Tuesday, November 27, 2012

November Volunteer Weekend - last one of the year!


November has come and gone so quickly!  I can’t believe it has been a whole month since we held our Halloween event “Fun and Frights Night”.  Time sure flies when you’re having fun…

Last weekend, we held our final volunteer weekend of the year and a brilliant team of willing people turned up, ready to ‘Get Mucky’!  We had a very productive weekend and got a lot of jobs done.

With all the rain we’d had recently, we needed to do something about the gateways at the beginning of the Farm Trail, they were beginning to turn into a bit of a bog!  Some of volunteer team put in pathways using Roman road builders’ techniques. They began by digging out a deep hole, put in a layer of big rocks which were compacted down  and then covered those rocks with a deep layer of gravel. They finished up with a ‘plate basher’ (I’m sure that’s the technical term!) and made sure that the pathway was level. 

Once all this hard work was finished, we were so worried about the cows trampling all over it, that the team then put up a small post and rail fence, just big enough to stop the cows, but still allowing the sheep space to get underneath and continue to graze that area.  It looks fantastic!

Another team went down to the river banks and planted some Alder trees…unfortunately, with all the rain, the River Tern swelled so much on the Saturday night that the saplings were all but drowned!  We are keeping an eye on the little trees and hoping they will survive.

Meanwhile, the rest of the gang created some lovely wooden shapes depicting wildlife and plants that could be found around the farm. These will be put out around the Farm Trail in the new year.

These weekends are not only about strength and skills – they are about meeting new people, learning and sharing and above all, HAVING FUN!

The next chance to come and Get Mucky at Fordhall will be 16th – 17th February – give me a call for more information!
2 week old piglets!
 I couldn't help but take lots of photos of these gorgeous piglets who were out enjoying what little sun we had on Sunday!




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