Chips, Egg and Barrows

Kash, Steph Ducat and Sevan navigated giant puddles, unexpected streams and overflowing rivers on their ways to and from Horsenden Farm this morning. It was so bad that for the first time, the 3 left their running shoes in the boot room and borrowed some oversized wellies! For today's task they were back in the potato field for the 3rd time after spreading manure and topping it with compost on their 2 previous visits. Today, they were creating paths around the potatoes by topping sodden sheets of cardboard with a thick coating of wood chip.

Steph and Sevan arrived first and found the organisers and regular helpers sheltering in the Hay Loft, the volunteer hub. Eventually they all decided to go back outdoors. Steph and Sevan chose their wheelbarrows, with Sevan picking a sporty model with a "go faster" striped wheel and better cornering ability. Tooled up with forks and shovels, they moved the wood chip from a pile in the car park, into wheelbarrows, up the path, through the spontaneous stream (which Sevan tried to canoe down) and onto the potato patch path. It was a real test of stamina for their arms.

While digging through the wood chip pile, Steph discovered something surprising, a chicken egg 🥚! We didn't know how it got into the middle of the pile or how long it had been there.

"We do have some free range chickens that fly around the farm" - Elsa, task owner

"The car park is quite far though and why would they lay an egg in the wood chip?" - Kash

Soon Kash arrived and path building sped up, so much so that the task was completed early and they were first in line for fresh, oven baked pizza. The trio took credit for it through their hard work. Surely the speedy wheelbarrow played more than a minor part too.