A productive day so far!

[spamel]

Today, I went up to meet the farmer who has tonnes of rabbits on his land, to see if I could get permission for a shoot. After a chat of about half an hour, I came away with permission and a boundary map showing all of his land with the trouble spots pointed out to me. He also has trouble with squirrels nicking the crops and pigeons and crows, so I better get my cook on the wildside book back down off the shelf!

I went afterwards to the edge of one of his fields where I haven't been before, to see if I could spy the second group of rabbits, and came across squirrels, pheasant, cows (the last two I'll be leaving well alone!) and some ramsons. These were the first I've seen this year, hidden down by a stream, and the leaves are getting big, but there are a few nice small ones that I picked for a sarnie, and the bulbs came up aswell. I'm tempted to pot them! I also saw goose grass, bluebells, nettles and a few that I cannot ID, plant lore not being my strong point. So quite a few useful for food, and the bluebells for glue, string from the nettles. And the path is gravelled so we can go down as a family and the buggy will be able to negotiate the ground for when the little one gets tired.

A productive day so far!

 

[Matt Weir]

Jammy git - I'm stuck inside at work

 

[fredcraft]

Jammy git - I'm stuck inside at work

I hear ya Matt ... :aargh4:

 

[spamel]

Went back out with Rachel, my four year old, and we found some Ladys smock (no cash in the pockets!) which tasted quite nice. It doesn't seem to have an actual flavour but leaves more of an after taste.

Found "half" a pheasant, wings and breastbone, the rest was gone! Picked some nice feathers out on the insistence of my girl, more feathers for my bushcraft hat!

My mouth is still burning from the ramsoms I ate about forty minutes ago!

 

[fredcraft]

Sounds like you are both having a great time ! I wish I could see pictures Let us know how that rabbit/pigeon hunt goes

Cheers,

 

[Ratbag]

Today, I went up to meet the farmer who has tonnes of rabbits on his land, to see if I could get permission for a shoot. After a chat of about half an hour, I came away with permission .....

Got a visit planned?

Rat

 

[spamel]

Well, the productive day has just took a nose dive as the kids have brought thousands of little friends home with them!

Therefore, I have cut my hair down as short as I dare without looking even more mutant than before, although it appears they aren't going for ginger males, only blonde girls. Regardless, we are all sat around with lotion in our hair, itching and feeling rather nasty! Our kids have only been in the local school a fortnight, and it seems they have only just got them as they aren't too infested.

Apparently, they have massive problems with head lice here, and I can only assume it is because somebody somewhere isn't bothering to delouse their whelps. A letter is going out as I have informed the school, but it is restricted to the year class she is in. This also makes little sense to me as the kids all cut about together at playtime and lunch break. I think the nit nurse should return, but it's not allowed these days. I also think that if it was described as a parasitic infestation, parents may sit up and take more notice, it sounds horrid described that way.

It's making my flesh crawl! Uuugh!

 

[spamel]

Got a visit planned?

Rat

I went and had a look around the fields, these ones seem to come out about now and I'd imagine stay out all night if the beer bottles in the area are anything to go by!

 

[Aragorn]

mate tell me about it, our oldest girl is always coming home with the little buggers, touch wood though they have left me alone so far, think it's something to do with the male hormone after puberty, no matter how well you de-louse your own kids though there is always one git who won't bother and the cycle starts over again

 

[spamel]

I'm considering bic'ing my girls heads so that they all look like that sinead oconner girl! That'll stop 'em!

 

[Ogri the trog]

Nice going on the shooting permission Spamel.
But condolences on the "infestation" Having children in school and a wife who teaches, I can sympathise. They only go for clean hair, so it might be worth having a sit by a smokey fire and leaving hair unwashed for a few days to see if you can break the cycle.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[spamel]

Are there any natural things that can be gathered to kill the little critters? Just wondering how it was dealt with before lotions and potions were easily available. I seem to recall mud being applied to hair in the stone ages and then washed out later on, not sure of this is true or not though. It's either that, or leeches probably!

 

[Aragorn]

best way to rid them is by combing, smother the hair in conditioner, no water, this makes it hard the the little buggers to move, then get a decent nit comb, and simple comb throught the hair, repeat this every 2-3 days for two weeks, that should ensure all adults are removed and eggs are hatched and removed before new nit can start laying. bloody hell i'm starting to itch now you can buy tea tree spray as a deterant once they are clear, tie the hair up. christ i sound like dr. hilary

 

[Woods Wanderer]

could try smearing ransom juice in the hair if it burn our mouths imagine being a lice covered in it

 

[spamel]

The nits are gone, for the moment, but today has also been productive, but again with a sour note in between.

I went to the range with Ratbag to zero my R7, we had a good time and I actually broke one of the targets with my Rapid! The weld failed and a little metal pig went flying!! Had a go on Ratbags bang stick, which is very light and nice to shoot. So, after a nice morning looking at souped up chromed ri*les, we went back to the farm where I have permission, and I stuck my neck out and asked if Ratbag could join me. Considering I haven't shot on the land yet, I'm surprised I wasn't told to sling my hook, but the farmer said OK and Ratbag can come on with me. A bonus!

We decided to have a scoot around the fields to look for sign of rabbits, left the shooters in the car, and found loads of sign, saw a few rabbts and a cock pheasant aswell. We climbed the top of a hill and I saw a rabbit lying down asleep. "Here look at this!" I said, at which the rabbit woke up with a start and tried to run off. It was then that it became apparent that something was up as it flopped from one side to the other, obviously in distress. Ratbag got over the fence to have a look see, and we decided that there was something wrong and Ratbag put it out of its misery.

The poor thing must have been exhausted, it couldn't do much and didn't struggle when Ratbag picked it up, and after despatching it and laying it down, we decided to skin it and have a look to see if there was something obviously wrong with it. Its' eyes looked fine, there didn't seem to be any visible deformation or disease but it looked rather bloated. Once Ratbag made the incision, he thought he had nicked the gut, but as we stripped off the fur, we saw a hole in its' rear left thigh, and when pressed, clear fluid seeped out.

Somebody has been up there shooting, probably last night, and took a really bad shot. If the rabbit got away, then that is unfortunate, but I can hardly believe it could have run off at all. The pellet had gone through its' leg and ruptured something internally, Ratbag hadn't nicked the gut at all. The poor thing was dying, I'd imagine, a slow and painful death, and this really pi**ed me off. To leave that rabbit in that state was, IMO, cruel and unnecessary. If I catch the little bugger that did it, I hope I don't have my R7 on me at the time, I might teach the git a lesson.

I decided that the meat would probably be bad after it being distressed for so long, and what with the internal damage possibly tainting the meat, so it has been left out of the way of livestock for Mr Fox to have a pick at. I have to go back up some time this week to check out the rabbits up the top field, so I'll have a look at the carcass to see what is left and if the fox is active, but the area is really good. After Ratbg left, I went around with the farmers' son Jonathon, whose son is in the same class as my daughter, and he showed me the definitive boundary. Ratbag, you'll be happy to know there is a third area where there could be some rabbits, so along with the squirrels, wood pigeons and rooks we could be kept busy!

 

[rich59]

Great to find good bushcrafty spots. But can I suggest not digging up any native blue bells as they are protected. I must try the glue thing with some of my Spanish garden ones some time.

 

[andy_pevy]

Are there any natural things that can be gathered to kill the little critters? Just wondering how it was dealt with before lotions and potions were easily available. I seem to recall mud being applied to hair in the stone ages and then washed out later on, not sure of this is true or not though. It's either that, or leeches probably!

What I did with my then 7 year old was to use olive oil. Liberally cover the scalp with it and massage it in, then leave it for half an hour or so to suffocate the little bleeders. Then use the nit comb to comb the hair thoroughly to get rid of the dead bodies .

Then wash the oil out with your normal shampoo.

No chemicals at all, and they, the nits that is, never returned.

Andy

 

[spamel]

Great to find good bushcrafty spots. But can I suggest not digging up any native blue bells as they are protected. I must try the glue thing with some of my Spanish garden ones some time.

I wasn't aware of that, thanks forthe info. To be honest, I don't have a usefor them myself, so I've left them alone, apart from sticking the kids in front of a blanket of them for a nice background to a photo! They grow thick around here.