This evening we welcomed Chris to his first GoodGym Task, we were back at Aldermoor Farm and back to trimming the bush that grows along the fence!

Its a job that needs doing often in the summer as it can quickly grow above the fence line.

The extendable shears were grabbed quick by Sarah and Hannah as they are super good for reaching the bits you wouldn't otherwise be able to reach, and although not needed Wilson grabbed the tool belt (just for effect really).

We know what we are doing now and Richard provides the tools for the job so we were able to get the task done in the hour we had.

It was great to have you on board Chris - we hope you enjoyed your first task and we look forward to seeing you again 😊

Lovely to be back at Aldermoor Farm, such a feel good place to be. This evening we were tasked with cutting back the plants that line the fence with the pavement, keeping the outside view looking nice for any passing public.

We had a quick briefing from Richard with a chance to consider "what's the worse thing that could happen" (a useful way of highlighting any potential health and safety issues). Then much to Wilsons delight, at 18:32 we made a start to tackle the plants from both sides of the fence, and with the tools supplied by Richard we were able to make a good job of it in the hour we had.

Ellie presented Sarah with her 50 badge, which she was able to wear for a part of the task until it got too soggy in the rain.

We also welcomed Lee who is part of Energise Me and had come to join us for the task and to chat to us to see how he could assist.

The rain didn't scupper us at all - in fact it was quite nice to be out in it

It was great to be welcomed back to Aldermoor this evening by Richard exactly a year on from the very first time we visited this wonderful community place. It was officially one year since a group of enthusiastic Southamptoners came together to find out how they could be involved with the first new area to launch since covid and the first community led area too. That night we shifted compost but this evening we were painting signs, cleaning bricks, feeding the cats, and saying goodnight to all the farm birds. We finished off with some unofficial birthday biscuits to celebrate our unofficial birthday (check out our session on 22nd April for our official celebrations!). Richard always keeps us busy and on our toes with new skills to learn so we are very grateful to him for his hard work and organisation. We look forward to our next session at the farm when we won't even need head torches!

We were back for another lovely morning at Aldemoor this morning this time helping the farm to celebrate their tenth birthday with a Spring open day .

There were various tasks and activities to be manned and managed. Judy was chief crafter helping the little ones to make lots of easter pom poms. In the craft tent there was also entertainment from musicians and a lion!

Val, Steph and Abby did an excellent job showing people around the farm and directing them in where to go and also in manning the front desk.

I attempted to help with face painting (with varying results) but the little ones seemed to be pleased.

The weather was almost in April shower territory but when the sun shone it shone beautifully.

As ever the farm has such a beautiful energy and atmosphere and we always love coming here to help. We are looking forward to celebrating our unofficial birthday with the farm on Monday

Wow we had a super lovely Saturday at Aldermoor Farm cleaning bricks! The Sun was shining and it was great to be working at the farm whilst it was open - we caught the attention of quite a few children, curious as to what we were doing.

The 90 minutes passed super fast as we were able to chat and get to know a bit more about each other. Nice to have a mix of newer GG'ers and our friends from Portsmouth GoodGym. We sat and grabbed a drink after and were able to make purchases from the farm shop.

We cleaned approx 100 bricks, making a small dent in the pile still left to go!

Richard is now wondering if he may reuse the bricks on the farm to build a wall....I guess we better go back soon to clean some more 🧱🧱🧱

Our task this evening was to clean bricks! It was fun from the start with Richard demonstrating how clean we needed to clean the bricks, (I'm sure he had picked an easy one!) Some important things to note were how to clean the "P" on a brick and how to decide if a dink was just a dink!

Ellie and Hannah got to work by collecting the bricks from the big pile and wheelbarrowing them up to the two cleaning stations

Judy, Val, Sarah, Amanda and Wilson were armed with tools at their cleaning tables, ready to scrape and remove mortar and paint from the bricks. (Not as easy as Richard made it look)

We welcomed a new volunteer Leszek to the task this evening, after helping with a task on Sunday it was great to see him join us for our Monday session. Together with Janet and Helen he helped in the shop to dismantle parts of the counter and treat some of the wooden worktop.

Once the work in the shop was complete the whole team got stuck into brick cleaning.

The time whizzed by and the hour passed quickly. We managed to clean 58 bricks!

Once cleaned up, used bricks have a monetary value of 60p each, the farm will sell the bricks to a local reclamation company.

We dink we only made a slight dink in the pile of bricks so we will be back soon for a Saturday session to do some more!