Kadesh Community Farm

Danni & Jessica

2011-02-22T17:03:00.000-08:00

Here is a minutes worth of video that I took on my phone a few months back of our two cows, Danni & Jessica. You will also notice Buster the goat trying to get in on the action.

Goat Walking

2011-02-09T02:46:00.000-08:00

The goats have pretty much eaten everything they can inside the farm so we took them for a walk around the outside of the farm. They love all the ivy that is growing around the nearby trees and as ivy is a real pest it's a great way to get rid of it.

Jethro & Katie

2011-02-09T02:29:00.001-08:00

Jethro

Jethro & Katie

Our latest new additions to the farm are Jethro & Katie. Jethro is a Gloucester Old Spot boar and Katie is a Gloucester Old Spot sow. They are the parents of the piglets and Katie is due to give birth again in May. They are absolutely massive and look quite scary close up although they are both fairly friendly. We have had to put up an electric fence just to ensure that they don't escape, although they seem very happy with their new home.

More sausages on the way.

2011-02-09T02:21:00.000-08:00

We currently have six piglets that we are fattening up to be sent to slaughter. They were born in October and will be going off to slaughter mid April. Expect a fresh range of Kadesh pork products early May. We haven't named any of these although that is more down to not being able to tell them apart than sentimental reasons.

Polytunnel

2011-02-09T02:07:00.000-08:00

It's been up for a while now and so far has only been used as storage for the animal food, but we now have a polytunnel greenhouse. The plan is that we will soon have an abundance of vegetables on the go ready for later in the year.

Buster & Twist

2011-02-09T01:49:00.000-08:00

Twist

Buster

Buster & Twist (the goats) will be two years old next month. It's hard to believe that they are the same goats that I used to pick up with one in each hand. They are both very well and healthy although Twist has got a little fat so is now on a bit of a diet. They are both comedy gold and very mischievous.

Wilbur

2011-02-09T01:34:00.000-08:00

Lula

Wilbur

A few months back when Bailey arrived with us he needed a companion. Strictly speaking it is illegal to keep a pig on its own, certainly in a farm environment, so I'm not sure how people are even allowed to keep them individually in their homes but that's another story.

We bought 'Wilbur' who is a Kune Kune pig so that Bailey wouldn't be too lonely. Now that Bailey has gone to pig heaven we didn't want Wilbur to be lonely so last week we added 'Lula' to the crew. Lula is also a Kune Kune. Wilbur is a male but let's just say he won't be having any children after a visit to the vet. Lula is female.

Bailey the 'micro pig'.

2011-02-08T10:53:00.000-08:00

Several months ago Bailey the 'micro' pig came to us. He was sold as a micro pig and the previous owners were told that he would only grow to 12 inches tall. This is becoming an all too familiar story. He grew and grew and started wrecking their house. There are several companies that sell these 'micro' pigs but any vet or pretty much anyone who knows anything about pigs will tell you that there is no such thing as a 'micro' pig, it is all a big con. Pigs don't reach their full size until they are three years old. Bailey was only two years old and was already huge.

Bailey enjoyed his time at Kadesh farm and always looked very happy and would roll over to have his tummy tickled. Unfortunately last week it became necessary to have Bailey put to sleep. It is suspected that he had a brain tumour but without an expensive post mortem we will never know for sure. Over the last couple of weeks he had become very aggressive and started to attack the other animals and me. The vet was excellent and put him to sleep without fuss and he died doing what he loved in life - eating!

If you or anyone you know is considering getting a 'micro' pig then give me a call and I'll soon change your mind. DON'T DO IT! PIGS ARE OUTDOOR ANIMALS!!!!

Danni & Jessica

2011-02-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

Danni the cow has had a calf which we have named Jessica. Both cows have gone for a visit to our friends Gerald & Sarah who have a much larger farm as they were churning up the grass during the wet weather. They will return to us in the summer and if 'The Colonel' has done his job then Danni will be back in calf. This picture was taken a few days after Jessica was born at the start of the summer. She is almost as big as Danni now.

Evan the goat.

2011-02-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago Evan arrived with us. He is a pygmy goat and has come to live with us because he used to live with another goat who sadly died a couple of months ago leaving Evan very lonely. We are hoping that he is going to bond well with Buster & Twist although at the moment they seem to be bullying the new boy when it comes to feeding time. Evan is very good natured and super friendly, he loves people and comes to the gate when you go to leave as if to see if he can come with you.

Massive update incoming!!!

2011-02-08T10:41:00.001-08:00

Apologies that we haven't update the blog for so long. A lot has happened in the last few months so this afternoon I went out with my camera and took a load of pictures, which as they say are worth a thousand words. Rather than write one massive update I am going to break it down and do a post for each thing.

Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink.

2011-02-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

Last week we had our old bore hole checked out to see if we could get it working. Unfortunately the verdict is that it would be cheaper just to drill a new one but this is quite expensive and out of the question for now. Thankfully at the beginning of the summer we had a trailer purpose built to carry water from home to the farm. It's quite a large tank which means that we only need to do it about once a week. I have already managed to drive off with the lid laying on the back and lose it!

Wow, what a year!

2010-01-30T04:26:00.000-08:00

We can't believe how much has happened since we started the farm a year ago.

We have seen goats born, chicks and ducklings hatch, eaten our own eggs, reared our own rare-breed pork, eaten delicious free-range chicken, cleared masses of brambles and fallen trees, had a wedding at the farm, met Danni Dexter, built raised veg. beds, and the list goes on....

This year we hope to cram in just as much, if not more!

The students at Kadesh have participated in every step of the work and have enjoyed it and hopefully benefitted from it in many ways.

This Summer our plan is to be in a position to open the farm to the community on Saturdays. The idea being that families can come up to the farm, meet the animals, have a picnic or a barbeque and just have a special community place to relax and enjoy nature.

We intend to create: a nature trail through the orchard, a duck pond, an ornamental lily pond, a compostable toilet, a goats' play area, a tree house, a greenhouse, a herb garden, and so many more things that we might not get around to doing this year!

If you are interested in being involved in any aspect of the Kadesh Community Farm project, please call Andi or Steve for more information on 07941 333455 or the DC3 office on 01379 644223.

VOLUNTEER WORK DAYS!

2010-01-30T04:18:00.001-08:00

VOLUNTEER WORK DAYS:

Saturday, 20th March, Saturday, 17th April & Saturday, 15th May.

Spring is on its way and we have big plans for the farm project this year!

During 2009, the farm has provided the Kadesh students with hours of worthwhile activity.

In 2010, our aim is to open the farm on Saturdays during the summer for families to enjoy the picnic area and meet the animals.

In the run-up to Summer we will be doing things like making a duck pond, putting up a greenhouse, digging up tree stumps, painting gates etc. etc.

There is a job to suit everyone!

If you are able to help for a day (9.30 ‘til 4), or just an hour or two, we would be very happy to see you!

BBQ at lunchtime!

For more information, or to sign up, please contact Andi Roy, Steve Jeffery or Adrian Roy on 07941 333455, or the DC3 office on 01379 644223.

A Little community

2009-12-11T03:06:00.000-08:00

We have some more chickens in the room. There are now 3 in total making up a little family. They all get on in their home.

All one big happy family

Steve and the tamest chicken that ever lived.

Danni the Dexter

2009-12-11T02:48:00.000-08:00

We were given Danni the Dexter by Gerald and Sarah Barnes as a wedding present. We would like to say a VERY BIG thank you to Gerald and Sarah for Danni. She arrived on the 7th December and she has settled in well, getting on with all the other animals.

A lone chick

2009-11-06T03:30:00.000-08:00

This time round we have had some trouble with our incubator and have ended up with having only one egg hatch. Our chick is very lonely in the classroom, with only humans to keep it company. We are looking for some new chicks to join our 'lone wolf'. We also have some more eggs in the incubator ready to hatch in about 2 weeks so our chick won't be lonely for much longer.

2009-09-28T14:25:00.001-07:00

Roast Chicken Dinner

2009-09-28T14:10:00.001-07:00

We had four cockerels and only two hens so last week three of the

cockerels had to be despatched.

In celebration of its life we plucked, gutted and roasted one of them!

Delicious!

Jake and Matt plucking the cockerel.

First egg!

2009-09-28T14:05:00.001-07:00

Pingu the black hen laid her first egg!

She made a little nest in the nest box and popped one out!

Carrots are meant to help your eyesight right?

2009-09-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

We thought carrots were meant to help your eyesight... seems not for Mim. Her 20:20 vision has gone so we had to buy her glasses. And she is going grey in her old age.

Here's the proof!

4 New Piglets

2009-09-18T04:02:00.000-07:00

We have four new piglets coming to the farm. They are taking the place of the pigs we used to have. These new additions will be joining the farm on Sunday 20th September. They are Gloucester Old Spots, the same breed as our previous pigs.

Guinea Fowl chicks

2009-09-18T03:59:00.000-07:00

We have a new addition to the the farm family. We have 10 Guinea Fowl chicks which have kindly been donated by Phillip Merton. These new additions are alot more timid than the chickens or the ducklings and don't like being picked up too much.

Fruit In The Orchard

2009-09-18T03:54:00.000-07:00

We have lots of fruit. We have apples, blackberries, pears, plums and we are making elderberry wine (adults only!). Poached pears covered in melted chocolate are just the best!

Sausages, nice juicy sausages

2009-09-18T03:49:00.000-07:00

Our pigs have been taken to the slaughter :-(. Adrian and John Heasley had the job of taking them to the slaughter house for us. I think Adrian is still recovering from the trauma. They have become nice juicy sausages, chops and pork joints. They taste GOOD! Really delicious. The pork has quite a bit of fat but that is usual with rare breed meat and is why they are not used commercially. The flavour is worth all the effort. We now have a chest freezer full of meat. Ask Steve if you fancy buying any.

Celebrate good times, c'mon!

2009-09-18T03:40:00.000-07:00

We are married! The farm was the venue for our wedding. We decorated the picnic area with bunting, had a hog roast and everyone who came brought some food. We had a wonderful day and celebrated it with our good friends and family. Thanks to everyone who helped make the day so memorable.

Adrian giving Andi away:

Andi and Steve being wed:

4 cockerels and 3 hens

2009-09-18T03:36:00.000-07:00

Wahey we have some layers. We have 4 cockerels and 3 hens. Unfortunately Limpy, one of our hens, has died. SO we now have 2 hens and 4 cockerels.

R.I.P. Limpy

3 of the cockerels are due to be made into Sunday dinner this week. We can't keep all of them unfortunately, especially as they outnumber the hens 2:1.

Grown Up Ducks

2009-09-18T03:32:00.000-07:00

Our duckings are all grown up. They are now fully grown and are part of the family. They waddle around the farm and have settled in well. They are very comical and chatter away to each other endlessly. We have two ducks and three drakes. We need to get another duck to make things even because they like to pair up.

Veg beds

2009-09-18T03:22:00.000-07:00

The veg beds have been built and are being prepared for growing vegetables next spring. The weeding process has begun and the beds are nearly ready.

Being built:

Time for food?

2009-09-18T03:18:00.001-07:00

The picnic area has been fully cleared and is now available for use. With fresh green grass, and benches to come when completed, this area of the farm is peaceful and a nice place to relax. It's also a goat free area so you can enjoy your picnic in peace!

A new gate

2009-09-18T03:10:00.000-07:00

Roger Dukes and Mark Underwood have put up the new farm gate. The animals are now securely enclosed in the farm. This new gate is about 6ft tall and weighs a ton!

No more homeless chickens

2009-09-18T02:50:00.000-07:00

It turns out that we have 3 hens, they are not all cockerels. Our layers now have a place to lay their eggs each morning. The hens are not laying at the moment... or they are and we just haven't found the eggs yet. Hopefully they will start laying soon so we can have eggs for breakfast. Adrian built this hen house out of the old wood that was boarding up the windows and the old pump house doors. Excellent bit of recycling.

Wild man of the woods

2009-06-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

At the Kadesh Farm we managed to photograph a rare sighting of our very own resident wildman

(aka Jake)

Mischief

2009-06-15T12:38:00.001-07:00

Steve teaching Twist circus tricks

Roger and mark brought this trailer up to the farm whilst putting up the new gate. The goats thought it was a new adventure playground.

This bale of straw delivered by Cecil was something to play on too.

Not sure what Twist finds so funny but she's probably laughing at Steve's antics.

Buster, Twist and Spice chillin'

Ducklings

2009-06-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

The ducklings have now moved to the farm and are enjoying their new pad.

In the absence of a mother they will follow any pair of legs that happens to walk past. It's quite a comical sight to see someone walking along the path followed closely by a line of five little waddling ducklings (actually, being runner ducks, they run, not waddle).

One of the ducklings has found a safe warm place to fall asleep.

I think he thinks Jake is Mother Duck

Relaxing

The ducklings' new pond

Indian Runners

2009-06-01T14:51:00.000-07:00

The Indian Runner ducks have now hatched and are causing mischief already. We had 6 eggs of which 5 have hatched and developed into healthy little beasts. Andi's cats are scared of them because when they run around the floor they make a lot of little patting noises, so they have been staying there for now without fear of being attacked by cats. They will be moved upto the farm in a few weeks time. There are only 4 ducks in these pictures as 1 of them took a little longer to hatch than the others.

The chicks' big move.

2009-05-08T03:52:00.000-07:00

The chicks have now been moved to the farm and all seven are still looking nice and healthy. We have introduced them to the goats, who were very curious about the new additions and they seem to be getting along fine.

The chicks will live in this ark for the next few weeks. After that we will move them into a bigger premises.

'Twist' keeps following them around and is still not 100% sure what to make of them.

'Joy' (As named by Hans)

'Spice' is attempting to blend in as a chicken.

The seven chicks, now 6 weeks old.

Indian Runner Ducks

2009-05-08T03:29:00.000-07:00

We now have 5 Indian Runner duck eggs in our incubator. There were 6 eggs but when I got home after a weekend away there was quite a distinct smell filling my flat. On closer inspection the smell was coming from one of the eggs which means that one of them hasn't made it and had to be thrown away.

They are due to hatch on or around the 20th May. Watch this space for an update.

Chicken Shed

2009-04-27T03:34:00.000-07:00

Adrian has built a small chicken run for the chicks, mostly from bits laying around his garden and the farm (like an old 'hope tree' sign and some roofing battens). I'll get some more pictures of the chicks soon as they are getting fairly big now. Unfortunately it is looking like we might have 7 cockerels and no layers, but at least that means we have some nice meals coming soon.

In the picture below you can see some sort of wild animal has managed to get inside the chicken run with a drill.

Update on the baby goats.

2009-04-27T02:33:00.000-07:00

'Buster' and 'Twist' are now so tame that even our regular volunteer Hans 'Mintcake' Kendall is starting to get over his fear of animals and embrace them.

'Buster' is getting frustrated with everyone taking pictures of him so has started to make rude gestures to the camera.

The goats like to check the pigs are keeping their place clean.

'Buster' gave a very good report on the standard of Adrian's roofing skills.

'Twist' and 'Buster' aren't too keen on any humans entering the pig pen and have been known to knock me to the ground to get me out.

Here are the deadly duo. 'Buster' on the left and 'Twist' on the right.

Gloucester Old Spots

2009-04-26T13:01:00.000-07:00

Our latest additions to the farm are a pair of gloucester old spot pigs. They are both males and we do plan to eat them, so as a result the plan is not to name them. However they have picked up the temporary names 'Not Yet' and 'Don't Know', due to the amount of people asking what their names are.

Adrian built this pig ark from material that we found laying around the farm and his own back garden. The pigs seem very happy with it.

Our two youngest goats have already made friends with the pigs which has been a bit of a suprise. The baby goats are able to squeeze through the fencing and we have seen them licking the pigs and the pigs licking them back several times.

Hans Kendall came to visit the farm and although he was terrified of them, eventually managed to make friends with one of the pigs.

Both of our boys look really happy in their new home and they have loads of room to run around in since Andi, Steve and James put up a new stock fence.

Grafitti Art

2009-04-24T03:27:00.000-07:00

We had grafitti artist AKS join us for a day to brighten up the inside of the big shed. He used some pictures that we had taken of our goats and drew outlines for us to paint. Then we found the right colours and began making the outlines look like pictures. By the end of the day the shed looked fantastic.

Hatching of the Eggs

2009-04-23T05:13:00.000-07:00

26th March

We bought 18 mixed colour orpington chicken eggs on eBay to put in our incubator. 3 weeks later 7 of the eggs hatched in our classroom.

New born goats.

2009-04-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

The baby goats at 1 day old. Mark Underwood accidently named the boy 'Buster' and the girl is now called 'Twist'.

'Buster'

'Buster' on the left and 'Twist' on the right. The middle one isn't a goat.

The proud mum 'Miriam'

Mothering Sunday

2009-03-25T14:58:00.000-07:00

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

Tonight our shed was the centre of attention!

It seemed like half of DC3 gathered to watch Mim give birth. After what seemed like a lot of discomfort all Sunday afternoon, Mim finally popped out a little boy at 9.00pm.

Just when we thought all the excitement had died down, Mim sat herself down and popped out another one!

Twins!

This time it was a little girl.

We had discussed that if it was a boy we would fatten him up to eat but we are already so attached to him there's no way we could do it! He's quite a little character!

Saturday, March 21st, 2009

2009-03-25T14:49:00.000-07:00

Today we painted some of the 21 tyres we found around the land. We are painting them all bright colours and then we'll plant them with flowers and vegetables

We also rotovated the vegetable patch which was really hard work because of all the bramble roots.

The goats arrive

2009-03-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

Today we collected the goats from a farm in Coney Weston. We have two adult goats, one called Miriam, who is pregnant, and one called Thyme, who has a four week old kid at foot. Jake has named the baby "Spice". Miriam (Mim for short) is due to give birth next week. She is very tame because she used to live on a farm belonging to a disabled learning centre. She's very affectionate and likes to have her chin stroked. Thyme and Spice are more nervous and not so used to being handled but hopefully they'll soon settle in and get used to us.

2009-03-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

March 9th, 2009

Dave the carpenter fitted new doors for us on the building.

Thanks to Dave for all his hard work.

2009-03-25T14:12:00.001-07:00

Roger, Mark and Pat worked up at the farm again today fixing the roof, removing the ivy and boarding up the windows ready for livestock. Eventually the goats and pigs will be housed in here. Here are the before and after pics...

2009-03-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

March 5th, 2009

We put 18 Orpington chicken eggs into our incubator. The eggs are a mixed selection of pure bred colours but we won't know how many of each colour until they hatch. The incubation period is three weeks and if all goes well th

ey should hatch on Thursday, March 26th.

We chose Orpingtons because they are a pure breed and they have an abundance of feathers. They also taste good! They don't lay as many eggs as some of the hybrid breeds though and so we will also get some Black Rock chickens which lay up to 280 eggs in a year.

Roger, Mark and Pat worked up at the farm all day to put up the fence and fix the roof of the building. Thanks guys! Amazing job done.

Kick off

2009-03-25T13:42:00.001-07:00

February 21st, 2009

35 volunteers from the Fire Academy programme in Gloucester and from DC3 came to help us get the farm project started.

By lunchtime the concrete driveway had been cleared, the vegetable patch dug over and the fenceline cleared of brambles and branches.

Many thanks to everyone involved. You all worked so hard and we really appreciate it.