Reply With QuoteThanks Bob
That verse has always being favourite of mine, when I was a young fellow at the time.
.
CTRL + V!
SubscriberOh, for goodness sake, BobOriginally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies
SAID HANRAHAN by John O'Brien
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan, In accents most forlorn,Outside the church, ere Mass began, One frosty Sunday morn.
The congregation stood about, Coat-collars to the ears,And talked of stock, and crops, and drought, As it had done for years.
"It's looking crook," said Daniel Croke; "Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,For never since the banks went broke Has seasons been so bad."
"It's dry, all right," said young O'Neil, With which astute remarkHe squatted down upon his heel And chewed a piece of bark.
And so around the chorus ran "It's keepin' dry, no doubt.""We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan, "Before the year is out."
"The crops are done; ye'll have your work To save one bag of grain;From here way out to Back-o'-Bourke They're singin' out for rain.
"They're singin' out for rain," he said, "And all the tanks are dry."The congregation scratched its head, And gazed around the sky.
"There won't be grass, in any case, Enough to feed an ass;There's not a blade on Casey's place As I came down to Mass."
"If rain don't come this month," said Dan, And cleared his throat to speak -"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan, "If rain don't come this week."
A heavy silence seemed to steal On all at this remark;And each man squatted on his heel, And chewed a piece of bark.
"We want an inch of rain, we do," O'Neil observed at last;But Croke "maintained" we wanted two To put the danger past.
"If we don't get three inches, man, Or four to break this drought,We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan, "Before the year is out."
In God's good time down came the rain; And all the afternoonOn iron roof and window-pane It drummed a homely tune.
And through the night it pattered still, And lightsome, gladsome elvesOn dripping spout and window-sill Kept talking to themselves.
It pelted, pelted all day long, A-singing at its work,Till every heart took up the song Way out to Back-o'-Bourke.
And every creek a banker ran, And dams filled overtop;"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan, "If this rain doesn't stop."
And stop it did, in God's good time; And spring came in to foldA mantle o'er the hills sublime Of green and pink and gold.
And days went by on dancing feet, With harvest-hopes immense,And laughing eyes beheld the wheat Nid-nodding o'er the fence.
And, oh, the smiles on every face, As happy lad and lassThrough grass knee-deep on Casey's place Went riding down to Mass.
While round the church in clothes genteel Discoursed the men of mark,And each man squatted on his heel, And chewed his piece of bark.
"There'll be bush-fires for sure, me man, There will, without a doubt;We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan, "Before the year is out."Around the Boree Log and Other Verses, 1921
I’m pretty sure the dinosaurs died out when they stopped gathering food and started having meetings to discuss gathering food
A bookshop is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking
ForumSage
Thanks Bob
That verse has always being favourite of mine, when I was a young fellow at the time.
.
I think the climate change battle has already been lost. It's already well advanced and nothing we do is going to change that. The weather extremes will become more extreme.
The real question is, do we try to go back, which is probably impossible, or do we just go with the flow and set out to terrafarm the earth to adjust to the changes.
For example, if Australia is going to get hotter, then we have to adjust our farming and environmental management techniques to allow for that. That will mean dry land farming techniques spreading south, while the coastal strip, the south and Tasmania will focus even more on farming methods suitable for wet climates. Crops requiring lots of water will have to be irrigated from new off-stream dams filled during wet seasons.
What do you think?
Swaggie
I think the two are not mutually exclusive.
Cheers
Slunnie
~ Discovery II Td5 ~ Discovery 3dr V8 ~ Series IIa 6cyl ute ~ Series II V8 ute ~
Yeah, I'd agree with that.
ForumSage
Excellent article, thanks for sharing.
Now to do my bit, I can trade the lawn-mower for a mob of sheep. Providing free lawn mowing, environmental services, entertainment for the dog and plenty of food.
What's not to like?
ForumSage
Great while you are watching them eat, the moment your back is turned, the sheep get out and that makes your neighbour cranky,
Or the moment your back is turned the sheep get in the veggie patch and that makes the Mrs cranky.
.
ForumSage
I wasn't serious.
But I have been considering getting a block of land and planting trees in this area which is the driest in NZ. The advice from that talk would be to get a big herd of sheep in once a year to eat, flatten, pee and poo everywhere to help grass growth.
Rather than the alternative of fewer livestock continually grazing.
Ha Ha, it has been called 'cell grazing', 'controlled grazing' 'Time grazing' and lord knows how many others, in the long term without regular rainfall it is not ongoingly sustaniable. Climate change is more an item of big business to make an extra dollar via 'trading' carbon credits and has been seized upon by govts and greens as a means of people controle!
Climate has always changed long before people even, its warmed, cooled(Ice ages) melted, flooded, rose, sank you name it and all without the help of a pesky humanoid. Did the dinosaurs fart themselves to extinction?
OldBushie
Maybe we should've spent some of the Billions of dollars of taxpayers money wasted on defence white elephants on a pipe line to bring some of the billions of litres of water that flow out to sea each year up north south. Pat
Posting Permissions
| Search AULRO.com ONLY! |
Search All the Web! |
|---|
|
|
|
Bookmarks