Week Ending 29th September 2013

Our first full week of working at the farm is now done and dusted. Although our duties are still only few and far between by comparison it has been nice to start learning some of the ropes that we hadn’t covered in our first few days.

We’ve had our first experiences of assisting with some of the children’s groups that come to the farm and all in all things went pretty well. The first group we had were of play school age and had come to the farm for a bread making morning. To be honest the adults did most of the work, but the children looked like they were enjoying themselves anyway! The session finished with flour everywhere!

While we were waiting for the dough to rise we took the children out onto the farm to see some of the animals. The children all seemed to be captivated looking at the animals, but they weren’t really of an age where we could teach them anything other than the animal’s names.

"King Julian" the goat emerging from the bushes

Our second group of kids were slightly older (around 6 years old), and they came to the farm to do some pizza making. There was a little more focus on the farm and the ingredients that went into the food, and the children were all very well behaved (thank goodness!). This time while we were waiting for the dough to rise we took the children out into the garden and got them to help with some weeding around the bottom of the raised beds. The kids really enjoyed helping us out, and to top it all off they were able to feed all of their weeds to the pigs!

We’re now starting to get to know the personalities of the animals a little bit, as well as getting used to the daily routines that surround them all. I’m sure in the coming weeks it will become second nature to us.

The living area of the caravan. Pretty spacious and starting to feel like home

There are of course some perks to having all of these animals around, and one of those is a daily supply of fresh eggs for the team. We usually end up with around 20 fresh eggs a day and we are normally falling over ourselves to try and give them away!

Free range eggs galore!

We also had a chance this week to visit the Seashore Centre, which is also run by the Trust and is a few miles down the road on the coast. While we were there we learnt to clean out the tanks for the sea creatures inside including; anemones, starfish and crabs.

We finished the week with a couple of days off, although much of this time was spent studying for our diplomas. We also had time for a short trip into Paignton to find out what was there and for me to get my hair cut. I now look a little less like I still live on an island!

This week’s amusing news story comes from Switzerland. I’m sure we have all from time to time had our frustrations with foxes; maybe they have scattered the contents of your bin bags across your garden or attacked the chickens or ducks that you keep? Well here’s why you might not be a fan of foxes if you are both Swiss and a keen golfer...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24293390

See you next week!

Memories of Flat Holm

Hi guys,

Here is a little photo slideshow of some of our memories of the Island.

Love Vicky x

Create a free photo slideshow

Week Ending 22nd September 2013 - Catch Up Post!

As anticipated I’ve been a little slow in getting the last blog written up, with leaving Flat Holm, travelling back to Kent and then back to Torquay to start our new role all coming in a very short space of time. I have therefore combined the last 2 weeks into one post.

Leaving Flat Holm didn’t quite go the way we expected after the weather had it’s say on the boat schedule. Having been due to leave on the Sunday following a very busy weekend of visitors, we found that the boats for Saturday and Sunday were cancelled due to the bad weather that was forecast. That meant rather hastily packing our bags and getting on the only available boat on the Friday instead! Whether it made leaving any easier I’m not sure but there was less time for sentiment than originally planned.

Waiting for the final boat of our time on Flat Holm

It’s very strange to think that we are not going back to the island, but it will forever stay with us as a place that we once called home. I’m sure we will visit again in the future to see how things have changed.

At the same time as starting our new role down in Torquay, both Vicky and I have enrolled on a Level 2 Diploma in Countryside and the Environment. Most of the course is taught online, although there will be some practical work involved as well that we can complete during our time down south.

Our new role is based at Occombe Farm which is run by the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust, and we will be known as Trainee Farm Education Rangers. As the title suggests there is more environmental education involved with this role, although like previously we will have animals to look after and wildlife to observe.

Occombe farm. On the left is the play barn for the children, and on the right is the farm shop and cafe. All the food in both is organic.

Our accommodation on the farm is a static home (like an oversized caravan that doesn’t move) and we will be living here for the 5 months that it takes to complete our placements. We have quite a nice view from the van, and the only thing that lets it down a little is the traffic noise from a nearby road. I guess when you’ve lived on a little island 5 miles from civilisation for the past half a year we’re just not used to hearing it!

Our little "caravan" hidden away among the trees

The view from the window of the van aren't half bad though!

The farm has a number of animals for people to come and visit, as well as 2 nature trails for guests to follow. Our first few days working at the farm have mainly just been covering the basics of the day to day business, and we have started to help with some of the animal care and feeding. We have 2 pigs, 4 ducks (the same breed that we had on Flat Holm), 30 chickens, 2 alpacas, 3 goats and a cow with 2 calves.

A familiar sight from Flat Holm. A Khaki Campbell duck (male in this case)

On our first day off we spent some time exploring the local area to try and work out where all of our closest essentials are. We visited the nearby town of Totnes which is great for quirky little gifts and crafts, but a little too far to shop on a regular basis.

To finish the week we had a visit from our friend Janet who we travelled across the globe with last year. She stopped in on the way back from her holiday in Cornwall and very kindly bought us breakfast in the farm cafe. It was great to see her again and have a catch up on all the things that are new since we last saw each other nearly a year ago.

This weeks good news story comes from the US, where for this homeless man from Boston honesty certainly turned out to be the best policy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24170670

See you all next time!

Week Ending 8th September 2013

It has for once been a fairly quiet week out here on Flat Holm, with only one visitor trip making it's way to the island from Weston-Super-Mare on Saturday.

With our regular warden Matt being off the island for a short break, we have had former Trainee Warden Stewart returning to oversee the weeks work.

The project we started last week to clear the Victorian Water Catchment area was completed during the early part of this week, and the results are very pleasing. At least we still have plenty more weeds in other areas of the island that the insects that were living there can go on to inhabit.

Other work this week included the sanding and painting of the MET Office station fence, as the strong westerly winds that we frequently have on the island had started to take their toll on it. 

I've decided to create a new idiot of the week award which I have proudly presented to myself this week for leaving my mobile phone outside during a rain storm. After over 2 days of trying to dry it out in the sun I am finally going to try and restart it again later this evening, I can only hope that it hasn't reached the end of it's short life!

So we are down to our last week on Flat Holm, as by this time next week we will have left the island for the last time. We're still struggling to come to terms with the fact that we will be leaving the island, but we are finally starting to get all of our stuff organised and packed for next Sunday's departure. The schedule next week is looking very hectic, and with 3 separate groups all visiting on Sunday as well as us leaving I fully expect to be writing the blog a little late!

I will try to add photos to this weeks blog as soon as possible, but many of them are stored on my phone and may or may not be available after it's drying out process!

This week's amusing story is all about espionage, but maybe the spies in the world today aren't who we think they are!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-23962379

See you next week!

Week Ending 1st September 2013

Apologies to all of the blog fans that checked the site yesterday to find no entry, we were a little tied up with a boat of visitors and had to work on a Sunday for the first time in a while!

It's been a very windy week this week on Flat Holm, but that can't be considered too much of a bad thing considering that our wind turbine produces 80% of our electricity on the island. We haven't had much rain however, which is to the surprise of the visitors we have to the island who say they've had more than their fair share.

One of our most recent dramatic sunsets

The main news of the week is that both Vicky and I have found the next step on our journey after Flat Holm, as we have both been accepted to become Trainee Education Rangers working on a farm down in Torquay. Our official final day working on Flat Holm will be the 15th September. It's fair to say that we have very mixed emotions around moving on. We are very excited to be joining what looks like a great project down in Torquay, and also very happy to have some work lined up, but we are also very sad to be leaving Flat Holm. We've really fallen in love with the little island on which we've lived for the past 4 and a half months, and it does feel a little gut wrenching to be leaving it behind. Onwards and upwards though I guess...

While our new job will also be voluntary, it will continue to provide us with the experience and the knowledge we need to finally be able to gain paid employment in the conservation sector. You also never know where these things might lead in the future.

Back to Flat Holm though, and between visitor trips this week work has begun to rid the Victorian Water Catchment of the weeds that have covered it for the last couple of months. While we don't use the water catchment to collect water for ourselves anymore (all of our collection comes from roof top runoff), it is an important exhibit to conserve as it is one of only 2 remaining catchments of it's kind in The British Empire (the other being Gibraltar).

During the week it was also Vicky's Birthday and we celebrated the day with a few ciders while we watched a film in the evening. Unfortunately it was a little too windy to be able to have a bonfire as we would have liked to.

A small section of the Oyster Catchers on the West Beach that I mentioned in last weeks blog

The first member of our little island team moved on this week as Molly left the island in preparation for her new role with the RSPB. Hopefully she will have a great time and enjoy her work over the winter with them.

We also had a visit from a guy who provides helicopter training in the local area. He's now agreed to use the helipad to practice landing with some of his students every now and then.

The helicopter descending as the student and instructor stop off for a cup of tea

Another week has also brought another few new birds to the island. This weeks sightings include a pair of Kestrels hunting off the East coast of the island as well as a Ringed Plover who likes to visit the beach near the jetty around the time of high tide. Sightings of Blackcaps and Whitethroats have also been on the increase.

One of the Kestrels looking for something to eat

This Ringed Plover likes to stop off at the island every day

This weeks amusing story comes from our very own capital city of London. Knowing a few guys that have worked for insurance companies over the years I've heard my fair share of ridiculous stories that people report making a claim. "The tree just appeared out of nowhere" was one of my favourites. But if somebody rang a claims centre to report this incident I'm not even sure I could believe them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23930675 

Have a good week and see you next time!