post half term break!

the students are back and at last we have some beautiful weather cold but glorious sunshine!
We decided the monday before half term was the very WORST day's weather we had ever had, and as it was SO cold and wet...we gave ourselves a treat, and cooked up some of the OSB sausages and bacon for break!    It's really hard to keep the students' spirits up when it's that wet and cold...but luckily we have the poly tunnel to plant seeds/salads in, and the portacabin to keep warm in.  We spent a lot of the morning, pricing up the bacon, sausages and pork for selling locally.

It was so windy last weekend that Perry and Sandy's pig sty blew up on end...they looked really pathetic trying to snuggle up together with nothing to cover them!  Luckily it wasn't raining ....and after much heaving Mike and i managed to get it back over while they were eating.
Sandy is looking pregnant we think, so within the next two weeks; as soon as Hazel comes back into season next door, we are going to move Perry in with her!  Sandy will then spend a bit of time on her own, before coming down to the 'nursery' at the end of March ready for farrowing in April.

The hens are all starting to lay again thankfully, and the ducks are laying 3 blue and 3 white eggs per day at the moment....we have taken some up to our local post office shop in Rendcomb to sell.
We've got a bantam sitting on 6 eggs (a bit early) but she is very broody, so we may have some chicks in a couple of weeks....

Yesterday, as the weather was so perfect we took the students on a lovely countryside walk - taking in our woodland.   We came back armed with lots of empty roman snail shells, fur cones and bits of wood for making an insect sculpture / mosaic in the garden.  It was lovely to be able to spend some time out and also get a good deal of exercise into the bargain!

When i figure out how to get the photos off my new phone i will upload some - i know YET again....i am useless with technology!

SCANNING!

We brought the ewes (and Tonto!) back to the care farm this wednesday ready for scanning.  They are incredibly well behaved sheep ...just two of us walked them back across the fields and down the track, and they went straight into the yard!  We managed to get Tonto separated eventually the following morning...although not without incident - he did try to head butt Mike and Phillip...through the hurdles!  But patience won out, and with some food in a bucket he walked calmly into the trailer.  We delivered him back this weekend to his rightful owner in Chedworth.
The scanning went really well - we are having 8 singles, and 6 sets of twins - this suits us, as singles grow so much quicker, and we don't want the flock to get much larger anyway.
All the ewes look really well, so let's hope we get some sunshine (after the next appalling week of rain!) to bring them on for the Spring.   By our calculations, we should start lambing at the end of March - so watch this space!.

Perry has been running with Sandy the sow for about 6 weeks now, so hopefully she is pregnant, and the piglets will be due at the end of April.  We will move him in with Hazel within the next month or so.. then hopefully get two litters this summer.

The hens and ducks are all laying well again - although it's a struggle with this weather with all the animals...so much mud!

We collected lots of bacon, sausages and pork this weekend, so do call in and buy some - we are open monday, wednesday & thursdays...ring first just in case!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Oh dear - not a good start...we are already nearly three weeks into January and i haven't done any blogging!
Lots has been happening - and thankfully we now have some beautiful cold weather.   Several of us have been suffering with the awful cough and cold virus...let's hope the frosts will kill off all the bugs!

The students were really surprised to see two new arrivals up the track when they started back ...we have Perry the boar back, and also Hazel, another breeding sow.   We are upping our pig production this time, and going to have at least two litters this year (if all goes according to plan!)
They are both lovely quiet pigs; the same breed as Sandy, to keep their pedigree status.  We are sending the last weaner off to the butchers this weekend, and hoping to sell Millie as a breeding gilt.
We can't keep her, as she is related to Perry the boar...but she should fetch a good price for breeding.

Charlotte leading Alice!

Gerry leading Alice!

The sheep all look really well - Tonto's done his job, and will hopefully be going back next week; just before we get the ewes scanned.  The lambs are still up next to the care farm, and Gerry and the students have been practicing leading 'Alice' around the car park and field, in preparation for showing her later this year.

We have three new students joining us this term, so are nearly full on the three days.  We also have two new volunteers doing a half day per week.

Finally, the hens and ducks are back laying again.....they got thoroughly confused with all that strange mild and really wet weather towards the end of last year!  We are hoping to incubate some eggs next month, and increase our poultry - let's hope its more successful than last year's attempts...a measly two eggs hatched out of 21!

Ducks skating on the pond!

TONTO!

We have a new arrival - in the shape of 'Tonto' ....a magnificent Wilthire Horn ram.  A friend has very kindly lent him to us for a couple of months to run with our 15 ewes.  He looked very happy to be let out onto the bank last night, and has already met some of the girls!

It's five years since we started the Care Farm - i can hardly believe it...we have come such a long way since those first few months (with no electricity!) and we still have some of the original students here each week!

We had a visit from Judy at \Butts Farm last week - she came to look at our livestock and see if we could show one of our ewe lambs that we are rather proud of!  Gerry has been halter training her in readiness and we were very pleased that Judy thought the same as us - so hopefully we will get her to one or two shows next year.

We are having a stall at the local school in North Cerney's Christmas Fair - in the Village Hall on saturday this week 10am to 2pm

we were very lucky to have been invited up to the Star College last week, by The Wiggly Worm Charity, to an afternoon's cooking in their Star Bistro!  We took along lots of our produce; heritage tomatoes, parsnips, rocket, apples, and lots of hedgerow fruit.  Six of our students took part, and all thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  Sue Guilding from the charity led the afternoon.  We split up into three groups, and made 'rocket pesto', sloe chutney, blackberry & elderberry jam, followed by apple cobbler, fruit flapjack and blackberry yoghurt cake!  At the end of the afternoon, we all sat down and had a delicious meal.  Sue made pasta to go with the pesto, and a lovely stroganoff and bolognese, and we had a beautiful tomato salad, made with all our heritage tomatoes!  Everyone had a very jolly time, and thank you so much to Sue and her team for making it possible.

Our heritage tomatoes - delicious!

Danny stirring the jam!

Helen & Charlotte looking very pleased
with their fruity flapjack!

It's half term this week, and we were due to pick up the ram we borrowed last year - but the day before; the owner rang and said he had died!  Luckily, another friend in Chedworth is lending us one of his...so we are going to pick him up on Thursday next week

My Birthday cake made by Gerry -
obviously it's Manny !

one evening shutting the poultry in

We have had some really beautiful

sun sets recently, and i managed to 

get this one on my phone last

week

DON'T FORGET THE CHRISTMAS FAIR ON SUNDAY 8 NOV

AT STAR COLLEGE ULLENWOOD!

OPEN DAYS!

This week we had another lot of Open Days and we had a very special guest on Monday - no other than TWEEDY from Giffords Circus!  He was brilliant - arriving with his iron in tow; dressed up and with a wonderful umbrella with bells hanging of it all playing a different tune!  The students loved him and showed him all the animals.  He even juggled with our hen's eggs whilst standing on the table in the garden!! (photo to follow)

Tidying for the Open Days!

We had a group from The National Star College on Wednesday, and the students loved showing them round too.

Gerry starting to train one of our ewe lambs!

We took 3 of our lambs off last week to the abattoir, and have pre-sold most of them, so we are taking another two tomorrow.  All our lambs have done so well this year - the ewe lambs look fantastic.   We are going to try and show a couple of them next year, so Gerry is going to try a rope halter on them on Monday!  We continue to round them up each week, and put them through the 'race' as it means that some of our less able students can really get the feel of them.

Week 3

This week we have a new student starting and she has joined our Wednesday group.  So we now do three full days per week.  Some of our students wanted to do two days per week, which is a great tribute to the work we are doing here at the Care Farm,  It goes without saying, that we couldn't do the extra day without help from our very willing volunteers so a huge thank you to all of them.

our beautiful lambs

We have been weighing the lambs regularly so that we can choose 3 or 4 to go off next week.  We try to have lamb to sell in October, and then pork for November/December.  We will have 3 lambs ready for the weekend of 10 October.  They look fantastic this year; better than ever.
The ewes are still on the bank, but we have reduced their field size so that they don't get too fat, before the ram comes at the last week of October.

Our veg boxes are still going well - we now have loads of runner beans, and delicious yellow and red tomatoes, and yellow and red raspberries!  Salad bags, and a mixture of kale and purple sprouting.

We had a group from Nationwide Building Society here a couple of weeks back - they spent all morning 'hedgerow' picking - ready for us to make our special Christmas Jellies.  Then they spent the next hour stacking all our straw bales in the yard ready for the winter - there were some very impressive photographs!  A big thank you to the group - it's great to have volunteer support from local businesses.

Nationwide volunteers bale stacking!

Blackberries and Sloes picked by the volunteers
 for our hedgerow jelly

We have more Open Days planned for week of 5 October, so anyone interested in the Care Farm can come and have a look round.  Our students love showing people round!