Our last few days at Smiling Tree Farm were as great as the first few – it would be wonderful to think that all the places we will stay will be as good as this… WWOOF hosts after this will have a lot to live up to; we’ve been very lucky to have had such a friendly, knowledgeable host, and to have eaten such delicious food all week while staying in some really beautiful countryside for our first experience!

The sun has continued to shine, in fact it seems that hardly a drop of rain has fallen since we left work. Can this be a co-incidence? Since the last blog we have done more of the same; finished digging in the vegetable patch and clearing cow muck from the yard. We helped move the cows to a new field and have also tried our hand at milking Lollipop. We spent a morning doing some weeding at the neighbouring farm and finding out a bit more about commercial farming, followed by feeding some lambs whose mothers are unable to feed them.

On Thursday Christine took us to the Wormlas Rare Breeds centre to look at all the weird and wonderful varieties of chickens there are. On Friday we met my Mum and Dad for lunch in Clun then they came back to the farm with us to have a look round. And on Saturday we spent a few hours having another lovely walk along Offa’s Dyke.















Back on Smiling Tree Farm two lambs have met a sticky end. One became very weak and for some reason stopped feeding - an injection of antibiotics did nothing to strengthen him. We helped Christine to shepherd the lamb and its mother into the barn on Friday night, which involved a lot of patient waiting while the ewe ran up and down the hill in panic as we carried her lamb. Eventually the ewe was captured and led to the barn where we tried to encourage the lamb to suckle. In the morning he was weaker still and by the afternoon he had died. And the very very tiny lamb 'Tiny' (born from a one year old mother) has simply disappeared without trace in the night.
















Today we left the farm and drove down to Bristol for a very quick visit to the allotment, its good to see how things are growing already. Even the first spear of asparagus has poked its head through the ground! After a well deserved cup of tea on North Street we will be carrying on down to Laura’s aunt’s near Tiverton before we head to North Devon for two weeks - we start at the next Farm tomorrow.