Jim McLure, Farm and Estate Maintenance

“Ne’er cast a clout till Mays out,” As they say. Or in other words don’t discard your winter clothing until then. It can also  mean until the Hawthorn tree has blossomed – also known as May.

Well I know it’s only April but the wet weather has been ridiculously bad and if we’ve to wait till the end of May for improvement not only will it be depressing I’ll need a new pair of wellies. It has impacted seriously, on all aspects of jobs on the Estate unless you work in an office or something similar.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a blog. Since then my main job, I’ve noticed, is bailing out the “Auld Boys” more and more as retirement approaches. Only Joking.

Actually I’ve got a big birthday this year so it looks I’ll reluctantly  be joining that exclusive club.

Other more important jobs that I’ve been involved with in the 12 months. We’ve built a new “Bridge over the River Dreel” to access fields with stock.

An “O.K. Corral”. at Stenton Farm, basically a strong, robust cattle handling system.

We’ve also started ” Dam Building” rather than Busting. Can you see a theme here?

As part of the Dreel Burn Project, to create wetland habitats and slow down the flow of the burn during high water events.

We’ve also had time to assist a neighbouring farm in improving their stock fencing and water supplies for cattle and sheep.

Regarding fencing at Balcaskie, since my last blog, every field on the Estate is now complete and secure for grazing. We just have to maintain it now and modernize areas especially North of Kellie Law. We have over 200,000 meters of fencing in total, to put this into context;

If it was a single fence it would stretch along the roads from the Estate Office at Easter Kellie Farm. All the to Edinburgh Castle and Back and then back again to the Queensferry crossing.

 

Other things going on; I recently helped acquire a caravan for the livestock crew to work and attend events such as the Highland show … or so they say.

We’ve also acquired a new pickup and top of the range post Chapper from Bryce for fencing.

More recently I’ve been assisting contractors as the Balcormo Farm development in different ways, putting in drainage and ducts.

Balcormo Farm will eventually be fully developed in the near future so that small businesses can facilitate new space to flourish.