Sixteen days ago I blogged about the fact I had to make changes in my life to reduce stress and anxiety. This included taking the scary step for me of winding down my 15 year old gardening business and looking for a part-time job. At that time anything would've done - stacking shelves in a supermarket, delivery driver, retail assistant; anything to bring in some money and not be too much effort.

It seems 2018 is looking upon my favourably because yes, I got a new job. AND it's better than I could ever have hoped for.

Making friends with a British Blue heifer.

How the Stars Aligned

Just over a week ago (Sunday 28th January) my husband decided we needed a day trip. He found a local falcon centre I'd never heard of and we made the trip out to see the hawks, falcons and kestrels. As soon as we arrived, I realised there was much more: it wasn't just a bird of prey centre, but a craft village and farm park too!

Towards the of the day - after petting multiple cows, sheep, goats, pigs, as well as discovering a huge walk-through aviary - we made our way out and made some enquiries; about a job for myself and about a falcon course for my husband. Low and behold, they have part-time and volunteer positions available, respectively!

And so to the timeline:

SUNDAY EVENING
Both do applications. I applied for a part-time visitor host position. Saad applied for a volunteer falconer position.

MONDAY
Both sent applications. Both heard back. BOTH get interviews.

TUESDAY
BOTH head to interviews at the same time! I finished mine early and wandered around the park a little. Spotted Saad, got called over - he got the job! It's a volunteering position so he's working it one day a week. However, it means he gets LOADS of free experience for a range of birds instead of doing an expensive crash course on a single hawk.

WEDNESDAY
Husbo starts his first day volunteering.

FRIDAY
I'm called to set up a 'trial' day.

MONDAY (TODAY)
Spend a very happy and interesting trial day and then am given the job before I leave for home!

Peaches, a new mother to twin boys.

One of the beautiful Reeves pheasants.

My husband with one of the Highland cows.

My Job Role

My official title is a Farm Park Visitor Host and initially I thought it would mostly be reception work, hosting the children's farm parties and maybe a little animal stuff. Honestly, I was thrilled with just that considering only weeks earlier I was thinking I'd be doing night shifts stacking supermarket shelves.

But...oh, it's SO much more.

In fact, whilst I will be doing all of the above, I'll also be working side by side with the animals on a daily basis. On my single trial day, I've already learned about cattle weight management and the need for copper in their diet. I've fed Highland cows and stroked lots of pigs (overcoming my small fear of them). With my poultry experience I've helped some flock management stuff on the farm and then, next week, I'm going to be taught about lambing!

Experience For the Future

As you all know, my dream is to set up a farm business on my 40 acres in Suffolk. And, whilst I'm not there, I've been learning all I can in my back garden, raising poultry, growing vegetables and getting my head around the business, rule and regulation side of things. I never though this new job would help with that. But it will.

Though I've been around sheep as a child, I don't have experience in feed management or lambing. I dream of having a rare breed pedigree herd of Red Poll cattle one day but have no expertise here....but that can now change.

Meanwhile, my husband, who dreams of setting up a small bird of prey centre can now learn the ropes about that from the ground up too.

Oh..and in addition to all of this, it's a part-time job, I'm getting paid and that will HUGELY help my financial stress and anxieties whilst allowing me enough freedom to work on my other projects too.

What a great start to 2018!

Thanks for reading,

Geoff

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