[speaker001:] Well there was men walking through the village erm to stop them for a rest. And he had this two bags of sugar you know one that was and he was gonna light his pipe and he threw us and he couldn't get off and it strangled him.
[speaker002:] Are there any other stories that you know about Stronsay?
[speaker001:] Well daddy's one day and he up this big flagstone and it was er topping off a grave and didn't ken what to do so he just put the flagstone back and kept on and the next time he went to he and he it up again and he took up the skull and. And he kept the backbone to it. One of to bring the backbone we've still got it. And I've got a photograph of the as well....
[speaker003:] Well er there was man walking for the south end of the island to the north end to kept something for his crops. So he was taking bucket to get it. And so he went the north end and got whatever it was he was wanting and on the way back he stopped at farm to watch. So watch them for a while and then he started dancing with them and he dance them all night and he just get in his hand. Then in the morning he thought he'd better be getting back home so he started home and when he got home he discovered it was the harvest time. And he started up in the spring and the bucket he'd been carrying had left a ridge in his hand. And me granny to help me and he was the land nobody could really find that if you came across it one nasty day well you're there and you're kind of stop there if the went away. And that's what I like....
[speaker004:] There was this story about er the wife that shared their milk with butter. So this other wife tell had to go and steal some milk for the witch's cow. And that night steals some milk and er sure enough it did come and then when the witch woken up in the morning and found out that somebody had been milking the cow she said er whoever stealing the milk will never work for six month. And er if that day that the wife. There's supposed to be a white horse that goes through the square at and er it er supposed to pay this horseman or something but I don't really ken much about it....
[speaker005:] This man came up to and he heard this chains. Every time he walked that's him come back again and every time he stopped it stopped and this happened a few times and he was very scared and he thought he had better go and see what the noise was and anything well it was just a pet sheep tangled up in its tether.
[speaker002:] And are there people in class four at Stronsay school who's been looking at some of the legends. Here's Gary. Which is the story that you've been hearing about?
[Gary:] Er it's called the cave. And it was an old woman was sitting knitting in when her wool went through a hole in the floor. It was supposed to have gone into a cave that goes right underneath the house...
[speaker002:] Well we've come along the island of Stronsay now and at er the post office called Samson's Lane and name which has always fascinated me really and er the sub-postmaster in charge here is Dennis. The post office itself here is called Samson's Lane, that must cause a lot of interest and people must be interested in getting a post mark from here.
[Dennis:] Yes we get quite a few inquiries from south and er from enthusiasts that want stamps franking with the Samson Lane stamp. And I suppose over the last twelve month we must have had as many as a dozen of such inquiries wanted their stamp franked.
[speaker002:] What about the name Samson's Lane what ascertain about its origins.
[Dennis:] It's always interested me the name you know. As far as I can understand Samson's Lane is from the school down to Samson's Farm and probably part of the road down to. But certainly not towards the the south end of the island. But er I can't say that I know anything more about it actually.
[speaker002:] So there's no clear indication that Samson [LAUGHTER] ever lived here in that case then []?
[Dennis:] [LAUGHTER] No. [] No far from it....
[speaker008:] Oh it's no been too bad at all I would say since the first of the new year it seems to be improved remarkably. It's been fairly blustery the odd day but there's frost and especially the snow that they've had down further south it seems to be helping us up here I would say and it's with the with the land work especially got the slurry and stuff of that kind.
[speaker002:] And what about the the size of the farm of the byre what's the acreage of it?
[speaker008:] Oh well er the size of the home place here about ninety three acre and then we've three of that well that place is for byre but that's about sixty acre, all added together.
[speaker002:] And on that then er how is the actual work of the farm broken up into acreages for silage or barley or whatever?
[speaker008:] Oh well we try and keep all the cows mid-fifties as far as the cows goes and we run them all home here. And then we've got the young cattle off to the two places on the other side of the island and then the third place at just last year. It's twenty two acre and we put all of that down to barley for er. And with the fifty five cows and then we buy in some cattle for byre. Usually we oh about mid-sixties or in that direction and er without it we wouldn't have done extra barley. Especially the winter time to finish them off. So it's split up more or less like that with a ninety three acre home producing the silage and keeping the cows and forty of the acre keeping the young cattle some hay off of that and then twenty two acre down to barley.
[speaker002:] Well we'll go inside the buildings now and have a look er at some of the cattle indoors here. [door opening]
[speaker008:] it holds forty four cows. It's two structure house twinned each side obviously in the centre feed passage and they and that's the wall. Head seems to work fairly well it's easily cleaned out easily fed and the cows come to calf we just put them in the pend and after that once they're a reasonable size we put them through into a byre and it easier to work the situation once the calves are a a fair size and pass the stage especially.
[speaker002:] Would you eventually be having a sloping floor building as well? There were concerns about er that type of building at one time but er d'ya think it is quite suitable for Orkney?
[speaker008:] I think it works fairly well enough. I can't say I would be just too excited about the prospects of calving goes be a bit kind of sliding each other young calf that's just newly born. Needless to say he might have a tendency to end up doing what he wouldn't want them doing amongst slurry and such like but. I think if you can calf them and then put them onto the floor I think when there are sides that they can feed for themselves more there would be nothing wrong with a floor byre at all really.
[speaker002:] Well looking at the individual breeds of animals that we've got here, tell us about the basic breed line that you you keep on the farm here.
[speaker008:] Well for most we try and work a Shorthorn for I think that the Shorthorn and the black bull is the true traditional cattle you know maybe and I don't believe for one minute that the the cattle would be any better if you had a lot of Limousins or something else. And I think that keeping the Orkney old fashioned cow is near to that than crossing with continental. Probably Simmental or Charolais I think that that's the secret to and cattle and our our broad that's marketable especially down [tape change]