Protecting others by wearing a mask is a very Christian act
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
We eventually got the sheep sheared. Frustration with the weather again – did the weather really used to better in summer or is my memory playing tricks?
Didn’t we get long dry periods when sheep could get clipped and hay cut and baled?
Social distancing couldn’t always be maintained when working away in the shed but all the shearers and helpers were local so the Covid-19 risks were minimal.
Risks from getting knocked over by escaping sheep are always present!
Maps from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre show only one Covid-19 death in Sutherland in March, April and May; two in Caithness and four in Ross-shire so we have done a lot better than other areas.
However, we now have tourism opening up and visitors arriving.
Will that bring more cases along with the economic benefits?
We have decided to open the caravan site with reduced capacity and lots of notices and hand sanitiser, but not open up the holiday cottage to new bookings.
With caravans and motorhomes, the visitors are self-contained and we have limited contact whereas the cottage would require lots of surfaces to be cleaned between lets risking ourselves and the next guests.
Everyone will have to make up their own minds about the degree of risk that they think is acceptable.
I guess we will find out in a few weeks whether we have opened up too quickly or not.
The implications of the pandemic hang over the August lamb sales as well.
I will send off my forms for Lairg as normal but will wait for announcements with some trepidation.
We could hang on to the lambs to September but not much longer after that without running out of grass or having to buy in expensive feed.
And we are no further forward to knowing what will happen about Brexit after December.
We even have the UK trade minister saying that the UK will not be ready by the date we are due to leave.
The UK government says repeatedly that there will be no reduction in food and welfare standards but have refused to put that into legislation.
Do I trust them to keep their word?
The latest row is about who sets the standards when EU rules no longer apply.
No one disputes the need for a UK-wide framework for welfare regulations, labelling etc, but the Scottish Crofting Federation’s view has always been that the framework must be agreed among the four home nations.
It must not be imposed by the UK government against the wishes of the three devolved governments.
We now have a Trade and Agriculture Commission, which does include one representative of Scottish agriculture “to advise on trade policies to adopt to secure opportunities for UK farmers”.
There may well be public consultations as part of their deliberations which we could all contribute to.
However, will their advice be taken and will there be time to implement any policies by December?
But people will always need to buy food and will seek out local, high-quality, high-welfare produce so we will survive.
