Andrada met up with Asad, Kat and Louis and Oliver early morning at the farm. The sky was sunny and clear, and everyone was eager to get to work. Pat met us at the gates and given us the task for the session.

During this session, farm enthusiasts Asad, Kat and Louis filled the new raised beds with manure and reused soil from tomatoes pots from the greenhouse.

Oliver and Andrada were busy digging and filling up the space next to the main path around the raised beds with woodchip to prevent the main path from flooding. This involved doing multiple trips with full wheelbarrows and using the freshly removed soil to level up the entrance to the donkeys’ field, which needed a bit of flood prevention measures as well.

It was a busy 90 minutes for all of us, but we got to unwind for 30 minutes at the end by picking up apples from the orchid and feeding them to the lovely Rollo, Pollo and their piglets.

We ended our visit by hanging out with the new baby calves on site 🐄 whose names are still debated by the farm’s staff. All we know is that they will carry names of biscuits!

Sam met up with Maria, Rebecca, Oliver, Alice and Rebecca. It was Rebecca's first good deed with GoodGym whilst Alice was attending her second GoodGym session, but one that she was looking forward to as she lived around the corner and always wanted to volunteer at the Farm without committing to a regular volunteering schedule. Hence GoodGym is a great option as we come once a month to blitz a task or two for an hour and a half as we get treated to petting animals for the last half hour.

Today, started a little bit slow as Pat was caught up with some lost and found issues as she is the on-site manager for the day. However, whilst we waited, we asked the ice-breaker question for the day, which was to do with World Tourism Day being on Friday: "What is your favourite holiday destination?" We had Spain, Italy and Japan, which are high on people's list, but even Iceland, Norway and Estonia was mentioned.

As Pat was sorting out the issue, we got the keys to the tool shed and got the tools before progressing to the "Plot to Farm Shop" area as new garden beds were being created. However, there was still an area that needed soil to be taken off to be more at level with the other beds before new ones could be made. With forks, shades and a shovel, we cracked on with digging through the clay like soil as we talked about being a Londoner and if we were all one...

The hour sped by despite the hard work as we all had a system of filling the wheelbarrow before dumping the soil in tonne bags. After filling one tonne bag and topping up another one, we called it a day after it reached midday. Our reward? Walking the ferrets ❤️

After walking the ferrets and a quick tour of the Farm to see all the animals, we said our goodbyes! We are back again on the 27th of October when the Farm should have new animals in....baby calves 🐄

Today five Goodgymmers went to help out at Surrey Docks farm. As usual, lovely Pat met us at the gates and quickly put us to work! This time, we needed to move a few tonne bags of soil. The soil was due to be moved into new raised beds but unfortunately they hadn't been built in time. Meanwhile the soil was in the outside classroom, but that space was needed for a corporate event in a few days time. Our task was to move the soil to another space that was not in the way, and closer to the eventual location of the raised beds.

In 90 minutes, between the 5 of us, we managed to move 4 tonnes of soil. We used 3 wheelbarrows, 5 shovels and an uncountable number of muscles - this was definitely a full body workout!

With half an hour left at the end, Pat treated us to the task to picking up windfall apples then feeding the pigs, as well as feeding the goats and cows with oats.

New pigs were arriving at the farm and they were due to be in a new pen facing the road and our job was to clear the overgrown fences to make sure that the pigs were visible to passers by.

The job took a couple of hours to complete, followed by collecting some apples and feeding some of the pigs.

Summary: A great experience working with the lovely team at Surrey docks farm.

Yesterday, Lobo Isaac and Paulin went to Surrey Docks Farm to help out. Pat from the farm met us at the gates and quickly got us pulling us grass to make one of the paths wider and more accessible. As usual, wise Pat shared her encyclopedic knowledge of plants and bugs. Meanwhile, Isaac shared his repertoire of (very accurate!) farm animal impressions and got licked by a cow many times. The task took a surprising amount of time, and before we knew it, our time was almost up.

As a treat at the end, Pat gave us some willow and bags of oats to feed the goats and the cows.

Today, 5 Goodgymmers went to help out at Surrey Docks Farm. After a slow start, we found Pat, who gave us a series of sweeping tasks. Pat told us that was particularly impactful because the farm some troubles with drainage, so sweeping the paths meant that dirt and hay won't get washed away in the rain causing blocked drains.

We worked like a team on one of those cleaning transformation shows on TV, turning paths, gutters and goat yards sparkling clean. We made 5 wheelbarrows of dirt/poo/hay and we took them down to the muck heap. The goat yard had baby goats in, which was different to usual.

At the end, we had a special treat to see the "orphaned" lambs and then we fed the sheep and the goats.