France in Focus

The rain & gales that is.
Dog walking twice a day is becoming a chore with wet weather gear required pretty much every time.
Our horse fields are about 50cm of soil on a deep sandy base yet despite this they are becoming waterlogged with plastic 'leccy fence piquets not holding & blowing over. The hard standing outside the stables/shelters is beginning to resemble The Somme with all the mud the nags are bringing in & the main stable floor perpetually wet from dripping horses.
Musn't complain though Compared to most we have 'luxurious' amenities with dry inteconnecting access to our stables from the house via scullery & barn where hay & other horsey stuff is easily accessed.
Lots of folk around here have their horses in remote fields with little or no shelter & have to visit at least once a day in all weathers come what may.
Our local Facebook place for horsey folk is full of tales of woe from owners who have never experienced prolonged rain like we have here & are becoming desperate in their endeavors to provide for the horses.
At the moment it's blowing a hooley here & hissing down. We're snug & dry & the nags have dry shelter & hay.
Just having a coffee & thinking about the poor souls who have have no choice but to venture out in this weather, hence this post.

Spare a thought for those of us who are supposed to work in this weather for an income! The savings won't last for long at this rate .....

But hey, we're not directly affected by war, earthquake, drought, fire or famine, so I'm not complaining.

Been there and done it LAF .... We were on fairly sandy soil that was clay 50cm down and were very conscious of the need to keep an eye out for gale de boue (mud fever).
Our horses all lived out and none of them wore rugs except one - she just didn't grow a winter coat. All had access to spacious, dry field shelters with straw but the one with the rug liked to sleep out under the stars - there was one flat beaten down earth area she liked !
A couple of cartoons doing the rounds at the moment :

Yet another been there done that.
Back in the 70s when starting my building business it was 10 to 12 hours a day no matter what the weather, often say that today's yuf don't know what life is about.
In the 60s I went to work on a lambretta scooter and it was up a steep hill, once in winter I got to the top and the throttle had frozen full on, had to lean the bike over onto its side and skid across the road, luckily not any traffic in those days.
Another day I watched a double decker bus slide backwards and sideways down the same bit of hill on the ice.

I've forgotten what my garden looks like , and getting to the chickens is 'interesting'. Ski sticks help

Quiksilver wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 5:35 pm I've forgotten what my garden looks like , and getting to the chickens is 'interesting'. Ski sticks help

We did manage to rake up into heaps the huge amount of mulberry leaves one morning ready for compost but its been too wet to do anything but look at them since.

Our two horses live out 24/7 with free access to a large shelter. They are both rugged, but then they are now 36 and 27 so need that bit of extra care! Our paddock is divided into 5 so we can move the boys around and make the most of the grazing, but all now are sodden. I try to leave 'pond paddock' until last during wet weather but am hoping to get them onto that this week after a few days without rain. To be honest I'm amazed that the whole area isn't completely under water by now. Although we hate this weather I believe the horses hate baking hot and plagues of bitey insects more.

It'll stop - this w/e appareently! Freezing temps and snow (depending where you live).

I hope that @tagh is not suffering too much. I see his part of the world is currently on red alert for flooding - again.

Here, things have been relatively dry and while we have had showers, occasionally heavy, we have not had anything like the amounts of those in the north and west.

Yes, I thought about @tagh when we watched the news last night. It really is grim for so many up there...

Here in the north west, we have had rain but no flooding, but we don't have any rivers/waterways near here .... apart from the sea. So far it's felt like the usual winter on the west coast of Scotland - wet and rainy.