Matthew Arnold

Normally listen to a bit of relaxing/slow paced metal and guitar. Some where along these lines [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vjz_a2ss2g&feature=channel]YouTube - Stone Sour - Bother[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXp413NynFk]YouTube - Santana - Smooth (feat. Rob Thomas)[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gpwgPpswms]YouTube - Michelle Branch & Santana - I'm Feeling You[/ame] and have a couple of cans Kronenbourg with my evening meal.

3 tier aluminium ladder (smaller size the fire service use). Nice and light and easily manouverable. Instead of having to extend the ladder by climbing it to put up another tier its a pulley system. Very nice ladder. Cant remember the make of it though.

Hambledon Hill before pic. After pic is gonna be here tomoz when we finish the job.

We were working on the other side of it today. Bit damp n windy but had a decent bonfire. Had good fun gettin to and from the job site as it was very well used farm tracks with a chalk/clay mix base. Very slippy and very difficult to stop on (bounced into farmers gate).

I know the dust and smoke (especially smoke) from Laurel and Rhody is nasty stuff. Ivy can be really for you especially burnt in large quantities. From what ive been told by my old man (Paramedic for 30+ year) Gorse smoke is the worst in our industry. I've inadvertantly inhaled a lung full of the stuff and nearly fallen backwards due to lack of oxygen in the blood. If your worried about carcinegic dust easiest way around is wear a dust mask. Cant do much about smoke except keep out of the way of it.

New crime drama on tonight. Based in Prohibition era New York. Looks rather good judging by the adverts ive seen.

Had our last day today over at Crichel shoot. £100 each for a little walkround day. I swear birds know when the season finishes as the ducks and woodcock (ended yesterday) were teasing us all day. Final bag was 86 pheasant, 15 partridge, 9 pigeon, 5 jay, 2 crow, 2 jackdaw and one rook. Not bad for the end of the season run around. Now time for the woodies n corvids.

Took nearly a minute fore my parents to get that one lol. How sad.

Hambledon Hill my man. Hod Hill is to the right just out of shot. The largest Yew forest is in Kingley Vale, Chichester, West Sussex. Ive walked through the yews at Hambledon Hill and the trees in there are immense.

My dad and i took the dogs out at about lunchtime and i decided to take my camera. Got some nice pics of an S.A.M that we are currently clearing of patches of scrub o nthe ramparts. Also took pictures of a bridge top which was at the begining/end of an old tunnel that went under the hill. Sadly we cant dig it out as it is filled in with asbestos waste. We plan to clear it of brambles and the big willow will also be coming out.

I helped a local shoot out last winter clearing out an old (20 years +) hazel and ash coppice. The hazel stools we cut down until it was 2 inches above the detritus line on the stump. Some of the stools were knee high but looked like upside down pudding/mixing bowls. The Ash stools we coppiced to the same degree. We left the more stable stools and removed the really whippy ones. Half of the branch wood was used as holding cover for pheasants. The other half was chipped up and is being used as a subsitute to fuel/oil spill granules. The logs all went for splitting. Was hard going but over 4 weekends (2 in feb, 2 in march) the keeper, woodmen and i cleared about 2 acres. The rest we plan to selectively remove over the next few years. When i get 5 mins whilst im shooting next week i shall get some pictures of it. When we started the most notable species was Speckled Wood butterflies and Dogs Mercury. This year we have dormice (16 boxes put up late summer this year, 14 being used), Silver Washed Fritillaries, Pearl Bordered Fritillaries and Green Washed Fritillaries. And a good selection of wildflowers, most notable would be the Bluebells that appeared in the cleared area.

No casaulties luckily but homeowners were apparently out when the fire began. Theyve shut one of the main trunk roads through the area as the road is full of fire engines and the hydrant with the highest pressure is on the otherside of the road. it is this property that is on fire. And it has spread to neighbouring buildings. Sutton Waldron - Google Maps

This is currently going on now and has been since about lunchtime. A350 closed as 75 firefighters battle serious blaze (From Bournemouth Echo) The last big fire we had in the area was Symphony Candles. It made national news as it could be seen from miles around. AFTERMATH OF THE FACTORY BLAZE (From Bournemouth Echo)

The vast majority of the guys i work with are switched on. The lad who we had on the mower was a work expirience student from the local school. He was switched (most of the time). Very enthusiastic and a hard worker. I think he had got bored of mowing grass verge all day and took out a couple of hazel sticks with red and white tape on. Anyway derail done.

We use timbrel for Jap Knotweed. Did a good combo a couple of years ago. 150ml Timbrel and 200 ml Glypho 360 to 15 litres of water. This year i have only had to spot treat. Shame that one of our volunteers mowed over a bit that i had just sprayed.

No its on a railway embankment. Plus the site is very heavily accessed by the public, anything from dog walkers to drunks, as it's a main thoroughfare. The L.A will not close the path either. Glyphosate would be your best bet then. Although we use it neat, a 50:50 mix should kill off the stumps. Alder is a pain to treat as the bark is so porous.

We use Glyphosate 360 neat for most stump treatments. We use 480 for species that regen extremely well. No matter what you put on them.

Much better today. Shot 3 pheasants, one pigeon and a crow. Damn crow flew nearly quarter of a mile before folding up.

Didn't do too well today. Only had 2 birds all day (1 Jay, 1 Pheasant). Didnt have the best of starts as i didnt even fire a shot off the first two drives. Beating tomorrow then shooting friday and saturday. Hopefully i shall have some more.

LOL. We shot on 4 farms last year and our final tally was somehwere around 2500 from the 4. That money went on a new CO2 .22 air rifle and a compressor. We over ran a local pub with fresh rabbit as we used to go out each evening and shoot until it went dark then for another hour after dark (or how long the torch battery would last). The best we ever had was 42 out of one field in an evening (mostly youngsters tho).

My dad and i contract ourselves out to landowners. We keep a tally of what we kill on the various farms/estates. If its game species (rabbit, squirrel, pigeon,etc) we ask the landowner if he would like them. We normally charge £1/Rabbit and 75p/squirrel/pigeon. Mainly to cover round costs

In the UK that tree would have been chopped up. Stump ground out and a tree put in its place.

The 5 days im doin are only beaters days. So we put a couple of quid in for the sweep. and a pound for first pigeon, first jay n first woodcock.

Ive got 5 days of driven game to look forward to starting tomorrow. Should be a good day (if i can shoot well).

The fuel we put through our L200 and Ford Ranger is 75% biodiesel. It certainly makes a difference when you use a tank of ordinary diesel from the public forecourts. The council are planning on going to 80% maybe even 90% biodiesel in the fuel pumps in the council yards. The pure diesel that is in there just helps the engines out and thins out the biodiesel a bit.