Weeks 6 and 7

Well, at last the weather has improved!   We have had a busy couple of weeks - Ben and William worked really hard on Mondays, making us some lambing shelters out of pallets - ready for April!  We are hoping to lamb the ewes outside - weather permitting, as they definately prefer it.  'Lamby, Mary Jane, March & June' are all looking blooming!  We had to give them their first dose of Heptavac (flu/tetnus) jab yesterday - Alan our new volunteer is proving extremely useful, having worked on a farm for years previously!

  Last Wednesday we were very fortunate to have a private tour of a special garden at Winstone 'Cotswold Farm Gardens'.  Their snowdrops are amazing - whilst we were being shown round, the owner was taking a well known local gardener round, checking snow drop names; making sure they were all correct - ready for Open Gardens!  We have been given some lovely dogwood plants that were being thrown out, and yesterday Bob & Mike, helped by Simon, planted them all out on our very stony back - we are hoping they will survive and make a lovely 'Dogwood Bank'!

With the lovely sun yesterday, and more forecast along with some rain, we took the bull by the horns and planted out our sweet pea plants, that  we grew from seed last Autumn....we'll see if they survive!

Up at the 'Owl Barn'

At half term, Ella and i put 16 eggs in Sally Ann's incubator - we've been checking them regularly, and on Monday, Curtis helped us 'candle' them to see if they are fertile!  They are due to start hatching next week so....watch this space!! 

We were very sad to say goodbye to 2 of our volunteers this week - Ben and Bob.  They have been with us from the beginning, and we will really miss their valuable input.  Ben, particularly for his woodwork skills, and Bob for his gardening, and wild life knowledge.  We wish them both well, and hope they will keep in touch.