Two important things of the day: dragging logs out of the woods is really hard and taking an outdoor shower when it's 50F out is a really bad idea.
So today was a bit of a test of wills. The logging work actually wasn't so bad if I thought about it as my workout for the day, which it was. James wanted to rebuild a low garden wall with poplar posts. He took a chainsaw to a few poplars on the hill and cut them into chunks, and then Maren and I lugged and dragged the logs down the hill. We used trunks 2.5-6" in diameter. Poplar was planted on the hillsides to stop erosion, which it does well, but it's also become a bit of a nuisance as it's now pushing out native trees. Slow and heavy work to get the 5 plus trees down off the hill.
Our hosts think we're wusses, but the outdoor solar-heated shower at dusk is just miserable in this season. The air temp is too cold to get naked and the (really) hot water from the solar shower just dribbles out making it impossible to get warm in it. It's a bloody ordeal getting a shower out there without warm air. I'm shivering violently by the time I'm done and my little pack towel can't cover me while I'm wet. Maren decided it was way too cold to get a shower outside tonight after Steph and I came back freezing and is opting for a shower in the house instead. Not a wimp I think.
---
Slowly but surely I'm learning lots of cool things out here. Willow and poplar are great for building living structures. You can stick stumps of either in the ground and they'll root and flower and grow. Rather amazing. You can make living willow walls or a shade cover of poplar or willow. If you're really enthusiastic, maybe a chair or yurt, a tunnel or gazebo classroom, all kinds of crazy structures. Also learned that poplar makes poor firewood, but a dense native bushy conifer (I forgot the name) works really well. And I learned the best way to haul heavy log sections - hoist one on my shoulder which saves my biceps and forearms from wearing out too fast (climbing strength didn't get me very far). My Carhartts are very dirty and worn in now from all the work we've been up to.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
My first wwoof
[Sept 27, 2008]
We do about 5hrs of work a day. Work starts at 9am after make your own breakfast and goes until lunch around 1:30pm, an hour lunch, and then we work again until 3-4pm. We have two tea breaks also with English black tea usually, biscuits (cookies), and maybe a bit of dried fruit. Lunch is usually a bit late because of our tea break and dinner is around 7-8pm. We are always welcome to get snacks if we need them, but usually the meals are very filling.
Wwoofing isn't really about eating, so... in the past week I have weeded and turned up the soil for garden beds, removed 8-gauge wire from a fence and cleaned the bark off the wood posts, stuck poplar poles in the ground for a living gazebo, gathered sticks and brush which we burned in a huge bonfire, cracked walnuts while it rained yesterday, and 3 times a day we do the dishes. (This is in addition to our 5hrs of work each day). We end up working half of the daylight hours, but our hosts pretty much work dawn to dusk. In addition to doing outdoor work on their farm and keeping the B&B, there's the regular household work, taking care of their son Sol, and making lunch and dinner for us.
Gathering sticks to burn today was harder than the digging in the beds we'd been doing for the past few days. We'd load up an enormous blue tarp of sticks from the fields and drag it to the burn pile, taking 2-3 of us to haul it across the swampy meadows. The burn pile was next to the convergence of two streams and sopping wet from the rains yesterday. We got really muddy and needed wellies to keep our feet dry instead of our porous sneakers! (really really muddy shoes and pants)
Yesterday, the sheep were out in the yard mowing the grass. They're very good at it, but they are also very good at escaping. We kept having to chase them away from the vegetable beds and flowers and back to their designated area, which was not well enough fenced in. Today some escaped across the cattle grate into the road and we had to chase them back in. They're pretty nimble things and good at jumping through the bushes and on in particular seems to have a "grass is greener" mentality. So they can be a bit of a pain! And yes, we've done the quintessential counting of sheep.
We do about 5hrs of work a day. Work starts at 9am after make your own breakfast and goes until lunch around 1:30pm, an hour lunch, and then we work again until 3-4pm. We have two tea breaks also with English black tea usually, biscuits (cookies), and maybe a bit of dried fruit. Lunch is usually a bit late because of our tea break and dinner is around 7-8pm. We are always welcome to get snacks if we need them, but usually the meals are very filling.
Wwoofing isn't really about eating, so... in the past week I have weeded and turned up the soil for garden beds, removed 8-gauge wire from a fence and cleaned the bark off the wood posts, stuck poplar poles in the ground for a living gazebo, gathered sticks and brush which we burned in a huge bonfire, cracked walnuts while it rained yesterday, and 3 times a day we do the dishes. (This is in addition to our 5hrs of work each day). We end up working half of the daylight hours, but our hosts pretty much work dawn to dusk. In addition to doing outdoor work on their farm and keeping the B&B, there's the regular household work, taking care of their son Sol, and making lunch and dinner for us.
Gathering sticks to burn today was harder than the digging in the beds we'd been doing for the past few days. We'd load up an enormous blue tarp of sticks from the fields and drag it to the burn pile, taking 2-3 of us to haul it across the swampy meadows. The burn pile was next to the convergence of two streams and sopping wet from the rains yesterday. We got really muddy and needed wellies to keep our feet dry instead of our porous sneakers! (really really muddy shoes and pants)
Yesterday, the sheep were out in the yard mowing the grass. They're very good at it, but they are also very good at escaping. We kept having to chase them away from the vegetable beds and flowers and back to their designated area, which was not well enough fenced in. Today some escaped across the cattle grate into the road and we had to chase them back in. They're pretty nimble things and good at jumping through the bushes and on in particular seems to have a "grass is greener" mentality. So they can be a bit of a pain! And yes, we've done the quintessential counting of sheep.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Sheep have poopy butts!
[Thursday, Sept 25, 2008]
I've done two days of work at Okuti Garden and am feeling a lot more comfortable now. Yesterday afternoon I walked with Fabrice and Stephanie (the French couple) down the road to the tennis courts. Along the way we passed some very thickly coated sheep. Their wool grows everywhere, including their butts! And sheep poop. So the sheep have very poopy butts, with dried poop haning off their wool on their behinds. If it gets really bad, and these particular sheep were pretty bad, then the poop strands drag along and look like a cross between soppy poopy dreads and hippie bead strands. Oh the hilarity of the poopy butt!
I've done two days of work at Okuti Garden and am feeling a lot more comfortable now. Yesterday afternoon I walked with Fabrice and Stephanie (the French couple) down the road to the tennis courts. Along the way we passed some very thickly coated sheep. Their wool grows everywhere, including their butts! And sheep poop. So the sheep have very poopy butts, with dried poop haning off their wool on their behinds. If it gets really bad, and these particular sheep were pretty bad, then the poop strands drag along and look like a cross between soppy poopy dreads and hippie bead strands. Oh the hilarity of the poopy butt!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wed, Sept 24, 2008
[Tuesday]
After getting settled in Christchurch, I fell hard asleep at about 3pm. I set the alarm for about n hour later, but then turned it off in favor of more sleeping. mmmm! I awoke to my two other dorm mates about 9pm. Managed to get my weary self out of bed for a bit, cleaned up my already pretty organized stuff, brushed my teeth, and walked downt ot a convenience store, really really hungry, with Gillie for bread and PB.
I met Gillie much earlier that day on the City Bus from the airport into the city center. We were both headed to the visitor's center, and friendly as lonely backpackers are, we decided to make the trip together. We picked up phone cards and the lady at the desk let me know what I already suspected, that the buses to Akaroa via Little River were already gone for the day. Gillie had been recommended the Coachman backpackers and we hopelessly circumnavigated the block adjacent to it 1 1/2 times before a guard at the Cathedral pointed us in the right direction. We booked a dorm room (4-beds) for $25 and then headed off to an internet cafe and a phone booth to take care of a few things.
Soon after that we met up with Gillie's friend Carolyn who was in town looking at jobs. I soon decided that moving to NZ was a great idea - albeit, not in Carolyn's style. Her husband was looking at university jobs in the department of strategy (?) and I think she was looking at HR manager type positions. She had awful buckle platform heels and a blouse that let her leathery tan boobs spill out. Great for job interviews. We all walked the town a bit and I bought a pack towel (having forgotten any sort of towel), a plug converter (the plastic pieces broke that night), and talked to a guy at an outdoorsy shop about climbing. This was excellent. He gave me info for the local indoor gym, his number, and the local listserv, from which people organize climbing trips every weekend. So I should be all set. Except that I'm in Little River now, sans car. But once I get back into town I should be able to figure out things quickly. One thing follows another --
[Wednesday]
In Little River at Okuti Garden I met 3 other wwoofers. All recommended that a car was essential for travel here as buses are limited and trains worse. In order to pay for a car I'd need a job and in order to have a job I'd need a place to stay. And then from working in the city I could easily go climbing with my listserv buddies. I have to buy a car very soon because it's almost tourist season and prices go up. I could probably manage to keep wwoofing for a while afterwards because wwoofing only costs gas money. Getting a car means about $800-$1000 for the purchase, plus around $250 for basic insurance, plus petrol. The hope is that I'd sell the car for around the same at the end and make most of that cost back. Decisions! Oh, and working in a cafe or something decent might be difficult given the climbing to farming grungy trend of my cothes.
Being out at Okuti Garden is like insta-lonely. I don't know whether it's the quiet, which makes it harder to be distracted from my own thoughts or the mix of people here. By the way, I have yet to meet another American traveler. Well, I met two huge ladies from Texas on the bus, but they're not the same kind of travelers. The wwoofers here are a German girl (22) and a French couple, all of whom speak English.
After getting settled in Christchurch, I fell hard asleep at about 3pm. I set the alarm for about n hour later, but then turned it off in favor of more sleeping. mmmm! I awoke to my two other dorm mates about 9pm. Managed to get my weary self out of bed for a bit, cleaned up my already pretty organized stuff, brushed my teeth, and walked downt ot a convenience store, really really hungry, with Gillie for bread and PB.
I met Gillie much earlier that day on the City Bus from the airport into the city center. We were both headed to the visitor's center, and friendly as lonely backpackers are, we decided to make the trip together. We picked up phone cards and the lady at the desk let me know what I already suspected, that the buses to Akaroa via Little River were already gone for the day. Gillie had been recommended the Coachman backpackers and we hopelessly circumnavigated the block adjacent to it 1 1/2 times before a guard at the Cathedral pointed us in the right direction. We booked a dorm room (4-beds) for $25 and then headed off to an internet cafe and a phone booth to take care of a few things.
Soon after that we met up with Gillie's friend Carolyn who was in town looking at jobs. I soon decided that moving to NZ was a great idea - albeit, not in Carolyn's style. Her husband was looking at university jobs in the department of strategy (?) and I think she was looking at HR manager type positions. She had awful buckle platform heels and a blouse that let her leathery tan boobs spill out. Great for job interviews. We all walked the town a bit and I bought a pack towel (having forgotten any sort of towel), a plug converter (the plastic pieces broke that night), and talked to a guy at an outdoorsy shop about climbing. This was excellent. He gave me info for the local indoor gym, his number, and the local listserv, from which people organize climbing trips every weekend. So I should be all set. Except that I'm in Little River now, sans car. But once I get back into town I should be able to figure out things quickly. One thing follows another --
[Wednesday]
In Little River at Okuti Garden I met 3 other wwoofers. All recommended that a car was essential for travel here as buses are limited and trains worse. In order to pay for a car I'd need a job and in order to have a job I'd need a place to stay. And then from working in the city I could easily go climbing with my listserv buddies. I have to buy a car very soon because it's almost tourist season and prices go up. I could probably manage to keep wwoofing for a while afterwards because wwoofing only costs gas money. Getting a car means about $800-$1000 for the purchase, plus around $250 for basic insurance, plus petrol. The hope is that I'd sell the car for around the same at the end and make most of that cost back. Decisions! Oh, and working in a cafe or something decent might be difficult given the climbing to farming grungy trend of my cothes.
Being out at Okuti Garden is like insta-lonely. I don't know whether it's the quiet, which makes it harder to be distracted from my own thoughts or the mix of people here. By the way, I have yet to meet another American traveler. Well, I met two huge ladies from Texas on the bus, but they're not the same kind of travelers. The wwoofers here are a German girl (22) and a French couple, all of whom speak English.
Tues, Sept 23, 2008
[from the Auckland airport, early morning]
It's Tuesday now. Monday got lost in transit. Everything's worked itslef out. They didn't have my meal preference b/c of the flight change (lacto-ovo veg, ANZ get's super specific), but an attendant got me an extra business class fish meal, which was fantastic. Breakfast was great too - a vege noodle stirfry. Pretty high class I thought. The sunset was gorgeous this morning, but now we've settled into a heavy overcast - gray skies and bright green grasses.
Super friendliness abounds here - even the customs people checking for food stuffs and forest-touched gear were nice and laid back. Customs was much more scary going to India and returning to the US. I also met a really nice girl on the flight who's from Toronto and working in Aukland on fire system engineering. We exchanged emails and she wanted to hear how wwoofing went since she was looking into it for her Christmas holiday.
Next stop - Christchurch, where I'll need transit to the visitor's center to get a bus (cross my fingers!) to Little River. Got to get cash out and find a phone to let my host know when I'll arrive.
It's Tuesday now. Monday got lost in transit. Everything's worked itslef out. They didn't have my meal preference b/c of the flight change (lacto-ovo veg, ANZ get's super specific), but an attendant got me an extra business class fish meal, which was fantastic. Breakfast was great too - a vege noodle stirfry. Pretty high class I thought. The sunset was gorgeous this morning, but now we've settled into a heavy overcast - gray skies and bright green grasses.
Super friendliness abounds here - even the customs people checking for food stuffs and forest-touched gear were nice and laid back. Customs was much more scary going to India and returning to the US. I also met a really nice girl on the flight who's from Toronto and working in Aukland on fire system engineering. We exchanged emails and she wanted to hear how wwoofing went since she was looking into it for her Christmas holiday.
Next stop - Christchurch, where I'll need transit to the visitor's center to get a bus (cross my fingers!) to Little River. Got to get cash out and find a phone to let my host know when I'll arrive.
Sun, Sept 21, 2008
I'm a bit behind getting this all posted... but here's where the journey starts. [Excerpts from my travel journal.]
No air flight goes without some hiccup it seems. I board the United flight to LAX on time only to find that there's a malfunction with... we later find it's only the A/C unit. Everyone de-boards and we're waylaid over an hour. I arrange a backup flight out of LAX to Aukland in case we arrive too late - indeed, at 8min past departure I just miss my 9:30pm Air New Zealand flight. The 10:30pm one is boarding as I get my boarding pass at the gate and I hop on the flight - after of course, flying across the parking lots of LAX running and getting directions to Terminal 2 and kindly being hurried through security. I would have made it if I hadn't had to re-enter the 'secure area.'
Itinerary changes mean a domino effect on down the line - a now 3hr layover in Aukland before going to Christchurch where I may arrive too late to make the transit to Little River, where I can get picked up by the welcoming wwoof host for a quick jaunt over to their home, Okuti Garden. It could be worse - if our plane hadn't gotten fixed at Dulles before 7pm I would have had to start all over tomorrow.
[from LAX, waiting to take off]
It's true, New Zealand hospitality is superb - I can already feel it at the gate and with our flight attendants. We get our first meal an hour into the flight. I'm so excited. I didn't really eat lunch on account of late breakfast, nerves and an ever quesy digestive system. I've had some dark chocolate (my favorite on flights!) and pumpkin muffins (also w/ chocolate in them) and a little PBJ. I also had one of my little red plums which bled all over my fingers, much like my black pen did when I tried to start this journal on paper. Ooh, and the person who was in 57A apparently baled on flying, so I've got seats 57B and 57A for my 12hr flight. So luxurious for economy! Back to the hot meal coming soon - I don't know why I'm so excited about airline food, but the idea of a hot meal of interesting goodies just makes me so happy. I know it's cheaper for them not to serve on domestic flights and it's probably not great nutritionally and I'm normally an organic gourmet food girl. Whatever, it brings back memories of childhood and the last meal I had on a flight was a paneer curry on the way to India. Ii thought it was the best tofu I'd ever had. Whoops.
And did I mention, ever the airline reeks of outdoorsiness. I'm already at home. My biggest goals are to get to know farm life and pick up lots of farming knowledge and go climbing a lot! I brought 30lbs of climbing gear! I better use it. I got my roll in a kayak a week ago so I'm set to get on some easy Class I and II rapids.
No air flight goes without some hiccup it seems. I board the United flight to LAX on time only to find that there's a malfunction with... we later find it's only the A/C unit. Everyone de-boards and we're waylaid over an hour. I arrange a backup flight out of LAX to Aukland in case we arrive too late - indeed, at 8min past departure I just miss my 9:30pm Air New Zealand flight. The 10:30pm one is boarding as I get my boarding pass at the gate and I hop on the flight - after of course, flying across the parking lots of LAX running and getting directions to Terminal 2 and kindly being hurried through security. I would have made it if I hadn't had to re-enter the 'secure area.'
Itinerary changes mean a domino effect on down the line - a now 3hr layover in Aukland before going to Christchurch where I may arrive too late to make the transit to Little River, where I can get picked up by the welcoming wwoof host for a quick jaunt over to their home, Okuti Garden. It could be worse - if our plane hadn't gotten fixed at Dulles before 7pm I would have had to start all over tomorrow.
[from LAX, waiting to take off]
It's true, New Zealand hospitality is superb - I can already feel it at the gate and with our flight attendants. We get our first meal an hour into the flight. I'm so excited. I didn't really eat lunch on account of late breakfast, nerves and an ever quesy digestive system. I've had some dark chocolate (my favorite on flights!) and pumpkin muffins (also w/ chocolate in them) and a little PBJ. I also had one of my little red plums which bled all over my fingers, much like my black pen did when I tried to start this journal on paper. Ooh, and the person who was in 57A apparently baled on flying, so I've got seats 57B and 57A for my 12hr flight. So luxurious for economy! Back to the hot meal coming soon - I don't know why I'm so excited about airline food, but the idea of a hot meal of interesting goodies just makes me so happy. I know it's cheaper for them not to serve on domestic flights and it's probably not great nutritionally and I'm normally an organic gourmet food girl. Whatever, it brings back memories of childhood and the last meal I had on a flight was a paneer curry on the way to India. Ii thought it was the best tofu I'd ever had. Whoops.
And did I mention, ever the airline reeks of outdoorsiness. I'm already at home. My biggest goals are to get to know farm life and pick up lots of farming knowledge and go climbing a lot! I brought 30lbs of climbing gear! I better use it. I got my roll in a kayak a week ago so I'm set to get on some easy Class I and II rapids.
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