Worrying times.

[mudsticks]

Quote from a farmer: "Sheep are only good at finding new & interesting ways to die".

Certainly the broader white woolly ones .

They get cast too easily, when preggers

This is why I'm looking for a slightly gnarlier, but still productive breed.

Tbh , I'm not expecting them to make a massive financial contribution to the enterprise

But if done properly could contribute usefully to our diets, farm resilience, and do some useful maintenance.

This is why I'm treading cautiously..

I don't want to make unnecessary work for myself, for no gain.

 

[mudsticks]

I promise to guilt-trip her on your behalf when I next speak to her.

If you're ever short of present ideas , I have a friend who runs very popular scything courses down in South Devon.

But I'm sure she knows what she's doing .😊

I'm jealous. It's years since I wielded one. The Monkton Wyld place is only just down the road from here. One day...

I went to one of the very first scythe fairs there, many moons ago..

Simon can be famously grumpy, but I did manage to get him to be on a conference panel for me a few years back.

Fascinating chap, and a wealth of knowledge.

 

[theclaud]

But I'm sure she knows what she's doing .

I'm not, entirely. But she's reading the literature and has promised to be careful not to slice anyone's feet off.

 

[oldwheels]

They are, but those trades, and the people practising them, are still often looked down on , by certain sections of society.

And there is definitely a 'them and us' mentality deliberately whipped up by people wishing to divide and rule.

Such as describing immigrants who come here, or who have come here in the past to do vital work, as 'unskilled labour'

Whilst also painting them as parasites or scroungers.

One of the things I like about where I live on Mull is that there is or was virtually no snobbery and the landed classes seem to mix and marry with the plebs. This may be changing with the influx of immigrants from a country to the south of us who have different attitudes.
When we first arrived we were invited out to dinner as was the custom then to suss us out and see what kind of people we were. I was somewhat astonished that in a fairly posh household one of the dinner guests was the man who emptied the dustbins and another was one of my own workforce.
That would never have happened where we came from in suburban Central Scotland where the social classes just would not mix in that way.

 

[mudsticks]

I'm not, entirely. But she's reading the literature and has promised to be careful not to slice anyone's feet off.

Its a bit of a palaver getting the blade sharp enough to effect that with one blow.

Sure she'll get there in the end

 

[Ian H]

If you're ever short of present ideas , I have a friend who runs very popular scything courses down in South Devon.

But I'm sure she knows what she's doing .😊

I went to one of the very first scythe fairs there, many moons ago..

Simon can be famously grumpy, but I did manage to get him to be on a conference panel for me a few years back.

Fascinating chap, and a wealth of knowledge.

A friend worked there for a while (quintessential jack-of-all-trades and indifferent at all of them. But a lovely chap)

 

[oldwheels]

Its a bit of a palaver getting the blade sharp enough to effect that with one blow.

Sure she'll get there in the end

A proper scythe stone is need to get a proper edge but of course you will certainly already know that.

 

[Ian H]

Its a bit of a palaver getting the blade sharp enough to effect that with one blow.

Sure she'll get there in the end

Peening courses! I get the impression you can spend more time fettling than scything.

 

[mudsticks]

One of the things I like about where I live on Mull is that there is or was virtually no snobbery and the landed classes seem to mix and marry with the plebs. This may be changing with the influx of immigrants from a country to the south of us who have different attitudes.
When we first arrived we were invited out to dinner as was the custom then to suss us out and see what kind of prople we were. I was somewhat astonished that in a fairly posh household one of the dinner guests was the man who emptied the dustbins and another was one of my own workforce.
That would never have happened where we came from in suburban Central Scotland where the social classes just would not mix in that way.

It does often seem to be that in country areas there's less of this artificial social divide.

Everyone knows that we're all a bit more interdependant, practically and socially speaking.

There is sometimes friction with new and flash money coming in, thinking they know better.

But once you've hauled their shiny new four wheeled drive out of a ditch with your slightly beat up tractor, things get levelled up fairly swiftly

 

[Ian H]

In other news, our energy supplier has just given up the ghost, and I'm about to climb on to a bike for an hour's ride to a pub.

 

[mudsticks]

A proper scythe stone is need to get a proper edge but of course you will certainly already know that.

Yes indeed , in fact the guy who does the courses goes by the name of 'Proper Edges'

He also makes some amazing greenwood gates and so on.

Peening courses! I get the impression you can spend more time fettling than scything.

Yes indeed, there's a lot too it .

But done well...

 

[mudsticks]

In other news, our energy supplier has just given up the ghost, and I'm about to climb on to a bike for an hour's ride to a pub.

Oh no..

But pub will help.

I'm amazed no one's started up about generating our own leccy, with a stationary bicycle.
What happens when your energy comp goes tits up btw??

I'm with this lot who've been around for a while.

Obv, they don't rely on gas for generating , but the whole market is interrelated..

I guess I'd hear if there was a problem ??

 

[Mike_P]

What happens when your energy comp goes tits up btw??

You get transferred to another supplier but there are now concerns over that if a number go through as to whether the rest will have the resources to cope, renationalisation?

 

[classic33]

It is, but the point being made was electrickery bill prices and how mine is so low.

You use a solar charger to charge it?

 

[Deleted User]

I mentioned that plumbers are paid better than graduates, all these are "honest" work. Nowhere is the work is said to be undervalued. Just want to be clear that post are not misinterpreted or used as a pivot to address other issues.

Absolutely, I know brickie apprentices on £90 per day, riggers on £350 per day, plasterers on £250 per day and they're stacked out with work.
Don't even think a degree entitles you to look down on people with a trade.
I know where I would rather be.