Matilda August 13th-25th/07

Wow, reading what Mathilde wrote in our Wwoofer memory book reminds us of all the great and helpful wwoofers we have hosted here at Eh Canadian Farm Woodlot. Mathilde from France is a very charming and fun person. Mathilde will be a Doctor (GP), 6 months after she returns home. All those, Mathilde met here, were very sorry to see her head off on her journey. Mathilde brought the best out in those she met. Her infectious and positive attitude made her a joy to host. Matilda was very independent and self motivated.

Matilda who was happy to stay in the caravan, helped a lot in the lodge as well as in the garden and around the yard and barn. And without even turning up her nose took on the job of cleaning the chicken coupe. Mathilde did get out as well. We attened a Disco party at our neighbours, and Mathilde didn't hesitate to share in the fun. Had dinner at the Eagle's Eye thanks to new friends we met at the lodge. We hiked to Gorman lake with friends, Mathilde, Rachelle and I hiked to Hamilton Lake near Emerald Lake and Mathilde worked on overcoming her fear of dogs, by going on a dog walk with neighbours and at least 6 dogs. As a conclusion to her stay here, Mathilde hosted an appetizer party at our place to say so long to friends she had met here. Matilda however, will be remembered for two phrases. "Now the truck is more stuck." "I put 2 cups of cinnamon in the cake."

Seraina, July 24th to Aug 1, 2007

June 24th to August 15, 2007

Seraina, from Switzerland was our youngest and first Wwoofer to get serious homesickness. Seraina, had already spent 2 wks wwoofing in Saskatchewan where she worked very long days with a lot of mosquitos. Our place wasn’t what she had expected and she soon became homesick. Seraina worked in the garden and like every wwoofer and ourselves had a chance to muck out the barn and clean up the shop. While Seraina was here we had some friends staying at the lodge. They had daughters close to Seraina’s age, so Seraina was able to take time with them. One day they visited Radium Hot Springs with them. Another day we took the Gondola up to Eagle’s Eye at Kicking Horse Mtn Resort for Sunday brunch. The photo of her is on the 2nd day she was here. We attempted to go hiking on Redburn, but because the road was washed out we took Seraina to Thompson Falls for a short hike. Seraina caught a ride with our friends to Calgary so she could catch an earlier flight, because she missed home. I was glad that she figured out why she wasn’t feeling well. When she wrote in the Wwoofer book she asked if there was a new Wwoofer rule, because I had told her that with each new wwoofer there seemed to be something new we needed to add to our list of information for wwoofers. The answer is yes. Here it is “Please do not apply mosquito repellent inside the house of shop. It is poisonous and should not be applied in confined areas.” We hope the next time Seraina visit Canada that she will have a better ending to her visit.

Stefan, June 2007

June 3rd-11th, 2007
Stefan, from Germany arrived a day ahead of the rain, which was great because at least the lawn got mowed. Then the skies seemed to open up and it rained and rained and ….We did make it to Thompson falls as you can see by the photo. The falls were at a record high, which of course we could appreciate as we had been there two weeks earlier when the water was very low.
The Sunday Stefan arrived we road our bikes to the Rocking Horse Coffee Shop here in the Blaeberry. While Stefan was here he cleaned and treated the horse harnesses, weeded and mulched in the Garden. He was very good at weeding, even though it wasn’t his favourite job. Stefan also house sat while travelled to a family wedding on the coast.
Stefan is hoping to become an English teacher, so I arranged for him to attend English classes at the local high school. I know he appreciated this. Stefan was our first Wwoofer to find it too isolated at our farm. We are at least 15 minutes from Golden and without a car, he found it quiet and lonely with just Loren and I here.
After Stefan left here he went to Revelstoke where he Wwoofed at another BnB. Then he returned here and we had helped him to arrange a ride to Edmonton with our friends in their small airplane.

Helena for Ontario, July 10th-16, 2007

Helena, is obviously a budding poet, from a smaller suburb outside of Toronto. Helena, house sat for us while we tended to some business in Naramata. She did a good job of looking after the horses and chickens. As you can see while she was here, she mowed the lawn and weeded the garden, despite the mosquito hatch that haunted here while she was here.
Her poem in our Wwoof books starts like this.
The night I arrived at the farm.
I didn’t set my :- alarm
So bright and early. I was woke
To serve fresh, coffee and eggs to groggy and hungry guests.
Who ate and then returned to rest…
Helena was returning to Calgary where she planned to visit with friends and then back to Ontario for a hiking trip with her father. This fall she hoped to continue studies.

Julia; Germany, April 30th-May 11th, 2007

Julia also from Germany, was travelling, not only for the life experience, but to polish her English language skill. Which I must say were better than some Canadians’. Julia, and been in Canada for a couple of months already and was in Vancouver studying English. Julia was in between studies in Germany. Julia had started landscaping as a career, but found the work too physical and mainly in urban settings. So Julia once her travels were over, she will go back to Germany to study landscape ecology. Which Julia hopes will allow her to work more in nature.
Julia arrived at our farm-woodlot two weeks into Gregor’s stay. This was great as we had lots or work that needed to be done. As I had just started with the planting of the garden.
Julia had hoped to do more hiking while she was here, however because of the high winter snowpack and cool spring, most trails were open, but only the lower half, as we didn’t see much sense in hiking if we couldn’t get to our destination.
We did make it to Thompson Falls for a short hike. Then Gregor, Loren and Julia road the bikes the 16 km back home. Julia is very interested in horses, and while at her last Wwoofing hosts in Enderby, she had learnt some Perelli which she tried on Duke. She also road Duke in the round pen. But he hadn’t been ridden this year and was a bit rusty. Julia also went to Rachelle’s to practice Perelli on Rachelles horses.
Julia, amongst other chores, helped to wash all of the windows in the lodge. Prepared the garden for planting onion sets and carrots, mulched the raspberries, moved sand to the trench used to re-route the lodge electrical.
Julia will be missed. She is such a quiet and thoughtful soul. We hope she will stay in touch with us.

Gregor, April 23 to May 13, 2007

Gregor; Gerolstein, Germany. We have had Wwoofers return to wwoof once again and Karla, our first Wwoofer (2003) has returned twice as our friend. But Gregor was our first Wwoofer who was coming to stay with us, because his sister Charlotte, who stayed with us in 2004, had recommended our farm-woodlot to her brother Gregor. Charlotte had called in Dec 2006, to see if Gregor could Wwoof with us. We were very excited to have Gregor come to our farm, because Charlotte had been such a pleasant and studious ww.
Gregor, had just finished high school and was taking a year off to travel. Gregor wants to study to be Forester, like his Father and Grandfather.
Gregor visited the woodlot where Loren logged this winter, and was preparing to harvest on in June. Unfortunately, Gregor left before Loren’s new processing/excavator arrived at the site, so Gregor wasn’t able to see the processor work. Gregor, went out into Louisiana Pacific’s (local forestry company) forests and plantations with employees of the company. It was very exciting for him, as these areas are in the mountains and over 90 kms from our farm.
Gregor was great help around our farm especially because he was both independent and could run a power saw. While he stayed with us, among smaller chores he helped Loren; fill the woodshed, repair fences and install new gates, dig a trench to re-route the lodge electricity underground, mowed the lawn and cut up a large aspen tree that Loren felled. Gregor and Julia installed fence posts to enlarge the chicken coupe, and then Gregor finished it by putting up wire and filling in the trench.
While returning from Calgary with us, Gregor was lucky enough to see and take photos of not only one, but two

Grizzly bears inside Banff Park.
Gregor was only going to stay for two weeks, but he stayed an extra week. We were glad to have the extra help.
We know we will see Gregor again, and Charlotte too. One day we would like to visit Germany and have Gregor and his Father show us forestry practices there.

Theo; Holland, Dec 15-21, 2006

Theo; Holland, Dec 15-21, 2006
Theo, from Holland, was our last Wwoofer of 2006. We usually don’t take Wwoofers at this time of year, because we don’t have much for chores. However, we sensed that Theo needed an experience in the winter Rockies, so we agreed to take him on.
We had already had a lot of snow by this time, so Theo did his share of snow shovelling and kept the barn clean. This is something a Wwoofer must be prepared to do during winter in the Rockies. Theo was very good at origami, he made us several small figures, including frogs and birds. We used some of these on our Christmas Tree.
Surprisingly for someone who was travelling in the Rockies during the winter, Theo was not interested in out of door recreation. We did get Theo out on the sleigh for our inaugural season ride. Theo headed off onto the Slocan Valley, however due to poor hitchhiking he ended up travelling back to Lytton to a host home, where he had purchased a vehicle for travelling in over the next few month. We did not here from Theo after he had reached Lytton. We do hope he has found his way ok.

Fred, November 2006

Fred was our second last Woofer of 2006. Fred, from a small village in the French mtns, was such a wonderful person to have around. It was too cold for Fred to stay in the bus, so he stayed in the main house with us.
Fred didn't like to sit idle. Shortly before Fred arrived, Loren bought a small bulldozer. It was a 1974 model, so it has some rust on it. Loren moved it into the garage, and Fred kept busy scraping paint, sanding and then painting the machine 'old kat yellow.'
The photo is of Fred and Loren trying to remove a fan belt on the bulldozer.
Fred also spent many hours in the evening working on his Blog. Fred was the person who got me started on our blog. Fred's blog address is below.Yes, check out Fred's blog, it is amazing. Especially if you can read French, but the photo journey he takes you on at his photo site is also exciting.
We were sorry to put Fred on the bus, we enjoyed his company. But he had a work visa and was headed on to work at Fortress Ski area,as a lifty. Unfortunately that didn't work out as the ski area didn't open. So Fred moved to the Panorama ski hill to work. The last email we had from Fred said that he was having a lot of fun working there, and the skiing was great. We hope we see Fred before he leaves for France.
We are really enjoying his blog.
http://fred-canada.over-blog.com.
Fred's WWOOFING Photos http://fredphotoscanada.canalblog.com/albums/b_4__wwoofing_a_golden/index.html

Hello Denise, Hello Lorens !

How are you ? 

First I would like to apologize... It's a shame that I never took the time to send you any email, to take some news and check if everything is fine.

I have no excuse. I always say, I should write them a message, I should, I should... but never take the time...

So I'm sorry !

Just in case, I'm Frederic, I was you first French Woofer (I think) in November 2006 !!!

http://ehcanadianfarm.blogspot.fr/2007/02/fred-november-2006.html

Almost 10 years ago. This is crazy.

Wahoo ! 10 years !

So let see what happen since 2006.

After staying with you for one month, I've been working at Panorama Heli Skiing for the winter season 2006, 2007.

Then at the end of the winter I've been visiting the west coast of Canada, and then I've been to the US. I crossed the country from the west to east during one month.

It was a great trip !

Finally in June it was time for me to go back in France. I spent the summer there and in September I flew to Bora Bora, in French Polynesia.

I worked there for 3 years ! First as a waiter and then as restaurant manager.

It was the paradise. Great life, hard work in a luxury hotel, but this small island is amazing !!!

I met so many people during 3 years and I had so much fun, fishing, diving, jet skiing, wakeboarding... life on an island ;)

But after 3 years it was time to move. Life is good in Bora Bora, but I had to see the world ;)

So in september 2010 I've been working on a French cruise line, onboard the ship "Le Boreal".

My plan was to save some money, as we are working 7 days a week during few month onboard.

So that what I did. I spend 6 month onboard, working 7 days a week, and saved all my salary. I came back in France, and start to prepared a trip around the world. 

In October 2012, I left, and I spend 6 month in Asia, and 6 month in South America.

I have no word to describe this year around the world. It was amazing.

So many experience, so many place, so many people. Unbelivable !

Then I came back in France in October 2012. Spend the winter there.

And in June 2013, I've been back onboard Le Boreal. I did few contract as a restaurant manager. 

Then in 2014 I move to Australia. Working in a restaurant. But I did no like it. The life is good there, but I think it was not for me at this time. So after two month... back onboard the ship again for few contracts.

In november 2015, I move to New York ! It was great. I love this city. It's a crazy city, but there is something there amazing. I don't think that Lorens would love to be there ;)

But the job was not really good. As I was not happy in my job, I choose to leave. 

And once again, guess what... I've been back to the French Cruise line ;)

I think it's really hard, when you start to moved like me, to know what you really want, and where you really want to be.

So for the moment I still working onboard the cruise ship (now as a Cost Controller), then I can see the world and think about the futur.

I've been many time in Antarctica with the ship (see attached pictures). Also in Greenland. Amazing places.

So that's it for the moment.  

Of course I hope to come back again in Canada and come to see you. Maybe have a drink at the Moberly Pub, and help you at the farm...Fred the Moberly Pub is closed.

I hope that everything is fine for you, and that you are not working too much.

I saw on your blog that you now had 112 Woofer !!! That's great.

Je vous embrasse, à bientôt.

See you and thank you for everything.

Frederic Zana.

--

www.zanawear.com 

Lukas August to September 2006

Lukas was our first Swiss WWoofer. Lukas arrived on the bus that Petra left on. Only he almost missed getting off of the bus because he didn't know he was at the right depot. I had to poke my head onto the bus and ask for Lukas. The reply was "this is me." Lukas who at first seemed a bit quiet, fit into our life style and helped Loren with many of the guy jobs around here. Including bringing in the winter supply of firewood for the wood heater.

Lukas became friends with the Swiss youth associated with Goldenwood Lodge. Stephan, Danniela and Bennie. On Lukas' third day here that group climbed to the top of Red Indian Mtn. This is where the group photo was taken. He also went with them to the Blackwater Lakes to fish, and next time to the Bluewater River for fishing. He also went hunting with Loren and Stephan.
We appreciated that Lukas was so independent. Riding the bike to get around the neighbourhood.
Lukas has promised to come back and help with the building of a WWoofer cabin. We sure hope he does!