Winter WWOOFing

When we were telling friends and family about our plans to go WWOOFing through October, November, December and maybe the new year, we heard many skeptical questions along the lines of, "It's going to be winter, will they even have anything for you to do?" Haha, you silly people. We're getting busier and busier as the season goes on.

For one thing, routine tasks take much longer when the temperature drops below zero. Feed and water buckets freeze and need to be thawed twice a day. Animals such as the horses and cows, which usually get their water from the ponds and streams outside, now need to be given water as well. Eggs need to be collected more often, some animals need more feed. Your fingers turn numb and clumsy, making everything harder than usual to complete (try tying a hitch knot while your fingers are numb inside bulky work gloves). Water really does get everywhere and freeze at the worst times, causing equipment malfunctions (we've had the tractor, the chainsaw, and a washer we use for vegetable break on us in the last few days). All of these added time-sucks mean that what would have taken us half the morning to complete might take us all day.

She blends right in, wha?

We spent the last couple of days clearing brush from field perimeters, to keep the trees from encroaching on the cow pasture. We collected any evergreen boughs that were cut and spread them over the planted garlic beds. Contrary to what we believed, the boughs actually provide shade to keep the beds frozen. If the garlic beds were to thaw on a particularly sunny or mild day in mid-winter, the baby garlics would start to grow, and be "winter-killed" when the ground became frozen again. The evergreen boughs help to ensure that the beds don't thaw before spring.

The brush we were clearing was in the middle of the cows' pasture. They have acres and acres of fields to graze through, but of course they had to be right where the action was.

This is the bull. He is kind of derpy. His horns are intimidating but he is not aggressive at all....so far, anyway.

This is after he rocketed up and down the row, mrrping.

We're also still attending the market in Fredericton on Saturdays, so Thursdays and Fridays are full of harvesting, which Rex was eager to help out with. We picked lettuce and spinach from the greenhouse today, and will be taking carrots, kale, and eggs as well. Maybe onions.

Speaking of Fredericton, we were there last Saturday and we still haven't put up pictures of it. It was our first time to Freddy and we both really liked it. Adrian was with us and we had a great time walking around the waterfront and downtown area, sightseeing and shopping.

This was the old train bridge and is now part of a system of walking trails. It was pretty neat to walk across, and we even saw a bald eagle :)

Emily is conjuring her leaf minions to attack.

And this happened.

Oh....okay.

So besides regular chores and brush clearing, we have finished the firewood for the season (yay!) and Adrian and Ted have done some work on leveling an old shed on the property. We've been cooking a bit too, since Louise is away in New York this week, and are quite happy to be back in the kitchen :)





We went for a walk to Frog Lake today. Ted said to walk west from the house and we'd hit it in no time. The picture to the right is what is to the west of the house.

Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time with a camera.

It was a bit of a brambly bushwack at times but it did end up being a very nice walk. We went in the late afternoon so the lighting was beautiful.

We eventually came out of the woods and onto a road (Frog Lake Branch, indeed). After half an hour of walking, it was getting very cold but we were determined to find the lake that Ted had assured us was "right there".

And we did find it. But much further away than we had been told. It was worth it though, it was a beautiful view in the sunset.


That's it for now! It's snowing here and we're tired and going to bed. News soon about our next move (Monday!).