Weather makes life difficult
9 01 2008Extremes of weather are part and parcel of crofting, smallholding and farming.
Most of the time we enjoy what nature throws our way and occasionally we suffer it, but on rare days like today we find it makes life very difficult.
It started early this morning when one of our winter gales hit, bringing with it 50-60mph winds and lashing rain.
We’re used to gales and barely notice until the wind speed exceeds 70mph, which is when things start to come apart and trees fall over.
So we didn’t think too much about the implications when the gale hit around 4am as we’d forgotten one other factor.
The ground temperature is well below zero.
I soon remembered when I walked out the door at 0615 to feed the pigs and found myself skating across the steading, propelled by the wind.
Bump!
Hmm, I thought as I sat on my bruised bum, this could be interesting.
The rain had frozen within seconds of hitting the ground, creating thick sheets of undulating ice all around the croft.
The bitumen hard standing was clear, but all the grassed and muddy areas were slick and dangerous.
It took me almost twice as long as usual to feed and water the livestock as I slipped, slithered, bumped and thumped around the tracks leading out to the pens and fields.
I think I fell about eight or nine times, so I now have a thoroughly sore bum while my arms and shoulders haven’t appreciated the hard landings either.
The pigs are doing rather better as they have sufficient churned or protected areas in front of their huts to give them reasonable footing.
The chickens, on the other hand, are finding it impossible to keep their footing, while flying sees them blown away by the wind.
The sensible ones, and yes we do have a few, have all retired back inside.
As have I for now! (Oh, and no, I’m not cycling the Wee ‘Un to nursery today. I may be mad, but I’m not that mad.)
Gales started here last night and have just increased. My daughter is not going to school, too many trees blocking the way I have found out. Even the school taxi has not turned up.
The covering over the chicken house/run was on it’s last legs before this, but now half the roof is missing so I shall have to pull it down…but not today!
Heating keeps tripping out due to the down draught in the Rayburn chimney..and the power is flickering
More on the way, too according to this morning’s weather forecast.
Stay safe!
That sounds really tough at the moment Stony. I hope the weather eases up soon and that you still have power too - your lesson in stove top bread making couldn’t have come at a better time.
The winds down our way were a nightmare ranging with gusts between 90-105 mph.
My new greenhouse is in tatters, I’ll need to check round the neighbours tonight and try and see if I can retrieve some of the missing panels.
Our Eglu withstood the gusts tho’, its pegged well down into the ground and has a sheletered spot in the garden, thank goodness!
The temperatures were ranging between 2 degrees in fife and 1 degree in edinburgh, fortunately there was no ice.
Sensible of you to leave the bike in the shed today… think you and the wee un might have been like E.T. flying through the sky had you attempted it lol.
Take care and stay safe
Wind speed is increasing. Big trees are now trembling at the base of their trunks….
I’m in the middle of changing light switches to get rid of the last few dimmers as the last owners of the croft had dimmers in every room for some reason. It will mean we can use slightly cheaper energy saving bulbs as the dimmable ones cost more.
Oh dear Stoney, spare a thought for us down under in NSW. While our local temp was a bit over 30 deg. C, further out west in the state it was 41 deg C. I think the coldest max. today was down in the Snowy Mountains region where a 20 deg. C was recorded.
Had to have a sheet on the bed last night it was so “cool”.
Several trees down I have been told, I suspected as such as what little traffic we have has been coming in via the longer route.
oh and the birds are flying…backwards!
I’ve finished all the light switches I can do at this stage and, as usual, found the wiring had been thoroughly bodged.
The first, really obvious, bodge was that none of the metal plates had been earthed—despite very large stickers on the inside, that pointing to the earth connection and read “This metal plate MUST be earthed using the marked terminal”.
The next was that whoever did the wiring didn’t leave any excess cable inside the wall. So, when I went to pull the plates away from the wall boxes, I couldn’t as I only had 5-10mm of play and that meant squeezing a screwdriver into the gap to loosen the screws and free the wires.
And had the bodger trimmed the insulation correctly? Of course not. Instead of having just enough bare wire to make a connection and that being shrouded, there were long lengths of stripped wire almost touching each other just behind the non-earthed metal plate.
Argh!
I can’t do much about the length of the cable, but I’ve fixed everything else (and fitted the switches the right way as that hadn’t been done either).
But I still have two more jobs to do once I get the bits I need as the bodgers had also overtightened the screws holding the plates to the boxes on two of the switches. That had broken the sliding wedges that hold the entire unit in place, so they’d stuck them in place with mastic.
I love clearing up after other people…
The trees next to the road are starting to break apart. We’re inside watching, but I intend staying well clear unless one falls the wrong way and lands on the road.
Saw, axe, rope, loppers, fluorescent jacket, gloves, safety glasses, and phone all to hand. Now we wait…
The roof of one of the chicken huts has just blown apart. Fortunately it’s not occupied at the moment.
And I’ve just done a very fast check around the outside of the croft. The side pedestrian gate has blown out with 2×4s snapped, heavy metal latches snapped and posts twisted out of alignment. I couldn’t get out into the field through the rear door of the byre as the wind was too strong - even with my shoulder pushed into it and my full weight against it I was only able to budge it about an inch before it blew shut again.
Gusts now hitting 80mph, but the BBC weather forecaster says things are improving!
Meanwhile, Perth, Australia swelters with temperatures between 36 and 45 degrees centigrade, and even the minimum at night is 26 degrees!!! Not many people outside in this weather either!!!!
The wind had dropped a little here but now picking up again, still bitterly cold
For icy conditions (rare here but I am off to Y’shire in 2 weeks time and who knows…!) I have purchased some gripper type spring things to wear over my boots. They are held on with a strong rubber band around the shoe.
Would something like that help you stop falling over. I appreciate that you wouldn’t want to use them in mud as they’d soon clog up, but when it is as solid as you have it now they might help.
I have to tell you that when we watch the weather forecasts nowadays I always check what it is doing in the area where you live…..and shiver!!
Don’t forget, the Met Office and BBC forecasts for Insch are actually for Aberdeen Airport near the coast. The 25 miles in between and the 150m difference in altitude make a big difference. We’re usually colder and often more windy up here than the forecast/observations indicate.
We’re usually colder and often more windy up here than the forecast/observations indicate.
Now that I can totally agree with..small matter of my glasses ‘freezing’ I remember one April!
It’s no good look too closely at the weather forecasts for Scotland as each area has it’s own micro climate
Brrr! I’m afraid you can keep that sort of weather Stoney!
I second the metal grippers for boots, lots of people here use them for ice fishing. They are on my wish list and I plan to pick some up next month when I go to the bigger stores that stock them here.
We’ve had the opposite winter weather, but the same results of glare ice, two very warm days put all the snow to melting and sheets of ice now cover the drive and paths.
I hope your bruises heal fast! And I hope the weather quiets down without anymore damages!