Day 34 - Bonfire's Burning, Bonfire's Burning...please do not draw nearer but keep a health and safety compliant and foxie appropriate distance...

Things have been heating up on site today at Foxlease Park as we had an enormous (but carefully managed by our expert volunteers) bonfire to dispose of a large quantities of waste wood on site - it certainly helped to save us the cost of another skip for now as Baby Skip is currently full and ready to exit stage left in the New Year. 

Whilst we had some volunteers on site lifting and shifting to make the bonfire happen in the time available, we had a number of other things going on too.  We had a volunteer ecologist stop by to give us his time and expertise on some aspects of the site and we are grateful to him for sharing his knowledge.  We also had the electrician stop by to quote us for some of the works needed for sign offs in various buildings in the New Year and for some further planned works we need.  Again, we are grateful to him for sharing his expertise to help us ensure that we approach things in the most cost effective way to achieve our aims in the timescales available.  We do know that we need to replace the oven in The Coach House before we can open it for use next year and so we've spent some time researching that now we know what we need and it does mean more fundraising needed (more on that below) as the cost of a replacement (electric-only) is going to be between £1,500 and £3,000, but it'll be worth it to make the kitchen safe, compliant and ready for action.

We didn't have a third wise man turn up to share knowledge, but we did have a gift of a wonderful paint donation delivered yesterday, from a support who travelled far to bring it to us!  It was obtained as part of the Wickes Community Scheme which we understand is closing at the end of the year with budgets to be used by 31st December - so if you have a local Wickes store that you can ask if they have any Community budget left that they might donate to us with then let us know and we can let you know what's on our wishlist!

We had other supporters working to sort the kitchen items from The Coach House and also cleaning part of our wonderful Gold Room in Foxlease House, a very special job indeed!

In other exciting news, we're also so pleased to announce the launch of our first fundraiser at Foxlease Park next year which is for 30 in person tickets to attend the first few hours of the 24-Hour Sing virtual event taking place in January.  We'll be auctioning off 28 to the highest bidders and raffling off 2 via a Golden Ticket Draw, which you can buy tickets for via the Foxie's Shopping website. 

A quieter day tomorrow, but planning for big numbers on site on 27th so lots to be done, Love Foxie x