, as Sam walk over bridge steps that mentally partition the area for him. Stomach twists knowing the churches enabling evil.

16th

Early morning Charlie drove to our grass keep near Selkirk, sheep here have had few if any problems this year; being mindful of lung fluke which killed two lambs at this grass keep last year. We have ewes, lambs and two tups penned at this grass keep; these are sheep Charlie does not want to sell, although we may sell store lambs (Wethers) in just a few months time.

This is how sheep see us, through 320 degree vision.

Whilst Charlie was tending to the flock I noticed some roses, smell of these pretty flowers is calming, remember the scent from rambling along the North East highland coast.

I'm going to plant these in my garden.

Healthy lambs, although it is not always so, but rarely heartbreaking.

We filled the truck with diesel at Selkirk, before returning to Roberton via Ashkirk. This is the best Borthwick Valley view of Woodburn.

Woodburn Farmhouse.

This valley has been a home to me for just over a year, people here are friendly.

Parkhill Farm.

We returned to Woodburn to find our Herdwick ewe and lamb had climbed over a stone wall and were grazing by the roadside. Her other lamb behind the wall was crying.

Charlie fed the sheep on our paddock, the lamb following him is recovering from being very poorly; were lucky to still have her with us.

A couple of more adventurous lambs are slightly lame from squeezing themselves underneath the paddock fence, we'll be happier when they grown some more!

After checking our flock within the Craik Forest we invited two friends to enjoy Cullen Skink soup with us back at the farmhouse.

11th

Took some time off decorating my bungalow to walk about and explore the surrounding area of my new village.

We drove and parked by the side of old Ancrum Church Yard, and followed Ale water by foot towards an old bridge.

We discover Comfrey growing everywhere, Charlie said this was often planted by gypsies.

Another view of the derelict barn.

I really love Ancrum and have settled here, don't think I'll be travelling vagrant again.

Ale water.

Driving away we noticed a signpost for the caves, with much to do we figured we'd visit these another day. However Charlie stopped so I could take a picture of an information board.

Bit disappointed with these pictures, the lens appears dirty top centre, even though I wiped both lenses, hope my phone isn't broken. Whilst up on Castle hill I took some zoom pictures with my 1200mm bridge camera.

Rubislaw from Castle Hill, Ancrum.

Such a strange hill, dominates this part of the Scottish Borders.

Rubislaw at full zoom.

The Waterloo Monument.

Saving for a Nikon P1000 is a low priority at the moment; to get clearer zoom pictures that is the upgrade from my present camera.

9th

We gained access to the Craik to do a welfare check on our sheep, there are seven of our flock grazing within the Craik Forest.

Our Craik friends kindly unlocked the forest gate and accompanied us in our truck. On arrival to the field none of our sheep were to be found. As Charlie searched thirty acres of rough grass land I drove the truck along the forest track to the length of the field, but the sheep were not found. I figured six eyes were better than two so returned to pick up Charlie and our friends. We drove uphill to attain a vantage point but gullies, trees, obscured our view.

The size of the Craik forest is one-hundred square miles, finding missing sheep here is a daunting task; our sheep were last seen twenty-four hours ago. Charlie scanned the dusty forest track for evidence of sheep poo whilst I scanned a steep incline below. He saw sheep poo everywhere, I was sure he was also tracking badger, deer, fox poo also but he swore this poop we were tracking was from sheep. We searched a two mile radius, driving for just over an hour. We had planned to move furniture from my old flat in Hawick to my new bungalow in Ancrum, and also make a steak and onion pie, none of this happened. After seeing the Forest Ranger, we searched some more before deciding to head back to Woodburn farm. As we were leaving the forest Charlie found the sheep. Lucky for us they were returning in direction of the their grazing.

The old Zwartble ewe was experiencing tiredness, clearly unable to keep up with the much younger mother ewes and lambs of this flock. This year this Zwartble ewe is going to cast, she is ten years old, and no longer able to lamb without potentially serious complications. We spent another hour securely penning the sheep into a paddock, the sheep are vigilant of goats who also graze the field. Usually one or two sheep go missing, not seven!

Leaving Woodburn Farmhouse my cade lamb came to see me for a pet on the nose; I feel for them, being motherless, and it's utterly vile seeing their mother ewes turn against them.

7th

Walking Sam in my new village of Ancrum.

Have to pinch myself to feel like I am here, settled, living in a house I can call home.

5th

Been painting our new home in Ancrum; Charlie has been helping me move some furniture from my old flat in Hawick.

I've have also been helped by a housing support worker from the council, she was there when I was vulnerable and isolated. It's taken a long time to raise my gaze and remove the pain from my eyes; healing my soul before I die. The photograph above has no filters, I am 18,286 days old.