How would the first Saturday of 2024 look at Horsenden Farm? Kash promised everyone a fun task, pizza and beer. When the first GoodGymers arrived, the place looked a bit quiet.

The pizza day was off because of too few customers, the beer tap place looked closed, and the task...

"It's going to be the manure" announced Madhan, emerging from the Hayloft.

What a start to the GoodGym adventure for someone like Sean, who joined today for his first-ever task! You might not expect that, but Sean was the most prepared of us. His work experience had taught him that a farm means wellies!

Today's workouts on the way to the task had a spike in the number of wheels coming to the farm!

🥇 Cycling: 3 people 🚴🏻‍♀️🚴🏿‍♂️🚴🏻‍♂️ Michelle, Sean, Luis
🥈 Running: 2 people 🏃🏽🏃‍♀️ Sevan, Kash
🥉 Walking: 1 person 🚶🏾 Madhan

Elsa from the farm showed us a heap of cow manure 🐮 that grew into monstrous proportions.

"That pile cannot get any bigger!"

Our job was to transport the precious fertiliser to a potato patch - or should I say - field! Megan, another volunteer, gave us a quick demo on how to level the manure with a rake. That became Michelle's job. She was very proactive about her new position as it was the most suitable task for someone recovering from an injury. The rest of us were loading the wheelbarrows with dung and pushing them up the hill. That was a great progressive workout 🏋🏽 as the layer of cardboard gradually disintegrated under our feet and the exposed mud became softer and more slippery, making the job harder.

Over halfway through the task, we took Elsa's offer to help ourselves to tea and biscuits at the Hayloft. We bumped into Justin who showed us the biscuit stash. There was another treat: Michelle's cake which turned out to be excellent! 🍰

Refreshed with tea and cake power, we came back to uncover the richest layers of steaming muck that Elsa thought to be the highest quality potato nutrition.

More compressed manure meant heavier barrows and an even better workout! With a few more loads of that agricultural treasure, we covered the remaining potato field area.

The pizza might have been off-limits today but the farm's oven still produced delicious flatbreads and pastries, so everyone stayed for a quite carb-heavy lunch.

We're back to Horsenden in February for more farm tasks - sign up here! Who knows what next month will bring? The mucky job may be off - although I wouldn't underestimate Horsenden cows!