7/07/2012

Taking Home the Peats

Today's is another post with lots of photos - this time of taking home our first load of peats.



The peats on this bank had been gathered into little rùdhanan, making it a lot easier to fill the trailer.



As well as the peats going directly into the trailer, we also use plastic bags for the little bits of peat. These caoranan are normally bits that have broken off the peats: the 'blacker' the peat, the more brittle it is, and so we had a fair number of bags to fill as we went along.



The bank is being emptied of peat, and ...




... the trailer is filling.




Are you able to see what the Wee Guy is wearing. I did try and tell him that the Vikings are long gone, and the likelihood of us being attacked out the peats was next to zero.

He looked at me with that look that said, 'Mum, you keep living in your idyllic little world, but for us men, there are always battles to be fought.'



Others seem to have seen their fair share of battlefields.

Or peat bogs. Either way, he was disgustingly dirty.

But cute.



When the going gets tough ...


...erm... the wimps head into the trailer so those with any strength can lift the bags into the trailer.



And that's the trailer all ready for going home with our first load of peats.



I did suggest to the Builder that he ought to learn to drive the tractor by himself, but it seems he still needs a little help from the Viking.




Earlier today, the Builder had made up a pallet thingy in readiness for the peats. This will mean the peats wont be soaking in moisture from the ground.


Up ...

up...

...and away!


Today's final job was to stack the ...er, stack (the Gaelic word is stèidh, but I can't for the life of me think if there's an English translation).



All being well, we'll be able to bring the rest home in the next wee while. Meanwhile, we are thankful to see the beginning of our peat stack.

This is very early in the summer to be getting our peats home. It has been an unusually dry summer so far, and since we cut the peats, we've barely seen a drop of rain. This is all the more ironic given what the UK mainland have been going through over the past weeks with flooding in many areas.

Some other posts show more of life in the Peats.





Linking up with ...





11 comments:

  1. they will be used for burning for heat, correct?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, that's right! I may do a post soon on all the different stages to explain more fully. They are a wonderful fuel, and we hope to put a solid-fuel stove in our house soon, so this will keep us beautifully cozy over the winter :)
    Anne x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Definitely interesting to read!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I always enjoy your blog and love reading about your life there in Scotland! Thanks so much for stopping by My Southern Heart and sharing a comment with me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love reading about it and seeing all of the pictures. After reading about it for years and years in my books, it is so nice to see it for real. I would like to read about and see pictures about how it heats. Is it a smokey fire or does it burn clean, do you just heat with it or do you cook too. See other than what I have read here I just don't know. It is a very cool thing to read about. Just because I know my forefathers did that too. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love the aroma of burning turf, one that is so recognisable, very earthy and lovely. We burned it while we lived outside of Dublin.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Finlay - what a scruffy old trailer - and a bald tyre to boot!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. any chance of sending some peats to Tasmania?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sooooo do you have a 'peat farm'? I mean, can you just go anywhere and get peat???

    ReplyDelete
  10. I loved reading your post! So informational about something I know little about!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails