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Are you still using turf?

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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,794 ✭✭✭Squall Leonhart


    Whatever happened to The Backwards Man? He'd be all over this thread.

    Where did he ever go??


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,786 ✭✭✭Doctors room ghost


    branie2 wrote: »
    I went to the bog a few times as a kid to cut turf. Well, my father did the cutting.


    There’s dam all cutting now.its mostly all machine.be it hopper or sausage.
    Give her a turn then when she’s skinned foot it when fit and draw her home.not a bother


  • Registered Users Posts: 18,440 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    Are they still using peat to generate electricity?? If so essentially we’re all using turf.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,786 ✭✭✭Doctors room ghost


    Whatever happened to The Backwards Man? He'd be all over this thread.

    Where did he ever go??


    He fell into a boghole and never made it out.
    Main thing is he went doing what made him happy.


  • Registered Users Posts: 18,440 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    Thing that annoys me is lads banging on about the tradition of cutting turf that goes back to their grandfather and great grandfather.

    Load of rubbish, in with a 20Ton tracked machine scooping onto sausage makers isn’t traditional, it’s devastation of a prime habitat on industrial scale and should be stopped.

    We should allow anyone cut turf using same tools their great grandfathers had, spade and a barrow. Amazingly I recon lads would loose interest in the tradition then.


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  • Posts: 13,712 ✭✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Whatever happened to The Backwards Man? He'd be all over this thread.

    Where did he ever go??

    Word in the bog has it that he's chained himself to the gates of the Dept of Heritage and Bogs, in protest at the Habitats Directive.

    Sympathetic locals are filling gallons of Harp to keep him hydrated.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,786 ✭✭✭Doctors room ghost


    _Brian wrote: »
    Thing that annoys me is lads banging on about the tradition of cutting turf that goes back to their grandfather and great grandfather.

    Load of rubbish, in with a 20Ton tracked machine scooping onto sausage makers isn’t traditional, it’s devastation of a prime habitat on industrial scale and should be stopped.

    We should allow anyone cut turf using same tools their great grandfathers had, spade and a barrow. Amazingly I recon lads would loose interest in the tradition then.



    The old shlane lad.and take your time cleaning down the top bank.make sure the wheel is good on the barra or she’ll sink to the axles


  • Posts: 13,712 ✭✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    _Brian wrote: »
    We should allow anyone cut turf using same tools their great grandfathers had, spade and a barrow. Amazingly I recon lads would loose interest in the tradition then.
    *Hits Brian over the head with his sleaghan*


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,786 ✭✭✭Doctors room ghost


    Word in the bog has it that he's chained himself to the gates of the Dept of Heritage and Bogs, in protest at the Habitats Directive.

    Sympathetic locals are filling gallons of Harp to keep him hydrated.



    And they’re drawing ham sangwidges to him by the car trailer load.that and a barrel of digestive biscuits.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,707 ✭✭✭Bobblehats


    Where is the backwards man? Known to be partial to a good turf fire. Matter of fact, last time I saw he had enough to last him a lifetime


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,707 ✭✭✭Bobblehats


    He fell into a boghole and never made it out.
    Main thing is he went doing what made him happy.

    Good lord no. Welll okay...


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,786 ✭✭✭Doctors room ghost


    Bobblehats wrote: »
    Where is the backwards man? Known to be partial to a good turf fire. Matter of fact, last time I saw he had enough to last him a lifetime


    There’s no such thing as having enough turf.
    That’s a myth.
    You build more sheds or you tip it out on the wife’s good lawn and cover it with a truck tarp.
    Have a care would you ever say you have enough turf


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 525 ✭✭✭Jupiter Mulligan


    A good shot of that Indian fly spray bottle the green one and they won’t be bothered with ya.
    Indian jungle or something it’s called.
    She’s good for the soul lads and lasses is the bog.
    Recharges the batteries.
    Fire the car up on the ditch and leave the phone in it.
    Beautiful silence.only the sound of the turfs progress and nature to accompany you.
    Ah yes.The bog is heaven.

    Jungle juice.

    Some of the clegs around here seem addicted to it!


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,262 ✭✭✭✭jester77


    Had to deal with it as a kid, dad down in a hole cutting and throwing them up to my uncle and myself to lay down. Wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. This dreary Summers where it would rain every day and you would be up to your knees in it. Hard men they were.

    Now I have my district heating, stats inside and outside that automatically control the heating. Never have to touch a button all year round. Nothing like coming in on a cold winter day, taking off the shoes and feeling the warmth of the floor under the cold feet.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,537 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    _Brian wrote: »
    Are they still using peat to generate electricity?? If so essentially we’re all using turf.

    https://www.rte.ie/news/leinster/2019/0706/1060513-lough-ree-power-plant/
    Operations at a power station in the midlands have been suspended for the coming weeks following concerns over hot water discharges from it into the River Shannon nearby.

    Global warming and all that. It's only 100MW.


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Turf, yes.

    Cut out here on the island, by hand, using the old tools , by my neighbours.
    I cannot dig so I buy from them.

    This contributes to the island economy. Keeps the money here which benefits us all .

    Also the cost and "carbon footprint" of bringing (Polish) coal over by ferry is high. Tried that last winter, and no more. and the cost of electricity by comparison...

    Before I came to Ireland I lived on another " turf island" and learned "the way with the turf" and prefer it to all other fuels. There is a skill to it. A lovely heat it emits. My solid fuel stove heats the water also from it. Cook atop.. Makes great toast too!

    And the aroma so evocative.
    Perfection.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 508 ✭✭✭ Caroline Obedient Rivalry


    kneemos wrote: »
    The **** is turf mould.

    We have a townie!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,221 ✭✭✭✭ Kaleb Tinkling Sax


    Jaysus lads, ya cant bate a turf sambwhich


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 508 ✭✭✭ Caroline Obedient Rivalry


    I hear this a lot, what's the exact science/ calculation behind it?

    We spend less than a grand for a winter's supply of turf, at home. None of the rads work, so it's the only source of heat, apart from maybe one trailer load of timber (which goes in no time, and seems super inefficient).

    I live in a smaller house, in Dublin, and my heating costs are a few hundred quid higher. And my house is better insulated. I'm curious as to the provenance of this fact. Perhaps I am your elderly neighbour.

    Less heat produced per quantity burned compared to any other fuel.






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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 508 ✭✭✭ Caroline Obedient Rivalry


    Graces7 wrote: »

    This contributes to the island economy. Keeps the money here which benefits us all .

    Also the cost and "carbon footprint" of bringing (Polish) coal over by ferry is high. Tried that last winter, and no more. and the cost of electricity by comparison...

    .

    Lining the pockets of those lucky enough to inherit a bog. Where's my bog?

    Carbon footprint of local turf is greater than imported coal. This says it all. As you rightly point out, coal carbon footprint is very high.

    Coal is responsible for a lot of deaths. This is never talked about.


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Less heat produced per quantity burned compared to any other fuel.

    Measured how? Quantity I mean. Turf is more bulky than coal so that is not a fair comparison.


  • Registered Users Posts: 15,630 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    Graces7 wrote: »
    Measured how? Quantity I mean. Turf is more bulky than coal so that is not a fair comparison.

    It has less energy released per tonne when burned compared to coal.
    A tonne of coal and a tonne of turf is still a tonne. Bulk is irrelevant.


  • Posts: 5,121 April Fancy Tea


    glaswegian wrote: »
    I find it very cost efficient,E300 for 300 yards = 220 bags,more than enough to heat the living room stove for the year, E500 of kero for the rads,job done.
    300 plus time and labour saving it, tending the fire, cleaning out ashes to heat a single room is cost efficient vs 500 to heat the rest of the house with no effort?


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,714 ✭✭✭Greyfox


    Ive never held turf before and I've never sat beside a turf fire...feel like i'm really missing out :(


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    Greyfox wrote: »
    Ive never held turf before and I've never sat beside a turf fire...feel like i'm really missing out :(

    Kinda hard to explain how you stand beside a turf fire for 5 mins and everything you own smells of it for weeks after.

    Only ever used it on holidays. The old man used tell stories about cutting it in the 50s and old stories about the teams out cutting it and hearing banshee on the bog. A bit like working at thrashing. End of an era definitely.

    I will miss it, and coal. Nothing like an open fire. But both were back breaking work and filthy. I remember the smog back in the day. Like Victorian London some days.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,166 ✭✭✭Still waters


    I used cut turf but it just doesn't pay me to give the time to be in the bog, my time is more valuable than that, even if its walking the beach in fanore with the dogs i can't justify spending that much time at turf, its easier ring the local suppliers and they'll deliver coal when i want it


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,034 ✭✭✭mad muffin


    As a city slicker I prefer heating at my finger tips.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,122 ✭✭✭BeerWolf


    No, but I take others' claiming their turf.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭El Tarangu


    beauf wrote: »
    Kinda hard to explain how you stand beside a turf fire for 5 mins and everything you own smells of it for weeks after.

    ...

    I will miss it, and coal. Nothing like an open fire. But both were back breaking work and filthy. I remember the smog back in the day. Like Victorian London some days.

    We used to have a coal fire when I was a kid - indeed, it was dirty work setting the fire, and then cleaning it out afterwards. Plus, the amount of space you need to store the stuff (and whatever space you use as a coal shed will never be able to be used for anything else ever again, I imagine).

    Had a fireplace in my last place - would never live in a place with one again. For the few times a year that you'd use it (when it makes your house stink of smoke), the rest of the time it makes your house colder.

    Also, a fire in a fire place is an an extremely ineffective way of heating the house (most of the air used for the fire is cold air drawn down the chimney, making the room colder), and is associated with higher risks of various forms of cancer.

    So yes, happy enough with my thermostat, anyway.


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