Week Ending 23rd February 2014

The couple of weeks since I last blogged have been certainly some of the busiest, but equally possibly the least exciting in recent history.

The good news that comes out of all of it is that Vicky and I have both been accepted to stay and complete a full 9 month training post with at Occombe Farm, which puts to bed weeks of speculation over what was going to happen next. We didn't find out until our very last day of work, which meant that had we not been selected to stay we would have had to pack our caravan and move out in the space of one evening! Fortunately though we needn't pack anything just yet, and although we will be moving to new accommodation (this time actually made of bricks and mortar, and with a sea view!) that will be a gradual process over the coming weeks.

Most of our recent days have been pretty boring to the outsider as we have sat in our office studying, writing essays and presentations to try and finish our diploma. Indeed some nights, having arrived in the office at 8.30am, we haven't left until 1.30am the following morning (with suitable breaks to check on the score of the curling though!).

The half term week saw us help out with the children's trail that the farm was hosting. While it was still very busy, with around 470 children taking part, it wasn't half as bad as the 1100 children that attended the Halloween trail in the October half term. The recent weather I don't doubt will have played some part in that, with some parts of the trail now looking more like a pig wallow than a woodland!

As per normal dressing up for the kid's trail was compulsory!

We did manage a short trip home (only back for a day and a half) to celebrate Vicky's Dad's 65th birthday, and 14 other family members also battled their way through the horrid driving conditions to be there on the day as well. The food at the restaurant we chose was great though and a great time was had by all. 

The last 2 days have been a revelation as we have finally achieved 24 hours without rain! We took a break yesterday from the relentless studying to go for a walk down to Cockington Country Park. While snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils have been evident for a few weeks now (such has been the mildness of the winter), we were still not expecting to be seeing bees and butterflies yet which are now already starting to make an appearance! Let's hope we don't get a bad cold spell come along and kill them all off.

The rangers have been busy clearing the paths between Occombe and Cockington

This weeks news story comes from the USA. This has got to be the most over the top way to deal with a vending machine that didn't quite work properly. Enjoy....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-26282532

See you next time :)

Week Ending 9th February 2014

So here we are, into our final week at Occombe Farm! 

The last week has once again brought more than it's fair share of rain, and if it carries on at this rate I could be asking for snorkeling equipment for my birthday this year!

Although it has been wet it has in truth been an incredibly busy week, and all said and done I only worked one day actually at the farm.

This little Great Tit made the most of a break in the rain!

Throughout the week Vic and I have been helping to run a teacher training course down at Warren Barn, our local bunkhouse residential site. People have come from across the area to stay for the week and learn all of the information and skills that they will need to teach children about the marine environment, and over the next number of months they will put what they have learnt into a diploma style scheme in order to achieve a qualification.

We've looked at recreational uses for the marine world, looked into the processes and feasability of sustainable fishing, covered rock pooling techniques and identification skills and most importantly how to keep everybody safe while they are by the sea.

On Wednesday Vic and I went to Honiton where we spent the day taking a course in riding All Terrain Vehicles, quad bikes in this case. It's surprising how many jobs require you to be able to use one of these, especially if they cover a large area or have awkward terrain.

In keeping with the rest of the week the weather was terrible on the day, and a 40 minute journey ended up taking us over 2 hours with the number of roads blocked by trees, floods and power cables. Driving slightly further afield from the farm really highlighted how luckily we've got away with the recent bad weather, as we have no rivers to burst their banks and we are a couple of miles from the sea. Some of the fields we were passing were under 4 or 5 feet of water, and in most cases the very tops of fence posts sticking out of the water were the only indication that the water was not supposed to be there.

Despite spending all day riding the bikes around in the rain and hail, we did enjoy ourselves and our waterproofs actually kept us bone dry! Both of us passing the course was obviously the main priority, and our aching bodies were very relieved when he handed us the forms to say that we had passed!

Through the rain spotted lens 2 very wet riders heading back to the dry and warm office

So this week the Winter Olympics in Sochi got under way, and congratulations must go to Jenny Jones who has won Britain's first ever medal in an event held on snow. Well done Jenny! 
Some of the athletes haven't been impressed with their accommodation in the Olympic village though, and among them is Johnny Quinn whose bobsleigh training earns him the honour of making it into my amusing story of the week.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-olympics/26096612 

See you all next time!

Week Ending 2nd February 2014

It's February already, and I've spent most of the week wondering where the last 5 months have gone since we arrived here at Occombe! We have only 2 weeks remaining on our contracts here and the future is still not really any clearer.

The rain has continued to fall most days, washing away the paths around the farm yet again. At least the ducks seem to be enjoying themselves! Needless to say that the drainage ditch project from the Anderson shelter is still not finished, and with preparations for the farm's next children's event in full swing it seems to  be sliding even further down the priority list!

Vicky and I went to Berry Head (a local nature reserve run by the Trust) for our biggest project of the week. Our diploma requires us to complete a practical habitat improvement task which we then have to report on, and so we chose to go and lend the Berry Head team a hand in clearing some of their heathland which has become overgrown.

Before: Very overgrown and inaccessible

Lowland heathland of this nature is now a scarce habitat in the UK, although what we do have makes up 20% of the entire world's lowland heathland area. By using brushcutters and a variety of other tools, we systematically removed all of the scrub that had grown across the area to allow the heather (which is currently lying dormant under the soil) the light and space that it will require to regrow. 

After: Back to bare earth so that the heather can regrow

All of the removed scrub was burnt in a controlled fire, to avoid it rotting down and adding unwanted nutrients to the area. 

This morning saw the first real patch of sun that we had seen all week, and being our day off we decided to take a slow walk through the meadows and the forest around the farm to see what bird life we could find. 

This Pheasant was trying his luck for any food dropping from the feeders above

At the bottom of the orchard we were privileged to see a male Cirl Bunting (a very rare bird in the UK whose distribution is limited to the south coastal region of Devon). 2 Goldcrests (the UK's smallest bird), a Heron, a Green Woodpecker and a male Pheasant were all on the mornings sightings list along with many of the common birds that are seen in their hundreds around here.

This Green Woodpecker's loud call gave his hiding place away!

This weeks amusing news story comes from America, and goes to show how far a man's love for his motorcycle can take him...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25987743

See you all next time :)