The upcoming filthy snowy weather

Is anyone else watching the weather forecast with trepidation?
This winter seems to be the longest ever, there is just no end to it. Now that the fields are finally drying up a bit, The Oracle of Doom on met eireann is forecasting a dump of snow and Siberian temperatures. On cold days I'd be walking around like Michelin Man, and dreading the trip to the loo (25 layers of clothes and oh bejaysis if you accidentally happen to touch any body part with hands like blocks of ice )
I don't know about anyone else in other parts of the country, but over here the price of straw and hay is through the roof. Growth of grass is non existent.
Hacking the ice of all the water barrels, and frozen pipes being a massive pain in the bottom

I'm just having a massive whine... by the gods, I hate winter. I never thought I'd see the day I would scramble to get into the horse stables to shovel poo

. Bless your heart Carlarua. Its only weather. Just think of those hot summer days to come.

You'll not hear me complaining about hot weather, unless it hits 40°C

Like you Carlarua will be very glad when it dries up a bit but you can have my hot weather in exchange for your cold.

3 feet of snow by the end of the week and temperature going above freezing during the day and the promise of a white out.
I'm making myself a kangaroo pouch to stick a hot water bottle in to keep under my layers of clothes. I don't care if it looks ridiculous, as long as it's warm !

You must be from warmer climes Clara A lot of fuss about nothing methinks. I say this while touching my forelock and spinning around three times.

I'm Flemish, but gave been living in Ireland for nearly 20 years. Generally, there's cold winters with ice and snow and very hot summers (high 20's, low 30's would not be exceptional) there.

I think I got traumatized by a compulsory school trip to the Ardennes, where we got given a set of langlauf skis and a quick rundown of different ski trails ; dark blue for 5 km's, and black for 25km's. There was red, orange and green colour coded trails as well for different distances, but someone with an evil sense of humour colour coded the shortest and longest routes really closely together. Think trails through dark forests, with intermittent snow and me being left behind by mates who were much faster than myself. Not only did I get the routes mixed up, I also had a very close encounter with barbed wire and ended up in a small but very cold stream. When I finally arrived back at the rendez vous point, the teachers were sozzled, and everyone pissed off - including the bus driver - because I was the last one and very late

Scarred for life, so I was

Indeed. So you should be. Having said that, all that skiing etc sounds wonderful. People like yourself laugh when we get 25 mm of snow and everything comes to a stand still.

We have about a foot of snow here. How are you holding up Carlarua?

Well lads, I am impressed how the locals handled this weather event. Once it stopped snowing the people of rural wexford set to getting things going again. Farmers were out in force clearing roads. We live down a blind boreen with drifts up to five feet. With the help of a neighbours tractor and shovels we were reconnected to the world on Sunday. Those that could venture out tried to shop for others who could not. A proper community spirit (mostly). A friend and his wife set to walk to the shop on saturday three miles away and got a lift in the bucket of a JCB. Luv it . Wexford town absolute chaos. Roads cleared to one lane with snow dumped on the pathways. So people could only walk on the cleared lane. I would have thought with the large population of Wexford the locals could have set too and assist the council better than they did. Me thinks city people have a different mind set to country people. We had near on two feet of snow here with drifts up to six feet. I have not seen the like before ever. At least we knew it was coming. How did you lads get on?

We were snowed in till today. That's one of the prices we pay for living in the mountains. But we had plenty firewood, plenty grub, plenty cider and plenty whiskey. The only downside was the hens wouldn't venture out and, in consequence, have stopped laying. The ducks, though are in full production and give me duck eggs over hen eggs anytime! The geese went through a share of corn - not being able to get any green stuff, but back to normal today.
As to townsfolk, Wayland, my experience is that - apart from retired older people and proper tradesmen, townsfolk in general are probably the most useless of God's creations.

Sorry I went awol for a while.
If I didn't hate snow before, I surely do now.
Thank goodness for a pickup truck is all I can say. A friend of ours ( in his 80's) fell on the 1stday of snow, checking out the sheep, and broke his ankle. He made it as far as the local gp, but in the 20 minutes he was there, the Jeep he got a lift in was snowed in and they had to be dug out. The poor man couldn't go anywhere because the snow drifts were so bad, so my other half took my truck and literally ploughed through snowbanks that came as high as the bottom of the car windows. They made it to the nearest hospital (2 hours for a drive that would normally take about 20 minutes), where the civil defence took over and brought him to the nearest regional hospital. The old lad is fine now, his ankle has healed and he is recovering well.
We also had a blind lamb in our sitting room for 2 weeks, her eyes were pecked out by jackdaws very shortly after birth. That was the day the big snow started, and I had to walk to the chemist for rubber teats and lamlac ; we thought she would not make it because we didn't have access to antibiotics, but she clung on until we got to a vet and 6 weeks on and she's a fine, strapping lamb. We tried to find her a companion in a lamb that had pneumonia, but unfortunately that one died. So we have to come up with a way for her to have as normal a life as she can have. When she was really small, we put the dog's harness on her to take her for a walk.

That sounds like quite an adventure, I hope your neighbour is now recovering well. All that snow is now just a distant memory with all these warm sunny days. Well here in the SE that is. It is great to here of the poor lambs progress. She can close her good eye then? I guess you now have a pet for life. Good luck.

It's not warm this side of Meath. Grass growth in the fields is disastrous and there's a near constant wind that would skin you.
The lamb seems to see a difference between dark and light, but both her eyes seem to be gone. She is however the fattest lamb you've ever seen and she's in residence in the sanctuary I volunteer. Her behaviour is almost like a dog, she'd sit on your lap with her head in your neck, and actually closes her eyes in enjoyment when you pet her.

Sounds not too bad for your lamb. Has anyone suggested that you get the vet to stitch her eyes up. My OH had a cat that lost an eye in a fight. The vet advised this as it seals up the cavities. The result was a great success with just fur where her eye was. Just a thought.

The eyes are still there, but they are uniformly black with no pupil. It's like the whole eye was scrambled on the inside, but the orbs are intact. She trundles along like a dog, as long as she can hear your voice . She's the fattest lamb you've ever seen

Without wanting to tempt providence. I could do with a bit of rain.

You may get your wish tonight

wayland wrote:Without wanting to tempt providence. I could do with a bit of rain.

What sort of a thing is it?

Yep, our well is drying up and water barrels getting low. Just a drop of rain, mind you ;-)

For the past three nights, we have had very heavy rain. So everything is rosy in the garden around here. Mind you, people only a few miles away have had none. I suppose it's the effect of having a mountain range behind your back door!

Well it is forecast today with the possibilities of flash flooding. They said that a few days ago and nothing. Hot and bright sunshine at the moment. Being on mains water I bet my water meter is going nuts. I dont see how the likes of us can be called an average water consumer. Ho hum.

I was cleaning stables today and the heat and humidity was unreal. A few drops of rain and some thunder and lightning, but that was it.

Well we got nothing and it dont seem like we shall have any for some time. Despite the waterbutts being empty the stream still runs and so the lower polytunnel gets all it needs. Living in the sunny south east has its advantages in a wet season but!!

Weather these past few days is unreal I got my first Mackerel off the Hook today, only two but its a sign,they are giving rain tomorrow morning but they got it wrong the last few days so hopefully they get it wrong again.