Woodchipping on gas

Come snow or sunshine, we run & today was no exception with 12 brave weather-farers running and then working very hard for Surrey Docks Farm.

One windy, snowy Saturday morning, we met at the farm with the Pigs spooning to prove how chilly it was. It was hello to lots of new faces and welcome back to some friends: time to warm up!

With the Thames Path on offer, we ran in the shadow of Canary Wharf to one of the parks. Not content with a jog, lunge, squat-on-the-spot warm up, we had two quick rounds of Bulldog. Sprinting and catching each other soon got the hearts pumping and was a chance to forget about the snow.

Quick loop onwards to circuits

Those who attended Wednesday's run were a little ginger in their arm strength so the focus was legs...

Squat hold, lunge jump, ssspppprrriiiinnnttt

Side plank, side plank, ssssppprrriiinnnttt

Mountain climber, burpee, sssspppppprrriiiiinnnnttt

No chance for the cold to set in! Fitness session completed, we ran back to Farm ready to meet Lucy who had 3 jobs for us all to rotate on.

First job: woodchipping the wildlife garden. There was a pile of warm and steaming woodchip that needed shovelling, wheeling and spreading out.

The second job involved collecting and chopping sticks from a felled tree and sticking them in the goat mound for them to chew on the bark. This was a particularly good distraction for task three where we needed the goats out of the way.

A trip to the farm wouldn't be complete without something to do with muck so the third task was almost necessary... mucking out the goat house and goat run. Those goats can seriously produce some stuff and with 36 goat kids gestating, they need to be kept as clean as we can.

20 minutes per task and rotate so we all got a go and everything / *one group wasn't muck ridden the whole time!

James, one of the main farm hands, also showed us how the woodchip is used to help create bacteria to encourage plant growth and also showed us how their manure tunnel creates a gas which can power their kettle!

Exercise, farming and science!

As ever, a morning at the farm is a pretty neat way to pass the time!