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!

Upon arrival at Horsenden Farm, seven GoodGymers learnt that the chicken coop had been a scene of a terrible crime. The notorious predator fox decimated the population of Horsenden chickens and geese. After a couple of bird survivors had been taken home by Elsa, the chicken coop ceased to exist. Its structure had been taken down, and the GoodGymers arrived to do forensics. They were to investigate the top six inches of the soil to find clues about the night-time massacre. With subtle instruments such as forks and shovels, the GoodGym team found traces of chicken poo, hay, seashells and tiles in the clay soil. They also excavated potential murder weapons: bricks, glass and two large pieces of concrete.

Elsa asked the GoodGym forensics team to dump the already analysed layer of soil into the space she had prepared for a new compost pile. Sevan, Penny and Kash were joined by an independent detective Kieran, and the rest of the investigators moved to another assignment. Paul, Ijo, Roberta and Steph Ducat examined the compacted compost in the enclosed area of the car park but didn't find anything suspicious. Elsa was still pleased that they moved the compost out of the way onto a big pile.

Paul and Roberta had one more investigation to carry out while at the farm: tip the large tubs with soil and examine the dirt in search of any forbidden plants. The Horsenden Farm came out clear in that test, so the investigators concluded they could trust its food and drink. Eight detectives gathered together for their final investigation of fire-baked pizza and nettle beer and found them guilty of being incredibly tasty.

Hungry for another detective story? Or maybe for the famous Horsenden Loaf pizza with gherkin? We got you covered! Join us for another Horsenden session in September - sign up now!

Do you know what happens with the contents of your food waste bin - provided a fox hasn't knocked it over? Ealing Council takes the food waste to a processing plant, where it is used to make fertiliser. Elsa from Horsenden Farm told us that the compost piled up at the farm car park was produced that way. So, if you live in Ealing and recycle your food, maybe our intrepid team of farm-gymers was shovelling the product of your egg shells, banana skins and that leftover at the back of your fridge you discovered after two months, thriving with fungal civilisation. Hopefully not the latter! If you don't recycle your food, you can read about it here and order your free food waste bin. It really makes a difference to the environment.

Today's session was all about compost. Penny, Roberta, Sevan and Kash, not scared by the pouring rain, made it to Horsenden Farm to transport the fertiliser from the car park to our favourite potato patch up the hill. Elsa advised us not to overfill the wheelbarrows as the journey to the plot was challenging enough. The tactical approach was to load the barrow with the lighter dry compost from the middle of the heap. Can you imagine? The fertiliser inside the mound was extremely dehydrated despite all the heavy rain flooding streets and paths since yesterday!

Sevan was fascinated by the compost journey in the circle of life. He filmed a documentary, starting with the fertiliser shovelling scene. The action then moved up to the plot where - believe me or not - we saw potatoes being grown and harvested. They are not a myth! Our manure exploits at the farm in the winter finally paid off. Potatoes that had been already harvested were being sold at the farm shop at the Hayloft.

It was a pretty tough workout and everyone gave their best effort, so we decided to cut on breaks but finish the shovelling ahead of time. Now, the rewards awaited! It was too early to order the pizza, so we were hanging out with the farm animals. Chickens, pigs and goats could be found in their usual spots, while the calves were out for grazing and nowhere to be seen. We offered cuddles to the fluffy farm cat and the cute dog, Nalla just before noon, then queued for the coffee and pizza order. Both treats were delicious and warmed us up after the morning in the rain and the wind. It was a well-deserved break!

If you missed animals, pizza and the great company today, worry not! Horsenden events are running each month throughout the year, so join us for the next one in August! Oh, and there will be a proper volunteering workout too, of course!

Tasks at Horsenden Hill Farm are always varied and it's never known what GoodGym volunteers will be asked to do. Whatever it is, they'll do to the best of their ability and work hard not mess it up.

Today, one of the farm volunteers, Nick, introduced the team to 2 rare breed calves whose mums were off grazing in the woodland. The calves turned their backs to the team, which was a sign of what was to come 💩. The GoodGymers were asked to clean out their barn, giving it a fresh layer of straw as the calves wanted it to look its best for Festival of Nature tours that would be running in the afternoon.

Paul, Kash, Sevan and Dan, who was at his first GoodGym session (welcome! 👏), were offered wellies for the task, which they all jumped into. Even Dan, whose feet were very snug in the largest pair. None of them thought that wearing their regular shoes would be a good idea today.

Armed with a fork and wheelbarrow each, the team squelched their way into the barn. They needed to remove the top layer of straw and manure, wheeling it off to start a new pile of fertiliser for future planting. With each layer moved, they found that there was another underneath. Then, after 90 minutes of scraping, scooping and wheeling, they hit stone! This was the sign that the manural removal of the old bedding was finished and it was time to lay fresh straw.

The hay and straw bales looked really similar. Apparently the hay was paler and for eating with straw being more yellow and used for sleeping. With the straw identified, the GoodGymers found that, like a loaf of bread, the straw bales were cut into thin slices. After the hard work of clearing, the slices were easy to move around and spread, so the team made light work of the last piece of the task.

With their work done for the day, task owner Elsa and the calves were very appreciative. Everyone - except the calves - went to enjoy some freshly baked pizza, drinks and a wander around the stalls at the Festival of Nature, where they met many other GoodGym task owners and volunteers from partner organisations.

The Goodgymers were not only welcomed by our 2 and 4 legged friends(cats, dogs, goats, pig, chicken), but also by the sun 🌞😎. Welcome Nick to the Goodgym Family : 1st mission today!! Anuj and Beata have previously been at the farm and joined the crew after a Park Run at Northala earlier in the morning. First visit for Penny and Kate at the farm too. Several tasks for the team with some work to be done on the potato patch that GG Ealing put in place in previous missions which Steph Ducat attended. The potato patch put the team to their knees as weeding to be done between the onions and potatoes. Compost had to be wheelbarrowed from behind the cabin to the potato patch : mission was to create a hill around the potatoes to avoid them being above the ground and becoming green. were the team creating the hills of Northala??They grow and push themselves above the soil. The team realised it was muddy and the compost had mystery mud and a lot of straw. While 4 members were looking after the potatoe patch, Anuj and Beata were playing with compost, smelly compost!!! Not Jean Paul Gauthier fragrance!They were returning compost over from one box to another. After a hard session, a group photo and a pun discussion they all went for pizza, sausage roll, cheesy twirls, crafted beer and coffee in the sun. They bumped into Harvey who came over for a lovely pizza too.

Madiha is known for occasionally recruiting special guests from all around the world to join GoodGym Ealing sessions. The visitor at today's Horsenden Farm community mission was her uncle, Afsar from Pakistan, who used to be a farmer. Afsar is doing a lot of good for his community in his home city, where he daily picks litter at local green spaces. He is a natural volunteer and loves the idea of GoodGym. His grand plan is to open a branch in his home city, GoodGym Islamabad! While visiting Ealing, he's planning on doing some good deeds for our community, so watch this space and maybe you'll see him at a few sessions!

The rest of the GoodGym team today included runners: Sevan, Kash and Anuj - the latter coming straight from Northala parkrun and quickly swapping his red parkrun top for the red GoodGym t-shirt. It was a busy morning for Anuj - he was definitely going to need a pizza after the session! 🍕

Elsa from Friends of Horsenden Hill had a couple of tasks for us today. The high-priority job was (again!) - fixing a security issue. On the way to the task, we met our friends, the goats! This time, those two troublemakers were not the escapee animals for whom we would build better barricades today. We were going to fix the pig pen instead. The piglets were finding gaps in the existing fence and breaking out! Nick was the boss of today's assignment and explained that we had to remove the big metal pieces from the barrier and then place and secure a second layer of wire fencing all around the pen.

Everyone got so enthusiastic about the job that the metal bars soon disappeared from the fence. We chose a sizeable roll of wire and started unfolding it. In the meantime, Nick placed new stakes around the pen and brought a bucket of pins to connect the wire fencing to the poles. Sounds good, right? The problem was - there was only one hammer for five GoodGymers.

Elsa managed to find a second hammer, which helped us to speed up a bit. The teammates without hammers were unfolding the fencing, holding it in place and distributing the pins to the hammer operators, who had to fiddle a bit with the nails before driving them properly into the wood. Sometimes, a pin would drop and plunge into the mud. Often, it would not go into the wood at the angle we aimed for. Anuj, who had never built a pig pen before, hammered most of the nails in (including the last one!) and was proud to acquire yet another new skill through GoodGym.

As we had too many people for the construction, Sevan was relegated to the manure transport department. He was wheelbarrowing the muck even further up than our famous potato patch, and caught the sight of Gruffalo!

The fence builders finished the piglet-proof barrier five minutes before the end of the session 👏. Hopefully, the pigs will get too big to escape through the gaps before they figure out how to beat the new security system!