Life of a Crofter: Growing Your Own (part 3)

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The third in a series of four lambing updates from our very own Donald Morrison, crofter and Changeworker in the village of Cross on Lewis. Donald’s updates started 15 March – see first and second posts – and end 30 April.

20 April 2012

Well, we’re three-quarters of the way through lambing and all has gone reasonably well. Casualties have so far been minimal.  I have lost two lambs, both Texel; the first was born with its rear legs first and had to be assisted. Unfortunately this lamb did not survive.

We have a system, which some of you might strange but I think actually fits in very well with the Changeworks ethos. Each morning, the local Gaelic radio station BBC Radio nan Gàidheal gives out details of crofters who are giving away new-born lambs. This can be for a variety of reasons: the ewe may not have milk for it or may even have died and it may be better for the lamb to be adopted. I lost this lamb in the late afternoon last Thursday but had heard on the morning radio of a crofter in a village some forty miles away who was offering two Blackface lambs.

For people in some areas of Lewis, lambing this year has been very difficult which has been attributed to contaminated silage. This is a very contentious topic currently because the finger is being pointed at the droppings of the wild goose population. Being at the very north-west point of the UK we tend to be the first landfall for many species of birds that have crossed from Greenland or Iceland.

So, having called the gentleman involved about the lamb, I set off with my son Alasdair to collect the lamb late on Thursday evening.  After arriving and having the obligatory (!) tea and scones we set off home with a small, slightly bemused but very lively lamb.

The successful adoption of a lamb to a ewe is based on convincing the ewe that this really is her lamb.  I first of all milked the ewe and fed the lamb from a bottle.  Once the milk passes through the lamb it begins to acquire the smell that the ewe is expecting. I then put the lamb in a pen in the barn and the ewe in the paddock outside so that she could hear the lamb crying.

Successful adoption

In the morning (be warned some of you may find this distressing), I skinned the dead lamb and put the skin onto the blackface lamb and then introduced the two together. The ewe’s initial reaction was to welcome the lamb but on a closer inspection by her she obviously had her doubts and would butt the lamb or kick it if it tried to suckle. Next step was to tie the ewe’s head tightly so that she had minimal movement and distract her, either with food or even just talking to her while the lamb tried to suckle.

This can be very time-consuming and I must have spent at least four or five hours on Friday in the pen with them. By Friday evening I felt confident enough to release the ewe permanently from the standing position she was in, lengthen the rope so that she could move easily but not so long that the lamb couldn’t get out of her reach in case of trouble overnight. 

On Saturday morning it was obvious that the adoption was going to be a success. The lamb was suckling with no objection and so the skin could come off. Last test was borrowing the neighbour’s collie and introducing him into the pen. The ewe immediately called the lamb to her and stamped her feet very aggressively at the dog – a sure sign she viewed the lamb as her own.  In this case it only took a couple of days but on occasions it can be a very long and time-consuming process, but ultimately very rewarding, not only for the crofter but also for both the ewe and lamb.   

The second lamb lost was the second of a set of twins which breached. By the time we got to her and got the lamb out it was dead.

I’ve heard some folk say that sheep are stupid, dumb animals but there is no doubt in my mind that the expressions of grief and sorrow they express if they lose a lamb are genuine. 

Fortunately, in this case, the ewe had a surviving lamb to occupy her. Last year, one of my older ewe’s lost a lamb at about three weeks old for no apparent reason – one minute it had been running about in front of our kitchen window and the next minute it had just lain down and died. That ewe would return to the spot the lamb died two or three times a day for the next couple of weeks and call for her lamb. It would drive us daft as her call was both very loud and, to my human ear, also possessed a certain amount of distress.

The different sizes and shapes and colours of the various breeds never cease to amaze me – they are after all just sheep.

Regards

Donald

In Donald’s final update: last arrivals, ‘Edinburgh curry effect’, a cure mix for bloat, the gender split and getting ready for market…

Life of a Crofter: Growing Your Own (part 2)

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The second in a series of four lambing updates from our very own Donald Morrison, crofter and Changeworker, in the village of Cross on Lewis. Donald’s updates began 15 March – see first post – and end 30 April.

2 April 2012

First Blackface lamb

Well. I’m able to show off some of my produce which is a bit of surprise. A reminder that nature has a mind of its own, here I was expecting my first lambs towards the end of this week when last Thursday a single Blackface lamb appeared (1), very healthy and now desperate for pals to gambol about with.

This was quickly followed by a set of slightly premature Texel lambs (2) – their mother had not looked well last week and so I had taken her into the barn where she lambed on Friday. I kept them inside until this morning.

The Texel twins

You can see from the photos that they were not too impressed with a damp Lewis morning.

After a quiet weekend a pair of Blackface twins appeared at the back of 6am this morning. They were about an hour old when I took their photo (3).

It should get a bit busier as the week progresses and the next two weeks should see a steady stream. I’ll keep you updated.

Hour-old Blackface twins

Regards

Donald

In Donald’s next update: three-quarters of the way through lambing and local radio lamb giveaways

Life of a Crofter: Growing Your Own

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This is the first in a series of lambing updates from our very own Donald Morrison, crofter and Changeworker, on Lewis. Donald’s updates start 15 March and end 30 April and will be featured over the next few weeks.

15 March 2012

View from the back of Donald’s house, looking westwards to the Atlantic.

I live in the village of Cross on Lewis. Cross is in the district of Ness, the most north-westerly part of Lewis. It is renowned for the Guga – a local delicacy – salt baby gannet which is harvested every August from the island of Sulisgeir and highly sought after by Nessmen the world over.

I work at Changeworks and my role is that of Western Isles Outreach Officer with the advice centre in the Highlands and Islands. My area covers the Butt of Lewis all the way to Barra and I advise householders and businesses on energy efficiency and what renewable energy technology might be best suited to their property. I am also involved in the promotion of, to name a few things, the local authority’s free insulation scheme, the Energy Assistance Package and Fuel Efficient Driver training, both solely and in partnership with local organisations.

I am probably slightly different from most other Changeworkers, in that as a crofter in the Western Isles my main area of interest is in rearing my own sheep.

I currently run two small flocks. One of Texels (a breed originally from Belgium) and another of Scottish Blackfaces on my 9 acre croft and I also sublet another two crofts totalling another 9 acres.

I used three rams last autumn. One borrowed Blackface, a very bad tempered Texel and a Suffolk-Texel cross tup all of which has left me with 37 ewes expecting 14 sets of twins and 23 singles (talk about one born every minute!).

The rams were let loose on bonfire night (no pun intended) and so my first lambs are due on Friday 6 April. I have two and a half weeks annual leave booked from Monday 9 April and hopefully most will have lambed during that period. My dutiful wife Jean has agreed to take the last week in April off just to make sure any stragglers are covered.

Sheep usually have between two or three 21-day cycles when they come into season and by putting a harness on the ram with a coloured crayon you can tell by the mark left behind on the ewe if she has been covered. By changing the colour of the crayon every 21 days you can tell which ones might be late lambing. I have four ewes with green bottoms and the rest with red so that would indicate that four will lamb in the second three-week period.

I’ll post more news and photies along the way during my time off. Hopefully any non-meat eaters among you won’t be offended: my sheep are very well looked after, have plenty of space to roam, are currently fed on a diet of premium ewe nuts, hay and nutritional supplements to ensure that both mother and lamb are well fed and are costing me an absolute fortune.

Although the ultimate aim of my croft is to produce quality lamb for the meat market and for the home freezer, I am very fond of my charges especially the older ewes all of whom tend to have different personalities. Some will come up to you and try to go through your pockets looking for some tit bits (the end of loaves and raw potato or turnip peelings being the favourites), whilst others will avoid coming anywhere near you.

I also have three blackface ‘pets’, a blind four-year-old wedder (castrated male) called Calum; a really old wedder with arthritis called Seamus and an elderly ewe called Suzie. I inherited all of them from an elderly lady who I used to help that lived in our village. She was very unconventional and made me promise to look after her pets if anything happened to her. Sadly she was killed in a road accident two years ago and so I have a very expensive promise to fulfil. The two older beasts are now approaching the stage where it may be considered cruel to keep them due to their infirmity but without them the blind one would be lost and so I have a quandary as to what is best to do.

Any suggestions that might ease my conscience would be gratefully appreciated.

I usually grow my own potatoes and some veg but this year hope to build a new barn on the site where my veg patch is, so might give the veg a miss this year.

That’s my lambing story so far, hopefully of interest to some. I’ll keep you updated. It will be a bit early to bring along a couple of pounds of chops and a leg of gigot to my next catch up with colleagues but a show of photies might suffice.

Regards

Donald

In Donald’s next update: showing off some of the early ‘produce’!

Changeworks’ Solid Wall Insulation Conference: Some Reflections

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Discussing the merits or otherwise of solid walls could be right up there with watching paint dry, or maybe not?  I attended Changeworks’ recent Solid Wall conference exploring the barriers to insulating a solid masonry walls to find out. 

The Battenberg effect

With almost 200 others attending I wasn’t the only person with an unhealthy interest in the future of old masonry.  Aside from Pink Floyd concerts circa 1979 and certain events inBerlinin 1989 walls don’t usually spark great public interest.  Would Edinburgh 2012 go down in history as the start of a revolution challenging the orthodoxy that ‘old house’ means ‘cold house’?

Nick Heath of Changeworks kicked things of by spraying graffiti over a rather nice sandstone wall, outlining the issues and challenges that Scotland’s older walls face.  Luckily for Nick this was a virtual wall on PowerPoint because next up was Historic Scotland’s Roger Curtis, solid wall enthusiast extraordinaire. 

Roger explained the dynamic nature of older walls as they adjust to changes in temperature and humidity (presentations available to download).  They are also much more energy efficient than the estimated U value that software programmes indicate, an idea expanded on by Dr Caroline Rye from The Society of the Protection of Ancient Buildings.  But they still have problems, not least the ravages of Scotland’s climate, compounded in many cases by poor maintenance.  As Joseph Little from Building Life Consultancy explained, damp walls suck (or have a high ‘A value’ to the technically minded) and impairing this movement of moisture can dramatically reduce thermal performance.  

So, lesson one: look after your walls and they will look after you.

What became clear is that there many types of solid wall and we only understand some of them.  Whilst many solutions exist, these need to consider both the type of wall and occupants’ needs.  Chris Thomson from Castle Rock Edinvar outlined an innovative approach involving replacing historic windows and insulating the remaining area with blown beads. The new windows got most of the credit from a delighted tenant, who benefited from a solution that, whilst expensive, was non-disruptive.

Lesson two: thermal comfort is as important as climate change targets. Furthermore, we shouldn’t be looking at walls in isolation.

We had presentations from Kingspan Insulation and the Solid Wall Insulation agency, but it became clear that this technology is still developing. The key is picking the right solution for the right wall. This was explained by Wilson Shaw of BCA insulation who noted that although slim line space age materials (for example Spacetherm) perform well, they are expensive. Furthermore they are only as good as the specification and installation.  In this respect, several concerns were raised about the objectivity and qualifications of Green Deal assessors.   

Solid wall insulation seems much more developed and ready for wider roll-out. But for blocks you need everyone on board to avoid the dreaded ‘Battenberg effect’ (see pic, now the cake makes sense!) One way off getting round this problem is through cheap or free insulation.  Russell Ogg from Energy With Ltd has started a company which aims to get utilities to pay for this.  Despite mastering the fiendishly complex Community Energy Support Programme (CESP) Russell was unable to explain how this would work as part of the Green Deal because DECC had yet to explain the ‘rules of the game’.  

Lesson three: given this uncertainty there won’t be an October revolution in the solid wall market.

Perhaps a short delay isn’t a bad thing, given the uncertainty the conference unearthed and the need for the more holistic approach which Chris Morgan of Locate Architects outlined. 

Lesson four: more research is needed, as is training for advisors, because caution is needed when messing with old masonry in a damp climate. 

Lesson five: Better that the ‘Green Deal’ is a damp squib at first than the harbinger of thousands of damp walls acrossScotland.  Like the old walls themselves we need solid dependable solutions that will stand the test of time.

Where you at the conference? Are you in the sector? What’s your view? I’d like to hear.

- Stuart

Downloads from the Solid Wall Insulation conference are available.

 

Earth Hour 2012: What was the point of that?

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 Earth Hour 2012 took place 8.30pm on Saturday 31 March. Did you notice?

Dome illuminations Earth Hour Edinburgh 2012

WWF’s Earth Hour is a simple idea that’s quickly turned into a global phenomenon. Hundreds of millions of people turning off their lights for one hour, on the same night, all across the planet. It’s about appreciating the brilliant world we all share – and how we need to protect it. Not just for an hour a year, but every day.

This year, a record 150 countries and territories and 6,602 towns and cities switched off their lights on Saturday night, for the biggest call to action for the protection of the planet.

In Edinburgh, lights at the Parliament, the National Galleries, and the castle were turned off and candles on the esplanade spelled out Climate Action Now.

Midlothian Council turned off the lights in the clock tower at Midlothian House and Fife Council turned off the lights in many of their offices. Many hotels promoted candlelight dining, and one took advantage by serving flaming cocktails (note to self for next year…)

So where were you?

Me, I was on George Street in Edinburgh, where it was Saturday night-as-usual. Nipping into the Dome for a glamorous non-flaming cocktail revealed that all the period-feature candelabras were fully fired-up and folk had other things on their mind. Being out in a public space at least meant the lights were off at home. Kind of like the principle of the public bath house – one busy communal space using a lot of energy actually has the net effect of reducing energy used. Or it would, if the Dome were all LED. Maybe it is?

A quick round of the office on Monday morning: Laura was at home, with the lights off, using her laptop (unplugged!) to check out all the Earth Hours around the world. Is this cheating? Discuss.

Nikki was in the Living Room, where Earth Hour was not observed, the staff being more concerned to prevent the use of ‘funny’-shaped straws.

Andrew couldn’t quite remember – he was either washing the dishes or watching telly. ‘What’s Earth Hour?’ he asks, innocently. If he had remembered, he wouldn’t have done it. He gives a typically logical and well-reasoned excuse:  An excess of power (not being used) is bad for the grid and bad for the distribution system. Coal and nuclear stations can’t be shut down temporarily, which means the extra energy in the grid is all bottled up. To be any good, Earth Hour would need to be Earth Week, and we’d all have to take turns so we spread the demand more evenly.

Roddy confessed, ‘It kinda passed me by. I’d heard some stuff about it, but by the time it happened, I’d forgotten all about it’. Which brings me to my overall take on the situation – we feel like it passed us by. And we’re environmentalists.

But perhaps that’s why. The point of Earth Hour is to raise the issue of energy use, to get people thinking, talking, and tweeting about it, and taking one small action. Government, local authority, business, community, householder, child: anyone can choose to turn off the lights they have control over, and make a statement about how much more we could all do. It’s like the trailer for the movie of dedicated climate action. Maybe it doesn’t appeal to those who’ve seen the film, bought the t-shirt, but it’s important that we support it, because everyone needs a starting point. That’s the point.

Final word to WWF: ‘P.S. There’s loads you can do to look after our planet all year round. Take action beyond the hour by getting involved in our campaigns – from helping us defeat the proposal for a new coal-fired power station in Scotland to signing our petition calling on the EU to end overfishing and protect our seas.’

- Sitar

Toward 2050 Targets: Tackling Tenements

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Can tenements be made energy efficient?

In the last of three meetings organised by the Edinburgh Community Energy Co-operative, the answer to this question seems to have been:

“Yes, but…”

Following a successful campaign to promote insulation schemes in the city, guest blogger, Peter Roche of the Edinburgh Community Energy Co-op, takes us through the world of energy efficiency in Edinburgh tenements.

So, why the but?

Well, under the auspices of its Climate Challenge Funded Leith Community Energy and Renewables Project, the conference organisers engaged a group of speakers focused on practical action that can be taken to improve the efficiency of tenement flats. As with any practical solution there is always a cost attached. In the case of energy efficiency this is not just financial but also requires a great deal of effort to give tenement dwellers the necessary information.

Why is this so essential though?

Buildings are responsible for about 40% of greenhouse gas emissions; and heating is responsible for half of that. Most buildings we will be living in 2050 have already been built. 45% of all housing in Edinburgh is made up of tenements, so if we are going to meet the Scottish Government’s commitment to reduce emissions by 80% by the time 2050 rolls around, substantial progress is going to have to be made improving insulation in tenements.

Okay, so where do I start?

In many cases Loft and Cavity Wall Insulation is currently free or very low cost in Edinburgh. We need to persuade as many people in tenements as possible to take advantage of free insulation this year.

Next year only loans will be available for loft insulation. It’s not all bad news though; the Westminster Government is planning to introduce a new loan scheme in the autumn called the Green Deal. These loans can be paid from savings made on energy bills, and the repayments are supposed to meet a ‘Golden Rule’ – energy savings should be more than the repayment costs, so households will always be better off. There will also be some subsidies through the Energy Company Obligation, paid for by the utilities.

That covers the financial situation, what about the information?

Well, opening the conference, Chas Booth went through the measures carried out in his Leith Colony Flat. This property had inadequate loft insulation, an old central heating system, old worn-out and draughty double-glazing and solid walls.

An efficient boiler was installed along with solar thermal panels on the roof; the aluminium double-glazing was replaced with double-glazed sash and case windows. Solid wall insulation was also installed.

Where there was plenty of space the solid wall insulation was added on top of existing plaster, where space was limited, the lathe and plaster was taken away and insulation added between batons and overlaid with a thin layer of insulated plaster board. The total cost of the work was just over £22,000, including just over £5,000 on the solar panel and £6,000 on the solid wall insulation. A mixture of loans and grants helped with the cost. Energy use declined by just under 50% as a result saving about £300 per year on bills.

Alistair Cant, Director of Lister Housing Co-operative, which owns 185 tenement flats around Lauriston Place, explained what Lister has been doing to improve efficiency. The buildings are in the Old Town Conservation Area, and World Heritage Site. So it was important to work in partnership with the Heritage agencies.

They wanted to do something that was fairly invisible and didn’t change the fundamental character of the properties. Topping up loft insulation and replacing old boilers was important, as was draught-proofing windows and refurbishing shutters along with some secondary glazing.  Using thick curtains and shutters on draught-proofed windows reduces heat loss almost as much as secondary glazing. Insulating solid concrete floors in basements was one of the more innovative measures. These tenements have an M-shaped roof, so in the middle there is a south or south west facing slope. Solar thermal panels were installed in the hidden inner slope.

Stuart Hay of Changeworks presented the results of efficiency projects in tenements. Lofts are the most important thing to insulate first. In the Tollcross area, 10,500 properties were targeted, but the half year-long project only insulated 266 lofts and topped-up insulation in 349 lofts illustrating how difficult it is to even give away insulation for this type of property.

Two projects in Balfour Street and Prince Regent Street looked at the costs of boiler upgrades, fabric upgrades, including floor and wall insulation, and microgeneration. The costs varied between £11,000 and £17,000 depending on the position of the flat (microgeneration included for top-floor flats). Carrying out this work would create savings on the average £1,000 per year energy bill of around £200-300 per year.

Changeworks’ research showed that a loan for this type of property couldn’t be paid back just from the money saved on energy, so the Government is going to have to provide some grants.

Wilson Shaw looked at the options for insulating tenement flats. These include internal solid wall insulation, loft insulation for top flats, floor insulation for ground floor flats, secondary glazing, draught-proofing and flat roof insulation. He described various types of solid wall insulation and how it would be fixed to the existing wall. The average cost for insulating stone walls with hard plaster is between £75-85 per m2. Insulating walls with lathe and plaster can be more expensive depending on how it’s done. Stripping back the lathe and plaster can save a small amount of space, but it is expensive and doesn’t achieve such a good improvement in heat loss.

The meeting also heard a round-up of projects across Edinburgh from Balerno to Portobello from Sitar Ramsay, Community Engagement Officer with the Energy Saving Scotland advice centre South East, and Kim Harding from Spokes gave details of bicycle storage options in tenements and a pilot project the Council is about to launch.

Where next?

Clearly, the immediate priority is to make sure as many Leithers as possible take advantage of free insulation while it’s available. When the Green Deal is introduced later this year we will need a few examples of some of the other measures such as solid wall insulation to tell people about along with details about how the finances work and the savings that can be made. Tenements can be made energy efficient, but carrying out the work is going to be costly. We need to make sure tenement dwellers have the information they need to make the most of grants and finance schemes available so that we can maximise carbon savings in areas like Leith.

For more information and to view presentations you can visit the Energy Co-op site.

- Pete

Are you on the fast track to Zero Waste?

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Changeworks Recycling excels at helping businesses to get serious about reducing their waste, cutting their costs and complying with Zero Waste legislation.

We asked Angela Dolan, our very own business recycling expert, to explain the landscape that Zero Waste solutions function in…

When spending time with people of a lesser environmentally-conscious disposition, it pains me to admit I normally shy away from eulogising about being canny when it comes to waste and recycling.  Why?  Let’s face it, nobody wants to be on the receiving end of those rolling eyes or that glazed gaze of boredom.

And so this poses the question – does it really matter if we chuck all our rubbish in the bin, sending it off to some Landfill-land far, far away?

Firstly, landfill sites don’t exist in some vacuous other-worldly place.  Chances are there’s a landfill site near your home or perhaps even the school that your kids go to.

Landfill sites are – at their worst – exuding unfriendly gases and ridden with rats.  If you’re loath to believe me, stop and check one out next time you’re passing.

Our man Fritz removes confidential recycling from the Scottish Parliament buildingThis alone is a strong case to minimise our waste sent to landfill.  But more than that, landfill capacity is neither limitless, nor are our natural resources.  But we’ve still got to live our lives, to go forth and multiply, to develop as society … right?

One of the things that’ll enable us to continue successfully evolving is to make best use of the resources we’ve got, for example, energy.  This can be through loads of specific activities but it all centres around one main concept – minimising waste.

Minimising waste is fundamental to the Scottish Government’s Zero Waste Plan which has set ambitious targets to secure Scotland’s future in becoming a Zero Waste nation come 2025.  Seems like a long way away?  Perhaps – but demands will be upon us before we know it and this is especially true for businesses who happen to produce 85% of our country’s waste*.  New laws and regulations will seriously alter the way Scottish businesses manage their waste and they are coming into effect next year.  For example, businesses producing or serving food will be required to remove it from their general waste stream for recycling so that heat and energy can be extracted.  Also businesses will be required to source-segregate recyclable materials like paper, cans, plastic, cardboard, glass and so on.

Of course there’s help and support to inform businesses about the changes to legislation.  For example, Zero Waste Scotland is hosting a series of workshops.  If you are a Small to Medium size Enterprise, you can book your place to their next workshop held on 21 March at the Apex International in Edinburgh.

Every business in Scotland should be asking the question, ‘what is my waste management provider doing right now to ensure I will comply with the upcoming legislation?’

And if you’re still left unsure whether your business is comfortably on the road to Zero Waste compliance, get in touch with the team at Changeworks Recycling today and find out how we can help.

- Angela

* Scottish business waste generated from the following industries:

43% from construction and demolition;

39% from commercial and industrial;

3% from agriculture and forestry.