Elmfield Farm Cottages

Visiting the Straw

elmfieldfarmcottages — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:17:17 +0000

Andy, the children and I have been out to visit the straw for the new build. It was harvested last summer from Moonshine bank less than 5 miles from here. The straw is wheat straw tightly baled. We are all very excited and seeing all the bales stacked so high makes it seem very real now. Straw Works who have designed the build will be running a course here on 23rd Aprii on how to build straw bale houses. If you are interested please do contact us using the numbers below or the contact us button on the right hand side of this page.

Hello from The Kids at Elmfield

elmfieldfarmcottages — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:20:23 +0000

I have asked the children to update our blog sometimes to give you all a childs perspective on what is happening on the farm. So here is the first post from “The Kids At Elmfield”

The snow is brilliant at Elmfield the alpacas are more white then ever! Pepper the pig is expecting piglets in spring we can’t wait. Being at Elmfield is a fantastic place to be! In the morning it is usually quite cold in winter but in the summer it is boiling and really fun letting out the animals in the morning.

Dogs welcome!

elmfieldfarmcottages — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:13:03 +0000

Dogs have always been welcome in Gilt cottage, but now to make our furry friends more at home we have a new basket especially for them.

Gilt cottage has a fenced in garden, and there are always fields you can walk across. We do have very free range chickens and ducks (and Lurkey the Turkey) so we ask that dogs are on leads in the farmyard if they are likely to chase the birds.

Please let us know if you are coming to stay with your dog, and we will show you which of our fields are free of sheep so you can have a relaxing walk. Our fields join up with a whole network of footpaths and there are many beautiful walks here on top of the downs.

If you are planning to be out for a long time and would like us to let your dog out during the day please ask as this can often be arranged.

Keeping the Pigs Warm

elmfieldfarmcottages — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:28:27 +0000

Jessie coming out of her pig house

It has been so cold here today with and easterly wind blowing. So I decided to top up the straw in the pig houses. They have extra deep straw now which the pigs can snuggle down into to keep warm at night.

The Alpacas seem to enjoy this cold dry weather and have been skipping around their paddock very happy today.

Meanwhile the chickens and ducks have been finding sheltered spots to try to soak up any sun they can.

Making sure all the animals can get to water that isn’t frozen is a big job for Andy and me at the moment. I have to confess I rather like this weather as long as I remember to wear at least 3 pairs of socks!

New Straw Cottages

elmfieldfarmcottages — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:39:52 +0000

We are delighted to announce that we have received planning permission to build a new building here. It will be Europes first terrace of load bearing straw bale houses. These will become 3 three bedroom holiday houses cottages. Built our of straw bales rendered with lime, they will have many environmental features, and we think will be very comfortable.

Andy has now stopped working for Philips and is full time on the farm, so we hope to be doing much of the building work ourselves supported by Straw Works (previously known as Amazonails). I am currently working on some new pages for our website with more information about the build, so check back soon for more information and pictures.

Dilly cottage and Gilt cottage will be open for bookings during most the year but please contact us or check our build timetable page for information on what is due to be happening when you would like to stay.

Giles First Portrait

elmfieldfarmcottages — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 08:37:05 +0000

Here is a fab portrait of Giles done by Ben one of our recent guests. He is very handsome!!

What a handsome pig!

If anyone one else has drawn or painted pictures of our animals I would love to feature them here!

Ed (Easter Duckling) has hatched.

elmfieldfarmcottages — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:41:56 +0000

Duckling on the way!

elmfieldfarmcottages — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 08:13:45 +0000

Hoping to have an Easter Duckling today!

Lambs and Pigs and quite a lot of chaos!

elmfieldfarmcottages — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 06:03:27 +0000

4 feeds a day (but at least we dont have to change nappies!!)

Well we have 4 very cute little lambs. They have been nicknamed Babe, Floppy, Springer and Bambi. Babe was only 3 days old when he came to us so we had a couple of days of nighttime feeds until he had grown enough to sleep through the night.

He is now a couple of weeks old, twice the size and really rather bossy! From having a few tablespoons of milk every feed he is now managing nearly a pint every time he sees a bottle.

Meanwhile 3 fantastic Kune Kune sows have arrived. We will put one of them in with Giles the boar soon and hope to have piglets in August. Lovely and friendly though they are – they are fantastic at escaping. Yesterday we spent several hours looking for one pig who we found in big field asleep under a hedge.

Happy in the sunshine.

Andy has been working very hard to put new fencing in t make sure they do not escape again. I would also like to have cctv and 24 hour guards – but Andy thinks this might be overreacting!

We also had a problem with one of the pigs deciding it was fun to chase the Alpacas, and the lambs were being very mischievous and chasing the chickens. So our big job this week has been to make sure every one stays in their own paddocks. If it carries on I may well have to call in the United Nations peacekeepers. Although busy it has been such fun this last week.

With all the chaos that was going on it was lovely to have a picnic out in the woods yesterday. The bluebells are coming out and it was wonderfully warm. We have pu a table and benches out in the woods so it is a great area for Elmfield guests to picnic.

Thank you to my nephew James for the fab pictures!

More new arrivals due.

elmfieldfarmcottages — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:03:39 +0000

Tomorrow we are due some more arrivals. We hope to collect some Kune Kune sows in the morning and some baby lambs needing bottle feeding in the afternoon. I will post some pictures as soon as possible – we are all very excited!!