End of the day

Every day we let all the animals out to roam around together. Whilst the pigs love the company of the sheep, following them where ever they go, the goats enjoy finding new patches of hedgerow to nibble and the chickens make dust baths in the parking area! Even the rabbits run wild!
At the end of the day the members shake a bucket of food and the animals all follow. Then they go back to their cosy homes for the night, worn out from the excitement of the day!

William's birthday BBQ

Last Friday we had a lovely BBQ lunch to celebrate Will's birthday. We had so much fun. In spite of the BBQ looking a bit on the smokey side, the members cooked the meat beautifully and there were no hollow sausages! Will's father came along for lunch too. He is very proud of William as he has just moved away from home into his first house. He coped with the move so well and is loving living independently with his new house mates!

Mucky pup having her first bath!

One of the members who comes to Origin has just bought a new puppy, it's a cross between a Poodle and a Yorkshire Terrier. In the picture you can see Tamsey (the pup) with egg yolk all around her mouth and another picture of her having her first bath which, by the way, she hated!

Camping at the smallholding

Some of the members and staff pitched tents and camped at Origin on Friday night. Members, staff and volunteers enjoyed a delicious BBQ, everyone helped by making different dishes using the produced.
grown and harvested at Origin. After toasting marshmallows on the fire and saying good night to all the animals we *hit the hay*! We were woken at 5.20am by the rooster. Lovely to see the hens out roaming in the summer sun so early. We will definitely camp at the farm again but next time we'll bring ear plugs!

Lovely lunches

We have been using the produce grown at the farm to make lots of lovely lunches. In the picture we had scrambled eggs using our gorgeous organic eggs with home grown spring onions and rocket. We have had endless salad and herbs from our beds and we are enjoying every bite! This week we are making soda bread and nettle soup for lunch. Some members at the project are looking forward to the zingy soup whilst others have opted to bring in a packed lunch!

Goats on the roof on the hen house

Our goats have discovered that they can jump on nesting boxes to get on the roof of the hen house. They love playing so high up on the slope. In the process they have broken both nesting boxes smashing 30 eggs! We have repaired them now and made the boxes extra strong so the fun can continue.

Collecting eggs from funny places

Our hens have taken a liking to the goat house and have decided to nest there. I was wondering why our egg count had dropped and then found 30 eggs in the goat house. Now we have to climb in and get the eggs every day!