With St Patrick’s Day coming up, a common question that is circulating online is ‘What does it mean to be Irish?’ ?Having written a book which poses the question ‘Would You Marry A Farmer?‘ and answering the question with a ‘yes’ in the book, I was inwardly amused last week to hear myself muttering ‘who would be stupid enough to marry a farmer?’ as I tried to get a stubborn (and stupid) calf to drink milk late one [...]
Hi, it is Maggie Moo here again and I got big yellow earrings since the last time you saw me.
Coincidentally, it is the year 2014 and my tags have the same number. The reason we have tag numbers is so that we can be identified and traced. If there is ever a problem with a disease (such as Foot and Mouth in England a few years ago), all bovines [...]
Some of these terms are included in my book but some are ones that have occurred to me since publishing or that people have asked me about. I hope you enjoy and if you are a non farmer – that these farming terms provide some enlightenment.
1. Pet Lambs
This doesn’t mean that the lambs will be pets forever. Some female sheep may remain so but unless one is a good enough ram for breeding, all the lambs [...]
Women in Irish farming, women in politics, women in positions of seniority – it was very much in the public spotlight on days such as Little Christmas / Nollaig na mBan. Some don’t agree with gender quotas or the existence of the glass ceiling – others argue that women are definitely still treated as secondary citizens in many areas.
It’s widely known and recognised (both in academic research circles and [...]
Chopping and throwing sticks into a shed yesterday evening brought back lots of memories. Brian had sawed some of a fallen tree during the week and brought them in close to the woodshed. As he was chopping the trunk sections into thirds, I was throwing them into the back of the shed – to dry out for a few weeks before being chopped smaller. This is a job that should have been done during the summer – when evenings were [...]
