Turf Zone – JohnKnoxZone
Many moons ago, when I was a innocent spotty teenage apprentice at James Gentles & Sons, Chartered Quantity Surveyors, Galashiels, there was much discussion in the office about the so-called butter mountain, the location of which I always wondered about. There was also the milk lake which must have been quite a sight to behold, though I do wonder if there were any fish in it? (I was a keen fly fisherman at the time.) How these excesses of food production came about I cannot recall but what I do recall was something about farmers being paid not to milk cows because there was too much milk being produced by too many coo besties.
Now, this had me thinking as I turfed around Dalkeith this evening, could this same principle be applied to turfing? Could turfers be paid not to go turfing, not to take zones? I suppose if a turfer was trying to achieve one of the higher denomination Greed medals, they might “pay” other turfers not to take the zones from them. Or perhaps simply because they want to hold onto the zones to increase and maintain their PPH value?
Of course, this leads to the question of what currency we might use? I suppose actual money might change hands but that in my opinion would simply be too vulgar. But what else could we use in exchange for not turfing? I would suggest that negotiations might centre around the humble Kit-Kat, perhaps a Chunky 4-pack or 8-pack four fingered Kit-Kats might be traded for not turfing a set number of hours or even days. For longer periods of time I think that scones might be the way to go with home-made scones having the highest value. Food for thought.
Now, back in Turf Blog 31-01-25, I made comment about how I was never able to get fully warm that day as we cycled our new Brompton folding bikes around Loch Leven, parts of which will be closed for resurfacing work between 17th February and 30th April, by the way. My thoughts at the time were to purchase a decent insulated jacket for cycling, and that is exactly what I did. The jacket in question turned out to be the Helly Hansen Odin, or to give it it’s full title, Men’s Odin Stretch Insulator Jacket 2.0. Managed to get the bright moss coloured one in the sale with £80.00 off.
I’ve also been doing some online research into how to keep extremities like toes and fingers warm in cold weather, particularly when cycling and one of the most interesting points I came across was the importance of keeping the core body warm. The theory seems to be that if you don’t keep the core body warm it pulls heat back from the extremities by reducing blood flow to hands and feet.
So, my thinking is that if I keep the core temperature slightly above the toasty comfortable level, i.e. with excess heat to spare, my hands and feet will stay warmer. And my session this evening seems to prove that theory. The air temperature was around 3 degrees above freezing, by body was toasty warm including my arms, my fingers did not get cold at all as they have done previously and while my toes were still on the cold side, they were not painfully cold.
Next, a final point about keeping fingers warm while turfing and that is decent gloves. First tip is that loose fitting gloves are usually better in that they are easier to remove or put on with wet hands or damp sweaty hands. Try putting on tight fitting gloves with wet hands to see what I mean. Also, when purchasing gloves check that any inner liners will stay in place, particularly in the fingers. It can be a real pain sorting them out when the liner comes out with your hand when removed. And, check the gloves are grippy and hold you phone securely. You do not want to keep dropping your phone. Finally, test that the finger tips are conductive and will work with the turf app. Back soon.
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