Eastenders or Ratting

[dillan 19]

Well what an eventfull weekend I had, its gonna take me 3 days to recover.

Saturday saw me up late to a days ferreting on one of my patches, so I called my mate to arrange somewhere nearer on his patch, needless to say it was a poor morning as we discovered that the area had been hit by Mixi, we managed a measly 2 healthy rabbits and a lie up from one of the 3 small burrows which looked habital, never mind it gave us a chance to have a good chinwag and it was quite bitter out there so we cut the session short.

The afternoon was spent tinkering with the smokers and getting ready for the following morning as I received another invitation the previous week from Dave Platts to get the guys together to hit a pigfarm near to him. Last year we had 100 plus and the year before we had 300 plus so there was great expectations this year as he had been down and assessed it and confirmed there was plenty to be had. Anyways the following morning me and phil hit the road and met at the usual place on a layby end exchanged pleasantries till everyone was there.

At the farm as we got ready it was clear that through the pig stench you could smell the aroma of rats wafting through the bitter cold air, that was a good sign as we rubbed our hands in glee, the terriers also sensed this by the sounds of it as they filled the air with wines and yaps. The teleport was arranged to move a few bales at the back of the pig shed, strategically we positioned ourselves as the machine lifted the first bail, well let me say we werent disappointed as at least a dozen rats fled in all directions to avade the dogs, there was dogs and bodies flying about allover and the usual hollowing added to the excitement. As each bale was lifted at least another dozen was accounted for.

This was repeated at various parts of the farm with equal results. The highlight of the day was when the machine lifted one end of some containers, the terriers shot under, down on hands and knees to get a view a memory I will never forget unfolded infront of me as the amount of rats that were under there was unbelievable, talk about mayhem, with a dash of blood is an understatement. This was also repeated with the other containers to add numerous more rodents to the tally.

A bit of poking around under pallets and the usual typical farm miscellaneous rubbish, materials and equipment yeilded a few more. We smoked the holes in the banking at the back of the farm and struggled to get them to bolt, a bit of digging added a few more to the bag, it was hard going as they were deep. By this time we were flagging and decided to call it a day and do a count up for the end of day photo shoot. A count up of 228 was confirmed and it was decided between us that the tally was certainly more as a considerable amount of rats were left at the far edges of the containers we couldnt retrieve. Another highlight for me was watching the Borders, they certainly had their fair share of rats I watched these as pups when we was on the Fenns, at that time they didnt get a look in for the Plummers but by god the penny has now dropped and get stuck in equally, Carl confirmed he now uses them for earth work. Nice one. After saying our goodbyes we hit the motorway and headed for home, after dropping Phil off and wolfing my sunday dinner down I nipped to a farm after a call out the previous night, it appears that foxes were taking piglets from the stys in the middle of fields, a scan with the lamp picked out 2 pairs of eyes in the neighbouring fields, I shall return tonight with the gun and sit it out, I have a feeling their holing up in the bails so will need to speak to neighbour and try the terriers.

Any way got to get ready now. Like I say its been an eventfull weekend and it certainly beats sitting in watching eastender repeats, I know which Id rather do.

 

 

Keep at em

 

Dillan

 

(Donny Ratpack)

 

 

[ash bom 1]

good write up mate

[dillan 19]

Sorry Guys wrong section, have now put it in the right one, you can now delete this one

 

Regards

 

Dillan