week 7

It feels like ages since my last Blog - we have had two weeks off, due to staggered half terms.  Ella was home for a week, which was lovely as she helped with the animals at the Care Farm.  She met 'Patch' for the first time, and spent the week getting to know him; bringing him in and out of the field, and feeding him, along with Manny our other horse!

We've had a busy week since starting back - we got all the lambs in on Monday, and weighed them.  We are taking two Ram lambs off to the Abattoir next week, as they are definitely ready - they weighed 44 kilos.
Wednesday and Thursday, the students have been getting the site ready for our 'Hedge Planting'.  We had a delivery from Woodland Trust, with 400 hedging plants - Dog Roses, Crab Apples, Elder, Hazel and Blackthorn.   We have starting planting them round the site with the help of some very willing volunteers today!  We have also been busy making Christmas Decorations to sell at the Christmas Fair at the end of November (Thank mainly to our volunteer helpers; Linsey and Trish!)
We are hoping for another good turnout of volunteers tomorrow to help with more Hedging!

The chicks making them selves firmly
at home!

The Bantam hen and her 11 chicks are settling in really well - they have the run of the entire site - and even jump up on to our coffee table at break times!

Update - we took the two ram lambs off to the abbatoir yesterday - they were by far the best looking of about 30!  They will be ready a week on Thursday, so get your orders in!  We have moved our 4 ewes to a new field with good grass ready for Dandy's visit.

Week 6

Penny's chicken cakes
for the children's last morning!

This week was Christchurch School's last Wednesday - it's gone SO quickly, we shall really miss the children and their teachers.  Ruth is retiring at the end of term, and Penny and Margo two of our volunteers came armed with lovely cakes and even a special 'retirement balloon'!  The children have really enjoyed their Wednesday mornings, and their confidence, and speech have grown noticeably since they started in September.  We hope they will return in the January term.

We moved our latest arrivals - a bantam hen, and 11 chicks out to the field into the ark this week.  It's amazing how quickly the chicks learn to climb the ladder to their sleeping quarters!  Unfortunately, it looks as if at least 6 of them will turn out to be cockerels....but we may be surprised! (Their 'combs' are already well advanced for 6 weeks)

Helen bringing Patch in from
 the field

I had a lovely surprise this Friday, one of our youngest volunteers, Susie (11), arrived clutching a jar of money!   She together with her friends Seb and Olivia have been baking cupcakes and selling them in aid of the Care Farm (totally off their own back!)  Apparently, the cakes were orange, with a bright blue icing, and had either a crunchie topping or toffee popcorn!  One lot of cakes, they took to their local pub (the Sherborne Arms) and the other batch they took all round Coln St Aldwyns selling them door to door - one person paid £5 for a single cup cake!!  I am SO proud of them all, and wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to Susie for being so enterprising, from such a young age!

We are having a TREE PLANTING DAY in November - we have been given 400 Autumn Hedging Plants by the Woodland Trust, and are planning to get them planted over the 9th and 10th November!

Bring a spade and join us (see opposite for times/dates)

weeks 4 & 5!

Oh dear, i'm slipping again....two weeks together!  We have been busy though, no slacking for the students...The Weaners settled in well to their nursery - too well actually; they love to 'truffle' and were in danger of digging their way out to freedom.  So, we have moved them into their woodland home earlier than planned!   They are very happy there, and growing at a great rate - maybe they will have to go off a bit earlier than the last two?  We had to do an emergency 'barbed wire' addition to the bottom of the pig fencing running through the wood, but fingers crossed that will keep them happy for a while!  We have been busy cutting back the hedge to finish off the pig netting up to the far end of the track, which will give us a second 'compartment' for them if we need it!

Rupert the horse dentist 'filing' Patch's
teeth - he was very good for such a
 young  pony!

Grooming time!

'Patch' has proved very popular with our school group that visit on Wednesday mornings.  Their speech therapist accompanied them last week, and was very impressed when Niamh asked after 'Patch'!  They have been helping to groom him each Wednesday, and he has been very patient.  Unfortunately, after a visit from the tooth dentist, Patch needed to have a 'blind wolf tooth' taken out.  (This is similar to our Wisdom Teeth).  The tooth had not come through the gum, but he was 'leaning' onto it, and it seemed to be causing him concern.  The vet came yesterday, and performed a minor op; cutting through the gum to remove the tooth.  She reckoned someone had 'been there before' as there was only a sharp point of the tooth left - no wonder it was uncomfortable for him!   We also had 'Padders' our chiropractor visit Patch this week - i like to get all points checked at this time of the year, and Patch has definitely covered all of them this week! His back was 'rotated' all along his left side (near side in horse terms)  so no wonder my left hip has been hurting me all week....Today we have a 'wart specialist' coming to treat him - he has several 'zarcoids' (a type of wart) and they will be treated with a special cream to hopefully make them disappear.

Does anyone have a recipe for these....'Asparagus Peas'??!
They look beautiful, but don't taste too good!

We had all our sheep in yesterday to worm them all - we want the ewes to be at their best for when 'Dandy' the ram returns in November!  Two of the ram lambs are nearly up to weight to go off to the butcher - so we will have lamb ready for sale in November too.  This year's Ewe Lambs will be kept till next year before being put to the Tup  - we will then have a new Ram (unrelated) to run with all the Ewes.

Week 2 and 3

Weeks are spinning past as usual - our 4 Weaners are settling in to the Nursery - they have cleared all the weeds already, and it looks just like last winter, after all the rain!!  They will stay in the nursery for about a month, and if we have the fencing ready, will move into their woodland home for the winter. 

We had a visit from a group of volunteers last Friday, from a company called Pfizer.  They spent a very happy day, mending and putting up our tool shed!  It had been sitting behind the poly tunnel for a number of months, waiting patiently for someone to find enough time to get it sorted.  It looks great now, and Tom and Mike spent Thursday, relocating all the shelving, tools, nails & screws etc. 

A new addition This is my new pony
'Patch'!!

Alan (our retired shepherd!) Monday volunteer came back from holiday this week, so we got all the lambs in to check them over.  He and Helen dagged and foot trimmed them all, and then we brought the Ewes up from the churchyard.   They have done a great job keeping the grass trimmed round the graves, but there isn't enough now to keep them in good condition.  The ram, Dandy, is due to come back in November, so we need to keep the Ewes nearby.

Our Wednesday children and students were busy planting up bulbs in baskets ready to sell at a Christmas Fair at the end of November.  Thursday we cleaned out the yard where the farm flock of sheep had been - the students worked really hard, and got thoroughly filthy and soaked - great fun!

We were due to have a Car Boot Sale this Sunday, but sadly have had to cancel it due to the rain....!  Hopefully we will re-schedule for October, and find somewhere under cover to do a Sale.

WINTER SESSION!

Welcome Back!   It seems a long time since my last Blog (well it is, it was July...!) 
We started back on Monday to beautiful sunshine - it's been a lovely two weeks.   We've had a busy time over the holidays keeping up with everything - the rain had made the site look a bit like it did back in year one before we cleared it!  But, luckily the 29th Regt RLC came to the rescue again - they arrived armed with strimmers on Monday afternoon, and set to work, strimming, weeding burning and killing again (no animals only vegetation!)

Unfortunately our quail didn't last the holidays - a rat had got into their house somehow, and managed to kill the remaining three overnight.   We will have to think of a better strategy for keeping our next lot.  They were laying really well too....never mind it's all a learning curve!

Great excitement, we are getting our next lot of weaners on Monday.  They are 'Berkshire's' this time (photo to follow) and we are getting 4. The Rotary Club Chairman, Chris Tovey and his wife, came out yesterday to give us our first cheque.  We are putting this towards the Weaners, as they especially asked if they could buy the next lot.

Our 4 new Weaners!!

We have our 'roof extension' at last - no one noticed at first, but it will be great when it starts raining again - no more dashing to the toilets!

final two sessions!

Well, the time came all too fast - the two weaners were booked in, and at 6am on a Monday morning, Mike, Alan and I loaded them both up - all on our own; both incredibly calm, ear tagged them, and set off for the abbatoir; Broomhalls, about 40 minutes drive from home.   They weren't stressed at all, we had a good journey, and it certainly showed in the quality of their meat.  We sold all but the one leg joint, that i kept for our 'end of Summer session' lunch, last Wednesday.   I cooked the joint over night slowly in the oven, and i think everyone enjoyed it - there wasn't any left over anyway.   Even Gerry, who's been a vegetarian for over 20 years, tried a bit!!  So the end of our first shot at 'weaner rearing' - and we can't wait to get the next lot!

The Weaner's last stop...

We have weaned the lambs too - the Ewes (4 of them) have gone down to the churchyard, and are very happy down there.  The lambs seem fine up here, and they are all putting on condition, ready for the Autumn, when the ram lambs will be ready to go off down the 'meat chain'.  We won't put this year's ewe lambs to the Ram this year, as we don't have enough keep for them, and they are still quite young to breed from.  We will hopefully be able to have the Ram, 'Dandy', back in October, to stay with the Ewes for the Winter again.

We have so much grass here on site, that we are desperate to find someone to come and mow it for us to make a few bales of hay, as the sheep are only 'knocking' it down, not eating it - after all the rain!

We've had the first week of our 'Summer Activities' with over 60 children here last week, and lots more to come this week.  We were really lucky with the weather - and they all had a great time; making incect houses, bird feeders, planting seeds, and best of all for most of them - digging their own potatoes for supper!!

The students are now finished for the Summer, and we start back week beginning 10 September.  So, if i go quiet again, it's because we're all having a well earned rest!

Weeks 9 and 10!

Rain, Rain and more Rain - or really, really hot for a few minutes!!  Last week, we called the vet out (Owen) to check the lambs.  Some of them have swollen neck glands - although it certainly hasn't altered their eating/wellbeing.  Owen took their temperature, and 'bloods' and left us with some antibiotics.   Having consulted his other colleagues, he could only think it must be something they've eaten (thistles?) that may have got stuck in their throats and caused a slight infection.  The glands had swollen up to protect them?   Anyway we kept them in for 5 days in order to administer the AB's.  I'm not keen on needles at the best of times, so it was a steep learning curve to inject them - i had to ask my friend Cindy to come and help for a couple of days - i think she was properly amazed that i was so shaky!! Anyway they've had the 'meds' and still have swollen neck glands - but they look really good in themselves.  We are keeping a close eye - none of the ewes have a problem and only 4 out of 7 have the 'glands'.

Haven't they grown??!

The rest of the week, we had the art students up to paint the portacabins, which Simon and Steve have thoroughly enjoyed - not finished by any means (and may not be if it keeps raining....!) and we had a new student start last Thursday.  We've got beans planted now, and have picked most of the broad beans ready for our 'lunch'.  The strawberries are really suffering from the weather - such a shame as there are loads!
Great excitement on Monday - 'Fiver' (Ella's favourite bantam) laid her first egg in 3 months - bit small, but let's hope it's not her only egg - watch this space!  We had another new student come for a taster session yesterday - and he thoroughly enjoyed his morning, so will be joining us again next week.
No sign of the Quails starting to lay yet - but i gather they like hiding under branches and 'nesting' down, so we need to get them some 'fake' bushes to make their nests.  If they are real, they will eat the bushes!
We are gearing up for our 'Summer Activities Weeks' that start on Tuesday 24 July so if you know any 'school age' children that would enjoy coming to the Care Farm, and joining in, get in touch soon!