Farming in Fincastle

Last week I went up to Pitlochry to stay with some family friends for a few days. They love on a farm, so I helped out around the farm while I was there, which was really fun.


I went up Tuesday afternoon and got there just before dinner. We all hung out and ate dinner and then went to bed pretty early, which was much needed for the day to come.

I woke up early the next morning, ate breakfast with everyone, and then we headed out to work. In the morning our job was herding sheep. This was a first for me and it was surprisingly easy. We had to move all the sheep from the hill they were on to a place that had a bunch of pens set up. Sadly our job was to separate the mothers from their lambs.

We took a break for lunch and then headed back out. In the afternoon we collected fallen trees, cut them into shorter logs, split them, and stacked them. It was riveting work, clearly. All joking aside, it felt really good to have a day of hard work. I also felt like I was actually being helpful (until the stacks of firewood were taller than me and I was no longer helpful). 

We came in for dinner and actually decided to go to Blair Atholl before dinner. I didn't take any pictures, because I actually wasn't that impressed. It's a bit of an exaggeration to say that it's a castle. It's a grand house. That night they were also having some sort of exhibition that had to do with the horse races there that week. We, dressed in our work clothes, didn't feel like we particularly fit it, so we headed back.

We ate dinner and then watched the Great British Bake Off together. I hadn't seen the show before, but I am not completely converted. After Bake Off, we played some Boggle and went to bed.

The next day I got up ready to work, but everyone else was going to stack firewood. They didn't really need any more help, so I took a little hike instead. I also got to take one of the dogs with me (the other didn't seem remotely tempted by the opportunity to get some exercise). When I headed out, it wasn't particularly clear, but by the time I was out in the fields, I could see a lot more than I had seen up to that point.

My strategy for figuring out where I was going was to find the nearest high ground and then look from there at the next highest point until I had a pretty great view. I definitely crossed into someone else's land and hopped a fence or two (which is totally legal here, so it's fine). I eventually found a pretty stunning view. Unfortunately, the cloud cover was still pretty low and I couldn't see that far. A few of the peaks were stuck in the clouds. Nevertheless, it was a pretty stunning view. 

I came back and killed some time reading before everyone came back for lunch. After lunch, we went to the Queen's View. I was pleasantly surprised at how impressive the view was. You can see right down Loch Tummel to the mountains surrounding Glencoe. We're not sure exactly what peaks we were looking at, but it was certainly impressive. It also cleared up for us while we were there.

We decided to also explore Allean Forest, where there is a really old settlement that has been preserved or rebuilt, I'm not quite sure. While we were there, the weather was bizarrely beautiful. The bright blue sky gave the evergreens a whole different feel than the normal gloomy vibe.

We then headed back. The last adventure of the day was to take another little hike. This time we cheated a little bit. We took the truck most of the way there. We went to the "Top Loch," which is at on a ridge at the base of the highest point for awhile. We walked around there are it was absolutely stunning. The pictures I took on this hike still look surreal to me. I took all these pictures on my iPhone, and it really doesn't look like it. All the colors are so vivid and it looks magical. We got there during golden hour, which was just perfect.

While we were looking around, we also discovered this. A few of the neighbors' grandkids found a bunch of bones from the farm animals that died and made this. It's a bit morbid, but entertaining as well I guess. 

Back to the amazing views, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

That night we watched a film before bed. 

The next day we herded some more sheep before I left for my train at about noon. I said goodbye and picked up lunch in town for my journey home. Right as I was on the platform about to step on the train I realized I had forgotten my suitcase in the trunk of the car. I panicked. I didn't know whether it would be better to try to catch the next train or to try to get the suitcase later. I decided to get on the train and try to get the suitcase back later, because there wasn't anything in there I absolutely needed. 

I felt like such an idiot and pretty much beat myself up the whole way home. It turned out ok, because one of them was going to Stirling the next day, which is only an hour from Edinburgh. I got the suitcase and all it cost me was 4 pounds and a couple of hours on a bus. I'm very glad it worked out that easily. Hopefully I still learned my lesson.

Pretty much as soon as I got back, I jumped into Freshers Week. I was super busy and meeting lots of new people and then it happened. The thing I was absolutely trying to avoid - Freshers Flu. Well, I didn't really get Freshers Flu. Freshers Flu is more of a mixture of a bad cold and a series of hangovers. What I got was a full-on flu. Sore throat, fever, aches - everything. I stayed in bed for three days and am luckily feeling fine now.

That's pretty handy considering term starts tomorrow. I'm very excited to get back into a schedule and a rhythm again. I'm excited to start studying Chinese again and I've even decided to take on a new language. I've realized there's not much point in taking anything other than language classes, because that's what I'm best at and what I enjoy the most. I'm taking Swahili, which is exciting because this is the first year the University of Edinburgh is offering Swahili to undergraduates. 

I'm sure there will be another post soon. There are lots of adventures to be had this year. I still can't believe it's only been a year. Oh, yeah, and if you missed it, my last post was a reflection on my first year as a whole.