Week Ending 8th December 2013

As per usual it’s been a busy couple of weeks here at the farm. Our Christmas elf trail is now fully up and running, and we have already had nearly 400 children through the door in the opening week!

Last weekend brought a visit from our friend Beth and her little boy Jack. We had a great time taking Jack around the farm and to the seaside, and spent endless hours playing with his toys. Once he was tired in the evenings we actually got to spend some time talking to Beth!

Beth kindly bought down some DIY Christmas decorations, and we sat on one afternoon making paper chains and designing cut out snowflakes. It was great fun and felt like we were back at school again.

DIY Christmas Tree!

This week saw a couple of school visits, and I finally got the chance to lead a school group for a full day’s activities. We spent the morning meeting the animals and doing activities along the nature trail, and the afternoon session was spent in the kitchen learning how to make pizzas! Thankfully the children seemed to be well behaved and interested in what was going on, so I think I will chalk that up as a success!

As part of our diploma we have this week been designing and conducting ecological surveys. Thanks to the summer on Flat Holm we have some excellent experience of conducting surveys, and the planning phase went quite smoothly. During the course of the week we have surveyed the hedgerows in the orchard and the rocky shoreline down at Goodrington Sands, and although neither survey turned up anything too exciting hopefully we recorded all the data we will need. Let’s hope the results and analysis sections go just as well!

Checking out the upper shore at Goodrington

With Christmas creeping closer and closer, the Trust organised a volunteer party with mince pies and mulled wine for all of the unpaid members of staff as well as casual volunteers. It was a very kind gesture by the trust and a good way for us all to meet some similar minded people who work at some of our other sites. It’s amazing how many volunteers we have in one capacity or another, and it’s fair to say that the amount of work that gets done wouldn’t be nearly possible without them.

This weeks amusing news story comes from right here in Devon. Is it just me or could this be the coolest bathroom door ever?!...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25283872

Week ending 24th November 2013

It's been a quiet couple of weeks down here on the farm in Devon, with far more going on off of the farm than on it.

Plenty of time has gone into studying in the evenings and on days off (which have actually been quite plentiful lately!). Some of what we are learning even seems to be sinking in which is good, and the general feedback from the work that we have submitted so far has been very positive.

On the farm most of the time has been spent in meetings or preparing for the onslaught of visitors that our children's Christmas Trail will bring, which scarily is due to start at the end of this coming week!

The weekend just gone was a very enjoyable one as Mum and Dad were able to come down for a long weekend and have a good look at where we are working and what we are up to. 

It's fair to say that we were right royally spoiled for the 4 days that they were here, eating out every day which is something we are definitely not used to. Makes a change from beans on toast with Asda value bread and value beans!

We had a great few days exploring some of the local areas including Totnes, Cockington and Plymouth, and remarkably we had the best four days of weather that we have sampled since arriving in Devon so far!

The highlight of the 5 days since our guests returned to Kent has been the cider tasting day that work took us to on Friday. Heading just a few miles away to the Hunt's cider workshop, we were able to try a number of different ciders as well as getting the full behind the scenes tour of how it's all made. 

The cider press

The pulping machine and press were quite incredible, and at 200 years old they were installed by the current owner's Grandfather. It's a real family business that has been passed through the generations, and although in the near future they are having to move operations to a new factory hopefully that family and community spirit will be maintained.

Now that's what I call a bottle of cider!

This entry's amusing news story comes from France, and goes to show why making "bets" over an unlikely event could just come back to haunt you.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-25038456

See you next time :)

Week Ending 10th November 2013

This edition of the blog is dedicated to the memory of our friend Dub Shaba, who sadly passed away early this week. He will be dearly missed by many of us.

Dub at Vicky and myself's wedding (second from right)

I will never forget the first day that I met Dub. He was a colleague of Vicky's, and had offered to give us a lift up to London (where he went home at the weekends) to save us the cost of a bus ticket each. 

In typical fashion Vicky fell asleep in the back of the car within 15 minutes of us leaving Dover, leaving me the whole 2 hour journey to talk to a person I had never met before! Fortunately one of Dub's biggest passions was football, and was a season ticket holder at his beloved Arsenal (even the best people have their flaws!). Needless to say there wasn't a single quiet or awkward moment during the course of that journey, and by the time we got out of the car at the other end it felt like we were with somebody that I had known for years. Not because he had told me his life story several times over, but simply because he was one of the most open and friendly people I had ever met. To this day I don't think I have met another person who is able to smile so much, seemingly regardless of what kind of a day he was having. 

So now I've got the sentimental start out of the way, it's once again been a busy couple of weeks since I was able to blog last.

During the half term week the farm hosted it's 3 day Halloween trail, and provided all of us staff with an excuse to dress up and scare small children! A series of challenges were set out around the nature trail, and once those challenges were completed the children could come back to the farmyard to claim a packet of sweets and do some free craft activities.

Dressed as a wizard (I think!) helping children to make spooky masks

During the course of the 3 days we had over 1100 children (and all of their families) come and complete the trail, plus quite a few more that had just come to soak up the atmosphere. Considering we were only expecting 600-800 children it's fair to say that we were pretty tired come the end of each day!

The majority of this week just passed was taken up by hosting over 200 children from a local school over 4 days. Most of the time was spent working in the woods down the road, and the activities were focused on team building and fire-craft.

The children seemed to have a great time, with the competitive edge between groups only spilling over on a few occasions! For the best part their excitement was channeled into trying to complete the challenges that we had set them. These included "Cross the Bog" (using milk crates and planks of wood), "Rope Bridges" (build between trees), "Blindfold Trail" (following a rope through the woods blindfolded with a team mate offering advice) and "Marshmallow Fires" (building and sustaining a fire long enough to toast a marshmallow on).

I finished the week by working on a "Migratory Bird Watch" at Berry Head, one of the Trust's other local sites.

While there were not a huge number of species on the move (in comparison to last years event which saw far greater numbers) there were still quite a lot of birds for us to enjoy.

A break in the recent rain made for a great day of bird watching

15-20 Harbour Porpoises had congregated just off of the headland, and flying above hoards of Gannets, Kittiwakes and Gulls were doing their level best to pick up any fish that the porpoises were directing toward the surface.

There were around 150 Guillemots all stationed along the edge of one of the cliffs, and it was quite a sight when suddenly all of them headed out to sea to go in search of food.

Not my best picture by a long way, even with the zoom lens maxed out you can only just make out the Guillemots on the cliff ledges. Locally they are known as "Brixham Penguins"

Cormorants and Shags were frequently spotted as well, while some of the smaller birds including Stonechats, Yellowhammers, Meadow Pipits, Linnets and Robins were all in the spotlight at one time or another.

A Kestrel and a Sparrowhawk added a bird of prey element, while Crows, Jackdaws and Ravens also made an appearance. 

Now in that last sentence I noticed "Jack" and "Sparrow" both feature, and that leads me on to this weeks news stories. I bet there have been a few Birthday cakes over the years to feature the lovable Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, but I bet that none of them have been quite like this one...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-24852681

Finally this week I have a second story that highlights a breakthrough for women in football, and it comes courtesy of my beloved Dover Athletic's FA Cup match that took place yesterday...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24885560

See you all next time :)

Week Ending 27th October 2013 - Catch up!

Hi Everybody,

Apologies again for the lack of a blog last week. As per usual things have been pretty busy and I just didn't get round to writing anything!

The one word I would use to describe the last 2 weeks is... wet! I can't think of a day that it hasn't rained hard at one point or another. 

Contributing to the lack of blogging last week was the fact that both Vicky and I had come down with very bad colds, and most nights after work we were fit for little else than watching wildlife documentaries under a rug with a mug of hot chocolate. No real time for studying or writing blogs.

On the days that we were feeling well enough to work a combination of large school groups and preparing for our "Spooktacular Halloween Trail" left us feeling more that a little jaded come clocking off time! 

Before we succumbed to our illnesses however, we did get the opportunity to have an afternoon out "on the moors" as we went up to Hey Tor in the Dartmoor National Park. In a slight gap between the rain we managed to scale our way to the top and look out all the way across the countryside to the coast.

Feeding some of the famous Dartmoor ponies

Feeling a little better this week we've been trying to play catch up with all the things that didn't get done last week. Extra studying has been on the menu in the evenings to make sure that we continue our progress in that regard!

The largest group of the week came in the form of 90 reception class children who came to do a range of activities over the course of the day. We did bread making (or in this case it was more like bread shaping), gardening (including planting and weeding) as well as fun tasks on the woodland nature trail that taught the children about trees, birds and insects.

We're now nearly ready for our Halloween trail to start, and I'm looking forward to having 3 days dressed as a skeleton trying to scare all of the kids. 

Friday brought a hastily arranged visit to London with the sad news that a good friend of ours is very seriously ill. It was also one of those days where if something could go wrong it would go wrong! We set off very early from home as our bus would be leaving Exeter at 6.15am. In the rainy darkness of the early hours we ended up taking a wrong turn. Normally this would be no big deal, but it becomes one when the road you have taken is a dual carriageway with no places to turn back in the other direction for nearly 20 minutes! 

We got to Exeter and found ourselves with only 20 minutes to complete the 30 minute walk from where we had parked to where the bus was leaving from. Expecting it to be a cold day we had a number of layers on, as well as backpacks carrying our supplies for the day. This made the run across the city even less pleasurable than it would have been anyway. The bus was just pulling away as we came around the final corner. One last all out sprint and some frantic arm waving caught the driver's attention, and he stopped to let us on (it must have been through pity as by this stage I probably looked like a sleep deprived homeless man drenched in his own sweat). I felt even sorrier for the lady who I sat next to for most of the 4 hour journey, as the sweat ran down my forehead, off my nose and tapped repeatedly against the material of my waterproof jacket! 

Slightly more relaxed we arrived in London, and promptly caught the underground in the wrong direction in regard to our destination! We decided to take a break, and enjoyed a couple of incident free hours as we sat in St James' Park trying to identify all of the birds that we could see while we ate some lunch. We were even in prime position to see the changing of the guard which was an extra bonus!

Changing of the guard

The day's normal service was then resumed however, as upon exiting the tube station near the hospice we turned left instead of right, and needed the google maps app on my phone to get us back on track.

That evening we were able to arrange a last minute dinner with Danii, another of our friends who lives in London, and it was great to have a good catch up and a chat.

The long bus journey back saw us arrive at the car just before midnight, or when it comes to bad luck I should say just in time for one last kick in the teeth. For while it was dark, it was not too dark to notice the little yellow ticket sitting on my windscreen courtesy of the local traffic warden. In our haste and the darkness of the morning we had obviously not read the road signs close enough, and parked in the wrong place. It is between us the first parking ticket we have had in our collective 18 years of driving! I was so tired I don't think I even swore. All I remember is giving a wry smile and just reminding myself that tomorrow would be another day!

As I'm "working" in the visitor centre while I write this, the week effectively finished for us yesterday. We had agreed to volunteer for an "extreme beach clean" with the Trust, which involved kayaking and coasteering to collect litter from areas of the shoreline that are inaccessible by foot. Considering the time of year and the temperature I made the brave decision to stay on dry land and classify all of the rubbish that was brought back, while I let Vicky do what she does best and jump in the sea! 

Extreme Beach Clean at Anstey's Cove

This weeks news story comes from Orkney, and as a wildilfe cameraman you wouldn't expect what you were trying to film quite this close....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-24637627

See you next time!

Week Ending 13th October 2013

By comparison it’s been a reasonably quiet week down here on the farm. With no children’s groups booked in all week it was a chance to catch up on all of the little jobs that need doing around the farm.

Probably the most difficult job of the week was vaccinating the alpacas and trimming their hoofs. We worked with one of the full time farmers (as she knew what she was doing!) to get them into the shelter where it is a little to work with them, and she was able to give them their jabs while we restrained them.

"Captain Kid"

"Chieftain"

After a number of monotonous hours following some online 

training, I finally passed my food hygiene certificate meaning that in theory I can work in a kitchen without harming people....in theory!

Before the cold weather set in later in the week, we were able to get out and enjoy a few sunny days before they disappear altogether. One afternoon we even went down to the beach and enjoyed walking along the sands and clambering over the rockpools.

Making the most of the warm weather

The rest of the week has mainly been spent planning and preparing for the “Spooktacular Halloween Trail” that we will be hosting at the farm for a few days at the end of October. It basically involves taking our nature trail at the farm and converting it to host a series of spooky challenges for children to complete, and once they are finished they get to claim a prize of a bag of sweets. Hopefully while they are here they might even learn a bit about nature, but then again I might be expecting a little too much!

This weeks amusing story comes from the Vatican, and goes to prove that old school days saying: "Always double check your work before you hand it in"....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24489512

See you next time!

Week Ending 6th October 2013

It’s the end of another week here at Occombe, and a busy one it’s been!

The week has brought several more children’s groups our way, with activities ranging from rock pooling to pizza parties and starting fires in the woods. On top of all of that there was our wedding anniversary too!

The first school group of the week came down for a full day of activities in the forest just down the road from the farm. We had 2 main activities organised; Den Building and Fire Craft. The weather didn’t play ball either, and while the children were repeatedly able to get their fires started (all in a responsible manner I hasten to add) the torrential rain soon put pay to them! In reality the den building groups had things a little easier as they were building shelters to get out of the rain!

For obvious reasons I am not allowed to put pictures of the children online without consent. So here's a cow instead.

The next day brought us 12 children for a rock pooling group over near Berry Head, another of the trust’s sites. The children were all very enthusiastic about looking through the pools to find some wildlife, but were a little less keen to use the identification charts that we had given them, instead coming up with their own names such as “The Werewolf Crab”. I get the feeling many of the subtle species got overlooked in favour of anything that had pincers.

We also this week hosted a Birthday party for a group of children. Pizza making was on the agenda, but this time with far less of an educational theme compared to when we do it with schools. The children had a great time, and while we were waiting for their dough to rise we got them to make some animals out of biodegradable clay and hide them around the farm’s garden.

This time I'll show you a Great Tit

As well as all of our work at the farm, we are both still very busy studying for our diploma (mainly the reason why the blog is late again this week!) and on some days have been burning the candle at both ends so to speak.

Finally among all of that it was our second wedding anniversary on Thursday. I can’t quite believe 2 years has flown by since we got married, but we have certainly achieved a lot during that time. We spent the day by going to a local hotel to use their swimming and steam room facilities before going for a walk (during the only dry spell of the day) across the cliffs at Berry Head. We finished the night by going to one of the local pubs for a spot of food and drink, which went down very nicely indeed!

At last a picture that relates to the text! Out for an afternoon stroll along the coast at Berry Head.

For this weeks news story we head down to London to check out the latest addition to the many football stadiums already sited there...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24423342

See you all next week!

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!