French volunteer farewell blog; all the good things have an end!!

French volunteer farewell blog; all the good things have an end!!

Hi everyone, we are 4 French wwoofers; Soukaina, Cherine, Oceane and Anne-Celine. The four of us are engineering students (2 in agriculture and 2 in mechanics) from Lyon or Toulouse!! We came to Stockwood CBS because we are interested in organic farm environment, animals, nature, and tractors :). We also wanted to improve our knowledge of the English language and culture. All of that is possible thanks to the lovely people we are working and sharing moments with every day, during our adventure that has finished…but as we say in French, all the good things have an end!!
During our stay, we had the chance to try several different jobs. We were gardeners, we planted various seeds of peas, beans and lettuce. We also weeded, which is an important task because weeds deprive plants from taking up minerals and water in the soil. We learned the importance of compost and natural fertilizers, which are essential in biodynamics.
Baby salad
We picked a lot of fruits: raspberries, loganberries (hybrids between raspberries and blackberries), gooseberries, black currants and wild strawberries… they were perfect for juices and jams made by Anne!!
Fruit picking cropped
We were introduced to masonry work since we also began to dismantle a brick wall which was damaged, brick by brick, to be able to rebuild it with better foundations so it can live for a long time. Apart from that, we helped the people working in Ulula business to optimize the use of the space so they can extend their place.
Masonry4
The best time we had, though, was with the animals. We enjoyed moving cows and sheep to new fields where they could graze the best fresh grass. We participated to the sheep shearing (it prevents flies to lay eggs in their wool) which was really interesting. We also helped to vaccinate sheep against clostridial diseases, and for mineral drenching, footbath (to prevent the bacteria development) as well as the sheep weighing. On the cattle side, we helped the vet to apply a plaster cast to the calf injured leg (especially by sitting on the calf body to immobilize it).
animals6
During our weekends, we went to visit places around the farm, more or less far from it: Stratford, Worcester, Birmingham, Oxford… and Inkberrow of course, where we could try each different ciders !! and local ones moreover… In France, there are very few ciders.
cider2
We are very happy to have learned so many things and again we are glad to have met so many nice and interesting people here. Living so close to nature is definitively body and spirit enriching…we believe there are lots of little pleasures such as walking around the farm and watching biodiversity that contribute to this splendid life, which cannot be better spent than if shared with others.
life9
See more photos from Soukaina, Cherine, Oceane and Anne-Celine on facebook.

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