Week 8 Winter Session!

Dandy meeting March!

First things First - We have a RAM!! - I picked him up last Sunday - 'BRINKWORTH DANDY' - He has been lent to us by James, who we bought the four Ewes off earlier in the year.  He is extremely handsome - and the girls LOVE HIM!  So does Helen, who was SO excited when she finally met him on Monday!

'BRINKWORTH DANDY'

Secondly, we have Electricity!! - i know, it should have gone to the top of the page really - i still can't believe it...We have lights in the main porta cabin, heating and hot water! - Mind you, i will be really mean with that...now we also have a meter!  Our light sensor and the toilets are being finished on Tuesday - so not all there yet!

We spent most of last week getting the Christmas Decorations started - lots of glitter and glue - next we're trying CRACKERS - let's hope we sell them all at the Fair next Sunday!

Lastly, the 'Mushroom' photo from last week has a name...'EARTH STAR' - thank you Hilary!


We had a short article in local paper this week under the heading 'i can do that!' - however they managed to put the wrong address, and said the project was in Northleach! But, i've had some calls from hopeful volunteers already, so that's great.

Week 8!

STILL NO ELECTRICITY!! But, at least everything is now 'hitched up' and they've found enough 'earth' after trenching up most of the field -we are now waiting on EON to install the meter...next Friday!

This week, we've been busy finding more 'hedgerow' goodies to make christmas decorations for the Christmas Fair on November 27th.  We discovered a very strange 'mushroom/fungi' whilst out looking for pine cones...don't know if anyone else has ever seen one like it?? see photo...

Anyone recognise this?

Or this?

We are hoping that this week our four Wiltshire Ewes will have a visit from an extremely handsome Ram....! i will keep you posted on developements!  We are aiming to have our first 'lambing' after the Easter break 2012 - if all goes according to plan

Winter Week 7

Still no electricity! They've been back again and dug a further 30 /40 metres of trenching and disappeared again - let's hope they return this week to say they've found enough 'earth' now!!  Luckily it's not too cold yet - so no complaints from students. 

We welcomed Hilary back from her holiday to Australia to see her family - Helen was thrilled to have her back - i expect it was rather a shock to the system to be outside working all day again.  We had a visit from Paternoster school again in the afternoon - Helen took charge, and took them off to feed the ducks and hens, and to look at the sheep!  We are looking at ideas for Christmas decorations, as we are having a stall at a Fair at the end of the month.  Danny bought a lovely Haloween Pumpkin with him on Wednesday, and Simon had baked a Pumpkin pie, and some lovely little 'spider' cakes, that we gave to the children from Christchurch School, who visit in the afternoon.  Danny insisted on cutting up his Pumpkin, and with the help of Eli, Miranda, Anthony & Lily, he fed it to all the hens and ducks!  It is great to see our students interacting with children of school age - they all seem to get so much out of the day.

Ernie working on his Bird Box with Bob

Unfortunately we seem to have had some unwelcome visitors at some point recently - the goats i think - we've had four fruit trees eaten, and the roses outside the front door - amazingly they didn't touch the sweet corn growing!  The roses don't mind at all, but i'm not so sure about the fruit trees....!

Update on Electricity!

All these just for our electricity...!

We had a break for Half Term last week - with Daisy and Ben's wedding at the weekend - which went off beautifully but it was great to then have the rest of the week to recover, and tidy up!
  
We had organised for the SSEB to install our electricity during the week - hoping to be fully ELECTRIC by this week - however, like lots of best 'laid' plans, it hasn't happened.  They were on site all week, with Lez and his diggers - see photo - but unfortunately they couldn't find enough 'earth' to make it safe - they have dug over 40 metres of trenching so far....now of course theyv'e gone off on another job, so we are left without for another week - let's hope they can get it all sorted by the end of next week!
Fortunately the weather is lovely and mild at the moment!