LOCATION!

We are located 4 miles north of Cirencester, between the villages of North Cerney, and Woodmancote. From A435 you take the turning towards Bagendon, go up past the Church to the T junction. Turn right towards Woodmancote and Scrubditch Farm is approximately 100 yards on the right. The Care Farm is situated down the drive, up the track on the left.
From A417, turn off at Perrotts Brook/Daglingworth, and proceed towards Perrotts Brook. Just before the A435, turn left towards Woodmancote. Go for approximately 1 1/2 miles and Scrubditch Farm is on the right, just past the Bagendon/North Cerney Cross Roads.

Friday 28 January 2011

Week 2

This week has flown by - Ben & William made more raised beds for the poly tunnel out of old feeding troughs on Monday.  David & Hilary planted seeds - corn salad, carrots and acorns - then planted some chitting potatoes - that i found at home!  We also have a lovely door handle on the poly tunnel curtesy of Ben & William.
Wednesday and Thursday the weather was lovely - cold and bright.  We mucked out the hens & ducks with Danny, and then set off to collect top soil from all the mole hills in the field!  This has been put into the ex-feed troughs in the poly tunnel along with some lovely rotted manure from our horses. Danny helped rake leaves for a few minutes, but again his attention wandered very quickly - and he was really only interested in finding Lucy (sister) to go and check on 'his' turkeys!  We checked the portland sheep again in the afternoon - and cleaned out their water troughs.
Thursday, Bob brought his bird nesting box over, with some offcuts of wood, that Travis Perkins had kindly donated, so that the students can make their own boxes.  The morning was interrupted as the sheep were being 'scanned' before lambing, and i thought the students would like to watch - unfortunately we got there rather too late, but the 'scanning man' very kindly showed the students how his machine worked, and how it calculated how many sets of triplets, twins or singles each ewe sheep was going to have.  We have 4 sheep that are not in lamb.  Back to bird boxes then, and our three students have made one each, and painted them.  Next week, they hope to 'sight' them on the farm, and then keep a diary of 'who goes where'.   According to Bob, they will mainly attract Great Tits!
Steve did a great job helping me finish raking and clearing leaves in the garden - and putting them onto our compost.
I had a call last week from someone wanting to practise their dry stone walling - great news!  So, Rob turned up today and spent the morning working on our wall - in the bitter cold - brave man!

Friday 21 January 2011

First week back!

Monday was pretty dreary weatherwise - but it was lovely to have William and David back with us.  We had a new volunteer, Hilary, who worked with David and I, making (or trying to make!) a hazel and ash tripod thing, whilst  William spent the morning with Ben making a tool rack.  We had some new arrivals Monday night - 6 Rhode Island Red chickens - Jake & Daisy were not best pleased next morning!  We had a lovely feedback form from William, saying the 'best bit about the project' was looking after his friend David - and the 'bad bit' was cleaning his boots!!

Wednesday and Thursday, the weather was beautiful - cold and bright.  Danny has decided to do just Wed mornings, and was hugely over excited to be back - and of course the first thing he asked was -"where are my turkeys?" - Actually they are still here on the farm, and so we may yet get 'turkey eggs'!  The students have been collecting 'breeze blocks' for the raised beds, and made a lovely bird table yesterday.  We are checking the portland sheep each day, as they are not far off lambing.  Great excitement, the Rhode Islands' laid their first egg - sadly it looks as if we will have at least 3 cockerels (we are undecided about one!) and so may have to take 2 back to the market to trade for some more hens.

We still have no electricity - and terrified of any more burst pipe incidents - i have resorted to turning off the water supply every time there's a hint of freezing temperatures, just in case....

It's great having the students back - we could do with some more - these funding cuts really are proving trying, but we are working on it.   They are full of enthusiasm and constantly thinking of fund raising ideas - so watch out!  We have four new volunteers too - Gemma wrote a great article in the local paper before Christmas, and we said we needed more help!  Last but not least i would like to thank Legs for her cheeky green gingham checked curtains - they have transformed the Porta Cabin - much more cheerful!

Friday 14 January 2011

2011 Project!

We are starting the project again next Monday 17th January!  After all the exhausting snow (see photos attached) and now the rain, let's hope that next week starts off with some milder, dryer weather.
We have all the students that took part in the pilot project returning - and hope to have some new students joining us soon.


Ella (our daughter) named our two resident ducks over the holidays - Daisy the Duck, and Jake the Drake!  They have loved this rain - and it has become clear that we do definately have a male & female - and apparently they should start laying eggs in February!

Having had a great article in the local paper just before Christmas, we have some new volunteers joining us next week - so watch this space....