Sunday 22 November 2009

Dusty build up to Christmas on the farm!

We have had a busy couple of weeks! We have our first event on the farm on the 5th and 6th December – ‘Christmas on the farm’ and we would love you to come and join us – more about that below.

It is Camilla writing this blog entry – I came home one evening last week from LEAF and Roly said, ‘we’ve had an incident with a dog loose in the sheep’. It was the flock of sheep who are due to lamb in January. It was hard to take in, it is the one thing every farmer dreads as it stresses the sheep so much and there is a high risk of lambs aborting. We hope this hasn’t happened and will know for sure when we have them scanned in a couple of weeks. We will keep you posted. The phone then rang and it was a lady in Long Wittenham telling us she had a sheep in her drive! We jumped in the truck and headed off in the dark and came across this sheep nibbling this kind lady’s lavender! We managed to get her into the back of the truck, with Meg in the crate, they didn’t know what to do. The sheep was stamping her foot and Meg was growling, they were in such close proximity, it was such an unusual sight! We stupidly forgot to take a photograph so we will have to ask you to use your imaginations!

We had some feed mixed for our sheep to help them get through the winter months. Our kind farming neighbours Bill and Hannah Woollen helped us arrange it, we had some of their peas and barley which arrived on trailers at the farm. We had booked a mixing lorry which then mixed and ground them altogether and helped transferred them into our feed bins, called hoppers. Roly got absolutely filthy! It was so dusty! Great job done and now our girls have got lots of yummy food for the winter.

Now then more about our event, please come and join us!

"Christmas on the farm" and "Christmas craft fayre" - 5th & 6th December
Come and visit us for our special "Christmas on the farm" event - Sheep, cows and piglets in their winter bedrooms; Sheep Dog demonstration by Meg (aged 10!); Sheep shearing (Sunday only) and spinning; Christmas farm trail; Tractor and trailer ride; . . . and lots of fun activities for children. As well as Christmas on the farm, there will be a Christmas Craft Fayre organised by the Northmoor Trust, including - Father Christmas, local Christmas crafts and gifts, locally produced Christmas food, donkeys, storytelling and music. DON’T FORGET TO WRAP UP WARM!

There will be a small entry charge of £1.50.
Timing – 11am until 4pm

We look forward to seeing you.

Roly, Camilla, Boris and Meg

Sunday 1 November 2009

Blooming marvellous!

Our landlord, The Northmoor Trust have been really busy over the last few days restoring lots of the meadows our sheep graze with wild flowers! The aim is to increase the diversity of the wildflowers in the meadows that are currently dominated by a few species of common grasses, and with them increase other biodiversity such as butterflies and bees. This is a really exciting project.

If you visit the farm and are out on the Clumps you will notice a significant part of Round Hill, and also areas of Church Meadow and the top of Castle Hill have been disc-harrowed. This is an essential part of the process - to give the wildflower seed a chance of germinating the ground needs to be broken up and stop the dominance of the grasses.

More to follow soon

Camilla and Roly . . . and Boris and Meg!