Neal

I don't feel so lazy now. Your averages are fairly similar to mine...although my walks are a lot flatter! I was getting worried recently as I was gradually putting weight on...and then realised why. Both of my kids are at secondary school now and so I'd stop doing the drop off and pick up from their primary school. As a result I've been walking four miles less per day! I've had to up my midday walks accordingly.

We've kept a variety of bantams in the past (mainly wyandottes and welsumers) but my daughter is keen to get some ducks. She's done lots of research and has taken a shine to pekins. They will primarily be seen by her as "pets" although my wife and I are keen for there to be an ample supply of eggs! I've done some research too and the pekins do seem to fit the bill (pardon the pun). Any advice would be appreciated. We have an old eglu classic which (with the roosting bars removed) would be perfect for ducks. How big would the enclosure need to be...apart from 'as big as possible.' The

I've genuinely not heard that story. To quote from Grease "tell me more..."

A few years ago my wife and some of her work colleagues got into the whole "a certain number of steps per day to keep healthy" thing. They all used an app on their phone and whoever did the most each week got some kind of prize (probably chocolate!). I asked if I could join in for a laugh. I gave up after a couple of weeks as my daily amount was roughly their weekly amounts. On one day I was ill and bed-ridden. As we all know, bed-ridden means can't get out of bed for anything...but I'll still walk the dogs though. I still won that day. Like you, I grew up as a walker as neither of m

Redbacks! Made in Australia, very comfy, with or without steel toes and with or without laces. Mine were retired to "just gardening boots" a few years ago, but I still occasionally give in and pop them on again to go to the shops as they're so comfy. I did consider getting a replacement pair but my mother-in-law had just bought me some oxblood DMs for general wear so I didn't. Would probably get another pair when the DMs wear out. Edited to add: be careful with the sizing though as in Australia 1/2 sizes don't mean half a size bigger, they mean a little wider but the same length.

I switched off when I saw the name Gove.

Until about ten years ago, the only time I ever saw red kites was when we went a little farther north (I live in South Hampshire). Now I see several every year. Also, two species which I always thought of as West Country species were the buzzard and jackdaw. When I was growing up I very rarely saw them until we went on holiday to Cornwall or Devon. I always found that, the farther west we drove, the magpies petered out and were replaced by jackdaws. While I was at art college in Falmouth in the early 90s it was all jackdaws and virtually no magpies. Now, although the magpies are still com

I think it's a male as the females have a black line down the back...or have I got that the wrong way round? I know the males sometimes have blue spots too. No, honestly!

Apologies for going off topic: did you ever find out, conclusively, what caused the blood from nose and mouth? The reason I ask is because the same happened to my second kelpie. It was literally dripping from her nose and around the gums. Never seen anything like it before. We (the vets and I) never found out what it was. The only thing I could think of was that she may have been previously bitten by an adder. (Went into a patch of brambles where I saw an adder a couple of days later and a mile later I had to carry her home as she went all drowsy and kept falling asleep standing up.)

Thanks everybody, that's pretty much what I suspected.

Genuine question: I've heard GWP lurchers mentioned a lot, off and on, over the last thirty years or so...but never GSP crosses. Any reason for that? Is it simply because the wire-hairs have more of a reputation as general vermin dogs?

When I used to work lurchers I always kept quiet about what they were used for. Now that I work kelpies (or to be honest, now that I'm older) I tell everybody who asks about them what I use them for. I'm amazed at how many people let their pet dogs chase deer in particular. I've heard everything from 'I can't call him back' to 'it's completely natural' with a huge dose of 'I'm not worried because I'm sure he's not fast enough to catch one.'

There was a feature on the national news yesterday lunchtime about deer numbers and saying we should be encouraged to eat more venison. You'd think someone would put two and two together and come up with the obvious solution.

I had one particularly large one (not as big as a dog though) which frequented my garden for a while. It made a guest appearance in the middle of my son's birthday party about fourteen years ago. Fortunately, only one of my neighbours spotted it, but she renamed it "the wallaby." The kelpies eventually cornered it inside the potting shed. It had climbed up the sloping side but was unable to get out again. When I went into the shed in the morning I opened up one of the drawers and saw something move. I initially jumped back in shock, then said to myself, 'don't be daft, that was just a thi

Thanks. That makes sense.