Volunteering at The Country Corner
It's difficult sometimes to find places for a small team to volunteer just for a day or two, so although we get a fantastic 3 volunteering days a year, we sometimes struggle to find places locally to go. So we were delighted to find Joanna Birley just up the road from us at The Country Corner in Verwood.
A beautiful 15 acre site, the farm is a haven for those in need of a little TLC and the beneficial effects of the great outdoors and being around animals. Originally the old Verwood dairy, the land was purchased to build three schools - first, middle and upper. Only two schools were ever built, and the land for the third was sitting largely unused - until Joanna got involved, that is! Taking on the lease, Joanna is developing the land into a farm and activity centre in particular for those with reduced mobility. In addition to sessions just enjoying the rustic outdoors, Joanna plans to offer a wheelchair/mobility test track (real lumps and bumps, not just smooth tiling!), cabins to allow wheelchair users to asses the best layouts for adapted homes, Western style riding for the disabled, children's activities and much more besides.
It's a fantastic vision and I highly recommend having a read about everything that's planned on The Country Corner website, since Joanna explains everything so compellingly.
So we were all tired but happy following a day spent fixing stock fencing - to thwart the escape artist pygmy goats, and playing mud pies - or rather building movable post holders using car tyres and postcrete. And we're looking forward to going back again in a month or two to see how things have progressed and to lend a hand again :)
