Time Flies

Alex, another WWOOFer who arrived on the same day I did, reminded me that we’ve been on the farm for exactly one month today. Time is flying! I’ve done a bad job of keeping up blogging, but it’s a testament to how wonderful this place is. There are so many cool things going on and so many great people here that the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer screen.

This 80-acre farm is run by the Kern family, who are incredibly warm and inspiring people. Everything here is owner-built, and they’ve had more than 300 WWOOFers come through so far. There are currently 10 WWOOFers here, and most of us live in a community of trailers and RVs called WWOOFVILLE.

We just started working winter hours (9 am – 1:30 pm). The Kerns are really great about mixing up the work so things never get monotonous. I love having a farm-fresh breakfast every morning and meeting Hansel to talk over the day’s tasks. Just a sprinkling of some of the cool work we’ve been doing:
– transplanting kale, chard, cabbage & onions for the winter garden
– climbing walnut trees and getting stained fingers from peeling walnuts
– moving firewood for the winter
– harvesting everything from tomatoes and peppers to apples and peaches
– working with kids at the local North Fork school garden every Friday
– canning tomatoes and peppers
– making goat cheese
– milking goats!

Even though we only work in the morning, things are never boring around here. There’s a great community of WWOOFers and always something to do: cooking/eating together, playing games, listening to music, jumping on the trampoline, hiking, doing arts & crafts, chatting out on the porch, etc. I learn many new things every day, including guitar, which Alex has been patiently teaching me. Some of my favorite downtimes are our daily big group lunches after work and hanging out in the WWOOFVILLE trailer at night in front of a cozy wood fire.

More pictures to come but for now: