"Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan Rat" wrote in message
...

"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...
In article , Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan
Rat writes

I find the best deterrent is two huge German Shepherd dogs. They don't
even
have to meet the burglar to be sucessful - the mere sight of two huge
beasts
snarling at the windows, baying for the blood of the unwelcome tends to
deter tea leaves, even if they *are* confident they could sue us (don't
get
me started on such laws) for getting bitten after breaking in - that
ain't
much compensation to you if you've got no face and no genitalia ! Cold
callers have stopped coming round too, which isn't half bad. ;-)

We have friends of friends who had a big dog.
The burglars put poisoned meat through the letter box and broke in once
the dog was on its last legs ((((((


I'm sorry to hear that. I saw that trick coming years ago (my dad used to
fit security systems to houses and commercial properties, so I'm aware of
a
few such nasty techniques) and got an outside (metal lockable) letter box.
Fifteen quid from the local diy shop, shove it on the wall outside, no
more
concerns ! If anyone is nuts enough to want to steal my junk mail (no-one
has so far) then it's no great loss.

A box to catch the mail or other items screwed on the inside of the door
works too, but my door is one that won't give space for that.


Just to add to this - I hope it would go without saying that if you get an
outside letter box, you should screw the one in the door up from the inside
for this method of doggie protection to work.



Rachael

On Thu, 27 May 2004 23:18:35 +0100, Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan Rat
wrote:

... got an outside (metal lockable) letter box.

And a right PITA they are for anyone delivering anything other than DL
or C5 sized mail. Some won't even take a C4 envelope without folding
it in half and of course anything more than about 1/2" thick won't fit
either so a Size 5 Jiffy bag is also a tight squeeze.

I sympathise with the poisoned dog problem though, porches are handy
but also tend to have windows so the heap of mail on the mat can be
seen... A decent sized box on the back of the door (take note of
inflexable C4 jiffy bags) seems the only sensible solution unless you
keep the dog out the area with the door but that defeats the security
aspect.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.com...
On Thu, 27 May 2004 23:18:35 +0100, Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan Rat
wrote:

... got an outside (metal lockable) letter box.

And a right PITA they are for anyone delivering anything other than DL
or C5 sized mail. Some won't even take a C4 envelope without folding
it in half and of course anything more than about 1/2" thick won't fit
either so a Size 5 Jiffy bag is also a tight squeeze.

Mine takes most jiffy bags (I've had enough from ebay to know ;-) ) - it's a
biggun. But parcels wouldn't have gone through the in-door letter box
either. But then, I do have a doorbell and I know my postie by name so, all
angles covered as best they can be there. My postie seems to have the art of
slipping things into that letter box that I wouldn't have believed would go
in !


I sympathise with the poisoned dog problem though, porches are handy
but also tend to have windows so the heap of mail on the mat can be
seen... A decent sized box on the back of the door (take note of
inflexable C4 jiffy bags) seems the only sensible solution unless you
keep the dog out the area with the door but that defeats the security
aspect.

As I said, my door won't support that because it's a glass door (I long to
replace it, believe me, but it would be expensive beyond my means at the
moment) and the letterbox is on the side of the frame, right below the door
lock. I didn't want to drill into the frame of the door - which is metal -
to mount the box on the door itself so the only solution seemed to hang the
box on the door jamb - which is made of wood. But then the box obscured the
opening of the door from outside. Which was obviously a problem.

I had a small box on the back of the door (which the posty just knocked off
if he couldn't make the letters fit - my bf used to be one and apparently
this used to be standard practise with posties) for a while and kept a baby
gate at the front room door when I went out (and went out of the back door,
which was a total pain in the arse) which meant the dog could see the door,
anyone at the door could see him (the front room door was at right angle to
the front door) should anyone break in he could vault the gate in half a
second to get them but he wouldn't have been able to get to anything put
into the box or knocked out of the box when he was behind the gate (and he
wouldn't vault the gate for anything put in the box - he wasn't that
bothered. He's a very choosy dog about what he eats too - to the point of
looking for approval from me if anyone offers him anything. I didn't train
him like that, he just is like that). I tried throwing stuff through the
letter box to see if I could get it to land over the gate next to the dog
but the angles were wrong and it's a very narrow letter box even for my
little hands. So I was happy with that.
I have two other dogs, one who stays in the kitchen when I'm out, and one
who has his own big crate to stay in when I go out (he's a pup of just over
a year and he is going through a destructive phase, so I crate him to save
my house from total destruction). So they weren't an issue here.
But then I had a few problems with a lady who was threatening and harrassing
me (now dealt with by the police and solicitors) and she threatened to put
unsavoury items through my letter box for the very purpose, we think (well,
we know, she just said it in a roundabout way), or hurting my dogs or
damaging my property. Petrol and other unpleasant things were mentioned. So
an outside letter box was purchased and anyone delivering anything that they
either won't ring the bell to fetch me for or happen to come when I'm out
will just have to take it back until I can collect it or dump it if they
really can't be arsed. Other than that they are SOOL I'm afraid. My dogs are
*far, far* more important than any mail I might miss by having the outside
box (it worth pointing out it is a criminal offence to "withold" mail if
you're a posty, afterall.)



Rachael

The message
from "Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan Rat" contains
these words:


"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...

We have friends of friends who had a big dog.
The burglars put poisoned meat through the letter box and broke in once
the dog was on its last legs ((((((


I'm sorry to hear that. I saw that trick coming years ago (my dad used to
fit security systems to houses and commercial properties, so I'm aware of a
few such nasty techniques) and got an outside (metal lockable) letter box.
Fifteen quid from the local diy shop, shove it on the wall outside, no more
concerns !

Don't count on it; professional thieves these days make it their
business to become highly effective dog handlers, using some horrible
control-methods.

A neighbour's house was guarded by a truly terrifying and downright
dangerous 11 stone Akita guard dog. It was fed meat taken from the
fridge by intruders, after they came in through a window. Other
neighbours found their two dogs cowering under a bed shaking with
terror, hours after the raid. The use of dog-defying techniques was so
common among criminals in that area, that one of our friends whose house
was frequently burgled would never leave her bulldog alone in it in case
he got hurt or killed.

Janet.

"Janet Baraclough.." wrote in message
...
The message
from "Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan Rat" contains
these words:


"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...

We have friends of friends who had a big dog.
The burglars put poisoned meat through the letter box and broke in
once
the dog was on its last legs ((((((


I'm sorry to hear that. I saw that trick coming years ago (my dad used
to
fit security systems to houses and commercial properties, so I'm aware
of a
few such nasty techniques) and got an outside (metal lockable) letter
box.
Fifteen quid from the local diy shop, shove it on the wall outside, no
more
concerns !

Don't count on it; professional thieves these days make it their
business to become highly effective dog handlers, using some horrible
control-methods.

As I said, I am aware of a few of the tricks (dad heads a company that fits
security systems, amongst other things, after years of hard work he now
doesn't have to be so hands on but he still knows what's what), but
confident the training my lot have recieved (well, the two gsd's anyway)
prepares them for most eventualities. The third dog is a Springer who is
just nasty when cornered - she came from an abused home and the slightest
hint of unrest in the air makes her likely to bite. I've been bitten in the
past by her when trying to keep her out of trouble with other dogs, so I
know this.
That's another perk of having family in the security business - training for
your hounds. When you've seen your gsd bring a shouting, yelling sixteen
stone man waving a chunk of stove wood down from a standing start and pin
him to the carpet, you sleep better at night. ;-)

Most burglaries are commited in just five minutes from entry to offsky - and
it would take about that to poison a dog if you had to get in first to do it
(which has it's disadvantages - you don't know the dog or dogs will take the
food, you don't know it won't rip your nuts off beforehand, whatever). Other
methods, like pepper spray or tasering or stabbing or beating with a bat or
whatever need you to be able to first get in to the house or to get close to
the dog to do - problems again. The stick with loop things that the RSPCA
and dog wardens use to get hold of dogs aren't fool proof either - I've seen
dogs have them out of experienced people's hands as quick as you like.
The quickest way to disable a large dog is to shoot it, and the habitual
burlgar likes quick and easy - so I'm not sure that these methods of dog
control you describe are quite a wide ranging as it appears. Maybe you're
just in a black spot.
I think an active large dog with either real fire in his or her belly or the
suitable training is a match for most situations, short of gunfire, and
luckily armed burglary is still quite rare - in the big picture of crime
this is - in the UK.



A neighbour's house was guarded by a truly terrifying and downright
dangerous 11 stone Akita guard dog. It was fed meat taken from the
fridge by intruders, after they came in through a window.

How did they even get through the window if this Akita was so dangerous ? My
neighbor has an Akita GSD cross - if you tried to enter her house uninvited
she'd rip your face off the second you appeared. I've seen her go for people
before (one being my bf, who is a security guard - he came over to the
neighbor's house to fetch me one evening still wearing his uniform - which
apparently she has an issue with - and the dog took a dislike to his
enthusiatic greeting of me, and bit him on the nose ! Poor old bf - and poor
old doggy, too - she thought he was hurting me !), - it doesn't take much to
bring it on.
Alot of dogs posture - barking, snarling, whatever, but many of the large
dogs I know (and I know a fair few) would really follow it through too. Perh
aps your neighbor's unfortunate Akita was one of those dogs who don't really
want to hurt anyone, despite the posturing. Good for children and family
situations where their tails may get pulled or roughed up in a kid's scrum,
but bad for unfriendly situations.
I'm not dissing the dog - I just find it hard to imagine how they got in the
window unmolested in the first place if she/he really meant business.
Of course, as I said, this sort of thing is in the family business so maybe
my dogs are not the norm - I'm confident in them, anway. That isn't what I
have them for, but it does happen to be a useful side effect of having dogs
who are traditionally trained to protect.

Sadly the law these days punishes dogs for protecting their owners or their
property - if someone breaks into your house and your dog bites them, you
can be prosecuted and the dog put to sleep if the scumbag who tried to rob
you presses charges. I've known this to happen to a couple of friends. Don't
get me started on that though cos it does my head in, to coin a phrase.

Other
neighbours found their two dogs cowering under a bed shaking with
terror, hours after the raid. The use of dog-defying techniques was so
common among criminals in that area, that one of our friends whose house
was frequently burgled would never leave her bulldog alone in it in case
he got hurt or killed.


I'd move house if I were her - or buy a weapon (wide ranging and not always
the obvious items) and lie in wait - you might risk prison but what else is
there, if you're afraid to leave your fairly robust dog alone ? I wouldn't
give a rat's bum about my stuff at the end of the day - it's just junk when
it gets right down to it, but if I thought my dogs were in danger if left
alone in their own homes on a regular basis I would have to do something
about that. But then again, I am a dog lover who would protect her dogs in
the same manner they would protect her - to my last breath. I am aware that
*I* am not the norm. wry smile


You must be aware you are talking about a fairly extreme situation with
regards to the burglary / dog problems - that sort of problem isn't the norm
for the UK. Most burglaries are still commited by opportunists who are
deterred by windows locks, deadlocks, burglar alarms, etc, good neighborhood
watch systems and large barking and snarling dogs. Pro burglars go for
specific things - they find out what you've got from various sources
(friends of friends of friends, bods selling lists of addresses that bought
big or valuable items from your local currys or whatever, looking for
packaging in your bins, that sort of stuff). A good rule of thumb is not be
be attractive to burglars by a) having good security - which is a wide
ranging thing and b) not having much that the pro burglar would want to risk
getting caught (either by said security systems or by a group of large dogs,
for example) for. IME, and in the experience of my dad's business interests,
anyway.

On the up side (if you're not a car owner anyway) - apparently domestic
burglary is being overtaken by theft from vehicles (probably because that is
so much easier and quicker).


Rachael

The message
from "Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan Rat" contains
these words:

A neighbour's house was guarded by a truly terrifying and downright
dangerous 11 stone Akita guard dog. It was fed meat taken from the
fridge by intruders, after they came in through a window.

How did they even get through the window if this Akita was so dangerous ?

They used a distraction method to keep the dog elsewhere.

Perh
aps your neighbor's unfortunate Akita was one of those dogs who don't really
want to hurt anyone, despite the posturing.

Nope. This dog was deadly.

Other
neighbours found their two dogs cowering under a bed shaking with
terror, hours after the raid. The use of dog-defying techniques was so
common among criminals in that area, that one of our friends whose house
was frequently burgled would never leave her bulldog alone in it in case
he got hurt or killed.


I'd move house if I were her -

She likes the one she's got.

or buy a weapon (wide ranging and not always
the obvious items) and lie in wait

She is a smallish elderly lady living alone in an isolated place,
where having a gun licence is, in itself, a high security risk because
criminals want guns. There's also the risk of a larger stronger man (or
men) taking any weapon off a woman and using it against her. I can think
of at least four women among my personal acquaintance, who insisted
their husband stop keeping guns because they (the women) had all been
targetted by criminals after the guns, while the men were out of the
way.

if I thought my dogs were in danger if left
alone in their own homes on a regular basis I would have to do something
about that.

She does; she takes the dog with her.

You must be aware you are talking about a fairly extreme situation with
regards to the burglary / dog problems - that sort of problem isn't the norm
for the UK.

I'm speaking from and of the UK;it's pretty common in central Scotland.

Most burglaries are still commited by opportunists who are
deterred by windows locks, deadlocks, burglar alarms, etc, good neighborhood
watch systems and large barking and snarling dogs.

You're speaking of urban circumstances. In rural Scotland, the police
decline "neighbourhood watch" status to very thinly populated areas.
Professional thieves target such areas and property because rural police
are so thinly spread the chances of being noticed or apprehended are
very small. Criminals can, and do, strip entire houses of every single
fixture and fitting, without being noticed. My friend's house (and the
Akita house) are both, at insurers' insistance after repeated attacks,
professionally alarmed to the hilt. They still get hit.


Janet.

"Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan Rat" wrote in message
...

"Janet Baraclough.." wrote in
message
...
The message
from "Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan Rat" contains
these words:


"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...

We have friends of friends who had a big dog.
The burglars put poisoned meat through the letter box and broke in
once
the dog was on its last legs ((((((


I'm sorry to hear that. I saw that trick coming years ago (my dad used
to
fit security systems to houses and commercial properties, so I'm aware
of a
few such nasty techniques) and got an outside (metal lockable) letter
box.
Fifteen quid from the local diy shop, shove it on the wall outside, no
more
concerns !

Don't count on it; professional thieves these days make it their
business to become highly effective dog handlers, using some horrible
control-methods.

As I said, I am aware of a few of the tricks (dad heads a company that
fits
security systems, amongst other things, after years of hard work he now
doesn't have to be so hands on but he still knows what's what), but
confident the training my lot have recieved (well, the two gsd's anyway)
prepares them for most eventualities. The third dog is a Springer who is
just nasty when cornered - she came from an abused home and the slightest
hint of unrest in the air makes her likely to bite. I've been bitten in
the
past by her when trying to keep her out of trouble with other dogs, so I
know this.
That's another perk of having family in the security business - training
for
your hounds. When you've seen your gsd bring a shouting, yelling sixteen
stone man waving a chunk of stove wood down from a standing start and pin
him to the carpet, you sleep better at night. ;-)

Most burglaries are commited in just five minutes from entry to offsky -
and
it would take about that to poison a dog if you had to get in first to do
it
(which has it's disadvantages - you don't know the dog or dogs will take
the
food, you don't know it won't rip your nuts off beforehand, whatever).
Other
methods, like pepper spray or tasering or stabbing or beating with a bat
or
whatever need you to be able to first get in to the house or to get close
to
the dog to do - problems again. The stick with loop things that the RSPCA
and dog wardens use to get hold of dogs aren't fool proof either - I've
seen
dogs have them out of experienced people's hands as quick as you like.
The quickest way to disable a large dog is to shoot it, and the habitual
burlgar likes quick and easy - so I'm not sure that these methods of dog
control you describe are quite a wide ranging as it appears. Maybe you're
just in a black spot.
I think an active large dog with either real fire in his or her belly or
the
suitable training is a match for most situations, short of gunfire, and
luckily armed burglary is still quite rare - in the big picture of crime
this is - in the UK.



A neighbour's house was guarded by a truly terrifying and downright
dangerous 11 stone Akita guard dog. It was fed meat taken from the
fridge by intruders, after they came in through a window.

How did they even get through the window if this Akita was so dangerous ?
My
neighbor has an Akita GSD cross - if you tried to enter her house
uninvited
she'd rip your face off the second you appeared. I've seen her go for
people
before (one being my bf, who is a security guard - he came over to the
neighbor's house to fetch me one evening still wearing his uniform - which
apparently she has an issue with - and the dog took a dislike to his
enthusiatic greeting of me, and bit him on the nose ! Poor old bf - and
poor
old doggy, too - she thought he was hurting me !), - it doesn't take much
to
bring it on.
Alot of dogs posture - barking, snarling, whatever, but many of the large
dogs I know (and I know a fair few) would really follow it through too.
Perh
aps your neighbor's unfortunate Akita was one of those dogs who don't
really
want to hurt anyone, despite the posturing. Good for children and family
situations where their tails may get pulled or roughed up in a kid's
scrum,
but bad for unfriendly situations.
I'm not dissing the dog - I just find it hard to imagine how they got in
the
window unmolested in the first place if she/he really meant business.
Of course, as I said, this sort of thing is in the family business so
maybe
my dogs are not the norm - I'm confident in them, anway. That isn't what I
have them for, but it does happen to be a useful side effect of having
dogs
who are traditionally trained to protect.

Sadly the law these days punishes dogs for protecting their owners or
their
property - if someone breaks into your house and your dog bites them, you
can be prosecuted and the dog put to sleep if the scumbag who tried to rob
you presses charges. I've known this to happen to a couple of friends.
Don't
get me started on that though cos it does my head in, to coin a phrase.

Other
neighbours found their two dogs cowering under a bed shaking with
terror, hours after the raid. The use of dog-defying techniques was so
common among criminals in that area, that one of our friends whose house
was frequently burgled would never leave her bulldog alone in it in case
he got hurt or killed.


I'd move house if I were her - or buy a weapon (wide ranging and not
always
the obvious items) and lie in wait - you might risk prison but what else
is
there, if you're afraid to leave your fairly robust dog alone ? I wouldn't
give a rat's bum about my stuff at the end of the day - it's just junk
when
it gets right down to it, but if I thought my dogs were in danger if left
alone in their own homes on a regular basis I would have to do something
about that. But then again, I am a dog lover who would protect her dogs in
the same manner they would protect her - to my last breath. I am aware
that
*I* am not the norm. wry smile


You must be aware you are talking about a fairly extreme situation with
regards to the burglary / dog problems - that sort of problem isn't the
norm
for the UK. Most burglaries are still commited by opportunists who are
deterred by windows locks, deadlocks, burglar alarms, etc, good
neighborhood
watch systems and large barking and snarling dogs. Pro burglars go for
specific things - they find out what you've got from various sources
(friends of friends of friends, bods selling lists of addresses that
bought
big or valuable items from your local currys or whatever, looking for
packaging in your bins, that sort of stuff). A good rule of thumb is not
be
be attractive to burglars by a) having good security - which is a wide
ranging thing and b) not having much that the pro burglar would want to
risk
getting caught (either by said security systems or by a group of large
dogs,
for example) for. IME, and in the experience of my dad's business
interests,
anyway.

On the up side (if you're not a car owner anyway) - apparently domestic
burglary is being overtaken by theft from vehicles (probably because that
is
so much easier and quicker).


Rachael

About neighbourhood watch schemes.
Yesterday we had someone, in a stolen car, going around the area like a
nutter. Doing wheel spins and "burnouts".
I did my part by ringing the Police.
It was reassuring to be told that 5 other people, in the area, had also
reported it.
The Police came and arrested the driver, and the car was towed away.

On Sun, 30 May 2004 23:44:48 +0100, Janet Baraclough.. wrote:

You're speaking of urban circumstances. In rural Scotland, the
police decline "neighbourhood watch" status to very thinly populated
areas.

Asking with the wrong words? Do they do "Farm Watch", but being
Scotland things could be very different...

My friend's house (and the Akita house) are both, at insurers'
insistance after repeated attacks, professionally alarmed to the
hilt.

And monitored? No point in having all the flashing lights and bells if
there is no one about to report it... Of course if it takes the
"local" police force an hour to get to the place after the monitoring
station has reported a confirmed intruder, the scroates will have long
gone by the time the police get there.

They still get hit.

I guess these places are around a 90 min drive from an urban/city
area. Most of the burgularies up here are commited by scroats driving
in from urban/city areas.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

In article , Steve Black
writes
About neighbourhood watch schemes.
Yesterday we had someone, in a stolen car, going around the area like a
nutter. Doing wheel spins and "burnouts".
I did my part by ringing the Police.
It was reassuring to be told that 5 other people, in the area, had also
reported it.
The Police came and arrested the driver, and the car was towed away.

Steve - I don't know if you're aware, but I had to click down a screen 9
times to read your post. A lot of people on urg have said they don't
bother to read posts if they have to scroll down to read them - snipping
all except the small reference to neighbourhood watch to which you wee
replying would mean that more people would read your post.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

On Sun, 30 May 2004 14:20:42 +0100, Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan
Rat wrote:

...Pro burglars go for
specific things - they find out what you've got from various sources
(friends of friends of friends, bods selling lists of addresses that bought
big or valuable items from your local currys or whatever, looking for
packaging in your bins, that sort of stuff).

I know I'm now woefully off-topic, but as a precaution, you
should be careful to put your valuables out of sight before
having tradespeople in the house. (Translation assist: Canajun
"tradespeople" means carpenters, plumbers, flooring installers,
etc. Does the meaning differ in urglish?)

I have a significant collection of X (a highly fence-able item)
that is kept in a separate room in my house; when I had new
flooring put down in that room, the X were boxed and placed in
another room, with a bedsheet thrown over the boxes as an extra
precaution against roving eyes. The special X shelves were
moved down into the basement. Everything out of sight. It's not
that the installers themselves were necessarily dishonest, but if
they were to start talking in a bar "jeez, you shoulda seen this
place I was in the other day, the guy musta had a gazillion X",
you don't know who's going to overhear and investigate the matter
more closely.

To return to topicity: I've indulged in a bunch of new-to-me
fuchsia cultivars this year. There are some amazingly pretty ones
on the market, a far cry from the red-and-purple stereotype. But
you know what? I'm not going to move heaven and earth trying to
winter them over. They're so cheap to buy starts of, and there
are so many different ones available, that I rather look forward
to restocking next spring with a different selection.

I wonder if you UK urglers see the same range of fuchsia
cultivars we get here. California is a hotbed of fuchsia
cultivation because of the mild and (in some coastal areas) cool
misty climate that suits fuchsias very well. I suspect that we
get a lot of fuchsias that originated in California. Do you see
them in the UK as well?


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
[change "atlantic" to "pacific" and
"invalid" to "net" to reply by email]

On 31/5/04 4:07 pm, in article , "Rodger
Whitlock" wrote:

snip It's not
that the installers themselves were necessarily dishonest, but if
they were to start talking in a bar "jeez, you shoulda seen this
place I was in the other day, the guy musta had a gazillion X",
you don't know who's going to overhear and investigate the matter
more closely.

This is very good advice. In another house and a far-away life, I had a
'secret' safe installed. It was in a windowsill and covered by a cushion.
I felt quite smug about it until one day I heard the carpenter who had made
the aperture for the safe say to another tradesman who had commented on
something else in the house "oh that's nothing, they've got a secret safe
upstairs in X room"!!

To return to topicity: I've indulged in a bunch of new-to-me
fuchsia cultivars this year. snip

I've just bought a new one - or new to us, anyway, F. Roesse Blacky - quite
dramatic.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

On Sun, 30 May 2004 14:20:42 +0100, Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan
Rat wrote:

...Pro burglars go for
specific things - they find out what you've got from various sources
(friends of friends of friends, bods selling lists of addresses that bought
big or valuable items from your local currys or whatever, looking for
packaging in your bins, that sort of stuff).

I know I'm now woefully off-topic, but as a precaution, you
should be careful to put your valuables out of sight before
having tradespeople in the house. (Translation assist: Canajun
"tradespeople" means carpenters, plumbers, flooring installers,
etc. Does the meaning differ in urglish?)

I have a significant collection of X (a highly fence-able item)
that is kept in a separate room in my house; when I had new
flooring put down in that room, the X were boxed and placed in
another room, with a bedsheet thrown over the boxes as an extra
precaution against roving eyes. The special X shelves were
moved down into the basement. Everything out of sight. It's not
that the installers themselves were necessarily dishonest, but if
they were to start talking in a bar "jeez, you shoulda seen this
place I was in the other day, the guy musta had a gazillion X",
you don't know who's going to overhear and investigate the matter
more closely.

To return to topicity: I've indulged in a bunch of new-to-me
fuchsia cultivars this year. There are some amazingly pretty ones
on the market, a far cry from the red-and-purple stereotype. But
you know what? I'm not going to move heaven and earth trying to
winter them over. They're so cheap to buy starts of, and there
are so many different ones available, that I rather look forward
to restocking next spring with a different selection.

I wonder if you UK urglers see the same range of fuchsia
cultivars we get here. California is a hotbed of fuchsia
cultivation because of the mild and (in some coastal areas) cool
misty climate that suits fuchsias very well. I suspect that we
get a lot of fuchsias that originated in California. Do you see
them in the UK as well?


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
[change "atlantic" to "pacific" and
"invalid" to "net" to reply by email]

On 31/5/04 4:07 pm, in article , "Rodger
Whitlock" wrote:

snip It's not
that the installers themselves were necessarily dishonest, but if
they were to start talking in a bar "jeez, you shoulda seen this
place I was in the other day, the guy musta had a gazillion X",
you don't know who's going to overhear and investigate the matter
more closely.

This is very good advice. In another house and a far-away life, I had a
'secret' safe installed. It was in a windowsill and covered by a cushion.
I felt quite smug about it until one day I heard the carpenter who had made
the aperture for the safe say to another tradesman who had commented on
something else in the house "oh that's nothing, they've got a secret safe
upstairs in X room"!!

To return to topicity: I've indulged in a bunch of new-to-me
fuchsia cultivars this year. snip

I've just bought a new one - or new to us, anyway, F. Roesse Blacky - quite
dramatic.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

The message om
from "Dave Liquorice" contains these words:

On Sun, 30 May 2004 23:44:48 +0100, Janet Baraclough.. wrote:

You're speaking of urban circumstances. In rural Scotland, the
police decline "neighbourhood watch" status to very thinly populated
areas.

Asking with the wrong words?

Not at all. The police are extremely helpful and attentive on crime
prevention, to any householder who asks; but I suppose having a sticker
in the window saying "neighbourhood watch" does rather devalue the
scheme when burglars can see for themself that there are no other houses
within sight :-)

Having said that, rural neighbours (in Scotland at least) operate
their own jungle drums system; only it's not just restricted to
crime-watching.

Do they do "Farm Watch", but being
Scotland things could be very different...

I dunno, not being a farmer.


My friend's house (and the Akita house) are both, at insurers'
insistance after repeated attacks, professionally alarmed to the
hilt.

And monitored? No point in having all the flashing lights and bells if
there is no one about to report it...

Yes, both connected direct to their alarm companies. IME, the police
had generally heard about the alarm going off from someone local, before
they received an alert from the alarm company.

Of course if it takes the
"local" police force an hour to get to the place after the monitoring
station has reported a confirmed intruder, the scroates will have long
gone by the time the police get there.

Quite.

I guess these places are around a 90 min drive from an urban/city
area.

No, that was just 15 miles from Glasgow.

Most of the burgularies up here are commited by scroats driving
in from urban/city areas.

Ditto.

Janet.

On Mon, 31 May 2004 20:29:24 +0100, Janet Baraclough.. wrote:

Do they do "Farm Watch", but being Scotland things could be very
different...

I dunno, not being a farmer.

Farm Watch is the rural version of Neighbourhood Watch it's open to
any property out in the sticks not just farms. Offical jungle drums.

Yes, both connected direct to their alarm companies. IME, the police
had generally heard about the alarm going off from someone local,
before they received an alert from the alarm company.

Ah so these places are not particulary isolated then if a local can
alert the police before the alarm co. Indicates that neighbours are
within indoor earshot at least, thats not very far with double glazing
etc...

I guess these places are around a 90 min drive from an urban/city
area.

No, that was just 15 miles from Glasgow.

OK I missed of an "or less" after 90 min... B-)

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail