MAY

I have been away on an adventure....so Gerry has been in charge for the last week or so.  The piglets look enormous already- they have started trying to escape from the nursery, and i normally have to put at least one back in every time i go up to check on them!  Sandy really is an amazing mother.

If you know anyone who is interested in buying piglets to bring on, they will be ready to move on in another 3 weeks or so

The students have all bee tidying up the care farm this last week, with the volunteers they have been painting hen houses and sheds, and sorting out all our veg and flower seedlings and potting them on ready to sell at the plant sale on 23 May.

We have quite a few potential students visiting over the next couple of weeks, so that's very exciting, and we then have a series of Open Days planned in June.

Sandy with her piglets!

DONT FORGET THE PLANT SALE NEXT SATURDAY!

23 MAY - NORTH CERNEY VILLAGE HALL

10 TO 1

Barbeque

We are back!

Sandy has farrowed!  She has 13 piglets....amazing!  She is a real star, and looks after them all brilliantly. The students were SO pleased to meet the piglets when they came back ...i think they have all had photos taken holding one!  Sandy doesn't seem to mind us picking them up, although they are a bit more 'squeely' now!!

CLEVER GIRL!

Just looking!

Rob, the vet came to castrate the boars, but unfortunately one of the boars was more tricky ...he could only find one 'ball'...!  We will have to keep checking it each week, until it drops!

There is lots going on in the garden too....getting all the raised beds ready for planting, putting in potatoes, peas, and more broad beans.  The poly tunnel is positively heaving with salads, veg seedlings and flower seedlings.  We are selling mixed salads to the pub each week, and hope to sell lots of seedlings at the plant sale on 23 May, at the Village Hall.

Last night we held a quiz at the Village Hall, in aid of the Care Farm.   Neil Hainsworth, Charlotte's father, organised it all, and it was done on the big screen - lots of questions about movies, music and tv ....we didn't do well i'm afraid!  If we were better 'Archers' listeners we would have done - lots of questions about those actors.
A big thank you to Neil for organising all the questions, and compering.

i am away next week, but will blog again in a couple of weeks.

OPEN DAYS ARE WEEK COMMENCING 15 JUNE!  Do get in touch if you would like to visit.

OPEN FARM SUNDAY IS 7 JUNE 10 - 1pm  Families welcome

Lambing has finally finished - we had our last set of twins this morning ...i went out to the field at 6.30am and found 'June' with one very yellow looking lamb, and another one struggling to get out.  The yellowy brown colour is usually a sign that the ewe has really struggled to lamb on her own....so we will give her some antibiotics to make sure she doesn't come down with anything.
Sadly 'Lucky' didn't make it....i'm afraid he got pneumonia - after all that tube and bottle feeding too...

We have had a really good show of ewe lambs this time - 14 out of 20 ....extraordinary, as in previous years, our ewe total has been 3! They are all enjoying this lovely sunshine - long may it last.

Sandy is enormous and i hope she will farrow any day ....but not during the night with any luck!

The poly tunnel is brimming with salads, and we are growing lots of veg plants and flowers for the annual plant sale in the Village Hall on 23 May

We have a volunteer training day on Monday, and start back with students next Thursday.

The students finish for Easter tomorrow, so we are having our usual end of term Easter Picnic - everyone brings a plate of food to share - one year we hid Easter eggs all round our garden, and it was so hot they all melted while we had our picnic!  Not sure that will happen tomorrow....weather has been really horrific the last few days

Lambing continues at a good rate - we now have 5 sets of twins.   One set from our old ewe has a lamb that's very fragile - i have been 'tube' feeding it every few hours until yesterday, when he has now managed to move onto a bottle.  He (LUCKY) as i have now nicknamed him can now stand outside the pen and is drinking nearly 30mls of milk substitute...amazing - fingers crossed!
We have 7 more ewes left to lamb

We moved Sandy back to the Nursery on monday, ready for her to farrow anytime from next week onwards - she looks amazing!

Hens are still laying really well and we have one bantam (or maybe two) laying in an ark, so are hoping they will go broody.
We have had  problems with mites again - cant believe it at this time of year - and have been 'dusting' the hens and cleaning out vociferously...it's such a nightmare to get rid of

i do hope our supporters and friends will be coming to the quiz in April .....FRIDAY 24th April to be exact - ring for details/to book a team in!

HAPPY EASTER, and i will really try to post some photos.....i promise!

WE HAVE OUR FIRST SET OF TWINS!  THEY ARRIVED YESTERDAY - TWO EWE LAMBS ...only trouble is their father is a Portland ram! He managed to jump in with the wiltshire horn ewes and was arm in arm with 'no. 11' next morning!  The other 11 ewes shouldn't start till at least a week's time but we are getting them in at night as it's much easier to keep any eye on them all.

Sandy gets bigger by the day - she really looks fantastic - i photographed her yesterday and will try and add it to this blog...!

The students have been busy making up fantastic 'veg boxes' for selling all the produce in this year.  We are hoping that we can sell at least 6 per week during the summer - mixed salads, and vegetables

We finish for Easter on 2 April, and start again on Thursday 16th April.  Don't forget OPEN FARM SUNDAY ON 7 JUNE!  The Care Farm is open from 10am to 1pm.

OPEN DAYS AT THE CARE FARM ARE WEEK COMMENCING 15th JUNE.

The ewes are growing daily...much to our surprise one in particular has grown bigger 3 weeks earlier than the others - and we think she will probably have some rather different coloured twins...all being well!(Lucy's Portland ram ran through the fence when he was put out next to our Wiltshire ewes - i discovered him arm in arm with one of our ewes the next morning!) The other 11 ewes should start lambing the week beginning 23 March.

Sandy is also looking a lot bigger, so we are really hopeful that she is 'in pig' again too.  

The students have been taking it in turns to work alongside John a new volunteer, in the wood workshop, making up vegetable boxes to sell all our produce in.  They are thoroughly enjoying it; as it's something new and different.  They are going to stencil 'Scrubditch' onto the side of each box, and we are hoping to fill them every week once our produce is up and growing, and sell a mixed box to locals.

I went on a training course last week at a Care Farm in the West Midlands.   We are producing our own 'Code of Practise' that we will be assessed against, and then hopefully get accredited and be able to have the Care Farming UK logo on everything.

We are looking forward to Gerry coming back in a couple of weeks - the students have been missing her, and it will be great to have her and Jo working here along with Garry on Mondays.

All the students have settled back into the routine at the farm again.  The weather is very difficult to predict, so we ask them to bring lots of layers each week!  Last Thursday we met up with the Cotswold Wardens again down on the bank.  They have been clearing the stream at the bottom of the field - it was completely overgrown and blocked ....now with the help of the students it's running much more freely and we have a watering hole again.  We were blessed with gorgeous sunshine all morning, and armed with plenty of cakes for all the helpers, we had a great morning.

Alan showing Helen 'blowing up' Patch's nose
a technique to calm them

Yesterday, we loaded up Perry the boar first thing, and returned him to North Nibley.  I think Sandy was sad to see him go, but is pleased she doesn't have to share her food with anyone now!  She certainly looks as if she's 'in pig', so we will be watching her progress, and will move her back to the pig nursery in March.

We have started feeding the ewes hay now, as the grass is in short supply, and not enough goodness in it to nourish them and their offspring.  They will come back to the farm at the end of February so we can start giving them hard feed.