Scuppered by the Weather

Hmm.
What can you say? We turned up last Saturday with all good intentions. At least it had stopped snowing on Friday so there was some hope some work could be done - but no sooner had we brewed up and supped our tea in preparation to get busy, it rained! Light at first but within 1/2 half an hour it was 'stair rods'.
The rain did hold off for a while so I got set to fill in a hole where there had obviously been a test scrape some time earlier. About 1 cubic metre of earth had been put to one side. Well, I tried stabbing the spade into the earth pile and promptly jarred my wrist! The earth was still frozen solid! Almost permafrost (I exagerate a tad!). I think that was the time we decided to abandon for the day, all cold and wet and some requiring a pee due to the tea!
We did discuss what the Duchy had offered to help us with. Kevin (God bless him) agreed to call in a digger to excavate the pond and Mike, with the help of Glenys, will be on site when we get word the digger be there, just to make sure its in the right place. That will save us some serious work.
Also outside the gate I noticed a huge pile of topsoil put there for our use. This for the raised beds and anywhere else we can use it. When Steve is free we can get set to form the beds then start importing soil.
If the Orchard is your thing then this Saturday is an Orchard Workday. PLEASE wear strong footwear - particularly hard soles (souls?) are required. We convene at 10 am. See you there.
Ian

The Edible Hedge

Saturday the 13th saw about 15 of us down at the Farm planting the "trees" donated by the Woodland Trust. The pack contained over 100 trees and shrubs of varying sizes and consisted of dog rose, crab apple, elder, hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel and sea buckthorn.

Planted along the north perimeter fence to form a good screen when established, the hedge should produce some lovely nuts and berries for humans and wildlife alike. The planting was entirely random so a good mixed hedge!

Even the younger members got involved

Steve donated this Horse Chestnut,
which has been planted in what will be the recreation area

Yes, that twig in the corner really is a sapling!

If any member has a sapling that's getting too big for their garden just let us know and I'm sure we will find a place for it. Nut trees especially welcome.

Ian

It's a Laugh!

One of our number is Mark who organises the Comedy Club at various times and venues in Dorchester. He decided he'd like to donate the profits from these to Transition Town Dorchester for use on its projects.
The first of these donations, a little over £1 000, was handed over at the Farm last weekend and is for use by/for the Farm or Orchard. SUPERB. Thanks, Mark. Keep up the good work.

Mark presenting the Cheque to Jenny - with a few hangers-on standing by!

Ian

First Workday.

And a fine day it was, too.
About a dozen of us all turned out to mark out the areas on-site that had been agreed on the plan. We now have a good idea where the Chicken run, raised beds, polytunnel and pond are going.
The new gate has been installed, courtesy of The Duchy, along with a new fence on the east side of the site.
The bank to the east is mainly earth that has been deposited when the initial work at Poundbury started - and over the years its slipped a little, aided by some badgers and rabbits! Its taken maybe 10 years to push the old fence over. The new one is about 1 metre inside the old one.
The bank to the west has now been included into the site and this'll be good for bushes and small trees to coppice or crop as appropriate.

One needs to get one's priorities right, doesn't one.

Man with Tape Measure

Next planned workdays will be the weekend of the 13th and 14th November to get some paths installed and to plant 150 (yes 150) trees which have been donated by the Woodland Trust. Fancy a bit of hard graft for the Autumn? Come along.
There will be other workdays organised by individual groups and the first of these is this weekend when a few will be preparing the site for the chicken house. It's a bit uneven just there. They may even set the base ready for House construction. Help will always be welcome. Speak to Kathy or contact me via this post.

Ian

I'ts just the Beginning Pt 2

It all started like this.
Whilst at a Transition Town Dorchester Food group meeting I had this harebrained idea that it would be nice if Dorchester had a community farm. Inspired by the book "Local Food - How to make it happen in your community" (want to borrow it? Ask!) I thought I'd stick my neck out.
First the Google Earth search to find odd bits of land within the town boundary that would be half suitable (I found 5) then off to see who owned them. It turned out all bar one were owned by the Duchy of Cornwall! Next a quick phonecall to Denis Holmes at the Town Council to find out who to contact, then a call to the good Simon Conibear. I was warned he might be quite cautious and, well, less than helpful (not by Denis though) so my call to him started a bit tentatively, but as conversation progressed it was obvious he was intrigued.
"Put together a proposal," he said,"send it to me and I'll see what we can do".
So, with the help of Andy and Linda from TTD I drew up the proposal. All very official and as professional as we could make it and, on the 1st November last year, sent it in.
Just before Christmas Simon asked to meet me to discuss said proposal, so, with Jenny for support, we went to see him. He couldn't have been more helpful and supportive and that made the whole process much easier.
After a few bits of toing and froing, we settled on what is now known as Under Lanche Community Farm.
The rest you probably know - a site open day and a public meeting later we have the makings of an exciting project.
And the Duchy are looking to deliver topsoil and hard paving quite soon which will enable us to get started with some ground breaking (back breaking?) work.

See you all soon.

Ian

It's just the beginning

Hi All,
Eventually got around to starting the blog.
If anyone wants to contribute then just forward copy to me at rentman(at)mac.com and I'll publish. Please feel free to comment by choosing the (would you believe) COMMENT tag at the bottom of the entry.

Ian