Category Archives: Volunteers

Volunteer Stories

Paul has been volunteering with us for 5 months. He helps with farm maintenance such as fencing, cutting the grass, cutting weeds back and painting. He’s recently done a great job painting our vegetable stall, guinea pig run and the front gate.

Paul says volunteering on the farm has really helped his peace of mind. He much prefers to be out in the fresh air and he likes to have a job that he can see makes a difference. For example he loves it when he can see people enjoying Community Orchard after he’s cut the grass. It’s important to him to be able to a job that he can work of from start to finish.

Paul loves volunteering at the farm as it’s a nice place to come and visit and he can see life carryng on all around him.

Volunteer Stories

Andrew has been volunteering on the farm twice a week for 8 years! He loves coming, and turns up whatever the weather, rain or shine.

His favourite jobs are collecting the eggs, refilling the poultry drinkers and giving the chickens their corn.

Today Andrew was collecting windfalls for the pigs. We have Gloucester Old Spot pigs – another name for them is Orchard Pigs as they used to be kept in the apple orchards that were once very common in the west country.

Andrew is also branching out and volunteering in our Community Cafe at weekends. He likes working there as it is very different from the farm – he has to dress smartly and stay nice and clean.

Andrew used the farm’s tablet to take some pictures of his favourite animals.

: Collecting elderflowers in Water Vole Woodland

: Andrew loves these chickens

More Gardening Fun!

All of the work that Michelle and Scott have put in during late winter and early spring is already paying off. As the soil warms up, they have been sowing radish and beetroot seeds directly into the ground. These are fast growing plants, and the radish are ready to harvest already! If you’d like some, simply as a member of staff.

They’ve also been raising lots of plants in the poly tunnel. Some of these, such as cosmos, sunflowers, lambs tails, tomato and squash plants are for sale. Some of them have been planted in the beds.

We are really looking forward to eating some delicous vegetables in the summer!

: Soil in the beds

: Scott preparing the poly tunnel

: Radish growing magnificently

: French climbing beans from the polytunnel

: Plants ready to go

A Day in the Life of a Farm Hand (Chick Time!)

Below is an interview with one of our Farm Hand volunteers Seth…

Question: What do you do at Farm Hands?

Answer: Hold chicks, have fun with pigs, play in the woods, do mucking out, goats – we collect leaves for them, play games and cuddle the Jacob lambs (but the adults sometimes get very scared of us).

Question: How do you feel about Farm Hands?

Answer: I feel GREAT!!!

Question: What’s your favourite job on the Farm?

Answer: Holding CHICKS!!

Question: Have you made friends at farm??

Answer: YES EVERYONE….Barbara, Jake, TJ, Aimee-Claire, Dom, Ruben, Libby, Lottie, Olivia, Luke, Tia & Tobias (Group, Leaders & Volunteers)

Gardening Fun!

Michelle and Scott have been working hard redesigning and reorganising our vegetable gardens. They began by taking apart a few of the old raised beds, saving the soil and giving all the weeds to the chickens. Afterwards they laid membrane down to help supress weeds and stop them growing up into the beds. This works as most weed seeds need light to germinate, this is why they grow on disturbed soil.

They then rebuilt the sides of the raised beds, using new wood and refilled them with the soil, plus some extra well rotted manure. This provides nutrients for the growing plants. Soon – as the soil warms up and spring gets underway, they will sow some vegetables.

Well done Michelle and Scott – we will look forward to lots of delicious vegetables.

: Scott and Richard getting the wood for the raised beds

: Raking out the wood chip for the path

: Filling the bed with soil

: Filling the bed with soil

: Michelle has planted a fruit tree.

: Michelle proudly shows off her finished bed

Fun in the mud!

The Farm Hands have been enjoying a cold and muddy start to the year. We have been collecting eggs, looking after the animals and doing LOTS of mucking out.

Volunteering Stories

Liam has been volunteering with us since January. He was on the Animal Management and Conservation course at SGS College in Filton and came to us for his work experience. He chose the farm because it was local to him and we had different animals from the usual house pets.

Liam loves volunteering here and working with the different animals – he says he is never bored! He has lots of fun and especially loves it when the piglets are born. He has enjoyed seeing the changes over the last 11 months including the building of the cafe. Liam also helps out with Farm Tots, our regular hands on session for under 5s and their carers. He brings out a hen every week so that the children can see one up close and stroke it.

The only aspect of volunteering here that Liam doesn’t like is working in the rain!

Recent Liam got a job at Macdonald’s. He feels that volunteering at the farm really helped with this, as his confidence with people and the public in general has really improved. His other employability skils have also improved such as being able to turn up regularly and reliably on time.

Liam took a picture his favourite animals – the naughty goats.

Volunteer Stories

Amy has been volunteering at the farm for a year now. She came here to do her work experience with us as she is studying Animal Care at SGS Filton College. She is now doing a Level II Diploma in Animal Care.

Amy chose the farm as she thought it looked good, and was local to her. She loves coming to the farm every week and being with the goats and the piglets. She had never worked with animals before, so she has learnt everything from scratch. However, she can now do the whole morning and afternoon routine on her own!

Amy feels that volunteering at the farm has really increased her self confidence and self esteem. This has been due to the friendly nature of the farm and everyone who works here, and also being supported while taking on responsibilities.

Amy loves the guinea pigs, and has taken a great photo of them.

Farm Hands Summer 2015

The Farm Hands are coming to the end of a busy summer! We’ve been looking after the animals, tending to the veg patch and greenhouse and have even managed to squeeze in the odd bit of tree climbing.

Farm Hands

Volunteering Stories

We recently had two volunteers from the European Voluntary Programme come to the Farm. They shared their experience with us.

Our experience in Lawrence Weston Community Farm

It has been a wonderful month. From the first till the last day, it was a great experience that we will never forget. Those four weeks we had the opportunity to connect with nature and work in a beautiful outdoor environment with a pretty relaxing atmosphere. We got to meet and work with great and friendly people that were always there for us, helping us to improve our English skills and we are grateful for that. We came closer to animals and feel comfortable with them. We got the chance to learn loads of new things about animal care as well as gardening and plants which made us more environmentally aware. We most certainly recommend this experience to everyone.
Galatea and Elena from Italy and Greece.