crofter-amy

The space over the rayburn is filling up with died seaweed jostling for space among the reestit lamb and nappies. The bairns have seen me nibbling away at it enough to figure it must be ok and are now getting stuck in to

Find that a bit of a shock and think it may not actually be that acurate. But then with the cold and wind here it may be that a good layer of blubber is just the thing to keep you warm and on the ground

For a long time it's been MHO that further education should be free to the most gifted students wanting to persue a course in health care, sciences, engineering and other worthwhile things. Proper aprenticeships should be available for those compatible with a trade. And we should stop pushing degrees as suitable and desirable for all.

^^^ totaly agree. I've had some prety 'degrading' jobs but I've always given it my best and been thankful to have it to pay the bills. Degrading for me would be to be feckless.

When I first started out as a road user I got one bit of advice which served me well - Treat every other road user as a nutter out to kill you.

be it toddler, auld couple, bale spike, or cyclist - it is not thier responsibilty to be seen, it is your responsibility to see them, plain and simple.

This seems a bit off to me. Absolutely road users have a responsibility to be vigilant but I'm sure a cyclist also has a responsibility to make themselves seen.

Good un.

Must say I side with the cyclist. We all have the right to use the road.

I should also say that I think I mind it said in the highway code that if you are slowing down traffic you should pull over and let it past. If the cyclists would do that and wear enough high vis and lights it would do a lot to help their cause.

I think the city folk have a pretty hard time keeping up a healthy lifestyle but in Shetland it's not so bad.

Teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda dissolved in some water always works for me. Also find it can help clear out urinary infections.

Was down at the banks yesterday and gathered a little green seaweed which I ate right away, and some brown seaweed which I took home.

I should warn you that it is not a great idea to chuck it in the frying pan when you get home. It spat the oil and weed right back out surely ment to dry it out first or use a spatter gard

Dried the rest out in the bottom oven, chopped it up and sprinkled it over the dinner. Was alright but think I shall have to read that book before I have any hope of the bairns getting fully on board with this new food.

Thanks for the link loopslike, got my order in for a hamper

Legalising it and controlling it that way would help, as well as heavily taxing drink to reduce.

I don't follow your reasoning there Peat.

Alcohol is legal and controled but has become our biggest problem. Also if you make booze more expencive you are paving the way for blackmarket booze and all the problems that will bring.

Those plastic flip lids you get on big juice cartons. They don't pour worth monkey and often fall off before the carton is done

If the polygraph could only be used if they want to refute alligations. Let them pass a lie detector test and the victim aswell just to be sure, then folk should be able to shout it from the roof tops if they like.

Polygraphs, or "lie detectors", are very unreliable: there are peer-reviewed papers that suggest they don't detect lies better than chance, and it is generally accepted there are significant rates of error.

 

Speaking for myself, I'd rather not be wrongly identified as a sex offender by such a device.

Pitty that some one isn't reserching some more reliable lie detector then.

It does seem a petty that the beasts have the law stacked in their favour when it comes to publicly outing them. If the polygraph could only be used if they want to refute alligations. Let them pass a lie detector test and the victim aswell just to be sure, then folk should be able to shout it from the roof tops if they like.

Inspired by this thread I have got a book on the stuff. Handily called Seaweed by Valerie Gennari Cooksley. It covers health benifits, recipies, spa treatments and a field guide. Haven't had chance to do more than flick through it and get excited so far though.

Even if they don't get castrated perhaps sterilised should be considered...and then locked away for ever in an impenetrable community especially for their ilk.

Those that say harsh punishment wont work, can you tell me what kind of argument that is? The pansy punishments handed out now don't work you know. At least harsh punishment send the message that we are serious about this.

We had a shetland x friesian castrated male as our first beast and it did produce a good amount of beef but his temprement was not great an he could jump fences effortlessly. This is not something we are keen on repeating. That said any bull would get the cow back into calf and spare the life of both our female Shetlands. We would probably still sell the heifer at weaning and use the cash to buy the bull. He wouldn't need to be a prisewinner, just anything with sperm would do since he and his offspring would be destined for the table. Can anyone give me a clue as to the costs of such beasts and for that matter the value of a Shetland heifer weaner?

AI is not really a viable option.

One thing we are particularly keen on the Shetland is it's large pelvis and therefor easy birthing. In a place as isolated as this that's a huge advantage when a vet could be days away.

We had thought about getting the even smaller Dexters, as keeping a bull and two cows could supply us with a constant supply of beef and milk, hopefully without eating us out of house and home. Anyone know anything about Dexters?

We are pretty new to keeping kye and by accident and have found ourselves with a shetland cow who now has a pretty little heifer calf. Now it had been our intention just to fatten beef for our freezer so it kind of threw us when our heifer was found to be in calf this summer. Now we could just eat the pair of them but we are hearing that they are getting to be pretty rare so feel that maybe we shouldn't carve them up for beef.

Now we have also thought it might be possible to swap our calf for a bull and get our cow in calf again then we could eat the bull so we still get some beef next year. This idea also gives the cow a stay of exicution.

It might seem more sence to get rid of both and get another breed to eat but we like the easy going temprement of our Shetland. It had been our intention to start breeding kye in a couple of years when we were more used to working them but now we are thinking this is a fine opertunity we could make something of....but what to do?

Any suggestions and info welcome.

I do all the shoping online, apart from groceries, so I miss it for that and the weather forcasts. Other than that it's just a bit of amusement that could easily be replaced with some other activity. No facebooking for me either, just don't get it....

^^^ well said Bh

our fair society

Are you kidding me

Gostrider I don't think you'll ever find a beast who wont deny guilt and blame the victim.

Yes it is hard to prove that is why It only goes to court if there are corroborating 'witnesses' .

Yeah, well lets see how they feel about it after a beast has been at their bairns.

 

I think that's a crazy approach. The victims of crime should not dictate the punishment, especially because they'll be arguing from an emotional perspective, rather than a rational one. Someone kills my brother? I'll wish they were dead too - but that mentality brings us back to the dark ages. Punishment needs to be dictated by the rational masses, and we need to allow the victims and their families to grieve in peace.

Well I don't know you or your brother but if someone kills either of you I would certainly hope the full weight of the law would be brought to bear down on them.

My main point in this thread is perhaps not clear so let me try to spell it out more succinctly. The beasts get away with too much. Society lets them get away with there vile crimes with little more than a slap on the wrist. The punishment is not in any way ballanced with the crime. They often get away with it as the victim does not want to go through the turmoil and stigmatisation of fighting for justice when the beast even if proven guilty will likely as not only do a couple of years in jail then be out to do it again.

Bairns MUST be protected from this as it completly screws up there emotional developement and this affects them for the rest of their lives, which might not be so long as there is a higher than normal suicide rate among the victims. The beast wont just have one victim but many.

How can you rationaly justify only putting a beast in jail for a couple of years when they wreck many lives. The beast would be punished harsher if it had stolen a few grand.

The truth is we are living in an age which rates wealth over people....And I object strongly!