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!

Wintery Weather Arriving!

Last week flew by again - Monday, Ben & William made us a much needed book case to put in the porta cabin, whilst Helen, John and Linda focused on the animals.  We've been 'working' the sheep each day, trying to tame them to make it easier to check them over.  Helen loves working with them - and gets very excited when 'March' her Ewe comes up towards her!

twin calves  born recently - now out in the field with their mum

Wednesday, we had a very busy day - we had to bring the sheep in again, this time we let them through with the Portlands, and brought them all down to the crush - a device for singling out sheep in order to check them over.  Each student took a turn to 'trim' their feet ready for the winter - great excitement all round!  The students worked really hard, raking leaves, & bringing hay down for the horses.  In the afternoon, the 3 children from Christchurch school, came over again, and had a lovely time pulling out the pea plants, and feeding caterpillars to the ducks!  They have planted up 3 tyres in the poly tunnel, with onion sets, and winter salads. 

Thursday, we only had Simon here, and it was D day for the 3 bantam cockerels, and our HUGE Cotswold Legbar Cockerel - they'd all got rather aggressive and attacked us when we went into their runs - so they had to go...We took  them to the market at Kempsford - hoping to get a few pounds for them.  Unfortunately, not so - we got 20p each for the beautiful Bantam Cockerels, and £2 each for the other two....!  We made a loss overall, as we came home with 4 new laying hens - Lahmans - who had already laid 3 x eggs at the sale!!

This week we're frantically tidying up for Daisy my niece's wedding at the weekend  Potting up violas & pansies for the church, and strimming and tidying everywhere.

Ben & William made us a wonderful Hay Rack on Monday, out of old pallets - with the weather forecast getting worse by the day - we will need it before long i reckon!  Monday afternoon, we had a visit from 3 children at Paternoster School - it's their second week's visit, and they thoroughly enjoyed going for a walk and collecting 'hedge row' fruit, and helping to pick tomatoes to make Tomato Marmalade for the wedding breakfast!  Both John and Helen were very helpful with the children - it's great to see our students working alongside other children with Special Needs.

Week 3 & 4 Winter Sessions

Surrounded by the
'Team'! 

We've had the most fantastic weather up till now - the strawberries have started flowering again, and the tomatoes are all ripening in the poly tunnel, and have started sprouting new shoots and flowers! Our Cosmos, and dahlias have taken on a new lease, and our sweet peas are still going just - not sure after the winds today though...

We had a great visit from the 29th Regiment RLC, South Cerney this week - 20 of them turned out to help at the Project!  They strimmed, cleared, tidied, built, burned, and even welded....!  i was really humbled that they wanted to give up their time to help out - and i think they really enjoyed themselves!

The boys went home with sweet corn today - i hope they had them for supper - we did, and they are SO sweet!

We have two new students just started on Wednesday mornings, and three children from a school in cheltenham here in the afternoon - they are settling in really well, and Lily, who 'only eats pasta' was seen going home munching on a freshly 'pulled' carrot!

WINTER SESSION

We are missing David this time - i hope he's enjoying himself wherever he is...
We've got lots of plans for this Winter - and Will & Ben got started with mending the gates of the Stock Trailer - ready for taking our 4 sheep off to the ram next month.

Lavinia is still limping - i don't think the Anti biotics helped - we're trying arnica & witch hazel gel - to see if it helps - her elbow is still a little swollen, and much warmer than it should be - but  she seems perfectly happy in herself - so...we will keep our fingers crossed.

Simon & Steve's Stir Fry made with veggies grown
by students at the Project!

On Wednesday, we took 4 students to the Royal Agricultural College 'Training Kitchens' as part of British Food Fortnight - we had a great time, making chutneys, stir frys and a delicious pudding - all from produce the students had grown at the Project! Thank you to Sue and her team, for making us all feel so welcome.

On Thursday Bob took Simon & Steve to check on their Bird Boxes - we took them down and brought them home to look inside - SO exciting, Simon's had an old next & egg in it!  Steve's had signs of activity too - and we have made notes in the wildlife diary.  We will put them back again this week - we tried to look at some of the contents through the microscope - but Luke's 8 year old birthday microscope wasn't quite up to the job!!
CAR BOOT tomorrow - so will let you know how it went next week...!

NEWS FLASH!

At the vets...!

Helen, looking a little nervous
holding Lavinia ready for her
daily dose of Antibiotics!

A QUICK UPDATE!

Our two ducks, Lewey and Dewey are not who we thought they were - they started laying last week!!

So, we have quickly re-named them - well, Ella has, 'LAVINIA AND DEIDRE'!!

Lavinia, has got a very sore elbow, so we had to take her to the vet last Wednesday.   Did you know that ducks get car sick??! Both journeys...She is now on anti biotics, but not much better yet.