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.