Snow

Looks like Ireland is get a fresh dose of snow today. There was a little little thaw this morning in Dublin but gone again now.
 
krizon said:
When it's like this, all I really care about is how the wild birds and animals are doing. I imagine dormice scuttle about beneath the snow cover somehow, but as for how birds manage - winter berries if they can prise them off the branches, I guess.
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They're al at my house I think. I had a Great Tit rapping at the window cause the feeders were empty yesterday.
 
They do let you know, don't they Simmo?!

When I lived in Cheltenham I had the top floor of one of those tall Regency buildings. The window ledges at the front of the house are really wide and I used to put food out for the birds.

One morning I got up later than normal (it was a Saturday), scuttled down to the shops and dashed back home. I made myself a coffee and was sitting drinking it when something started tapping on the window. When I looked up, a pigeon was looking through the window at me and tapped on the window again. Once she'd seen that she'd got my attention, she calmly walked along the ledge and sat there watching me until I'd got the feed and put some out.
 
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On The Bridle said:
Wouldn't ye just be sick to the bollocks with this weather now!! FFS
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Oh yes - and unless any of you above have to deal with feeding large numbers of stock or have yards with horses in, you've honestly no idea. If you think it's bad enough getting in to work or shopping, then try keeping water running in sheds with cattle in or outside troughs for the horses. Or, because you're a farmer and have tractors, being almost expected to pull out various numpties (nearly always in Audis, I've noticed) who think they've a right to still be able to travel as normal around our narrow Somerset lanes. When they inevitably come to a full stop, they of course then block the route for everyone else - selfish gits. When you're trying to get feed from one farm to the other. Only one person was properly appreciative yesterday (when we had to get get two ET vet technicians to J25/M5 from the farm - they had to get to Penrith last night and had to borrow one of our 4wd pickups to go in) as we had to stop several times to help push said numpties out of the way or out of the hedge. The rest were just annoyed we were travelling in the 'wrong' direction and they had to move over!

The feed lorries have been unable to get here and so today, one of us has to tow the small trailer up and over the Blackdowns to our feed merchants to pick up a ton of feed.

Phil has cleared, then gritted , the lane to his farm in order that the milk tanker can get in and then has twice followed the tanker out (at 11pm - they're normally on 7pm collections but of course, it's all running late) to pull him on to the next farm several miles away. Tanker drivers are an amazing bunch and very grateful for any help they get. Lanes into my farm are pretty much impassable except in tractor or pickup.

Morning and evening feed rounds in the yards normally takes around an hour each but now takes two hours, as defrosting troughs means lugging buckets of hot water around.

However, so far the horses and cattle are thriving in this weather and at least we appear to be avoiding major temperature variations, so the calves are doing OK and so far, no pneumonia, which is great.

Upsides of the weather ? Moonlight sledging on Saturday night - three of us on parlour boarding with four Weis all left far behind as the speed on the board was amazing... Spectacular views, no one else around, just half a dozen lights to be seen in the valley - very Christmassy!
 
Keep the faith.

It is painful to look at Hammond in times like this - I would have more confidence in a chipmunk running the transport for the country - he looks afraid and nervous.
 
Went out a half hour ago. There was over a foot of snow at the front of the house. Walked 3 minutes to the shop and fell down four steps. Funny because I did not hurt myself but the thought of making my way too and from work the next two days is not a good one.
 
Listen, all of you (yes, you, too, Our Lady of the Shires!) - watched Yellowstone last night, and if you think knocking a bit of ice off the troughs or two inches of snow off your BMWs is a pain, try wading through TEN FEET of the stuff for mile after mile, and then find the vast lakes you're heading for are frozen solid, THREE FEET deep. Now stop whining, and get on with it!
 
Yellowstone is a film, the marks on my arm are real. It's worth pointing out I thought.
 
Yellowstone, my little rose petal, was a documentary shown last night on BBC2 at 7 pm, about the USA's magnificent wildlife park. If those bison and wolves weren't real, then I'm a Cherokee chief. As for the marks on your arm, dearest, they're only real if you believe they are...
 
I literally had a pain in my face from the cold today! Minus seven million degrees leaving home this morning!! Please somebody end this ice age
 
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