July 12, 2010 |
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Gerald comes a-courting | |
Princess the pig lay in her muddy wallow dreaming of her prince when suddenly a gorgeous hulk appeared. Gerald the Boar had arrived!
Princess the Gloucester Old Spot sow is one of the pigs that lives in the Pig Paddocks at St Augustines Farm. Her daughters are in the paddock next door and two Kune Kune pigs also live nearby.
Recently an Old Spot boar visited the the farm and is now living with the farms sows. Princess was very possessive of her paddock when Gerald arrived and bossed him about no end (Sound familiar?) but now he is accepted and shares her meals and cuddles up in the sty with him at night.
“To start with he spent a lot of the day sleeping like most men “ said one of the farm staff “but now he is more active and we expect the patter of tiny trotters in October.”
The weather has been very hot and as pigs can not sweat, Gerald the boar likes to spend the middle of the day in the muddy wallow keeping cool, some times on his own and sometimes with his Princess.
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June 10, 2010 |
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Farm closing dates | |
We will be closed on Friday 18th June until Tuesday 22nd June. We will re-open on Wednesday 23rd June. |
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May 6, 2010 |
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Class One’s visit to St Augustines Farm. | |
What a fantastic day !!!! We arrived at the farm and were greeted by Elaine the Farmer’s wife. She told us what we would be doing during the day and told us that she had a surprise.
Our first job was to help with the milking of the cows. We watched Farmer Rob use the special machines to milk 8 cows. One cow made 12 pints of milk! The cows get milked twice a day. It was great fun watching the big jars fill up with milk and then watching it shoot up the pipe to a big fridge , where it will wait to be collected by the Milk truck to sell in shops.
After watching the cows being milked we put some of the milk in bottles and walked down to the barn to bottle feed the baby calves. The baby calves were very strong and very greedy. They loved the milk and got very excited when they saw us.
We had a break and then moved on to our next job of feeding the goats. We had special pellets that we held in our hands for the goats to feed from. Hayden was a bit worried at first but with some help from Miss Wright he really enjoyed the experience.
After the goats we had a trailer ride. Farmer Rob pulled us in the trailer with his very big, very noisy tractor. We travelled all round the Farmers land and looked at all the different animals.
We finished the trailer ride and then the secret appeared. We walked into the big barn and were told by Farmer Rob to be very quiet and there they were … 4 baby lambs, 3 of which were only born a few hours ago. They were so small and so cute. We had to be very quiet as they were frightened of us and were still trying to stand up – it was amazing. Miss Wright was even more excited than us.
After looking at the new additions to St Augustines Farm we petted rabbits and fed the chickens before collecting the cows milk and pellets to feed the pigs. The pigs were very dirty and loved rolling around in the mudbaths they had made. We did so much work before stopping for a well deserved lunch break.
We had our lunch and completed a treasure hunt looking for farmyard treasures. We had to collect some very bizarre things like wool, wheat, straw, hay and you wouldn’t believe it … dried poo! Miss Wrights team won as she tricked the other teams whilst Ethan and Connor ran to victory!
We finished off the day with a fun adventure in the play area before taking our journey home. We left just in time as the rain poured down.
We had such a great day and will return agai one day. We were all well behaved and an asset to the school.
Reproduced from a school magazine.
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May 6, 2010 |
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Visit by David Drew MP | |
It was with great pleasure that I visited St Augustine’s Family Farm in Arlingham on the 23rd July to open their Camera Obscura. Visiting the farm is a lovely fun day out; the activities available increasing all the time and there’s always a wonderful welcome.
A camera obscura is a fascinating concept, I used to visit the one on Bristol Downs as a child with my parents. Imagine being in a very dark room on a bright day. There is only a small hole of light, but if you then look at the opposite wall to the small hole you see the beautiful world outside as if by magic!
At St Augustine's Farm the light comes through the roof and shines the picture on a table. The camera can turn 360 degrees so visitors will be able to see all the surrounding countryside. It was such a shame that on Thursday the sun did not shine, but I shall visit St Augustine’s Farm again soon.
Reproduced from the website of David Drew MP 25 Jul 2009
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April 28, 2010 |
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Alice in Farmyard Land | |
Excited by the film of Alice in Wonderland, the Farm Folk at St Augustines Farm recently dressed up as characters from the story. Their meadows are home to Mad March Hares as well so that also inspired them and they also gave tractor and trailer rides out into the fields. Spring is a bit late this year so the Hares “boxing” is a bit late too.
Alice was played by Lucie-Anne Clements, the Mad Hatter by Tom Vincent, Flis Jewell was the White Rabbit, the Red Queen by Jenni Vincent and Rob Jewell was the Cheshire Cat.
Just for a change, over the Easter Weekend they all became Easter Bunnies!
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April 28, 2010 |
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Free entry for the children in your Playgroup | |
How to get your childrens free entry.
1. Contact us and book your group visit.
2. All adults in your group pay normal adult entrance fees on arrival (minimum 10 adults).
3. All the children in your group are admitted free (maximum 30 children)
Contact us for bookings, full details and conditions. |
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