Did anybody hear You and Your's on Radio 4 Today ?

[R3XXY]

They had a few guests and a phone in talking about the snowy weather and how it's affecting everyone.

Would I be right in thinking that you lot would share my sentiment of:

"It's only a bit of snow, stop panicking and pull your socks up!"

People were complaining about road conditions and extra heating bills, I was thinking to myself, "well just slow down in the car and put on a couple of extra layers at home"

I didn't use my heating at all last winter because I couldn't afford to, it was bitterly cold but it didn't kill me.

Also last year when I was driving back from Buxton there was an outrageously heavy snow storm and the roads were thick with snow, it was pretty treacherous.
At one point on the journey there was a queue of cars that wasn't moving at all but the cause of the blockage was out of sight.
I Parked on the side of the road and walked on a bit around the corner to have a look.

It was a steep hill that people couldn't get up in their cars, everyone was just sitting about looking perplexed.

I went to the car nearest the top of the hill and started pushing, then someone else joined in and we pushed a couple more cars up.
Then I flagged down a passing hooray in his brand new Land Rover Freelander and got him to give some people a tow. All it took was a bit of effort and cooperation.

People in this country are a bunch of useless softies, us bushcrafters are more hardy and resourceful.

Rant over.

Peace.

Tom

 

[drewdunnrespect]

yep tom i fully agree with you matey but that is why possibly we are bushcrafters in the first place

 

[Gotte]

I tend to agree, but I'd soften that by saying that people are lulled into this happless, helpless state by business, government, TV and advertising who prefer a society which longs for nothing but ipads and HDTV. They are so easy to predict, so easy to control. I was lucky in that I grew up before 24hr TV and computers. We played out, in the woods, in the meadows. We went fishing and climbed trees and camped out. When my parents took us on holiday, it wasn't to A beach in Spain, but to the Lakes for our summer holidays, and that generally included spending a lot of time walking in the woods, fording streams and climbing fells, even if it was throwing down, which it often was. Nowadays it's all xboxs and Xfactor and two weeks watching your parents getting hammered by the pool in the Algarve. But that's what people believe they want, because that's all they see.

On a lighter note. I saw some chap from Northumbria complaining about the snow. He was a shop keeper, and said the snow couldn't have come at a worse time.
"Well, actually," I thought, "it could. It could have come in August." I think snow in Winter is the perfect time, and being Northumbria would've thought they'd be used to it.

 

[ex-member Raikey]

A Righteous and Just rant Tom!!!

didnt hear it but i heard the same from the office today,....

i drive 40 miles to work, and i passed the bottom of the estate 2 miles from the office where 3 other staff live,..

i offered to wait at the end of the road for them,..

but they wouldnt even walk to the end of the road never mind the mile or so to work,...

they stayed at home all day,...a mile from work?!?!?!?!!

i did an 80 mile round trip and spent 4 hours on the M62...

hahahaha hows that work??

Cheers

Stu

 

[Walks with dogs]

Amen to all the above.

 

[R3XXY]

Couldn't agree more Gotte !

 

[seb.h]

I don't get why the snow brings everything to a halt, we seem to be the only country that can't deal with it.

Nowadays it's all xboxs and Xfactor a

Xbushcraft is that what we need? It's sad to see so many people just stuck indoors and never experiencing anything that doesn't cost £49.99 and come wrapped in plastic. I have three nephews who I watched come in from school and instantly get on there PS3 and stay on it until they went to bed. I lived with them for 3 months and this was at the height of summer and pretty much the only thing they did.

 

[Robbi]

i have a large soap box that i climb on and shout about kids staying inside with computers and xbox things, the death of social conversation, lack of comunnication skills, the inability to interact, the lack of outdoor experience, failed exams because of late nights on the play station thing, grunting responses to civil questions...........oh gawd ! please don't start me off again !

and i blame COMPUTERS !! ( says he happily tapping away on a forum !......practice what you preach man !!........ok, gonna walk the dog )

 

[ex-member Raikey]

i have a large soap box that i climb on and shout about kids staying inside with computers and xbox things, the death of social conversation, lack of comunnication skills, the inability to interact, the lack of outdoor experience, failed exams because of late nights on the play station thing, grunting responses to civil questions...........oh gawd ! please don't start me off again !

and i blame COMPUTERS !! ( says he happily tapping away on a forum !......practice what you preach man !!........ok, gonna walk the dog )

i feel your frustration Robbi,..

especially the grunted responses and acceptance of bad manners ,.....bit OT but i feel my soap box calling too,...

 

[Tengu]

I drove 8 miles into town to college yesterday

there wasnt much snow but I took the main road route, about 16 miles. it was perfectly safe

 

[silvergirl]

Our local school is shut today (just over four miles away), I'm only dissapointed I can't force the kids to ski to and from school.

I'm quite happy with the idea of being snowed in. I have enough food in the house to last a few weeks, cross country skis so I'm not really stuck and a woodburnign stove. The only thing that would bother me is if the electricity was off for any length of time (over a week) as I don't have a backboiler adn the stove doesn't heat the whole house.

 

[Matt.S]

This is a small taste of what will happen when the knifedge, everything imported just-in-time culture we have developed in the last century falls apart for whatever reason.

 

[Ed]

A lot of the schools here were closed yesterday as parents had contacted the schools saying they were unable to DRIVE their kids to school. By 11am town was packed with a few hundred children that had managed to WALK to town just to hang out with friends ..... Something seems a miss somewhere, I just cant put my finger on it

Ed

 

[swyn]

I am living in my shack at present with frozen pipes. The water comes via my office as there is a standpipe under the kitchenette that is perfect for filling the 20 litre containers that I am using to wash, fill the loo and cook with. Things just take longer. Luckily work is all around me so no probs with that and I have a Honda quad if things get really bad.
I was called during the freeze last year to help a friend out. She had got into difficulties in her disco and ended up in a ditch at a junction at the foot of a hill here in the Chilterns. When I arrived on site there was a Calor gas tanker from the midlands, a Bedford MK (the 4x4 ex army type) recovery truck (sent to recover the Calor tanker), a 7 ton plumbers delivery lorry and an Equine Vet in a Subaru, all in the same situation, five vehicles. I turned around and scarpered!
Now I have in the tool box an elderly County tractor with a winch attatched so I returned with that using the loader on the front end as an ice pick to slow my decent on the hill.
The young fellow with the MK was eager and very experienced, so we had a discussion and then set to our system of recovery, mainly focussed on removing all small vehicles first. My friend and her daughter. Then the plumbers lorry, who had to reverse all the way back to the gritted road some 1/2 mile away, and then the MK as this had a 30 ton winch against my 10 ton forestry item. The train of thought was to get the MK to a position where the big winch could be deployed and extract the last and heaviest item, the Calor gas tanker. My machine is only effective if there is soft ground into which the anchors can be put. This proved to be most challenging as there were steep banks all around and a very slippery surface and the last thing that we wanted was to end up with this machine alongside the gas tanker! We managed to get the tankers front wheels out of the ditch using my winch so the MK would have a straight and safe pull. In doing this the forces needed managed to rip the tow point clean off the chassis....Not a good start! This was eventually achieved using a strop double mounted from the MK's tool kit.
Secondly the Mk needed to be pulled uphill to a position where the 30 ton winch could be worked. This took three pulls from three different positions in my machine. The final one was using a belay around a large Beech tree that luckily happened to be nearby. The snatch block for this was the best I've seen in many years and was so heavy I could not lift it! Another super item from the MK's tool kit. We kept the belay attached to ensure a firm anchor against the ice covering the whole of the area we were working on. This surface was so slippery the tanker driver fell and nearly ended up as a hospital case in his own right. That made us pay attention! My biggest worry was the cars coming down the hill and running into us.
We scraped the ice from where the MK anchors would rest. These were designed for road use and were very effective in the pull that was needed. The tanker came out slowly and surely. Yahoo! One more manoeuvre with the MK and County and we had finished! The Tanker got away under its own steam.
I looked at the clock when I returned to my shack and saw that I was on site for five and a half hours.
At this moment in time the same piece of road is very firmly shut. There is another lorry in the same ditch! I'm sure the young owner of the MK will now wait until the ice has gone before attempting any rescue this time, I don't fancy another session there as it is not a pleasant place to be.
Swyn

 

[ganstey]

On the TV last night they were reporting from an AgeUK day centre. They were interviewing one of the old ladies who said "it was so cold I had to use a hot water bottle and wrap myself up in a blanket". Well, I'm middle-aged, well insulated, and am lucky enough to be able to turn the heating on whenever I need it, and a blanket and HWB would be my first choice, not my last.

As for why we (UK) are so badly affected when it snows, I heard a discussion on this a while back (probably last winter). The conclusion was that it was a combination of us not often having snow, so we don't expect it and don't have time to adjust our ways to it, and also because it doesn't get cold enough here - the temperature hovers around zero, so we tend to get ice/slush rather than snow, and ice/slush is much more dangerous under foot/tyre.

G

 

[JohnC]

I'm lucky in that I work about 1.5km from home so walking is easy. Yesterday, my youngest went to a sleepover at his friends and he laded his sledge up with sleeping bag and rucksak to drag up to their house. So we are feeling fairly ok, but even in the centre of Edinburgh, we've had abandoned cars across roads in the side streets, a lot of people seem to have been caught out with equipment and techniques for heavy(ish) snow.
Many of my patients can't get in as it's too arduous for them, and/or the roads are still to dodgy for drivers not used to these conditions...

 

[Walks with dogs]

Problem is that we are a bunch of great big girl's blouses unwilling to accept any personal responsibility! I watched the news today and saw some bloke whining that his train had been cancelled and he had paid three grand to travel on a season ticket. There he stood , complaining about having to stand in the cold, wearing a suit. No coat, no hat, no scarf, no gloves .....no brains.... and has the temerity to winge about the lack of preparation by the rail companies. Look after yourself man!

Sorry, rant over.

 

[boisdevie]

People are wimps. My water is frozen in the house cos it went down to minus 15. So I fill up pans etc in the cellar and then go from there. I use the woodburner to heat water and can even have a small bath. OK it's a pain in the bum compared with running hot and cold but it won't kill me.

 

[andybysea]

would help if the council gritted the roads though with the stock pile they keep telling us theyve got,weve had snow here for a week now and not a grain of salt have they dropped, apart from that,i had to laugh watching the news this afty,people stuck of a train somewhere over night,one guy interviewed had lived in Moscow for 6 years and had never had a train cancelled on him,we have a it for a week and it grinds to a halt,a guy from the train company said that (i forget the part) a part where the power is drawn from doesnt work to well in icy conditions,its a joke you pay a fortune and get a second rate service.

 

[Matt.S]

would help if the council gritted the roads though with the stock pile they keep telling us theyve got

If they dropped any, they wouldn't have such a big stockpile to crow about on the news Any serviceman will tell you (courtesy of the QMs) stores are for storing, not for issuing, that's why they are called stores.