Smart Feeder - Light sensor values

[Cinnamon]

Last night,with no warning whatsoever,my next door neighbour let off the most enormous,loud & bright multi firework I have ever seen

Hubby ran down & locked the chickens away,although luckily they were fine & no more fireworks were let off.

We are out in the sticks here,no street lighting or anything,so the effect was magnified.

She knows we have hens - she has had eggs from us often enough,so how hard would it have been to just pop around & give us a bit of warning?

 

Don't get me wrong ...I am happy for her to have gatherings at her house whenever it is an event on the calendar (& often when it isn't),but surely a bit of warning if you have animals is just the neighbourly thing to do?

[Calamity Jane]

I totally agree with you. A little warning would be all it takes. The trouble is, I think we expect everyone else to behave as considerate as ourselves.

[WitchHazel]

Seems a bit inconsiderate... but then I think many people just don't really consider hens.

 

I havve neighbours on both sides, both sets are lovely. Both get eggs every week. Both sets been round to see eggs hatching and play with chicks.

 

Neighbour I am joined on to is wonderful, She looks after the girls when we are away, leaves salad and grapes on the doorstep for me to give them. She would consider my hens if she was thinking of fireworks. Neighbour the other side, lovely family, we get on well. Wouldn't occur to them that the hens would be worried.(It's not that they think "Will the hens be OK?, doesn't matter they are only hens", They aren't horrible like that)

[Sam]

Seems a bit inconsiderate... but then I think many people just don't really consider hens.

 

I agree, people don't really seem to take much notice because they don't class them as pets, let alone think they'll be affected by fireworks!

 

Although I do like fireworks, someone was setting off loads yesterday in the housing estate near work - I was on the baskets only till so was facing straight out the window

[Cinnamon]

I like Fireworks too, but this was so loud & so near to the houses that is was just ridiculous.

 

She is very flaky,my neighbour. She also has a cat who has small kittens at the moment,but it doesn't seem that she considered her own pets nerves either

It just makes me mad.

Whenever she needs something practical doing to the house,she comes knocking,but considering our family & home seems beyond her.

[Shirl]

I had a neighbour that did it to us every year. The fact that we had dogs and cats didn't bother them and one year a stray firework (the first of the night) came into the garden narrowly missing the dog. She was petrified after that and had to have tranquilisers every year.

[Space Chick]

We were sat watching telly on Weds night and started hearing cracklings and bangs, it was our neighbours. Scared the living daylights out of me as I wasn't expecting it, but if they want to send their money up in smoke that's their business

[hammy72]

Our city is like a war-zone this week with all the fireworks, I'm sat here with the TV up loud so that the dogs don't hear it and have put an old sleeping bag over the eglu to muffle the sound and flashes so hopefully the girls will sleep through it (it's their 1st one)

[fluffy chick]

I love fireworks and I am quite excited about tomorrow night. It is the first year my son will know what's going on and we are having a family get together at my mum's. Homemade soup, sausages in buns sparklers the lot We have all spent a fiver and have quite a pile of fireworks now (enough for next year I should think! ) We all have pets (I'm taking my dog with us as we are sleeping over there) and luckily they don't make much of fireworks. I can hear some outside now actually and my dog is on my lap and hardly noticed. In the past I've worried about the chickens but when I checked on them last year they were all asleep so I've no reason to worry this year.

 

That said it never fails to amaze me that the general public are still allowed to buy fireworks. In any other packaging those combinations of explosives would be illegal. I am a science teacher and fireworks are far more dangerous than anything we deal with. Every year children are injured and other awful accidents happen. That's not to mention the intentional misuse of fireworks. If you needed an events license to buy them it would be safer. If people really wanted to see them they could go to events. I'll get off my soap box now

[bluekarin]

This year will be the first year we have not gone to any displays for a few years I LOVE fireworks (But don't love neightbours likes your Cinnamon. We had one who lived a few doors down about 10 years ago and we'd always find a rocket in our back garden in the morning - and thank god we didn't venture out to watch them ) Hopefully there will be some home ones around here which we can watch from the safety of our back garden with a hot choc (or other hot drink - toddy springs to mind) There have been loads here this evening already, but I don't know where they are coming from as I can't find any displays that are on tonight. They seem too big to be a home firework display.

[patsylabrador]

Fluffy Chick I really like your post and agree with you.

One of my favorite memories of fireworks was when I was a teenager living in wiltshire. Scouts had a bonfire night with fireworks, jacket potatoes & tomato soup and young Just William type boys setting off jacks it was fun and a cosy memory. That would have been 1976 for you young people who weren't even born then.

If you live in NW London, Bushey Police Club put on a good display which is open to all. We've been going there for years and it has a nice atmosphere.

[craftyhunnypie]

Just one single firework in our village tonight & it was a silent one! Just up & a few sparkles in the sky, no sound. I'm fine with that. We are having a bonfire tomorrow night, but no fireworks, just a packet of sparklers for £1. I've made a Guy Fawkes that is about 7 foot tall. Bit scary him sat behind the door in our hall.

Emma.x

[Seagazer]

We never have fireworks at home as we have too many pets, its so much better to go to a big organised event or just to look out of the window

 

My old dog Sally was absolutely petrified of fireworks and would work herself into such a state that she would hide in the smallest space but would hyperventilate, dribble, shake etc - awful to watch.

 

Cookie had been fine until we had new neighbours move in next door but one. They had a firework party last year and freaked out Cooks. We've already had quite a few this week and she keeps jumping up trying to sit on my lap. Poor thing, I really hoped she wouldn't go the same way as Sally.

 

I did go to a party once and a rocket fell over and shot down the garden towards us all, very frightening.

[snowberry]

My fondest memories are of living in Edgeware, north London in the 70's. We weren't allowed fireworks but used to sit in our bedroom window (1930's bay!) & watch everyone burnig their money; we always had a packet of TicTacs. It was a panoramic view!

[patsylabrador]

It's not just pets that find fireworks a challenge. ES had finished a tour in October and by bonfire night he was still conditioned to reacting to loud whistling noises followed by bangs! His reaction was sometimes more startling than the fireworks themselves.

[The Warrens]

It also sounds like a war zone outside here

 

My 2 dogs hate fireworks , the chickens seem to be ok in there house

 

I hate it how the idoits round here, find it funny to set fireworks off in daylight ( 10am today) my friend also told me on friday how she was driving down the road and something hit her car, she quickly glanced in the rear view mirror to see a firework exsplode on the road........how dangerous is that

 

i personally think they should only sell fireworks to organised events , due to how alot of people round here are sooo irresponsible it just puts other in danger - rant over

[Alis girls]

My cats are under the bed - one ventured out for a nose kiss and then scuttled back under. I feel for the wild animals

[Griffin]

We went to the massive display up the road from us. Mr Griffin is unamused to have had a hole burnt in his favourite jacket by flying cinders from the bonfire there! It went right through, I can poke a finger in it! The girls all had a great time.

 

Thankfully none of our cats and dogs are in the slightest bit bothered by fireworks. Chandler was more upset by the human visitors we had

[Calamity Jane]

I remember childhood bonfires with sparklers and the odd firework. I think the excitement was more to do with the fact we were all out in the garden in the dark ! My mum made parkin (cake) and treacle toffee, and we would put potatoes in the fire.

[Alis girls]

I agree CJ - much nicer no nasty bangs - we only had hamsters who were inside. Gran made bonfire toffee - yummee. Our cats litter tray was full this am I think anyone letting them off after 10pm should be fined - they go on forever round here - i am not a killjoy just think they should think of others. They;ll be another round tonight.

[Lavenders_Blue]

I think fireworks should be restricted to public displays too. Our village organises a fireworks display every year. There is a huge bonfire, a few fairground rides, toffee apples and hot dogs for sale and a brilliant 15 minute firework display, all for the princely sum of £3. As it's so cheap to attend, most people in the village go and as a result we don't find many people set fireworks off around bonfire night (New Year is another matter all together).

 

I don't see the point of home fireworks displays. They are so expensive to buy that a half decent display costs a small fortune, plus they are dangerous and, to be honest, pretty anti-social going off all the time, close to people's houses.

 

Restricting fireworks to organised displays would be a lot more pleasant and safer for everyone, and you get to see a much better display for less money than if you were setting them off at home.

[lindafw]

Lots of local wizzes and bangs last night, especially as i live in a little village. So it was obvious that our little grey poland bantum would choose to roost other than in the eglu .............could we find her? could we 'eck!!! but this morning she is bright and breezy clucking around the garden with her mates as if she had a quiet night

[kazmac]

We used to love fireworks until we got the dog. Now we curse them!

She's petrified and runs about barking constantly after the first bang at this time of year. And I mean constantly. She gets so stressed and I hate it. However this year she seems not to have heard so many - she's nearly 10 and is obviously going a bit deaf.

But last night we were also dogsitting a friend's dog and he was stressed beyond belief. He quaked and panted for hours. He nearly wrecked the living room trying to hide behin things and we had to move the couch for him to climb in before he hurt himself trying. He nearly wrecked 3 guitars and an amplifier trying to clamber behind them too - we wouldn't have been pleased about that!

 

I do realise that not everyone has pets and not everyone thinks about animals at this time of year and sadly it's something we have to put up with.

We used to have fireworks going off here for about 3 weeks at this time of year, but it's calmed down a lot in the last couple of years.

But last year my husband passed the end of a lane with the dog and a rocket shot out sideways - looked like there were some little darlings waiting for the dog to pass. I won't repeat what I said and what I wanted to do to them if I'd got hold of them.

And this morning we found a spent rocket in the street just yards from a neighbour's car along with a couple sticking in the ground over in the field when we walked the dogs. I had to kick them over because they were really hard to see and the wooden sticks were an accident waiting to happen.

 

I think there should be organised events only and fireworks shouldn't be available to the public other than a few sparklers. The we might enjoy them once again.

[Seagazer]

Apparently somebody let some off this morning about 10 and totally freaked out Cookie at home (we were out) grrrr! DD said she was absolutely frantic. Why let them off in the day? You can't see them properly.

[Egluntyne]

We've had an idiot neighbour a few doors up letting fireworks off all afternoon. It has been a gloriously sunny day, so the display was underwhelming to say the least.