SNOW'S GONE.....NEARLY!

Hello again - long time no blog!!  This term is flying by...and has been exhausting with the next lot of snow that arrived last weekend.  We had to resort to taking water up to the pigs on a sledge!!
Sandy and Tigger have moved in together and have settled in very happily.  We are now waiting for a boar (a new one so he's not related to Tigger) and hope to run him with the two of them.  Piglets for summer with any luck.
The ewes look great and are now being fed twice a day and will be coming back to the farm this week.  One stupid ewe managed to get her horn stuck and ripped a whole in her ear.....so much blood!
It's healed up now thankfully.
The wethers (last year's lambs) we sold 7 last month, and have another 9 left.  Two of them will be going off to the butchers shortly so will have some lamb for Easter.
We have a beautiful game bantam determined to sit on her eggs so we have put her in the broody box in the poly tunnel, and they should hatch any day....let's hope it doesn't get too cold again.  We even had ice in the poly tunnel!
We have been making soup and bread with the students whilst it was SO cold....they thoroughly enjoyed it, and loved having something warming for lunch.  Roll on our plans for our expansion - we will then have a whole cookery room to produce / teach students cooking.  We have raised over £70,000.00 so far.
We had a group of 15 volunteers from St James Place to plant hedging 'whips' last month....they planted 90 metres of hedging over on the new site - a fantastic feat!

snow the first time round!

 It's our SPRING QUIZ on 23 March so don't forget to book a team in!
We are having an Open Day that week too on WEDNESDAY 21 MARCH....if you would like to come and see what we do - book in with Gerry.
We have also started a Dementia Project, and would love to hear from carers, people living with dementia.

SANDY HAS FARROWED AGAIN!  SHE HAS 7 BEAUTIFUL PIGLETS.....and all doing well - so fingers crossed we've got a good mix of boys and girls.

The Cook Book has been launched and is now available from us directly, via the website, or locally from Rendcomb Stores, Made By Bob's and Miserden Nurseries.

i will be taking the Cook Books to North Cerney Village Hall for the School's Christmas Fair next Saturday 2nd December....see you there!

Manny has recovered - not sure exactly what was wrong, but he is sound again now....we think it was a bruised foot.  He is very happy in the paddock, and the students go most days to see him and check him over.

Gerry has been busy halter training two ewe lambs from this year's crop of lambs...it's a slow process and some of the lambs take to it quicker than others!

It's nearly Christmas again ....this year's gone way too fast and it's nearly time for our Christmas Lunch!  This is always a great occasion for everyone who works and comes to the farm to get together. 

This week is the Christmas Spectacular at Cirencester Parish Church on Wednesday 6th December.  The Barn Theatre are putting on a fantastic production and we are raising money for the Care Farm, having a stall selling our Christmas Books and cards.

iI i don't blog again - HAPPY CHRISTMAS to all our supporters and friends and see you in the New Year!

AUTUMN IS UPON US!

Hello to everyone - as usual i've been very lapse updating the Blog!
Loads of good stuff to report though - so read on....

Term has got off to a flying start, and half term is fast approaching...we have been busy picking produce, replanting salad in the polytunnel and digging up bean beds and getting them ready for the next log of veggies.  Our pumpkins look great (although some are quite small) and we are hoping to make pumpkin produce after half term.  We had a great morning out last week at FOODWORKS COOKERY SCHOOL in Colesbourne.  Emma (chef from Wiggly Worm Charity) led the morning's cooking, teaching some very valuable knife skills, with the onions, leeks and courgettes.  The students made leek and potato soup, and courgette and raising muffins - delicious! We took along our own produce, and it was great to see the end results made into edible lunch!  It's spurred us on to do some more cooking onsite (with a portable hob) and we are going to make curried parsnip soup next week for lunch!

Beatrice has come on leaps and bounds with the students leading her round the field three days a week - they thoroughly enjoy this activity and we have some wonderful photographs for their folders!

Manny is lame .....😞  so he is in the stable again - we are hoping it's just an infection in his foot, and not laminitis - so we have to poultice his foot for three days and hope that it brings the infection out.

Sandy is looking fantastic, and will need scanning imminently - piglets should be arriving first week of December!

It's our QUIZ on 13 October (see opposite)
we are having an Open Day on Wednesday 10 October

END OF TERM CERTIFICATES!

The Summer Term is over - this half term has flown by!  We have been so busy with all the animals and produce we haven't stopped to write blogs...my excuse anyway!

We have made hay in the paddock at the Care Farm, and in Woodmancote where last year's lambs have been this summer.  We have over 200 bales but sadly 100 of them are getting rather wet at present....😒

The students and Gerry have been working with some of our wether lambs - halter training them each day.  They don't seem as happy about it as last year's Alice though!

Sandy is having a well earned rest up in the woodland after farrowing.  We sold 6 of her piglets, and have kept the tiny 'Tigger' who is now a healthy 10 kilos; along with 'Marmalade' who is a huge 20 kilos!!  They really are little and large!

Manny relaxing!

The ducks are all thriving, although have slightly gone off the lay recently - we think it may be the constant changes in the weather.  The bantams keep going broody, we have 5 chicks with one hen, and another two 'sitting'.

We have moved Manny into the paddock with the four ewes at the Care Farm so he's nearby for visitors.  He seems very happy, and has donkeys next door to chat to!

We had a fantastic Open Gardens on 2 July in aid of the Care Farm.  A local private garden in North Cerney opened their garden specially - it was a seriously hot afternoon, and we had over 150 people through the gate!  We raised £1,500.00 - serving cream teas, selling produce and looking round the gardens.

We had to rush to get the hay bales in on Wednesday before it rained!  Everyone mucked in, and thoroughly enjoyed heaving the bales onto the trailer so we could put them to dry in the yard!

We had our end of term celebration lunch yesterday - slow cooked lamb (our own of course!)sausage plaits with delicious salads and puddings - everyone bought something along with them and we all sat together on the decking.  we used as much produce as we could from the garden - it was a joyous occasion followed by certificates for all the students.  We finished by giving them all a Scrubditch Care Farm cap to take home with them!

We have children's activities during the summer holidays funded by Gloucestershire County Council.

These are on 7, 9 10th and 23rd and 24th August.

Students start back on Monday 4 September.

Veg Boxes are available from the Care Farm on Thursdays during the holidays

HAPPY DAYS!

SANDY farrowed two weeks ago - she had 9, but unfortunately squashed one....she wasn't very well when she farrowed, so we had the vet out to her....and she reckoned she could have had a mild infection that meant she had a very long labour and didn't recover quite as quickly as usual.  we now have 8 piglets - one is tiny, and not feeding well, so we are giving her some goats milk and cereal to try and get the weight on.  Hopefully we will sell most of them at 6 - 8 weeks - some of the boars and gilts are huge already!
Scrubditch Alison went off to the Netherlands and has arrived safely - we got a lovely photo of her today - very exciting to have sold one of our pedigree gilts for breeding.

we have 2 ducklings under a heat lamp - actually we've had them out in the day time in a run but inside at night - they are four weeks old.  We also have 2 lots of hens with chicks - 12 chicks in total .....sadly i think quite a few are 'cockerel' looking...not good for increasing our egg production!
Jolly Nice at Frampton Mansell are still selling our duck eggs and bantam eggs - we can only just keep up with production!

some of our lovely game bantams!

first week back!

We have all had a great first week back - it's been a very happy week!  The lambing's all finished and on Monday, we took the last 3 ewes and lambs down to the bank to join the rest of the flock.  There is loads of grass down there, so we are going to fence off half of it to hopefully get a cut of hay later on in the summer. Total lambs 23, so a good crowd down there!

The two weaners went off before Easter, and we still have some chops, joints and a few packs of sausages left in the freezer.  The other gilt is off abroad next week!  She is going to the Netherlands to breed!

Kate with the gilt who's off abroad
next week!

Sandy is due to farrow within the next couple of weeks and really looks fantastic.  We are going to move her back to the nursery on monday in readiness!

Kate has been frantically planting seeds with the students - we will need lots of volunteer pickers later on in the summer ....will be nearly a full time job!  Potatoes have been planted out, broad beans are up, and carrot seeds went in today.  We have some lovely salad coming up in the poly tunnel (as long as those naughty bantams keep out!)

We bought another 3 laying ducks - Buff Orpingtons - and they have settled straight in, and are laying brilliantly.  We are supplying JOLLY NICE with ducks eggs each week, along with our lovely Bantam eggs too.  If you haven't been there  do call in as it's the most amazing place off the road to Stroud at Frampton Mansell.  They do the best burgers too!

Bantams are going broody everywhere, and we managed to put two into little arks and they should be hatching next week.  We have also put some duck eggs in the incubator....just to see if we can hatch some ducklings (our track record is not good with the incubator..... but!)

Little and large.....a bantam egg with an enormous hen egg!!

lambing is in full swing!

We have had 9 ewes lamb so far....2 lots of singles and 9 lots of twins...more ram lambs than anything else, and some of them are very large!
The weather has just about started to improve....thank goodness - the sun should really help.

Our hens are all back in their run, having weeded our fruit cage beautifully, and the nets are off the ducks too.

We are just about to finish term for a short Easter Break, when we will be doing one day of EASTER ACTIVITIES FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN on THURSDAY 20 APRIL. It's almost fully booked already!

we have started selling duck and bantam eggs to Jolly Nice - their shop is at Frampton Mansell (off the Stroud road) and incredibly busy...we may have to buy a few more ducks to keep up with demand!

The students have been busy with Kate, planting lots of seeds out in the poly tunnel, and some straight out into the raised beds