The "Pit"

[comanche 2,923]

Over the last couple of weeks I've been working my way round a few acres of very rough ground surrounding a 13th Century manor house owned by a lovely elderly couple . The land hasn't been ferreted for the sixty years that they've owned the place so is pretty much virgin territory . It is also incredibly overgrown. By the time I've hacked my way into the ancient hedge-rows I've been lucky to have enough time to work more than a couple of burrows a day .

After all this sweat-inducing hacking I decided to reward myself with a few hours in the "Pit" which whilst being easier to access was not to be tackled lightly. Many old Sussex farms have these pits. They were private quarries dug to provide the sheets of iron-rich sand-stone used as a local roofing material .Some have been landscaped into ponds but quite a few have simply become the last resting place for all sorts of occasionally interesting but more usually totally redundent agricultural debris . Digging for a wayward ferret in such places is not always easy !

I spent some time dragging sheets of iron and decomposing logs aside and was rewarded with fifty or so pretty clean holes. I'd obviously made a bit of noise out of neccessity so working on the theory that the rabbits were already aware of my intentions I decided to push -on with the netting process and pop the ferrets in as soon as possible .

 

 

Nothing stirred for twenty minutes though the dog's quizzical expression told me that something was happening underground .In some ways I was relieved when both ferrets appeared especially as neither showed any sign of having been close behind a rabbit.Rightly or wrongly I interpreted this as meaning the bunnies were in fine running mode and not tucked-up somewhere. I popped the ferrets back into the warren and before I could settle against a tree all hell broke loose . For a while both me and the dog were like a pair of harrassed houswives who had yet to master the proverbial art of multi-tasking as rabbit-filled nets bundled and bumped from the holes. It was whilst crouching awkwardly on the slippery bank with one foot covering a hole whilst I emptied a net of its contents and at the same time signalling the baby dog to stand gaurd over another netted bunny that I became aware that something was caught in my hair and stabbing me in the head . A late season jasper paid the ulimate price for the attack but credit where credit is due .I reckon if wasps have such things as crack squads bent on suicidal revenge attacks this little b*gger was a member . As they appeared I recaptured the ferrets and returned them temporarily to the box . I spent a few minutes straightening nets ,legging the bunnies and prodding my swelling scalp. Calm and composure regained ,the jills were re-entered . A couple more rabbits bolted quite quickly

but it soon became obvious that one of the ferrets was having a private arguement with a pretty sticky customer and after a decent interval I reached for the spade .I think I mentioned the roofing-grade sand-stone found hereabouts .Having chipped my way down about two feet I was aware of an almighty rumble at the bottom of the hole and a nearby net erupted and thankfully enfolded around its intended quarry .Though I ran the ferrets through again this turned out to be the last rabbit . Not wishing to push my luck after a pretty successful sorte I packed-up with plenty of daylight left and waddled back to the farm to pay my respects to the owners .Being vegetarians they as usual declined my ritual offer of a share of the catch and asked when I would be back . As I said earlier . A lovely elderly couple .

Edited November 5, 2010 by comanche

[TOMO 26,009]

good read that mate, looks like you had a few nets down in that top pic, all the best TOMO

[NEHunter 14]

Fantastic read. Thank you.

[seany 54]

Really nice read mate thanks

[johnny boy68 11,726]

Great read fella........sounds like it was busy time

[The one 8,463]

Good going mate moving all that crap to get ferreting

[KittleRox 2,147]

great post,

[tus 22]

top read

[Sky09 8]

well done mucker

[spanj 11]

Over the last couple of weeks I've been working my way round a few acres of very rough ground surrounding a 13th Century manor house owned by a lovely elderly couple . The land hasn't been ferreted for the sixty years that they've owned the place so is pretty much virgin territory . It is also incredibly overgrown. By the time I've hacked my way into the ancient hedge-rows I've been lucky to have enough time to work more than a couple of burrows a day .

After all this sweat-inducing hacking I decided to reward myself with a few hours in the "Pit" which whilst being easier to access was not to be tackled lightly. Many old Sussex farms have these pits. They were private quarries dug to provide the sheets of iron-rich sand-stone used as a local roofing material .Some have been landscaped into ponds but quite a few have simply become the last resting place for all sorts of occasionally interesting but more usually totally redundent agricultural debris . Digging for a wayward ferret in such places is not always easy !

I spent some time dragging sheets of iron and decomposing logs aside and was rewarded with fifty or so pretty clean holes. I'd obviously made a bit of noise out of neccessity so working on the theory that the rabbits were already aware of my intentions I decided to push -on with the netting process and pop the ferrets in as soon as possible .

 

 

Nothing stirred for twenty minutes though the dog's quizzical expression told me that something was happening underground .In some ways I was relieved when both ferrets appeared especially as neither showed any sign of having been close behind a rabbit.Rightly or wrongly I interpreted this as meaning the bunnies were in fine running mode and not tucked-up somewhere. I popped the ferrets back into the warren and before I could settle against a tree all hell broke loose . For a while both me and the dog were like a pair of harrassed houswives who had yet to master the proverbial art of multi-tasking as rabbit-filled nets bundled and bumped from the holes. It was whilst crouching awkwardly on the slippery bank with one foot covering a hole whilst I emptied a net of its contents and at the same time signalling the baby dog to stand gaurd over another netted bunny that I became aware that something was caught in my hair and stabbing me in the head . A late season jasper paid the ulimate price for the attack but credit where credit is due .I reckon if wasps have such things as crack squads bent on suicidal revenge attacks this little b*gger was a member . As they appeared I recaptured the ferrets and returned them temporarily to the box . I spent a few minutes straightening nets ,legging the bunnies and prodding my swelling scalp. Calm and composure regained ,the jills were re-entered . A couple more rabbits bolted quite quickly

but it soon became obvious that one of the ferrets was having a private arguement with a pretty sticky customer and after a decent interval I reached for the spade .I think I mentioned the roofing-grade sand-stone found hereabouts .Having chipped my way down about two feet I was aware of an almighty rumble at the bottom of the hole and a nearby net erupted and thankfully enfolded around its intended quarry .Though I ran the ferrets through again this turned out to be the last rabbit . Not wishing to push my luck after a pretty successful sorte I packed-up with plenty of daylight left and waddled back to the farm to pay my respects to the owners .Being vegetarians they as usual declined my ritual offer of a share of the catch and asked when I would be back . As I said earlier . A lovely elderly couple .

Great read that mate, really enjoyed it

[nehunter73 2]

Nice read mate keep them comeing ATB

[terrierjohn 49]

good day for you

nice read atb john

[TommyV 0]

sounds a great day out

[Tyla 3,179]

A good read mate, nice bag and a lovely looking pup. Good luck for the season

[Blue one 89]

That was a great wright up, thanks for sharing.

Lovely pup, how is he/she bred?