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Archive for October, 2009

Rural Council saves money by replacing lawn mowers with sheep

October 28th, 2009

Current economic climate is making families and institutions tighten their financial belts. Individuals, companies, local councils and the government are coming up with innovative ways to make money or save money.
One council in England has taken to selling off premium parking space on ebay auction, thus raising more money that it otherwise charges via normal parking meters. Another council is to introduce EasyJet style, no frills council tax to save individual who uses less council services money off their council tax.
By far the most innovative and interesting from a countryside blog viewpoint is the scheme introduced by Brighton and Hove council to cut its £25,000 grass cutting bill, a scheme called Urban Shepherd scheme.

The Urban Shepherd scheme borrows sheep from farms in East Sussex, eager volunteers are trained to look after the shepherd while they graze on council estates and schools, this is said to have significantly reduce the council grass cutting bill from £25,000 a year to about £1,800.
£1,800 being the cost of training volunteers shepherds. The added benefit of the scheme is that city children who would not normally have had contact with animals are exposed to grazing sheep. Sheep are also said to be better for the environment at keeping grass short, unlike lawn mowers, they graze selectively, does not kill small wildlife lawn mowers would have killed.

The scheme is extremely popular with residents; the council now has a waiting list of eager volunteers ready to go on a day course where they learn basic shepherding skills such as how to round up a flock of sheep and what to do in and emergency.

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Welcome to dating site for horse lovers & countryside blogs

October 28th, 2009

Dating for horse lovers and countryside blog

Thank you for visiting our Countryside Blog section of Horse Lovers Dating. Though we are primarily a dating site, our passion for horses, and love of the countryside are intertwined, and so we will not be limiting our blogs to horses and dating alone. We will also bring new and exciting information, opinions and facts about countryside and equine matters to your attention. We welcome comments and contribution from our readers, and you are also very welcome to contribute to the blog as a guest blogger. We hope you find this blog useful, if there is anything that could be improved, please contact us.

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