Walk and talk. The brothers | Ranger Cadets guided walking trail

Romain is the youngest of three brothers who are enjoying the outdoor projects at Hill View Farm. All three are bilingual in French and English.

But as Romain and I walk back from the observation hide the youngsters have built in the woods, he's struggling a little with my English. 'What did you say?' he asks.

'They used to have cows on this farm,' I tell him.

'They used to have what?'

'Cows,' I repeat. 'Les vaches.'

'Oh. But that's not how you say it. It's cows,' he says firmly, replacing my short Scots vowel with a much longer Hampshire version.

'Parlons francais?' I suggest, and he nods sagely.  

A visit to the Food Wood today to water the young saplings has been followed by a session at the hide, smoothing off rough edges and checking for nails that might snag young observers.

'It was hard work digging the holes to plant the Food Wood trees,' Gabriel says. He is the eldest brother. 'I think 150 trees got planted altogether.

'We used spades. But it was a sunny day, so the ground was quite hard because it was dry. Then when it came to digging the holes for the ponds it was way too hard for us. So Rebecca got Andy to come up with a big machine, a digger.

'They didn't let us drive that,' says Manuel, the third brother, sounding disappointed.

The hide was another major effort, not just to build the wooden structure for watching wildlife, but even to reach the location in the depths of a fairly mature, mixed deciduous wood that Rebecca had planted twenty years earlier.

'There were lots of thorns to cut through,' Manuel explains. 

'Then we had to clear the ground where the hide was going to be built,' says Gabriel.

Besides all the summer activities in fields and woods, Gabriel explains, the home learners also have practical indoor sessions run by Rebecca, right through autumn and winter. 

'We've done loads. At the start we had from farm to plate, which was about how our food comes from the Earth. We talked about wheat and we made our own bread from it. That was fun.

'Then we did a lot of science - forces, electricity, waves. Then we moved on to chemistry, like making crystals. We did a lot  of work on conservation. We started making a big Earthship with Rebecca.'

So what is an Earthship?

'It's a bit like a hide but It can be used as a house,' Gabriel says. 'We've been building one with old tyres that you stack up to make the walls, Then you put on the ceiling. It's basically an eco-friendly house because you're recycling bad materials.'

Asked which of all the outdoor activites the boys do at Hill View, they like best Manuel says building the bug hotels, especially the big one up on the hill. But Gabriel hesitates for a moment before saying, 'No, it's too hard to choose.'

'I enjoyed everything.'

How to build an Earthship, a post in a blog the resourceful brothers write about their learning activities.

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