Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Family things category.
So annoyed!
Having spouted lyrical about how proud I was of my youngest son, he has just had a massive fall from grace! However I do actually feel sorry for him!
Back in September he and I were heading off to Devon for a weekend surfing. We were due to leave on a Friday morning after I’d been and done cows. Anyway when I left that morning his car wasn’t at home, fearing the worst I spent the next 5 minutes ringing his mobile, eventually he answered it and confirmed he was actually at home but that his car was in a lay-by a mile and a half away. ‘Why?’ was my next question. Because the police brought him home! ‘Why?’ I asked again hoping against hope that it was something silly like a puncture or breakdown but no he had been sat up there smoking a joint! Now if he had just been done for that I wouldn’t mind, he knows it’s illegal!The police who just happened to be driving by stopped to see if he was ok, smelt the weed and searched his car and found his rescue knife in the door.
He is a tree surgeon and is trained in aerial rescue so needs a knife for work purposes. The police however deemed it to be an offensive weapon and that he had no use for it in the car at that time of night. The axe that was in there was ok though and so was his air rifle that he’d been using that night!
To cut a long story short, today he went to court. We had secured the services of a solicitor and friends, family and his boss had written some very good character references but he had to plead guilty as he did have the knife in the car! The punishment could have been one of the following, community service, twelve weeks curfew between the hours of 9pm and 6am, 12 weeks in prison or a fine.
Apparently the probation officer was very nice and his Dad did explain that he really did not see the point of him doing community service, where he would meet up with loads of dross basically!. The curfew would also confine him to the house, which would be ok but he wouldn’t even be able to fill the log basket up, feed the chickens or put the bins out and well prison speaks for itself!
So he got a fine. £635 which included £85 in court costs and £50 Victim surcharge, although I’m not sure who the actual victim was!
Why am I so annoyed? He now has a criminal record for not knowing the law basically! I know not knowing the law shouldn’t be used as an excuse but who does know all the laws! We live in the countryside where more often then not a lot of people carry knives! I carry a knife to cut baler twine on the farm and to cut feed bags open. The game-keepers all carry knives, the gardeners all do it is a countryside thing. None of us would ever consider our knife to be a weapon!
The law however is a one size fits all thing which means if you get caught with a knife in Manchester city centre you’ll get the same punishment as you would in a village in Wiltshire. Apparently it’s to save time and money! He is probably too naive, he is so laid back he is almost horizontal but surely taking his history into account, the good references he got, the fact that he’s never had a day off work sick, that he gets there early most days and I believe he is an asset to his employer and that beneath that mop of blonde hair he is actually a decent lad should count for something?. More than can be said for a lot of others!
Lesson learnt for him I think but a tough one when everyone to a man thought he shouldn’t have been charged for the knife!
In the trees!
It’s impossible to say how ridiculously proud of my youngest son Joe I actually am. I love the picture above, it sums him up totally!
He was never particularly academic, he is dyslexic as are his two older brothers and was never really interested in school. At one point I had his English teacher ring me and ask how she should motivate him. It turned out she was reading a book to them and Joe was just zoning out! Obviously not a very exciting book was my reply. Anyway coming up to him leaving school we spent ages trying to find a career path that would suit him. He knew one thing, he didnt want to become a steel-fabricator or erector in our family steel business. To this day I think he’s only been in the workshops a handful of times in the last 10 years! He also knew he didnt want to work with dairy cows having had to help me out one morning with milk-recording at very short notice!
He knew he wanted to be outside, he’d been beating on a couple of local estates and one of his friends was going into game-keeping but he wasn’t really interested in that. Landscape gardening or fencing were looked at too and thatching but that was really a closed shop! A few friends were tree surgeons or to be technical Aboroculturists! We managed to get him a few days with a local forestry company. He really enjoyed it and we were told he was actually very good at it!
So we visited Sparsholt Agricultural College to see what they could offer. Only being 16 and not old enough in their eyes to use a chainsaw, he was offered a place on the Woodland Management course. This included general tree identification, clearance, strimming and general tree care. The 2nd year was all about tree surgerey and Joe was in his element! Flying through every test and ticket put in front of him he came out of college after two years a qualified tree surgeon with a climbing and aerial rescue ticket to his name plus many more.
Working through the summer for a grounds maintenance company he started full time for them on their tree side. This worked out well for a while but then another company poached him. Now he spends his days as a tree surgeon. getting to do what many little boys dream of, climbing trees and operateing big machinery! Just the other day he was made lead Arborist on a job despite his co-worker being a good 10 years older than him.
I’ve shown photos of him working to other people and had various reactions, some marvel at the skill it takes to climb trees and work at height with a chainsaw others can only see the danger and ask if I worry. My answer is always no. He knows what he is doing, I worry more about him driving to and from work on a horrible road surrounded by idiots! As a child he was told off by someone for climbing a tree over a river, the same person actually knocked on my door to tell me how dangerous it was, I really couldnt understand the problem, my reply to what if he falls out was ‘he’ll get wet!’ didn’t go down very well but hey I think Joe can now stick two fingers well and truly up at that sad person!
Salisbury parkrun 1st anniversary
Salisbury parkrun recently celebrated its 1st anniversary. Whoop whoop! The night before a number of us gathered in the park to do a litter pick, now being as I happen to have wellies in my car I and running friend Lizzie tackled the stream. 
Amongst the weeds and mud we found 3 wheels and a £10 note! Plus a black bin bag full of other rubbish!
I think there were about 20 of us in total and we spent an hour making the park look as presentable as possible.
Saturday morning we were all there bright and early, another friend Kathryn had made an amazing cake!
The mayor of Salisbury said a few words and handed out prizes for the most points over the last year, there was also some awards recognizing the volunteers and their commitment to parkrun. Jeanette in particular has volunteered 51 times out of 53!
Vassos Alexander the sports guy from BBC Radio 2 arrived with his family and dog and told us a few stories about his history with running. He ran the parkrun with his 2 eldest children and his dog.
Quite a few pictures were taken of him including this one in our Sarum Sisters t-shirts!
In total 469 people ran or walked Salisbury parkrun that Saturday, an absolutely amazing number and it really shows how well parkrun has taken off.
Luckily in Salisbury the Council are behind it, unlike Little Stoke parkrun which closed recently when the local Council decided to try and start charging runners to run there!
The whole ethos of parkrun is that it is always free. If you haven’t tried it yet, get online, sign up, print off your bar code (no bar code, no time) and get down to your nearest parkrun and have a go!
thecowlady 