HALF TERM ALREADY!

Yet again....i have been a very poor blogger this last four weeks!  We have been so busy....Gerry and i have done three talks this past month - two to WI groups and one in Cirencester to the Ashfcroft Ladies Group.   We have now finally got a really good projector (having struggled to show good enough quality photographs before)  and it makes such a difference!  The talks we do are a really good way of raising our profile, and great fun to do.

We had an article in the local paper looking for volunteers recently, that led to RADIO Gloucestershire ringing and coming to interview us the following week!  We went out 'live' two days later....another great profile raiser, and our student Helen, and Volunteer Alan were brilliant!

Hazel's piglets have all been weaned and are ready to sell so we took four of them to the market last week (it costs so much to keep feeding them all) Unfortunately there were a load of really grotty dreadfully thin pigs for sale and so although they made more than any others = they still went for half what we can get for them privately.....a lesson learnt - we will know for next time.

Sandy is pregnant again and is due to farrow the end of November, so we will do some 'moving around' when the students get back to make sure she is in the 'nursery' in plenty of time.

Our veg boxes are nearly finished - we just have some tomatoes, and lovely 'flower sprouts' - a delicious cross between brussel sprouts and kale and pumpkins left....

The poultry have completely gone on strike - the hens aren't laying at all....apparently lots of people are saying the same thing - weather i imagine, but it's not good for our 'produce income'!  The ducks are still going strong - but only 3 per day instead of 5 at the moment.  I am off to buy some more 'point of lay' hens this week,  we may need to rig up a light of some kind in order to make sure they start laying before next year ....!

We had our third quiz on Friday night, run by Neil (father of one of our students) - it was a great success again.....a really fun evening - everyone brings their own food and wine.  The questions were very varied again and 'interactive' which keeps everyone interested!

On Saturday i took Christmas Cards and Jam to the Autumn Fair at Beaudesert School - they have chosen us as one of their 'Charities' this year.  There was a huge footfall so hopefully they will have raised a lots of money.   With any luck it will go to purchasing another second hand portacabin to use for a cookery room....another thing to tick off my '10 year plan'!

Our stand at Beaudesert Autumn Fair!

we are now on half term for two weeks. as it's such a long term - this gives us time to catch up with lots of maintenance on site, and plan for the next half term.  Alan (volunteer) and i are off to pick up 'Gerhallt' a magnificent Wiltshire Horn Ram this week ...watch out girls!

AUTUMN!

firstly, the first weekend in September Gerry Rosie and i went to Moreton Show with our beautiful Pedigree Wiltshire Horn Shearling, Alice - we took Annabel for company too, but only showed Alice
we came a respectable 7th ......out of a class of 9!  The judge sadly wanted all the ewes to stand in line, whereas we had spent all summer term, practising walking Alice with the students!  She was very well behaved though, and we think we should definitely do more next year!

The students have all started back again, we have said goodbye to three lads, and welcome 3 new students this term.  It's all systems go, with Hazel and her 7 piglets; due to be weaned next week, and the lambs nearly ready to go off.

grown in the poly tunnel!

We still have some lovely produce to sell in our veg boxes, as the sun has continued shining in between rain.

does anyone recognise this?

HOLIDAYS!

During the holidays we still have all the animals to look after and lots of produce to pick and sell in our veg boxes!

sorry about these...can't get them to stand upright!

These are beautiful aubergine plants...sideways!

The shade area we made for Hazel to wallow in without
getting sun burnt!

Hazel resting before farrowing!

Hazel has just farrowed - she had 7 lovely piglets - they have been loving the sunshine, but now it's raining we will make sure the heat lamp is on to keep them warm

We have had two more lots of chicks hatch from our lovely dutch bantams, but sadly both our cockerels died during the last month.

The veg garden is brimming with produce; and we have now managed to keep the slugs at bay with copper tape round plastic bottles for the french beans - we have also been going out at night just before it's dark, rounding up the horrid blighters and putting them in buckets with salt and water.....not very kind, but essential as we have been over run with them!

The tomatoes in the poly tunnel are growing well, as are our cucumbers - we should have a bounty of them for September, when the students come back.


This warm wet weather has been a struggle to keep all the livestock healthy,,,,we have suffered with the poultry having lice and mites; cleaning out their housing religiously two or three times a week
And the sheep - a couple of our lambs have been 'fly struck'.....not a pleasant sight - but we have sprayed them both, and brought one back up to the care farm, where we can keep an eye on her, and give her some tlc!

Gerry and Kate have been running school activities over the past week and have 3 more days left this week - we have lots of school age children attending sessions to learn all about farming, and growing produce.  They have a wonderful time; and for some it's the only chance they have to be in this environment.

end of term already!

This half term has flown by....i can't believe we had our last day yesterday with the students for the next five weeks or so...although we will be doing summer activities during the holidays for school age children (look on the website for details)

We have had an awful month losing two lambs to pneumonia, and one ewe to a twisted gut - i think it's the weather...so much rain and not enough sun - until this last week or so


We have another bantam hatch 6 hens (she was sitting squashed down between one of the raised beds in the poly tunnel) and we have one sitting on eggs in the middle of the straw stack in the yard!

The lambs look fantastic - and we will be weaning them next month hopefully.  we sent off two of last year's lambs last week - they will be delicious mutton as they are over a year old now

We have our end of term lunch next week, where we give out certificates to all the students.  Sadly we say good bye to 3 of them this term, but will be welcoming 3 new students in September.

Sandy is looking forward to her 6 piglets being 'weaned' next week - she is getting a bit fed up with them eating her food!  They look great and weigh in at around 14 kilos each.....

We have started selling our veg boxes this week - beetroot, chard, potatoes & salad bags with fresh herbs

SANDY HAS FARROWED!!

At last ...we thought it was never going to happen - we even found a specialist pig scanner to come round and check!  Sandy farrowed last week - 6 piglets only this time - but at least they are all healthy!
Hazel is also pregnant - although she has been very off colour last week - refusing to eat anything / drink....we had to get a specialist pig vet to see her.  Richard, the vet, gave her a thorough examination, but couldn't be sure what was wrong.  He suggested buying a box of cereal and some milk, and putting cider vinegar in her water (she didn't seem to like that!) but ate all the cereal.  Thankfully she is now back to eating and drinking - although she KEEPS throwing her water containers over which is a real pain!

We have also had our final lamb....Scarlet one of our shearlings lambed late last month (she had unfortunately been covered by one of the rams on the farm by mistake!)  so now we have a lovely ewe lamb.

We had a really successful OPEN FARM SUNDAY last weekend - nearly 40 visitors and fantastic sunshine all morning.  We are planning two more Open Days next week for prospective commissioners and students.

Scarlet with her lamb!

We took two ewes (Alice and Mo) to Oxtalls Tennis Centre during half term for a BIG HEALTH CHECK DAY to raise the profile of the Care Farm - it was bitterly cold outside, but hopefully we will get some referrals!

Last night Gerry and i gave a talk to the senior British Legion group in Cirencester.....rather frustratingly we couldn't get the projector to 'focus'quite right so our lovely photographs of the Care Farm were slightly hazy - although no-one seemed to mind much and they all appeared to enjoy the evening!

Everything is growing like mad in the raised beds which is great, and we should have lots of veg
for our boxes before long

Getting ready for farrowing!

ewes and lambs scampering down the hill
for their feed!

Emma (the vet) and
Alan drenching the ewe

We have had a busy week ....we moved the 13 ewes and 18 lambs down to the bank field, as they didn't have enough grass up here.  It was a tricky manouvre; we put the lambs into the small open top trailer, and normally the ewes run along behind - but this time they were more interested in eating ....and some ran off down the road instead of across the field!  a few of the them even got into the cricket pitch...(not actually ON the pitch i hasten to add!) We eventually got them all down into the field, and then let out all the lambs...they were thrilled to get some decent grass.  The lambs look fantastic in the main - we are still feeding them once a day on hard feed to keep up the milk supply for a while longer.  We brought Alice and Annabel back to the farm, so that we can continue halter training them.  Sadly one of the last two ewes to lamb; has gone rapidly down hill.  She was due to have twins, and suddenly stopped eating on Thursday - we've had the vet out twice, and been drenching her with a glucose/mineral fluid, and serious antibiotics, but she is still not eating any hard food.  She is out in the Care Farm Garden today and at least eating a bit of grass, but i am not hopeful about her chances / or the lambs....we rather fear she could be carrying dead lambs, or has 'absorbed' them...the trials of sheep farming.

Sandy is looking 'imminent'....i reckon she will farrow within the next 48 hours - i'm really hoping she doesn't start till Monday, when Gerry is back!  We have her in the nursery all ready, and the heat lamp is rigged up just in case....

We have another bantam sitting on eggs in the poly tunnel - the other one is out with the hens in the main run - unfortunately 3 of her 5 chicks are cockerels...!

We have had 4 chicks hatch over the last 24 hours in the incubator - let's hope they aren't all cockerels!

We have loads of seeds coming up in the poly tunnel, and have been planting out broad beans, and onions and getting the pots ready for sweet peas.  We have planted carrot, beetroot, and pea seeds out, and sown more salads inside the poly tunnel.

we were really lucky to be given funding for two new pig arcs that arrived from Devon on Thursday....our others were inherited second hand, and very delapidated, and definitely wouldn't do another winter, so we are really thankful to The Cotswold Primrose Trust for their help, and to 'Traditional Pig Arks'.

preparing woodland for the new
pig arks

all the buckets cleaned out after lambing!

Nearly finished!

Lambing has nearly finished.... 13 of our ewes have lambed and we have 9 ram lambs and 9 ewe lambs!  They are a cracking bunch of lambs, and are all out in the field next to the Care Farm.  There is a real shortage of grass though, so we are going to move them back down to the bank field next week.  We still have two left to lamb so they will stay up here, and we will (if she will come to call) catch Alice up again, and bring her back, so we can continue to halter train her with the students.
The students all helped today to catch the lambs, and separate them so we could worm their mothers....it was a great team effort.

We brought Sandy down to the Nursery on Monday ....it's all ready for her to farrow at the end of this month.  She is certainly looking pregnant again - so fingers crossed they will arrive the last week of April (if not before)  Hazel is with Perry, and so she should be pregnant too....we will wait and see for a few more weeks, before moving him out.

We have two lots of eggs in incubators at the moment; one lot are due to hatch this weekend.  We are trying a new method as we had such bad luck with hatching them last year ....no water in the incubator until 4 days before hatching, when you take out the racks.  Who knows whether it will be a success...i will keep you posted on that!

All our seeds are coming along brilliantly in the poly tunnel, and we planted out beetroot and pea seeds today, in the raised beds.  Each week, the students have been turning over the beds, and adding compost where needed - it all looks very professional, and hopefully we will get a really good cropping of vegetables for our veg boxes.

This weather is a real pain....really warm one minute, then pouring down with rain the next - and then freezing at night - nothing is growing quick enough for us.  Apparently we may even get snow on Saturday!