Selfsufficientish.com

Rather a 'negative' topic,but unfortunately a fact of life for allotment holders
The reason I brought up this topic,is that I went down to the allotment the other day (the first time in a week),to find that my large polycarb greenhouse come toolstore had had the padlock forced,and the security chain removed.
Luckily,NOTHING seemed to be missing,so my theory is that someone living rough used it as a shelter for the night( if my theory is right,I can understand their motivation,and hope that their situation improves).
We've had previous problems-mostly minor,though about five years ago,I returned from a holiday in Spain on a sunday night,and on arriving,I called on my parents with some small gifts I'd brought back for them.
My father (unfortunately no longer with us),mentioned that the local newspaper mentioned that the firebrigade had been called to the local allotments.
I went to my patch straight afterwork on monday,and there was a pile of ashes where my 12 foot by 6 used to be!
Obviously,most of these problems are caused by 'bored' kids (I put bored in inverted commas because I can't understant how kids and teenagers can say that they are 'bored' these days,whenI compared my 1970's teenyears to today),but I cannot understand the mentality of those that destroy all our hard work,and good work,on our plots.

Oh,I've just turned from Margo into Jerry!
Maybe vandalism has done me some good!

We call them two legged foxes. We have used fencing and barbed wire to no avail, last year the henhouse was destroyed, literally torn to bits. Our first year's plants were all pulled up halfway through the growing season, the glass in the greenhouse was smashed and some of the hens were missing. We were gutted as you can imagine but we didn't give up. We took an allotment that was less accessible and started again.
Things went really well until a week before christmas when we found all the runner ducks lying around the allotment minus their heads. They had been locked in the night before but the door had been torn off the allotment and their shelter. Nothing was taken, they were just left lying on the ground. That has been very upsetting for us all. I can deal with the fox, it's only doing what comes naturally but how do you deal with it when people are killing for fun?

That really sucks guys! Sorry to hear about the vandalism, I suppose it is anywhere you go, but worse in some areas than others. A drawback of not living on the plot.......

Nev

OMG - that is despicable!! I can't believe that this sort of thing happens. Who would do such an awful deed. Drugs I guess - can't blame this sort of behaviour on boredom can you.

Kevin - yeah if someone has used it for shelter you can feel for them.... and hope that their situation improves... but the rest of it - well words fail me.

Hep - I agree with you. The fox we can deal with... but the 2 legged fox is much worse. Can you set up some kind of hidden webcam?

I realise now that I am so lucky living where we do - although won't ever be complacent.

Congrats on the change to Jerry Kevin !!

Sorry to hear your story Heps,I can well understand that you felt 'gutted'-just WHAT do the perpetrators get out of these senseless acts?
Oh and cheers Shirls-I feel much more comfortable on this forum now that I've had my 'sexchange'!

kevin m. wrote: Oh and cheers Shirls-I feel much more comfortable on this forum now that I've had my 'sexchange'!

Sorry to disappoint you - you'll have to submit to a few more changes until you reach the giddy heights of us squirrels...

I think I wouldn't have the stamina to carry on with an allotment after that kind of vandalism. I wonder - is it just that those folks who do that have so little respect for people who actually create something growing... Or is it just the natural development of what used to be youngsters showing off to their friends by pinching an apple - only nowadays they wouldn't recognise an apple tree if an apple fell on their head, so they have to show off by doing something more effective?

Ina

Squirrels?? Ina... you pic looks more like a fox

Good point though about the apples!!

I am afraid to aid my journey to become a Jerry, and of course to contribute intelligently Vandalism is just one of the many ways in which our society is degrading and will continue to do so until each and everyone of us starts to take responsibility. Do I mean we are all at fault? Well yes I do how many times have you moaned about something but done nothing constructive to put the situation right or at least move it in the right direction. As a society we have condoned two wars in my lifetime the Falklands and the more recent Iran invasion how did we condone it we voted the same political party in after the wars, what sort of message does this send our children?

I am tempted to bore you with my psychological analysis of this but I think I will spare you this time, I will save it for another post and aid my journey to Jerry quicker, LOL

Steve Hanson wrote:I am tempted to bore you with my psychological analysis of this but I think I will spare you this time

No, come on; let's do it, Steve. We've got to get you past Margo.

My own little tin-pot theory (formulated in a nearby armchair just five minutes ago), is to do with the transition from childhood to adulthood. As a child, we don't really face much in the way of responsibility; as adults we do. So there is, of necessity, a difficult inbetween phase. Bear in mind that we live in a society without much in the way of rites of passage anymore - in more 'undeveloped' societies, boys become men by going on quests of derring-do. For example, going on Walkabout; or the unarmed hunting and killing of a wild animal; or a skirmish with a neighbouring tribe). It's not such a large jump of imagination between this, and the wanton destruction of other people's stuff. Of course in these instances, the accession to adulthood comes from their immediate peers, rather than society as a whole, and so remains immature.

If our society still had a formal rite of passage to mark this transition, maybe there would be less anti-social behaviour. In a funny sort of way, something like compulsory subscription into the army could have been our version of this, where youngsters had to learn how to respect others, and how to muddle along together, even with people they didn't like. But I'm not otherwise advocating subscription. And I've no idea if anti-social behaviour was really any less rife back then than it is now.

But 'society' seems like a dirty word these days. No one seems to think it has a wider implication beyond their immediate peer group. Many people seem not to want to think of it in that perspective. I blame Thatcher when she said 'there is no such thing as society' - the stupidest thing any politician has ever said.

Right; what's your theory, then?

What you say makes sense Guys.

Stew, I have always felt something missing, the lack of that "right of Passage" I think our ancestors were onto a good thing. Whether I would have survived my first mammoth hunt is of course another question.

I would support conscription provided that the conscriptees were NOT sent overseas.

Nev

This is for Ina, who doesn't have telly and wouldn't have watched kiddy stuff on British TV anyway:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/basil ... ndex.shtml

Basil made it down here too! (boom boom)

Nev

Millymollymandy wrote:This is for Ina, who doesn't have telly and wouldn't have watched kiddy stuff on British TV anyway:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/basil ... ndex.shtml

Thanks a lot! That just shows you where my "British" education was a bit patchy... That bushy tail sticking up behind an upright sitting fox does make it look a bit like a squirrel, don't you think?

I do know SOME kiddy stuff, though: Postman Pat, and Bob the Builder...

Ina

Glad to be able to aid you with your education, Ina! This is about my level!