Happy Chickens, Happy Wwoofers

Hubert is clearly after the same spot of shade as Lola and Wanda ...

The Wwoofers head to the Local Senior Centre for a night of poker !

Beautiful Lake Berryessa from the farmJenna digs to Chinachickens
Celebrating Denise & Jamie's Birthday ... in 1970

How many Wwoofers does it take to build a root cellar?

Perfecting our techniques ...

The temperature has dropped to below 100F today so the laptop works and we are once more able to blog. We have had an amazing July here at the farm with exciting new projects on the farm and new Wwoofers arriving just in time for a series of summer parties, Pope Valley Style.

Our lovely Charlie and Kai have recently left Pope Valley to continue their summer adventures. We miss them terribly but luckily the arrival of four new Wwoofers has helped. Brandon from LA arrived last week and has already become a very skilled roofer. Also new on the farm are Melanie, Allison and Jenna (all friends at Barnard).

We have been working on building a new root cellar here at the farm. It has been an great experience for everyone and we are learning so much. I have been so impressed how well we are all working as a team and we can now mix and pour concrete like a pro. The plywood roof went on last weekend and the final pour is on Friday. Then hopefully in a couple of weeks we will have a cool space to store the fruits and vegetables (which will also double-up as our cinema).

Other projects have been extending the fencing further out from the main animal area. This will give our goats more area to play in and more shrubs & trees to munch on. The roof is now on the goat and chicken hut and the animals are super happy. Jenna and Allison have been digging and digging .. and are now planting new grape plants around the main house. They have used our new seaweed compost as it has proven to be so successful on other plants in the garden.

We have been having great fun as a group as well. Jamie and myself celebrated our birthdays with a marvelous party in which everyone dressed up in 1970' s or 1980's clothes (rummaged from the thrift stores of St Helena). Music and sushi was made and a talent show performed. We have also started socialising with the locals at the Spanish Flats Senior Centre and are now welcomed for regular cross generation poker nights and lunch time bingo. Much fun is had on Lake Berryessa .. if we are not swimming or kayaking in it then we are harvesting seaweed .. the best way to survive the afternoon heat.

Well that's it for now from our little bit of paradise.

One month at Pope Valley ... and it keeps on getting better and better

Pope Valley Wwoofers hit San Francisco .. they are loud and they are proud!

Pope Valley Wwoofers are ready for Gay Pride 2009

Pope Valley Farm at dusk

No job is too high for Kai, our resident Mowgli !

Jamie carefully selects the largest watermelon (there are a lot of Wwoofers to feed)

The boys enjoy evening sporting activities (I drink tea and eat animal crackers)

Charlie attempts the chocolate game .. pipped to the last mouthful by Mike

Our yummy figs

I cannot believe that I have been at Pope Valley for a month already. I almost cannot remember life before I came here. I have gone from a complete city girl who sat behind a desk for almost the last 10 years to someone who can build a fence, grow vegetables, milk goats, swim for hours in a lake and fall out of a canoe!

It really is quite amazing here. What we are all learning from Nancy, Terry and Jamie is life changing. I used to go to the store once a week and buy lots of packaged and processed foods and now I am eating organic fruits and vegetables every day that come out of OUR gardens. The Wwoofers are all great cooks so each day we have meals prepared from the garden, milk from goats on our cereal and water from the well or spring. I am not sure if I will ever be able to go back to the city living but I do that I will not shop or eat the same way again.

I love most of the projects that we work on .. Jamie and Nancy have this amazing way of making everything fun and we all work well together .. so no job seems too daunting when you have so much support around you. The last week we have been working on painting the Wwoof HQ, goat and chicken stalls (aka Tiki Hut) and the solar shed. The farm now looks even more lovely.

Apart from milking which is just amazing, I absolutely love working the garden. Nancy is wonderful about sharing her horticulture knowledge and a complete beginner like me is already seeing success. The cow peas and golden beet seeds that I planted a couple of weeks ago are sprouting out already. Cannot wait to actually eat some of them later in the summer.

We had our first ripe figs this week and the pumpkins are huge. Every day we have lots of green beans and tomatoes to pick. The eggplants are my favourite as they are a really beautiful plant and taste yummy.

Outside of working on the farm we are still having fab adventures from marathon swims in the lake, kayaking (followed by rock jumping ... not quite as brave as the young ones here .. but hope to have the courage by the end of the summer), as well fun trips out .. last weekend was Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco.

We lost two of our fave Wwoofers this week .. Mike and Hannah have left to continut there amazing summer road trip and are now heading to up the Northern Coast of California. We miss them terribly but are we are soon to be joined by new Wwoofers on Monday and the house / tents will be full, the dinners huge and the Quelf games loud and silly. I cannot wait for the what July brings .... Denise. x