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[coatesyukon]

What do you call the long thin pieces of wood the grow in willow bushes, or mature coppiced hazel? I mean the 3-5 metre long, things that grow out of the ground and are maybe 8cm across at the base, tapering to not much at the top, usually unbranched

Comments

[muttley_mutter]

Surpisingly, no. The rod, pole or perch is part of the elderly surveying set of measurement standards: I can remember rote-learning the table beginning with "rod, pole or perch" but the rest of it has gone completely, and I have to use the Ubiquitousnet to remind myself

1 rod, pole or perch 16.5 feet
1 chain 4 rods
1 furlong 10 chains
1 mile 8 furlongs

http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/units/length.htm

How anyone comes up with a progression that goes sixteen-and-a-half, four, ten, eight, I don't know.

I remeber Havoc, and in going through my slides and photograph negatives and scanning them in for cleanup and archival, I have come across a few with him in. Was he with you at Helensburgh for that new year gathering where everyone went skating on the pond? I've several photos from that holiday - was it 1986? Peter, you might be interested too, and in the others from joint holidays, I've put some samples up on Photobucket.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h23/ardy-photo/Helensburgh/
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h23/ardy-photo/Scarba-1980/
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h23/ardy-photo/Scarba-1981/

More on measures

[muttley_mutter]

http://www.baronage.co.uk/bphtm-02/moa-10.html

A furlong is a furrow-long, the length an ox-plough team could go before needing a rest
The rod is the ox-goad which had to be 16 1/2 feet to reach the leading pair.

[sartorresartus]

1986 would have been Loki and Boss. Boss was a short haired sable and Loki was black and long curly haired. Can't be 86, must have been 85 or 84, because I was just pregnant at Christmas 86 and we were with my parents (I had tonsilitis all over the holiday, which caused complications, because we didn't 'know')

That's Tom in the photo, he looks about 18months.

I hate to say it, but I've still got that gilet! It was a Barbour, and although it's a bit battered it still goes out with the dogs on occasions!

I knew about the furrow long, but I thought it was horses, because that was the length of the furrow in a strip field.

[coatesyukon]

Horses were little used in agriculture until much later. Oxen areless disease prone, easier to feed, and more efficient in low gear. I'm not sue when the switch to horses happened, or what drove it. I have a feeling it was early 19th C, but I could be WAY off on tht.

[muttley_mutter]

Now with added dogs: Looks like Loki and Boss, so must be '85?

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h23/ardy-photo/Helensburgh/

[sartorresartus]

Definitely Boss and Loki. Good memories of happier times.