Lower Shaw Farm Newsletter
- a look back at 2017

Many thanks to those of you who sent us season’s greetings in cards and letters, which were all read, enjoyed, and then hung up in the Dairy between the homemade paper chains suspended between the old oak beams and the many twinkling lights and the sturdy little Christmas tree. Very nice
Brilliant too, literally, was our end-of-year Carols by Candlelight event. Thanks to a fabulous team of wwoofers and helpers, candles lit the drive, yard, and cowshed. And weather-wise, it was a calm and silent night. A half moon hung in a dark but clear and cloudless sky and hundreds of grownups and children joined us for Carols galore. It was a joyfilled and memorable night
ACTIVITIES
We feel very grateful for another great year of creative, productive, and life-enhancing activities and events at LSF. You may well have been among the many hundreds of people who choose to come to LSF, and brought it such splendid energy, great ideas, and cool creativity. It never ceases to amaze us. We feel very thankful.
Key monthly activities at LSF are our wonderful Working Weekends, without which we could not function, or feel as grateful as we do.

LSF has also been buzzing on weekdays throughout 2017. The busiest day of the week is usually the Wednesday Cafe. It’s the day we open up LSF to anyone who’d like to pop in. We offer a farm walk, drinks, home-made snacks and lunches, and lots of play-space and chatting time. It’s so nice, to see people connecting and children running free. A number of parents have emerged from these days to be key members of the LSF Children’s Project.
Weekends and Wednesdays apart, LSF was also in use on most other days of the week. Some lovely people and groups hired our facilities. These included numerous yoga teachers, who run classes in the Hayloft; neighbour Elena’s Breast-mates, providing a chance for mothers who breast-feed their babies to meet, greet, and help one another; regular and popular Monday Health Walks; a monthly Reading Group; a Writers’ Cafe; and a ‘Mum’s the Word’ Writing Group.
On one occasion, we hosted a pre and post-natal yoga group in the Hayloft. Counting in one mother after another, either expecting or with the tiniest baby in arms, was a special experience, enough to make anyone go broody. Well, some, or at least one of us anyway.

In September, former resident Heather, celebrated a significant birthday at LSF by inviting old friends and new ones, in particular refugees fron Swindon’s Harbour Project, for a Cowshed ceilidh. What a night it was: a joyful and international knees up if ever there was one!
Mostly, we manage to space our groups and use of facilities so that LSF is never too crowded, so that we can pace our workload, be professional, and make sure all visitors are well looked after and have a good time. But on one Sunday in July, we found ourselves stretched to the limits, of hosting, multi-tasking, and staying calm.
We’d had a lovely singing group here on a weekend residential course. They were just orchestrating their closing choral circle, outside, when a local refugee group we’d invited for an afternoon of activities began arriving. They saw the happy singers, and, naturally, went to join them. At the same time, a group of people, with a somehat different focus, who had booked the Hayloft for an afternoon of relaxation, also began arriving. A well-meaning helper was asking the refugee group to divert to the front lawn for a welcome drink. Some of the people coming to relax thought this meant them too. Why not?
Soon, we had a complete and chaotic mix and mingling of individuals looking for their own group and activities. Who was meant to be where and with whom? People were perplexed, some even vexed. Meanwhile, Andrea and Matt were rushing this way and that desperately and diplomatically trying to separate and steer people to their designated areas. It was a little hectic, and hilarious!
WORK

all-age acrobatics
In 2017, we did quite a bit of it. The detail might bore you but the results continue to maintain, improve, and beautify LSF.
Have you noticed the new double doors and windows in the Centre? On one occasion in February, while former resident and key LSF fixer and improver Martin was working on these, he’d left the Centre without doors for one night. In the morning, Matt went in to find a fox curled up on the settee by the woodstove. It hadn’t booked or paid a deposit but looked very happy!
In April, long-term, long-distance, long-bearded, long-known occasional builder-wwoofer Stewart stayed long enough to put brand spanking new doors on our old bike and storage sheds, while at the same time, Jake put recycled double wooden doors on the back of his old truck. A new spring fashion was unfolding at LSF: delightful doors on shabby sheds and trucks!
To help keep LSF gardens and outbuildings in good shape, we found two extra local helpers in 2017.
One is Grace, a friendly, industrious, green-fingered gardener, who is a terrific help to Andrea and her annually more ambitious plans for things natural, floral, and horticultural at LSF. For example, n 2017, round the yard, did you notice the terrific tulips?
The other new helper is Andy, a decidedly handy handyman, who happily, calmly, and efficiently turns his hand to anything broken, crumbling, leaking, or not working at LSF. Have you noticed that main gutters and drainpipes now take rainwater away from the veranda rather than on to it?
One cold weekend in December, the heavy, old, much-used back door fell off its ancient hinges and the even older Rayburn stove sprang a leak. But, with ingenious bodger’s use of lump hammer and fire cement, respectively, both were swiftly and unceremoniously fixed and pressed back into service and are now working as good as ever. Old age is not always the end.
ANIMALS
Although we are more people farm than animal farm, the animals do keep us busy. .
In January, a woman rang to say that one of our black sheep with an ear tag was wandering round Peatmoor Lagoon, a mile away! It was being chased, she said, by school children and the police. We ran to the sheep pen, to count sheep. There they all were, quietly chewing their cud. The black sheep at the lagoon was a mystery, and remains one.
The year also started with hens and ducks locked up 24/7, not allowed to see the potentially Bird Flu infectious light of day. When finally, in April, the all-clear was given and we were able to let them out, their joy was unconfined. The hens pecked voraciously at the spring grass and sought out their favourite dust baths; and the ducks waddle-dashed for the pond, where the tadpoles dived for cover!
Now here’s a question. How do you trim a tooth that is growing into the cheek of a 250lbs Kuni-Kuni pig? Answer: with woman-power, man-power, and cheese-wire. That’s what we did anyway. Using one wedging-board and a lot of muscle-power, four of us, two women vets, Andrea, and Matt, wedged Charlie Pig in a corner between fence and wall, put a rope round his snout, hoisted it up into a relatively secure position and then, with considerable dexterity, ran the cheese-wire round the curved and finger-long tooth and sawed away, with a rapid see-saw action, the heat from which burnt through the tooth. The pig’s squeals and the acrid smell were almost equally awful but thankfully, neither lasted very long.
Late spring, our solitary Swedish Blue (duck) who six months earlier had half her chest ripped away by a fox, sat on and hatched a clutch of eggs we got from a local farmer. She was as proud as we were pleased with her seven multi-coloured mixed-breed ducklings. Very cute!
Equally cute and mixed-breed beautiful were eleven home-hatched chicks we had at about the same time. With laying hens, adult ducks, point of lay pullets, new chicks, and a family of ducklings, our various poultry houses, hutches, and arks were all in use. Daily, all these had to be opened in the morning, and crucially, shut at night. There were seven poop-holes, doors, and latches to shut and secure. One night, we forgot one, the one where the eleven chicks slept.
A fox got the lot! We were devastated. We had failed our livestock. There were too many doors to shut. Too much to remember nightly. We should have simplified the system. Argh. Acknowledging the likelihood that the fox had a family to feed, and that they probably had a feast, was little comfort.
Other wild animals have also been part of life at LSF. One day in May, daughter Rosa’s betrothed man Sam drove her big Bloom van off to Wootton Bassett for a service. It had overwintered by the hedge on the edge of the car park, so had not been moved for a while.
A few hours later, we got a call from the mechanic on the job. ‘We can’t do it.’ he said ‘There’s a bird’s nest on the back axle. I think it’s got babies!’
Immediately, we stopped all practical matters of consequence and got ourselves into emergency mission mode, as one does for wild things in trouble. Sam dashed off, to bring the van back to its former parking place, to see if the parent birds would come looking for their brood. With the nest still balanced on the back axle, actually brilliantly built and wedged in, he drove carefully back from Bassett and parked up by the trees. But, despite the deseprate cries from the five baby wrens, there was no sign of their parents..
What to do next? Not having eaten for almost twenty-four hours, the wrenslets were getting weaker and their gaping less frequent. So we started making pone calls and did not stop till we found wonder woman Sue, who had a reputation for reviving rescued birds.
‘Get ‘em over here quick’ said Sue, ‘before they stop gaping!’ Still operating in mercy mission mode, we extracted the nest from under the van and with it securely-boxed in the passenger seat, drove fast across town. At Sue’s house, we made our way past the purple parrot and the big white swan in the bath, to the A&E aviary.
‘They’re wrens all right’ said Sue. ‘Good job you didn’t try feeding ‘em grains. They’ll need to have halved mealworms.’ And she promptly proceeded to pinch live mealworms in half and feed them to the newly-gaping baby birds. ‘That’s good.’ said Sue. ‘They’ll be fine! For the next few days, they’ll have to sleep with me, so that I can feed them every two hours. But they’ll be fine!’
Four days later, Sue rang, somewhat distraught, and said, ‘They’re all dead. I’m really sorry. I did my best.’
We acknowledged that she had and thanked her.
A couple of days later, Sue rang again and said ‘Two of them are fine and will be ready to fledge by next week.’ – ‘What?!’ we said. ‘But you said they were dead!’ - ‘Ah, yes’ said Sue, ‘That was to protect you, because you were so keen on them. When two of them died, I just wanted to prepare you for them all dying.’
Her logic defied logic but we did not dwell on it. We were just happy to hear the good news.
A few days later, we collected the surviving birds, now fully-feathered little wrens. ‘Release them by a wall, preferably a rough old stone wall, with cracks and that.’ Sue had advised.
And so it came to pass that the last day of May was a great day. Not only did we get a new fridge; not only did we have a club-swinging, flute-playing, American, Australian, German, Polish, Italian, Irish visitor-welcoming Dairy Door-opening ceremony but we also released the two surviving back axle-born baby wrens, up the Hayloft’s stone wall. They fluttered, looked about, quickly and competently made their way to the top, and then one flew off to the garden and the other to the tangle of ivy on the Shepherds’ Hut. They were very much alive, and free. And, in a manner of speaking, so were we!
PEOPLE

full and half marathons
Well, in one sense, the most important people at LSF are people like you, our visitors! It is you who bring energy, ideas, creativity, muscle, magic, and money, all key factors to the well-being of LSF. Without you, LSF would not be what it is.
But we do also have some pretty nice people living here, both down Caravan Alley and up in the house, some of them here a lot of the time, and some, hardly ever.
Claire, Sports Therapist, Personal Trainer, and resident fitness-adviser, has a weekly local routine that keeps her busy and includes key tasks round the farm. But she also found time to compete in the European Duathlon championships in Soria, Spain, visit Valencia, and do a spot of cycling in Gran Canaria. Claire also had a milestone birthday this year, to celebrate which she had a good time with special people in St Ives.

Jacob, the home-bred juggler and gravity-defier, has had a decidedly full year, with a succession of slackline and juggling engagements, mostly travelling in his Mercedes truck, his home on wheels, in which he’s been to Scotland, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Ireland, Blenheim Palace for BBC TV’s Countryfile Live, and Twickenham, the latter as organiser of ‘a really big gig’ in front of 80,000 people. After weeks of anxious prep, the big day came. ‘We smashed it!’ was the verdict. And barely catching breath, he and Irish girlfriend Darine, who together perform an amazing acro routine that will next be seen at the Swindon Festival of Literature, were off to Central America for three months of work with Performers without Borders.

Anna, twin sister to Jake, continues to work as a Camp Management advisor for the Norwegian Refugee Council. In 2017 she finished her assignment in Lebanon and took on a new one in Afghanistan; and also took time out to come home and be an LSF wwoofer for the summer; to run the New Forest Marathon in 3 hours 52 minutes; and to complete a 10-day silent meditation ‘boot camp’ in Sweden. Phew.

Rosa, big sister, has had another terrific year with her Rosa Bloom clothing company. Pop up shops in London and stalls at festivals, including Glastonbury and Wilderness, have been hugely successful, a just reward for the amount of work required to succeed as sole trader. Thankfully, she has created a terrific team to assist her. Furthermore, making the year a really good one, Rosa and her boyfriend Sam have happily announced their engagement.

Andrea, LSF lynchpin and relentless multi-tasker, is well, notwithstanding her recent accident with walking poles, which has left her with a suspicious-looking and joke-provoking black eye. It’s amazing, that she has an accident like that in the visitor-friendly Lake District and has no such incidents when travelling to much more exotic places, like Fuerte Ventura, the Dolomites, and Cornwall, as she has done this year.
Matt, alternatively chirpy or grumpy LSF front-man and unreliable chronicler, has been pretty active too, not only with regular and routine LSF duties but also with the twenty-fourth Swindon Festival of Literature, and linked reading and writing projects at LSF and in town. He had a little birthday, and big party, but did not go to Paraguay this year, because he has sold his little house under the mango trees by the river there. At the time that he might have gone, and maybe to take his mind of it, and aging, he ran a Half Marathon in 2hours 12 minutes on a wet and chilly day but got into a bit of bother after the finish when his body temperature went down to 33 degrees. He ended up in the First Aid Tent but soon recovered, thanks in no small part to daughter Anna providing pullover, hot chocolate, and tlc.

at Holland clan gathering
Another memorable event for Matt, his family, and LSF, was the gathering here in August of the extended Holland ‘clan’, somewhere in the region of 70 relatives, from Australia, South and North America, Spain, Sussex, Bristol, and Purton. It was fantastic!
If you want to know more, about any of the above, you’ll have to visit us in 2018. We hope that you will!
Till we meet again, keep warm, keep well, and in touch.
Best thoughts and all good wishes for the New Year.