January/Am Faoilteach

(sometimes referred to as 'mios nam marbh' = the month of the dead)

According to the old calendar described above, the first day of the New Year was what we now know to be the 12th of January. Indeed, 'mios Faoileach' (literally in the 21st century meaning the thirty one days of January) signified in crofters' minds the spell from the 12th of January to the 12th of February.

January was often severe, and much of the work centred around the tending of sheep and cattle. The sheep - exclusively Blackface in these days - spent half of the year on the hill ground. Until the 1950s or 1960s, it was turf and drystone dykes which separated the inbye land from the common grazing. These dykes required regular maintenance and this work was done in winter and in early spring. The breeding ewes were kept inbye from the months of November until May, although the gates were left open to permit them access to the common grazing. The sheep would head out to the common grazing at night and come in to the croft in the morning. Wedders, hoggs and ewes without lambs had also been brought inbye in November, but these animals were returned to the hill six weeks earlier than the breeding ewes. Rams and hoggs were fed during the winter but the remainder were hardy enough to forage for themselves. Exceptions to this rule were during days of heavy snow.

Every crofter's stackyard (an iodhlann) contained an abundant supply of corn and hay to tide the household over during the winter and spring. The corn was so vital to life because the wellbeing of the cows was so important. And yet, seldom was a family in dire straits, so ingrained was the instinct of sharing in the community. That was an instinct that extended to all of one's worldly goods. People shared one another's private and domestic lives. Everyone was equal. There were no Joneses in those days, and communal work was the order of the day.

The short January days took on a familiar sequence. The cows would be fed perhaps four times a day, on part-corn and part-hay. Following their morning feed, they were permitted outdoors for watering. This gave you an opportunity to clean out the byre and gradually accumulate a pile of manure to use later in the spring for the planting of potatoes. Any manure left over was used for spreading on the grass to encourage the soil's fertility.

The task of taking home the peats was repeated perhaps daily in January. This involved considerable walking for some. If people had a slack day, they might use the opportunity to visit the peatbank several times in a day. The peat collection was usually but not always the work of the women, who knitted as they walked. At the beginning of the twentieth century, women might take home people's peats for a little payment. It is remembered that there was competition as to who carried home the heaviest loads.

Men and women were very creative, turning their hands to all kinds of chores. Everyday commodities were made using the natural resources of the immediate environment. Skills were passed down at the mother's knee and the father's elbow. Evening time offered a little light relief from the heavy chores. Women knitted by the paraffin lamps and the men mended boots, or they made lobster or peat creels in the barn. It was common too in the winter evenings for people to make their own ropes from grass or from fine heather (the latter were better - certain locations had more suitable heather than others).

HATCH'S GRANDFATHER AND THE ROPE

The 'sùgan' was the rope they used for the stackyards. The rope was very useful for securing the thatch to the houses and to the stacks. Indeed it is the only known purpose for this particular rope. The men whiled away their light evening chores with a smoke of the black tobacco. Sometimes the seamen had a more stylish smoke on the go.

During the short winter days and the long winter nights, people visited one another. It was considered nothing at all to walk significant distances to a céilidh, such was the quality of it. Most nights the céilidh house was packed to full capacity, and each township had its own house where stories and songs were enjoyed.