Little Things That Make Your Day ?

[adzyvilla]

22 hours ago, marsh man said:

Ah , Thanks for reminding me , I totally forgot that some people still have to go to work and take on board the pressures that go with it 

Needless to say, come 6am this morning, it was clear my day was not going to be made. Still, off beating tomorrow (unless it gets rained off) so I can forget all about it until Monday!

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, adzyvilla said:

Needless to say, come 6am this morning, it was clear my day was not going to be made. Still, off beating tomorrow (unless it gets rained off) so I can forget all about it until Monday!

Leave your work problems at your work place tomorrow and have a good day , we have never called a whole day off through rain , half a day yes but never a full day , the half day(s) were later on in the year when it was freezing on top of the heavy rain , the decision is left to the guns and as we know them well they would have been looked after on another day , we have got some good waterproof gear now and I often think we are more prepared than the guns and looking at some of them I am not to far out 

[Nublue 22]

Getting up ever day. 

[adzyvilla]

41 minutes ago, marsh man said:

Leave your work problems at your work place tomorrow and have a good day , we have never called a whole day off through rain , half a day yes but never a full day , the half day(s) were later on in the year when it was freezing on top of the heavy rain , the decision is left to the guns and as we know them well they would have been looked after on another day , we have got some good waterproof gear now and I often think we are more prepared than the guns and looking at some of them I am not to far out 

I think the average age of this team of guns is about 80, so we will have to see how keen they are!

[Old Boggy]

On 18/10/2023 at 10:19, Penelope said:

Oh the life of the retiree 🙄

I was told that when I retire, I was either going to be bored to tears or so busy that I would wonder how I ever had time to go to work. Fortunately, it’s the latter and like Amateur, it’s pottering in my shed and walking my daughter’s dogs along the cliffs. Something very special about the coastal cliffs watching all the waders at low tide and also the abundance of skylarks where the grass has been purposely left for them to nest with a notice for dog walkers to avoid letting their dogs onto the marked off area. These cliffs back onto arable farmland so there’s always some wildlife to be seen on our regular walks.

OB

[old man]

The thing that makes my day is the ability to go for 2 hours without hearing of, or seeing a lying, two faced politically motivated creature using up oxygen.

[Penelope]

54 minutes ago, Old Boggy said:

I was told that when I retire, I was either going to be bored to tears or so busy that I would wonder how I ever had time to go to work. Fortunately, it’s the latter and like Amateur, it’s pottering in my shed and walking my daughter’s dogs along the cliffs. Something very special about the coastal cliffs watching all the waders at low tide and also the abundance of skylarks where the grass has been purposely left for them to nest with a notice for dog walkers to avoid letting their dogs onto the marked off area. These cliffs back onto arable farmland so there’s always some wildlife to be seen on our regular walks.

OB

Yeah, but it's busy you want to do, not have to do.

[Old Boggy]

13 minutes ago, Penelope said:

Yeah, but it's busy you want to do, not have to do.

That’s very true.

I was once told “Never put off until tomorrow what you can possibly put off until the day after”😂

[marsh man]

3 minutes ago, Penelope said:

Yeah, but it's busy you want to do, not have to do.

We make retirement sound ideal and for most of us it is , but it would not suit everyone and for one or two I would imagine it is a nightmare , the times I have heard the odd one saying they can't wait for retirement then when the time come they are going to do just the odd day , this odd day turn out to be 3 or 4 days a week with no holidays or anything else come to that , not only that they don't seem to take the income tax in consideration as I now pay half of my private pension on income tax which I cannot do nothing about .

Then they say they can spend more time in the garden , well for the amount of time you have got on your hands then you would need a very big garden , as much as I like my garden I wouldn't want to spend every day in it , the odd day yes but not everyday. You then hear the ones who say they are going to carry on working so they can pay for a good holiday , well holidays don't interest me and not only that I haven't got a good days work left in me .

I have always found that people who have an interest in the countryside are very rarely board with having nothing to do , alright the weather might upset the days planing but there is always another day , on our shoots it is more like a reunion as at least half of the beaters and helpers are retired and at this time of the year some of them are beating 2 to 3 days a week , age wise , most of them 70+ and the oldest one is just over 80 with me a close second .

So yes retirement to me is like one long holiday and next month it will be a 16 year holiday since I laid my trowel at rest , but we have to accept it wouldn't be a holiday for everyone and as they say , life is what you make it .       MM

 

[JohnfromUK]

23 minutes ago, marsh man said:

We make retirement sound ideal and for most of us it is , but it would not suit everyone and for one or two I would imagine it is a nightmare

It has worked well for me, and most of my friends.  However, we all have other interests. 

In my case I shoot, I am a 'collector' of various things (far to many, though not yet a 'hoarder'!), including a few 'vintage' guns, books on shooting related matters, and I use these sometimes to help answer queries raised on sites like this.

I also have a large garden, like to do a bit of cooking and never find myself at a 'loose end'.  I have a dog again after a break from dog ownership for a while.

Like you, the chancellor takes 50% of my private pension, and like us all, energy, insurance, motoring, general maintenance costs for the house have sky rocketed by way above inflation, but I don't regret retiring (which I did just before 60) at all.

Edited October 20, 2023 by JohnfromUK

[ditchman]

i have had a totally **** 12 years.....ive slowly got my life back and im loving it.............

[retromlc]

...

Edited October 20, 2023 by retromlc

[marsh man]

3 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

It has worked well for me, and most of my friends.  However, we all have other interests. 

In my case I shoot, I am a 'collector' of various things (far to many, though not yet a 'hoarder'!), including a few 'vintage' guns, books on shooting related matters, and I use these sometimes to help answer queries raised on sites like this.

I also have a large garden, like to do a bit of cooking and never find myself at a 'loose end'.  I have a dog again after a break from dog ownership for a while.

Like you, the chancellor takes 50% of my private pension, and like us all, energy, insurance, motoring, general maintenance costs for the house have sky rocketed by way above inflation, but I don't regret retiring (which I did just before 60) at all.

Another thing you have to take in consideration is your health and what you like doing in your free time , I have always been into shooting and anything attached to field sports , my birthday is in November and I finished work on my birthday which as it turned out was a Friday , the very next morning I was back at my workplace as we had a shoot on and at the time I drove the guns transport , we were also doing commercial Partridge shooting and I know one year we done 32 days , I was also in a shoot near Norwich and if the dates didn't clash I was on that one as well , at the time I was fit enough to do them all which was around 40 days plus the amount of Pigeon and wildfowl shooting I was seriously into , as the years rolled on the manual work I had done for most of my working life was beginning to take it's toll and when I reached 70 I cut down to one shoot which I still do and enjoy , my dog get a load of retrieves , I have a good day out and get a few bob in the bargain .

You are lucky to reach retirement age without any health issues and with age a lot of them don't get any better , sadly in a lot of cases they get worse , so the last thing I wanted to do was to keep pushing my body until I was on the point of being disabled , now I still suffer from the general aches and pains you will get in ole age but I have got the satisfaction I have had a good few years doing what I wanted to do and not what someone else wanted me to do .

Enjoy it while it last whatever you do , as time wait for no one    MM 

[Bigbob]

The thing about retirement is you have the time to do what you want at your pace . I used to go ferreting /shooting and had to clean the car ready for work the next day as i used to car share it started getting a chore , now after i have been out there's no rush to clean the car . Then we had to plan ahead to get 4 guys for a big ferreting job now we can go the next day .As said Marshman you notice the aches and pains so little and often seems to be the way to go . My mate retired and went beating 6 days a week now nothing but problems with his knees wears supports on them and seeing a chinese homeopathic doctor , I go out out dead head my plants in the garden takes a couple of hours  daily come in get a cuppa and do another wee job my knees are sore but i can live with that pain just have to go easy as there saying it might be 7 years till i get a new  knee when i am 70 

[marsh man]

On 19/10/2023 at 19:43, adzyvilla said:

I think the average age of this team of guns is about 80, so we will have to see how keen they are!

So how did the day go ? , Let me guess , the day started with heavy rain that was relentless , you had either 2 or 3 poor(ish) drives and then went in for early lunch , come dinnertime with no signs of the rain easing off and the roads getting flooded it was decided to call it a day , to every ones relief 

Edited October 21, 2023 by marsh man

[Aled]

I've found this thread really interesting as retirement is on the horizon for me. My parents and my in laws (all of which i like by the way) retired from their careers but....all four went and worked in fields part time for many years in areas they were interested in which was a good thing for all. I hope i find a similar outlet, however .....i do feel sorry for my Dad, he retired from full time work, and joined a top notch angling syndicate on a well known sea trout river.....exactly when the sea trout runs collapsed. Had he fished with me during the 90's when runs were good he would of caught more fish but he was too busy working!! 

[adzyvilla]

On 20/10/2023 at 20:37, marsh man said:

So how did the day go ? , Let me guess , the day started with heavy rain that was relentless , you had either 2 or 3 poor(ish) drives and then went in for early lunch , come dinnertime with no signs of the rain easing off and the roads getting flooded it was decided to call it a day , to every ones relief 

Well it was a bit of a cock up from the word go. I got there first of the beaters and noone else was about so I waited a bit then decided to look at my phone. One message from the keeper telling me the day was cancelled. But just as I was leaving the farmyard, the keeper steamed up in his kubota in a lather and told me it was back on. The boss had tried to cancel but half the guns had already arrived by that point although I hadn't seen anyone (we share the same yard) Then the other beaters started to arrive as the keeper phoned them all one by one, except the solitary picker up who he couldn't get hold of. All the guns finally all arrived by 10, an hour after we were supposed to start and had agreed we would shoot straight through and do 5 drives. The rain was relentless and despite some decent clothing, I was soaked through after 2 hours and 3 drives walking through 300 yard strips of 8 ft high maize and ankle mangling brambles. At this point the guns decided to head back to the yard for a change of clothing, but we didn't have the same luxury. They were gone for 45 minutes (turns out they were having drinks and bacon rolls). They finally turned up again and we completed the last 2 drives just after 1. They then asked if we could do another as the rain had eased a bit (it hadnt). The keeper blew his top at this point and we beat a hasty retreat back to the yard. I was back home and had my feet up by 2, a massive £35 richer.

Total bag for the day? 19. Two blank drives. If my dog hadn't made a solid retrieve from a fast flowing deep ditch it would have been 18. It was a woeful spectacle for all involved and the poor birds deserved a more dignified end.

[marsh man]

11 hours ago, adzyvilla said:

Well it was a bit of a cock up from the word go. I got there first of the beaters and noone else was about so I waited a bit then decided to look at my phone. One message from the keeper telling me the day was cancelled. But just as I was leaving the farmyard, the keeper steamed up in his kubota in a lather and told me it was back on. The boss had tried to cancel but half the guns had already arrived by that point although I hadn't seen anyone (we share the same yard) Then the other beaters started to arrive as the keeper phoned them all one by one, except the solitary picker up who he couldn't get hold of. All the guns finally all arrived by 10, an hour after we were supposed to start and had agreed we would shoot straight through and do 5 drives. The rain was relentless and despite some decent clothing, I was soaked through after 2 hours and 3 drives walking through 300 yard strips of 8 ft high maize and ankle mangling brambles. At this point the guns decided to head back to the yard for a change of clothing, but we didn't have the same luxury. They were gone for 45 minutes (turns out they were having drinks and bacon rolls). They finally turned up again and we completed the last 2 drives just after 1. They then asked if we could do another as the rain had eased a bit (it hadnt). The keeper blew his top at this point and we beat a hasty retreat back to the yard. I was back home and had my feet up by 2, a massive £35 richer.

Total bag for the day? 19. Two blank drives. If my dog hadn't made a solid retrieve from a fast flowing deep ditch it would have been 18. It was a woeful spectacle for all involved and the poor birds deserved a more dignified end.

Good morning Adzyvilla  .. Nice account of your day , not the best of starts with the heavy rain we were having and the forecast was no let up , but you done very well to get through it , normally they say it was better than going to work , but on that day it might had been better at work  , our shoots are a bit bigger and we would had turned up and waited for any alterations as some of the guns might had stayed overnight at the hotel , the day would have started even though it might had been half an hour late as some of the guns might had got caught up in the slow traffic coming out of Norwich , we would had started with a duck drive as we have a lot of wild duck , after the guns had been standing about in the heavy rain they would have already had places in there clothing where the water was getting in and  the thought of a days shooting was beginning to wear off , the next drive would had been Pheasants but only the decent ones as this would had been the first shoot , after this drive it would had been 11s , this would had took longer than normal which wouldn't had pleased the beaters , with spending more time than normal having a break we could only get one more drive in by lunch , the drive would had been rushed about as the guns and everyone else was getting soaked and all the fun in a days shooting had gone as everyone was getting down hearted , lunch break was next and before we got ready for the afternoon the keeper would had got in touch with the guns to see what they wanted to do , after a chat on the phone it didn't come as a surprise when the keeper informed us that is it ,they had decided enough was enough as the roads were getting bad and if anything it was raining harder , our sprits had lifted as the next drive was the drive home , the best drive of the day

This event is very rare and only happened in the past about once in every five years but nowadays it could happen every other week , some strange times we are living in .   MM

[.357shooter]

for just getting to work without being cut up or being thanked for waiting at traffic calming.shooting of any kind at the weekend.not having to scrap ice of the car is a bonus too.having a good nights sleep.