Two months at the farm!

Wow! Two months has flown by but yet I feel like I have been here so much longer! April has been a busy month:

• all of the ewes have lambed!

• we have been harvesting the last of the winter vegetables such as cabbage and leeks.

• we have been sowing seeds for all the spring and summer veg such as broad beans, mangetout, peas, tomatoes and cucumber’s!

• rhubarb is in season at the moment and we have plenty of it – it gets sold in the shop and is included in the weekly fruit boxes.

• we had a very busy open day on the 14th – this entitled free entry to the farm and we had 3,500 people attend!

• on the 19th, the cows got let out of the wintering pens (which they’ve been in since October) onto the lush fields. This is the first time that the new calves have experienced grass under their hooves so it was very exciting!

• we’ve just completed the planting of 500 new raspberry plants, which means we will have an increased yield in years to come.

• we have 75 new layer hens! They’re Plymouth Rock and White Sussex.

• we’ve had some great weather lately meaning more visitors to the farm! All of our lamb feeding, egg collecting and trailer rides have been fully booked!

• I’ve been making use of the dry weather by strimming around the gooseberry bushes so we can put netting over them! (To stop birds helping themselves to the fruits).

• most of the orphan lambs have been let into the field to be creep fed, but we still have a few young ones we’re bottle feeding during the day and night.

• I have some new housemates! When I arrived there was an empty nest outside my caravan and out of curiosity I checked it a few weeks ago to find three blackbird eggs in it! Three days ago the first two chicks hatched with the third following a day later! Mother blackbird has been busy feeding them and I will get more photos as they grow!

• On Saturdays and Sundays I now work in maintenance with Andy and I really enjoy it! I’ve always loved fixing things and with my father being a tradesmen I’ve had a good teacher! Andy and I are involved in all sorts of things including setting up the campers showers for the summer; delivering camp beds/firewood to people who book the cabins; cleaning cabins; fixing doors, locks, hinges etc on compost toilets, and many other things!

One month at the farm!

Tomorrow marks a month since I arrived! It’s been a busy month with spring approaching and lots of jobs to do around the farm.

This past week has been quite stressful with water problems, pig’s escaping and most unfortunately the spread of Orf Disease amongst some of our new lambs.

Orf Disease is viral and highly contagious; causing lesions, blisters and scabby mouth. It’s a zoonotic disease meaning it can transfer from sheep (and goats) to humans and vice versa. We’ve had to separate any new lambs from the older lambs and bottle feed the infected ones separately to try and prevent further spread of the disease. The lambs should be able to recover from the disease within about 6 weeks, but it can cause complications for already weak lambs as scabby mouth prevents them from feeding. We are trying to limit the amount of people feeding the lambs, as well as taking extra care in wearing gloves and scrubbing hands.

On the upside, signs of spring are appearing and we’ve been:

• Harvesting the last of the winter crops
• Sowing seeds for plants such as leeks and mangetout
•Harvesting daffodils to sell at the shop and to decorate the pub/cafe
• Having warmer days with extended periods of sun!

Lambs!

This week has been an exciting week at the farm, with our first lambs being born on Monday! These lambs are ‘earlies’ but hopefully this coming week we shall have plenty more being born.

We have about 120 lambs due and we’ve already got two orphans called Swede and Sprout! As I stay on site at night I get to do the 9pm bottle feeds. Any orphans we have will be bottle fed milk throughout the day until they are old enough to “bucket feed” from a bucket with teats.

We’ve also got 40 calves due over the next month or so, with a couple being born already but I haven’t managed to snap any photos of them yet. Will keep you updated!

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I’ve been busy!

I’ve been a bit quiet on here this week – rather busy!

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I was:
• Cleaning out the chickens (layers and growers)
• Feeding/watering chickens, ducks and geese
• Collecting eggs from layers
• Bedding some of the pigs
• Packing logs for the farm to sell
• Walking around the farm checking for burst pipes and leaks as we had no water in many areas for a few days. This meant some of the water troughs were not refilling so we had to hand fill them. The leak was found in a broken tap in the orchard and has since been fixed!

Tuesday was my day off and due to water issues on site the washing machines weren’t working so a trip to the launderette took place.

Yesterday I was:
• Harvesting savoy cabbages
• Harvesting salad
• Sorting potatoes and onions for the farm store and veg boxes

Today was box packing day so we spent the whole day doing this as we had 70 or so orders to pack.

The weather has cheered up a lot in the past few days, with the sun coming out and warming us up!

More photos will be added soon – just having a few problems uploading them from my camera.

Storm Emma

The temperature has stayed an average of -3 degrees here at the farm, so most of the animals were wise enough to stay inside but I caught a few critters out & about!

The Box Team

Thursdays are box days at the farm which means we (the box team) sort orders and pack veg, fruit, meat, and produce. These boxes are then delivered on Fridays to customers both locally and further afield.

Snow has arrived!

This morning we checked the trees in the orchard for any signs of damage and fixed broken tree guards.

New job & new piglets

Monday was my first day of work at Church Farm and it consisted of:
– A 7:30 start
– Feeding all the chickens, ducks and geese
– Coffee
– Towing a car out of the frozen mud
– An unexpected DEFRA visit
– Bacon sarnie’s
– Chicken coop and nest box cleaning
– Egg collecting
– Custard creams
– Moving two of the rams (called Andy and Randy) to a bigger field
– Catching 25 chickens for plucking
– Checking pregnant ewes for injuries (and moving injured ones closer to the farm)
– Checking on newborn piglets
– Stacking log bags

My first day was busy but in the nicest possible way! Today was my day off so I spent my time relaxing, keeping warm, and walking around the farm when the sun came out.

In the photos you can see Large White piglets experiencing their first day outside! The last photo is of the newborns.

Charlie 🐖

I’ve moo-ved!

I’ve moved! I’m now all settled in my cosy caravan, and can’t wait for work at the farm to begin tomorrow.