Poco: September 11th to 19th, 2008, 40th Wwoofer

Hyun’Gu or Poco as he preferred to be called was from Sol, Korea. Poco called first from Vancouver to say he would be arriving by bike in one week. The following Monday he phoned from Hope to say that he was on his way. Two days later he called from Golden. He had caught a bus from Hope. Poco who we continually called Paul (our first Korean Wwoofer) had been in Vancouver studying English. He had some time in between studies and decided to bike from Vancouver to here and then through the Okanogan to Osoyoos. Even though Poco was here for a short time while he was here he helped Loren put the metal siding on the Wwoofing bunkhouse, painted the inside of the new root cellar and put gravel on the floor in the root cellar. He even helped our neighbour clean her house one Sunday when both Loren and I were busy. Poco and Loren road the bikes back from Thompson Falls and while he was here he had his first Marshmellow. Poco left at 8 am Thursday morning, on Saturday my parents were headed home for the Coast and caught up with him on his second day just past Three Valley Gap. He said that he had made it to Revelstoke by 5:30 pm on the first day, now that is some bike riding. Poco had promised to come back when his English has improved. We look forward to this.

Rebecca-July 18th-25th, 2008 39th Wwoofer

Rebecca an English speaking Quebecois arrived on a Friday and left a week later on a Friday, in the same Semi Truck she arrived in. Rebecca had met the truck driver on route here and had made arrangements to travel with him to Revelstoke a week later. Luckily for Stephanie that same ride was headed for the Okanogan, so she was also able to catch a ride to Vernon. While Rebecca was here, Kim (in photo with Stephanie and Loren) a friend from Manitoba was also here. Kim and Rebecca played a lot of cards. Also Rebecca went horseback riding with Kim and on the weekend we took Kim, Rebecca and Kim’s boyfriend to Susan Lake. Rebecca helped with stacking firewood, raking around the woodshed and Wwoofer bunkhouse and I am sure the highlight of the chores; haying. Rebecca had taken the summer away from her studies to travel across Canada by Wwoofing. Her next destination after here was Nelson, and ultimately Victoria to rendezvous with her Father.

Stephanie: July 5th-25th, 2008 37th WWoofer

Stephanie from France arrived here after travelling from Quebec in a Tractor Truck (known also as a Semi Truck). Stephanie had met the driver of the truck while Wwoofing in Quebec. It wasn’t to long before Stephanie fit right into our routine. She was a lot of help at a time when the weeds were going crazy, and by the time she left her English was getting much better. Some of the chores she helped with included, firewood stacking, helping in lodge kitchen, weeding almost endlessly in the garden, driving the truck for haying and painting the trim on our new greenhouse. While Stephanie was here we hosted two other Wwoofers, Jana from Germany and Rebecca from Quebec. Stephanie was great at using the vegetables from the garden and there wasn’t a meal she participated in that didn’t have a fresh salad with her famous salad dressing (oil, bragg, maple syrup, garlic and any herbs). It was a nice surprise for Stephanie to meet a friend from France in our local grocery store, who invited her hiking on the Iceline Trail in Yoho Park.

Stephanie left with Rebecca, again in a Semi Truck, headed for Vernon, where she hoped to pick cherries. A week after Stephanie left we had a note from her saying that cherry picking wasn’t working out and that she was headed for Victoria.