Jim Neal

My FEO has always checked the fastening of my cabinets, which are rawl-bolted into the wall - by grabbing hold and supporting his whole body weight off them whilst jiggling up and down! "Yep, that ain't going anywhere....."

Anyone ever eaten one?

I thought it was worth dragging a little bit of that article into here. This is what they have to say, which I found interesting: Oh, and... Club Zeus on a Monday night was where it was happening in Chelmsford in the mid-90s! Or at least it was if you were a poor student like me Cheap lager, flaming sambucas and probably a bit of a fight with the locals round the back of the kebab shop. Them were the days!

Not a shortage of jays around my patch. We also have tree sparrows, lesser spotted woodpecker, cuckoo.... quite a few other red listed species. So Mr Jay cops it when the opportunity presents itself which, to be honest, isn't that often because he's a crafty sod. Last time I shot one whilst mooching about on my own must be 2 years ago, and have never been able to tempt one into a Larsen trap.

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Frame 9. Wow. Had me on the edge of my seat shouting at the screen! A thoroughly deserved win for Yan, let's hope this isn't a flash in the pan for him and he goes on to enjoy prolonged success 👍

It's not the whistle. There's guys who handle multiple dogs... probably 5 or more... with the same whistle in their gob. It's just about rapport, which comes with time and repetition and positive reward. I can't stress enough: start at the basics, go SLOWLY and work up from there. It's as much about training you as it is the dog. And don't let the dog train you either!!

We put some whites down this year, all of them too timid to depart the pens and all of them nailed by predators!

I've used a bread making machine in the past, but th bread always turns out really dense, heavy and claggy... sticks to your chest! Used to be OK to dip in soup but not very nice for sandwiches. Does proving/baking outside the machine avoid that problem? I'm wondering if it's the flour/yeast making it a bit undesirable or just the fact it's baked in the machine

AVOID normal "pet" insurance. It covers virtually nothing. And to reinforce the advice already given, get lifetime insurance, because the recurring problems are the ones that rack up the bills. If your dog has an ongoing problem that requires continual vet help, once your policy renews annually you're stuffed unless it's a lifetime policy. It does mean you're stuck with the same insurer/policy if you've made a claim, and in my experience they can hike it up a bit, but you'll not be out of pocket if there's been some massive vet bills involved. PetPlan, OK, a little pricey... Agria via BASC have been good for me. They must know it's a working dog otherwise you might end up with an invalid claim. It really doesn't affect the premium stating the dog works, but what it does do is gets you the right cover. Insurance is one of those things... you don't really realise what you need until after the event when it's too late. I have bitter experience of this, trust me.

Trouble with welding is it's normally do-able but just a PITA so paying garage book rates plus VAT etc if you don't "know" anyone makes it a bit less than economical to repair. My car doctor is going to cut a hole in the floor to weld up the bits that can't be got to from underneath! I'll get the prep done, carpet up etc, he does the business with the MIG and I part with some £ notes... still economical compared to buying something else and trashing that as well, still probably stumping up £100's a year in repairs due to the hammer it gets the way I use it. Hope it turns out OK mate

... and somewhere in between those two points of view is a compromise. Hopefully a compromise that doesn't wreck our economy and massacre independent small businesses even more than it already has done. And hopefully one the government will admit sooner or later is the right path out of this.

I can't believe it took me almost 24 hours to come up with that joke.... If that's the case with Barney he's certainly been taught well, hats off to you, and him of course 👍 If only we had a machine that gave us a print-out of what's going on in a dog's mind! Have you made your pate yet? The lack of fresh game in the last couple of weeks has made me realise how much I miss cooking it as a welcome change of menu during the game season. What will possibly remain as my culinary swan-song in the game department this season was a rather tasty dish I did last Saturday. I'll give you the full title... take a deep breath.... "Pot roast red-legged partridges cooked in smoked paprika, garlic & white wine, served on a pearl barley, spinach & chorizo risotto" That's the picture in the cook book....my version was bloody tasty even if it didn't quite end up the same as the recipe!

"Oh Cock!"

With the usual SW wind they'd be flying perpendicular to it, in a SE direction, I don't think it's wind as it's quite sheltered. It's only a theory I have, but the nearest "safe place" they probably have programmed in their minds is a lake about a mile away which they aim for if disturbed. That takes them back over the beaters' starting position which is a road. We just can't put guns there. Further to that, the pheasants will go in the opposite direction, so really we have to stand the guns according to that. Also I think despite constantly reminding everyone to stay silent when lining out, they walk along having a good old W.I. meeting, nattering away and it makes the ducks swim away from them so they're already at the "wrong" end of the water. Sometimes we get lucky and will get a couple of decent flushes of duck over the guns, normally only 2 or 3 of the pegs ever get a shot at them. It's not one of our "main" drives so we kind of tend to just do it now and again and take what comes as a bonus. Better to flight it in January!

Reminiscent of a Reeves hen, but obviously not one - as you say maybe a cross. But I'm sure there must be results of crossing other strains that will give similar markings.

For very complicated reasons I had my '03 Vitara MOT tested at two different places about 2 weeks apart recently. One failed it on excessive play in the nearside ball joint, with advisories for corrosion. The other place said there's nothing wrong with the ball joint but failed it on the corrosion ("no way I can pass that" he said). So I've had the lower arm changed to sort the ball joint and I'm taking it back to the first place! Moral of the story, find a "lenient" MOT centre. If you're going to flog the Honda stick it out for a decent price. If a puppy is worth £1.5k nowadays a car can't worth a lot less even if it needs a bit of welding.

Strange reaction from the dog! Has he picked much game before? I think it was Joe Irving in one of his books who theorised about a dog on a blind retrieve not hunting the smell of the bird, but rather the smell of burnt gunpowder. But nonetheless you'd have thought a dog with its instincts "activated" by being a shooting companion would have just grabbed hold of the bird. I suppose the plus side is the lack of handling by a dog decreases the chances of damage to the meat. Enjoy the pate P.S. Are you related to James May? 😆

Teachers haven't all gone home and put their feet up in front of the telly! If anything, lockdown is making them work harder. My 4yr old's reception class teacher has been sending out emails at all times of the day and night, providing a constant stream of information and tasks, evolving the home-schooling curriculum as each day goes along.... whilst also working her way through zoom meetings with each child & parent(s) to check in and keep them on the right course. I'd say she's more than earning her salary this academic year, when you factor in the extra hassle since September they've had to face, and it's not going to get much easier very soon.

...and you wouldn't need to put the heating on for a couple of days!

What about if you live in a third floor flat?

Agreed, it doesn't float my boat that sort of thing. But I know there are some shoots/keepers who have become very good at releasing reared duck and presenting them to the guns in a challenging, sporting manner. I'm fairly sure a lot of it relies on having the right ground with ponds in the right places, plus obviously the skill of the keeper to knit it all together. I've never had many opportunities to shoot wild duck. We have just a couple of little splashes on our syndicate and one place where the water's a bit more substantial and does seem to have a resident duck population. Trouble with that place is they rarely go the right way and we can't shoot the ponds from the other end due to a road. The little pond on the bit I look after will hopefully provide a little bit of sport if I can get it working, both on driven days adding a few ducks for a bit of spice to the pheasant shooting and maybe a few times a season flighting them in. I put a couple of nesting tubes in there last year so I'm keeping everything crossed for a wild brood this coming spring. Been feeding it regularly since August and now usually 8-12 mallard on there. Only trouble is the water level is right up at the moment and one of the tubes has gone wonky on its post so I need to get out there in chest waders again to fix it before breeding season! Oh and the other trouble is it's not very big or deep so it freezes over very easily 😕

How do you go about catching them up? I'd guess they'd be just like reared ducks but I'm no expert on the old quackers....

I find the best way to practice is to do it in the car, parked up in the woods with the windows shut, miles away from anyone else! You lose your inhibitions then as nobody can hear you fail! I have always found with the primos that it doesn't sound like a crow at all but you know what, it pulls them in! To the crows it's probably as much about the words you're singing rather than the tune you're singing to, if you get my drift. The shape of the sound. Timing, patterns, phrases. They're such enigmatic birds - I think I'll be a very old man before I fully understand the crow, if at all.

Royal Society of Pigeon Bashers? 😆