Glastonbury FC

[Trev]

I let the birds out for over an hour in the mornings. They disappear immediately for over half an hour. Mind you I can’t see very far from our garden. I clean out and get them in before opening the shop. After work I let them out again just after 5pm before going down to Roxanna’s aunt’s house. They are left out while we are there. When we get back from there I clean them out again and get them in. Again about an hour and a half later. By this time it is getting on for 7pm. We then have to sort something out for ourselves for dinner. The evening is soon gone and time for bed before starting again the next morning. We do this 6 days a week.

I wouldn’t bother to let them out at night
I would take them 5 miles or 10 if you could is where you have to go to the house not possible to just go a couple miles further so there out the basket and in
I k ow it’s hard I just let mine go 18 miles away after being at tne loft at 540am then work 715
Straight home wash basket and go

Thanks for your support Neil. Roxanna’s aunt’s house is just down the road, about half a mile. We were there for 2 and a half hours this evening. She had been living there for over forty years. Her and her late husband had been foster carers. There is so much stuff there to sort out as she was a bit of a hoarder. There is paperwork going back over twenty years. Now we have had the contents valued we can start to clear some of the stuff. Tonight I took 7 bags of bedding to the animal rescue centre and put 9 bags of clothes in an air ambulance bank. That hasn’t even scratched the surface yet.
The house has been left to Roxanna and we need to get it cleared before we can put it on the market.
As said before our intention is to sell the house and also sell the shop. Then along with my inheritance from our mum we are looking to move away and retire. I’m 62 next week. This could still all take a couple of years so will continue racing in the meantime but at the same time thinking about the future. The pigeons will be part of it.

It's not been an easy time for you Andy I know, as Devo says, just enjoy the birds the best you can at the moment. You have so much going on both mentally and physically at the moment, and in my experience it's the former that makes things the most difficult.
You are also working on a different system for the future so just get these remaining youngsters through the season and carry on looking forwards.
All the best bruv.

[George and Morgan]

agree Andy just race them each week and enjoy it good luck

[Andy]

I basically wrote this season off as far as being super competitive at the time that Roxanna’s aunt went into hospital and we lost our mum. My whole routine went by the wayside then. Obviously with the shop my time was already restricted. With our new aims for the future our focus has changed somewhat. I am going to continue racing every week and enjoy it as much as I can and at the same time testing and building a team to be able to take with us when we move. We’ve had the shop for 20 years after 27 years In farming working at least 6 days a week. The last holiday we had was 19 years ago. We have had the odd extra day off making a few long weekends but haven’t even done that for the past 4 years. So looking forward to being able to retire and really enjoy the pigeons and life again.

[NeilA]

I understand Andy
We have fanciers in the club the same happy to see them come home on a Saturday or they say that
I couldn’t do that I would either stop or maybe just look for a few long races a year to target a option you don’t have in the north
Best of luck and enjoy your birds

[Murray]

That is great to read, Andy.
In some ways you, and to a great extent Trev, have had a life similar to mine. Decades of getting up in the dark and going to work 365 days a year. You get a day off when the animals don't need looking after. That's never.
Being injured, and still turning up and doing it. Then having to work for years to be able to retire with something. I do hope you and Roxanna can liquidate everything and retire.
I found it took a minute to get the "get up, go to work" thing out of my head. But now, I enjoy my days with my wife, my birds, my cats, my trains....
We do what we want.
I hope you can too.

[Andy]

I understand Andy
We have fanciers in the club the same happy to see them come home on a Saturday or they say that
I couldn’t do that I would either stop or maybe just look for a few long races a year to target a option you don’t have in the north
Best of luck and enjoy your birds

Of course that was my way up until last year. I came back into the sport late in 2015. Started racing again with the Frome club with YBs 2017. I was 1,2,4&5 in the first young bird race. I took several more cards during that young bird season. But I had come back into the sport with the intention racing in the nationals and classics at the distance because of the lack of time I had available. At the end of the 2017 season the member in the club who was taking the pigeons to meet the transporter packed up keeping pigeons and the secretary was going to resign. The secretary had moved just outside Longleat but had terrible trouble with goshawks. He had 44 birds that he was going to race in 2018 but over the course of just a few weeks was left with 4. After that he never let them out again. We decided as a club to just race in the nationals and classics and stop club racing, which was fine with me. This meant that I just had half a dozen old bird races and a couple of young bird races, all over the channel. I was getting a team together and had some reasonable performances. I did get one of my two entries from the Pau international. That was until Covid. This meant that in 2021 there was no channel racing so the national clubs went North. Again fine by me. I sent as far as Thurso 550 miles. In 2022 the BBC & CSCFC did have a north and a south road program but after poor numbers from the first couple of North road races decided to not go to the longest 2 races. I was hoping that the BBC and or the CSCFC would stay North but they all decided to turn back South. I was never going to go to the expense of having vet visits and having to travel miles for marking, which I couldn’t do anyway I decided to join Glastonbury and go back to club racing. I must say that I did always prefer sprint racing. In 2023 I raced the old birds natural but felt they needed a bit more incentive which is why I went back to widowhood which I had raced for years before my break from the sport this year.

[Andy]

That is great to read, Andy.
In some ways you, and to a great extent Trev, have had a life similar to mine. Decades of getting up in the dark and going to work 365 days a year. You get a day off when the animals don't need looking after. That's never.
Being injured, and still turning up and doing it. Then having to work for years to be able to retire with something. I do hope you and Roxanna can liquidate everything and retire.
I found it took a minute to get the "get up, go to work" thing out of my head. But now, I enjoy my days with my wife, my birds, my cats, my trains....
We do what we want.
I hope you can too.

Thanks Murray.

[MIL]

How did it go Trev ?

[MIL]

sorry I'm on the wrong thread

[Andy]

After not racing last weekend yesterday I sent to Stoney Cross 34 miles with the 3 counties. Our club are only flying in the 3 counties this year as trainers but hoping join them next season. As a club we also fly in the West of England South Road Combine. They were also at Stoney Cross this weekend. A couple of members sent to both but 3 of us only sent with the 3 counties. So we had 5 members sending 101 birds. This is our club result.

I wasn’t too disappointed with my 4 this week. They were a bit behind but I had all 4 of mine long before the other 4 members got all theirs. Also although Dave & John had 3 before me out of their 26 they had to wait 25 minutes between their 3rd and 4th bird. There were some big gapes between pigeons.
As can be seen I fly 7 miles short of Dave & Kim who although fly around the same distance there is about 6 miles between them South to North. Nigel and Ank fly 16 miles further than me. Some members in the 3 counties were flying over 100 miles in this race. We are the shortest flying club in both the 3 counties and the WOESRC.
The strange thing is that the 3 counties were liberated at 6.55am with our clubs winning velocity being 1155ypm. The WOESRC were liberated at 8.30am with our clubs winning velocity being 1390ypm. Both races won by Dave & John Staddon. I think one main difference is the drag. With the 3 counties a lot of pigeons are going well to the South of us flying down into Devon and Cornwall. Where as the combine pigeons are going well North of us up into Bristol.
Next week I am sending again with the 3 counties to Reading. The combine are yet again at Stoney Cross.