Disastrous ferreting trip

Went out for the first ferreting trip of the season yesterday (15th September 2012)  My daughter was trying out her new ferret; a small jill with light polecat markings. To cut a long story short we found that the rabbit were still in cover and the buries were unused or so covered in brash that they could not be netted.  It was one of those places where there was any amount of  sign, but it just did not feel quite right.  Later I found out that horrible disease myxi was ravaging the area.

However  we turned our hand to foraging and gathered up slows, for slow gin and blackberry's and apples for hedgerow jelly. Below are the results.

Five and a half pounds of Hedgerow Jelly.  Great on toast.

The recipe I followed can be found at:

http://www.eatweeds.co.uk/blackberry-jelly-recipe

I had to simmer the jelly for a lot longer than the recipe said though.

Making a ferret carrying box

Building a ferret carrying box.

I tend to make solid things, 30 years ago I made a ferret box, its big, heavy and uncomfortable to carry, so when my daughter needed her own ferret box, I was determined to make her 'a really good one'. Surfing the net I found super pictures of ferret boxes, some better than others but very few instructions or plans for making your own. Plenty on ebay for a price. I eventually found a rough plan and adapted this to build my daughters carry box.

The Box finished up 15'' Long, 9'' in depth and 7.5'' in height. It had two compartments, and doors opening on the top. It also had a bow back which is supposed to make it more comfortable to carry.

The bow back I was assured from website reading can be achieved by using 3mm Ply. Do not buy ply it will not bend and will break! So much for websites. The following pictures show the development of the carry box. It did end up light and it is nice to carry.

The main construction uses 9mm exterior ply board which is glued and nailed at joints. The bow back was formed using thin tongue and groove (I used pine cladding) which gave the necessary give to form the bow.

First picture is of the top and bottom cut out using a jig saw, bow is 3'' deep at the middle point.

The picture below shows the various components laid out, it does also show the 3mm ply shortly to become fire wood when I tried to force it to bend.

I cut two small doors in the top of the board and attached hinges and fasteners.  I used the jig saw slowly lowering the blade onto the ply which then will cut through without having to make the usual pilot hole.

Last photo is of the completed box being tested by one of my ferrets.

 I am quite pleased with it.

Finding Mole Runs

The first thing to do when finding mole runs is to stand back and have a good look at what's in front of you.  Ideally you want to find a main run, this will usually be between mole hills going in a straight line. In the picture above you can see them at the top of the picture.

With your heel or a walking stick feel for give in between these mole hills. If there is a run you should be able to feel a slight hollow there.  Dig out a trap size hole and clean out any obstructing soil from the mole run.

 
Having made sure there is no obstructions, carefully insert the trap so that the prongs are either side of the run.

Carefully put clods around the trap and cover with soil so no light gets into the run.  Though Moles do not see well, they do know the difference between light and dark.

One of three things will happen; the mole will ignore your trap, the mole will stuff your trap with soil, or you will catch your mole.  Hopefully the latter.

Happy Trapping.

Evan's first rabbit.

I suppose everyone remembers their first rabbit caught. It is when you join that exclusive group of hunters bound by skill and blood and loss.

Evans shot was a really good one, of coarse as his father I am biased.   He had been practising for a couple of days with my BRNO .22 and had become quite proficient with it.

We went shooting up in the hills of Mid Wales on a large farm with plenty of cover for rabbits.  Walking up to the hill gate we spotted a rabbit sitting by a fence at the bottom of the field.  Evan using the gate post as a rest for the rifle took careful aim at his quarry some 80 yards away.  The rifle is silenced and we were using Eley subsonics so a click as the firing pin struck the cartridge was followed by a load thwack as the hollow point round found its target and killed the rabbit instantly.

A very proud father took the photo of sons first rabbit.

Bee Swarms

The weather this year has been terrible for my bee keeping, and, as I have not been able to examine the hives regularly has resulted in swarming.  The following video is of a prime swarm taken from underneath my neighbours trampoline and hived in a National Box.

Dufus or tunnel mole trap

The Dufus or tunnel mole trap is based on the old horse hair traps used in the Victorian era. These mole traps have the advantage of being able to catch two moles on one setting, one on each end.  The trap is laid in the run and soil lightly sprinkled on top.  The disadvantage of these traps are they are hard to find if not properly marked, all it needs is a flock of sheep to charge across the field and you will have a merry time trying to find your trap.  I suppose you could GPS mark it if stock are a problem or if it is close to a foot path and may get disturbed by passer byes.

Dufus Mole trap

Here is the trap in set

Again the art in setting these traps is in making the trigge mechanism as light as possible, so it will go off at the lightest of touches. This is difficult with this trap as the mechanism is basically wire.  If set wrong the mole will find it impossible to set the trap of and will go under and stuff the trap with soil.  This is hard to detect until yo lift the trap.

The picture above shows the trigger mechanism set hard, no mole would be able to set this off!  The art is having as little of the trigger plate wire touching the holding bar as possible.

Before use these traps, like all traps should be buried to reduce the smell on them.

Clatworthy Lake

Summer was making an attempt on Wednesday morning as Andrew and I wandered our way across the levels and up towards Exmoor.  Our fishing trip was to Clatworthy, a beautiful setting with the dam over flowing and the water high up the banks. On arrival we saw a pair of Crested Grebe but no chicks with them, I suppose most of the water fowl have suffered from the high water levels flooding their nests this year.

As my fishing buddy had a gammy leg we hired a boat, and after loading him and the tackle we set of for the northern arm which is usually shallow and usually held fish, which feed on the abundance of aquatic life there.

Andrew was into his first fish quickly and bought onboard a fish with lovely markings and a full tail fin.  I caught next on an Orange blob which was taken savagely, this was the third strike I had in an hour but the two others I had lost playing them in.  I had allowed the line to go slack and the barbless hook had been thrown.  This third fish fought well, and pulled enough for me to worry about the quality of my knots. When Andrew finally netted the fish we could see it was not a monster as assumed from the fight, but still a very respectable 3lb.  Later that morning Andrew hooked into a wonderful fish that took his line off nearly to the backing and again  it took a good while to play out until I could slip the net under. (after accidentally hitting the fish on the head first! Thank goodness he didn't get off the hook, I would have never heard the last of it.

Sorry about the quality, rain water in my phone.

We also had a top class fishing guide with us, who only needed the odd bit of bread to keep her happy.

As you can see phone had dried out by this stage.

The afternoon was difficult and we only added one other fish to our day.  But between us we caught seven wonderful rainbow trout, each one fought magnificently.  We will be going back to Clatworthy.

Flies which caught: Orange Blob, Black and Green Nymph.