Cropsafe Crew, Tidying a few hedgerows

[stevethefish 80]

Well my first day back after my toe operation and couldn't wait to get out of the house. I knew I would have to take my time and the guys knew I would be a bit of a lemon today. As it happened I was not too bad, well I don't think so my toes were freezing all day so I never felt any pain.

We were just tidying up a few hedgerows that we had missed sections off last time we did them, obviously we were not going to empty them but just thin them out.

The farmer had asked us to do them and it's rude to say no so we just got on with the job. The early frosts were quite hard and it was a bit of a nip to the fingers and toes but nothing that a bit of graft wouldn't cure. The first section we did was pretty clear so relatively easy and it was hard to miss any holes, but with the gun and dogs we wouldn't miss much anyhow.

By the time we got to 12 it was sarnie time and a chance to pop off the odd pigeon while we were sat at the van. I must admit a couple of the birds I hit were excellent shots, very high and fast birds, clean kills too, but the speed they hit the floor from that hight almost plucked them.

 

The next field was a mare, thick brambles, blackthorn, and fresh nettles, some pain coming up I thought. The rabbits were very easy to bolt during the morning, we find that this is the case around here, but as the day wears on they are more reluctant. This led to a few digs in the afternoon, most easy enough at 2-3 foot but that was to change later on the next hedge.

When we moved it was like a different planet, deep sets and almost all were digs of 4-5 foot under blackthorn, hawthorn and thick ivy cover. It was a laugh though as we always have a comp to see what the final tally will be, my target was looking good up to this but that left Stevo with a running chance, the others were miles off target by this time. As the day was getting on, one of the last sets we did was right at the end of a hedge, it was on flat grass and looked a dream, 6 holes easy peasy.

Well how wrong we were, having never done this one before we were lead astray, the rabbits didn't bolt and with a search with the box we found the ferrets at 5 foot, and it was a terrible dig. First foot was soft soil, then flint/gravel and rocks with some bits of old barbed wire for good luck.

We decided to call it a day after this dig, the day had produced pretty well and we had 56 in the van with 4 pigeons so all together happy chappies.

I just have to say that young Chaz our trainee is coming on leaps and bounds, he will get stuck in and will ram his arm down a dig without worrying about ferrets or rats etc, not like Ray, think he has gone off the rails with th

 

From left to right, Dan "the tag", Shaun "the sheep", Steve "the fish", Chaz "the chav", Stevo " the Ivory smile"

[old real tree 92]

Well done lads looks like a good day, I like the second photo, you don't see many people holding their game in photos any more,

 

Well done.

[manaboutdog 3]

great day mate , but feckin knacked, keen as mustard for next time

[johnny boy68 11,726]

Another good day again, well done lads

[Guest vin]

top day lads..well done. great write up steve