I am gradually moving articles from my very first old blog to their final homes. I thought this one might interest other gundog owners. It is also interesting to compare the harvest dates. This year’s linseed crop is still standing in the fields, as it is far too wet for the combine to get onto the fields. This article was originally posted on 17th September 2011.
Rabbiting on the stubble with Meg
This morning I was awoken by himself peeling my eyelids apart just as dawn came creeping through our curtains.
Would I like to accompany him shooting over the stubble, he enquired. And a few moments later we were trundling through the still sleeping village and down to the farm.
Yesterday, the first of the linseed fields was cut and this was our first port of call.
Untidy rows of tangled linseed ‘straw’ remind me of paintings of fields before farming became highly mechanised. They give the farm a kind of Victorian look.
Free dog food
We shot a few rabbits and gave Meg a run picking them up. Our dogs have been fed an entirely raw diet for some years now, and rabbits are our principle source of dog food.
After completing a circuit of the linseed, we moved on to the straw stubble where we drew a blank. Stubble shooting is nearly over now.
Here and there huge piles of treated manure have been strategically placed in the stubble fields and over the next few days this will be spread across them. It will be ploughed in shortly afterwards.
Rather different from my childhood days when stubble stood in the fields for weeks and night skies were lit for miles around with an orange glow as the stubble was systematically burned.
Checking the pens
We stopped to top up food in the ex-layers pen, where a few semi-wild bantams are living. Despite plenty of safe dry places to tuck herself away, the hen in this picture has decided to brood her eggs at the foot of this tree.
A quick check on the poult pens, a fox to add to our bag, and it was home for bacon and eggs.
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