WWOOFing, Making $500 and MUCH More!

Right... I may as well set the scene for this one as you'll need to be sitting comfortably because it's gonna be a long one!

We're currently sat in a nice country house (pics below) in the middle of nowhere, with no TV or Internet (smart arses - I'll be uploading this blog post tomorrow, just writing it now), so apologies those that think we've disappeared off the face of the earth! It's 19:50, still pretty hot outside, despite the sun setting on the lake out the back of the house. Sarah's sat opposite me reading a Danielle Steel book (H.R.H. I think, she said it's not very good, but we only paid $1 in a second hand book store!). We've got country radio on, and we're alone in the house, as we were yesterday too.

Ok, scene set ...kinda. I think the last blog post was saying that we were just about to leave for the WWOOFing place so I'll start from there. I can't remember if I explained what WWOOFing is, but it's basically World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. You go to work on the farms you apply for, and in return you get a roof over your head and food. There's a website which you can go to, sign up ($20) and search for farms you like the sound of. When you find one, just send them an email and hope they say yes.

Well, we applied for a few farms, some we completely avoided as they were clearly not farms, but recruitment agencies for pagans / witches (I'm not actually joking, they even said that applicants must join them in going into towns to preach their verbal diahorrea). Within less than 24 hours we had a few replies, mostly saying "Yes, we'd love to have you". The first positive reply we accepted, but we couldnt start for a week as they were away. Luckily, our second positive response from a woman named Ellen said we could just stay for the week, as she will be away on the weekend. This was great as we could work for the first week, then move to the other farm the following week.

We showered, got ready and headed for Ellen's place. It was about 130 miles from where we were in a place called Edenton, North Carolina. We had to stop on the way to check the emails as we hadn't actually agreed a time to arrive at Ellens, we just had the email saying "Yes, you can arrive Monday or Tuesday and work the week". We stopped at a McDonalds as most of them have Wi-Fi, NOT free, but we paid the $2 to use it. We didn't have any emails from Ellen, and by now we were about 30 miles away and it was around 6pm.

We sat in the van, deciding what we should do. We had two options really, either:

- turn up unannounced and just hope for the best
- stay in a motel somewhere near (no Flying J's around here) and arrive on the Tuesday.

We decided to just continue to Ellens, and hope that she would be ok with it! As we got closer to our destination, we noticed that the area had become massively more and more rural, at which point we arrived at our final left-turn onto Conners Drive. We turned onto it to be greeted with two signs: Private Road and No Hunting. Hoping we were on the right road, we continued on down the dirt track - after all the house number is 6037, it not like there won't be loads of house around right? Wrong. I haven't quite grasped the house number thing, but it seems like they pluck a number out of the air that they like!

About a mile and a half down this road, we come to a three-directional fork. Left to 6025 (or something), right to 6072 (or something) and straight on to Ellens. We continue on, now through a farily thick wooded area. I stop the van for a moment and check with Sarah that we should carry on - I mean we don't want to startle a little old lady (which she isn't by the way, we just assumed that she might be!) that's not exactly expecting us. We decided to just go on, may as well, we were here now after all! We come to a clearing to be greeted by a massive country house, parking for about 12 cars and a couple of horses in the front garden area. Sarah jumps out to approach the house (I haven't had time to shave properly, and my beard would probably scare people off!).

With that, Ellen appears on the front porch with a guy named Larry. I jump out, and by that time Ellen had already established that we were the WWOOFers and is really pleased to see us! We go inside, have a drink and a chat about our travels so far. Ellen is a really nice lady that probably wouldn't even say "Boo" to a ghost and Larry is an exact copy of Dave (Ed's mum's Dave) and Garry in New York. We get talking about Roger, and as it turns out, Larry is pretty handy with cars so we pop outside and adjust the brakes (as they were really loose!). After sorting the brakes out and chatting some more, Ellen insisted that we stay that night rather than find a B&B, then start properly from the following day.

We were shown to our room, or should I say "living quarters" where we have a bedroom and attached bathroom. Larry recommended that we take the van to the workshop where he works the following evening just to check the van over, and with that he left (he's Ellen's "boyfriend" for want of a better word). Ellen goes to bed pretty early, around 20:30, so we kinda followed and sat in the bedroom for a bit with Sarah reading her book and me playing on the DS. We popped outside on the upstairs veranda to be greeted with an awesome looking night sky, absolute silence and best of all - fireflies! I'm not sure how many of you have seen a firefly before but they're amazing. They're basically cool-looking flies with LED's attached to their bums that flash every second or so! We sat out there for a short while before getting into bed ready for our early 5:30am start the next day.


We rose at 5:30 sharp and headed for the nursery which is owned by Ellen. We met some of the other people that work there and began working immediately. The first task was "pulling plants". Before I carry on, Ellen runs a plant nursery for plants that have massive beneficial environmental effects, such as plants that remove pollutants from water, and prevent against mosquitoes. They're not the fancy plants that look pretty and do bugger all!

Anyway we start by pulling out some Wool Grass for an order. After we finished this, I was swiftly taken away to have a look at the website that Ellen runs, more importantly the calculator she wanted on the website to calculate the number of plants the end user would need within various sections of a planting project (i.e. the number of deep water plants, shallow water plants and shallow land plants). Sarah was taken care of by another of the workers at the nursery, given jobs here and there to do.

It transpired that Ellen has wanted this online calculator for a long time, and has been quoted a ridiculous amount of money ($20,000) for what is essentially a basic JavaScript calculator written in a bespoke manner. I tell her that I'd do it and have it completed in the time we're here to which she was ecstatic! I also vowed to give her website a nice overhaul and update it to bring it into the 21st century hehe. So with that agreed, I worked in the office and Sarah worked out in the nursery clipping grass, pulling more plants and weeding etc...

We finished work at around 14:30 and as we were leaving, we met one of Ellens friends called Lannie (I think that's how you spell it, and yes it's a bit similar to Larry). He invited us to the Steamers baseball game on Thursday, which we accepted. We then headed back to Ellen's.

After having a wash (it's so hot, we need to wash often!), Ellen asked if we'd like to go out on the Kayaks. Naturally we replied "Yes please!" with beaming smiles! We got the kayaks out of her garage and took them down to the water front where I jumped straight in and moved away from the dock so Sarah could get into hers. Ellen checked that we were ok with swimming and if we had capsised before etc... I said I was fine, but Sarah briefly said that she hadn't capsised, but would be ok.

Picture this - I'm loving it, just messing around going back and forth around the little dock waiting for Sarah to get in, giving her words of confidence like "You're gonna capsise" and "Don't lean too much!". Anyway she gets in her kayak and within about 4 seconds she's over and in the water!!! Probably feeling a bit embarrased around Ellen (who's sat on the dock helping Sarah and giving advice about Kayaking in the lake) Sarah climbs back in - this time keeping herself upright.


We paddle off and Ellen goes back into the house. We go about 20 meters down the lake and Sarah's capsised again! Unable to get back in the kayak (it did look pretty difficult to be honest) we decided to bring it to the dock so Sarah could get back in. Sarah swam most of the way, whilst I zig-zagged my way back. We got there, and we didn't have much time left as we had to take Roger to Larry's workshop that evening. I jumped out, and managed to gouge a nice piece of flesh out of my right foot just under my achilles tendon somehow on the boat. I stood on the dock and Sarah climed onto the dock and we pulled the boat up. Sarah kayak still in the water next to the dock. I said I cut my foot pretty bad and could she get me a plaster, "Oh, what the hell? You mean I have to walk all the way to the van to get you a plaster?!" said Sarah. Umm, yes please my foot's bleeding loads and I don't want to get crap in it. Ah, that reminds me - I'll pause the story for a moment to explain about the wildlife here - especially ticks.

The wildlife here is unlike anything we've ever seen back home. We've seen bullfrogs - massive frogs, giant beetles, some snakes, giant bees (forgot the name but they're huge, something like "bull wasp"), all sorts of spiders - even Black Widows and yes we've seen one at the nursery where I was pulling plants. Apparently they're not as dangerous as people make out. What are dangerous, though, are ticks. You probably all know what ticks are, those little buggers that somehow get on you (and I can't understand how they do, but they do), they completely dig their head into your body and drink your blood. That's fine. What's not fine is that they carry all sorts of diseases, mainly Lymes disease which can kill easy.

We were cleaning Roger today and I felt something on my leg, looked down and it's a tick. I tried to knock it, but it was in my body and not budging. Sarah had a go, and it just kinda side-stepped a bit and continued to suck my blood. All of a sudden it released so Sarah got it off and I stomped on it. You can't just rip these bad boys off unfortunately, because the toxins will release onto your body if you do - giving you all sorts of nasty diseases. We've been told to have a good "tick check" once a night in the shower or before we get into bed - and yes, check everywhere.

Anyway, so I needed a plaster for my foot that was bleeding all over the dock at this point. Sarah eventually got me one which, to be honest, didn't do much as the cut was too deep. I decided to just let it bleed out a bit and hopefully clot, as Sarah jumped back in the kayak to have another paddle around. I sat on the dock just watching. The time came when we really did have to head back into the house and head off to Larry's workshop, so Sarah finished up and we went inside. Ellen noticed my foot and helped clean it up. We even found a better plaster, or "Band-Aid" as they call them.

Sarah followed Ellen to Larry's workshop, which is about 40 miles away, past a prison too which is kinda cool in a weird way. All the inmates were in the exercise yard, with "screws" sat in their towers with rifles just looking on by. We arrived at the workshop, which is part of a massive farm that Larry works on. Larry arrived just after us, with the owner of the farm - Richard.

Richard offered us a tour of the farm, whilst Larry gave Roger the once over. We jumped in Richards pickup and headed off throughout the farm. He mainly grows wheat, and it's just like in the movies when you see cars driving down the roads next to tall wheat fields! I think he owns something like 4,000 acres, which is insane! After the tour we quickly popped into his house and met his wife who is just as lovely as he is!


When we arrived back at the workshop, Larry had some bad news - the brake adjuster on the drivers side wheel had broken. That explained the noise we had been hearing. He put the working parts back inside the brake "shoe" and Richard said we could leave it at the farm and order the parts we needed. Me being me, I didn't want to leave the van because we have alot of our personal possessions in it, so I said that we'd take it back to Ellens and order the parts from her nursery (where she has internet access). With that, Richard asked "Do you need any help with anything? Do you need money?", to which we replied "No, don't be so silly!". With that he popped home and I put the wheels back on Roger.

Richard came back with two jars of jam that his wife has home-made, and an envelope. I knew there was money in that envelope so I refused to take it and carried on putting the wheels on. Sarah reluctantly took it and without opening it, we said thank you very much to him, and Larry for helping with the van, and we followed Ellen back to hers.

On the way, we opened the envelope and inside it was $80. For what did we deserve $80?! We think that Richard wanted to help us pay for the brake adjuster, and in doing so he gave us this money! Very kind! Also, my laptop charger decided to not work anymore so it helped fund a new one.

Thursday came, I ordered a brake adjuster and new laptop charger, then Lannie's partner - Erica came to Ellens to pick us up (as we were going to watch the baseball game that evening) after we had finished working. She took us around Edenton to see their history and how they came about, which was suprisingly interesting! They have so many nice-looking big houses out there, and best of all - amazing ice cream which Erica treated us to! We then went back to her house where Lannie was - had a beer and a cheese board, then left for the baseball game. As soon as we arrived, there were about 10-15 school kids on the pitch reciting the pledge of allegiance - which was cute but I really do disagree with the "one nation under God" part. As soon as that was over, the game began.


Between each "innings" (which lasts around 20 mins) they had little games and quirky things, such as human-wheelbarrow races, 7th heaven stretch, where you stretch to a song before the 7th innings, and even a chicken dance towards the end. I did buy a hot dog there, which I intended to take a picture of for our facebook challenge - but me being me, I forgot to take a pic and ate it before we had a chance :). What I particularly liked about the game (and I'm sure Joe would too) is the umpire. When there's a "strike" he does a funny "STRIKE" gesture thing, and at the very end some guy from the opposing team went for a home run, but was *just* out and the umpire did a funky pose when he said "OUT".

On the way home, Lannie and Erica invited us to tea on the Friday night (the following night) which we, being poor and hungry travellers, accepted! I finished Ellen's website during the day on Friday, whilst Sarah continued to burn her not-so-pale-anymore-infact-blistering-red skin working in the nursery. After work, the laptop charger and brake adjuster arrived and we went to Lannie and Erica's house and had tuna steak skewers with cod fillets and it tasted amazing! Somehow we keep managing to find us discussing the topics we agreed not to, which are religion, 911 consipracies and Obama. Luckily, the people we have chatted to about it don't seem to mind!

On the Saturday, Ellen left for New Jersey to go any visit her family, so we had the house to ourselves for the weekend! We decided to go and see Larry (about 40 miles away) at his garage again as we needed to put the new brake adjuster on. We spent a few hours there, then headed back to Ellen's - stopping to get some food on the way. We wanted to go out on the boats again, but couldn't really as it was getting on a bit in the afternoon and Sarah would have melted, so we played Trivial Pursuit and went to bed.

On Sunday, we went out in the two man canoe which was fun. We actually went pretty far down the lake, which we found out as we attempted to paddle back upstream. No injuries or capsising this time! When we got back, we decided to get some food from anywhere in town. This was a bad move. We arrived at a steak house, named "Kathy's Steakhouse". "Great!" we thought, as we both love steak.

So we go in, park our bums down and a not-pleased-to-see-anyone server comes over and takes our order. Simple enough - 2 bottles of beer, one BBQ ribs starter to share, two medium-rare steaks, and a salad for 99 cents. Our beer was given to us by a completely different server, then we waited. During our wait, a family arrived and sat near us. Our server went over to them, took their order, flirted with the "dad" of the family (you could see the "mum" was getting a bit peeved!), and even got them some bread rolls to have whilst they wait! She then disappeared and reappeared with their meals shorly after! Still waiting for our starter, and 20 minutes later our food arrived all at once (starter and main). She mumbled something about the kitchen doing the food together - no apology.

I wasn't too bothered by this point as we were starving, even though my steak looked burnt. I took a bite of my steak, it was cold and rare. I thought "this is weird, I'll try some from the other end that looks more burnt", and with that I had a cold, but well done steak. I'm really not sure what happened but I seemed to have a steak that went through all the styles of cooking, rare to well done, but it was cold. Sarah's was much the same. I had a go on the BBQ ribs and burnt myself in their lava coated BBQ sauce. I think that what happened was they forgot the starter, so just left the "cooked" food on the side and quickly did the starter. Either way, Kathy's STEAKhouse must clearly be renowned for something other than steak, as they were pretty busy!

That evening, we decided to play Scrabble, and Sarah beat me! For those that know Sarah, that's quite an achievement! I'm blaming myself for holding onto the word JOKER for about 8 rounds, as it scored high, but I had nowhere to place it :(.

The next day we had to head to our next WWOOFing place in Efland, about 180 miles away. I decided to adjust the brakes again as they weren't done properly when we were at Larry's garage, infact they felt worse! To make the adjusting get done faster, I decided to take the brake shoe off WITH the trye still attached, and if you know anything about 1969 Ford Clubwagons, the tryes are big and bloody heavy especially with the brake shoe which seems to be made out of plutonium (the heaviest natural metal on Earth). In doing so, we were delayed by about 1.5 hours and I was caked in oil and grease :). By the way - yes you can adjust the brakes without taking the tyres off, but the new adjuster arm was jamming.


Anyway we arrived at our new WWOOFing place and met Tara and Jim. Just so you know, I'm writing this part of the blog from this new place, no longer in the scene I set at the beginning! Tara runs this farm, which mainly houses horses (there's about 10 I think, including a giant donkey taller than me!), and she breeds British Bulldogs! They also have a couple of cats and two parrots! Jim is uncannily like myself. He has a real nice drum kit, he loves Linux, he programs in PHP & MySQL oh and he's also receeding :).

We have our own quarters again, like we did at Ellen's. Our jobs are massively varied, but include mowing, planting, feeding the horses / dogs, driving the 6-wheeler around the farm, construction and loads more. We like the vareity here, as when we wake up we don't quite know what we'll be doing! Mum, Joe, Sam and Lenka will be suprised to know that they USED to have an African Grey parrot, which one day just flew off AND one of their two parrots that they have now is called BooBoo! How weird!

As at Ellen's, it's very relaxed here. We start work early, around 7/8 and finish around 1/2 or when it gets too hot. Today, for example, I was mowing all along the front of the farm next to the road and it's a very long way. I felt like passing out towards the end!!! Ooooh yes, whilst I was mowing today, about halfway through, I saw a few flourescant waistcoat style jackets up ahead on the other side of the road (no pavements here, just grass verges outside the farm). As they got closer I noticed there was a guy at the front and a guy at the back in black tops, whilst the rest had white t-shirts on (under their flourescant tops) and bin liners in their hands. They were prisoners. Litterpicking!

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to continue mowing as they got closer, but I did. As the front guard got closer, I noticed his very long gun. He waved to me to say hello, then lined up the prisoners whilst the guard at the back kept a close eye on them. and stayed at the back. They continued to walk past, and I made eye contact with a few which did that kinda nod which can look a little un-nerving. I did think to myself, there's about 15 feet between me and them, if one of them wanted, they could jump out and grab me to use me as some kinda hostage. They soon passed and the mowing continued. About 20 minutes later, I noticed them coming back down the road, on my side this time. I checked with Tara if I'd be ok to carry on but she said it'd be best to move out of the way and let them pass. Same nods and stuff as before and they passed.

How random is that though! I don't think I've ever seen that in England before! Anyway I'm getting a bit tired now, so I'll finish up here and blog again soon with more details about our stay here!

Hope everyone is ok! How's Ollie?

Love to everyone, missing you all lots!

Ed & Sarah.