Week 1 Spring Session 2013

one of the weaners exploring 

We're back....and straight into the woods!! The weaners had completely

Ella and Hilly collecting for the
project at Christmas in Waitrose!

stripped their end of the woodland - not helped by all the rain so, this week we moved the electric fence to give them loads more space - they loved it!!  I think they should be ready to go off to the butcher before long.
We have been painting our new Hen House ready to get it moved outside -can't wait to move the hens into their new home.  We can then do some much needed repairs on Ella's old play house!

Helen cleaning out the pig troughs

The Bantams making themselves at
home atop the clean straw for their houses!

The Rotary Chairman, Chris Tovey arrived with a cheque for £750, from the 'bag packing' day!  Fantastic....thank you to Hilly, Ella, Margo, Penny, Bill, Mike, Luke, Gerry, Martin & Rob, Chris & Liz - and all the Rotarians that helped packing bags for Christmas shoppers at Waitrose & shaking tins!

End of our Winter Session

Greedy boys!

 Our weaners are really growing - they love being in the woodland, and will need to move into new quarters before long!

They will be ready to go off at the end of January, along with another two ram lambs.
 'Dandy' has married all his four wives, so fingers crossed for their scans in January....

The chicks making themselves at home in the clematis pot!

We were given some funding from The High Sheriffs Gloucestershire Community Fund to buy a new Hen House

Santa with his little helper!!

Hen house arriving....!

We have now finished for Christmas - we have spent the last two weeks, making sure all the animals are checked, houses cleaned, mending and clearing - ready for the January Term.
We had our Christmas Lunch on Thursday.  Thank you to all my wonderful volunteers who mucked in and helped prepare a really delicious feast!  We had our own lamb, pork and leeks...!  We were very honoured to have the Chairman of The Cirencester Rotary Club, Chris Tovey with his wife Liz, as our guests of honour! Happy Christmas to all our students, volunteers, carers and helpers and all our readers!

We start again on 7 January 2013

If you happen to be in Waitrose on Saturday 22 December, call in and see us 'bag packing' - all for the Care Farm Project!

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!