Volunteering Stories

Back to Work with the Farm

Liz’s Story

Liz is a volunteer at the farm and she recently got a cleaning job.

Liz said ‘Coming to the farm has kept me busy and made me more employable.
I still want to get a job in animal care but this job will keep me going and I’ll still pop in from time to time to volunteer. I told my new employer about my volunteering work that I am sure helped me get my job.’

April’s Story

April has volunteered at the farm for over 4 years whilst still at school. She has just got a Saturday job working in a bakery. However, she will also carry on doing her work experience on a Tuesday at the farm while she continues with her college course.

April said ‘Working on the farm has helped improve my working experience, dealing with members of the public and communication skills working with a variety of different people. I feel confident in myself thanks in part to the farm and the opportunities and skills that I have learnt. I will continue to use the farm as a reference when applying for work in the future.’

Farm Hands Saturday 18th October

Quote from the Farm Hands themselves today ‘Wonderful day working with our new Farm Hand’. Over the past couple of weeks the 2 groups of Farm Hands have taken part in everything from goat walking to garlic planting. Lots of hard work and muddy boots all round.

Volunteering Stories

Back to Work with the Farm

Mark’s Story

It was June and I had just moved from London to Bristol to get away from the non-stop city life. I soon started looking for work but didn’t seem to have to much luck, the Job Centre had 1000s of jobs online but no one wanted to talk to me or even reply to my applications. As time went on, I walked my dog Lola each day passing Lawrence Weston Community Farm.

Volunteer would ring in my mind each time I passed, so after a few weeks I did just that. They made me feel welcome and put some hope and meaning back in to my life.

I found It wasn’t just a farm it was a place to meet others from all walks of life doing great work. I would feed the animals, striming grass, help others with tasks – it gave you a real sense of purpose.

After a fairly short space of time my mood and optimism started to grow even though nothing really came of my efforts on the work front I felt OK

A few months passed and I was having a cup of tea with others in the rest area for the volunteers at the farm, when for some reason, I still do not know why to this day, I asked Ann who was a care worker for some one I often paired up with to collect chicken and ducks eggs amongst other things, if she knew of anything going doing the sort of work she was doing?

She told me “I am leaving this job in two weeks would you like me to recommend you?” “yes” I said and within a short space of time I had started a new and rewarding job.

Thanks to my time and the wonderful people at the farm this all became possible.

Cafe Build 4

The building of the cafe has come on in leaps and bounds over the last month.

First the external walls were erected.

Then construction of the internal structures started.

Now the scaffolding has arrived in preparation for building the roof.

The pigs however, remain unimpressed.

Livestock Update

In the farm yard there have been a few changes over the last weeks. Most startlingly we have brought in some new pigs – the three little pigs will be with us until they are big enough for slaughtering. The current plan is to take the young boar (AKA piggy) and the biggest of the three little pigs to the abattoir together in around 6 weeks. At around 16 weeks the white pig weighs approx 40kg. Piggy is currently a bit over 70 kgs. The four male pigs have recently been introduced to each other and seem to be getting on very well. We had been concerned that the boar was a bit fed up – the company should cheer him up!

Right now our new three Jacob sheep have gone to visit the ram over at Windmill Hill City Farm for the next six weeks. This way we hope to have pure Jacob lambs in the spring. We will find a different ram for the other three ewes and two lambing periods. Three lambs have recently been slaughtered, so although we have temporarily run out of sausages there is plenty of lamb and a little mutton left in the freezers.

The goats seem pretty much okay with the sheep during the daytime. We will move them in to the main stable block soon to make moving the flock backwards and forwards. So at the moment we only have three ewes, five lambs and the two goats on site.

Two of the main flock of hens are visiting the welsummers at the moment – most specifically as this way their eggs will be fertilised. By using a gold or red cockerel (welsummer) with a silver breed (the visiting Light Sussex) we will be able to hatch out hybrid chickens that apart from laying more, browner eggs can be sex-linked at day old. Anyone with a pet snake please get in touch!

Juley Howard

Community Farmer, 25^th September 2014

Saturday 27th September 2014

Today our 2 new Farm Hands learnt how to hold chickens, did some mucking out, fed the goats some tasty leaves and harvested some amazing marrows. All in a morning’s work!

Farm Hands 13th September 2014

We had lots of fun feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs. Some of us handled chickens for the first time! We said hello to the goats and fed the farm pigs some apples.

Autumn Harvest

As the season slides from high Summer into early Autumn, so the produce available from the garden changes. In the Farm’s garden we currently have courgettes, beetroot, Turk’s Turban and some large green squashes. This glorious Indian Summer is ripening up the tomatoes and squashes, which were a bit behind due the stormy and cooler weather in August.

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We also have some lovely beetroot – which is delicious raw grated into salads, roasted or boiled.

We have grown some unusual black french beans, which make an interesting addition to salads or on their own as a side dish with butter or olive oil.

Some flowers come into their own at this time of year. Ice plant or sedums provide late season nectar for butterflies, bees and other insects, so are always a pretty and useful addition to any garden.

If you’d like to volunteer as a gardener either with vegetables or in the wildlife garden please ring Ian on 01179381128 or email him at ian@lwfarm.org.uk