Updates from the Cull Zone. Day 6. Yep, were still only in the first week! But were doing well, staying alive and using this first week to really gauge what is going on and how to deal with it, as well as adapting to new / no sleep patterns. Instead of getting more tired, some of us are getting used to having less sleep and others are getting into a more nocturnal pattern. Be aware of your limits though and remember to pace yourselves if you plan to be out for the next 5 weeks and give us a shout if you need any advice or let us know you need a break - weve all been there, pushing ourselves really hard and burning out, so lets keep an eye out for each other as well as ourselves. Support is here, so dont feel like you just have to keep going :) Lots of positives to mention (mainly food-related...) as the kitchen and dining area in the building were using for accommodation has been set up properly today, just in time for a huge delivery of food from a friend oop norf (well, more northern than here anyway). We also had other donations of food, drinks, cleaning products and a donation of wood off-cuts from a local joiner who is on-side. We like recycling, so itll be good on cold nights to light a fire using those, thanks! Throughout the night, weve also had a delivery into the zone by other badger-sabs of hot soup and other vegan treats which has broken up the night and warmed sett-guards up nicely. Wonder if Natural England do the same for the shooters...? Other than a number of reports of rough shooting going on in various places within the zone, there have been few reports of any cull activity outside of shooters driving around shouting abuse, but not actually shooting... Our old friend Hedley Midwinter(!) obviously didnt get the memo, however, and had continued his nightly appearance around the Upleadon area. Hes been relatively reserved on previous nights, so much so that we havent been able to confirm sightings of this rare and interesting creature, but this evening he was found blocking a cross-roads and attempting to threaten and intimidate a couple of women in their car. Watch out for him: H3 HDW as he had to be warned by the police for his behaviour last year whilst out pre-baiting. Having managed to get on their way again, some of our sett-guards played a little game of hide-and-seek with him to avoid any further road-blocking fun and try to bore him away from the setts. Any future sightings of him around the zone, give us a shout - hes currently winning the game! We also had a brief encounter again earlier with our favourite Carling-drinking contractor. See here for more info: vimeo/105590851 The night has been generally pretty quiet in general as we near week 2 of the cull, with the exception of the 4 teenage lads with the guitar and drum who walked past a sett singing a 4-part harmony and taking our sett-sitters by surprise. They think you were really good singers, by the way! Tip of the day (from a police officer... of whom there were more of in the zone than cull contractors tonight): If you see a man with a gun on a footpath again, call 999 straight away Well done to the sabs who stayed up from sett-guarding last night to sab a local hunt out cubbing. Office-sab has been keeping busy during such a quiet night by looking through your footage :) If you want to come into the cull zone, please do! We always need more people as there are hundreds of setts in the cull zone and a huge amount of land to cover (320 square kilometres to be almost exact) with a number of hunts out in the area to watch out for. Whilst we have many more autonomous groups this year than we did during the last cull, and therefore have people in more areas more consistently, were always in need of more help in those areas, more eyes and ears on the ground so more setts can be protected simultaneously. So dont feel intimidated by the idea of working with people you dont know - we all had to do the same last time round. Some of the friendships made then are still strong now and GBO is always here with support, advice and hopefully a welcoming vibe! In the meantime, everyone get some well-deserved rest. Office-sab is off to read a book in bed, but the phones are always close. GBO
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 02:28:34 +0000
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