The end of one half term and the start of another has seen us working with long running visitors Co-op Academies Oakwood and Priesthorpe, to newer partners Hyndburn Academy, Co-op Academy Woodlands, and Co-op Academy Grange. We were also lucky enough to have a one-off visit during half-term from LOOK – a charity supporting visually impaired young people. We can’t wait to welcome the group back in the future as it was a brilliant day – one day just wasn’t enough!Â
The farm is starting to emerge from the wet and wintery depths of North Yorkshire, with some daffodil bulbs (planted by Co-op Academy Beckfield) on the driveway verges doing their best to get spring springing! Lambing has begun at Skipton, with practically every spare barn and shed being converted into temporary pens – even the badminton net in the games barn had to make way for our very important new arrivals! Our Texel ewes are nearly finished lambing, with our North Country Mules ready to begin any day now!
A trip down to the South West for our farmer Mark resulted in him literally bringing home the bacon, in the form of two lovely, if not slightly cheeky, pigs! They are settling in well to their temporary new home as we prepare an area in the woods for them to live in permanently – and have only tried to escape once or twice…
The team had a great few days planting even more trees around the farm, a huge thank you to our volunteers that stuck it out in the cold and rain to get this done!
The Curlews have returned to the farm, along with some beautiful Lapwings – we have also been lucky enough to see one of our resident Barn Owls hunting over our fields, thanks to Rob Carnie & Co-op Academy Priesthorpe for building our owl boxes!
We genuinely wouldn’t be able to do anywhere near as many amazing things on the farm without the help of our awesome regular volunteers – so here’s a huge thank you to Louie and Rachael, you both bring so much to the team and the visiting young people!
In other news, Ben is thrilled to be joining the team full time from the end of February, ditching the desk job and getting stuck in on the farm! Â
