What a tremendous work day we had, weather was much better than expected, we got loads done, lots of people made it to the day. More children on the farm than adults which is great (as long as there are enough adults!) it’s nice to see them playing outdoors, learning where their food comes from and having fun at the same time.
Digging a water main
Rich K worked tirelessly throughout the day on the trench for the water pipe to the new toilet area. He had help throughout the day from Rich A, Ben and a few others.
Tiding up for winter
Lots of work was done by many to harvest and then remove the spent veg and tidy the areas left behind.
View up the farm
David has made a very valid point that no-one can really see how great the farm is from the entrance, we should really make more of the potential views of the hub of activity from the less impressive entrance.
Shelter the feed
With so much rain recently it’s highlighted a problem with our feed storage. We’ve been keeping our turkey and chicken feed in bins near the gates to the respective enclosures, but rats/mice/squirrels keep trying to chew their way through the bin lids. When there is so much rain even a small hole in the lids lets water in and turns the dry feed bad (I’m sure Asha can supply scientific names for the nastiness that develops in the wet food). So a shelter was proposed to provide a roof over the feed store, the logical location appeared to be between two existing sheds: the egg shed and the bee shed.
In typical farm fashion practicality and expediency won out over beauty and craftsmanship.
Upon completion we discovered we’d distorted the egg shed slightly and so some corner bracing was called for and a slight adjustment to the egg shed door was needed (ripped a bit off).
Very large signage was hastily painted on to ensure no confusion as to what was turkey feed and what was for chickens.
A harvest to be proud of
Squashes, marrows, cucumbers, beans, eating apples, cooking apples, tomatoes, celery, leeks, sweetcorn even grapes!
Mini shelter for turkey feed
The turkeys are messy animals, and despite their feed dispenser having a build in rain hood, they nonetheless manage to spread it all over the place resulting in a disgusting much of wet food. Tracey not to be outdone the the big shelter that had just been constructed decided that a simple solution could be applied here using just a plastic table.
There is a small hole in the table for a parasol which was blocked by a plastic bag – but the turkeys showed unusual interest in the bag!
Caring for and learning about our animals
Amelia cuddled a turkey and some of the younger ones very gently stroked it, I have to say the turkey showed no signs at all of being stressed by this extra attention, indeed the turkeys are always extremely friendly and always come rushing towards you when you approach. It’s great that these kids have the opportunity that many don’t in our modern packaged lives to get out on the farm and learn about the animals we have and food we grow.
Hopefully there won’t be much grass cutting left this year
It does look nice though when the grass is cut, next year we’ll aim to keep the top part of the farm as a wild flower meadow so need to research when to stop cutting up there.
Old friends and new friends
Especially nice was seeing some old friends (they’re not actually that old) Rich, Steph with Lucas and baby Zoe, it was lovely to see them and welcome them back onto the farm. Also great to see Ben and his children James, David and Cara again, hopefully we’ll see more of them as they all seemed to enjoy getting stuck in.