What the future holds...

So, a new blog entry. In this one I'll tell you what are future plans are. Please note that by "future," I really only mean the next couple of months. We aren't into planning too much ahead now, it just stresses us out.

I've mentioned before that Brent's symphony commitments bring us back to Fort Collins periodically. We'll be in Fort Collins until the 1st of February, then back again from the 15th through the 24th. Our current planning takes us through March 8th, and that's as far as we've gotten at this point.

As for the time in between, there's some different stuff happening. Some of you know my friend Shilpa, who lives in Portland, OR now. She's getting married on Feb 14th (Valentines day!), and as a member of the wedding party, I need to be there. So we'll be in Portland from about the 12th until we come back to Ft C on the 15th. I've never been a bridesmaid before. It's really exciting, and I'm having such fun trying to keep Shilpa from pulling all of her lovely hair out!

Really the main thing we'll be doing in between in this thing called WWOOFing. WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (website here). Currently we have 3 WWOOF gigs lined up. The first is from February 1st through 7th, it's in southern Colorado in a town called Weston (across the highway from Trinidad). The next is in Long Beach, Washington, and we'll be doing that one in the few days before Shilpa's wedding. We'll probably be there from the 8th until the 11th or 12th. The last one is in Southern AZ (Amado), and it takes us from about February 25th until March 7th.

Now that I've got the schedule stuff out of the way, let me just explain a little about WWOOFing. Basically, there is this organization of organic farms, and nomads (like Brent and I, and some other hikers [Hi Six!] and people we've met) can volunteer to work there for a certain number of hours per week. In exchange, the farm typically feeds you and puts you up for however long you're there. Here's sort of a FAQ about WWOOFing, based on the questions we've been asked.

1. What are the accommodations like? This varies based on the season and the farm. Some places will put you up in the extra room in their house, or a trailer on the property. In summer months, when there's the most work, and the most need for volunteers, many farms ask you to bring a tent and camp on the property, thus allowing them to host more people at a lower cost. Since we're early season, I think that we'll probably be sleeping indoors at most places. And if we're not, it's not much more than a week, and we'll cope.
2. How much do you need to work? This varies by farm. Mostly it seems to be about 20-35 hours per week, or 4-6 hours per day.
3. What do you do for the rest of the time? That's the cool thing! You can do whatever you want! Many of these farms are in beautiful areas. Weston is right at the base of the Culebra and Sangre de Cristo Mountain Ranges; Long Beach is on a peninsula bounded by the Pacific Ocean on one side, and the Willapa bay on the other. The area is covered with State Parks, Wildlife Refuges and a 28 mile sand beach! I think that we'll be able to fill our free time. I should also mention that if you choose to work more than the minimum time that the farm asks for room and board, many of them will pay you for that additional time.
4. What kind of work will you be doing? So far, except in AZ, we're still pretty early in the season. I think that in most of these places we'll be preparing beds for planting, building coops and cages, perhaps working in greenhouses. There may be some animal work, maybe some food prep, who knows?
5. How many of these places/farms are there? Are you going international? The answer is tons, lots, but I don't know exactly how many, and not yet. We're just members of the USA portion, and we received a directory with about 800 or so farms listed. There are different WWOOF organizations all over the world, and you register with them separately.
6. Why do they do things this way? Don't they have laborers to do this kind of work? Sure they do! They have us, and themselves. Most of these places are very small, family run farms. This is how they increase the number of hands they have (which they don't really "pay," remember) without increasing their costs. Most of these places can't afford to hire an army of migrant laborers (since they're not mega-farms), and, since they're supposed to be organic (or trying to be) their crop might be small enough that it isn't necessary anyway. You need more hands to farm organically anyway, since you can't use pesticides or herbicides.
7. Why the heck are you doing this? Why don't you just go out and get a real job? Who the heck wants to do that? Eew! This gives us the opportunity to travel, while still giving us some structure and responsibility. This will also make us more familiar with where our food comes from, and how exactly it is produced. It gives Brent the freedom to practice as much as he needs to, and I can continue to work, write, or go for a hike, as I see fit. Besides, doesn't it just sound like fun?

If you have any other questions, please let me know, and I'll answer them as best I can.

Hope everyone's having a great week! The weather is clear and beautiful here in the Fort!

kim