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 Why not become a member of Bath City Farm? If you would like to receive a copy of our all singing, all dancing newsletter, in glorious colour and with pictures, please consider becoming a member of Bath City Farm. Membership only costs £10 a year (concessions available). Your membership fee helps to support our running costs, e.g. salaries, site work, newsletter and of course our animals. New recruits at the Farm Spring has definitely sprung at the farm this year. We have, at the time of writing, seven new lambs already, with the promise of more to come. Zippy has proved his worth by providing two of our ewes with twins!! Both mums and lambs are doing very well and we are grateful to all volunteers, neighbours and trustees and in particular Helen, Ked and Rob for looking after them in their first vulnerable weeks. We are also pleased to welcome Dudley, the new donkey to the site. Dudley belongs to a local lady called Sue. Our recent competition to name the donkey attracted over forty entries. Sue and local children finally voted on Dudley, which was suggested by Luke Howells. Luke wins sponsorship of a donkey in a Cornish sanctuary for one year. Thanks to everyone who has been keeping an eye on all of the animals during the recent stone throwing craze. We find it hard to fathom why some local children, who benefit directly from the Farm and all it has to offer, have chosen to attack the animals with stones. Three chickens are currently recovering from leg injuries off site. These actions are cruel and totally unnecessary. If you see anyone attacking the animals please report it immediately to P. C. Middleton at Manvers St. Police Station, 01225 444343. Thank you for your help. Newsletter Contributions The following contribution to our newsletter was sent in by Tabitha:
Well done Tabitha, who wins 6 of our delicious free-range eggs for her lovely article. We look forward to more grooving on site soon! If you have a contribution for our newsletter, please drop it into the Farm, we would love to see it. Easter Holidays During the Easter break Shiva and James ran activities on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, which included den building, making a rope swing and cooking tomato soup on a campfire. The weather was still very cold, with a chilly northerly breeze up on site, but the sun shone. It was a quieter holiday with fewer children on site than usual in the first week, as there were lots of fab things to do around the whole area as part of healthy living week and BAPP's play scheme. Nevertheless, we had great fun. The finale for the Easter break was the Health living day at the Farm. It was a fantastic day! There were nature trails, a bouncy castle, capoeira demonstrations, aerobics, fruit bug making, massage demos and chicken and veg kebabs cooked on a BBQ. The sun shone brightly and the animals were pleased to meet so many new families and see old friends. We'd like to thank all the volunteers who helped out on the day, we couldn't do it without them. New Sign For The Main Gate A big thank you and well done to everyone who was involved with the sign project during the Easter holidays. The project was organised by Tamsin Hughes, our volunteer youth worker, who applied for funding through the Community Champions fund. She was successful with her bid and supported a group of young people to interview three community artists. They chose David Bowers of Mosaic Madness to guide them through producing a new sign and I'm sure you will agree they did a brilliant job! The sign is now displayed at the main entrance to the site. There are also a number of mosaic mirrors on display in the building too. Fringe @ The Farm 2006 This years Fringe @ The Farm takes place on site on Friday June 2nd, 12pm to 4pm, so book your day off now!! It's free and has the best venue of the whole fringe (we think, anyway) It promises to be another full on family day with juggling workshops in the big top, tractor derby and the community bus for the under 5's. ACTA will be running recycled costume making workshops on the day, and leading a parade around the Farm and neighbouring streets. There will once again be rickshaw rides and pedal powered inflatables. You can join in with a capoeira demonstration too. David Bowers from Mosaic Madness will be on site to help create another piece of community mosaic artwork. So leave the car at home, grab a picnic and head to the Farm for an afternoon of fun, it's what the holidays are made for. Community Champions Congratulations to all the volunteers who have raised funds through the Community Champions scheme. Community Champions was set up by the Scarmen Trust and funded from the Department of Education and Skills. Volunteers can apply for up to £2000 to run projects for the charities they work for. So far 5 volunteers from the Farm have been successful. They are: Molly Ricketts who has been awarded money to set up a gardening project and buy a second hand lock-up for tools. Rob Cottle who was awarded money to set up a green woodworking project, which includes training and buying green woodworking tools. Julia Pflaum, to go on training and buy tools for a conservation project. Mark Williams, to set up a composting scheme, which involves building large composting bays for the local community to use at the Farm. Interesting facts about our Soay sheep Did you know?
School And Group Visits This spring Steff Reynolds took her CEVAS (Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme). This has helped her to create a teachers pack for the Farm.Thanks to support from Damien and Mike at Interface we have created a CD that can be sent out to schools. School visits have already started with all classes of Twerton Infants enjoying learning about and meeting the animals on site. Their visits inspired lots of discussions and mini models of some of their favourite farm animals. We plan to work closely with the school through the coming seasons, on a variety of projects on site, using the Farm as an outside classroom. We have also enjoyed visits from a group from Percy Community Center, who set up camp for a day and enjoyed a nature trail around the site, before meeting the animals. Children from the Southside Family Project took some time out from the Community Bus to meet and feed the animals. Summer Activities Details are yet to be confirmed but once again the award winning play rangers, Shiva and James will be on site offering young people the chance to join in with a host of outdoor play activities during the summer holidays. These include:
Steff will be working once again with the Southside Family project and also First Steps Family Team. There will also be BBQ's and picnics throughout the summer. Please keep an eye out for posters in the local area, nearer the holidays. After School Sessions The Play Rangers run three sessions at Bath City Farm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1530 to 18.30. The sessions are always different and now spring has arrived and the nights are lighter we can play outdoors more easily. We are planning more den building and camp fires, art projects, wacky races, nature hunts and other fun activities. From the week of 3rd May we will be running Football and Capoeira sessions in Rosewarn Park between 16.00 and 18.00. The first hour of these sessions will be used for training sports mentors from the young community who will then train other children and young people. This helps to build confidence, share skills and boost healthy living. We always listen to what young people want and try and balance their wishes with introducing them to new activities. We are also planning trips away and camps for the summer. If you have any questions or want to find out more about our activities, contact Shiva on 07813 156001. Play Rangers are managed by Wansdyke Play Association who can be contacted on 01761 420660. Spring Clean At The Farm A massive thanks to everyone who turned up to help with this years Spring Clean. You should all be very proud of yourselves as we raised £225 towards the animal care this year. That's double the amount we raised last year! We also cleared 30 bags of litter from the site, making it much safer for the cows. Volunteering Bath City Farms volunteers have been very busy in the past few months. Hedge laying has been completed in the cow fields and lots of volunteers have helped out with it and learnt a new skill at the same time. Volunteers have also been involved with helping Kedric the community farmer to stock proof the cow fields ready for their arrival at the end of april. Other things volunteers have achieved recently are building the new donkey a stable, clearing bramble from fields and making a gravelled path down towards the pig pens, along with the weekly tasks of cleaning out the animals. Two volunteers Molly and Anne have done a great job working in the office. They have updated our membership list and will be making sure all members receive regular newsletters and updates. If you would like to volunteer with us, please contact the Farm. Can you help us?
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