IT WAS HARD WORK, BUT WE'RE OPEN!

It’s surprising how many tonnes of material are brought onto the Farm (and off it) in preparation for re-opening. In the few weeks before the gates opened, 72 tonne of grade two hogging arrived for the levelling of the car park, then 26 tonnes of stone the duck area to replace the 30 odd tonne dug out in an attempt to reduce the smell, followed by 18 tonne of Barley straw to re-instate the Straw Den. Also 80 tonne of play bark for the play areas and animal pens, and besides all this coming in, there was over 100 tonnes of good old farmyard manure, which we dug out of the sheds and sent down the road to Sunnyfields Organic farm! All our staff joined in with the painting, or should I say, splashing on paint, as all the indoor areas have had a coat or two to tidy up the tired wood. I seemed to have a permanent job of driving up to B&Q to top up on the supplies. It was on my third visit in one week that I arrived at the checkout with my loaded trolley, (now bear in mind that I simply do not like shopping at the best of times, and find it difficult to get these trolleys to go in the direction that I need them to go), when this young lad then directed me to the scanning device on the side. I politely explained that I would prefer to be served by a "real person" only to be told that there was no one available and that I needed to use the scanner. As I desperately tried to get the trolley to reverse out of the till area (doing my best not to swear), the young lad excitedly showed me the way to the dreaded scanning machine, and then disappeared as I loaded my 23 items onto the small space in front of me. The machine started to blurt out at me to put an item on the scales; my young friend turned up again explaining that only one item should be put on the table at a time, and watched me as I started to throw all the goods back into the trolley. As the prices showed on the screen and five products went through my confidence started to grow, well, that was until the machine blurted out: "Call for an attendant". When my young friend arrived, this time quite sheepishly, he explained that I had a multiple purchase and waved his yellow card and the machine started to proceed again. I looked over my shoulder at the long queue forming, and I whispered to the lad: “If it calls you again, this trolley will stay here and I will buy my goods down the road”. Well, blow me as he walked away again, the dreaded machine told me to call for an attendant! Using his well-rehearsed customer care, he informed me that he would need to know my age as I was purchasing white spirit! He must of seen the steam coming out of my ears as he tried to persuade me not to walk out. As I apologised to the waiting crowd, he discreetly called in a supervisor who finished putting through my goods. Got some service in the end! The Farm is almost fully stocked again with piglets, goat kids, chicks, and all the guinea pigs and rabbits (or fluffies, as I call them), Kerry is excited about the introduction of some Continental Rabbits and her French Giants. More of these later... It has been a very long winter with the never-ending rain making life very difficult. The Farm has been so very quiet without the sound of noisy children, so we were all delighted to welcome back our visitors at the beginning of the half-term holiday. And what a lot there were! Unfortunately, due to the saturated ground, we were unable to use our overflow car park, so we did have a few parking issues. Apologies to those that experienced problems. Hopefully, the overflow will be in use over the Easter period. Farmers are known to be hardened when it comes to losing one of their animals, however, I will admit losing Billy, our Shire, certainly hit us all hard. He was such a great character, and the celebrity of the Farm. We are searching for another Shire, but we certainly will never find one with the same qualities that Billy had. As I have mentioned before, we will be adding a permanent memorial to Billy on the Farm. In the meantime, there is a small tribute display on the wall between the tearoom and gift shop. This is DARIUS— officially, the world’s largest rabbit! He is The Guiness World Record holder of the title: “largest rabbit”. He measures 4ft 3in from nose to tail and was only 12 months old when he took the title! We are the proud owners of BRUNO, one of Darius’s babies. We are really hoping that he will reach the size that Darius has achieved. Find Bruno and his other rabbit friends at the Farm next time you visit. When Bruno is a little bit older, and he has settled in to his new home, we will be introducing him to the visiting children during the small animal handling sessions. Hope to see you soon. Farmer Bryan.