Well that was thought provoking. I live in rural North Yorkshire and most of the small family farms have gone. I am surrounded by plastic tractors in plastercine fields producing plastic food. I was a flail hedge cutting contractor for many years and in that time I noticed a decline in the quality of bird life and food support from such frequent cutting. Many of the farmers now are machine operators, they are in air conditioned cabs with GPS, mobile phones and endless technical gadgets that sometimes I wonder if they have any knowledge of the wildlife around them. I also used to cut grass verges for the local council and I now realise I was making the rural landscape into an urban parkland. I am glad to now be retired from my contracting days. A few weeks ago I was walking my dog and I passed 2 farmers spraying weedkiller on their barley crops and the chemical smell was so intense it made me feel sick. The following week I was walking my dog again and I noticed a number of butterflies that were alive, but for some reason they wouldn't move. I pocked and prodded them but they were motionless. I wonder if the chemicals were to blame? I think to a degree agriculture needs to look to the past to move forward.
Look towards that which is eternal. Photosynthesis,the nitrogen fixation of legumes, symbiotic relationships of plants and animals, in short try to do what nature already does in every ecosystem on the planet.
Thank for some excellent commentary on the effect of 'food choices' on the landscape and biodiversity. Unfortunately many urban people are so divorced from nature and food production that they dont comprehend the massive impact that crop cultivation has on biodiversity, in many cases a far greater impact the 'extensive' animal husbandry. Thanks again.
I too have a lead acid battery in my dinghy and use a small cheap 12v solar panel to top it up. Costs around £10-20 and if you leave it hooked up you will treble or quadruple your battery usage before a mains recharge is necessary. My little solar panel came in a plastic frame but now sits in a varnished wooden frame (rainy day project) and is quite happy tucked behind a seat. If I am underway it usually is tucked away but if it is a bright day leave it hooked up. I really enjoy your story.
Roger, I am a great fan of your videos and I really appreciate your boating wisdom. I am a vegetarian; it’s my choice and I have no particular axe to grind with meat eaters. I live in an area (southern Scotland) of small farmers, such as your locality, and undoubtedly ‘small farming’ be it pastoral or arable contributes to the wildlife that we all enjoy. I do, however, have issues with factory and ‘megafarms’ where things are not as idyllic as we might wish.
Thoroughly enjoyed this blog. We live in a semi-rural / wild bushland place, the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. We loved here to enjoy the slower and simpler life-style, however the ever spreading greater Sydney metropolitan area now stretches about 130 kms north, south and west. Like the UK, the better-off seek to have country retreats and then still insist that they must have transport to commute to the Sydney City Centre to work. The result is that as time goes by, those that seek the simple rural lifestyle are pushed further out. This then leads to inequality of services to those who seek the country life. We have our geese, chickens, a dog and a comfortable 1934 built cottage (that's considered ancient by Australian standards, I am a retired naval officer. :).
We have been away from Somerset for 53 years , Canada and then Australia but am always amazed at the beauty of the countryside when we return for a trip . Its that "green" which apart from Ireland is quite unique .
Well said Roger, I heard a child in a farm shop, Mother asked for some potatoes, “my husband is out in the field digging them up” was the reply. The child asked “Why did he bury them?”. I ate a slice of cow tonight. (Rump Steak) I saw it eating a vegans dinner.
You've made a lovely job of her. Some great ideas here too. Notes were taken. Regarding the whipping onto the chain though, I would be concerned about the wear of the rope where it loops through the chain. For this reason I have always knotted the anchor warp onto the chain and then alter the knot from time to time.
The rope does not move relative to the chain if you make the splice properly tight. The chain I was replacing was perhaps 15 years old. There was no wear in the rope, which I simply reused.
Roger, I will add to those who are very appreciative of your poetic presentation. Keeping to my home these days, with brief walks outside and quick forays for groceries, it’s so refreshing to be entertained, and tutored in small boat cruising from your experience. You brought up some interesting observations about farmers, the land, and meat consumers vs. vegetarians (vegans, etc.). I grew up in a small town and helped my father on his cattle farm. I currently own 50% of a small cattle operation. We luckily own our cattle and land outright with no loans, so we’re not hurting. And I will tell you, I love cheeseburgers. I’ve also have a science background having worked early on in fisheries management for our state conservation department, then moving into teaching junior high and high school sciences. From those scientists that study species populations, if we look at the current biomass of mammals on Earth, 60% of the mammals are domestic animals (mostly cattle and pigs) used for feeding humans, 36% of the mammals are humans, with the remaining 4% being wild mammals. I have no answers here. I acknowledge I’m part of the problem. But the data pretty much speaks for itself. This is not sustainable.
I was brought up in the East Anglian fens in the 1960s. I remember blackberrying in the hedgerows as a child but over the course of about 10 years most were grubbed out by greedy farmers altering the landscape irrevocably. This was an extremely short sighted practice as I also remember vast dust storms once the windbreaks had gone. Revisiting the Fens now, land that was black peat 50 years ago is now brown as the fertile peat has been blown away. Here in Worcestershire I have a farmer friend who maintains that he does not “own” the land but is merely the present custodian with a duty to preserve the wildlife and landscape value for future generations. Even in your idyllic Somerset much damage will have been done by modern farming methods. Yes we need to grow food but in harmony with nature and sustainably.
A lovely video and thoughtful chat Rodger. Thank you as always for sharing your clever and sensible solutions in your vessel, as well as the reminder of how interconnected and interdependent we all are during this pandemic. If anything positive has come of this, it is perhaps that we might slow down, think deeper, appreciate more, and listen better? Take care, and God bless the farmers.
Thank you for your effort and diligence Roger, you are amazing. There you are pulling up the foot boards, flailing out chain and anchor rods all to share experience and ease us safely and without drama into a life afloat. I am totally inspired by your work and I expect to entice my lovely wife afloat and into a life of damp, windy and choppy joy!
Great video Roger. Please don’t be apologetic for eating meat/milk and cheese. I was very lucky to film a tv programme years ago not far it seems from where you are. We stayed at the Lighthouse in Tytherington and enjoyed our evenings at The Fox pub! The theme of the show was about re-use and recycling/up cycling of items of our modern lifestyles. About making, rather than buying. We did many interesting things. One of the things that sticks with me to this day happened when we were attempting to make glue in the pre-chemical industry method - by using rabbit skins. This is how the best quality furniture glues were made years ago. We travelled to an organic vegetable farm, not to see the farmer, but to meet with the team of men employed by many of the organic farmers to clear their land of animal pests eating their crop. Mostly rabbits. These farms were supplying the high priced vegan and organic shops that were very much a ‘trend’ at the time. They were capitalising on this trend. The nature of the organic varieties needed and the methods meant nothing could be done to deter pests from eating the crop apart from trapping. Every 100m or so along the fence line of the fields a metal box was buried in the ground with a trap door. These boxes would fill with rabbits and 2 or 3 times a week the men would come round and empty the boxes, break the necks of the rabbits, take them away and burn them. The farmer we met said he has never had to cull so much wildlife to meet the demands of a crop in the past. 1000’s of animals die so that we can have ‘organic’ vegetables. It opened my eyes and is just terrible. Humans are physiologically determined to eat meat and vegetables, like many other living beings. Cheese - especially Cheddar, is our greatest achievement!
Crops don't have to have hedgerows, but here in rural Maine (US) you'd better have a high working fence or the deer and other animals will wipe out your crops. Two years ago, a mother bear and her cubs enjoyed my blueberries, but I did not. My elderberry bushes got eaten where I'd failed to fence them in. Absolutely love your videos, Roger.
Thanks Roger. Some wise words. Always like to see your new videos. I’d second the many voices of viewers who’ve said that they enjoy hearing your voice on any subject. While our home here in Australia is not quite so idyllic it is rural and plenty of farms, although with all the sea changers perhaps not for long. Like the boat comment updates too mate.
What a wonderful thing it is to be contented in life, and you certainly appear to be just that. Please keep up with the videos , they give a ot of people much enjoyment, especially in the present , and worrying conditions .
Very well said Rodger, I think anyone moving from a city or large town should go on a countryside awareness course and learn the ways of country life, it’s not all country living, WI meetings and bunting. Cockerels do make a noise in the morning and will continue to do so. Low paid workers need the houses used as holiday homes. Please think of others
Agree with last comments! We hope it happens. You have inspired an adventure near the great lakes in North America. My Husband built a wooden 17 foot dory with one of my daughters and now intends to sail it andacross a large lake ,take mast and sail down and row a bit over a mile through a creek then re set sail across another big lake to an Island spend a night ,go to another island spend a day and night and then return same way with our 2 boys.
Loved your explanations for those out there amok who are ignorant or misunderstanding of the need for farming and ranching regardless of whether they partake of the products the farms and ranches produce or not. I also believe, especially in the wake of current trials, that we should all be diligent to try and deal direct and locally with producers not only to provide ourselves and our families with better, fresher products but in addition and especially to encourage a strong local community both socially and economically. That said, producing or procuring what you can personally with your own ability should also be among priorities for responsible, sensible human beings! Many blessings Roger! I am looking forward to your next season of adventures!
Lovely video:)! The unintended consequences of those that want an idealistic world are not appealing to me either sir. You are one of the many of us out here that would love to live a sensible and balanced life.
A lot of people think you can plant veg in any old mud. The fields around you are not level enough for farming machinery. Your channel is exactly what YT is about: you come for the topic and stay for the person. Great vid, as always, thank you for sharing.
I really enjoyed this video. Like you, I live in the country far from lakes to sail in. We are in Eastern Iowa by the Mississippi. I have a view of the farm lands around me with small woods with deer and various wild life ... many types of birds which I love. Here we have the same attitude of city people wanting the rule of country life. One has to live here to understand it. I bought your book and have read over and over. I'm pleased you shared the design of your dock lines to use as a way of climbing aboard. It would seem obvious, but I would never have thought of it. Mom taught us to only take game, fish or animal, if you're going to eat it and do it humanly. I wish we could have farm goods like you have there. It reminds me of The Swallows and Amazons going to the local farms to get milk, eggs, etc. We do have Farmers Markets. Thanks for your warm and personal video. I could feel at home there in Somerset.
Quercus robur 600-800 years old? Wonder what the surrounding countryside looked like when it was just a sapling. Will probably still be hear after we’re just memories.
I agree with what you have to say Roger absolutely. And I would guess our diets are quite similar. As for the reason why the hedges persist, could this not also be applied to the woodlands too. I know they are valued as coverts for game rearing and shooting but I'm sure Grandfather would have wanted them kept whether for shooting or not. I'll put my head on a block...I am a shooting man too. All in all a very well put together video and thought provoking for some I would hope. Sandy AKA The Land Lubber
You raise some very difficult dilemmas, town and countryside are so removed from one another we need a greater understanding of how people live so it's good to share thank you. True what you say about constantly improving boats that's probably what I'm missing most at the moment the opportunity to tinker around on my boat. Cheers Alan.
agreed, but farmers have duty of care to the environment, i grew up as a farmers son not far away near templecombe and have worked in the uk in trying to re-establish rural trades. i have re layed an entire farm near wincanton (7km) of hedgelaying, we guessed and 5 years work, most of the hedges we took out 5 obselete barbed wire fences. When i came into farming the field size was 4 to 12 acres, what has happened is the farmers have in the adoption of silage increased tractor size from 70hp to 200hp and 4wd to drag these great machines around the landscape the designers of the machines design for the larger farmer, because he has more money. The result has been hedgerow removal and field drainage, the whole creating an easy to work monocultural grass harvested before wildflower seed setting, to produce silage which is fed too cows that then produce slurry(permenant bovine dioreha ), the farmer then has to put in slurry tanks and buy slurry tankers, to redistrubute on the fields, whereas dried hay produced manure cowpats and due to the time of harvest wildflowers, habitat for wildlife to reproduce and local village work for youths and farmworkers, who the farmers built the communities and houses like yours to house. Now the farmers have capitalised on their assets by selling off rural estate and tyed housing tooften affluent incomers while forcing the ancestors of the farmworkers in too town or council housing.
@@RogerRoving i gave it a good go then finally relented and abandoned for brittany via the tamar valley, that would be a good put in calstock or coethele
Good day to you Roger, you are too young to remember Jack Hargreaves I am sure, but he produced some truly timeless programmes and your videos are of that ilk, and very enjoyable ineed. I was glad that you told more about the boat, I knew you had a drop keel, but I am just as sure that many didnt. I also remember being stuck on a sand bar in a storm because of of one, that was fun. If I had but one question it would be when you are away for a couple of days more or less isolated what do you do for those basic needs in the smallest room ?
Thank you Roger. Your love of the countryside and its people comes across very well in the video. An informative and enjoyable half hour. Enjoy the spring and the coming summer and stay safe.
Very well said, I still live on the farm were I was raised and worked as a diary farm until 25 years ago. The land is leased out to a local farmers who raise crops and still pasture cattle in the summer. At this time of a pandemic I appreciate the fact that I can self isolate on 200 acres of land and enjoy nature and the peace of the rural landscape.
Have enjoyed all your videos and your philosophic presentations. Somewhere I read that you are also an artist and would love to see that side of you presented in a video.
Wise perspectives. Thanks for this relaxing video. To vegetable farm -and- sustain healthy soil you'll need roughly half the farm area for animal feed and subsequently manure compost for the veg.
I often suspect the vegans who claim we can feed more people with veg have modern fertilizer in mind. But that stuff exhausts the soil. And in most of Norway you can't grow anything but grass anyways. But I'm very eager to stop importing meat, and brazilian soybeans which we use to raise pigs, poultry and Salmon.
I could add a like to pretty well all of the comments so far as I agree with so much that has been said. The countryside as a rural landscape can only be lost once and that must never happen. Happy to accept the fens as a perfect arable landscape. Yes you could run large herds of cows and sheep but horses for courses to add another animal. Comment: I think you filmed this indoors with a camera which has a flip to the side screen. Please look at the lens and not the screen. You'll see what I mean. Hopefully you can get back on the water before the summer is over. Surely the wonderful weather we are having at the moment can't last until September, or can it? I'd love to be out in it but live in a flat. Take care. Stay safe.
Deluk I started filming this on the iPhone with an attached mic, as well as a lavalier microphone, but I broke the lavalier clambering into the boat. I had other sound problems with other sections, so I reshot many of the scenes on a large camera with gun mic. The final scene is left over from the iPhone footage - which is why the sound quality is different. The reshot footage of this section was better quality but I felt my choice of words was rather stilted, so I went back to the earlier version. I was quite simply looking at the wrong end of the phone, which was on its side. The front facing camera is not very visible. This is all to say, I do notice these problems in my videos and constantly work to make them better!
@@RogerRoving Thank you for your detailed reply. The video was a very good example of a thoughtful and well put together piece. Filming was excellent and I only noticed different sound during the short clips about the boat in the boathouse. Very enjoyable. The iPhone does remarkably well, sound included. The supposedly lower spec selfie cam does a great job. If I ever get that high tech I will remember to look at the lens end of the phone! Be well and take care.
A really enjoyable video. You're the kind of guy I'd really enjoy sitting in a pub chatting with. I used to live in the South West of England, but now live by the sea in Denmark, you should come have a sailing adventure over here, I think you would have a great time?
Another great video. Thank you for new insights into the layout and operation of your beautiful boat and into the beautiful area in which you live. I would love to see an in depth look at your sail and look forward to when you get to bend them to the spars again.
Lovely video Roger, how things have changed, if you go back 100 years, it was a very different scene. Hardly any machines used for farming. It was hard work but that life was good.
A lovely civilised film about my favourite county. Would you consider doing a film about getting into Dinghy Cruising for the absolute, never done it before beginner?
Avidly watch your informative videos, keep up the good work. A tip for splitting fire wood......secure an old tyre on top of you splitting block so when you split your log the tyre retains the log preventing wood flying in all directions. Fair winds
Buy local, perfect. Support local farmers. Your take on the history of your place, culture, things, people and your way of doing things is important to you. It is to me. That you have put much thought and can articulate such means much time has been spent thinking about these things. Not many folks do that anymore. Good on you. Good for us. We are fortunate to have you. And although we should respect the 14% of the UK population that is vegetarian, it would be good if they could respect the 66% of the UK population that is omnivorous. That way the flora and fauna of the farmer’s hedge rows might just stay the way they are, providing habitat for a multitude of wildlife...not that it’s any of my business. I guess that I’m a vegetarian in a way that my cattle eat only grass and then I eat them, heh, heh... Showing us your home is quite a new feeling. Your home and fire seems comfortable, colors perfect, a place unpretentious and extremely livable, just you. Bringing us in was a nice thing, thank you. My grandparents, in Tennessee, had a train off in the distance that I would listen to, going to sleep. I can listen to a train, off in the distance, here in my Texas home. Farm sites, sounds and smells are all familiar and friendly to me, the crows, the blue jay, the smells around the barn, all tug on my heart strings. Your sailing, the dinghy philosophy is my philosophy of life: get out and enjoy the journey, don’t worry about the stuff. I have enjoyed this video beyond measure. Watching it multiple times to caress the heart of my younger days. Thank you my friend. Texas
Your spring is much further along then us here in Michigan, our leaves aren’t fully out yet. Love the video, the English countryside is always so beautiful.
greetings from Canada that idea for a rope sling to get into boat is pretty smart is that your idea or did you get it from others either way excellent and simple idea that I would have appreciated in times past safe sailing roger by the way liked your old coffee pot ...had character ...
Informative video. Here in NE essex it is all arable farmland and the hedgerows do an important job of wind shelter control or so I was led to believe. I believe the alminium pot suggestion was maybe because that it has now been linked that cooking with it can cause dementia in later life. The army have also now dropped aluminium cookware.
Hi an enjoyable thoughtful video, I normally watch your sailing adventures as I love to go canoeing or kayaking and just love the water and the scenery you show, looking forward to more videos of you living life on your own terms, quite a nice lifestyle...best wishes
Great video Roger. Thanks there was a lot of good information to take in about life in the traditional British farmlands. I’m a country boy my self living in Seattle Wa. USA. There is always a clash here between country verses city people. I personally enjoy seeing a coyote walking a city street here. It’s a great area to sail but politics can get a little testy. Cheers
a very pleasant video.I lived in Ely,Cardiff,with a dairy farm across the road.We looked out onto farmland.Love your articles regarding your boat,Can we have a video on your navigation tools and how you use them? i think it would help those of us looking at dinghy cruising. cheers
I am really hoping you are doing well, Roger. If you are wrapped up tight on a real job project, and not having been able to get out on the boat, can we see any of that? As I have mentioned to you before, I really enjoy the architecture stuff. Most importantly I thoroughly enjoy see a master operating his dinghy. Are you doing some gardening during the lockdown times? I know from comments to your videos that there are a lot of people around the world that thoroughly enjoy watching and listening to you go on about whatever. Please post anything to allow people to see how you are doing. Peace be with you.
Very interesting to see the details of how Avrel is rigged. I agree with your view of our countryside. There are too many who need a better unerstanding of how the coutryside works. The farming community may not be faultless, but the smallscale mixed farms do pretty well. I'm very jealous of your local milk vending machine! Especially as our milkman has just packed up; forcing us to make more regular trips to the supermarket. Your range looks great. I wouldn't be without our solid fueled Rayburn!
Dear Roger, Thank you for your considered and delicately expressed views on our countryside vs. veganism. I find this fixation by vegans, and others, upon the food which we eat to be offensively base. There are many higher considerations which are in more urgent need of our collective attention. Endlessly worrying at the "morality" of sustenance seems like a convenient excuse to turn a blind eye to more challenging problems which may require more effort to solve.
@Heartsongsutube Thanks for the reply. I can't find anything in what you say to disagree with except perhaps your use of the word carnivore: I'm not sure it accurately describes the diets of these people and I worry that you're using it with divisive intent. Animal welfare is the proper concern of those who farm and eat meat and it should be the top priority of our legislators in the meat market. I would gladly suffer any increase in the price of the meat I consume if it meant better conditions for livestock
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and philosophy. That is an interesting wee model boat on the mantel... yacht? fishing vessel? ... would love to hear more about it.
I do wonder how the modern housewife (or househusband) would cope with a live kicking rabbit or flapping fish to prepare and cook. I'm a cidermaker, retired now. I was talking about cider to a young woman at a craft fair a while ago who was unaware that there was a season for harvesting apples. Her explanation "I'm a city girl"
Like a quiet chat with a thoughtful friend. Thank you.
Well that was thought provoking. I live in rural North Yorkshire and most of the small family farms have gone. I am surrounded by plastic tractors in plastercine fields producing plastic food. I was a flail hedge cutting contractor for many years and in that time I noticed a decline in the quality of bird life and food support from such frequent cutting. Many of the farmers now are machine operators, they are in air conditioned cabs with GPS, mobile phones and endless technical gadgets that sometimes I wonder if they have any knowledge of the wildlife around them.
I also used to cut grass verges for the local council and I now realise I was making the rural landscape into an urban parkland. I am glad to now be retired from my contracting days.
A few weeks ago I was walking my dog and I passed 2 farmers spraying weedkiller on their barley crops and the chemical smell was so intense it made me feel sick. The following week I was walking my dog again and I noticed a number of butterflies that were alive, but for some reason they wouldn't move. I pocked and prodded them but they were motionless. I wonder if the chemicals were to blame?
I think to a degree agriculture needs to look to the past to move forward.
Look towards that which is eternal. Photosynthesis,the nitrogen fixation of legumes, symbiotic relationships of plants and animals, in short try to do what nature already does in every ecosystem on the planet.
Wonderful tutorial for Townies !.Roger has given us a truthful non biased view on the British countryside and it's management.
Just watched this Roger great to hear a non farmer speaking this way what we as farmers know but few outside seem to get.
Thank you. But I grew up with farmers in a farming community. That’s why.
Thank for some excellent commentary on the effect of 'food choices' on the landscape and biodiversity. Unfortunately many urban people are so divorced from nature and food production that they dont comprehend the massive impact that crop cultivation has on biodiversity, in many cases a far greater impact the 'extensive' animal husbandry.
Thanks again.
Nice one, Roger. I could watch you handle a boat or listen to you talk about the country side, with equal enjoyment.
Thank you.
Same here
@@danesworld Me too
Moi aussi. Quel régal ce délicieux accent british :)
One of my favorite times with Roger. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing a little piece of England
Thank you Roger for supporting us country folk
I too have a lead acid battery in my dinghy and use a small cheap 12v solar panel to top it up. Costs around £10-20 and if you leave it hooked up you will treble or quadruple your battery usage before a mains recharge is necessary. My little solar panel came in a plastic frame but now sits in a varnished wooden frame (rainy day project) and is quite happy tucked behind a seat. If I am underway it usually is tucked away but if it is a bright day leave it hooked up. I really enjoy your story.
Yes I aim to hook a panel up to the battery. The main issue is where to put it!
Brilliant vid and thoughtful words! Always enjoy what you do. Great stuff! Fair winds always!
Roger, thank you, a lovely interlude to leave a hysterical world behind for half an hour.
Roger, I am a great fan of your videos and I really appreciate your boating wisdom. I am a vegetarian; it’s my choice and I have no particular axe to grind with meat eaters. I live in an area (southern Scotland) of small farmers, such as your locality, and undoubtedly ‘small farming’ be it pastoral or arable contributes to the wildlife that we all enjoy. I do, however, have issues with factory and ‘megafarms’ where things are not as idyllic as we might wish.
Thoroughly enjoyed this blog. We live in a semi-rural / wild bushland place, the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. We loved here to enjoy the slower and simpler life-style, however the ever spreading greater Sydney metropolitan area now stretches about 130 kms north, south and west. Like the UK, the better-off seek to have country retreats and then still insist that they must have transport to commute to the Sydney City Centre to work. The result is that as time goes by, those that seek the simple rural lifestyle are pushed further out. This then leads to inequality of services to those who seek the country life. We have our geese, chickens, a dog and a comfortable 1934 built cottage (that's considered ancient by Australian standards, I am a retired naval officer. :).
We have been away from Somerset for 53 years , Canada and then Australia but am always amazed at the beauty of the countryside when we return for a trip . Its that "green" which apart from Ireland is quite unique .
Well said Roger,
I heard a child in a farm shop, Mother asked for some potatoes, “my husband is out in the field digging them up” was the reply. The child asked “Why did he bury them?”.
I ate a slice of cow tonight. (Rump Steak) I saw it eating a vegans dinner.
Like my sister in law said once when I went down the garden to dig up some spuds for the dinner.
"I never ate potatoes from the ground before".😂
You've made a lovely job of her. Some great ideas here too. Notes were taken. Regarding the whipping onto the chain though, I would be concerned about the wear of the rope where it loops through the chain. For this reason I have always knotted the anchor warp onto the chain and then alter the knot from time to time.
The rope does not move relative to the chain if you make the splice properly tight. The chain I was replacing was perhaps 15 years old. There was no wear in the rope, which I simply reused.
I live in the city and love it, but I agree with everything you said. Lovely fields, lovely dinghy, lovely house. Thanks Roger!
The best video of a sincere home environment. Thank you Roger.
So nice of you
Roger,
I will add to those who are very appreciative of your poetic presentation. Keeping to my home these days, with brief walks outside and quick forays for groceries, it’s so refreshing to be entertained, and tutored in small boat cruising from your experience.
You brought up some interesting observations about farmers, the land, and meat consumers vs. vegetarians (vegans, etc.).
I grew up in a small town and helped my father on his cattle farm. I currently own 50% of a small cattle operation. We luckily own our cattle and land outright with no loans, so we’re not hurting. And I will tell you, I love cheeseburgers.
I’ve also have a science background having worked early on in fisheries management for our state conservation department, then moving into teaching junior high and high school sciences.
From those scientists that study species populations, if we look at the current biomass of mammals on Earth, 60% of the mammals are domestic animals (mostly cattle and pigs) used for feeding humans, 36% of the mammals are humans, with the remaining 4% being wild mammals.
I have no answers here. I acknowledge I’m part of the problem. But the data pretty much speaks for itself. This is not sustainable.
I was brought up in the East Anglian fens in the 1960s. I remember blackberrying in the hedgerows as a child but over the course of about 10 years most were grubbed out by greedy farmers altering the landscape irrevocably. This was an extremely short sighted practice as I also remember vast dust storms once the windbreaks had gone. Revisiting the Fens now, land that was black peat 50 years ago is now brown as the fertile peat has been blown away. Here in Worcestershire I have a farmer friend who maintains that he does not “own” the land but is merely the present custodian with a duty to preserve the wildlife and landscape value for future generations. Even in your idyllic Somerset much damage will have been done by modern farming methods. Yes we need to grow food but in harmony with nature and sustainably.
The soil of the fenland prairies are so degraded by intensive arable farming I have heard that they have perhaps only 10-20 years of harvests left.
What a treat! Thank you so much for posting this, Roger.
Wise words indeed Mr. Barnes.
A lovely video and thoughtful chat Rodger. Thank you as always for sharing your clever and sensible solutions in your vessel, as well as the reminder of how interconnected and interdependent we all are during this pandemic. If anything positive has come of this, it is perhaps that we might slow down, think deeper, appreciate more, and listen better? Take care, and God bless the farmers.
Thank you for your effort and diligence Roger, you are amazing. There you are pulling up the foot boards, flailing out chain and anchor rods all to share experience and ease us safely and without drama into a life afloat. I am totally inspired by your work and I expect to entice my lovely wife afloat and into a life of damp, windy and choppy joy!
Great video Roger. Please don’t be apologetic for eating meat/milk and cheese. I was very lucky to film a tv programme years ago not far it seems from where you are. We stayed at the Lighthouse in Tytherington and enjoyed our evenings at The Fox pub!
The theme of the show was about re-use and recycling/up cycling of items of our modern lifestyles. About making, rather than buying. We did many interesting things. One of the things that sticks with me to this day happened when we were attempting to make glue in the pre-chemical industry method - by using rabbit skins. This is how the best quality furniture glues were made years ago.
We travelled to an organic vegetable farm, not to see the farmer, but to meet with the team of men employed by many of the organic farmers to clear their land of animal pests eating their crop. Mostly rabbits. These farms were supplying the high priced vegan and organic shops that were very much a ‘trend’ at the time. They were capitalising on this trend. The nature of the organic varieties needed and the methods meant nothing could be done to deter pests from eating the crop apart from trapping. Every 100m or so along the fence line of the fields a metal box was buried in the ground with a trap door. These boxes would fill with rabbits and 2 or 3 times a week the men would come round and empty the boxes, break the necks of the rabbits, take them away and burn them.
The farmer we met said he has never had to cull so much wildlife to meet the demands of a crop in the past. 1000’s of animals die so that we can have ‘organic’ vegetables. It opened my eyes and is just terrible.
Humans are physiologically determined to eat meat and vegetables, like many other living beings. Cheese - especially Cheddar, is our greatest achievement!
Crops don't have to have hedgerows, but here in rural Maine (US) you'd better have a high working fence or the deer and other animals will wipe out your crops. Two years ago, a mother bear and her cubs enjoyed my blueberries, but I did not. My elderberry bushes got eaten where I'd failed to fence them in. Absolutely love your videos, Roger.
That was a very thoughtful discussion at the end. I agree with your points.
I have a pair of twelve foot oars on my Tanzer 16 dinghy. I can row easily up current on the Saint lawrence river with them. No outboard needed!
How true, the countryside can't be just a recreational area for the urban middle class.
And you are absolutely right about the economic incitement for different habitats.
Thanks Roger. Some wise words. Always like to see your new videos. I’d second the many voices of viewers who’ve said that they enjoy hearing your voice on any subject. While our home here in Australia is not quite so idyllic it is rural and plenty of farms, although with all the sea changers perhaps not for long. Like the boat comment updates too mate.
Roger you are missed in America Please post soon if you can!
Interesting comments on the farming landscape roger it's true not just in the UK but all over the world.
What a wonderful thing it is to be contented in life, and you certainly appear to be just that. Please keep up with the videos , they give a ot of people much enjoyment, especially in the present , and worrying conditions .
Another great video Roger
Very well said Rodger, I think anyone moving from a city or large town should go on a countryside awareness course and learn the ways of country life, it’s not all country living, WI meetings and bunting. Cockerels do make a noise in the morning and will continue to do so. Low paid workers need the houses used as holiday homes. Please think of others
Agree with last comments! We hope it happens.
You have inspired an adventure near the great lakes in North America. My Husband built a wooden 17 foot dory with one of my daughters and now intends to sail it andacross a large lake ,take mast and sail down and row a bit over a mile through a creek then re set sail across another big lake to an Island spend a night ,go to another island spend a day and night and then return same way with our 2 boys.
Well said, I'm with you 100% on this and all you say, but you forgot to mention the lovely aroma of manure at this time of year.
Colin Underdown That was about a month ago! Now the village smells of silage.
Loved your explanations for those out there amok who are ignorant or misunderstanding of the need for farming and ranching regardless of whether they partake of the products the farms and ranches produce or not. I also believe, especially in the wake of current trials, that we should all be diligent to try and deal direct and locally with producers not only to provide ourselves and our families with better, fresher products but in addition and especially to encourage a strong local community both socially and economically. That said, producing or procuring what you can personally with your own ability should also be among priorities for responsible, sensible human beings! Many blessings Roger! I am looking forward to your next season of adventures!
Lovely video:)! The unintended consequences of those that want an idealistic world are not appealing to me either sir. You are one of the many of us out here that would love to live a sensible and balanced life.
Thank you for posting and sharing . Wonderful!
A lot of people think you can plant veg in any old mud. The fields around you are not level enough for farming machinery. Your channel is exactly what YT is about: you come for the topic and stay for the person. Great vid, as always, thank you for sharing.
I really enjoyed this video. Like you, I live in the country far from lakes to sail in. We are in Eastern Iowa by the Mississippi. I have a view of the farm lands around me with small woods with deer and various wild life ... many types of birds which I love.
Here we have the same attitude of city people wanting the rule of country life. One has to live here to understand it.
I bought your book and have read over and over. I'm pleased you shared the design of your dock lines to use as a way of climbing aboard. It would seem obvious, but I would never have thought of it.
Mom taught us to only take game, fish or animal, if you're going to eat it and do it humanly.
I wish we could have farm goods like you have there. It reminds me of The Swallows and Amazons going to the local farms to get milk, eggs, etc. We do have Farmers Markets.
Thanks for your warm and personal video. I could feel at home there in Somerset.
Brilliant Work! I am Sorry I did not watch this through sooner!!!!
Quercus robur 600-800 years old? Wonder what the surrounding countryside looked like when it was just a sapling. Will probably still be hear after we’re just memories.
what an interesting chap and video , keep them coming rodger , hopefully see you at a boatshow sometime 😉👍
I agree with what you have to say Roger absolutely. And I would guess our diets are quite similar.
As for the reason why the hedges persist, could this not also be applied to the woodlands too. I know they are valued as coverts for game rearing and shooting but I'm sure Grandfather would have wanted them kept whether for shooting or not.
I'll put my head on a block...I am a shooting man too.
All in all a very well put together video and thought provoking for some I would hope.
Sandy AKA The Land Lubber
I’m sure that was a British Seagull on the ground there Roger ? (14:30) Keep them upright and it stops the leaks.
Nice. We need more of this. A better understanding of how farms work would be good for everybody.
You raise some very difficult dilemmas, town and countryside are so removed from one another we need a greater understanding of how people live so it's good to share thank you. True what you say about constantly improving boats that's probably what I'm missing most at the moment the opportunity to tinker around on my boat. Cheers Alan.
Great video!
agreed, but farmers have duty of care to the environment, i grew up as a farmers son not far away near templecombe and have worked in the uk in trying to re-establish rural trades. i have re layed an entire farm near wincanton (7km) of hedgelaying, we guessed and 5 years work, most of the hedges we took out 5 obselete barbed wire fences. When i came into farming the field size was 4 to 12 acres, what has happened is the farmers have in the adoption of silage increased tractor size from 70hp to 200hp and 4wd to drag these great machines around the landscape the designers of the machines design for the larger farmer, because he has more money. The result has been hedgerow removal and field drainage, the whole creating an easy to work monocultural grass harvested before wildflower seed setting, to produce silage which is fed too cows that then produce slurry(permenant bovine dioreha ), the farmer then has to put in slurry tanks and buy slurry tankers, to redistrubute on the fields, whereas dried hay produced manure cowpats and due to the time of harvest wildflowers, habitat for wildlife to reproduce and local village work for youths and farmworkers, who the farmers built the communities and houses like yours to house. Now the farmers have capitalised on their assets by selling off rural estate and tyed housing tooften affluent incomers while forcing the ancestors of the farmworkers in too town or council housing.
steve king You are quite right of course. I often muse about doing a video about the difference between grass leys and old-style permanent pasture.
@@RogerRoving i gave it a good go then finally relented and abandoned for brittany via the tamar valley, that would be a good put in calstock or coethele
Good day to you Roger, you are too young to remember Jack Hargreaves I am sure, but he produced some truly timeless programmes and your videos are of that ilk, and very enjoyable ineed. I was glad that you told more about the boat, I knew you had a drop keel, but I am just as sure that many didnt. I also remember being stuck on a sand bar in a storm because of of one, that was fun. If I had but one question it would be when you are away for a couple of days more or less isolated what do you do for those basic needs in the smallest room ?
Thank You!
Thank you Roger, I couldn't agree with you more about the countryside. Any chace of seeing how your electric set up is wired on your boat
Thank you Roger. Your love of the countryside and its people comes across very well in the video. An informative and enjoyable half hour. Enjoy the spring and the coming summer and stay safe.
Marvelous video. Thanks for making it. Great to see you doing well. Stay healthy.
Hi Roger from the Mediterranean , thank you for your lovely videos !
Very well said, I still live on the farm were I was raised and worked as a diary farm until 25 years ago. The land is leased out to a local farmers who raise crops and still pasture cattle in the summer. At this time of a pandemic I appreciate the fact that I can self isolate on 200 acres of land and enjoy nature and the peace of the rural landscape.
Good to listen to someone that knows his stuff.
Thought provoking as always, thanks Roger.
Have enjoyed all your videos and your philosophic presentations. Somewhere I read that you are also an artist and would love to see that side of you presented in a video.
Thank you for wonderful videos!
Just a wonderful (again) video.
Great narration, Love your videos Roger
Wise perspectives. Thanks for this relaxing video.
To vegetable farm -and- sustain healthy soil you'll need roughly half the farm area for animal feed and subsequently manure compost for the veg.
Yes, exactly.
I often suspect the vegans who claim we can feed more people with veg have modern fertilizer in mind. But that stuff exhausts the soil.
And in most of Norway you can't grow anything but grass anyways. But I'm very eager to stop importing meat, and brazilian soybeans which we use to raise pigs, poultry and Salmon.
Roger plse don't let the seagull die collectors even here in Oz love them the best outboard ever love your show cheers and beers
Marty
Excellent video Roger, many thanks, glad you are well. Gerard lacey in Ireland.
I always feel relaxed watching your videos. Insightful points too.
Thank you, I really enjoyed spending some time with you Roger 🧓🏻
I could add a like to pretty well all of the comments so far as I agree with so much that has been said. The countryside as a rural landscape can only be lost once and that must never happen. Happy to accept the fens as a perfect arable landscape. Yes you could run large herds of cows and sheep but horses for courses to add another animal.
Comment: I think you filmed this indoors with a camera which has a flip to the side screen. Please look at the lens and not the screen. You'll see what I mean.
Hopefully you can get back on the water before the summer is over. Surely the wonderful weather we are having at the moment can't last until September, or can it? I'd love to be out in it but live in a flat.
Take care. Stay safe.
Deluk I started filming this on the iPhone with an attached mic, as well as a lavalier microphone, but I broke the lavalier clambering into the boat. I had other sound problems with other sections, so I reshot many of the scenes on a large camera with gun mic. The final scene is left over from the iPhone footage - which is why the sound quality is different. The reshot footage of this section was better quality but I felt my choice of words was rather stilted, so I went back to the earlier version. I was quite simply looking at the wrong end of the phone, which was on its side. The front facing camera is not very visible. This is all to say, I do notice these problems in my videos and constantly work to make them better!
@@RogerRoving Thank you for your detailed reply. The video was a very good example of a thoughtful and well put together piece. Filming was excellent and I only noticed different sound during the short clips about the boat in the boathouse. Very enjoyable. The iPhone does remarkably well, sound included. The supposedly lower spec selfie cam does a great job. If I ever get that high tech I will remember to look at the lens end of the phone!
Be well and take care.
A great video , presented in a very thoughtful and logical manner , thank you .
A really enjoyable video. You're the kind of guy I'd really enjoy sitting in a pub chatting with. I used to live in the South West of England, but now live by the sea in Denmark, you should come have a sailing adventure over here, I think you would have a great time?
I’d love to!
@@RogerRoving when this craziness is over you should come over, I'm sure we could help orientate you 😊
Interesting video .Enjoyed it very much.
Thanks, really appreciate your musings
Another great video. Thank you for new insights into the layout and operation of your beautiful boat and into the beautiful area in which you live. I would love to see an in depth look at your sail and look forward to when you get to bend them to the spars again.
Thank you for your wisdom ,much appreciated.
Lovely video Roger, how things have changed, if you go back 100 years, it was a very different scene. Hardly any machines used for farming. It was hard work but that life was good.
Thank you...absolutely spot on.
A lovely civilised film about my favourite county. Would you consider doing a film about getting into Dinghy Cruising for the absolute, never done it before beginner?
Avidly watch your informative videos, keep up the good work. A tip for splitting fire wood......secure an old tyre on top of you splitting block so when you split your log the tyre retains the log preventing wood flying in all directions. Fair winds
Very interesting and informative vlog. What a surprise to see you know a little bit more about life than just boating. I loved this one 👍
Buy local, perfect. Support local farmers. Your take on the history of your place, culture, things, people and your way of doing things is important to you. It is to me. That you have put much thought and can articulate such means much time has been spent thinking about these things. Not many folks do that anymore. Good on you. Good for us. We are fortunate to have you. And although we should respect the 14% of the UK population that is vegetarian, it would be good if they could respect the 66% of the UK population that is omnivorous. That way the flora and fauna of the farmer’s hedge rows might just stay the way they are, providing habitat for a multitude of wildlife...not that it’s any of my business. I guess that I’m a vegetarian in a way that my cattle eat only grass and then I eat them, heh, heh...
Showing us your home is quite a new feeling. Your home and fire seems comfortable, colors perfect, a place unpretentious and extremely livable, just you. Bringing us in was a nice thing, thank you. My grandparents, in Tennessee, had a train off in the distance that I would listen to, going to sleep. I can listen to a train, off in the distance, here in my Texas home. Farm sites, sounds and smells are all familiar and friendly to me, the crows, the blue jay, the smells around the barn, all tug on my heart strings. Your sailing, the dinghy philosophy is my philosophy of life: get out and enjoy the journey, don’t worry about the stuff. I have enjoyed this video beyond measure. Watching it multiple times to caress the heart of my younger days. Thank you my friend. Texas
Your spring is much further along then us here in Michigan, our leaves aren’t fully out yet. Love the video, the English countryside is always so beautiful.
Well said, Roger.
With so many stupid things on youtube of people mucking about inside it is wonderful to share your backyard. Thanks from Japan.
greetings from Canada
that idea for a rope sling to get into boat is pretty smart
is that your idea or did you get it from others
either way excellent and simple idea that I would have appreciated in times past
safe sailing roger
by the way liked your old coffee pot ...had character ...
great vid roger
Informative video. Here in NE essex it is all arable farmland and the hedgerows do an important job of wind shelter control or so I was led to believe. I believe the alminium pot suggestion was maybe because that it has now been linked that cooking with it can cause dementia in later life. The army have also now dropped aluminium cookware.
There's no real evidence aluminium pans are toxic, its a myth.
Hi an enjoyable thoughtful video, I normally watch your sailing adventures as I love to go canoeing or kayaking and just love the water and the scenery you show, looking forward to more videos of you living life on your own terms, quite a nice lifestyle...best wishes
Roger! I enjoyed your comments, as always. Come and sail with us in the San Juan Islands. Kind regards to you. -Rob
Excelente video! Saludos desde argentina!
Great video Roger. Thanks there was a lot of good information to take in about life in the traditional British farmlands. I’m a country boy my self living in Seattle Wa. USA. There is always a clash here between country verses city people. I personally enjoy seeing a coyote walking a city street here. It’s a great area to sail but politics can get a little testy. Cheers
a very pleasant video.I lived in Ely,Cardiff,with a dairy farm across the road.We looked out onto farmland.Love your articles regarding your boat,Can we have a video on your navigation tools and how you use them? i think it would help those of us looking at dinghy cruising. cheers
I am really hoping you are doing well, Roger. If you are wrapped up tight on a real job project, and not having been able to get out on the boat, can we see any of that? As I have mentioned to you before, I really enjoy the architecture stuff. Most importantly I thoroughly enjoy see a master operating his dinghy. Are you doing some gardening during the lockdown times? I know from comments to your videos that there are a lot of people around the world that thoroughly enjoy watching and listening to you go on about whatever. Please post anything to allow people to see how you are doing. Peace be with you.
Very interesting to see the details of how Avrel is rigged.
I agree with your view of our countryside. There are too many who need a better unerstanding of how the coutryside works. The farming community may not be faultless, but the smallscale mixed farms do pretty well. I'm very jealous of your local milk vending machine! Especially as our milkman has just packed up; forcing us to make more regular trips to the supermarket.
Your range looks great. I wouldn't be without our solid fueled Rayburn!
Dear Roger,
Thank you for your considered and delicately expressed views on our countryside vs. veganism. I find this fixation by vegans, and others, upon the food which we eat to be offensively base. There are many higher considerations which are in more urgent need of our collective attention. Endlessly worrying at the "morality" of sustenance seems like a convenient excuse to turn a blind eye to more challenging problems which may require more effort to solve.
@Heartsongsutube Thanks for the reply. I can't find anything in what you say to disagree with except perhaps your use of the word carnivore: I'm not sure it accurately describes the diets of these people and I worry that you're using it with divisive intent.
Animal welfare is the proper concern of those who farm and eat meat and it should be the top priority of our legislators in the meat market. I would gladly suffer any increase in the price of the meat I consume if it meant better conditions for livestock
@Heartsongsutube Try 'Omnivore' it's less divisive and probably more accurate.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and philosophy. That is an interesting wee model boat on the mantel... yacht? fishing vessel? ... would love to hear more about it.
I do wonder how the modern housewife (or househusband) would cope with a live kicking rabbit or flapping fish to prepare and cook.
I'm a cidermaker, retired now. I was talking about cider to a young woman at a craft fair a while ago who was unaware that there was a season for harvesting apples. Her explanation "I'm a city girl"
Thanks Roger! Absolutely fucking love your videos and can’t wait to enjoy this one! Be safe!