June 7th is Open Farm Sunday, and Old Macdonald’s Farm will be joining in this event where many traditional farms open their doors and admit the public, and whilst we always do that (or we would not last long in this business) for June 7th we are running a special petting day where we will focus on your farmyard friends just a little more.

Our sheep, goats, ducks, chickens and pigs will be available for you to meet even closer than usual, and you can learn about farming and cereal crops too as you visit us on that day. We always hope to be educational and fun, and June 7th will be no different, but we will add even more of a flavour of the farmyard to the day and join with our colleagues all around the country so hope you will join us for this special event. You will still find more unusual animals here, such as the Alpacas and Meerkats (and Alpacas are farmed in Britain anyway as you will learn) and have lots to do such as the Adventure Bridges and other entertainments, but learn about farming with us.

Plus there is another reason why you should put us in your diary for Open Farm Day because it coincides with our Local Heroes Day where we welcome staff from the Fire Service, the Police and the First Responders who will come and meet you and let us all climb into fire engines and sound police sirens! More about all this to come soon.

However there is even more for our visitors on this first weekend in June, when the summer will start in earnest (and we hope Ernest does not mind too much) because on June 6th we will enjoy another visit from Mr Punch and his long suffering, but feisty in this version, wife Judy with a modern take on a very traditional show. So come to the farm in June when our superb value for money day out will actually be unbeatable (as is Judy in this show too!)

Bring Mum to Old Macdonald’s Farm in Brentwood, Essex, on Mother’s Day and we will treat her to a relaxing cup of tea in our cafe whilst you explore the farm and enjoy all our activities. Your mother deserves a rest and you deserve a great day out here on the farm, where in addition to meeting our fabulous collection of farmyard favourites you can also see exotic animals such as the Meerkats, Otters and Wallabies, and also enjoy leisure attractions such as the Caterpillar Roller Coaster, Snake Slide and fabulous Carousel.

To keep you active you can bounce along on our trampolines and inflatable castles, or play in the Construction Site Sandpit and run on the Adventure Walk. Then you can pop indoors and shoot your pals in the Barn Battles, or become King or Queen of the Castle on our Climbing Frames, indoor and outdoor.

We have lots of our own Mums here on the farm, with lambs, goat kids,  baby Meerkats, baby bunny rabbits and many more, including our first Joey born to the wallabies on the farm, still in his mother’s pouch.

So you can play and pet the animals, whilst Mum puts her feet up and enjoys the refreshing cuppa char! Every day is great at Old Macdonald’s Farm, but this will make Mother’s Day that little bit better! We hope Mum will also take some time to play with you too, and of course pet the animals herself!

So December appears with snow, frost and lots and lots of fun at Old Macdonald’s Farm. First of all we have Santa for you, with two beautiful reindeer, and you will find him here on 6th and 7th December, then every day from 13th December right through to the 23rd after which he will jet back to Lapland, in an environmentally friendly way of course, to wrap presents for all the children and then deliver them all around the World on the night of Christmas Eve. We will bring more December news soon, but if you want to visit Santa at the Farm and would like to book a time then please email soon to oldmacdonalds@btconnect.com and tell us your preferred dates and times so we can put you in his diary, and tell us about the children who want to come too so we can make sure he knows all about them!

Also just a quick word of praise for the lovely Jess who works here (shown with Darren and Annie, and just to avoid any doubt, Darren is holding Annie, who is the Eagle Owl! Jess is the young woman shown)

Jess has taken the brave, and slightly mad, decision to do a major parachute jump for charity on behalf of Barts Hospital and we at Old Macdonalds are sponsoring her so invite you to as well. She is going to jump 10,000 feet, but you will be pleased to learn she will be strapped not only to a Parachute but also to someone who knows what they are doing, so if you would like to sponsor her too then again email us at oldmacdonalds@btconnect.comand we will put you in touch with her. She will freefall 5,000 feet and then the chute will open. This is being written by someone who wants a safety net to change a light bulb, so rather Jess than me, and to be honest even Annie the Eagle Owl did not seem keen to join in.

Enough for now, more soon, but do not forget to visit Santa at the farm. On the days he is here, you can pop in without making a prior booking any day after 2 pm so do not let the children miss out!

As we all look forward to autumn, Old Macdonald is getting very excited because his farm has been nominated for a prestigious award, as the East of England Tourist Board have put him forward on the short list for Sustainable Development Tourist Attraction of the year. He and Mrs Macdonald (certainly not known as Old Mrs Macdonald we stress) are off to a presentation dinner at the end of October, and we will tell you more.

However you may be more interested in what is coming up at the farm, so we remind you to look out for our fun Halloween Week during the October Half Term, from October 25th to 31st, where in addition to the creepy spiders, ghosts, ghoulies and witches you would expect to find (during Halloween week I mean, not all the time) we have our annual Pumpkin firing competition. If you did not come across this before, it is marginally mad as we allow children to bring along a pumpkin and we will shoot it on the Catapult, made from scrap and shown above, at a Witchy Target, with the winner getting an annual season ticket! If you want to find out more or even wish to enter, then email us on oldmacdonalds@btconnect.comand we will send you all the details. There is no charge to enter and all you need do is book your place and bring your pumpkin to fire at the witchy target! (No witches were injured in the running of this competition though a lot of pumpkins get splattered, then fed to the goats).

Then the reindeer are looking forward to Christmas and I will tell you more about our Christmas Grotto soon, and the rabbits are settled in their refurbished home as is our brand new Otter, to be a friend for Nipper. Now we look back on a great summer here in Brentwood.

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