spring term!

i know it's the Spring term, but the weather is definitely not being 'spring' like at the moment!
The woodland where our pigs are is looking a bit sorry - we have been putting loads of wood chipping into it to try and soak up the wet - the pigs don't appear to care less! But it does make it hard work for us - and it means that we can't let the students in to their enclosures....could mean lots of 'lost' wellies!

Perry and Sandy happy again!

Baxter just having a look round!

The ewes were scanned yesterday - our Thursday group of students brought them back from the bank field across country as its too wet to get the trailer anywhere near. So, Graham the scanner has predicted 8 sets of twins and 3 singles this time - great news!  Baxter has done his best, and hopefully we can get him back to Stanton St Quintin tomorrow (weather permitting)

Perry the boar is back staying with Sandy!   It was great bringing him here again - Sandy was calling to him when we pulled up outside and she came out to meet him...they almost walked off hand in hand!

The students have settled back into their routine very quickly, and love being back with all the animals.  It will soon be time to start planting up all the beds ....we have been busy preparing them, and have several beds of salads in the poly tunnel already.

Christmas Break!

We are now starting our 4 week break....where has this year gone to??

The Cotswold Christmas Fair at Andoversford turned out to be a rather quiet affair - mainly due to it being 'Black Friday'....and so we didn't get the foot fall we would normally.  Still the stall ended up being ok, and we only have a few trees left, along with a few jars of jellies and jams.

The pork, gammon, bacon and sausages are all back - we have virtually sold out of pork, but the gammon and bacon are still available - it does look fantastic!

We had our end of term lunch last thursday here at the house.  It was a great affair again, with all the volunteers pitching in to help cooking with me, and producing puddings galore!  The students so enjoy getting together - it's a great end to their year.  We also invited the head chef from The Bathurst Arms, Ben and Sue, one of our Trustees, so it ended up with 25 of us squeezed into the hall and round the dining table.  Of course we had pork, slow roasted over night and it was delicious!

We are one of two charities that Tescos have given a 'helping hand' to this week.  They had a cheque presentation at the large Tesco store in Kingsmeadow on Friday, and Johnny came with me to the photo call.  We all had to wear silly Christmas hats....not looking forward to that photo!  We are putting the cheque towards a set of livestock scales to weigh the sheep and pigs during the year.

Today, Alan (volunteer) came with me to pick up 'Perry' the boar.  We have very kindly been lent him again by Gary Salter.  Gary has started producing delicious salamis and parma hams with his Oxford Sandy and Blacks.  Perhaps we will be able to build on a 'butcher's and cutting room' next year...it would be great to start producing our own specialities too.  As we parked the trailer next to the woodland, Sandy and Perry were calling out to each other, and they almost walked off hand in hand - it was lovely to see!

i don't want to speak too soon, but the ducks are back laying again...not sure if it's the khakis or the older Aylesbury, but our customers are very happy!  We also appear to have happy hens back laying.  One of our new volunteers did a bit of research, and discovered that hens like laying low down, and the houses we bought from Countrywide have all their nesting boxes really high up.  So we have put some nesting boxes on the floor for them, and moved the purches up higher - result...we are definitely getting more eggs!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE, and do keep spreading the word.

with festive wishes, for a peaceful time and a prosperous New year,

Emma x

November!

We have been busy here getting our weaners ready to go off.   We have been given some whey to feed as an extra boost, and the pigs love it!  we will be sending off three of our biggest weaners the last week of November, ready for Christmas Hams and sausages.  Do get in touch to book your pork.

happy pigs!

The students have been tidying up all our raised beds in the poly tunnel and outside for the winter, whilst also planting more winter salads inside, to sell to the pub.  We have some lovely red celery still growing outside, but other than that the poly tunnel is the best place to be from now on.  They have also been making newspaper pots to plant the sweet peas in; they will also over winter inside.
The Christmas Trees are looking great in our colourful red, green and white pots, and they will be 'dressed' next week, ready for the Fair.

We have the two horses back now, so the students are very happy.  They seem to especially like helping to put them out; doing their rugs, and bringing them in at the end of the afternoon, and brushing off some horrendous mud!  It's a great opportunity for some therapeutic bonding, as Manny particularly likes being cuddled.

We have had some kind of sickness in the hen run - 4 hens have keeled over and died recently, so i took one poorly one along to the vets to see if they could shed any light on the mystery.  Rob (vet) thinks it could be a bronchial problem, so we are putting anti biotics into their water, and also worming them for good measure.  Fingers crossed we don't lose any more.  Unfortunately 3 of them were Ella's new bantams.

'Baxter' joining his girls!

Our flock of Wiltshires are doing really well - all the ewes are down on the bank with 'Baxter', and the rest of the ram lambs are up here at the Care Farm, having a bit of 'finishing food' to help them on their way.  We supplied the local pub with their first lamb last month, and apparently they had really good 'feed back' from the customers, and so are having another one next week.

Don't forget to put 28 NOVEMBER in your diary for the Cotswold Christmas Fair at the Frogmill Hotel, as they are raising money for the Care Farm.

HALF TERM BREAK

Ella came home for half term, so while she was here, we went to pick up the Wiltshire Horn Ram, from Adrian Andrews in Stanton st Quinton.  He is called Baxter, and is very handsome.  Let's hope he performs as well as Neville from last year!

We have moved our lambs into the Orchard here at the farm, at the end of my parent's garden.  They love it down there, and look quite at home.   We will probably send another 2 or 3 off to the abattoir within the next week; having already sold 3.  The local pub, The Bathurst Arms, in North Cerney, have our lamb on the menu this weekend! www.bathurstarms.com

Ella was given some little bantams by Lucy, her aunt, as a late birthday present.  They look a bit like her favourite bantam, 'Fiver' that sadly got eaten by the fox this summer (along with all those others)  They have little top knots, and are terribly tame.  One keeps trying to sit on my arm when i'm feeding them - i had to take it up with me to feed the pigs this afternoon!  I am hoping that Ella might be able to take them with her to The Orchards, where she is moving to in a couple of weeks time.  It's still at The Orchard Trust, but more independent, and has a good bit of garden at the back - perfect for a little hen arc!

I discovered that the quail had been eaten yesterday - i think by rats...there was a tell tale 'run' in the corner of their arc - so disappointing...we'd managed to keep them out all summer.   So, no quail left now.  I think it is probably too late to incubate any more eggs; especially as colder weather is forecast for November.  We will have to start again in the Spring.

ps has anyone seen November's issue of 'Small holder' magazine?  There is an article about the care farm in it!

october

Sorry the Blog has taken a back seat over the last few weeks - sadly my father passed away and so i haven't been keeping up with my 'blogging' ...SO

We have taken the first 3 ram lambs off to the abattoir this weekend, and they will hopefully be ready the first week of November.   The ewes have gone down the Bank field so they can be 'flushed' ready for the ram arriving next week.

All the students have been working really hard this term - they have been preparing the raised beds in the poly tunnel, where we are growing lots of salads for a local pub.   Outside we still have a small bed of chard and spinach, and some leeks.

We have had lots of windfalls which has been great for feeding to the pigs and our ewes love them too.

After half term, we will be busy getting ready for the Christmas Fair at the end of November.  The students really enjoy making produce each year for it.  We hope it will be a good fund raiser for us.

Hopefully, i will get time to download / upload some photos before long - bit more exciting than text only!

WINTER TERM!

Hi everyone - welcome back!  We have been blessed with the most fantastic weather this summer; going into Autumn and everything is growing at an alarming rate - even the sloes are ripe already!

Sandy moved back to her woodland
home

Our students are all pleased to be back, and one of the first jobs we did was to move Sandy back up to the woodland - she is very happy to be back near / although not with her off spring.  We sold 6 of the weaners in the Summer holidays, and the six we have left are really thriving.  We have two gilts and 4 boars left.

The hens and ducks we bought in over the holidays look great - hens laying already, but sadly not the ducks yet - although they love their new surroundings especially the pond.

The Khakis settling into their
new home

We have had lots of produce available during the summer, runner beans, purple and yellow french beans, swiss chard, spinach and now leeks.   Unfortunately our sweet corn was supposed to be picked as 'baby' sweet corn (we only just found the label) so the pigs and hens have been enjoying them!

Feeding the ewes - this one
loves apples!

We are checking the lambs regularly, as we will have at least 4 hopefully ready to go off within the next couple of weeks.  We are hoping to sell some to the local pub....watch this space!

Rufus enjoying the sunshine!

END OF TERM

I know......it's rather a long time since my last blog!   Lots has happened in between!

On the way back from picking up Ella we stopped at Gavin Davidson's near Huntley to re-stock our poultry.  We bought Black Rocks, White Stars, Lavenders and Speckledys - 10 in total.  They are 'point of lay' pullets, and we had two eggs by the time we got home!   They have settled in really well with our other hens, and are now laying about 5 small eggs each day between them.   The weather hasn't helped, being so hot (we love it though!)

The piglets were weaned at 8 weeks, and we sold 6 of them last weekend to a friend and local farmer at Whittington.  They are really happy with them;  hopefully we will get a photo soon.  They all loaded easily,(i grabbed them and passed them over....some of them weigh nearly 20 kgs i reckon!)  and looked fantastic - the students had done a really good job looking after them.

We have kept 2 gilts for breeding,  and 4 boars for meat at Christmas (bacon and ham)

Ella and i found 4 Khaki Campbell ducklings for sale last week, and went to Bisley to buy them, to hopefully boost our duck egg laying potential.

Nationwide Building Society have done a great job putting in a pond in the duck pen, and it gives them more room to splash about.

Nationwide volunteers weeding
the bank

more volunteers digging the pond

We had a great last day; giving the students their certificates and photographs, and a delicious lunch - slow cooked gammon from our Oxford Sandy & Blacks, and lovely salads from our volunteers.

very happy ducks!

We start again on 8 September; meanwhile we are picking madly each week for the Friday market, with volunteer help.  The runner beans have just started, and we had a huge crop of Pink Fur Apple Potatoes too!