There’s Wwoofers in the Woodshed

I think that every place in the Wwoof guide offers its own unique learning opportunity. Three Oaks Farm was about an organic farm feeding the community. Mystic Ridge Farm is about Bonnie feeding herself and those closest to her. This is going to be an exercise in homesteading.

Today, for the first time since I arrived in BC it rained and I mean really rained so all of the outdoor stuff was put to one side and Zena and I were presented with a really large pile of wood and a place to stack it.

The 'before' shot

And stack it we did. We managed to move over half of this monster pile of wood between the two of us, in turn hurling logs (caber tossing style) into the back of the shed and then stacking them neatly and as stably as we could. I even did a bit of structural engineering on the ends of the piles.

While I could have been irritated that I’d come all the way to BC to stack wood (I’m sure I can find plenty of people in NB who’d LOVE for me to stack their wood piles) I chose

to treat it as an exercise in meditation and just BE a wood stacker for the day. To accept that this is where I am now, so this is what I am doing. And by doing it, Zena and I will save Bonnie one heck of a lot of work… which seems to be a great exchange for the wonderful accommodation and gourmet food we’ve been receiving every day.

It also turned out to be a really good opportunity for Zena and I to get to know each other better and she’s a thoroughly interesting person so I certainly enjoyed it. We discussed everything from travel to careers to what in the heck is wrong with being proud of your achievements anyway?

Two very proud wood chuckers and stackers

Bonnie was thrilled to the point of nearly being in tears saying she’d never seen such well stacked wood and now she hopes for a really cold winter so she can have the chance to burn it… then quickly retracted the last part.

Despite everything, I think that I am supposed to be here

I’m staying in the Bed and Breakfast suite at Bonnies place and on the shelf I have found copies of ‘The Four Agreements’ and ‘Daughters of Copper Woman’ which are both books that I really want to read.

I think that arriving at any new farm or couch surfing host is always going to be awkward and I’ve got to do it at approximately another 24 times over the next 6 months.

When we visit people we know, we arrive to waves, hugs, kisses or at the very least a smile and a warm handshake. When we arrive at the homes of strangers it’s hard not to have the defences up. They tend to be welcoming but guarded. I tend to be polite but awkward. I guess it’s human nature, or maybe it’s just me, but whatever the case it’s something that I’m just going to have to accept for a little while. Yes, it is going to be uncomfortable, over and over and over again. But just because it’s temporarily uncomfortable it doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. If I’m going to meet new people and have new experiences it’s not going to feel like putting on an old pair of slippers. Sometimes the shoes are going to feel too big, sometimes too heavy, but I’m going to have to grow to fit them as they stretch and adapt to my own shape.

Even arriving here, in what must be the most laid back place in the northern hemisphere, it felt weird to begin with and I had my doubts about my choice. I started thinking that maybe I should move on somewhere else, that maybe this farm was a bit TOO laid back for me and I should go somewhere a bit more ‘serious’, whatever that means – wow, I‘m in a funny headspace still! But once we’d sat down to supper and I’d learned to hold down a conversation over the top of another very loud one going on next to me, drunk a glass of homebrew and we’d all shared our stories I was laughing my socks off and Bonnie, Wayne and Zena all seemed to be a fair bit more comfortable with me too.

So this is where I am now so I’m going to get on with ‘being here’ for the next 7 days.