Our monthly visit to Horsenden Farm included more horns than recent tasks as we were in close quarters with the Horsenden goats, Yogi and Alfie. As we had such a large group of 9 GoodGymers today, we were given 2 tasks on the farm to achieve.

Happy As A Pig In Mud

Those who were happy to work with and around the friendly goat pair were digging a trench for new fencing for the pig pen. The cunning pigs had learned how to escape from the pen that GoodGymers created last year, so an even more secure barrier had been designed. The fence was going to go under ground level and be secured in place, so a trench needed to be dug to take the fencing and lock it in place, so the new team of pigs wouldn't tunnel out.

The ground was quite muddy (as the other group would discover later) so wellies were the order of the day to keep feet dry. Everyone managed to find a pair to wear apart from Steph, who soldiered on with his custom brown Asics. The fencers worked quickly around posts, trees and their new goat friends to prepare the trench, ready for Horsenden volunteers to put the new fencing up later.

A Great Disappondment

Elsewhere on the farm, there was a plastic pond which wasn't sitting flush with the ground. Task owner Elsa wanted to dig out the dirt below and secure the basin at ground level. Once the GoodGymers emptied it of rainwater and lifted out of the ground, the team found there was more water underneath too.

After a quick assessment of where the hole needed to be bigger, shovels of sticky, wet, clay soil were scooped out. Wellies were needed again as those in the hole were shin deep in mud and frogs. Yep, there were frogs camouflaged in the mud, so Christos became their saviour, relocating them to a safe bucket during the operation.

After a lot of muscle work, it was time to put the plastic basin back in the hole, fill it with water and pack the sides with mud and hard core to keep it stable. The water filled slowly, so everyone waited. After around 20 minutes, it looked like the tub had risen out of the ground. Sure enough, there was a big puddle of water underneath again, so disappointingly the pond achievement wasn't unlocked. There may be a leak in the basin or something else environmental, it was hard to tell. Still, we had a muddy lot of fun.

Today's Mission brought six GoodGymers to Horsenden Farm on a sunny, fresh and frosty morning. Steph, Mohamed, Christos, Sevan, Kash and Kymm met at the Horsenden Farm courtyard, warming hands up at the fireplace a little before being greeted by the Friends of Horsenden Hill team.

After making our way to the changing shed, two tasks were briefed for the 2 hours on the farm, with some nice and mucky work clearing the old hay from the barn, as well as spreading straw evenly across the fields. Kash, Steph, Christos and Kymm were happy to get mucky, first changing shoes for good old wellies and then grabbing a pitchfork and wheelbarrow each. Supervised by the farm cat, Billy, the team made light work clearing the barn of old hay and stacking it all into a nice and tall heap outside. Kymm nicely created an extra treat, topping a pile of hay in the wheelbarrow with a chunky cow pat! The barn was now ready for fresh hay to be laid out for the cattle to come back to.

Meanwhile, Sevan and Mohamed busily spread out the straw evenly across the field, helping to spread seeds out for the wild flower season, and for ponies to enjoy eating later on in the year.

With our GoodGymers making light work of these tasks and after the barn was cleared of hay, the team were chaperoned to a huge compost pile that needed turning and moving from one plot to another, to help with aeration. One word of caution before we get started... Mind the RATS! And apparently... Potatoes!?

We finished just in time for another lovely Horsenden Farm wood-fired pizza for a team lunch complete with coffee and craft beers... Another successful task at Horsenden Farm!

It's no secret that the wood-fired pizza from Horsenden Farm is a magnet for GoodGymers - so powerful that it pulls people from different areas to Ealing! Today the promise of the Horsenden Loaf speciality brought three guests from GoodGym Hounslow: Michelle, Kymm and Gus.

But there is no pizza without fire! And there is no fire without firewood.

This Saturday's task was to help the Horsenden baker Anthony stock up on firewood to feed all the hungry GoodGymers after the winter sessions at the farm - and the number of volunteers at the farm has grown rapidly in the last months, reaching 9 people in October. At today's session, we welcomed a new joiner, Diana, who met us at pumpkin carving at Northfield Allotments last week. Welcome to GoodGym Ealing, Diana!

Ijo, Steph, Sevan, Penny, Kash, Diana and the three Hounslow visitors grabbed wheelbarrows and loaded them with logs from a pile located higher up the hill. It was the opposite of our usual tasks at the farm: shovelling woodchip or compost into barrows and pushing them uphill. This time the heavy loads were going down the hill - but don't be fooled - it was hard work!

Not far from the pizza oven, Kymm was assembling a Jenga tower out of firewood pieces that kept coming in barrows in all shapes and sizes, so she had no way to apply any strategy to how best to arrange them. In the end, it turned out she did a nifty job! Next to Kymm, Gus found his happy place at a contraption he would love to get for Christmas: a log splitter. Before having a go at that apparatus, Gus received the safety training and protective goggles from Anthony.

"I'm the most hipster lumberjack!" - Gus said, admiring his new eyewear.

Splitting the logs required time and focus, so after the pile was transported downhill, Gus stayed at his post, accompanied by Michelle who swapped with Kymm on the wood tetris position. The rest of the team was made redundant and looked for other jobs at the farm. They were employed to build a highway between the veg patches out of old cartons and fresh woodchip. Penny, Diana and Ijo laid the cardboard foundations while Steph, Sevan, Kymm and Kash brought the material for the path surface - all of that to stop weeds from growing in spaces between the plots.

Two hours of the farm-style workout was concluded with the obligatory team lunch at Horsenden Loaf with pizza, coffee or craft beer from the local microbrewery. We are already looking forward to the session next month - save the date and sign up now!

We are back! GoodGym x Brompton were together again this month making a difference in the local community as a group of 9 Brompton volunteers headed to Horsenden Farm to help out.

The group were so keen to get started that they headed off in groups to the farm while AA Yianny was heading to their office and our paths didn't cross! No matter, we all reunited at the farm for a quick introduction to GG and our partnership before Elsa and the team split us into two groups to crack on.

Those wearing suitable footwear headed over to the former pig enclosure to pull down the fencing and get it ready to be rebuilt for next year's intake. The wire showed plenty of signs of the many escape attempts this year!

The remaining group grabbed shovels and wheelbarrows and headed down to shift woodchip and compost to bring up and lay in the planting garden ready for a new season to be laid.

After a really challenging year the team are running a fundraiser for the farm and we wanted to share it here - it's going great so far but we need to get to the full amount by November 2nd so if you can please spare a few £ for a great cause.

The Crowdfunder is now live! https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/expand-and-protect-horsendens-rare-breed-animals

By the end of the session everyone was suitably warm, muddy and happy and a great deal had been done which is the main thing. We were also given home baked Amaretti which just makes everything feel amazing!

A huge thanks to all the Brompton vols, you were excellent today and we look forward to seeing you again sometime!

The New

Horsenden Farm is always a popular starting location for the new GoodGym adventurers. The image of volunteering, animals, pizza and craft beer lured many souls to that promised land of rustic pleasures. Today, we must have had a record number of new starters, with Lauren, Louis and Krishna arriving at the farm to sweat hard and feast wildly!

The Old

Steph Ducat and Gus cycled while Sevan and Kash ran to today's task to revisit the familiar potato patch, where the GoodGymers had been previously spreading manure, compost or woodchip on multiple occasions. It was Gus' first visit to Horsenden, but he fell in love with the farm, just like other Hounslow folks before, so we are pretty sure he will become a regular.

The Job

The potatoes from the plot on the hill had been long gone, and the soil awaited a new plan devised by volunteer manager Elsa. She asked GoodGymers to solve a complex puzzle involving creating stripes on the ground with layers of either cardboard and compost or cardboard, wool and woodchip. Some of us imagined the job as even more confusing after mishearing the instructions.

Wool? Oh, I heard wall! I was wondering how you'd fit that between cardboard and woodchip. - Kash

We split into teams that laid cardboard and wool, transported woodchip and compost or raked. We continuously reviewed where more hands (and wheelbarrows) were needed and whether we should be bringing more woodchip or compost. Those calculations led not only to superior efficiency but also to the invention of GoodGym tongue twisters.

How much woodchip can a GoodGym chap chuck into a potato patch? - Gus

Our crew was so effective that we had enough time for a bonus task: laying woodchip on a path from the potato plot to the pizza oven and for the tour around the farm.

Volunteering? Check ✅

The Tour

We had promised our new joiners that they would see farm animals after all the hard work they had done in the morning. There were a few surprises though. The ducks fell victim to the fox (just like the chickens in the past), the pigs were "gone" (you know what that means, salami lovers), and the harvest mice had been all released (partially by GoodGymers). Luckily, the goats were still around, hiding in their latest enclosure that seemed more secure than the paddock we had been making escapee-proof in the past.

Animals? Check ✅

The Main Course

All seven of us gathered at a table in the sun to devour well-deserved pizza. Some of us sampled the "interesting" Gesh pizza famed for gherkin being one of the toppings. A couple of us have proven that the noon can be a happy hour and ordered a pint of zesty craft beer from the microbrewery.

Pizza? Check ✅
Craft beer? Check ✅

The Future

Hungry for another Horsenden visit? Join us in November on the first Saturday of the month. Sign up now!

See how we come to Horsenden Farm? Very demure, very mindful. We don't show off, carrying 30 kg wooden logs in front of our new joiners.

Today's first-timers, Kat and Kane, showed our GoodGym divas it's time for a reality check! They were very modest, not flashing their red t-shirts yet, but working equally hard, if not harder, as our most celebrated GoodGym heroes.

Sevan, who has reached 750 good deeds, didn't put his celebratory vest on until the pizza party time. Very demure. Or maybe Kash has forgotten about the milestone vest in her bag again this week?

While Alaa, Kat, Michelle, Sevan and Kash mindfully transported the chicken manure to the compost piles, Kane, Luis and Steph Ducat, together with a new Horsenden volunteer Tom, moved the heavy wood and bed frames out of a former chicken coop. They rested all the bulky things against the shed on a slippery slope. How all that stuff we had piled by the shed throughout the year hadn't slid down yet - we don't know. Very mindful.

Elsa suggested a third task in case we'd finished with either of the two jobs: razing a wild hedge to the ground. We don't come to work to cut green trees. We don't bring big saws and axes. That would be way over the top. Today, we cut the whole hedge at Horsenden with a few pairs of humble loppers.

When it was time to see the animals, Elsa showed Alaa, Kat and Kash how to jump the fence demurely so as not to disturb the pig residents. See how the goats were very well-behaved today - let's not forget to be demure, divas!

Stay demure and join us for another day of volunteering 🫶 + animals 🐮 + pizza 🍕 + craft beer 🍺 in October!