Heather hides out in her 'happy place'
Heather has taken over the croft at Boblainy from her parents. The croft is a mixture of permanent pasture and grazed woodland and grows some turnips and vegetables. The main business is a breeding flock of Cheviots. Boblainy is also home to goats, hens, ducks, geese and some honey bees too. Here, Heather shares her Polycrub journey:
This [Boblainy Croft] is my happy place. I was born and raised here. Now several years later, married with four young children, having taken over from my parents, I feel duty bound to protect and nurture this piece of land, so it can continue to sustain us way into the future. However, with limited funds it looked impossible to move forward.
After months of questioning, querying and confusion, I applied for the Young Farmers Start Up Grant (YFSUG). The process had its ups and downs, but once I found the right advisor and submitted my application it was then a lengthy waiting game.
The YFSUG allowed me to purchase, adapt and build essential elements on the croft; from fencing and creating new paddocks, building a hay shed, to erecting our Polycrub.
Due to criteria from our local planning authority we had to change our original site location, and in-turn, our plans. Finally, at the end of May 2018, nearly a year after I first spoke to Maree in Shetland. I was able to order the Polycrub. We knew it would take a few weeks to make up and deliver, so this gave time for us (the family) to clear the site and level the ground for the polycrub arriving.
Levelling a site with just a spirit level and long straight boards was our only option. I’m pretty confident we won’t get called up for any civil engineering projects anytime soon!
We took delivery of the polycrub the day after the Black Isle Show in August 2018. The extremely hot, dry summer made digging holes murderous! The ground was so dry, and the clay was like concrete.
A small proportion of our croft is mixed woodland, but the rest is steep, stony and saturated…….well unless it’s a dry spell in which case it’s like rock!
We took the pipes to site via tractor and trailer………. easy? The worst bit was trying to get turned into gateways. I don’t think we envisaged how long the pipes actually were!
The [building] instructions were well laid out and gave us a very detailed step by step guide and once the posts were solid and the hoops fitted, we were feeling truly smug.
Putting on the sheeting was soon, not only going to wipe ‘smug’ off us pretty rapidly, it was also going to test our patience, diligence, perseverance not to mention our relationships with each other!!! Oh man! The sheeting really was the worst bit, I called Maree at Polycrub one Saturday morning; near to tears…
What are we doing wrong? Nothing…. Apparently, it’s not a job for those with a lacklustre approach! So, we picked up our wooden spatulas, credit cards and fish slices (these are the recommended tools). We lifted our slumped disheartened shoulders and marched ourselves back to our previously rejected roofing supplies and fought them!
The first few sheets were hell, to be honest. I considered giving up and calling Maree to send one of her nominated builders.
We tried to duct tape a couple, thinking that holding one side together would help. It didn’t. Then suddenly we worked out what to do, we could (with a whole heap of effort) actually join them up, just as the instructions had detailed.
By the time we were adding the last couple of sheets we were getting them on pretty quickly… someone remarked that it “would be easy to build a second polycrub now.” However. We will need new spatulas!
Finally, we closed off the gable ends and filled in the gaps with the insulation. We have bought timber and made raised beds. We bought in 6 tonnes of topsoil, which we have added to the raised beds. We have two large side beds for vegetables, and the centre bed is for our fruit trees.
So far, we have planted a dwarf cherry, apricot tree and pomegranate bush. We also have a grape vine which we moved from our greenhouse. I'm excited to see them take off once the ground and weather warm up.
We are recycling the packaging which protected the Polycrub on its journey to us; a piece of the orange coloured covering on top of a tattie box makes a great work bench.
We have cut down some old, bent Heras fence panels. These have been secured to the hoops of the polycrub, making an ideal frame for climbing fruit and veg.
There is still plenty to do, but we will get there before spring.
