Tag Archives: lambs

A few numbers

1 Reply

It’s been a packed month. I’ve been telling people I haven’t had a proper day off for two weeks but looking back at the diary I don’t seem to have stopped all month. That’s partly due to a lack of organisational skills rather than just workload.  I really ought to make time off for my family, but when I say that at home they always tell me it isn’t necessary…

In that time we’ve hosted five school visits, a guide pack (or whatever group they come in),  two nursery visits, two college days,  two lamb days, an evening meeting, four yoga classes, two baking days, our regular Quercus days, a party and  three other events. That’s around 275 individuals, plus the people who came to eat at the cafe.

Hopefully they enjoyed themselves and some of them learnt something. Even if they didn’t they did leave us some compost so no visit is wasted.

 

 

More statues

4 Replies

It’s been a good week for birds, though a poor week for photography means I don’t have much to show for it. I do, however, have a decent shot of the kestrel and two jackdaws on The Neighbours. We’re still waiting for the nest box so I fear we’re going to miss out if we don’t get a move on.

Fortunately I borrowed Julia’s camera so I did a bit better than usual.

IMG_5671IMG_5664

 

The smaller of The Sweepers appeared in the Nottingham Post today as a reader’s photograph, so it seems like the statues are taking on a life of their own.

We had another group out too, for more lamb fondling and such. Julia did a spinning and wool craft workshop to round off the day while I sat down to go through the list of allergens we use in the Saturday Cafe (open 9-1 on Saturday mornings if you are close enough. Don’t stay too long because I have a group of Guides coming down to make nettle soup and soda bread in the afternoon and I don’t want any hold ups. Yes, you’re right, I’m not a natural in the world of hospitality.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Quecus Community and the blustery day

Leave a Reply

It was raining at 5am, which wasn’t a good sign, and by the time I hauled myself out of bed and headed to the supermarket (sixish) we had a good sized selection of sleet.

With 32  ten-year-olds coming to the farm for a day of springtime activities this wasn’t a good omen.

That’s the penalty of double-booking yourself. With the geriatric yoga being in the centre every Thursday we try not to do much that day, but we’d accepted this one on the basis that it was spring and it was bound to be nice weather. We should have known better…

They don’t, incidentally, call it “geriatric yoga”, they call it “seated yoga”. However, it’s done by geriatrics, so I rest my case.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the kids planted flowers around the bases of the statues, the Newark Advertiser came to take pictures and we had a thoroughly good time,

IMG_5603IMG_5609IMG_5626IMG_5641

Two pupils decided to reveal they had food allergies five minutes before the start of the session, which was a bit of a downer but apart from that it all went quite well.

I’d bought eggs so we could be a bit adventurous and stick eggs on top of the pizzas but as one of the allergies was eggs I decided to give them a miss with the first group. When the second group was offered eggs only one accepted. I worry about modern children.

I know we talk of Nature Deficit Disorder but are we also breeding them to have no sense of adventure?

IMG_5655

 

The party day

1 Reply

The threatened children arrived, took the farm by storm, had nettle soup (in large quantity in one case), thoroughly enjoyed themselves and then left. The floors are actually looking cleaner than when I arrived to set up, thanks to parental input. Despite the noise and squeakiness and jollity I actually quite enjoyed it, though I am grateful to my kids for taking up martial arts and rugby rather than going to parties.

I was also able to take money off four passing ramblers and give out a number of leaflets for Julia’s Easter Event (biscuit making and Woodland Treasure Hunt).

If you’re about on Tuesday 7th April it’s 10.30 – 3.00, ages 5-11 and £7.50 per child including ingredients and chocolate. Bring wellies and a packed lunch.

Sadly many of my readers come from a long way away but if you don’t ask you don’t get.

We also had a visit from the Goat Lady, who was much cheerier and less bearded than the name suggests. She’s generally happy about the goats so we must be doing something right.

All in all, a happy end to the week.

 

Tree Day!

1 Reply

At last it’s arrived, the day we’ve been looking forward to for over a month. The Woodland Trust people arrived and it was down to work. We now know about crowns and stems, clinometers and ranging poles. We also have the equipment for the Javelin event in our next Improvised Olympics. (I know everyone else was thinking the same, but we all decided not to mention it until the Woodland Trust people left).

We’re now qualified to measure heights and girths and crowns (both north to south and east to west) and I have a pen mark on my shirt to tell me where the 1.3 metre mark is for measuring girths. As long as I don’t wash the shirt I’m pretty well set up for that.

I still think that it will be easier to measure small trees by making Tim climb them with a tape measure instead of using a clinometer and percentages. Despite this, it’s a lot easier doing it with a clinometer than the way I was taught at school. I can’t remember exactly how we did it but it involved sticks and plywood triangles and much more maths. It also involved a lot more answers because it’s a mathematical rule that the more steps you have in a process involving ten-year-olds the more answers you get. We were all pretty good, and the answers hardly varied at all, a triumph for the instructors considering the mixed abilities of the group. In fact the only person who got the girth wrong was me, but after standing straighter and trying again I got it right. It’s likely that drawing an ink mark on the front of my shirt isn’t the best way of finding the height for a girth measurement.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It hasn’t suited everyone as an activity, and the temperature hasn’t helped, particularly the icy north wind that’s been getting up since mid-morning, but several of the group have definitely enjoyed it and that’s what it’s about.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

You never know where these things will lead. For an example look no further than lambing. Three years ago most of the group didn’t care for farm animals and were only interested in things like rabbits and guineapigs. Now they are volunteering to come in at the weekend and help with lambing. It’s strange how one thing leads to another, and when you look back over the years it’s amazing how some people change.

Apart from me that is. In 1966 I seem to remember being in trouble for throwing the sticks and for getting some pretty outlandish answers. In 2015 I can only grin and point out that we all have to grow older, but we don’t have to grow up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sausages and speakers

Leave a Reply

We have a speaker tonight at the Ecocentre – Tamara Hall, who, after a start in engineering and tailoring, runs Molesfarm Community Projects from her family farm.

On a more mundane level (which is generally where you will find me) I was thinking I needed to sort out the sausages (we will be offering refereshments tonight, and trying to sell sausages) when a man arrived brandishing money and asking for two packs of Nottinghamshire Sausages – one of our best sellers. By the time I’d finished digging to the bottom of the reserve freezer it became clear that he was going to be disappointed. However, he took two packs of the Plain Pork so that was good, and by the time I’d rearranged everything so I wouldn’t have to shift 120 packs of pork and apple burgers to get to the reserve stock next time, I’d done all the sorting I needed to do.

We’ve filled the new notice board ready for the meeting, cut back in the gardens, potted up cuttings, planted seeds and had more lambs. I’ve partly re-written the blurb for our second annual Scarecrow competition, sent some invoices, answered emails and drunk tea. Then I drank more tea. It’s good for you.

I’ll leave you with a picture – cade lambs under a heat lamp. Probably the strangest looking photo I’ve ever taken…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

 

 

More lambs and visitors

3 Replies

It was a busy day today, with people coming to see the lambs. We had about 30 people through, which isn’t bad when you consider the lack of advertising and the fact that we aren’t really a tourist destination.

I was a bit disheartened, on counting my surviving cuttings, to find that I don’t have many survivors. In the case of the periwinkle and cape gooseberry none have made it through the winter. In the case of the curry plant I have 100% survival. I only took them to see what would happen because, apart from smelling like curry, they are pretty useless. Even the mallow and buddleia have done badly, and they grow like weeds if you leave them alone. I’m beginning to suspect that I have the opposite of green fingers. I couldn’t have done worse if I’d replaced the rooting hormone with Agent Orange.

Things looked up a bit as we visited my dad in Peterborough with the first butterfly sighting of the year – a Small Tortoiseshell.

In the evening we took the longer way home and spotted a kite in a tree on top of the hill just before Elton, with it’s forked tail prominently displayed. There were two more wheeling over the edge of the village, and just before Corby, two more. One of the second pair obliged by formating on the car for a few moments – about ten feet away and a couple of feet above.

However, good as it was, it’s now time to start planning the 2015 cuttings campaign. An idiot, a knife and a pot of rooting compound…

…what could possibly go wrong?

Lambing starts!

Leave a Reply

Finally! We had lambs today, and though we have had a couple die we have three survivors. It can be a bit like that at the start. They are a couple of weeks late according to the calculations but it’s been miserable weather and you can’t blame them if they’ve been slow to appear.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The goats are still hanging on, though you can see definite movement from the kids so things are moving along. Same goes for Farmer Rose’s new grandchild, who is being similarly reluctant to show.

Sometimes farming can be a bit like fishing – lots of waiting and not much to show for it apart from cold feet and a pessemistic view of life.

Meanwhile Tim reports seeing bonding behaviour from the buzzards, with an amount of close formation work and some upside down flying. He was on his bike at the time and they were flying at the same sped he was peddling so he got an excellent view. To be honest with you he’s not the biggest of people and if I’d have been his size I’d have worried they were sizing me up as prey. Fortunately I’m big enough to be beyond the capacity of our native birds. I’d have trouble if a roc ever flies over, as they can apparantly handle an elephant, but it’s unlikely to happen so I’m not going to worry about it. Tim’s also reported seeing what looks like a Merlin twice in the last week. He’s unsure about it because it’s not something you’d expect to see round here but there’s been one spotted in the north of the county today, according to the Nottinghamshire Birdwatchers’ website.

Planning is underway for the tree training next month, we’ve been drawing trees and discussing photosynthesis. People seem to have enjoyed the painting more than the photosynthesis. We’d probably have more luck in late summer when we had plums and walnuts to use as examples…

Meanwhile we’ve harvested a couple of the remaining leeks for tea and the last few will be going next week. It’s been a poor showing from the vegetable beds this year, mainly due to a poor showing from the gardeners, but we’ll be conducting composting trials on the raised kitchen beds this year so we should do better. We also have the bean trench and quite a lot of compost so our intentions are good.

To be fair, my intentions are probably the best thing about me. As Augusten Burroughs said: “I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.”