Sorry to paraphrase the Travis song. When we first moved to Ireland nearly fifteen years a go. We would let the bullocks out into the fields for day grazing. These days they never get outside due to the constant rain and wet conditions. We believe that winters are getting wetter. The fields seem to be getting more rushes every day. It's not good for man nor or beast or the the human spirit. Anybody for arthritis?
Things are a lot easier now though for us humans. The old cow shed was taken apart and a rock breaker on the end of a thirteen ton digger dug us a mighty deep hole. Then the tank was shuttered and concrete was poured and an articulated lorry from Limerick came with the concrete slats and number one son and me and a neighbour sheet-ed the shed and made feed barriers. It cost a lot of money but it made life so much easier and comfortable for the cattle.
No longer am I mucking out with a pike and a wheel barrow and my Ford 3000 and box. It's all dry and clean and so much easier. I need to see a rock band or plan an holiday next year when we sell the cattle. Somewhere warm and cheap. I would imagine it will be Portugal or Spain or even Canada. Where are you going for your holidays next year?
Talking of rock music. I discovered a French chapess on You Tube the other week. I think she's only 16 and she's superb. Here she is playing 'The Loner' cover made famous by ex Thin Lizzy guitarist the late and great Gary Moore. I once saw him play at the Milton Keynes Garden Party in about 1986. Eighteen of us jumped into the back of a Luton removal van and traveled down the cobbled part of the M6 to Milton Keynes. We could do with some of their concrete cows with all this rain.
Things are a lot easier now though for us humans. The old cow shed was taken apart and a rock breaker on the end of a thirteen ton digger dug us a mighty deep hole. Then the tank was shuttered and concrete was poured and an articulated lorry from Limerick came with the concrete slats and number one son and me and a neighbour sheet-ed the shed and made feed barriers. It cost a lot of money but it made life so much easier and comfortable for the cattle.
No longer am I mucking out with a pike and a wheel barrow and my Ford 3000 and box. It's all dry and clean and so much easier. I need to see a rock band or plan an holiday next year when we sell the cattle. Somewhere warm and cheap. I would imagine it will be Portugal or Spain or even Canada. Where are you going for your holidays next year?
Talking of rock music. I discovered a French chapess on You Tube the other week. I think she's only 16 and she's superb. Here she is playing 'The Loner' cover made famous by ex Thin Lizzy guitarist the late and great Gary Moore. I once saw him play at the Milton Keynes Garden Party in about 1986. Eighteen of us jumped into the back of a Luton removal van and traveled down the cobbled part of the M6 to Milton Keynes. We could do with some of their concrete cows with all this rain.
I grew up in Devon. So I am used to the rain but I to, also believe it seems to be more windy and wet. As I now live on the top of a hill, which was one of my requirements for this new house, due to the worry of flooding.
ReplyDeleteThe weather really does seem to be different from what I remember.
Are you thinking of moving? Myself I would move to Cornwall. Warmer with a coast line. But it also down to costs as well I suppose. we can but dream.
Denmark for us next year. A busmans holiday.
Hi Sol,
ReplyDeleteI have read that houses at the bottom of a hill are more prone to damp. The weather seems to be getting wetter than when we first came here. April was fantastic. We made small square bales of hay one dry week in June. We had a bit of an Indian summer this autumn and now it's gone back to gale and rain but very mild.
I want to live in somewhere warm like the Algarve or central Portugal. You can buy cheap smallholdings that need doing up really cheap. Will probably have to wait until number two son leaves school. I suppose we could rent our houses out and rent somewhere for a few months and see if we like living abroad. Don't really want to sell the ancestral farm but I am sick of the wet weather and dark winter nights.
Cornwall is wonderful but too expensive unless you go inland. What's Denmark like? Is it expensive and does get hot in summer? Thanks Sol.
they have nice summers in Denmark but you have to remember the Vikings came here for land to grow crops. So I would presume a small holding there would be hard work.
DeleteWhat about somerset? The prices are quite good there...
Don't really want to go back to England Sol. It's looking like Portugal. Somewhere warm and inexpensive to retire to.
DeleteNo holiday for us, perfectly happy with having a wander round our place, especially down by the river. I can understand why you want to live somewhere warmer though. Lots of English people are moving back to the UK (we live in France), some for family reasons, some for health reasons, and some because they are bored with country life during the winter. Us? No chance of us ever going back. Like the quiet, warmth, and living life on a smallholding, which is endlessly busy but keeps one young. Hope you achieve your dream though, and soon.......
ReplyDeleteYour French smallholding sounds idyllic Vera. My wife and my self are full of aches and pains with the damp climate and we dream of living somewhere warm and relatively inexpensive. What the employment prospects like over there? Most people here travel to the cities and quite a lot settle there. Thanks for your comment Vera.
ReplyDeleteWe are in farming country so there is not much employment to be had. We do not have an income at the moment apart from my UK pension, but Lester worked with a UK company via the Internet until two years ago, then we had an inheritance which gave us enough financial support to get the house into a better state of living. As for 2016...I wait for the Universe to show us the way in regards to making an income....we do not need to earn much, just enough to pay the bills. If you want to know more about this part of France, then you can email me and I shall do my best to help you.
DeleteHi Vera. Your farming country sounds like most rural areas with very few jobs. I like your attitude not to worry but let the Universe show you the way to make an income. Thanks for your thoughts Vera.
DeleteNo holidays here, very happy to stay up the mountain, at least up the top the water runs down so we have no risk of flooding, although we do have the wind to content with. The rain is still coming down waterproofs are dripping in the porch, the fire is lit and I wouldnt want to be any were else :-)
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have found your forever home Dawn. Thanks!
DeleteOur weather has been changing also.
ReplyDeleteWe have had a week of our winter weather that usually comes at the end of January and February. We only have that month and a half of the nice soaking in winter rains, that feeds the land. Then we have 2 months of monsoons in summer.
But I love living in the Arizona-Sonora Desert.
Although Vera's home sounds like a dream.
Everyone comes to Arizona for winter vacations so it is fun to stay here and have fun.
I zoomed off one Christmas and took the children to Tokyo. So much fun !
cheers, parsnip
Hi angryparsnip,
DeleteI think weather patterns are changing everywhere and the seasons are all mixed together.
Would love to zoom off somewhere warm for Christmas. Thanks!
We are supposed to be in the driest part of the country in East Anglia but it's been very wet the last couple of weeks. I have sandy soil so it soon dries out but irrigation is a problem in the summer (only 18 more days until the nights start getting shorter).
ReplyDeleteThere are some great You Tube videos of Gary Moore playing some Hendrix tracks. Great guitarist.
Hi Philip.
DeleteI bet you get super carrots and parsnips with that sandy soil. I use to work on a golf course and we built greens with Fen land soil and mixed it with sand.
Gary Moore was superb. I will check out the Hendrix tracks - thanks!
Some of the farmer near me rent out fields to turf growers - not the Irish sort. There are 20 acre fields of flat green lawns.
DeleteTry this:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBTRtL-OcPQ
Thanks Philip.
DeleteWe are having the second wet winter in a row. After having a wet spring.. Now did we get any rain alllll summer when we needed it in the heat so bad...no of course not LOL... but I can't say I am sad to see the rain here. We need it to make up for not getting it in the summer, which we never do.
ReplyDeleteBorage oil is suppose to be very good for arthritis, Its actually good for pain in general but I have read its suppose to be particularly good for arthritis. Maybe give it a try! I would give it several weeks to achieve a difference.
PS
ReplyDeleteTurmeric with cherry is also good, I know a woman taking it that swears by it for her arthritis in her joints in her hands. :O).
Hi Texan. We are never when it rains. If it would rain at night or when we want it. It's actually not raining today here in Ireland for a while. I believe in warm countries like Bahrain they don't know what arthritis is. Will check the herbal remedies - thanks!
DeleteOne of the causes of arthritis see
ReplyDeletehttp://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Arthritis_Resentment_Or_Anger.html
Thanks for that Heron. I think the damp climate makes it worse. Lets hope we have a good summer next year.
ReplyDeleteCertainly seems to be getting wetter here. My fields are terirble and where we've had the digger you can sink up to your knees. Had to pull my brother out the other day!
ReplyDeleteHi Kev. Things are pretty grim looking on the gardening front. I haven't mowed my lawns for a couple of months, you could graze them they are that long and there is no chance of working the veg plot. Your fields sound like Flanders. Hope it drys up soon.
ReplyDeleteWell it certainly was a big storm, we have never seen so much rain, it was lapping at the French windows in our bedroom and just managed to wet the floor in the kitchen through the sun lounge. The neighbouring farms have now had to house their cattle.
ReplyDeleteAbout the arthritis, Simon suffers from it but there was no improvement the eight years we lived in Spain, diet and alcohol however does play a part in triggering off an attack.
Gosh. Sounds like you got the brunt of the storm Anne. We had lots of rain but thankfully we live on a peninsula so the water can escape into Dunmanus bay side on the south and on the northside into Bantry bay.
DeleteSuprised to read there was no improvement for Simon's arthritis condition. I always feel much better when we go on holiday to Portugal. I would love to buy an hovel in the hills and retire there some day or go for the winter.
Well if you are thinking of going just for the winter be prepared! It rains in Portugal like cats and dog rain and if it's not raining it's thick fog. We looked at moving there when we decided to move from our first farm In Spain, we were looking in the Coimbra area and Figuera da Foz on the coast, it didn't stop raining on the coast and Coimbra it was either raining or foggy. We also hated the food, probably OK if you live in a Brit area, but we like to be part of the real country and the Portuguese food was awful, it was that more than anything that decided us against the place. Should say, this was in November.
DeleteFunnily enough I was looking at Coimbra on a site called: Pure Portugal, the other day. Sixteen thousand Euros for an house in a village. I think we would like to have a look up the Silver coast or the Algarve near ex pats preferably. Thanks for the advice Anne.
DeleteThe weather has been getting noticeably consistently worse every year for some considerable time now. People poo poo climate change, but if we don't change our attitudes toward the way we live, it will continue.
ReplyDeleteNo hols for us, days out are our jollies. Most relaxing place to be is home.
Husband listening to Frank Zapper, Edgar Broughton, and Slowbone today.
Hi Irene. Totally agree with you about climate change. I think a lot of houses have been built on ancient flood plains and the winter floods have nowhere to go.
DeleteI know Frank Zappa. He was very talented and very funny:
"I a moron and this is my wife. She frosting the cake with a paper knife."
PERFECT NATURAL HERBS AND VEGANS CURE FOR Herpes 1&2 THAT WORK FAST WITHIN A COUPLE OF WEEKS WITH DR ELINFOH HERBAL MEDICINE, I saw so many testimonies about Dr ELINFOH a great HERBAL DOCTOR that will help you CURE and give you the rightful health to live a joyful life, i didn't believe it at first, but as the pain got worsen and my life was at risk after using lots of ARV drugs from the hospital and no changes so i decided to give a try to Dr Elinfoh I contacted him also and told him i want a cure for Herpes , he gave me advice on what i must do and he deliver it to me in my home address i gave him and i got the medicine which i use according to his instruction, and today i must say I am so grateful to this man Dr Elinfoh for curing me from Herpes and for restoring me back to my normal health and a sound life and i am making this known to every one out there who have been trying all day to be cured from Herpes or any sickness should not waste more time just contact him with his details below, believe me this is the only way to get cured from Hepres , this is the real solution we all have been searching for. Do not waste more time contacting him today for you can also leave a sound and happy life. contact info below. Email: (drelinfohherbalhome@gmail.com) or Whats"App or Call him on: +2348110492072. and you can as well contact him on other issues you are having like*HEPATITIS B*DIABETICS*CANCER*ALS*HERPES*BODY REDUCTION*BREAST ENLARGEMENT*FIBROD*CANCER*PREGNANCY MISCARRIAGE*Relationship issues etc.. ** Neoplasms*Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)*Chronic Respiratory Diseases* Mental and Behavioral Disorders*Alzheimer’s Disease Email: drelinfohherbalhome@gmail.com Via whatsapp +2348110492072
ReplyDelete