didn’t mean there wasn’t a lot of work
to be done. Everyone had a job to do:
the kids collected kindling and shooed
the chickens out of the tent while we
built a fire in the kitchen stove and in
the barbecue.
Some of the farms offer what
they call “frills” tents that include a
shower and hot tub. Before you get too
excited, just know that it’s you who
makes the hot tub hot: After several
hours of feeding the fire, the water
was finally warm enough. It was hard
work, but delicious and worth the wait.
The shower was slightly less labour-
intensive, but still required advance
planning and expedient soaping and
rinsing to clean a family of six with
one large bucket of hot water.
Every morning, the children
would race to the chicken coop to
look for eggs. Giving true meaning
to the expression farm-to-table, the
eggs were still warm as we cracked
them into the frying pan for breakfast.
While we washed up the dishes,
the children climbed the haystacks,
terrorised the chickens and fed food
scraps to the pigs.
After breakfast, we explored
the local area on a day trip down to
Portsmouth, where we toured the
HMS Victory (Admiral Nelson’s
flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar
and still the flagship of the First Sea
Lord). After lunch in Portsmouth, we
headed back to the farm to prepare
for the evening meal. We chopped
vegetables and put the beef stew in
a pot hanging on a tripod over the
campfire, stirring it every half hour (or
when we remembered). The children
fetched more firewood and swung in
the hammock. I don’t know if it was
the fresh vegetables or the work that
went into making it, but it was just
about the best beef stew we had all
ever eaten. Later, the children roasted
marshmallows while we drank wine
and watched the sky change from dusk
to dark. We finished the day gazing at
a sky full of stars.
But, the absolute highlight of the
stay was our farm tour with Lucy
the farmhand. April happens to be
lambing season and lambs were being
born nearly every day. With so many
sheep, the lambs can easily become
separated from their mothers, so each
ewe has a number spray-painted on
her side. On our tour, we needed to
locate six lambs that had been born
in the last two days that needed to
be sprayed with the corresponding
number of their mums. I have not seen
anything funnier than watching our
two boys, aged seven and six, chase
after lambs (who are surprisingly fast
and agile despite being two days old)
with a shepherd’s crook.
This was not your typical beach
resort holiday, and nor was it the kind
of trip that’s packed with sightseeing
and museums. This time, our over-
scheduled Hong Kong children truly
became “free-range children” for a
few days.
October 2014
127
