Run for the hills: Hay snow...

Monday 28 December 2009

Hay snow...

... and other Beatles puns.

How lovely that the snow should fall and the ground freeze and the rain come and the ground freeze and thaw and freeze and snow and freeze....

I'm not sure who it is lovely for. With the outside pipes frozen Jussi's feeding and milking goats is a slip slide show carry heavy pails of water. Ice rink. Yesterday I spent a while chipping away at the ice - it's about 3 or 4 inches thick of solid ice - chipping away at it so at least the surface is rough, but last night it thawed a bit, rained, and then froze again this morning - so it's all nice and smooth again. And now it is snowing - masses of snow lying over the top of ice rink. It'll make it easier to walk on for a while at least.

For many days now, Jussi has been saying - she just wants it to warm up, for the snow and ice to go away.

And now we are getting low on hay. This isn't bad planning on our part - there's only so much hay we can handle at once. We stocked up in advance of the holiday but have been unable to get out to replenish supplies. So there's an anxious daily watch of weather websites - it's due to thaw tomorrow and then freeze again. I'll try to spent today clearing the drive of ice - so if it looks as though the roads will be clear we can get out. But we cant get out today - and the snow is falling heavily - making it less likely for the roads to be clear tomorrow, and hindering my attempts to clear the drive.

So we've started cutting whins to eek out the hay, but it's no replacement really.

3 comments:

Poppy said...: The snow and ice have cleared here but there is at least 4", but up to 8", of snow forecast for 9am tomorrow morning.

We've been putting the old ash on all the paths whilst they were frozen which seems to make them walkable for the time being; 28 December 2009 at 12:13
The Speaking Goat said...: Hi Poppy,

Now that is a good idea. All our ash got dug into the garden in the autumn, - but we are producing a bit now and using it on paths is a very good idea. Yesterday we actually resorted to cement on the more heavily used paths! Not very ecological, economical - but it worked. Ash. Nice one.; 28 December 2009 at 18:06
townmouse said...: Ah, cheers for the ash tip - just tried it and it seems to work a treat.; 30 December 2009 at 19:03

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Where I"m coming from - !CAUTION! a bit of a polemic

Firstly, there is nothing more important than me and my family. The most precious thing I can give them (including me) is time. In my job, with all it's pressures, I singularly failed to do this. So we run for the hills and try to redress the balance.

Secondly, climate change is happening. It's a cataclysm, the scope of which is beyond our comprehension. This is why we are doing so little to stop it - we just cant imagine the scale of the upheavals to come, and we can't imagine how we, as individuals, can stop it.

Everything is stacked against effective action. Our economy is driven by consumerism and it is consumerism that is driving climate change. Our political leaders are paralysed - to curb consumerism would cripple the economic engine. We increasingly define ourselves by our economic position and the things we buy. We are what we buy. What politician dare restrict our ability to buy, our ability to define ourselves? It would attack our very self and would be political suicide.

And anyway, the real power lies with money - and the people with money want us to consume and they spend millions every second of the day persuading us to consume more. What hope do we have against such power? And everything we buy pumps a little more CO2 into the atmosphere.

Thirdly, I am no saint. I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to change my life for the benefit of myself, and, I hope, the planet. Ultimately my reasons for doing this are selfish, and although I'll do what I can to keep my carbon footprint low, I'll make many choices that are not so good for the planet. Like anyone, I can only voluntarily make changes to my life at the speed I can. I don't intend to beat myself up over this - I do intend to change faster than most.

Fourthly, there is hope. Our lust to consume is a very recent phenomena. Not so long ago we principally defined ourselves by our relationships with friends and family and place and we defined ourselves by our usefulness to society. I believe that climate change will force us out of consumerism, and in its place we will find those core values, and rediscover a sense of wellbeing that is so missing from our current fractured existence.

There are lots of examples where this is starting to happen. The transition town movement is one - people getting together and learning to appreciate the things and people around them. I played a small part in helping Sustaining Dunbar get off the ground. (http://edubuzz.org/blogs/sustainingdunbar/about-us) What I found there were people striving to build a positive and resilient future and there are transition towns popping up all over the place - a really positive movement. (find out more about transition towns)

Fifthly, At the end of the day it's all bollocks. So let's all go off and have some fun - it's the most important thing we can do - but let's just try to do it without killing the planet in the process.

Things I"m going to miss

Run for the hills

Monday 28 December 2009

Hay snow...

3 comments:

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