A Day in the Bog.

Ah sure you cant beat it a day in the bog was my fathers refrain, all that fresh air and hard work sure its mighty altogether, we children did not think so and had mixed feelings about going to the bog.Although May was the preferred month for turf cutting,there was plenty of work to be done in June.The turf was cut manually . It took longer to dry for two reasons,firstly it wasnt pressed so held more moisture.Secondly the sods were bigger than machine cut so took longer to dry.After being cut they were drawn out in barrows. They were then left drying on the ground. Our family spent many hours back bending to spread out the sods.After a time the turf was footed.The traditional method was to balance sods against one another until each grogeen contained around a dozen pieces.The other method was box footing,this involved laying two sods flat and then putting pairs on top of them at right angles until there were twelve or fourteen sods in the grogeen. Opinions differed as to which was the best method, my father preferred the first method because it was harder and slower I think. Spreading and footing turf was left to the children as my father would have been busy with other farm matters. He would only appear again when it was time to draw it home.Despite all the hard work I have fond memories of days in the bog.I have tried to recreate these memories in my paintings.You can message me on Facebook at Aine Art,Killashee