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Published: October 10th 2011
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Welcome to Kentucky
Home of Fried Chicken So after feeling fed up with the travelling lark we were ready to get our teeth into some hard work on the farm. I have left Dim in charge of a few of these blogs as I was losing a bit of enthusiasm and I can’t see if he explained the concept of WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). The idea is that we will work on the farm in exchange for food and board; pretty good exchange we think; see this link for more information if anyone is interested http://www.wwoof.org/.
When Kayla left us at the market we were feeling a bit apprehensive going into an unknown world but we were also excited. The journey once we went off the Freeway, took us through some stunning countryside and it was nice to be in the wilderness again; the farm setting was so beautiful too. We were introduced to Sadie and Mike (Janice’s daughter and her boyfriend) who seemed cool and were shown to the barn where we would be sleeping, here, we met our furry friends who were sharing the barn with us; baby chicks who absolutely stank. It was then that we were told that we had
to poo in the outhouse and not to wee in there to stop it smelling and so had to wee around the garden; that first night I was unsure if we had made the right decision as I was hoping for a proper toilet and to be able to sleep peacefully without the horrendous smell of baby chickens!!
We spoke to Janice in the morning and she was more than happy to move the chickens and we had a commode in the room so I soon got over myself about the toilet issue. Janice made us amazing homemade blueberry buttermilk pancakes which made up for all our woes; it was a good start to our first day on the farm. That day we got stuck in helping; in the morning we accompanied Janice on the morning chores; feeding the animals; 3 dogs, 4 cats, 3 lots of chickens and geese and then spent the afternoon planting spring onions and doing other little tasks. Janice’s long term woofer Helen became our mentor and in our opinion Janice couldn’t have asked for a better helper. We hit it off with Helen instantly and the 3 of us became close even in
The field
1st day at work and already tossing it off!! the short 2 weeks we spent together.
If we went through each day detailing everything that we did then this blog would become very long and boring so here is a summary of some of the jobs we did; picking vegetables, thinning the beets and carrots, raking, clearing weeds, digging up sweet potatoes, stringing beans, making tonnes of apple sauce, learning how to can apples, made apple leather, emptied the shit bucket, daily chores, sorting through rotten vegetables, learning about the deadly impact of frost on some vegetables, building a chicken coup, drying out herbs or ‘ERBS as Janice used to call them, preparing lots and lots of meals, eating a lot of apple crumble (yes we have put weight on for those of you who keep on commenting about our weight loss)and just learning lots about how to live more self-sufficiently .
Apples were definitely the theme of the 2 weeks; we ended up devouring 5 Apple crumbles between mainly the 3 of us – it became quite sick in the end!!! We went for a walk every night and it was so nice to walk along the country roads, we hardly saw a person go by
and the fall (or in English; autumn) colours of the leaves were lovely. This was just what we needed after feeling a bit homesick; we had stability, good food, great company and work that seemed to do us good – lazy buggers haven’t done much in a year!!!
This was definitely one of the better decisions we have made on this trip, deciding to come and WOOF on Janice Musick’s farm in Kentucky. Janice’s passion for living a healthy lifestyle inspired us more on our quest to lead healthier lives when we get home. Helen was also a wonderful person who we want to thank for all of your kindness and patience with us we are going to miss you all…. Oh and Sadie (Janice’s daughter) thanks again for the lovely gifts you were so refreshingly open and honest and we loved it!!!
“Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and far away………”
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