As Spring approaches we've been busy on the farm spring cleaning and making preparations.
The farm has been wet and muddy and it gets everywhere! Sometimes the mud is churned up by the children or can be due to the movement of livestock and farm machinery. We really aim to get the children attending to complete meaningful work on the farm as well as having fun so they've been cleaning out some of the mud. This has included the drains, the dairy, barn areas as well as preparing the ground and sowing areas. They've moved branches to build fences and mulched the fruit trees to help ensure a good crop.
Seedlings have been making a biodynamic preparation called CPP for the pig pens and visited all the pigs and sprinkled the CPP on the straw with brushes- great fun and very helpful for the farmers as it supports the health of the pigs and their enclosures. They've been having some lovely seasonal stories and, of course, made lots of mud pies!
Our Farm Kids have also keeping an eye on all the farms residents, including the bees by listening to the beehives with a stethoscope. They were able to hear the bees buzzing around inside. They've also taken a keen interest in the pigs, mucking out the farrowing house as well as visiting the piglets and feeding Anna and Jeff. The woodchip pile and in the field has become a favourite playground.
The Let's Grow! team has been helping out with fencing, cleaning and woodchipping, also getting stuck in with the preparation for the cafe garden to open in April. The team is working on a project to grow their own feast. They have designed a menu and are growing the ingredients themselves. They are also going to build the furniture and make the cutlery and crockery for the feast and are organising work experience to support this learning.
It's been great to have everyone back on on the farm and we've welcomed new friends as well as old. The team has had a couple of changes with Ross moving on to focus on other things - happily for us he'll be helping us from time to time. Boots (Karen's gorgeous dog) is becoming a permanent member of the team! The children love him and it's great for them to experience such a friendly dog