Ferreting The Funny Farm

[wildthing 7]

I couldnt resist any longer. My kit has been checked over and ready to rock for at least a fortnight but been putting off going due to masses of growth in hedge bottoms, young rabbits still showing and very dry ground. But yesterday a local farmer asked me to do a problematic area on his farm that other ferreters had turned thier noses up at for being too ruff!!?? so keen to show them up i accepted, and had to make some sort of a show and sharpish. So i went in blind and rolled up onsite at half 7 this morning, i can see where those boys were coming from, what i had in front of me was a mixed black and hawthorn hedge which had got well out of hand. It was 5 yards wide, full of bramble and nettle in the bottom and to top it off, it had a 3 strand barbed wire fence on BOTH sides, and grazed pastureland either side, but an obvious abundance of rabbits, Game on!!. My fist 3 hours were spent swinging a slasher around like a "wildthing" in temperatures that must have been in the high teens already. That done i thought of heading off home to let the rabbits settle down after the disturbance and head back next week in stealth mode and do the job properly, but that was not be, the fimiliar sound of the farmers landrover came into ear shot, so i cracked on netting up the first set with 19 nets! luckily when he did arrive he didnt stop long, but did stay long enough to ask how many id caught?? Dreamer!! Now this was going to be tricky i knew, and i had to bend my own rules to be with in pouncing distance of most of my nets, so i opted for 2 jills that dont usually lye-up and crawled my way under the fence into the bottom of the hedge, entered the ferrets and squated in a tiny clear spot to await some action, at this point i thought i was in for trouble, after crashing around for so long with my slasher i fully expected all rabbits to sit as tight as a crabs @rse, and thats water tight! but straight off, good sized rabbits were falling foul of my nets, and in my haste to get to them before they slipped all my regard for the abundance of sharp things went out the window, who cares, this was what id been waiting for all summer, and after last season being cut short due to a pretty non existant winter i felt like i hadnt done it for years. So half hour in and id bagged 6, so far so good and jills still at it, when i heard a voice, a womans voice.... asking if i was alright, was i stuck, and did i need any help? i shoved my face into daylight to be greeted by a dog walker "here we bl**dy go" i thought, expecting a barage of abuse about being a murderer and all the usuall squit, but to my surprise she was generally concerned. I told her what i was upto and she laughed and commented on how she hoped the farmer was paying me well, to which i explained that i do it for nothing more than fun, she laughed again whole heartedly, then went on to tell me how she just passed a guy fishing the lake about half a mile away, strange thing was, she said, that he was sat 10 feet up a tree, ( my mate kev, i thought, getting a birds eye view over the shallow water) at this point she announced that she wont hang around as "this farm shouldnt be named Top farm but the Funny farm" and off she went, still chuckling away to herself. As time went on and a couple more large burrows later, along with multiple stings, pricks, scratches and swear words i ended the day with 14 rabbits, for only 1 dig that took me 3 yards out into the field next to the hedge, where no holes were. It took me an hour to dig to 4 foot and retrieve my ferret, the ground was that hard it really was ridiculous. I called it a day then, went to farm house to inform the farmer of my bag and offer him a couple for the pot, and was offered all the rabbiting on his 1500 acres for at least this winter....what a result............."HE WHO DARES, RODNEY, HE WHO DARES"!!!

[ZacB 130]

Well deserved!

[johnrthrfrd 223]

Well done mate you deserve it had to do a bit new permission last week to keep them happy knee deep in nettles went home with half a dozen rabbits and covered in stings don't think awas as bad as the lurcher tho.

[The one 8,585]

Nice result mate

[wildthing 7]

cheers fella's. was definatley stinging and tingling after a bath. Today has got me seriously doing my homework on the idea of getting a pup of some sort next spring, especially as i do most of my ferreting single handed, i bet id still be on all fours diving into the rough, even with a dog lol.

[Guest vin]

Top result .. Well earned matey

[Moe 108]

Well deserved mate good look on the rest of the farm.

[fluff 410]

spent alot of my childhood fereting shitty bits more to keep out of prying eyes ,but had good results sounds like a hard day ,but well earned any man thats grafts for there sport deseves the good times with it hopefully youl get some good sets and maybe other game to

[Mick 88 3]

We'll done good result bud

[bugg 84]

Good stuff mate, nothing worse than selective Ferreter's, in for a penny in for a pound I say, its only pain itl go away

[seanc 204]

Well done mate ,well worked

 

Regards

 

Sean