We have had various visitors to the project over the Easter holidays with one 7 year old arriving just in time to assist in the delivery of the first 2 lambs! Two of our volunteers bought their son who got stuck in with digging over strawberry beds, feeding sheep and exploring the woods. It’s great…
Our first lambs of the year have arrived today, with one ginormous one needing a helping hand (or arm) to enter the world. The timing was perfect as for once the ewe chose a daytime slot, which was warm and dry as opposed to 3am with a frost. We have 3 more mums to be…
We are enjoying the willow shelters planted 18 months ago which have taken root beside the river. Having had such success with them we plan to plant more at the end of the year, creating spots for people to stop and enjoy a moment of rest and reflection. But yesterday we fancied a bit of…
Lots of plans are afoot for the year 2019, and we have launched straight into them thanks to some glorious days. Our ram lamb twins made a successful great escape over the Winter, so a new and far more secure paddock was in order. We have welcomed 2 more volunteers into the project, with one…
On Saturday we celebrated National Tree Week by planting an orchard with the help of the Smile Project. Despite the dreadful forecast we were blessed with a rain-free day, and as such were able to plant the majority of our new orchard, as well as doing other wood-related activities. Thanks to the Tree Council, and…
We are looking forward to celebrating National Tree Week on November 24th by welcoming the Smile project back to Manna. We have been generously given funding by the Tree Council to plant an orchard, so the Smile families are returning to help us plant the trees. We have a day of fun planned including craft…
We are harvesting the bountiful crops this hot summer has blessed us with. We have had absolutely mountains of tomatoes thanks to the months of sunshine, and are now frantically processing them into pasta for winter soups. We are also in the midst of spinning out and potting up honey which looks to be a…
Leah our shy ewe successfully gave birth to 2 beautiful boys last weekend. However, early issues with feeding meant some human intervention involving James milking a sheep at 2am into a syringe and playing daddy!
So we have 4 lambs from last year and hopefully more on the way in 6 weeks time. While trying to behave like pretend farmers it seems we have failed on the not-getting-to-attached front. This particular lamb is a gannet and will do anything for food including taking on horned adult males, and accepting hugs…
We have been given a beautiful spinning wheel from a lovely elderly neighbour which for weeks has just been a pleasure to look at. But this weekend marked the beginning of our Jacob fleece being turned into real wool ready for knitting. Admittedly the first attempt led to something I can only describe as furry…