Wanderlust and WWOOFing: Farm 1

I'm now happily ensconced on my second farm, but have had such a busy few weeks that I haven't had a chance to really reflect or write much about my first farm where I spent two weeks living with a family of seven (mum, dad, 19, 17, 15, 12 and 10 month olds), along with one or two other wwoofers.

The farm was located in a small town in Nova Scotia, about an hour from Halifax (the biggest city). The farm has a large vegetable element, supplying a weekly box to around 50 families during the summer months. In addition, they also had pigs (about 80), chickens (200 meat hens, 100 laying hens and 100 chicks), goats (7 adults plus 5 kids), turkeys (6, plus about 100 chicks), ducks (4), sheep (about 12) and 26 cats! So it was a pretty busy farm! In addition, they supply animal feed and organic grains and food, so there was a constant stream of people dropping by to buy this stuff.

As the farm had lots of animals, there were regular chores to be done three times a day, mostly split between 3 of the children (the 12, 15 and 17 year olds). My regular job was to help collect the eggs, going into each hen house and getting them from the nesting boxes (sometimes from underneath pecky hens), store some for incubation (although this has now stopped as it's the end of the hatching season so the last batch are just going into the incubator now), and wash and box the rest of them. A simple and enjoyable task, and I enjoyed the routine and getting to know which hens would lay at which points in the day. I also sometimes helped to milk the goats twice daily (albeit slowly and not very skillfully) and bottle feed the goat kids.

The rest of the day was spent on whatever was deemed the highest priority - cleaning out barns, weeding, planting, sowing seeds, transplanting seedlings, making rows, laying biofilm (biodegradable black plastic), watering, dehydrating herbs... Each day was different and so I got to learn a lot of new skills. I also learnt a lot about the weather - different tasks (e.g. watering, picking of salad leaves) have to be done at specific times of the day. If it's too hot you can't plant certain crops, too wet and you can't plant others. A perfect day on the farm would be a bit cloudy, and not too hot, allowing most tasks to be done.

The family worked really hard. Really really hard. Often they were up and working at 8am, and did't finish til after 9pm. There is no day off at weekends - on Saturdays they host a market at the farm, meaning an early start. Sundays are a work day, often the most productive as the office is closed and therefore work is uninterrupted by customers! At first I worked when they were working, but soon realised it was too much, and started taking afternoons or a few hours off here and there, though I still never managed to get a complete day off. I think one lesson I would take from this farm is to agree working hours and time off with the farmer right at the start of the stay, so expectations are clear for everyone. The wwoofing guidelines are to work around 30-35 hours per week, but my first week I probably worked closer to 70... There were lots of fun times with the family too - swimming in the river, fixing up bikes, campfires and smores, card games and card tricks, watching a new TV show together, cups of tea and chats on the veranda, baking bagels...

I was also very lucky with the other wwoofers here. When I first arrived, I was the only wwoofer. However, the next evening, two past wwoofers from Toronto popped by on their way back from some travelling and ended up staying for another week. The day that they left, a wwoofer from Vancouver arrived, and we hung out a lot during the rest of my stay. Having them around really added a different sociable element to the farm and gave me an excuse to take a break. Until Helen arrived, I hadn't left the farm property (in 10 days!) as the family told me there wasn't anywhere to go. We decided to go for a walk the second day she was here, and discovered an ice cream shop just down the road! Having someone to take breaks with really helped and made me feel a lot less guilty about taking time off.

One of my favourite things about things like wwoofing and couchsurfing are that it brings you into contact with lots of people who you wouldn't otherwise cross paths with. The farmer Frank was a good example of this. He's politically very conservative, passionately believes in the right to own a gun and thinks the welfare system should be removed. But he's also an incredibly kind and generous man, taking in two wwoofers during my stay who left another farm after a terrible experience, and helping defend them against the previous farmer when she tried to make it difficult for them. Staying in a house with such a large and outgoing family was also an experience! The kids are homeschooled and I found it interesting to find out more about the pros and cons of this and the impact of their individual farm responsibilities on their upbringing.

My second farm is very different. The host farmer is a similar age to me, and while this week has been busy with other wwoofers, tomorrow it may be just me, him and a friend of his who is staying for the summer. I'm already a fan of the clear working hours here. We work from 8am til 4pm (with an hour for lunch), but have evenings and weekends completely free. There's more space, more peace and quiet and more beer!

Here are some photos: