Week 6

Last week positively flew by - sadly we had to cancel David & William coming out on Monday due to the FREEZING weather.  Wednesday, our three regulars arrived with their carers - complaining about the cold!  We spent the morning de-icing the duck pond, cleaning out the ducks, de-icing the troughs around the farm for the sheep, and generally checking on stuff freezing in the polytunnel.   After lunch in the house, i took the students to Coln House School in Fairford for the afternoon.  Helena made us very welcome and we had a lovely tour of their gardens, greenhouses and polytunnels - complete with hens nesting under the mushroom compost!  Simon & Tom loved handling 'Angel' one of their huge hens - apparently she laid her first egg the next day!  I hope it has inspired the boys to plan for next year, once the weather improves.  Thursday, we had Danny here as well, and once we had explained that it was too cold up on site for the turkeys, and he had checked that 'his' two turkeys were still in the shed - he helped me muck out my horse's stable - attention span very short - whilst the others repeated their de-icing tour.  The highlight of the entire project so far, was Lucy bringing her sausage making equipment down to my house at break time.  We all piled in round the table, and first off made some rolls and left them to prove, and then mixed up bowls of minced pork with, leeks, apples & mixed herbs.  Then the best bit.... everyone took a turn at putting the sausage meet inside the skins - it was hilarious, and Luke videod the evidence, and then played it back on the television for us all to have a good laugh.  We cooked up a batch for lunch, and then they took  a bag of sausages home with them. (Along with a photograph of 'Richmond' the runty pig that Bev named when she was here!) 
On Friday morning, Helena from Coln House, brought two of her young students (and the Deputy Head) out to the farm to do work experience.  She assured me that they rather liked 'mucking out' - having been practising at school, so we set them the task of mucking out mum's hen house - hard work, and then Manny my horse's stable - it was bitterly cold, so i tempted them inside for their lunch, and cooked up some more of Lucy's sausages - general consensus - a bit too much pepper - must pass the comments back to her!  It has been great to form a link with Coln House School, and we hope to continue providing work experience for some of their students when they leave school at 16.
The last week of the project approaches, and it will be really sad to say goodbye to the students who have been here over the last 7 weeks - albeit briefly - i hope they will return in January, when we start again.