LDF Entertainment Hub – Diary November 2011

Spooks and Spills

It has been a yet another busy month here at the farm, with the end of October devoted to our ‘Halloween Spooktacular’. Taking place over the half-term week, thousands of visitors flocked to enjoy attractions which included the ‘haunted wood’, pumpkin racing, spooky face painting, a fantastic market and lots of other seasonal fun. A great success overall, celebrations culminated in a brilliant firework display on the evening of Sat, 29th – Richard and his team at SP Fireworks really excelled themselves this year and the display will be really hard to beat!

Unfortunately, Saturday night ended with the drama of a fire, when a hayrick on the farmyard was set alight. Fortunately no-one, human or animal, was hurt, and we would like to thank the fire crew who battled the blaze for 21 hours to save our farm buildings. The cause of this devastating fire is still being investigated due to suspicious circumstances that were noted that evening, but a rogue firework can definitely be ruled out.

With the great success of the Spooktacular and trauma of the blaze, we’re now all recovering from a week that’s been an emotional rollercoaster!

Winter’s on the way.......

However, life goes on here at the farm, with the team busy laying the ground work for next year’s crops. Our legendary Maize Maze is now closed and, following a hugely successful season, it has now been harvested for cattle feed. Plans are already in the pipeline for improvements to make this an even bigger & better attraction for 2012.

Ray’s son Richard has returned from his studies and is taking charge of seed drilling using our newly acquired machinery; most of the wheat and oil seed rape crops are now in the freshly tilled earth. We have also planted a further 30 acres of strawberries, so there should be plenty of delicious farm-grown fruit to sample next summer.

Thanks to much hoping and praying, the rain has finally arrived! This is not only crucial in giving the newly planted seeds the best start, but also for our pond dipping pool, which we hope will be jumping with life and back to full glory ready for groups to enjoy spring.

For those who are keen to learn more about work on the farm during autumn, bookings are still being taken for group visits – please call Val on 07817 691352 for more information.

Late departures - and new arrivals!

The resident swallows have finally left for Africa after the glorious late summer we have enjoyed, to prove that winter is definitely here.

But the other animals are keeping us on our toes: one of our cows calved on Halloween and the new baby has been named ‘Spooky’ in honour of its birthday.

Brining further additions to the family our trusty Labrador, Mabel, has whelped, giving us two beautiful pups – one black boy and a yellow boy – and we’ve now added pigs to our friendly farm animal collection with a sow and her litter of lovely piglets who will be ready to meet and greet visitors early next year.