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comanche

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Everything posted by comanche

  1. comanche

    Oh!

    comanche posted a topic in Ferrets & Ferreting

    And this morning's surprise was;
  2. comanche
    This topic has been done before and I contributed then. To all those who claim not to have seen a ghost I have one question; How do you know? As can be seen from people's stories they ain't all chain-rattling,attention-seeking zombies who appear for our benefit. More like ordinary folk going about their business without realising they have moved on. At least they probably don't have the bother of having to pay tax or go to the loo.
  3. comanche
    <what's the story with the tails?> The breed has naturally bald tails so they don't get mucky so the fly swats are left on.
  4. comanche
    Er yes ,the little hut. Its not the "Sussex Saxon Experience Activity Farm" . I'm just a bit soft These sheep were a bit of a bargain bunch from the farmer next door. Trouble is, when you buy ten sheep in a bunch you have to take em as they come . Er ,yes. Not the finest specimen but believe it or not this is him after just ten days on virgin grass and maybe the hut helped a bit . That was a while back.He's so beefy(that can't be right) now I call him Mick because he reminds me of an ovine version of Mick McManus the wrestler.
  5. comanche
    It wasn't me. The poor Girl who owns the place was emptying it onto the dung heap . As she said afterwards ;she knows better than to drive with the body up but needed to shake off some clinging muck. My plan was to unbolt the hitch and use the fore-loader to right the trailer but a lad with a Land Rover and big rope managed to pull it straight. And far from getting any stick -apart from the obligatory friendly banter- not one person has given her a hard time over it . Seems every local farmer has a similar tale to tell of their own or at least admits that "There but for the grace of
  6. comanche
    Too late! You are right it becomes almost a constant intrusion. With only ten sheep its not too bad but they always come second to the horses as the place is run as livery. The sheep get all the rough edges. They also pay their way clearing footpaths and act as "toppers" . Its a balancing act no commercial farmer would have time for due to the constant shuffling of electric fencing but it saves burning diesel to cut the grass down to a length palatable to the horses .
  7. comanche
    Over the last couple of years I've been lucky enough to go into partnership with the owner of one of my ferreting permissions and reared a few pigs and sheep. Piglets and lambs are so cute and they all have names(albeit "Sausage" "Bacon" "Braveheart" "Custer" etc; just to keep things in perspective ) They also get incredibly spoiled but their end is never in doubt . When we ate the first lambs we sort of thought that it was because we were biased that they tasted so good but everyone who bought meat from us also said they had never tasted lamb like it!. I've not bought so mu
  8. comanche
    Its all go down on the farm; Eldest grandchild waves goodbye as she is swallowed whole by a sheep. tractor has a mishap ! Sheep corner elderly gentleman and force him to feed them hazel leaves. And this one . Not the best picture but something atmospheric about it; taken by eldest grandchild (before the sheep ate her:))
  9. comanche
    I really don't like brawn but determined not to waste my pigs' heads I tried something else . It looks a bit "Lord of the Flies " in the preparatory stages but don't be put off. Cut close to the skull and jaw remove the mask. If you are feeling all medieval you can sew it back to shape,stuff it with mince and herbs, roast it and invite all the local barons to a feast. As I don't have enough friends to justify this rather extravagant course I cut the mask into squares and froze some for later use. The other bits I roasted . They make great golden crackling. I didn't fancy
  10. comanche
    One word of advice;"waste". You'll get lots of folk who will pay you to cut their lawns and, especially, hedges even though they are quite capable of doing it themselves. What they can't do is face endless trips to the tip with car-boots full of hedge clippings and bin bags full of mowings. Find out if your local tip takes commercial waste-they'll soon twig if you turn up day after day and try to pass yourself off as a domestic client. Some areas have composting and shredding facilities and charge by the cubic metre for organic waste. Otherwise you may find yourself doing a de
  11. comanche
    It does sound like an exercise in Dawinism but quite few folk used to fly fish by paddling out with a lorry inner tube tucked under their armpits ! I'm sure that it was the Taylors and their mates who did a lot of shark fishing back in the 60s or early70s from rubber dinghies .
  12. comanche
    One tiny wasp's nest a few days ago but now the bumble calls have started . Which -like DIDO 1- I won't touch without a very good reason even when the customer tries the " Its not me ,its the wife that's worried," or" We have the painters coming in two weeks and they'll want them gone". My usual line in the last instance is "Well let the bees do their stuff for another couple of weeks and call me when the scaffolding is up". Never ,ever, had a call back so either the painters were not bothered, someone else dealt with them or ,I suspect ,the customer was trying a fast one on me . First
  13. comanche
    One from last December One from five minutes ago . I dashed outside and took it
  14. comanche
    Yes!. Years ago I managed to get some to take on a tree outside in the street but this is one of the first batch that has "taken" on my apple tree.
  15. comanche
    Success at last!
  16. comanche
    When you start working your ferret be sensible about choice of burrows. Start with either little ones or easily observed burrows. That way ,even if your ferret makes a kill or is otherwise slow to emerge you can be pretty sure the little blighter is in there somewhere and the worse scenario is a dig or long wait. Once you have feel for things and the ferret is working well you can be more ambitious with confidence. The more elderly amongst us ,who ferreted for years without locators will no doubt have experienced very long waits , nerve-wracking circuits of the burrow and furtive glim
  17. comanche
    This might help. Google "rook rifle calibre"s and try the entry under "stalking directory".It has a thread on Rook rifles. I'm too much of a numpty to do a link but I gleaned this much. 297/230s came in short or long cartridges. Short used three and a quarter grains of BP. Long -five and a half grains . both used a 37 grain bullet apparently.
  18. comanche
    Not being too mechanical I always had a natural apathy to the Duffus types of trap . Maybe what gets to me is the time spent bending and snipping wire and cutting and re-profiling the the sides of the barrels with every new batch I purchase before I have that all important "good feeling" . Then I bought a couple of Talpex. Couldn't really get on with them at first; until having cocked -up a hole meant for a Duffus I bunged -in a Talpex and rebuilt the run around it with a hope and a prayer . Success!. Since then they've been my first choice; less fiddly bits to adjust or sna
  19. comanche
    But they are so cute!
  20. comanche
    I had another one today as well. I think Nicpix's doubts about long term potential might be valid though ; the little shoulders the trigger sits on look a bit vulnerable to plastic fatigue or heavy hands. Anyway my two traps have more than paid for themselves even if I now relegate them to the box of "interesting things " that my grandchildren will have to sort though when I'm gone:)
  21. comanche
    Scatophraga something or other . I think they are males.
  22. comanche
    We had just dropped some rabbits off at the game dealer and were driving away along a rough track when I spotted a rat rolling a huge baking-sized potato in front of the van. By the time I'd found the camera and got my mate to open his window the thing was in the undergrowth. At one point the potato rolled into a pot-hole but the rat either by luck or judgement turned the spud lengthways so it could pivot on the edge of the hole rather than try to roll it up the side . The one I really regret missing with the camera was a red stag in our local deer park. He had commandeered a wallow and
  23. comanche
    fair comments nicepix. You are basing your opinion on traps that've been subject to a hard life ,I'm basing mine on a couple of new items. Probably the answer to the Universe lays somewhere between . To be fair I have the advantage of having the original wrapper that suggests that the trap should be rinsed-out if dirt gets inside. Certainly dirt that has congealed inside an abandoned trap over a period of time is going to give problems. . I may be a numpty but I can't see how,set correctly in an appropriate situation, the trap can fill with soil during setting.The trigger-hol
  24. comanche
    "The one i have in the van will not set " iwm I had the same trouble at first and wondered if my trap had been cursed with a Johnny Ringo trigger Luckily I had a "Eureka" moment and it all became clear. Or you may have snapped-off the little shoulders the trigger sits on. I'm not saying I'm rushing to buy a load more-certainly not at the recommended price!- but curiosity has been satisfied.
  25. comanche
    As promised, the results of my first attempts using the much ridiculed "Grab yourself a bargain, Beagle mole trap " -special offer ;£7 inc postage. So I bought two. Two little domestic jobs conveniently provided the testing grounds. I set two Talpex and a Beagle in each garden . The result was a mole from each site-one in a Talpex and one in one in a Beagle ! What's more while some think the whole concept of a plastic mole trap is a joke; the mole had not died laughing! . It was decisively caught with no sign of death-throw scrabbling to indicate anything other than a
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