Posted on 12/30/2016 5:08:46 PM PST by Olog-hai
After generations of his family spent their lives as outlaws for making the infamous Irish poitín, Pádraic Ó Griallais has finally been able to carry out the family business in the open just under a decade after the spirit was outlawed.
Taking a career break from his job as a high school teacher to establish a new business based on his old family recipe, Ó Griallais is free to produce and sell the highly alcoholic spirit as he pleases without the interference of the Gardaí [Irish police], who hounded the previous poitín distillers in his family with raids to put a stop to the production of the beverage that was outlawed from 1661 to 1997 due to excise regulations.
The production of the spirit was regulated by the Irish Department of Agriculture in 1997 but only under their specific regulations. Luckily the regulations still allow Ó Griallais to use the botanical bogbean that grows around his family’s homeland around Indreabhán, County Galway, that makes their specific recipe so special. …
(Excerpt) Read more at irishcentral.com ...
True, true.
FRiends to the west, up near the Virginia line, are reporting snow, but here in Boring it is 37 and drizzly. Tom and I gave the cats their flea drops, and Jake scratched me.
Of course that bottom photo is also true of NYC..
Nashville is about 25% yankee these days
I guess we got the bad driving ones from Michigan and Ohio
I’ve lived up north they definitely are more prepared and experienced for snow
Besides that the issues south of the say Bowling Green KY latitude is
Lack of removal and salting equipment
Nobody has snow tires
Nobody has chains
And the South gets usually bad quality frozen precip
Ice or frozen rain or wet snow
I myself a Deep South raised guy with a lot of new yoik and mountain snow experience drive very good in it
Atlanta which I think that pic is from as well has very high yankee migrant quotient
I think you’re going to get more of a weather event than I am.
But that’s what I get for living here in the outskirts of the swamp that Trump wants to drain.
It’s raining here, upon my three kinds of leftover soup out on the back step. Weather-feed says it’s 33 now.
Since I grew up in and learned to drive in Ohio, I contend your bad driving Yankees are all from Michigan. You know them because they all drive in the left lane (no matter what speed they are going) and never dim their brights..
While I can understand the extenuating circumstances with snow south of, say, the Duck River what I really can't understand is drivers from around here (where we DO have real snow, sleet, freezing glop, and other assorted winterlike things on a frequent basis post Thanksgiving til about National Atheists Day) who think they can drive their all-wheel-drive vehicles in such stuff without modifying their driving habits.
Just a few days ago after a snow (which disappeared the next day when the solar heater appeared in the heavens) a local in her white SUV took the corner (a 'T' intersection) at the foot of my driveway as if the pavement were dry. She turned, or tried to but her SUV, in total obedience to the laws of physics - including but not limited to conservation of momentum and variables including the coefficient of friction, continued in an only slightly modified heading from her original vector of motion. She ended up obliterating the stop sign with her driver's door and resting at a non-salubrious angle in the ditch from which her four wheel drive was powerless to free her. But at least once all motion had ceased her vehicle was facing in her intended direction..
And then there are the NYC dwellers for whom even a quarter inch of rain is a major obstacle. But they're a special case since most of them are liberals.
People tend to have unwarranted faith in their “four-wheel-drive” vehicles while neglecting that accidents occur using four wheel brakes.
It isn’t the going that’s so troublesome in winter weather as the stopping when you need to.
And you notice that all the ads for those four/all-wheel-drive vehicles show them GOING through snow.
They never show them stopping.. ;-)
But given enough time this view could re-occur if it weren't for the fact that this historic viaduct is on borrowed time. Built in 1875, time and weather have combined to weaken the structure such that a speed restriction of 5 mph and a load limit is in effect over the bridge so the latest high capacity freight cars cannot travel this route. Construction of a replacement bridge started in 2015 and is scheduled for completion is September of 2018.
The viaduct offers some of the most spectacular views of the falls on the Genesee River. Unfortunately to access these views or photograph them you must trespass on an active railroad bridge. Norfolk Southern as would be expected frowns on such activity but with the location in a popular state park a high number of trespassers avail themselves of the photo opportunity. The one thing that saves these folk is the fact that any train that should come (and this is a high traffic line) is going at what amounts to a fast walking speed so people can (and do) get out of the way in plenty of time. Here's a view from the bridge.. ;-)
Norfolk Southern offered the bridge to the State of NY so access to these views would not be lost to the public, but NY State declined so the viaduct is slated to be scrapped and turned into cans, cars, and razor blades (or whatever) once the new bridge is completed.
There are preservation groups trying to change NY State's mind and preserve the bridge or maybe half of it as a walkway out over the gorge but whether they will succeed remains to be seen.
One thing is certain. Sightseers will not be able to walk out on the new bridge because trains will be traveling at track speed with no restrictions once it is completed. Track speed will be at least 35 mph (there is a curve to the north that might limit it to that) but could be 45 or 50 if the approaches allow.
Tourists with cameras will no longer be able to out 'walk' the trains..
Some history (written in 1977) if you're interested..
Lovely. The ice reminds me of my house.
"What's all that shiny, cold stuff?"
"Ice. Ice, baby."
Da humans brokded it!
She’s probably right.
Our cats tend to think that humans can make it daylight and warm outside, just like inside.
When that doesn’t happen, they give “that look”.
Yes, that too. Jake has gone out, but Shannon isn’t having any of it.
Having grown up in the middle of the Rocky Mountains (after five years in Alaska) I learned how to drive in the snow as a teenager. I’ve never forgotten how, but I don’t want to refresh my expertise in that particular field. I prefer a climate where I don’t have to worry about falling on my backside or making a four-point landing off the front steps.
And yes, I did all that when I was in my early twenties, and since that was so very long ago, these days, I may end up breaking something important.
I have to agree with that little face...what is dat stuffs?
Morning, all. The wind isn’t blowing, but the air is freezing outside. Maybe today will be a day the Peeps can sit outside for a bit. Maybe.
I think I will pack some boxes, but I’m going to buy another roll of tape. And maybe I’ll pack up a tub, since I’ve gathered up some more “knick-knacks and scarcities,” as my mother called them. (GAH! I’ve become my own mother! EEP!)
Wow...
I have taken a fall or two on the ice, but never drove in it much.
Jake came in and told me he had to get in bed with the girls now. Probably won’t see him again until afternoon.
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