Jeremy Clarkson Is At It Again

Season 2 of Clarkson's Farm is on at Amazon. I think I prefer Season 1 because everything was fresh and new, but Season 2 has its share of learning experiences (both funny and painful). 

In Season 2, Jeremy Clarkson is still fighting the "council" for permission to put in a parking lot for his farm shop. It boggles my mind because such an issue is inconceivable here in the states.

I do understand the council's position, to a point. Clarkson's celebrity status brings a lot of tourist traffic, and that can be disruptive, but honestly, if they had let him build the car park it would cease ruining the land they're trying to protect. 

You can't help but see how much this is more a personal vendetta against Clarkson when (according to locals) the Council allows other farms to create farm stores and parking lots.

Personally, I adore him. He's loud, brash, and refreshingly politically incorrect.

He says things a lot of people are afraid of saying out loud, openly defying the Cancel Culture of today. He's not as erudite as George Carlin but he's just as plain speaking.

Mostly though, he's brought front and center the plight of farmers not only in the UK, but in most of the Western world.

Farmers today are in a stranglehold of government rules and carrot-clobbering subsidies. Farmers in the UK have it even worse because of village councilors.

Part of Jeremy Clarkson's problem is Jeremy Clarkson. I think he rubs a lot of people the wrong way. Good heavens, he says what he thinks! Can we please stop penalizing people for having an opinion?

In Season 2 of Clarkson's Farm he's venturing into cows and beer, and came up with a great idea to form a coop with other farmers so he could start a restaurant using only locally produced food.

You would think the Village Council would welcome something that would be good for the economy and their local farmers, but it's obvious they have it in for Jeremy and blocked him at every turn.

Big Gov isn't much better. Badgers were once an endangered species in the UK but no one has thought to see if they're still threatened. Apparently they're thriving.

Badgers, mean tempered cousins to my border collie are often infected with bovine TB, which is a danger for cows. Infected cows are systematically destroyed. Yet no one thinks to destroy the badger.

What's really needed is a vaccine but so far nothing has proved effective.

Meanwhile the farm manages. Jeremy spends a great deal of money. His equipment and buildings are first rate. I had barn-envy for a while--and I don't even have cows.

Even though his trials and tribulations are on a much grander level than ours, the problems are the same. Keeping stock healthy, following government rules, buying equipment and animals, and the heartbreak that when no matter how hard you work, sometimes things go south.

All you can do is pick yourself up and start over. I respect him for that. 

If you've never caught Clarkson's Farm, definitely start with Season One. There's probably a little more cussing than you'd like your ten-year old to hear, so be forewarned.

Here on our little farm, we're slowly putting the garden in. I have more chicks to sell and I might consider selling some laying hens too. I think fifteen is too many for us. 

We have a huge brush pile started. I hope to get that burned before the week is out. We lost a lot of trees in the last two years. For all the rain we get in the spring, we suffer drought terribly in the summer. 

I ache everywhere. But the weather is good and I have to work while it's not raining. I hope we can settle down into a slower rhythm in a couple of weeks, then I can tackle the house. It looks like a crime scene.

We've continued to take Odin for long car rides. He still gets hyper but he's beginning to calm down quicker than before. We took him to Lowes to get him used to people. 

The salespeople were so nice and tried to be friendly with Odin, but he lunged as soon as they got within three feet. It was odd because he was calm, almost laid back until anyone got too close. 

I even left him with Greg so he wouldn't feel like he had to protect me, but no, he watched me walk away and then sniffed the air to see where I was going.

We'll keep trying. We need him to understand that people aren't dangerous and he has no need to be afraid. We've considered hiring a trainer--a real trainer who can deal with behavioral issues, but most around us are the usual obedience trainers.

I need Cesar Millan. He understands rotties.

We've had our neighbor come over (who also has rotties) and she ignores him which is what I want people to do. I want the idea to approach people to be Odin's. The whole time she was in our house he was perfectly calm. It was only as she stood up that he began to feel defensive so I moved him back another few feet so he could see nothing bad was going to happen.

How goes it with you? What's new in your world?

Any time you make a purchase using any of my Amazon links it rewards me with a few cents. This goes a long way to keep this blog active. Thank you.