We’re done 🙂
This morning rain started softly falling on the tent around 7am. Davies had already gone down to breakfast as he’d offered to help cook and so spent an hour down there with Dan lighting stoves and making porridge 🙂 Ady and I chatted for a while and listened to the rain before going down and leaving Scarlett who insisted she wanted to stay in bed and would be fine on her own. I suspected she wouldn’t be and was proved right when she appeared about 20 minutes later in floods of tears having spooked herself and run down the hill in a panic :(.
The rain got harder and the planned Communal Day (they try to have at least one day per week when they have WWOOFers where as many of the community join in as possible and work all together on a project for everyone) seemed to fall completely flat and only Chris appeared for it. So waterproofs were donned and we headed down to the very bottom of the hill where there is a mountain of wood chips from where an area of trees were felled a couple of years ago and the chips were left to mulch. We fillled about 25 bags with it and then waited, and waited and waited for the Landrover to come and move it up the hill. We then moved into a covered area to avoid the rain and finally decided to have a tea break. We met the Landrover at that point, it had had a flat battery hence the delay.
We had tea and then headed back down the hill in increasingly heavy rain to load the Landrover up then follow it up the hill and unload it, then carry the sacks up another hill and spread around the foot of young fruit tree saplings over cardboard – all for suppressing weeds. It was heavy, hard, pouring with rain, cold and on the steepest, slipperyest, muddiest bit of the hill but actually we all had quite a Friday feeling going on and chatter and laughing went on.
Davies and Scarlett were happily tucked up at Rowan’s playing with Lego and watching films in the warm and dry. This afternoon they helped pluck and ready a pheasant for cooking so they’ve had a great last day 🙂
We broke for lunch and the rain finally stopped and we ended up with a clear blue sky although it is now very cold. Ady and I decided we did need dry clothes after all having sat and shivered in wet clothes all through lunch so walked down to the van for new clothes.
This afternoon was very easy going, clearing an area of brash and wood ready for a goat pen to be constructed next week. Chris then sent Ady and I off really early to go and light the bath house burner for the last time so we sat in there and chatted about these last two weeks and what we have got from our time here.
We’d been invited to Mel & Seth’s for dinner tonight, infact Davies has stayed for a sleepover so took a bottle of wine up and were treated to a gorgeous pheasant stir fry with bacon and egg fried rice and a lovely couple of hours of their company. They said they’ve never invited WWOOFers to dinner before but we have been exceptional. This place has totally set the bar for our year, it’s pushed every button I have I think. Vegan food, no alcohol, sleeping in a tent in March in below zero nights, the craziest hill ever, five resident dogs, no gas, no electric, compost loos, the hardest work for six hours every day that I have ever done in my life; and yet, some of the most amazing and inspirational people I have ever met, the most stunningly beautiful woodland, nature, views, clear star and moon lit skies, the bliss of a hot bath with water warmed by burning wood I chopped myself from a tree felled right here in these woods, stories told round the fire, music and singing and joke telling, children falling instantly into friendships with the kids here and learning and chatting to the adults, sharing knowledge and talking about parenting, education, chicken keeping, crop growing, green issues, debating local and seasonal verus organic, soya milk and lentils from half way around the world versus goats milk and eggs from livestock kept here. This place and these people answer many – but not all – of our questions and we have made friends and connections here that I suspect will last a long, long time.
Tomorrow night we’ll be back in a commercial campsite for a night before going to our next hosts on Sunday. It will be a massive contrast, a real shock to the system I suspect and this time next week we’ll have finished at our second host. This is definitely shaping up to be quite a journey…
Big grin 😀
Comment by Kirsty — 18 March 2011 @ 10:10 pm
Does Davies normally take a bottle of wine on sleepovers then? Glad you ahd such a good start 🙂
Comment by Daddybean — 19 March 2011 @ 11:05 pm
What a wonderful start! Has been lovely reading about it all. Oh yes, plenty to debate on the soya and other products shipping/flying aspect, very interesting stuff! Has all sounded a great beginning to your adventure.
Comment by Ali — 21 March 2011 @ 3:07 pm