haggis

I told you that haggis were real and not a fiction of imagination and this proves it. Pity the post was made today which will encourage some to think it is an April Fool. Would I adopt the name of a fictional character, I ask you?

The problem is perhaps that when you licence a boat you are not asked to say where it will be cruising. You do have to say where it will be moored and perhaps there is something built into the system to say you can't moor there as the canal is narrow beam only.

When we went through that lock a few years ago I couldn't open the top paddle tow path side and Iain had to come to.my aid. There was a boat following us so being a kind soul I stayed behind to help. Blow me, the paddle rattled up no problem. It was fine when we went through last year too. Most odd.

That's an odd response to someone wishing you a good time on the Lancaster.

Thank you for posting this. I now understand how it would work and I agree that it would go a long way to solving the dog mess problem . Would be expensive to set up and run through

I understand that and it made me think. Our dogs name plate has the first line of our address, our postcode, and our mobile and home numbers. Living several hundred miles from where we are likely to be boating reduces the risk you mention. I hope! What about just having your phone numbers on so that you can be contacted in the unlikely event of your dog going walk about?

I agree that if every new dog was chipped, given the necessary funding, a DNA sample could be taken and stored at the same time. The big problem is that although the law says all dogs must be microchipped ( and wear identifying name tags ) a very high percentage of dogs haven't been done or if they have, the details are not kept up to date. Having jumped through all the hoops to change a dogs microchip record it is not straightforward and I know many owners don't bother, especially when there is a cost involved. Legislation was brought in without the means of enforcing it and it is therefore worthless. It would seem logical for vets to report lack of microchips but the vet regulation body didn't want to become part of the process.

Interesting that those posting in favour of dog poo DNA sampling are not telling us how it is done. I am still trying to puzzle it out but I honestly can't see how it could be done. I think Covid has a lot to answer for in the dog explosion. Folk who had never thought of owning a dog before, suddenly thought that if they had to take all the exercise which the Government told us we should that it would be nice to take a dog for a walk. This lead to owners of bitches seeing pound signs and mating their dog with a male dog in the vicinity, never mind health testing or thinking about what they were breeding. The result was that the price of dogs went through the roof and when before you could buy a fully pedigreed dog from health checked parents for a few hundred you now had to pay thousands. So much for money being tight! This resulted in a huge increase in the number of dog owners many of whom had absolutely no idea of their responsibilities or how to train their dog to be socially acceptable. Ok, we had a problem before Covid but it has certainly multiplied. I don't know what the answer is but I agree that it is a big problem in some areas.

How nasty to kill dogs because the owners are lazy b****** ,

This has been mentioned a few times, linking dogs poo to the owner via DNA. I presume it is the dogs DNA in which case how is the DNA of the dogs in the area obtained? I don't think a vet will have a record of a dogs DNA. Similarly if it is the owners DNA. Can't see how this would work but I don't think the NHS would welcome requests for folks DNA so that it could be checked against dog poo. I am obviously missing something and I just can't se how this would work. can someone enlighten me please? It has been puzzling me since it was fisrt mentioned!

The guy coming to polish Kelpie is Jordan Fiels and I found him on FB in the Friendly Narrowboat and Waterways group.

I don't know where you get the "most people don't empty water tanks when they winterise the boat" We certainly do and then drain down all the pipes and empty the calorifier and I don't think we are alone. If you are leaving your boat over the winter, it makes sense and prevents you coming back to a burst pipe. Those living on their boats, of course have no need to do this.

If my memory serves me right, they were not very good at replying to emails or messages. If you don't hear anything in a day or so, I'd suggest you phone them. Over the years they have done quite a bit of work for us - gamebirds cratch and rear canopy, Bluebell (a trip boat) front and rear canopy, Reunion (a wide beam community boat in Edinburgh) rear canopy and he has also repaired my caravan awning.

Thanks, Jonathan, I have it all sorted now. The local chaps probably use pressure washers which I wouldn't have anywhere near my car 🙂 . I use a long handled brush which goes round with the force of the water and which has a bit you put the car shampoo in. Then a hose with clean water. Job done in about 10 minutes. and I haven't spent £5 🙂

I don't polish the car either I get them treated with Diamond Bright when they are new and a quick wash and they are all shiny again 😃. I went to a car wash once and it wouldn't work as my car was too wide. Never went back.

But it would look good for a while! When you say "had to get my car washed " does this mean you don't do it yourself ? When my activities were greatly reduced because of my eye problem one of the things which really bugged me was my dirty car. I am allowed to do a bit more now and my car is shining in the sun this morning

Iain has much the same view but I like my car and boat to look good! Does that put me into the shiny boat brigade ? 🙂

All fixed now! The ad appeared on FB again this morning and I was able to make contact.

Thank you although Nottingham is perhaps a bit far for him to come

We are at Park Farm marina at the top of the Trent and mersey. Who did yours ? .

I would normally have done it myself but I have had three operations on my right eye this year so far with at least one more to come so apart from not being able to see all that well, I am supposed to avoid doing anything strenuous. Not sure where boat washing and polishing fits in with that :-). In a few weeks time we are going down to the boat on the Wednesday to get our BSS on the Thursday then we will be staying in the marina till Sunday as we are driving to a relatives anniversary do on the Saturday. Having shore power it seems a good opportunity to give kelpie a face lift but then common sense stepped in 🙂 haggis

can anyone recommend anyone who does narrowboat polishing? I occasionally see a guy who does it being mentioned on FB but trying to find anything there is impossible 🙂 I wash kelpie a couple of times a year but she is needing a polish to help protect her paint and although we have an electric polisher on board I think we have only used it once - himself always has more interesting things to do 🙂. Anyone know anyone who does boat polishing in marinas? haggis

Possibly. It was the scariest time I have had in over 30 years boating. The river was high and we came round the corner slowing down for the lock and as Iain held in to let me off at the bows the water caught the back of the boat and swung it out. We ended up with the bows in the corner between the towpath and the lock gate and the stern over the weir. The boat was held by the bit between the lock and weir. I got several ropes, tied them together and attached them to a wooden mooring post and when I pulled, all that happened was the post came out of the ground. There was nothing else to attach a rope too. My efforts to pull the boat off were to no avail. Eventually, Iain gunned the engine and managed to get the stern away from the weir and towards the tow path side. We came down the lock backwards and just managed to turn below the lock (the boat was 58 feet) . On looking at it afterwards, that one wooden post was all there was to hold a boat out of the weir stream while you prepared the lock and although that would be fine for a smaller GRP it was pretty useless for a narrow boat as it left the stern sticking out at the bend

Where are these park keepers and dog patrols of which you speak? Can't remember that last time we had the luxury of such posts in my area.