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