Wwoof host #3

Hello all, Laurin and I are now at a horse farm south of Perth. We are caring for 7 horses and setting up a veggie garden. Unlike the other farms we are starting work at 6:30 which has been giving us lots of time to ourself during the day. Our daily chores are taking us around 5 hours a day. We are learning lots about horses, and the girls here are teaching us things about showing horses in competitions and how to lunge them. We are going to do some riding tomorrow which will be great, and we will have our drum before the end of the week! Fun times, hope all is well in Canada!

Last week at Drummond's View

Hey all so we are into our last week here at Drummond's view farm, we will be moving on this Saturday. We went to a concert on the weekend and caught a break! We were talking to a friend we have made while in Geraldton and it turns out she will be driving to Perth this weekend. So, instead of paying $130 for bus tickets, Laurin and I will pitch $20 in for gas! In other exciting news we got a call today stating that our drum is in and ready for pick up! We will be sad to leave our new friends behind and will miss the farm, but we look forward to meeting our new host and to expand our experiences. This next farm is also where we will be spending the holidays, then in January we are moving on again. Fun Stuff! We have just put more pictures on flickr and I will upload another vid soon.

Cheers All!

Hello all, we have added some more pictures on flickr from our trip. Enjoy!

CLICK HERE TO SEE!

Red Belly Black Snake

Check out a visit from a nice sized snake on the farm!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neWdIwmfKPI&feature=youtu.be

Financial Update!

So Laurin and I have officially been in Australia over a month now..... how time flies! So far because of doing the WWOOFing exchange out financial output has been:

2 X meals eating out

2 X buying veggie burgers

1 X bus ticket getting to Geraldton

3 X Phone cards

1 X New hair and beard trimmer (other one exploded)

Grand total = $180

Now we have also busked briefly twice making us $85, leaving us with -$95 from when we landed in Oz... The goal is to break even or possibly in the positive but we shall see! 

Gingin, WA

Here's a video illustrating some of the experiences we had while staying with our first WWOOF host in Gingin, West Australia. It features some chooks (which are what they call chickens, for all you Canadians), some Demera sheep which we had the pleasure of feeding and also witnessed the new male lambs getting the chop. Our trip to the Moore River Park is also here, a beautiful beach area where the Moore River breaks into the Indian Ocean. Hope you enjoy it, and keep a look out for some more videos that include Chloe the Joey!

Click Here for the Vid!

This is a vid from when we first got to Australia, the audio is not good.. I will try to figure out why butyou can at least see what it was like sleeping in the Sydney Airport!

Click Here

Finally, some Hippies!

I'm definitely starting to feel like a traveler, and really sinking in to this laid back life style. So far at the olive grove, we've been doing something different every day, which is really refreshing and never gets too tedious. The first couple days we were picking caper berries and tomatoes, then we spent a few hours for a couple more days tying up the tomato plants and pruning them. We've been feeding the many birds nearly every morning, we've done some vegetable planting, some weeding, some composting, and making lots of sun dried tomatoes. There's always more to do, but it doesn't feel rushed or stressful at all.
Yesterday being Saturday, we took a half day and walked to the ocean for a bit of an adventure. It was about an hour to get there, but there's something about the red dirt, the sparse greenery and the vastness of the landscape that makes it very relaxing. We traversed the sand dunes on the way to the beach, taking care to watch for snakes and things along the way, of which we saw only one, minding his own business in the bush. We made sure to take our time to take in all the beautiful scenery, and the scale of the Indian Ocean in the distance on our way to the water. As we got closer the weather started to change to the overcast and rainy side, so we didn't linger long, but stopped to notice some beautiful sea shells and coral skeletons that had washed up on the shore. It still seems so bizarre to me to look out at the ocean and see giant ships in the distance, the kind that would carry some sort of cargo, not just fishing boats any more. The waters are very deep out there, and we hear it's a pretty healthy ecosystem full of fish and reefs and sharks.

When we arrived back at the olive grove, Eric the German informed us that we had been invited to a local party that night! He was working at the Farmer's Market in the morning, and got to talking to someone going to this get-together. When he mentioned that there were two Canadian musicians back at the farm with him, they extended us an invitation to come and hang out, play some music and meet some people. And we did! There were actually two other Canadians there, one from Caledon East believe it or not, and the other from Vancouver. We met some Kiwis, a South African, and a lot of people local to Geraldton. We made a connection with a Dutch didgeridoo player who had brought a nice instrument with him, and got to know a bit more about the area and the people from it. It was such a nice relaxing atmosphere, that we kind of lost track of time and didn't leave until 1am. Well worth being a bit tired today.

This morning we tried our luck at busking for the first time here in Oz! Managed to rack in enough coin in three hours to cover one of our bus fares that we paid to get up here, I'd say it was pretty good. So many people were really interested in the Oscar Drum, and I think we may have managed to get some business in Oscar's direction. The didgeridoo is something most people here are more used to, but the combination worked well and it was nice to just sit and meet some people and make some music together for a few hours. To get there, we had to borrow our host's car... which means Jason got to drive on the left side of the road for first time today! We're still alive, so all was successful. We've been slowly getting used to it from the passenger seat, so it really wasn't that bad a transition.

So it's been a week full of firsts! We're currently in the process of figuring out where to head next. If we are still in this area in a couple weekends, we've been lucky enough to have been invited to go to Kalbarri a bit further North with some new friends, so we'll see what happens. The plan now is to start heading south, back towards Perth to hopefully collect our drum really soon! Fingers crossed. We'll also have to find someone who wouldn't mind having us for the Christmas season as well, so we'll see how it goes! Worst case scenario, our host now is super grateful to have us, so we could stay put. We'll let you know.

Hunt For Sea Turtles

So I managed to get the last vid from Maui uploaded and its probably my fave!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SepzKUzZU8M&feature=youtu.be

Update!

Hello All! So we were trying to wait to get the videos to put with the posts, but due to the fact that we are working on remote farms in WA it can take hours to upload a 3 minute video. So we are going to continue with the posts then add the vids when we get some better internet access. So to update....... We had a great time staying with our first WWOOF host; we spent 2 weeks there and learned a lot about the Australian culture and history, also a lot about how precious water really is. Every place we have visited has had extensive rain water harvesting systems, as well as well water, and there is still always the risk of running out of water. We took a 4.5 hour bus ride up the west coast to Geraldton, where our current host met us and gave us a tour. We are currently staying at a farm that has 800 olive trees as well as caper berry plants, carob trees and a couple organic veggie patches. On top of this they have chooks, (chickens) some goats and around 500 different birds including about 35 different types of parrots. So far the majority of our work has consisted of taking care of the birds and making sun-dried tomatoes by the bucket loads. The host has a booth at the local farmers market where he sells olives, olive oil, capers, and starting this week, sun-dried tomatoes. The host is going to take us to the market this weekend so we can try our first attempt at Australian busking. Then on Monday we will be going into a local all ages school to spend the day with the music teacher working with the different ages of kids, (the wife of the host couple is the principal). The whole time I will be thinking about our former music teacher and good friend, Brett, we will make you proud! So that's pretty much the update, other than that we have just had the sad realization of all the stuff we forgot at the last host's house, but we have been in contact and we will be getting all that stuff back.

Hope all is well in Canada, so far every day is at least in the 30 degree range and I have an awesome farmers tan forming! Enjoy your snow.

Aussie Update

Hello All! Jason and I are currently WWOOFing in Gingin, West Australia, and things are goin amazingly. We have been working hard, doing lots of sightseeing, but haven't got the greatest internet situation at the moment. Videos will definitely be coming soon! We've got lots to share with you, we've been doing our best to record our experiences and take lots of photos. We'll post more as soon as we can :)

Lanai snorkeling!

So we finally got to do some snorkeling and it was an awesome experience! We took a 1.5 hour drive to Lahaina (the other side of the island) which is where the tourist side of Maui is. Once there we boarded a boat tour to Lanai where we got to get out and start snorkeling. There were so many different types of fish and beautiful reef to be found. After about an hour in the water we got back on the boat and set back to Lahaina. Both Laurin and I (as well all most the people in the boat) were fighting back sea sickness when we came across a big pod of spinner dolphins, about 60 individuals we guessed. We followed them for a bit then got back on our way. Once back on shore we saw the sites for a bit longer, had the most amazing sorbetto, then made our way back to the retreat! Personally my favorite day in Maui!

Here is the vid of our adventures:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hGsEwre7Wh8

Road to Hana

Hello all, Maui keeps getting better the longer we are here! We keep meeting new people and making new friends along the way. It's a lot of fun talking to people from all over the world, we are living with a bunch of Americans of course but we have spent some time with some Swiss and some Aussies and to hear all their stories has been great. The other day we decided to drive the road to Hana and despite getting motion sick from the windy road it was beautiful. Great beaches, amazing forests and jungles, and of course beautiful waterfalls!

Check out our vid!:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YlIoFVRz_SM

The adventures begin!

There were certainly a few tears shed at the airport Monday morning, but all went smoothly with our flights. After two 5 hour flights and a 3 hour stop in San Francisco, we got to Maui's Kahalui Airport at 4:30pm local time, about 10:30pm Toronto time. And since we had been up for two full days, we were getting a little tired! Sleeping on the plane was as uncomfortable as ever, so we passed the time with some movies and crazy eights! We managed to get our selves a cab almost all the way to our accommodations, but the cab wasn't in the best condition for dirt road driving so we ended up hiking the rest of the way to our Retreat, about 1/2 a mile or so. Unfortunately by this time it was dark, so we didn't get to take in much of the beauty of the land, and we missed a couple signs, so it was probably more like a 1 mile hike by the time we were done! When we finally arrived at the Opua House, one of the other guests greeted us very warmly and called the owner to come and meet us to give us the low down. Being sweaty and exhausted, we were so thrilled with the warm welcomes we got from everyone here at the Maui Eco Retreat, and we felt right at home.

After a much needed full night of rest, Jason and I awoke to the beautiful smells sounds of Maui. There are coconut palms absolutely everywhere, flowers on every tree, bananas, guava, passionfruit, and citrus all around us. The best part, picking it right off the tree and eating it! We have been eating our fill of local fruits, and after getting our rental car in order yesterday, we took a day-trip down to the ocean. It was about a 30 minute hike down the very steep jungle, with lots of ropes for support on the cliff-like terrain. We took some videos as we stopped to take in the views on the way down, and we could see some locals spear-fishing off the rocks below. We got to chat with them once we got to the bottom, and it turns out that they had a pretty good catch earlier in the day, but as they were fishing some more, an eel came along and starting stealing their catch and pulling it down into his hole! They were then in the process of retrieving their fish and lobster from the eel's lair. We went for a very salty dip in the choppy waters (little did we know their would be a tsunami warning later that night), and made the very high climb back up to the top. The views here are breathtaking, the weather is gorgeous, and we feel like we've found a little private paradise for ourselves. Today we've taken a trip to the nearby waterfall, which is definitely a lot easier to get to than the ocean, and met a nice couple there from Ottawa. The drop from where we were down to the bottom of the waterfall is about 150 feet, and you can see straight through the trees to the ocean again. Amazing. Tonight one of the current guests is departing after spending 3 months at the retreat, so the other folks are having a little party for her. They've invited us to come and make some music around the bonfire with them after dinner :)

Looking forward to our snorkelling trip that we've booked to Lanai to see one of the world's best snorkelling  spots, and to see some local dolphins and sea turtles!!! We also plan on biking down the Haleakala Crater while we're here, but we'll keep you posted on our adventures. There will certainly be some underwater camera shots to see from our snorkelling trip! Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow yet, but just relaxing here and watching the view from our private deck is enough. Check out the videos we've taken so far, and we'll definitely have some more soon!

Today (yesterday to the folks in Canada) was a day filled with mixed feelings and emotions. Laurin and I set out for the airport at 4am still running if of no sleep that night. We were joined at the airport by our parents and Laurin's grandparents and were ver happy to have them there. Though we are very excited to start out adventure, we both crossed security fighting off tears. The love and support our families have given has blown us away and though at times it's hard to say in in words, we love you all and will miss you all so much! So come visit!!

Getting down to the wire now, we only have one more day of packing and last-minute details to take care of! This whole week has been a tear-fest, and it's sure to continue til after we're on that plane. Jason just has such a hard time controlling his emotions ;) In all seriousness though, we will miss everyone terribly, but through the blog, facebook, and email there's no excuse not to stay in touch! A big thank you to the Funga Drummers, who gave us an amazing send off on Monday night. We played some tough stuff, but it was tons of fun. We will miss all of our drum family, and our drums, but we know they're in good (and might I add calloused) hands. Thanks Dad, and Jamie, for taking care of them for us. Don't forget to tuck them in!

4 days until we fly out!!! Thanks to everyone who came to the party last night, couldn't ask for a better send off. For those who have asked about where we will be staying in Maui, here is a link to the retreat.

Enjoy!

http://mauiretreat.com/main/?accommodation=lotus-room

BJC Farewell

Thanks to Barry and Paul for an awesome farewell lunch and to all who came out. After 4.5 years of working with this group, there were some good times, and some stressful times but all times made for good memories. Special shout out to my peeps on the TRU team! Thanks again, most of you will be missed....lol

Final Stages

Well we are less then 3 weeks away now. We moved back in with my parents and have sold most of our stuff. The car is the thing that will make this all real, once it is gone it will fully set in. Laurin and I are just starting to contact WWOOFs and are getting more and more excited. This is also our last week of work and it couldn't have come sooner, though I am sure we will miss the steady income.