Sheep! Chickens! Scythes! Sunshine!

Seriously, what more could we ask for from a Wednesday evening GoodGym task?! (Maybe slightly fewer nettle stings I suppose, if we're being picky.)

Phil welcomed us into Oxford City Farm with a brief introduction to the Farm and a run through the white board of proposed tasks. There are always plenty of jobs to be tackled at Oxford City Farm, so a GoodGym flash mob of volunteers is great for getting through lots of the 'to do' list in 1 evening.

Although we were very distracted by the curious trio of sheep we did manage to focus enough to grasp the tasks and divide into teams.

Operation fox-proof chicken coup headed to one corner of the farm. Despite security of Alcatraz proportions the fox had broken in and run amok. Chicken coup mark II will up the ante to out-fox the fox, but first all the undergrowth needed clearing from in and around the run and the aviary net. There was a bit of competition for the two mini-scythes, but loppers and secateurs were decent consolation prizes.

Meanwhile, in the mint patch, Sarah, Jocasta and Lorenzo had the most fragrant job of the evening, creating a woodchip path through the mixture of black pepper mint and Moroccan mint. (Not dwelling on the close proximity of the lambs to the mint...)

Everyone else split between chopping burdock and normal dock - largely decided by hair length (burdock burrs do LOVE to tangle in long hair). The burdock was grown deliberately but now needs some controlling and cutting back, to make space to plant pumpkins. The normal dock grows all around the farm site, and the plan was to cut as much of it back as possible before it has a chance to spread seed around. Burdock went to the compost pile, while dock went into the sheep enclosure for burning at a later date (presumably once the sheep have moved over to a different patch).

Oh the sheep enclosure!

Never before have we met sheep so willing to be in selfies, with such strong catalogue poses, nor ones with such a love of back rubs. While they seemed to find the dock tasty, their real love was all the attention. Shaun the Sheep holds a special place in all our hearts now.

Welcome Anne and Kajuli - good to meet you!