About Odds Farm
We wanted to tell you all about the farm but felt that this unsolicited write up would impart far more than any marketing speak!
A Year At The Farm
Maisie and I began visiting Odds farm last spring with our postnatal NCT group. I remember on our first visit looking at the season ticket price and trying to decide if we would make enough use of it to justify the cost. On our fifth visit, not all that long after the first, I finally decided we would make good use of a season ticket and bought one. It has turned out to be one of the best things I've bought. I've lost track of how often Maisie and I have visited the farm. We've been with her dad, grandparents, godparents, NCT friends, but spend most of our time there just the two of us. Having the season ticket, I don't mind popping there for an hour or two in the afternoon, so it's somewhere to go after a music or play class and it's just far enough to give Maisie a nap in the car.
SPRING: We met the baby goats and we were lucky enough to see some being born. We watched them suckle and play, and even got to feed them when they were old enough. At the time of writing this in December, all but one have left the farm for pastures new.
SUMMER: We played outside, built endless sandcastles in the sandpits, fed the chickens, and collected their eggs. We thought about crazy golf but never quite got round to it, maybe when Maisie's a bit bigger. We went up and down the field on tractor rides and had long walks to see all the animals in the furthest fields, especially Norman, our favourite Golden Guernsey goat who was usually in the field at the very end by himself. That end of the farm is somewhere you can almost be guaranteed of seeing big birds of prey.
AUTUMN: Our favourite time so far has been the autumn. The children went back to school and we had the farm for ourselves and have been visiting almost every week. The baby goats we knew from the spring were weaned from their mothers and moved to an indoor pen, so Maisie could happily feed them by herself without their mothers pushing in. We got to know all the pigs and watched their piglets grow up from tiny little things to a boisterous mob charging round their enclosure.
WINTER: We went to the farm again today. When Maisie woke up this morning, her first word to me was 'Goat', so it wasn't hard to work out where she wanted to go. It's nice at the farm at the moment, when the weather started getting colder most of the animals were moved under shelter, so you don't have to walk far to see everyone and it doesn't really matter if the weather is bad.
Maisie likes to visit her favourite pig, Charlotte. It took us a while to work out who Charlotte was as Maisie kept mentioning her name we assumed it might by a child in her nursery, until we finally realised she was talking about Charlotte the pig! We visit Charlotte so often now, the staff have started referring to Maisie as 'the little girl who loves Charlotte'.
We try to get there late afternoon to help feed the pigs as they're usually asleep the rest of the time. The last time we went, the very nice young lady feeding them gave Maisie Charlotte's bucket of food so she could feed her by herself. Isn't it funny how you end up loving complete strangers who are kind to your children!
Pig feeding was followed by cow milking. That's our favourite demonstration. The lady doing it asks the children where the clusters go 'on Isabelle's ears?', we all shout no for each option until we finally get to the udder when all chorus 'yes'. Maisie loves that bit and usually likes to shout 'udder' for the next hour or so.
Visiting the farm so often over the year, we've developed a real affection for the place, the people and the animals. We feel we know most of the animals by now, indeed Maisie's taken to pushing a postcard of Norman around the house in her little buggy - how do I tell her that both he and her beloved Charlotte will be leaving Odds farm soon (for other farms). Maybe she'll grow to like their replacements Worzel and Mildred.
The other good thing about going to the farm frequently is that you get to know the best time to see the different animals. The rabbits often hide when there are lots of children about, but if you go to see them just as the farm's closing, they're almost always there, happy to be stroked.
We're going back for a visit again soon. One of the pigs is due to have another litter soon, so we're looking forward to seeing her piglets. Before you know it, it will be spring again and we'll get to know another batch of lambs and kids, maybe Maisie will be old enough to help bottle feed the lambs by then. Isabelle's due to have another calf in May, so I imagine we'll be going back for quite some time to come.