The first day at Castle Grant Home Farm the sun was shining brilliantly so I went for a walk. While walking down the road I saw a herd of cows coming toward me. "Well, Robert must be shifting the cows to another park." I thought. But, as I got closer I saw no Robert or Roddie, his farm hand. Yikes, these cows were shifting themselves to another park. Running back to the house I looked for Roddie or Robert but could find neither. By then there were cows in the yard of the house. Dear me, I know nothing about herding cows but bravely went out to shoo them out of the yard. Just as I got them back on the road thank goodness Roddie appeared and began to drive them back down the road. Robert in the quad soon joined him and the cows were returned to where they belonged.

I had agreed to watch Sarah and Jenny while Robert and Margaret went to a wedding reception. That afternoon as Margaret, the girls and I went to town we saw a cow looking for a hiding place to have a calf. Reporting this event to Robert he asked if the girls and I would go down and check the cow in the middle of the evening. If anything was happening we were to phone him on his mobile. That seemed simple enough so we agreed.

Later that evening the girls and I took the flashlight and started to walk to the field to check on the cow. A full moon had come out and we soon turned off the torch and walked just by the light of the moon. The trees were making long shadows in the silvery moonlight. It was a magical night until we got near the field where the cow was and saw she was in full labour with the calf half born. Oh, dear and we had forgotten to bring the mobile so we would have to go back to the house to call Robert.

Just as we were turning to hurry back to the house we saw headlights coming down the road. I hoped and prayed it would be Robert. And my prayers were answered as he got out of the truck to talk to us before he went to check the cow. After inspecting her he went back to the party. The calf was a big one and the cow might have difficulty so he decided to return later and check.

Thank goodness Robert did come back because the calf needed a hefty pull to enter the world. As much as I was enjoying being a moon light mid wife my skills were not up to birthing a calf.

My visit to Castle Grant Home Farm was great and I enjoyed every minute of it but it does seem my cow tending skills would be rated poor or maybe even hopeless.

Moonlight Midwife,

Sharma

I love to hear from you so contact me by email at sharma@eshanesslight.shetland.co.uk

You can find more articles in the archive under Island Miniatures/Lighthouse Letters.

I have two books which are directly related to this column. The Last Lighthouse tells how we bought our lighthouse and in Scottish Lighthouses our lighthouse is featured in the 31 lighthouses presented. You can order autographed copies by clicking on the name of the book.

Other books you might be interested in ordering and having me sign are my book for children, Moonbeam Cow, and "Scotland - The Complete Guide and Road Atlas", a beautiful book for which I did the text and "Irish Lighthouses" featuring 30 beautiful Irish lighthouse stations.