Matthew Arnold

My uncle was taken in to the local a n e. He slid/collapsed on the ice and ended up having an open fracture dislocation of the right ankle. My dad picked him up. My dad took his colleague to hospital after he broke his wrist on the scene getting out of the ambulance. We havent had much luck the last two christmas'. Last year we lost our gran to a major stroke. My grandad just had a mini stroke but is now home and now my uncles broken ankle.

Nice one. My dad and i have been waging our own mini war on the greys. So far this year we have shot 1,239 grey squirrels in 10 woods. 3 of them are Hazel Coppice, 4 of them are Beech and Birch Plantation and the other 3 are Oak and Larch plantation.

Few lagers, maybe a few ales then some port in the evening. I'm gonna wake up with the hangover from hell on Boxing day but it xmas i have an excuse to get merry

I shall get some pics of the local hunt i go to each boxing day. Some of the people local to Dorset may recognise the town and the hunt.

Finished today goin back on 4th. did a few odd jobs today. nothing much went to the many locals for a pint or two after work.

With our old Discovery we put a Rad leak stopper solution into the system. It stopped the leak which was only a broken/split rad pipe. About 20 miles later the water temp shot up and the engine died. We were only doin 70 on a dual carriageway. We checked the header tank which was full. It turned out the solution had slowly "rubberized" in the system and blocked up the small lines that run into the cylinder head. Cough, splutter dead. £596 later new cylinder head, new rad, flushed system with ethanol to remove rubber. Sounds steep but most of the price was labour.

Exactly. Its a massive waste of money and is a waste of police resources. How many people have been jailed because of the ban? The only reason they were jailed is because of groups such as LACS and even the RSPCA has got involved with some court cases. The RSPCA withdrew their support of LACS after LACS protesters set fire to a hatchery containing thousands of pheasant poults. Its strange that its the hunts that get the bollocking if an anti gets hurt. Even though the anti was attacking a horse and rider.

My dad and i go lamping atleast twice a week on various estates in and around the county. We regularly have 2 or 3 a night. Even with the hunts using a quadbike with a foxblood filled sock or similar it is inevitable for charlie to get caught by the hounds. Its what they have been bred to do. The videos anti hunting and anti shooting groups put up on Youtube and on their own websites show the "bad" side of the hunts and shoots. I've videod shoot days on a commercial shoot where the guns shoot 300 + birds. All of birds go into th human food chain. Nothing goes to waste (we even reuse the ties!!). Granted some birds are "pillowed" but they are very few and far between. I have attached images of a commercial shoot i go to in Dorset. I shot there today infact. The first pic is of me on a drive known as Eight Acre bank. The second pic is of the game cart after the first two drives. The last picture is a group photo of all of the beaters and pickers up from the 2008-2009 season.

Only in some parts of the country. Hundred of shoots have cancelled dates because of the weather. Most of the ones on the south of england are running ok. So far we have only had 2 days called off on the shoot i go to because of the roads.

I'm goin to the Portman Hunt meet on Boxing day in the morning then the Blackmore Vale hunt in afternoon. Better get the gun cleaned up as i am shooting tomorrow. Then again boxing day as part of the hunt meet i go round and have the foxes that are inadvertantly flushed by the dogs.

I put on Pheasant, Partridge and Pigeon Casserole when i left for work at 9. It was done when i finished at about 5. Was done spot on in the slow cooker.

Is anyone going down to their local hunt meet on Boxing day?

Was very funny. Cant wait for the boxing day one.

He has the normal disco 3 lettering on the back door. But he has a sticker staying "Keep honking. I'm reloading" on the back window and "No problems. Big problems" on the near side rear window. But it has Countryside Acess on the front doors. And a thick green stripe down the sides.

Nope our is manual. But its the Rights of Way Head for the area where we are based. It has been fully kitted out by a local land rover specialist. It has all the mod cons snorkel, sump/steering guard,etc. And the spare wheel is in the boot rather than underneath.

Looks a tad dodgy. Spelling crap and surrounded by shipping containers. Chipper in poor state (needs a clean). Would be very careful buying stuff like that off Ebay. Wouldnt want to buy a chipper then find out when pulled over by the plod that it infact stole nadn all you have to go off is the sellers Ebay name.

The hed of our RoW Dept has a D3 with Goodyear Wranglers. Had a go in it the other day. Couldnt fault it. I took it down the stickiest, slippiest lane i knew of with lots of sloppy clay with claggy clay bottom and it pulled me out no problems. Didnt need to get out n put the winch on. Beautiful truck. You just need the right tyres then it become a different beast. If they are the standard road tyres from new they would be Goodyear HP. Brilliant on the road but hopeless anywhere else but good on snow.

We use both Stihl 2-mix and 4-mix. Both of em are 50:1 so 100 ml to 5 litres of fuel. Better to use the branded stuff than other peoples own. Oregon Semi synth 2T should be 50:1. Typed into the wonderful search engine that is Google and it came up with the fuel mix.

I normally have a shredded wheat for brekkie then a sausage,egg n bacon bap for mid morning snack and thats me sorted for the rest of the day. the bap is only 3 quid and the sausage is infact a sausagemeat burger. its very filling. We go to a butty box in sturminster newton.

Will do m8. I think we are pretty much sorted but i shall let you know if anything arises.

I recon the AA and police should say "Only travel if you have a suitably prepared vehicle. If not then please stay off the roads, to prevent accidents."

The roads in blandford and the surrounding roads (even main routes) are covered in frozen slush and compacted snow. We just had snow chains on our defender for the first time.

Some pic of the last couple of days. Pic 1 - A350 heading north towards Shaftesbury from Blandford. Road had been gritted but not done much. Pic 2 - A357 heading West towards Sturminster Newton. Road was clear until Enford Bottom. Pic 3 - Pic of Shillingstone Trailway entrance. Pic 4 - Scots pine covered in snow. Shillingstone Trailway. Pic 5 - Shillingstone Station. Pic 6 - Enford Bottom Farm. We spun around by the far barn. Heavy compacted snow. Pic 7 - Shillingstone Church Pic 8 - Scots Pine with snow covered Hambledon Hill (Iron age hillfort with NNR Status) in the back ground. Pic 9 - Shillingstone Trailway looking toward Stourpaine. Pic 10 - Small Leaning Alder next to pond. Pic 11 - Fiddleford Bridge looking back to Sturminster Newton. Pic 12 - Comorants in old Ash Pic 13 and 14 - Woodbury Cross to Wareham (Main route to Wareham off the A35. Not a hint of salt. Probably why we had to tow 9 cars out of various ditches and hedgerows). Probably in the wrong industry but enjoy. Pics were taken with a Fujifilm Finepix JV 12 Megapixel and a Konica Minolta Dimage Z2 SLR.

Basically a bird inside a bird inside a bird. Partridge inside a Chicken inside a Goose. All the bones are removed as it is alot easier to stretch meat that stretch and snap bones.