Doing A Calf Assed Job

Tasks at Horsenden Hill Farm are always varied and it's never known what GoodGym volunteers will be asked to do. Whatever it is, they'll do to the best of their ability and work hard not mess it up.

Today, one of the farm volunteers, Nick, introduced the team to 2 rare breed calves whose mums were off grazing in the woodland. The calves turned their backs to the team, which was a sign of what was to come 💩. The GoodGymers were asked to clean out their barn, giving it a fresh layer of straw as the calves wanted it to look its best for Festival of Nature tours that would be running in the afternoon.

Paul, Kash, Sevan and Dan, who was at his first GoodGym session (welcome! 👏), were offered wellies for the task, which they all jumped into. Even Dan, whose feet were very snug in the largest pair. None of them thought that wearing their regular shoes would be a good idea today.

Armed with a fork and wheelbarrow each, the team squelched their way into the barn. They needed to remove the top layer of straw and manure, wheeling it off to start a new pile of fertiliser for future planting. With each layer moved, they found that there was another underneath. Then, after 90 minutes of scraping, scooping and wheeling, they hit stone! This was the sign that the manural removal of the old bedding was finished and it was time to lay fresh straw.

The hay and straw bales looked really similar. Apparently the hay was paler and for eating with straw being more yellow and used for sleeping. With the straw identified, the GoodGymers found that, like a loaf of bread, the straw bales were cut into thin slices. After the hard work of clearing, the slices were easy to move around and spread, so the team made light work of the last piece of the task.

With their work done for the day, task owner Elsa and the calves were very appreciative. Everyone - except the calves - went to enjoy some freshly baked pizza, drinks and a wander around the stalls at the Festival of Nature, where they met many other GoodGym task owners and volunteers from partner organisations.