Week 4 and 5 Summer Session

Debriefing re: Hen House!

Ella & Helen hard at work!

Oh dear, i've done it again - nearly three weeks this time...!
We've had a busy time recently - Will and Ben, have been 'deconstructing' a hen house and run that my dad never quite finished - and then reconstructing it - by separating the run from the house, and putting the house on wheels - let's hope it's a bit lighter to move around now!
The others have been busy potting up, planting out and picking lots of veggies, flowers and salads.

Danny 'sifting' compost at
 Coln House School

Some of the Scare Crows!

We went on a visit to Coln House one afternoon - Helena had lots of flowers, and veg plants she was selling off - we came back loaded up with stuff!  We then went back again last week to a wonderful Arts & Crafts Festival that she had organised for local schools.  Our students were in charge of a 'scarecrow making' area - they had a brilliant time teaching children from other local special schools how to make scarecrows!  Danny had brought in lots of old shoes, and Gerry provided lots of her children's cast off's to use!  Our students had a lovely time in Coln House School's Art Room in the afternoon - brilliantly organised Helena - Thank You!
The students have been Dry Stone Walling on Thursday afternoons, and our wall in the Car Park, is looking great - a bit more to do yet though!

Lambs making friends with
Henny & Penny!

Chicks are all growing huge, and we have one particular favourite - 'Fiver' named by Ella, my daughter - she tried to call her 'Survivor' but can't say S'sss, so she's now called FIVER!  (Survivor, as she nearly came to grief, when one of the Bantam mothers got rather too protective of their chicks)  She now lives in the Poly Tunnel - oops better go and check on her actually - she's been up there all morning on her own....

June 2011

Shearing time!

We've also been busy clearing out half the covered yard, ready to disinfect it.  We will be using it for working with animals, and making a much better wood working area for the winter.

We're running some Open Days in July, so there's much to get ready - weeding mainly, and scrubbing up the place, and generally tidying, before the students finish their next session.

Week 2 and 3 Summer Session

Some of our many tyres planted up
either side of the path -
very colourful!

Sorry, i'm putting two weeks into one...the slippery slope - it'll be once a month if i'm not strict on myself at this rate!
Well the weather has been playing havoc with our planting outside - those winds - the dahlias we planted this week, look very sorry for themselves.  Most of the other veg are struggling to stay upright - the beans & beetroot that went out last week look ok-ish!
We have two lots of chicks / hens in the poly tunnel with our salads at the moment - the 9 that hatched during the Royal Wedding, are now HUGE, and we are desperately trying to sort some kind of a run/house to put them out in the field, and our two Bantam mums, Henny & Penny, with their four chicks in another coop.  They're not loose in the poly tunnel, as they rather like the salads!  Also, at this time of year we tend to get a plague of RATS! We are transporting them out on a rota to the field, in our guinea pig run instead!

Some our Tomatoes potted up

The tomatoes the students planted from seed, are coming on really well, and they have been potted on again today.  The basil plants, however, seem to be taking ages to grow at all!

Yesterday, we went over to visit a friend, Roz, who is running 'Aunt Addies Farm' Project, near Tetbury.  She has planted thousands and thousands of salads and vegetables, and it was really inspiring to see just how much can be planted from seed.  Roz has boundless energy and we all thought she is doing an amazing job over there!  We came back with Aubergine, Chillies and a Cucumber plant to go in the poly tunnel - thank you Roz for a lovely outing.

A bit of sad news - unfortunately Daisy Duck disappeared on Monday night - i went to call them all in from the field after the lovely rain storm (they were having such a great time!) and Daisy never appeared - we searched all the neighbouring fields, tracks etc., for any sign of feathers/struggle but nothing - so no more duck eggs for the moment...I think we may have to pay a visit to the market to see if we can find another Daisy Duck to keep Jake company - he really misses her!

We had a lovely visit today from a group of prospective students from around Stroud - unfortunately it rained most of the time they were here - but we managed to make them all feel welcome, and hid in the poly tunnel for the worst of the down pour!

SUMMER SESSION - Week 1

Welcome back to the students and volunteers - although my volunteers did come over last week to help.  They spent a very worthwhile morning putting up the fruit cage, and helping me with plans for this next session.

Lewey, Hewey & Dewey

Bill & Ben got straight to work building us another compost area - i think we will need to move the first lot off site - we seem to have acquired some rats - the combination of hot weather & rain & compost is perfect for the .....nasty rodents.  Smiles, Helen & I put another layer on all our potatoes, and filled them in again.  (Although i see they've already come through in less than a week!)

Our offspring that hatched in the
 incubator!

Wednesday, we were closed for First Aid Training, so Elvis and the guys came over on Thursday instead.  We've got all the netting up on the cage now, and just need some more fruit to plant out there!  We have a fantastic selection of salads in the poly tunnel - some of which i took to the farmer's market on Saturday - a lot of hard work, for not much return - i think i made about £20!  It was a good 'profile' raiser, though, & i gave out leaflets for the Car Boot Sale.
Lewey, Hewey & Dewey are now out with their parents, in the field, and in their own house at night - i'm afraid we have had to say farewell to our one remaining cockerel - he is SO aggressive to all the other hens & ducklings, they were being tortured.  No doubt we will have at least one cockerel amongst the chicks that are coming on...they are now in a coop in the poly tunnel full time.  Henny & Penny, my two bantams i was given last year, are both hatching chicks as we speak - so Bill & Ben will have to hurry up making more pens & coops tomorrow!

Easter week

Hewey, Lewey & Dewey!

Well, we're really forging ahead now - the watering is taking David nearly an hour - as everything is growing at such a rate! William and Ben made another raised bed, and put together a floor for the hen coop, where our 3 ducklings are going (well actually Daisy & Jake's ducklings!) We don't want any 'visitors' burrowing under the coop at night...Helen was on 'Ivy duty' - some of the Portland Ewes seem a bit down after lambing, so we've been picking lots more ivy for them.  The poly tunnel is full of wonderful salads - i've been down to the local pub, to ask if they would like to buy some salad bags!  The raised beds are brimming with seedlings coming up - peas, broad beans, radishes and leeks, and the fruit trees are in flower - we really could do with some rain now - though this sun is wonderful.
Today, Wednesday is our last day for two weeks - so after a mass tidy up, everyone came down to the garden for lunch.  Nearly all the students & volunteer helpers were here - i think there were 20 of us in all!  I had casseroled the cockerels (yes do you remember those two...?) and then made a 'paella' style dish with rice, vegetables & chicken meat - there was none left, so i think it was a success!  I then packed everyone off round my parent's garden, while Luke hid lots of Easter Eggs round our garden - they had to be quick as they were melting as they were put out...!
The best part of the day for me (apart from seeing such an array of happy faces in our garden) was the arrival of 'Hughey, Lewey and Dewey' - the three ducklings - they are now firmly esconsed in the coop in the poly tunnel with lots of straw and a lovely mini pond that they've been swimming in!

week 7 spring

Monday - Helen, David & William here - Will & Ben built a great set of shelving out of recycled wood - perfect for putting our tomatoes out on..David's in charge of all the watering - quite something now with all our flowers, fruit trees, raspberries, sweet peas - and now 18 tyres filled with salad potatoes!  Helen & I did the hens and ducks, then spent the rest of the morning potting up roses & clematis to go outside the porta cabin.

Wednesday, Sue and i were on a Care Farm Training course, so Gerry was left in charge (with the help of Ella who's home from college!)  Bob was on hand helping all day too..  They cleaned out the stinky duck pond and found two duck eggs in their house.  They all checked the incubator - which we hope is going to hatch out, Rhode Island Reds, Bantams & Cotswold Leg Bars, at Easter!  Then they all had a go at dry stone walling - breaking bits off the stones, making them flat, preparing the ground underneath.  Of course there's still a pen load of lambs to feed - 14 last count...so plenty of hands on lambing going on!

Cerney House Tulips

Thursday, Mike was here helping and all 3 students arrived.  We thought we'd make a start on the flat packed fruit cage - however, it took Mike & Mike (carer) most of the morning to work out the instructions....suffice to say there are a few rather wobbly metal rods up so far..!  We had to spend at least half an hour mending fences in the sheep field as about 20 or so naughty lambs have been 'burrowing' out and then can't get back to their mums for a feed!

Pm we went down to Cerney House again, for a treat.  The tulips look amazing - well the whole garden looks lovely - and it's a real joy to see everyone so happy, wandering about admiring all the flowers!

Our Tulips!!

Only two more days to go, then we break for Easter till 8 May - and hopefully will have some chicks hatched by then...!

week 6 spring

Monday i was away, so i left things in the capable hands of Ben, Hilary, Legs and Molly.  Molly wrote up my weekly diary, beautifully, and i'm just reporting back to the blog!  We had a visit last week from my insurance company, and by the time they left we knew we would have a list of 'recommendations' as long as yer arm....!

Suffice to say, William & Ben's first job was to move the paper hand dispenser from our little kitchen, to the men's toilets!  There was a lot of 'bottle' feeding done, as we have about 14 pet lambs now, owing to the Mastitus outbreaks - this job is absolutely Helen's favorite part of the morning, so we had a very happy student again!  Ben and William have made us a great bench for sitting outside the porta cabin...it's been put together from ends of telegraph poles, and a 'donated' plasterer's plank??!  Anway it's exactly what we needed outside in the glorious weather we've been having.
Wednesday was SO hot, Steve actually got a very burnt neck - i've had to insist they all bring sun hats & creams - can't believe it in April.  My friend Sally Ann has lent us her incubator, so we set that up first thing.  We've put a mix of Rhode Island, Cotswold Leg Bars, and my Bantam's eggs in - we'll have to wait and see for 21 days now.  We planted out all the Sweet Peas into ....yes, you guessed some of the millions of tyres we've STILL got on site!  The guys made some lovely tripods out of hazel twigs for them to grow up.    Peas & radishes were planted out in the 3rd raised bed - everything is growing at such a rate, it's fantastic.  Broad Beans are up outside, & some tiny leeks, and inside the poly tunnel the salads are going crazy - must get to the local pubs to see if they want to buy some salad bags off us!

Thursday, great excitement, as the local Police came over to help plant out the last four Fruit Trees, as they had given us the funds to buy them.  Coln House School also helped - i don't think we've ever had so many willing helpers on site - we got most of the wood chip spread round all the paths, and i think they would have put the fruit cage up if they had been allowed to stay all day!
After they had left the rest of the gang planted up 18 tyres  with our 'chitted' Charlotte & Pink Fur Apple potatoes - it's all taking shape now!  The only thing is there's SO much watering, and having got our bowsers all attached to drainpipes, we've had hardly any rain!  I'm sure it won't be long, and i hope it rains at night only...!

Week 5 Spring

hard at work plucking the cockerels!

My black eye is well and truly shaping up - it looks worse by the day, and i'm not sure the students thought much of my 'horse' story...!  Anyway to Monday -  we had a great day - the weather was perfect for plucking cockerels!  We had Coln House School arriving at lunch time to pluck & dress our two cockerels - so the morning was spent doing all our other chores, combined with pet lamb' feeding of course - apparently we now have 18 pet lambs!! We had to dispatch two of our Rhode Island Cockerels - they were really bullying the ducks and other hens - Lucy (sister) has a 'stun gun' for such purposes and duly did the deed - with Helen watching avidly in between putting her arm round me reassuring me that it was all ok, and not to worry!  Ben & Will made a tripod specially, to hang the birds from - and the students sat / stood and plucked round them!
Helena then gave a wonderful biology lesson, whilst dressing them  (pictures to follow!)  No-one seemed unduly concerned, and it's great to know that they had a wonderful life up till Monday!  (We're going to have them casseroled for lunch on our last day of the Session)

stripped ready for action!

Wednesday and Thursday - Gerry one of my volunteer helpers arrived with armfuls of beautiful pansies, violas, wall flowers & lots more herbs - and she & Tom spent a happy morning designing new flower beds with....tyres of course!  They are now planted up either side of the path running up to the porta cabins and really brighten up the project.
Yesterday, Simon worked really hard all day, with Bob, Mike & Simon (a new volunteer helper) marking out (that took most of the morning!) and planting some of the fruit trees.  The fruit cage has arrived flat pack, and next week, we hope to have some of the Glos Constabulory workforce here to help finish planting the trees - having given us the donation to purchase them!  The rest of us, were feeding sheep / moving them, and generally being sheep people most of the day.  Steve, Bev & Leanne planted up a long long gutter with tomatoes, and rocket. Tom & Ernie transplanted a rose, and moved tons of top soil!

 Everything has really shot up over the last couple of weeks, and the site is starting to take shape at last

PS we had a very sick ewe yesterday, and last night the vet came and performed a 'caesarian' on her - and fingers crossed she has 3 lovely lambs and is doing well....watch this space!

(Piccys will follow - after the weekend - we're off to Roma!)