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Rewilding the Devil’s Chimney
The Devils Chimney is on the Sligo Leitrim border. It’s the highest waterfall in Ireland, it carves a jumbled channel down through the rocks. It’s set into the sheer side of the Glencar Valley, hedged in close against Glencar Lough. The waterfall takes a solid vertical slice from the hill. It’s home to something beautiful […]
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The Half Wild Hill of Kilronan
It’s a place where the wild mountains tumble down to meet the close cropped green of the valley fields. Kilronan Mountain. We climb up the green road that grips the side of the hill, up through the lane of wild blueberry and gorse, past the just unbudding ash trees, their unfurling leaves shocking purple, up […]
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Long live the wildness…
We are working to make our farm something more wild. More wildflowers. More diversity. More alive above and below the ground. For lots of reasons. Because it’s more sustainable. Because it makes a kind of economic sense. Because it makes for better food. Because it makes for healthier, more fertile, and cleaner soil. And it […]
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Spring lambing, done and dusted
We are done with lambing this year. Months of preparation. Late and sleepless nights. Early mornings. Days of work that stretched to midnight and beyond. But we are done. Lambing is all over bar the bottle feeding. We are tired. Frazzled. Too much adrenaline. Too little caffeine. Long days and short sleeps. But we are […]
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The Beast From the East, Old Friends, and the Love of the Light
This is a post from February. It’s April now. Better late than never I guess. In February, the Beast From The East hit, bringing cold, snow, frozen water lines, hungry animals and hard work. It’s cold and clear and bright. Cold enough to make it weather to work in. The air crackles on my skin. […]
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Life and death and lambing
Life and death on the farm are in the details. The shape of a lamb. Remembering that the ewe that didn’t stand up last time is the same as the one still lying down this time. Is a lamb lukewarm or warm.In feeling which way the curve of it’s belly lies. Empty or full. In […]
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A thin, tattered scrap of a tiny lamb
There’s a glimmer of a thing beyond the brow of the hill. A thin little tattered scrap of a lamb just behind the arching profile of her mother, lambed in tight against the fence where the grey stone wall and the brambles back it. Shelter, shade, protection. I can see the mothers head dipping down […]
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Baling Twine and Hope
Small farms are held together with two things. Baling twine and hope. One, at least, is usually in plentiful supply. On a good day, you have both. I’m not going to complain in this post. Scratch that. I am. If baling twine and optimism are the bread an butter of farming, complaints are the marmalade. […]
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