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adzyvilla

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Posts posted by adzyvilla

  1. My 'main' labrador (picking up/beating) could possibly be mistaken for a greyhound at a distance, and at 24kgs is at the light end of the scale, but she's super fit and has a fantastic engine. Some of her litter mates ended up being proper chunks, and one is now weighing in at over 40kgs, but doesn't have an ounce of fat on him, but they all went to working homes and I still see most of them at least once during the season. When looking for a pup, I am never overly concerned with pedigree, in fact my best dog was a 'happy mistake' and turned into a super all rounder. You never know what you will get, pedigree will only tell you some of the story, i think most of it comes with training.

    My other lab is a lovely little soul and came from supposedly better lines than my other dog but has never really come on, despite my best efforts and some help from professional trainers. Shes happy dogging in or messing about but doesn't have the discipline to do more. But shes very affectionate for a bitch so great with the family, where the other one is all business and very aloof.

    Capt C, my dad currently has a springerdor, and it is his second one, although I don't really remember the first one as it was nearly 35 years ago. Its odd looking, like a big jet black springer with labrador ears and muzzle. Started out as a promising picking up dog, but developed a fear of gun fire at around 2 years old which he never got to the bottom of and became a nervous wreck so no longer works. Shame as at 76 he's unlikely to have another now and always considers the dog a failure although it's not the animals fault.

  2. I had a 1986 Toyota corolla ae86 GT, which I scrapped around 6 months before the first fast and furious came out in cinemas and rear drive Japanese cars became hot property. It needed quite a bit of welding and I didn't have the time or the money to sort it out myself, so the local yard took it off my hands. Unmodified examples are fetching £20k now. As I was still at home on the farm at the time it could have gone into a barn and who knows what it would have fetched a few years later, but it was get rid and on to the next one...

    ...a 1993 Nissan 200sx which i did keep when I finished with it and sold a few years later for ten times what I paid for it.

  3. This is something I think about a lot marsh man. I've watched my dad go from an acute case of shooting addiction when I was growing up, through his early 50s when work overcame everything and there was little time for shooting, through to where we are today. He still has a couple of guns, and goes out from time to time, the odd beaters day or a bit of roost shooting. But wildfowling has gone, driven shooting gone, his rifles went by the wayside years ago. I asked him about it once and he didn't really have an answer. I think the interest is still there, but the fire has dulled over the years. He loves being out in nature, he's happiest there. It was never about the kill (excepting his years as a gamekeeper with pest controlling duties, but that was his job). It was more about the thrill of the chase, the companionship and camaraderie of shared experiences, and the need to scratch an (in his case) extremely pressing primal itch. At 76, he simply doesn't have the drive anymore. 

    As for me, I'm still enjoying it all as much as I did 25 years ago and will grasp every opportunity with both hands as with the way the world is, who knows how much longer we will be able to do it?

  4. Dogging in this morning on the estate, I could have filled an Olympic swimming pool with left over spuds just lying on the soil after harvest, same with onions. In fact, dad got an old string bag out of his pocket and set about filling it up while his old dog pleased herself. So much waste now no one bothers gleaning any more.

  5. I cut blackthorn or Holly for sticks in jan/Feb (although I prefer holly)

    Best beating stick I ever had was an arrow straight bit of hawthorn about an inch thick. It was light but hard as iron, and I must have had it 10 years or more. One day I lent it to another beater while I flagged the flanks and forgot all about it. I never saw either of the ******* again.

  6. Had one for 5 or so years and its my go to gun for anything rough. Never let me down, its been on the foreshore dozens of times and bashed about in the pigeon hide. It handles well and barring a couple of times always cycles smoothly.

    Keep it clean and look after it and it will give you years of trouboe free service

  7. Just down the road from you ditchy, I work in Wymondham. I have watched nearly 1000 houses built there in the last 7 years, many on low lying land that would be damp at best for 6 months of the year. Speaking to one of the builders one time, he said some of the phase 1 houses on this particular development had inch wide settlement cracks in them after a year. I think that developer sold those houses with a 10 year no quibble guarantee. Would not like to be a shareholder if your premonition comes true.

  8. Got to say, I agree with oowee here. That response was ridiculously over the top and in another situation could have ended very badly. Your calmness saved the day this time and its clear that the standards for armed response police aren't as high as they used to be so definitely consider a complaint. I know you don't want to upset the coppers, but some of that team sound dangerous.

  9. I had a (admittedly the 5 door) 2000 x reg rav4 gx petrol from new and only sold it 3 years ago because the wife needed something a bit more economical. 120000 trouble free miles, and with a decent set of tyres (latterly Michelin latitude Cross) it went everywhere I needed it to go on or off road. As others have said it does lack some ground clearance but careful driving will negate its shortcomings. Really comfortable even on long drives and simple enough to do most jobs at home. I'd say they are a bargain compared to the suzuki.

  10. I did exactly the same in my shed when we had our kitchen done. Then promptly decided to knock down the shed and build a new bigger one with purpose built storage and work surfaces the following year! Dad got the old worktops though so it didn't all go to waste. Tidy looking job 

  11. Hi ditchy. I think they did an attempt at costing out independence a few years ago and the bulk of their income was to be from oil revenue from the north Sea fields, like a Caledonian version of Norway. Given that the ownership of North Sea oil and gas is debatable in the first place, even back then it was a laughable attempt at financing independence. Fast forward a few years to the present situation we find ourselves in regards to green policies and net zero/carbon neutrality the snps claims look even more ludicrous. They also wanted to keep the pound sterling meaning they couldn't set their own interest rates (until they rejoined the eu and adopted the euro, highly unlikely in the short to medium term). As the pound isn't what it once was, and with Scotland taking on their share of the UK national debt one can only assume if they'd won the vote first time round they'd be broke or defaulted by now. Presently it looks even more bleak, so any claims nicola and Co make with regard to support for independence are very likely to be unfounded, at least outside of the braveheart fantasists. In my opinion, this is being stirred up to distract from other problems in Scotland. The Scots deserve better.

  12. 1 hour ago, Walker570 said:

    Great I listen and see these dogs with 'drive' but do they have an ignition switch?  I know of a lab locally which is supposed to being trained but is totally out of control and will not even walk to heel on a lead.  Start, stop, come to heel the first and only training needed initially.  Seen a few over the last 60 years and my Choccy lab Muffin was perhaps the very best dog I have owned although a Field Trial Judge said he would never make it because his legs where the wrong shape ....say no more. 

    Best of luck with that handsom beast, he looks like he will do the job.

     

     

    Although 'spirited', she is very obedient and totally under my control now. Just because she is mad, it doesnt mean she isnt listening. Her engine is well tempered by her desire to please me, so I suppose I'm very lucky, but I spent a good (and sometimes frustrating) 18 months drilling the basics until she was right. She's totally different to my older dog who was a joy to train and is so easy to work. I won't see another like her.

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