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Today chaps I smoked a rack of Beef Ribs six hours on the smoker another hour wrapped in baking paper and foil and then 15 minutes direct heat to Chrisp up I started with a home made rub. Then my wife made a sticky sauce to put over the ribs, when I cut into them the smoke halo was present and it was melt in the mouth like butter the feed back I got was amazing I felt like crying lol here’s a few pics.

Well after 13years at the same firm making money for someone else I have decided to go for it with my own business. I have secured a short term freelance contract that should see a good start and get money through the books along with a fair bit of other works that I will manage from a distance. Actually set my business up about 11 months ago with a target of being employed by the business before end of this summer so on target so far. Bit nervous as I've always had secure employment but I haven't been happy for a few years and it's not the way to carry on. Put my notice in today, shit or bust time!

Litter brother and sister

Crazy horse

walkies

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Little beagle x teckel

Young clay getting some sun watching the hens, I wonder what he’d do if he got loose

Couple of hours in the woods

My strange bred dog has turned out to be a handy fella and capable of most things. Really enjoying my time with him long may it last

RIP Lee Rigby .........

Been on a cheese steak mission last few months tried a few cuts but nothing for us cuts it like a bit of chuck n cheese , seared then slow cooked for four hrs then back in the pan before hanging out in a toasted bun with the full extra loaded bits int gravey 6 hrs start to finish for serious flavour at £9 a kg bargain beef

They ain’t soldiers they are coward terrorist scum ......

Only the male bird calls Cuckoo, they can be very territorial and yes, when a Cuckoo call is heard they often fly around to see where the call is coming from... Taken weekend just gone by myself... Fascinating birds.

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Wheaton x bitch 12 months old.

Couple of young un's for next season..

bullfinch bullfinch

So as a few of you know, I've recently had a few weeks hunting around New Zealand's South Island. I did all sorts so not really sure where to put this thread but the main hunt was Himalayan Tahr in the Southern Alps so I guess this 'Big Game' section is as good a place as any. In addition to the Tahr, I hunted pigs with dogs, shot duck on the opening day from a mai mai, fished for sea run trout, lamped various grass munching pests (possum, rabbit, hare) and generally experienced rural and wild New Zealand. Firstly, I have to thank @Tyla for putting me in touch with Kurt, a local farmer/hunter based near Invercargil who essentially guided me on this adventure. We all have our moments on here but I do believe it pays not to be a bell end and Tyla putting me in touch with Kurt is another instance that really reinforces that to me. So, Tahr!.... These big mountain goats were introduced to the South Islands Southern Alps back when we didn't know better, like much of NZ's large game, and without predators have done really quite well. They inhabit the snowy/rocky tops during the day coming down to the highest tussocks of vegetation on the mountain to feed a few hours before darkness blankets the valleys. They can be found feeding again in the morning before ascending back to the safety of their extremely treacherous alpine beds. Their natural predator in their native range is the Snow Leopard, but in NZ their only predator are hunters mad enough to go after them. A dream hunt of mine for a few years has been a mountain hunt and Tahr is probably the cheapest one to do, mostly because the Department of Conservation (DoC) consider recreational hunting a primary tool in the control of this invasive species. Recreational hunting, for sustenance, sport or trophy is endorsed and pushed quite heavily by DoC. It's a bit of a cultural shock for a Pom to see such support for fieldsports by a Government. A Rocky Mountain Bighorn hunt in Montana on the other hand would probably cost ten times as much as an off the shelf guided Tahr hunt because they're not invasive and a load of people in the US want to hunt them. Going self guided, or as I did informally guided by a local works out cheaper still. The original plan was for a week in the West Coast, dropped in and extracted from our allocated Tahr block by helicopter. Due to a number of reasons, weather being one, we made the call to knock this on the head and hit the East Coast (of the Alps, not the island), the Canterbury High Country. I'm not getting anymore specific than that as although we were hunting public land, kiwi's guard their hotspots! East Coast meant no helo in and that we might be sharing the country with other hunters.... So six hour drive north through the night, arriving at one in the morning to the first DoC cabin, sleeping bags out aaaaand f***ing dead.... Possums on the roof would occasionally wake me up but I was pretty much dead to the world until about 8am when I heard Kurt bringing me a coffee from the truck. We then pretty much had 10-15miles of fairly serious off-roading to as close to the head of the valley as we could get. Here's a few pics... At this point we got our shit together, food for 2 nights on the tops, checked the rifle was shooting where it was pointed and had a late breakfast before our ascent to where we would camp. Now apparently the typical way hunters go after Tahr is to glass from the valley bottom, living in the relative comfort of a log fire heated DoC cabin and then 'shoot up' with light kit to a shooting position before darkness or before the Tahr ascend out of reach. The way Kurt likes to hunt them though is to pack in with tent and food to where the Tahr browse so you can hunt pretty much continually, rather than wasting time and worrying about light.