WW 73 and 74 Isabell and Therese from Göβnitz, Germany

Isabell and Therese arrived early 6:15 am, the first Tuesday of June and left early on the 22 of June. Isabell and Therese arrived in Canada early 2012 and since that time explored the west coast and worked in Vancouver. Therese worked in a Sushi Kitchen and Isabell in a Greek Grocery. We were their first woofing experience, and as usual with first time wws it took a bit of time to meld into the routine. And to add to the confusion I was away for a week during the middle of their stay.

These best friends chose to stay in the bus, and on arrival quickly tidied up the bus and even washed the curtains.

There was plenty to do around here, as the garden was starting to flourish and the weeds were taking off, so they spent time weeding, hilling potatoes and mulching. Isabell helped with the redoing of a flower bed at the lodge while Therese did even more weeding. Both cleaned the barn, washed planting pots, cleaned up after a group at the lodge, including windows, laundry and beds, baked cookies and cooked pasta and cheese.

It was interesting that these budding vegetarians ate more carbohydrates and dairy than vegetables. Needless to say they were referred to a copy of ‘Diet for a Small Plant,’ to learn about complete protein combinations other than dairy or egg.  And Loren teased both of them about ‘carrots screaming,’ while I encouraged them to research carbonated water.

For fun they went to Radium on the Medi Bus, into Golden with Johannes to watch  Germany play soccer, worked on their travel blog, Skyped with their boyfriends back home, went fishing at Susan Lake, road the bikes to the Northern Lights Wolf Centre  and attended the first Summer Kick of the season featuring Golden’s Band Will Horse.

Isabell and Therese left Golden to woof at a farm near Edmonton. The hosts are musicians, and both Isabell and Therese were looking forward to the music festival they would be attending this summer.  Then they would travel across Canada and eventually meet their boyfriends in Ottawa.

The evening before they left everyone had a turn on the hula hoop, now that was worth watching and each new attempt brought out plenty of laughter.  However the next evening, the evening after their departure, seemed like a completely new reality with ‘no Therese’ who’s presence is always big, and ‘no Isabell’ who is so quiet you don’t know she is around.

4 French NFP Managers_WW 69, 70, 71 and 72

At the end of March we received a request for woofing from Clément, Ben and Manu, who wanted  to ‘go to countryside or mountains in the view to helping local people, being in contact with nature, improving our english, meeting new people and working outside.’ We arranged for the 3 wws to arrive on May 2 and stay until May 19^th. Shortly after this Clément emailed us asking if their friend Philip could stay for a week as well. This then was extended to the entire time that the other 3 , Ben and Manu would be with us.

So on May 2, I picked up 4 very French, very willing young men, all prepared to work. Loren of course was very happy to have eager strong help. I on the other hand knew that feeding these 4 men would require a lot of groceries, meal planning and cooking. Needless to say in the end it was very worth while and as usual we found 4 great friends who I am sure we will follow through life.

All four Clément, Ben, Manu and Philip had recently graduated from a Masters in Not For Profit Management, and had already completed their practicum in other countries. Philip was already working in the field.  It was wonderful to know that they had met at school and become very close knit friends. 

All were from Frances, Philip from near Paris, while the other three were from smaller Towns. Ben played the guitar and they all joined in to sing their favorite French songs. While they were here the French elections were on and they were very excited and closely watched the results and change to a new French Prime Minister.

With so much snow in the mountains, their recreational activities were limited, but we did visit Thompson Falls, a truck tour with Loren up the Blaeberry and attended a couple of neighbourhood bon fires. We fixed up four bikes and they went for bike rides, and even developed a competition to see who was fastest to race the loop around past the sawmill and back to the fire pit. Ben was the winner at 3’19”, and Loren vows to beat this by September 30^th . We bought a soccer ball and they set up goal posts in the field and vigorously played soccor a couple of evenings, only to have the ball punctured on a nail. But mainly they communed around the firepit. I don’t think our fire pit has ever been fired so many days in a row, there was barely an evening when these friends didn’t sit around the fire.

As such it was a good thing that they were helping Loren to tear down a neighbour’s house, because we had plenty of scrap wood to burn. Yes, that was the biggest job they did for us, tearing down a neighbour’s house which was both frame and log construction (watch the video below).

They all helped in the Garden spreading compost. Philip and Manu planted potatoes, parsley and peas (all are up now),and Clément and Ben planted beets, rutabagas, lettuce and arugula (which were up before they left). They all cleaned up the brush around the cabin and stacked firewood at the cabin, Ben and Clem painted the cabin walls upstairs and Clem peeled the pine railings we hope to put in later this year.Other jobs included tidying around the stove, cleaning the chicken coup,pulling fence nails, insulating and putting up plastic in the to-be woofer bunk house.ere Ben and Clément painted the walls upstairs and Clément peeled the ne railings which will hopefully be installed this year.

On the second last day before they were to leave we went to a dinner ping pong party (Manu took home the prize) at a neighbours where two were offered a ride to Vancouver, the following night we had a neighbourhood bon fire where again the remaining two were offered a ride to Vancouver. So I watched Philip and Clément leave on May 19^th and Ben and Manu leave on May 20^th (in a Volvo hard top convertible with the top down, grinning ear to ear).

After these 4 left, it was quite quiet around here, and we missed their conversation and the friendly demeanor of the group.

We have already had several emails from them and they are doing fine. Philip has gone back to France, the rest will woof on Vancouver Island. Then Clément is travelling to the North, Ben will head East and Manu’s girlfriend will join him and they will travel around BC.

We know these four will continue to have a good life, it is evident in all that we observed.