Duh senior moment :)

Sounds like a job well done lass and all the better for being done among friends.

When I first came to Orkney it was not unusual to see peat stacks for we have few trees on the island. Most households had two and the industrious ones three stacks. There was the stack they were using for the hearth this year, last years cutting which would be dry by the time this years was done and this years cutting.

Several families with banks close by would all work together to gather the peats. First the grassy turf was stripped of laid carefully by to put back in place when we were done. Then the Tusker a strangely shaped spade forged by generations of blacksmiths was used to cut the labs of peat which were laid on the banks to dry. By several families working together they could do on average enough for one stack a day and would work together till each family had enough to see them through.

A while later when the peats had dried a little and could be moved folk again gathered to "bring them in". They would load them on carts which would take them down to the farm yard where they would be stacked allowing them to dry till they became rock hard providing a slow burning fuel for cooking and heating the croft.

Many of the younger generation have never smelled the slightly acidic tang of burning peats. However to those of a certain generation the smell wherever they are in the world will instantly transport them home. Never was there a more welcoming and heartening smell on damp winters evening.