Our very own Dr. Dolittle, Chris

Hello and happy Sunday. I'm back again for another update on all things CaenhillCC because, you've guessed it, it's been another busy week. Before I get started on all of the top news though, I want to do something a bit different and start with a thank you. A thank you to everyone out there who's been so supportive since my second little farmer arrived just over six months ago now. He might still sleep like a newborn some nights, demand to be carried by mummy so much that it makes my back hurt, but you've all brightened the journey so far. Brightened it with your kind words, understanding when I've been a little slow in my usual farm support, purchased through the wish list (huge thank you to whoever sent the change mat, and to Tobes for the hot chocolate), plus shared the journey with me.

That's right, Dexter is 6 months old now and actually shares his Birthday with our cute little goat Clover, so she'll be six months too. I don't know where the time has gone but our babies are really growing up. Our goslings are all now part of the rush hour, Taz is far too big to carry around in your hands, well I wouldn't want to try it anyway, and our lambs, well we can't pick them up and cuddle them anymore either. Even our latest baby Mo is growing really quickly and at 2 weeks old is getting quite fast running around. Casey was really surprised at just how much his little Mo had changed at our visit this week, we're now waiting to see Mo's feathers starting to grow before he'll probably be finding a bigger space to live in around the farm.

Unfortunately life can also bring loss and this is no different at our farm, no matter how magical it might be and on Friday we lost our sheep Polly. Our wonderful Polly joined our first ever orphan lamb, Dotty, at the farm around eight years ago now and the pair grew up together, discovered the farm together and gave us our first experience of looking after sheep. While you might not know Polly all too well through our videos, to Chris, Helie, myself and our longer serving volunteers, Polly was certainly something special. We'll miss her so very much and I know anytime that I hear a loud, almost shouting sheep, I'll think of Polly and everything she's taught me.

While we might have lost one of our most loved sheep, we are lucky enough to be expecting a new character to join our flock soon as Bumblebee is expecting her first baby. Our bucket loving Bumblebee is already in the barn as you really can never tell how a first lambing will go and she has our wonderful Dotty at her side for company. The rest of our sheep are still out in the fields for now, they really are much happier out in the fresh air, but don't worry, Chris is checking on them regularly, taking them treats and enjoying the start of the day in their company.

Casey and I happy to see Mo again

In fact Bumblebee will have even more fantastic company at her side as we start to encourage our birds back into the barn. It's not what we like to do with so many areas all over the farm for our feathered friends to forage, but unfortunately bird flu is now back in the UK. For now this just means that our birds need to be fed indoors, though we are expecting a full bird lockdown in time where all of our geese, chickens, ducks and turkeys will need to be kept inside in covered or netted areas. This isn't the first time we've had a bird flu lockdown, we just came out of one back in April this year after a winter lockdown. While it's sad to be back here already, there is a benefit though, our netting is still up to give our birds an outdoor space and we have plenty of ideas to bring you the animals you love each morning.

Yes, our rush hours will need to start changing already. We can't feed our animals outside so we won't be encouraging them to rush out for breakfast and some ducking under our gates. We will still hopefully have some sort of breakfast rush to bring you though, it is afterall the most important meal of the day. Plus, there will be loads of fun to still bring to you with Thanksgiving and Christmas on the way and our bookings are now open for Christmas shoutouts.

We might be full for visits at the moment and not taking any more bookings, but we can still bring you a little bit of farm Christmas magic through a shoutout. All you need to do is fill in our form including as many helpful details as you can and we do the rest. Then, in return for a donation to support our work, you'll receive a personal message on Christmas Eve straight from the farm especially for you. You'll need to book early to avoid disappointment, it does get busy towards the big day preparing a lot of Christmas treats and availability to record your messages is limited, but we'll do our best.

I think that's nearly all for this week, but hopefully between sorting our cheeky escaping cows, Daisy went on an adventure again, and our training with Sirius the owl we'll be working on our merchandise. And, I'm sure we'll have lots more to bring you online too as well as news of interesting projects coming our way, so all that's left to say is thank you for being there.

Until next time, take care.

Kara, Casey, Dexter and Teddy