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The Shetland word 'Voar' refers to the season commonly known as Spring, the busiest time of year for the crofting community (March to May). As it remains today, one of the surest signs of voar was the burning of the heather, the white smoke scenting the air and the crescents of flame spreading stealthily against the wind. Heather burning was strictly controlled and an old Act of Parliament stated that the operation should be carried out before 11 April, by which date moorland birds were usually preparing to nest. By early April, Voar work was underway in earnest and the whole township showed signs of the new awakening. The hill dykes were carefully repaired, the grinds were hung and the livestock banished to the scattald where they would remain during the next six months. Only the milking cows were allowed to remain within the township but restricted by tethers to keep them off the fields. Most of the land was turned over by spade by men and women working in groups of three standing shoulder to shoulder, moving from left to right across the rig and working from the bottom towards the top. In this way after many years earth accumulated at the foot of the rig while the top became bare. However, from time to time earth would be carried to the top in kishies to even things out. They worked as a team digging over the earth in unison. The iron blades were placed about a foot from the edge of the unturned portion of the rig, then each of the team lifted his or her right foot and pressed down on the heel of the spade. The long clod of earth was carefully prised loose, lifted an inch or two and turned right over. All day long the field echoed to the ring of iron against stone and the clash of spade against spade as they broke the luhps of earth and chopped the upturned roots of grass and weeds. A row was called a geng, and when it was completed the trio would usually stop and straighten their backs and talk or joke for a few minutes before walking back to start another geng. It was tiresome work made more difficult by the earth and manure clogging their spades and sticking to their boots. The working day was long, starting after breakfast and interrupted only for dinner and tae before ending about 8pm. Nevertheless it was satifying to smell the new earth and to see the darker area eating up the grey as the work progressed. When setting potatoes the seed was first of all cut at home and carried to the rig in a kishie. When a geng was completed one of the three, generally a woman, would take a pail, fill it from the kishie and set a row of seed in the furrow, cut face downwards and soaced about the length of her shoe apart. Then the earth from the next geng would cover the seed. Oats were sown in April, scattered broadcast from a seed kishie slung in front of the sower. While conditions were right for germination sowing became a matter of urgency. " A day in the voar is a week in the hairst " the old folk used to say. Traditionally all the oats had to be in the ground by Simmermill Day, the 25 April according to the old style. Bere, on the other hand, was not soen until May. With the seed in the ground the men turned their attention to the peat cutting, and as May progressed the lambing season demanded the attention of the whole family. It was a constant scouring of thr hills seeking for waekened lambs and driving off swabbies and ravens. Throughout the nineteenth century the erne or white tailed eagle was another pest especially destructive at lambing time. Early in May the haaf fishing season began. The men of the house went to sea and from then until early in August the work of the croft was left to the women, the children and the old folk. The lambing season over, the family could again turn their attention
to the crops. The potatoes had to be hoed and earthed up and the neeps had to be
sown and singled. |
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