Down On The Farm: My Time At The Farm

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Today was my last day volunteering at the farm. I have had an amazing time and made friends human and animal along the way. Spending time at the farm has taught me not only how to care for a variety of different animals but also built up my skills on how to work well in a team.

I would definitely recommend doing volunteering work as it not only gives you a chance to see what’s it like to work in a certain industry and the day to day jobs you would be doing and of course you can put your volunteer experience on your CV.

Through doing volunteering work at the farm I have learnt a lot more than I thought I would and I have been able to push myself in a supportive environment achieving things I thought I would never be able to do. For example I can now carry out health checks independently on a range of different animals for example chickens, rats, hamsters and guinea pigs.

I have learnt a lot about introducing new animals into the different groups at the farm and all about the different responses the animals may have. Some may get on straight away others may take a while longer. I have learnt about how to break down the introducing steps to make shy or worried animals feel safe before putting them in with others straight away. For example you may separate the new animal with the others in the group but have it in the field next to them so that the animals get used to each other but from a little distance.

As well as this I have also learnt about if an animal has something like a problem with their fur or skin you may only use one brush just for them only for grooming as you don’t want to pass on any germs to the other animals in their group.

I have learnt a lot about all different the animals diets and what they can and cannot eat as well as what they love. Erik the goat loves eating oranges! Pigs cannot eat onion or anything in the onion family and if you mix alpaca feed and goat feed together it becomes toxic to the animals.

Feeding Erik the goat

On the farm I have learnt about how to care for injuries the small animals such as hamsters or guinea pigs may get from animals such as wild rats that manage to get into their cages.

A big thing at the farm I have learnt about is how to care for a variety of different reptiles such as geckos, snakes, water dragons , bearded dragons, spiders and skinks.

Fat Tailed Gecko

I have loved my time at the farm and would highly recommend volunteering with animals to gain experience for anyone who loves animals!

Down On The Farm Update: Meet George

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Recently on the farm we have said hello to some a new addition to the family a goat called George.

When George first came to the farm he was very shy and didn’t really like people going near him or being touched. He enjoyed his own company so was put in a separate field for a bit, away from the other goats; but next door to them so he could watch them from a distance.

George was also a bit chubby as his previous owners liked to spoil him. At the beginning he was a very fussy and picky eater and wouldn’t eat anything off the floor. Now though he loves to eat what the other goats eat. I recently gave him some spinach which he loved however we still need to work on getting him to eat off the floor as he loves to be hand fed best of all!

He does have a couple of problems with his coat such as bald patches and lots of dry skin. So he has his own very special grooming brush that not any of the other goats can use. Through working with him one to one he has grown in confidence massively. I enjoy grooming him getting rid of excess dry skin and dust out of his cot. By doing this George is now more trusting around people and likes to have a bit of attention and fuss. Which I love. I also find grooming him very relaxing myself.

He can now live in the same field as the other goats Erik, Molly and Dolly. Erik and George do sometimes have play fights together as they both want to be leader of the group. They can be like school boys fighting in the school playground. But somehow to George’s disappointment Erik is still head goat and likes to keep him in check and tells him off every now and again.

It’s been lovely to get to know George and I enjoy working with him. I can’t wait to work with him more and watch him grow.

Animal Care Volunteering Update: Meet Boyce and Pip

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I have been volunteering at a farm for a few months now; we recently welcomed to new ponies called Boyce and Pip to the farm. They are both brother and sister and it’s been a fantastic to get to know them both and learn about each of their personalities and cheeky traits.

One of the first things I loved about Boyce was his furry moustache. We all find it funny when we take off his rugs because he is all shiny clean from where the rugs been but his legs are just covered in mud we like to say he’s got brown boots on. Boyce doesn’t really like females handling him he much prefers men. We are not too sure why this might be but we think he might have had a bad experience with a female from his past handling him. At the moment we are trying to help Boyce feel more relaxed and safe towards females handling him and stroking him. It is very important we try and build up his confidence and feels more comfortable with females because the farm offers birthday parties and the children who come straight away run up to the ponies and want to stroke them.

To try and help Boyce feel more safe and confident and not so scared around females we have been trying to do small tasks with him daily. For example we will give him his food separate to Pip and whilst he is eating I will just talk to him softly and calmly. We have tried stroking him by just putting our hand out and waiting for him to come to us but sometimes he will come up to us girls and want to bite us. However he is starting to feel more confident around females and we are going to try and do some ground work activities with him in the summer for example going over poles and in and out of cones once he feels safer and he begins to trust us more. Boyce is also in charge as he doesn’t like the little Shetland ponies we have and he has tried to have a fight with one of our pigs Wilbur through the bars of the fence.

Pip is a very sweet, gentle and calm girl who can be very shy at times but once she sees you with a camera she loves posing for you. She is definitely not camera shy! Unlike Boyce Pip prefers females and tends to dislike men. We think Pip had a bad experience with a man in the past. When they first arrived at the farm Pip was definitely more curious. To build up her confidence we did some one on one ground work activities with her. Pip enjoys being groomed so we did this with her a little and often to help build up her confidence.We have done circle work with her too and now in the week she does lunging.

Now that Pip is more relaxed around us we are now getting to know more about her, she is a very adventurous pony who likes to explore. In the summer who hope to take her out on short walks around the woods and do some ground work activities with her like a little obstacle course.

Recently it snowed at the farm; here is a video of Pip playing in the puddle after the snow melted.

My Experience Volunteering In A Charity Shop

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I’ve been volunteering at a charity shop for a while now and I thought I would share with you my experience. I first started to volunteer at the charity shop as I wanted to find a work experience placement with college. I wanted to learn new skills and gain more experience in the working environment. I am known as a Retail Volunteer as I volunteer in one of the charities shops.

I volunteer at the shop once a week for a couple of hours. At the shop I do lots of different tasks both with customers and in the stock room. To begin with I might help sort through lots of the donations we have been given; I go through each bag making sure we only price items which are in good condition. The donations we get range from clothes to books, accessories and lots more.

I will then go through all of the clothing items we can sell and put each one on a clothing hanger and put the correct sizing cube on each hanger too. I make sure that each item is priced before putting each item out on the shop floor.

Another job I do is stock rotation this is where we bring stock from the shop floor back into the stock room to create more space for more recent items to be put out.

I sometimes may research the donations the shop gets so that we can tell customers more about the product for example old books or cameras.

To begin with I helped to make the shops window displays. I now create some of the window displays by myself. We base each window display design on a theme for example orange and gold or we might do a window display based around a current event like the World Cup or a season like the Christmas season.

When making the window displays I first try and find a main item or piece of clothing that stands out to me I then work with other items to create the feel and look I want the display to have.

Here I am finding clothes for my window display design I am also dressing the mannequin in the clothing I have chosen.

One of the very first window displays I created was based on the colours orange, cream and gold. This was because I had found a lovely orange dress I wanted to put into the window I then found cream and gold items that worked really well with the orange.

When creating window displays I not only have to find clothing for the mannequins but also accessories to go with the items of clothing. For example jewellery,shoes and belts.

I also make bric a brac window displays. This could be making a window display for a upcoming sport event like Wimbledon. To create a window display based on this theme I may use tennis balls and tennis rackets with tennis shoes. I may also add some books about the sport into the display.

Here is a window display design I am starting to make based around Wimbledon 2018.

I made a window display based around The World Cup 2018.

Here are some photos of my window display based around The Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. I steamed a wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses as well as finding bric a brac items for the display too.

Lastly I have just recently started serving customers at the till independently!

I would definitely recommend volunteering at a charity shop if you are interested in working in retail or you want to work in the fashion industry. I also think you would enjoy volunteering in a charity shop enjoy if you like being creative and love fashion.

Animal Care Volunteer: Down On The Farm

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Through my love of animals which started when I was little as well as how animals have helped me with my mental health. I decided I wanted to do volunteering with animals.

I now volunteer once a week at a farm as an Animal Care Volunteer. The farm I go to has lots of different types of animals. From Alpacas, Goats and Llamas to Guinea pigs, Hamsters, Rats and Rabbits to name a few. We also sometimes get to look after reptiles such as snakes, geckos and skinks.

Well Hello.

The farm works with children, young people and adults to build up their confidence and self-esteem through working to care for a variety of animals. Children and young people who come here maybe home educated, have mental health conditions or found mainstream school hard to name a few.

When I was looking at different places I could volunteer at this place taught my eye as they had worked with other young people with mental health conditions. I thought this place would be fantastic as we get to work with animals in a more therapeutic environment. I felt that I could help give back to other young people and show them how much joy animals can bring into your life and help you to be more positive. Animals don’t just help them to forget about difficult things but sometimes helps them to process things as the animals are making them feel relaxed and safe.

Throughout the day on the farm I do a number of different tasks to care for all the animals on the farm. Here are some of the tasks I do.

Cleaning out hutches,cages and fields. I put down fresh hay in all the animals hutches, cages and shelters. Giving all the animals fresh water in their water bottles and bowls and topping them up regularly throughout the day.

Mucking out the ponies field.

Refilling the rabbits water bottles.

Sometimes I groom the goats, ponies and the dog. We also take the goats and ponies out of their main field and take them for walks around the farm so that they have new things to explore and they love it !, The goats love to try and eat the leaves too.

I help to prepare all the animals food as well as giving it to them when it is feeding time.

Grating carrots to put into the rabbits food.

Dinner time for the rabbits.

Feeding Obama the Llama.

More Please?

Finally a big thing we try to do is do as much animal handling as possible this is not just because the animals need to have human interaction but sometimes children and young people come to the farm to do animal handling sessions here the children and young people learn all about the animals.

I absolutely love volunteering on the farm and would highly recommend volunteering not only is it good to put on your CV but you get to learn new things about yourself. You get to see if you prefer learning through doing or more sitting down and writing.

If you are aged between 14-25 you can log your hours of volunteering you do on the website : http://www.vinspired.com , by doing this you will get certificates for the number of hours you do . You can show these certificates in any interviews you may have from college course interviews to internships, work experience placements and jobs.

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