It's Still There ....!

 A week ago, today, I found a mink cage in the river in town, yeah? Told ye all about it Below / Here.

  Back in town again, today. Have to have a look, don't ye? And, fuck me; There it is!

  Shifted and drifted a yard or two. Otherwise still much as I first found it. Can ye imagine that happening in england? I can't!

  Local people are now even suggesting I just " Bring it with me. " But, as I still explain to them; That's not the way I see things done, around here. It's not my property. I'm not touching it. Period.

 Saying that; It bodes damn well for me, doesn't it? Should I ever choose to set some traps of my own down along that river. No bugger'll interfere with those either, look.

  Sadly, that's not about to happen. Simply because I only go into town once a week. Can't go about, setting even killer traps, then just inspecting them once a bloody week! Some modern Gamekeepers might. I wouldn't.

 Makes me wonder what story lies behind all this though; Someone ~ his name's known ~ fenced the river in. Bought ducks to sit on it. There's even an automatic feeder there for them. 

 Then a mink came along and started helping itself to the ducks. So, someone bought a trap and set it. Now, all that's there is the feeder and the trap.

 The truth behind it will filter through to me, eventually. I'll tell ye, here, once I find out.

Nigger Does It Again ....!

Damn Dog just seems to get better! :D

The other night ~ last night? ~ I seem to remember him pawing one of my mouse boxes around, in my kitchen. I have these special little boxes. They contain a mouse trap and a slot in the top of the box discreetly alerts ye to when the trap's been fired.

Only, I haven't had any mice in this place for about a year now and, to be honest with ye? Those boxes have kind of become almost 'invisible' to me.

So, I've been busy with some DIY out there lately. I'd have been distracted and just told Nigger to leave the box alone. Then gone back to thinking of timber and screws.

Tonight though, I'd about finished my own, latest burst of activity when Dean O' turned up to do a bit more DIFD ('Do It For Ditch'). He's setting up my new sink and shower. Only, I think it was when Dean lost sight of his tape measure and I was looking about for that that I spotted this mouse box, moved slightly away from its usual spot.

Then I realised it had fired. Oh ..... It happens to all Rat Catchers. Something comes up and ..... and, one day, ye inevitably have to check a trap, knowing it should've been checked long ago! I was explaining this to Dean O', even as I took out my key and popped the lid on the box. Bracing myself, with curled lip, to look inside.

Yeppers. There was fur in there. Brown fur. A House Mouse. Only, to my surprise and delight, it was fresh as a daisy! And that's when I remembered calling Nig Nig off this box, only yesterday. Bugger had scented the fresh mouse in there and was curious to get at what it was :-)

If he, like all my other Dogs, had ignored that faint smell? It may have been god knows how long before I'd noticed and opened that damn thing! Urgh! Been there before!

I threw the body into my compost bin. Then had second thoughts as I realised what a treat it'd make for my magpie. I was just about to go fetch it though when I remembered how I've had recent take in the Rat Box (baited) down in the horse pen. I'd looked for rat tracks or any other sign. Found none and put it down to concrete and low levels of activity.

Now I have other ideas. I'll put some mouse boxes down there too, tomorrow. In fact, I'll saturate my entire damn compound now. Because, even as I stood there, in my kitchen, chatting to Dean about all this; Bugger me if I didn't see, through the open door, a mouse dash across my gate way!

They're back. Let the fun begin!

Idstone Trap Pit

Anyone remember when I said, on THL, how I'd always fancied trying out an " Idstone Trap Pit "? I got the idea from Carnegie's excellent little book; " Practical Trapping ".

For those of ye outside the loop the, it's basically a square hole with a lid over it. Ye bury pipes, leading down into this pit. Inside the pit, where the pipes lead in, ye set traps. In Carnegie's time, only Gin Traps were available. Today, of course, we'd use a more humane type of trap, designed to kill outright, rather than possibly just hold the victim.

So, anyway; I long since announced that I really should get round to constructing one and trying it out. I then went quiet about it and, knowing THL, there would've been plenty enough people murmuring, knowingly to each other that; 'There we are! All talk, that Ditch Shitter! Always full of bright ideas ~ Never actually gets out and Does anything though!'.

Well, little might they realise that Ditch Shitter is more the other way. I get so bloody busy doing things, I simply haven't always the time to sit and Write about what I get up to! Can't have it both ways, see? That's why I'm rather late in bringing ye a report on what happened with my own Idstone Pit. And, unfortutely, I was a few years too late in ever trying to action the bloody idea in the first place! I should've done it back in Hampshire or Hull. It's ~ as I'd suspected ~ just not a project suited to the local conditions I now live and work with.

Here's what happened then: First of all, I bought a nice, galvanised Inspection Cover. 'Man Hole' cover, if ye like. That gave me the exact size of my hole in the ground. I then built a four sided wooden box. Idea being to use this box as a sort of shuttering, to stop the pit walls from ever caving in and firing the traps or otherwise just making a mess of things in there.

To the top of my box I fitted the frame which the cover sits in. At two sides, I cut through circular holes. These holes being a perfect fit for some plastic land drain pipe we get around here. And there I was, all set.

Here it is, look, without the cover on and not showing the pipes I have to connect to the two holes. Nice, neat job. All heavily creasoted, to give the wood some protection against the damp earth.




As said, all I needed to do now was to dig myself a nice, straight sided, square hole to exactly accept this box. I set too and, before very long, I dug out and bottomed off a nice hole to fit it in. Only, it was getting on a bit, by the time I'd finished. I had the Dogs and horses to feed, so I thought I'd give it best for now. Come back to it and dig the pipes in the next day.

Trouble is, next day I found This ....!





Lot of fucking good, eh? Made a bleeding paddling pool, haven't I? And, if I leave it like that, it'll just become a breeding place for mosquitoes, of which we have more than enough round here as it is! So, having left it a month or so, to see what might happen (It just filled with even More water!) there's really nothing else for it but to fill the bloody thing back in again.

So much for my bloody Idstone Trap Pit. But, as ye can see; I did do it. Or at least I tried!

Just wondering if I can do anything useful with it now. Maybe use it as a ground level trap cover or something? Possibly. Bit too busy to think about it just now. Other things on .....