Our regular students are now on holiday for 5 weeks or so, but of course there's still lots to do on the farm!  We had a lovely end of term picnic lunch last week and gave out our 'in-house' certificates and worksheets to the students.  They especially loved the mugs Gerry had ordered for them - each one had their own name and a photograph of their favorite Care Farm animal on the back! My mother came to the lunch along with Sue, one of our fantastic Trustees, and it was lovely to be able to show them what we had been doing this year.

The ducklings that Cheltenham Ladies College hatched for us are enormous!   They have now been out with the other ducks for a week, but still sleep in their own house while it's so hot...The chicks are also all in together with the main hens at night, but there is a definite 'pecking order' when they are let out!.

the ducklings sampling the pond!

can you spot what's in this photo? 

We had a visiting group of volunteers here today, from Mira Showers in Cheltenham.  They worked tirelessly painting the porta cabin and weeding, strimming and clearing the banks and round the back of the portacabins.   We are so grateful to everyone that can give up their time to help....and the whole site looks great now - ready for our School Age Summer Activities starting next week!

If you haven't booked your children in - it may be too late, but worth an email to Gerry just in case....
gerryfouracres@hotmail.co.uk

Dont forget to come along to the CAR BOOT SALE in NORTH CERNEY on SATURDAY 29 AUGUST at 10am!

JULY ALREADY!

Oh dear yet again i've got really behind with my 'blogging' - sorry!   So much has been happening here....we sold 9 of the weaners last month, and have kept 3 boars and a lovely gilt.   The two breeding gilts have gone to a lovely new home near Wallingford, and hopefully will be breeding before long.  Did you know that there are only 500 registered Oxford Sandy and Black sows in this country?   We are really pleased to be part of the breeding programme.

The fab four!

The weather has been SO hot this week, that we moved the 4 piglets up to their new home in the woodland where they have masses of room and lots of shade and they are loving it.  Sandy is in the next woodland area having a well earned rest.

We have had lots of chicks hatching from two of our bantams, but no such luck with the incubator...we bought 18 fertile eggs and incubated them, but yet again we only had 2 chicks hatch!  They are lovely lavender arucanas, and we are really hoping that they are both girls!
We have been given 5 lovely ducklings that were hatched by Cheltenham Ladies College pupils - gosh they are filthy little blighters, but very endearing!  They have been under heat lamps in the porta cabin but we have had them out during the day.

All our raised beds are brimming with vegetables and we have been thinning and picking regularly.   The salads are huge in the poly tunnel, and the fruit is coming along beautifully.  The sweet peas are flowering, and so we have been picking furiously to make sure they keep coming.  We delivered the first 70 stems to Oops a Daisy in Cirencester today - hopefully we will be able to keep supplying them for at least a month.

We had 3 very successful Open Days in June with lots of visitors and some great feed back. Open Farm Sunday was a beautiful sunny day, and Gerry and Jo with Danny, showed everyone around.  Lots of local people came having googled farms listed on the National Open Farm Website.

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.