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[Tanzanite]

Perhaps it was because my spade was known as "a ladies spade" that I hated using it. :whistle:

My Old Man, suffering from angina at the time, had a heart attack when he was 67 years old. The doctor arrived, examined him in the bedroom and then the Doc and I sat in the kitchen for a cuppa.

When I asked what I needed to do to help the Old Man he replied "Nothing really. He could go in the next ten minutes or last another ten years." I was amazed so I asked him a few questions:

o Smoking? "Oh I know he smokes about 10 a day." His hair, which was as white as a sheet, was actually tinged a ginger brown from the smoke of 60 **** a day.

o Garden? "Oh I know he does a bit of gardening." He had nearly half an acre of garden which he dug with a spade and sold excess produce from the front gate.

o Chickens? "I know he has a few chickens." He actually had 450 of them and sold the eggs from the front gate as well.

o Ducks? "What ducks?" He always lifted at least 40 wild Mallard eggs from the local pond, got a broody hen to hatch them off and then released them back into the wild.

o Pigeons? "I know he has some pigeons." Like 350 of them. Two racing lofts and a retirement loft. Raced "North Road" every week in the summer.

The Doc said "He can keep the pigeons, the chickens and ducks have to go and he will need help if he keeps up the gardening." and walked back into Dad's bedroom. I immediately knew that the Old Man was seriously ill when I heard the doctor say "You're wasting my f*cking time." and the Old Man didn't get out of bed and deck him for using "Pit Language" in the house!

Before Dad got out of bed, I got rid of the chickens and their sheds, bought him a Rotavator, re-arranged the sheds in the garden and laid a concrete path to link the sheds and the lofts together.

Dad enjoyed another ten years of life before the silicosis and pneumoconiosis finally over-taxed his heart and he died ...

... of a heart attack whilst attending a Pigeon Club meeting! :thumb:

Way to go eh? :thumb: :thumb:

dutto i am shaking reading what you have just wrote , it is a mirror image of my father, every thing from the heart attack the pigeons (yes we had a big loft raced north road) use to train young birds from warsop and doncaster, every thing you say is like i could have wrote it about my dad the only difference is he worked at shipstones brewery not the pit. My mother took his old stock birds home (the others were sold at action) He won some big races one i can remember was i think from france nates he won a section or some thing like and got a ��£1200 that was a fortune to us he bought a car a black austin, so we could go to mablethorpe in october for our holidays(could not afford to go peek time. until he won that cash. My mum is still alive and has a little loft, she has five birds left, funny she came today and told me one had died aged 17, my dad died 8 years back. i dont know how the old girl keeps going , i remember going with him to pigeon club with his clocks and shuttles, i got a bottle of portello and crisps he had a pint of shipos bitter, tears in my eyes mate :thumb:

 

[Dutto]

dutto i am shaking reading what you have just wrote , it is a mirror image of my father, every thing from the heart attack the pigeons (yes we had a big loft raced north road) use to train young birds from warsop and doncaster, every thing you say is like i could have wrote it about my dad the only difference is he worked at shipstones brewery not the pit. My mother took his old stock birds home (the others were sold at action) He won some big races one i can remember was i think from france nates he won a section or some thing like and got a �����£1200 that was a fortune to us he bought a car a black austin, so we could go to mablethorpe in october for our holidays(could not afford to go peek time. until he won that cash. My mum is still alive and has a little loft, she has five birds left, funny she came today and told me one had died aged 17, my dad died 8 years back. i dont know how the old girl keeps going , i remember going with him to pigeon club with his clocks and shuttles, i got a bottle of portello and crisps he had a pint of shipos bitter, tears in my eyes mate :thumb:

From Donny your Dad probably flew South Road and the big prize would probably be the bets he had on the race from Barcelona; a savage race with a huge loss rate amongst the birds.

The reason we have a bit of land in France is 'cos my Dad was always talking about Nantes (I think it was the last stage before Barcelona) when we lived near Mansfield and he flew South Road.

It's weird how life just "happens"! When I first met the missus I decided to visit Nantes on the basis of knowing the name from Dad. When we were there we met a French couple who are still great friends after over 30 years. :thumb:

 

[Clint]

My old man's just give up racing the birds after around 60 years. Had three lofts full..sold the lot,took the lofts down and joined the Crown green bowling...a few weeks on he said the bowling lot were "outside toilets" built a small loft and bought a few birds as "pets". Mam just rolls her eyes!

Cheers

Clint

 

[geetee]

Gunge it could be Donald Trumps fault, every thing else is at the minute

Maybe he has banned vegetable?

 

[Tanzanite]

From Donny your Dad probably flew South Road and the big prize would probably be the bets he had on the race from Barcelona; a savage race with a huge loss rate amongst the birds.

The reason we have a bit of land in France is 'cos my Dad was always talking about Nantes (I think it was the last stage before Barcelona) when we lived near Mansfield and he flew South Road.

It's weird how life just "happens"! When I first met the missus I decided to visit Nantes on the basis of knowing the name from Dad. When we were there we met a French couple who are still great friends after over 30 years. :thumb:

you will be right , because they used to fly from Scotland Perth and frasarburgh back to Nottingham , it was so funny the world stopped on Saturday race day, you could hear shouts whistle horns , when the kits flew over, trying to get the birds to trap, I dont know about the bets i thought it was prize money or could of been bets, i will ask the old girl, mind we didnt have money to bet with so he might not have told her and she might still think it was prize money to this day. i can remember mam making yorkshire puds on a Sunday with pigeon eggs before we had chickens .

 

[Clint]

My dad used to be in a frenzy when the birds were due...sitting there in his look out shed with ginormous binoculars like some u boat commander...messages being relayed around the village who's had a bird in at what time...

 

[ollieollie]

I'm an avid pigeon shooter, never shot a racer as i know my craft but it always makes me smile when a pack of racers come past, i wonder where they're going and how long they've been on the wing. How on earth do you teach a pigeon to race/find home

 

[MyQul]

I'm an avid pigeon shooter, never shot a racer as i know my craft but it always makes me smile when a pack of racers come past, i wonder where they're going and how long they've been on the wing. How on earth do you teach a pigeon to race/find home

Strap a GPS to the little buggers

 

[Clint]

I find quite a few pigeon rings out metal detecting often with the leg bone still through it. Hawk victims no doubt.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_tS87KgtBQ[/ame]

 

[Ale]

Where live on the south coast we have peregrine falcons. I once drove past one sat on top of a pigeon at the side of the road. I stopped the car about 3 feet away from it so we could have a look. I occasionally see them out of my back window and saw one try to catch a pigeon mid air last week, but it got away.

 

[Dutto]

Tales from the past.

One

On the wing, a racing pigeon is easy to identify but they take off with a clatter of wings just like an ordinary wood-pigeon. :thumb:

A wild-fowling mate of mine, sitting in a hide on the Humber Bank in 1967 waiting for ducks, heard pigeons taking off behind where he was sitting and got a "left and a right" on two pigeons as moments later they flew over the sea-wall.

Before he could send out his dog to pick them up off the mud, the man who had just released them on the far side of the sea-wall was threatening him with all kinds of mayhem! As he said, he was glad it was himself that had the gun and not the pigeon fancier. :whistle:

Two

A fantastic memory from way back in 1953.

On holiday in Wales, I was sitting in the back of my Dad's car as he drove along a road that circled one of the many Welsh mountains.

The noise of the car (a Morris 8) frightened a partridge out of a road-side bush and it took off across the valley to the left of where we were driving.

I was watching the partridge with the idle curiosity of a bored ten-year old when a peregrine falcon appeared from nowhere, hit the partridge at tremendous speed and both of them tumbled down to the valley floor in a cloud of feathers.

Before I could speak, we were round a corner and out of sight of the two birds; and as neither Mum or Dad had noticed anything of the drama it just became a treasured memory for myself. :thumb:

Happy Days! :thumb: