Rockin' Egg Farm

WWOOF #1 is done!

We got to Rockin' Egg Farm on February 1st at around 4pm. We met Chanson and Stacy, and all 6 dogs (Roo, Little Bear, Washi, Idgy, Buddy, and Sunny), and most of the 6 cats (Magic, Spider, Blondie, Seymour, Zena, and one more who I can't remember). We had a short tour, and got settled into the cabin we'd be staying in (pretty rustic, no running water, but a great woodstove and sleeping loft upstairs - toasty and warm!). Let me just establish now that we had a great time. Stacy and Chanson were a pleasure to work with/for, and their property is beautiful. They have big dreams for their little piece of paradise. This was a fabulous week.

Here is a list of things I did this week that I've never done before: laid decking, split firewood, drove a tractor, insulated a floor, monkeyed around on a roof, and had my astrological chart drawn up. I am terrible at splitting firewood. Brent is so much better at this than me, that it's not even funny. But it's fun and satisfying when the log splits just right. Driving the tractor was fun, and playing around on the roof was neat too.

The work breakdown went like this:
Day 1 (Monday) - finish insulating the floor outside the mainhouse for future enclosure. The insulation was cardboard that they'd taken from offices that they clean during the week. So we'd cut the cardboard to fit between the joists, and then laid plywood over the top. Learned to split firewood in the afternoon, and Brent drove a load down to our cabin in the tractor. He drives the tractor like a pro!
Day 2 (Tuesday) - Spent the morning climbing around on the roof of the raised garden bed, clearing the shredded plastic to make way for the polycarbonate roof that Stacy has planned. Then cleared out last year's garden waste and raked the cleared bed. They still had chard, brussels sprouts, cabbage and broccoli that was still growing! I drove the garden waste down to the compost pile in the tractor.
Day 3 (Wednesday) - laid and finished a 6x6 section of deck next to the main house. Split some more wood (Brent is better at this than me, though I think I'm improving).
Day 4 (Thursday) - cleaned out the greenhouse, mixed up the reclaimed soil, tore down fencing and cleaned out the beds nearby. Split some more wood (I didn't improve very much).
Day 5 (Friday) - Stacy and Chanson said that they'd gotten so much done with us, that they gave us the day off! Brent practiced for a while, but I planted some flats in the greenhouse, thus giving them an even bigger headstart on spring! I planted spinach, lettuce, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, sugar peas, and marigolds. That evening they invited over a bunch of their friends and neighbors for a little shindig. There was lots of food, a bonfire, and Brent got to try improvisation on his violin. Lots of fun!

Stacy and Chanson fed us 3 square meals per day, including great breakfasts every morning, sometimes with their home-made plum jam or green chile, both of which were phenomenal (and they gave us a jar of each to take home! Woohoo!). Lunches were a more pick-up affair, sometimes soup or sandwiches. Since they go into town to work most evenings, we were on our own for most dinners, but they'd usually leave us something to make. One night was a fabulous pizza crust, and Brent and I shocked ourselves by eating the whole thing! We'd put some of their green chile on it, so the pizza turned out awesome. We learned later that Stacy had put spelt flour in the crust, so it was even healthy!

You may have noticed that the one thing that I haven't mentioned about the Rockin' egg farm is eggs. Or chickens. This is because all they have right now is 5 roosters. Apparently, they lost all of their hens over the winter because of some problems involving young dogs (theirs), gates accidentally left open, and being away too long. Did you know that it is possible to just frighten a chicken to death? So I didn't get to play with any chickens, though I've narrowly missed being there when their new chicks came in. Phooey!

I'm saving the bestest ever thing about the Rockin' egg farm for the very end; so everyone knows that it's the bestest thing ever. Stacy and Chanson have a hot tub! And it's the best hot tub in the world! It's a wood stove made of a metal drum, some metal pipes, a chimney, and a big stock tank. Basically they build a big fire in the stove to heat the water in the pipes, and the water almost circulates itself. They don't put a lot of chemicals in the water, so it doesn't smell icky, and the wood stove gets the water really hot. The tub is insulated with hay bales under flagstone, so it keeps it's heat in really well. Chanson said that they put the whole thing together for under $300! We weren't in the tub every night, but it was dang close to that!

All in all, it was a great week. We hope to be able to go back and visit later in the summer!