Daydream thread continues.....

alfie_1

Itismehonest wrote: »

As alfie said that's highly unlikely particularly if you discuss everything with the Rat Man. Rats come & go using a regular run. It will be the food & water (unlike mice rats need to drink regularly) which attracts them. The Rat Man will hunt out the run & lay bait in a way that your other animals should be safe.
It's been mainly DIY baiting & not using enough poison that has led to rats becoming immune to the stuff.

A rat can breed all year given suitable conditions & can breed from about 5 weeks old. Gestation period is 21 days & they'll have between 7 -14 in each litter. Do the maths :eek:

:eek::eek: nooooooooo i was talking about in the house rats... knowing they die IN the perimeter of the house. i never put poison outdoors if there is any animal in 50yds ! owls etc pick up the carcass's.
i had a "council" rat man when i first came here. put poison down holes etc leaving bits everywhere. i complained to the council. i had to get out and hoover it up ! bl**dy useless. i know not all are but i like to be in control of pest control as i know what animogs are where.

alfie_1

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

Alfie..... apart from the doc being ancient, are you ok?

LIR we get them in 'waves' so to speak, especially over the last year since all the construction work going on around us, I have noticed the local cats come round, so hopefully they will keep the young rats under control.

Right Rhiwie..... How can I put this without sounding a bit perverse:rotfl: basically man wearing kinky women's clothes being dominered by a woman... also a man wearing kinky women's clothes wanting to be a housewife... or something like that ( I think, didnt want to ask any more questions as I might have had too much info from a buyer:eek::eek:)

yeh yeh im fine ....just them telling me my options....
i nodded and then left

i actually wondered what sissy was too...........:o :rotfl: now i know..:rotfl:

re pigs...mabel was sold to her 1st owners as a mini pig.:eek::eek: :rotfl::rotfl:

Davesnave

I'm worried that we'll get rats and not be on top of the situation, because we've been so spoiled up till now. We do all the right things, like keeping potential food out of their reach, but now our moggies are old, it's down to the semi-feral and a couple of others to do the control.

I suppose we might get a Bimble.....:D

Had a bit of a funny day, with an old friend turning up almost without warning, so a shopping trip had to be pruned. I shouldn't have gone, but just made it back by dark.

Even then, the roads were getting a bit dodgy, with so much run-off/standing water still about, but I think it was carelessness that caused an accident in a part I never like. A chap in a LR with a low loader trailer had lost it, gone onto the verge, taken out a couple of trees and made it back onto the wrong side of the road with the trailer attached, but minus a set of wheels. It was too dark to see if he'd lost any cargo, but if so, it had gone over the edge! It's about 20'-30' down. :eek:

Having not eaten in 8 hours, I tried the easy option of a supermarket pasty. Now I really wish I hadn't! Think I'm just too old for junk food now.

Pleased to say I'm probably too old for dressing up in knickers as well, but again, that reminds me, we haven't heard from stitching witch for ages.

Edit: Pete's wife had two kune kunes, but of course it didn't stop there! He originally said they were only fit for sausages, but last time we spoke on the subject, he remarked that the meat had been "OK."

Itismehonest

alfie_1 wrote: »

:eek::eek: nooooooooo i was talking about in the house rats... knowing they die IN the perimeter of the house. i never put poison outdoors if there is any animal in 50yds ! owls etc pick up the carcass's.
i had a "council" rat man when i first came here. put poison down holes etc leaving bits everywhere. i complained to the council. i had to get out and hoover it up ! bl**dy useless. i know not all are but i like to be in control of pest control as i know what animogs are where.

Then yours wasn't a good rat man, alfie.
I doubt the bait would be put outside. LIR said they were in the feed room & by the chickens (a favourite place - they'll often nest under chicken houses) so I think he'd probably position it in the feed room but not where it's easily accessible by any other animal. It gets put in a bit of pipe or under something.

Our rats were coming from a NT property where a lean-to they lived in was knocked down - they also lived in the walls of the NT cottage & used to poke their heads out & watch the people watching TV :rotfl: Yep it was a dump.
They came up behind the buildings where our goats & pigs lived. They were coming in for the pig nuts & water.
Our rat man methodically worked out exactly where the run went & laid the bait in places accordingly. We only had to move one pig for a few days & make sure there was no other easily available food water source for them to transfer to while the bait worked.
The goats, pigs, chickens, ducks, cats, ponies were all OK. Neither did we come across any dead birds of prey, badgers, deer, foxes or sheep all of which roamed freely

It's take action (the odd trap would be a waste of time if LIR's overrun) or let the situation get even worse.

rozeepozee

Itismehonest wrote: »

:rotfl:
OK we shouldn't laugh but robins are the proverbial nosey parkers of the countryside. They're always there to check what you are up to & inspect anything new. This could be an ongoing problem, rozee.

Okay....I found a hen blackbird in it this afternoon! I have moved it away from where OH put it under the bird table :eek:

Itismehonest

rozeepozee wrote: »

Okay....I found a hen blackbird in it this afternoon! I have moved it away from where OH put it under the bird table :eek:

:rotfl: Poor birds probably thought the bird table was the penthouse & were taking a look at what was in the basement

rozeepozee

purple.sarah wrote: »

We've been looking on http://www.greenshifters.co.uk/for_rent and seen some options. We'd consider moving pretty much anywhere in the UK and Ireland for the right property. Also we have 7 more months left on our tenancy to look for somewhere to move to. Thank you for your encouragement. Congratulations on buying your daydream place!

The way we did it was to choose a location after much searching. We had a Wish List of what we would like to buy accompanied by an essential list. Things like: close to a village with a school and some amenities, not on a main road, minimum one acre (which grew to 3), affordable area, close enough to travel to the grandparents in one day, short driving distance to a market town. We then rented a standard house as close as possible to where we thought we wanted to live while we researched the area at close hand.

In the end, we achieved loads of our desired criteria. The biggest compromises were we are not close enough to the village to pop down there (well, not on a regular basis or with the kids anyway), we bought a 1960s bungalow, not a character property, we don't have any outbuildings or anything convertable into a letting unit (it was just too expensive) and the hosue needs a fair bit of work, so we're living in a static caravan for now. We have no regrets as yet, although it's early days and we don't know how far our money will stretch but I'm so pleased with our place that I'd quite happily live in it as is, it's only unmodernised, rather than doa huge refurb we can't afford.

We haven't actually started anything yet, no growing, or livestock and I've learnt so much from being on this thread - mainly that it's bloody hard work! But a great lifestyle. It's not a rehearsal.

Indeed, I just love living in a village with it's community and all the benefits that the country brings to your life and that of the kids that the things I thought we were moving her for have become almost secondary. I have my moments, life's not an idyll, but there are benefits to the different culture that I never foresaw before upping sticks and moving here. You have to live it to fully appreciate it, it seems.

And my bird table is fantastic!

(We now have daily visits from the red kite - not to the table but close enough....)

Rummer

:wave: How is everyone this evening? I see the chat has sunk to rats and pants while I have been away :rotfl:. Every year we find a single dead rat in our garden, it always freaks me out as the rats round here are HUGE :eek:. I always make my OH open the compost bin as I am terrified that they will be in there.

I have been reading everything I can get my hands on to do with veggie gardening and planning including a number of very inspirational blogs. In fact if I worked in my garden for as long as I have planned it the whole thing would be amazing by now :rotfl:

rozeepozee

Rummer wrote: »

:wave: How is everyone this evening? I see the chat has sunk to rats and pants while I have been away :rotfl:. Every year we find a single dead rat in our garden, it always freaks me out as the rats round here are HUGE :eek:. I always make my OH open the compost bin as I am terrified that they will be in there.

I have been reading everything I can get my hands on to do with veggie gardening and planning including a number of very inspirational blogs. In fact if I worked in my garden for as long as I have planned it the whole thing would be amazing by now :rotfl:

I think we were separated at birth Rums

Itismehonest

Watch the kite if you get chickens, rozee. The buzzards here would occasionally finish off some of our baby chicks
Badgers, too, have a habit of taking the bodies & leaving the heads behind.
Remember that what you encourage now may not be exactly what you want to encourage in the future.

I once watched horrified as a peregrine murdered a rook outside my study window. It caught it in mid flight, brought it down & proceeded to peck a hole exactly where the rooks heart was. It was all done with clinical precision & absolute spite (the rooks had been dive-bombing the falcon to keep it away from the rookery). It wouldn't even stop when I ran out after it yelling. The rook was almost as big as the peregrine but it was adamant it was going to kill it.
When it was sure the rook was dead the peregrine just flew off & left us to clear up the mess. Nature red in tooth & claw _pale_.

Rummer wrote: »

:wave: How is everyone this evening? I see the chat has sunk to rats and pants while I have been away :rotfl:.

Hi Rummer Yep, we're always guaranteed to lower the tone if you're not around.