The Brits Have Invaded (well ... just the one)!

Hello from Denise ... this is my first blog of the summer from the wonderful world of Pope Valley Fruits. I've joined the my fellow WWOOF'ers, Chloe, Katrina (Suzannah is now back in NYC), Mike and Hannah (from Philadelphia) at WWOOF HQ on the farm. I have been here six days and it has been an amazing mixture of getting to know everyone - including the goats and chickens, learning how the farm functions on a daily basis, working hard on very satisfying projects, cooking great food that has just been picked from the garden 10 minutes before, exploring the stunning surrounding area and giving the thighs a good work out every day on the way back from swimming in the lake. As a London girl, I bring with me very little farm experience but I have brought good tea and marmite (yep, just me who likes it) and a genuine interest in the way this farm works ... and perhaps leave a small footprint which will help the farm develop in the future.

Nancy, Terry and Jamie are providing us all with the knowledge and encouragement to help us improve our farming skills and we are already starting to become 'experts' in certain areas ... Mike is inspiring to be the best goat shepherd Pope Valley has ever seen and if the you need a runaway chicken caught, then Chloe is your girl. As for me, my fence building skills are improving daily (along with my shoulder muscles) and I seem to have won everyone over with my first loaf of bread.

Yesterday, our four young chickens were joined with six new four month old chickens who could start laying eggs any day now .. Jamie is going to build them some laying boxes tomorrow so we will keep you posted. They had all moved to the new large chicken house which we built last week. Unfortunately, we didn't build the divide between the two sets of chickens quite high enough so the five us spent yesterday evening trying to catch the young ones - Sunshine, Jethro, Hubert and Tyra - who had escaped. I think the chickens enjoyed the game as much as us. They are now safely back in their old home, until improvements commence on the new home tomorrow.

Once the fence is completed around the new goat area, then Jada, Lola and Wanda will be moving in next door to the chickens. The gardens and orchards are just bursting with fruit and vegetables ... each day we find new things that have ripened and are ready to eat. Very soon the grapes and figs will be ready and I will be in heaven.

So all is great on the farm. We all have the day off today so have spent the morning enjoying this incredible sunshine (I'm from England so clearly not used to it). I'm off to do some yoga by the lake and later today we are all heading to the big lake for some swimming and beach fun. Bye for now.