After a festive visit to Fordingbridge Recreation Ground parkrun and a very cold dip it was time to head to AFC Totton to support Rose Road fundraising. There were lots of steps doing laps of the football pitch with the charity bucket. Everyone was digging deep and in good spirits when Totton won the match! We look forward to hearing the total raised soon.

We started out directing in the car park, then marshalled for a while before trying out a new task of barcode scanning. Turns out it's really easy and a great way to chat to lots of people

Up early on a misty Saturday to help out at Southampton parkrun, scanning barcodes. Was very atmospheric seeing the runners appear through the mist. Met a few familiar and new faces along the way.

Five of us headed to Aldermoor Farm yesterday evening for a leafy challenge. The job was to clear up the leaves from the grassy area, load them into the wheelbarrow, and take them down to the chicken coops. We tipped the piles onto the muddy floor so they could soak up some of the mess and give the chickens something fun to scratch around in. We didn’t see the chickens—they were tucked up for the night—but we hope they woke up to a nice surprise this morning! There were a few laughs along the way, especially when Sarah got her hand stuck in the leaf grabbers (all good now!). Once the work was done, we admired the farm glowing with Christmas lights—a festive finish to a muddy but satisfying task.

After all the festivities at the Rose Road Association Christmas Fair it was time for a big tidy up! We set to work sorting out the bottle tombola, locating parts of elf costumes, tidying refreshments away and sorting through donations. We even started sorting things out that Santa might like to use for next year’s grotto presents. We had just enough time left over for a group shot with scary Santa. We won’t look forward to seeing him again next year!

Today I helped out the British Hen Welfare Trust to rehome nearly 300 ex free range farm hens. They were not sure if the rehoming day could take place with concerns over Avian Flu and the last day had to be cancelled. Fortunately the restrictions did not mean this one had to be postponed and with Defra Bio Security Guidelines in place it was agreed the day could go ahead. There were many jobs to help with including parking, disinfecting car tyres of rehomers, carrying crates, keeping an eye on chickens for any health issues, topping up food and water, and catching the chickens to put into boxes ready for their journey home. I was excited and nervous to start out as a “catcher” having had only a little experience of caring for chickens. Fortunately these chickens seemed very relaxed and were relatively easy to catch or at least at the beginning when there was nearly 300! They got a little more difficult to get as the numbers dwindled. There was one poorly hen we had to keep an eye on and a few hens with some superficial injuries and poo feet that needed to be given a spa! After catching hens for a while I moved to outside the barn and did carrying crates and disinfecting tyres for a while before going back in with the chickens. It wasn’t long before we were down to the last few hens who were taken by volunteers. We then had to get everything disinfected and scrubbed down. It was such a busy day, but so much fun and all the volunteers made sure to check everyone got a break and change of job when needed. What a special privilege to see so many lucky hens have a second chance and go to their new lives. I hope we’ll be able to help at the next rehoming day in the new year.

P.S. I made sure to get an extra bit of hen fitness in by completing HENley on Thames parkrun beforehand!