One of the very interesting things about WWOOFing is coming to realise that managing people is actually a very valuable skill. One which lots of people simply don’t possess. Being able to clearly explain what you want someone to do, giving the right level of guidance to ensure you have got the idea across without being patronising or dictatorial, giving the right level of autonomy to someone whilst ensuring the work is still actually done with the desired end result and then actually letting them to do it seems to be a bigger deal that we’d realised. That said, our current host Lisa is not bad at this at all, although she does have a habit of flitting from one job to the next and giving a long list of ‘things that need doing’ which always freaks Ady out as he feels like he should have completed all of them before she comes back whereas I assume she is almost thinking aloud and hoping between us we remember them all and it gives us a little choice to move between tasks as we wish. She is not working with us much which in some ways is a shame as it is always nice to be chatting and learning as we go – and have someone on hand for guidance when required but in another way is nice as we get to chat and move at our own pace.
This morning our first job was digging out some ragwort from various patches around the land. Ady and I had forks (although the ground here is so stony it is really hard to dig so I was pulling out by hand) and the kids had buckets for us to bung them in so they could transport them to the compost heap. The grass we cut yesterday was then piled on top and hopefully the heat of the composting grass will kill off any ragwort seeds to stop them spreading. That was all quite pleasant until it started to rain!
We were then shown a variety of tasks in the polytunnel – some weeding, some thinning peaches and nectarines, some pinching out tomatoes, some removing runners from strawberries and another outside job of grading some wood into two piles – one for firewood and another for building, then moving it to the relevant place. I don’t think we’ve had a host yet where carting wood around – either up or down a hill, hasn’t played a part!
I was really not in the mood for the wood so I did a little and then went to do some weeding in the polytunnel. Ady carried on with the wood and the kids came and did some weeding alongside me. We also moved a load of freezer stuff from one freezer to another – a slightly domestic type task for WWOOFers really but I suspect that happens a lot here as it is a fairly small growing operation and so when times are quiet I imagine WWOOFers are called on for various housework type tasks.
Then it was lunchtime – salad mostly from the garden, honey from their bees and home made bread, all very nice. They don’t seem to offer tea breaks here so this morning we broke for 15 minutes in our four hour long morning shift from 9am – 1pm and had a coffee ourselves. The afternoon shift is only 2 hours so that is fine but a mid morning cup of tea is essential in my opinion!
After lunch it was lovely and sunny and we spent a very nice couple of hours picking redcurrant and blackcurrants from the absolutely laden bushes. Very satisfying to have five full tubs of fruit at the end of that.
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We then headed off to Tescos, which is about a 15 minute walk away. We were all so retail therapy starved we spent about 90 minutes in there and walked up and down every single aisle 😆 I think we just needed to remind ourselves that our previous life did still exist if we wanted it!
We did look at our shopping on the conveyor belt and laugh at how much we had changed what we bought though – we were buying for breakfast and it was bran flakes, oat, dried fruit and yoghurt – all our favourite breakfast foods from the various hosts we’ve been to, along with some brown seeded bread to eat our hosts honey on. I think we’ll be making our own bread eventually but not practical in the van really.
We walked back and Lisa drove past us along the way so stopped to take our shopping for us. I rang my parents and they had collected the mifi and sent it on to Bryn Mawr so that is all in hand and should arrive with them tomorrow :). I also caught up with Julie later in the evening on the phone so all my social phonecalls are now made. I do have some paperwork to do for tax and other finances though which I really must get sorted this week thanks to a pile of letters Dad brought up with him last weekend.
Dinner was cabbage soup 😆 It was very nice cabbage soup and even Davies and Scarlett ate it all but it was just a bowl of cabbage soup, not even any bread. We did wonder if after we left they got out the real dinner for them to eat 😆 I think the truth is they can’t really afford to feed us, they have said that money is very tight and we are sorting our own breakfasts out. A bit of a cheek really as the deal with WWOOFing is all meals in exchange for work but they have given us a huge jar of honey which I know they would sell for over £10, fresh fruit every day and we have hook up and use of the whole static now (which I am currently sitting spread out on the sofa in as the others have gone to bed) so there is a touch of luxury to our stay here which compensates. Also they are interesting people and have lots to teach us about beekeeping and growing. I think they are slightly fazed by us as a family and not quite sure what to make of us.
Back in the van the kids watched a dvd on the laptop while I talked to Julie on the phone and we all had showers. We are thinking we will offer to cater for ourselves at the weekend as the static has a kitchen we can cook in and then we get a real break from being dictated to about mealtimes and can eat whatever we want without intruding on their family too much – the house is very tiny so we don’t really go any further in than the conservatory where we eat anyway.
We have caught a glimpse at the proposed job list for us which has interesting things like bottling mead, some other honey related stuff alongside garden tasks and fruit picking so all sounds pretty good. John also said it was a shame we were not here for a week longer as we could have attended a beekeeping training day he is running here the following weekend.