Japan.

View of the farm looking towards Nagano

In between our time on Plan-It Earth in Cornwall and arriving home, we spent a month in Obuse, a little town situated in the Nagano Prefecture of Japan – thankfully nowhere near all the recent devastation. I don’t want to write about the tragedy there, other than to say our hearts go out to those who are suffering.

If you have been to Japan, you know how different it is to the rest of the world. If you have not been there let me put it like this, there are countries classified as ‘third world’ then ‘developing world’ and ‘developed world’, and then there is Japan.

The country has a wonderful spirituality and there are temples and shrines at every turn, many of them ancient. There were also people frequenting them and these places of worship, meditation and prayer had a lively energy. You could feel that they were not just monuments, they were a functioning part of everyday life in Japan.

As a place to visit and live in for a short while, it is completely wonderful. Friendly, beautiful, safe, graceful and welcoming. We adored it and spent our time working on a farm perched on a mountain overlooking a long valley surrounded by snow capped peaks.

Winter was getting a grip - Tom found this ice crystal on a pond out the front of the house.

Our hosts were Joe and Sarah Staples, a lovely American couple who met in Japan have been based in there for almost two decades. Joe teaches English at a local school and Sarah is a human dynamo. Cultural event organiser, first woman and first foreigner employed by a long standing Obuse brewing company. She is an advocate for traditional trades, which has seen nearly forgotten skills and techniques given fresh life.

We hooked in to a range of jobs – harvesting apples, fixing farm buildings, preparing old salvaged timbers for reuse, peeling and drying persimmon and general maintenance.

Spare time was spent wandering around the town and exploring local temples, shrines, parks and twisting narrow streets. It was early winter and nights would plummet well below zero. The house was not well insulated and Shoji screens (made of paper with timber struts) and Tatami mats (straw) do little to keep out the cold. Still it was wonderful to live in such a traditional style. We discovered the delights of the ‘kotatsu’ – a low table with a heating element and a built in doona ‘skirt’ to keep your legs and feet toasty.

Recycling Day - The Japanese seem to take their domestic recycling very seriously.

Sarah and Joe were flat out finalising their year and readying themselves for a trip back to the States over Christmas, so we saw very little of them. This was a shame and a contrast to most of our other WWOOFing experiences where we were usually in close quarters with the hosts. I have to say that it was not ideal either, one of the best things about WWOOFing is getting to know your hosts and how they live their lives.

So now we’re back home and putting in to practice the lessons we have learnt. I have to say that thus far, the results have been astounding and we are soooooo grateful for what we have been blessed with… but more on that soon.

The farm (white building in the centre) and neighbouring Cornish country fields

Get them to share the space, the domestic duties, the work on their land, looking after the kids, the general day to day tasks of life and what happens….?

Really there are only two ways it can go, either they part wishing they had never met, or leave wishing they didn’t have to part.

Thankfully for us it was the latter, and even now our thoughts still linger on the lovely rural hamlet of Sancreed and the property of ‘Plan-it Earth’ that was our home in Cornwall, England.

Plan-it Earth is run by Rachel and David Smart-Knight and it is an ambitious community focused initiative. Basically these lovely people decided to start an education facility that would service this corner of Cornwall. A place that could demonstrate permaculture, sustainable building, coppicing, shared facilities, spirituality and more. A place that was open to all and a positive centre of energy for the local community.

David and Tom riding 'Fergy' the faithful old tractor.

Rachel and David work on the property to make it happen, they work on the side to keep it afloat and they constantly share their vision without ego or pretence to get others inspired or involved.

There are very few people I have met who are as aware of their world, as giving of themselves and as genuinely committed to making a difference as these guys. Rachel’s depth of empathy for others and her sensitivity to the needs of the land and it’s management are exemplary. David’s common sense and practical nature compliment this perfectly, he is the sort of man who just gets in and gets it done with a warm smile and a friendly chat.

They have helped build a network of like minded people in the area, which has served to strengthen the sense of community. We were lucky to meet some of their friends who were also intelligent, welcoming and delightful company.

Looking across part of the vegetable garden to the classroom

It was an honour to share the aptly named ‘Smart-Knight” family’s lives for that time and it ended all too soon. Our children became close friends and we all left feeling inspired and enlightened, seeing glimpses of a beautiful way of life and a positive way forward.

The surrounding area was full of ancient sites like this one - The Sancreed Sacred Well

Sunrise at Saverdun

Having a bit of land to look after is not really a part time hobby. Acreage needs lots of time, lots of energy and a fair bit of know-how. Many people get inspired by the romantic notion of living life on a farm and dabbling in a few crops and a bit of livestock, whilst still keeping their paid employment…

What they soon find is that they now have two full time jobs.

Saverdun is a small town near Toulouse in the South of France, and we were staying a couple of kilometers out of town on an organic farm with several hectares of eucalyptus plantation, a few hectares of apple orchard and a few more hectares of wild forest.

Start of the apple harvest

The homestead was a lovely old rambling house and barn which had been renovated to become one huge dwelling with creaking floorboards and room to spare. The countryside was lovely, the soil fertile and the weather sunny and mild.

Our hosts, Lynda and Alain, were both busy with their own careers and their farm needed some love. The apple orchard was neck deep in blackberries and the apples needed harvesting, piles of fallen timber needed chopping into firewood for winter and a host of other jobs needed attending to.

Needless to say their was work aplenty for us to do. As usual in the WWOOFing world, it was interspersed with amazing fresh fruit from the property – figs, grapes, aubergines, tomatoes different types of juicy apples, plums and a fantastic kind of peach with ruby red flesh. Lynda is a wonderful cook and she teamed up with Sarah to make wonderful meals as well as preserves, jellies, dried fruits and juices – yum yum.

What the orchard looked like before...

We left with a new appreciation of how much work a property requires, and how quickly that work can pile up and swamp you.

Farming is not for the faint hearted or the time poor.

...and after

Some apples we picked in the orchard

At the moment I am at a farm.  There is a boy that is the same age as Tom called Louis, his mum is called Lynda and his dad is called Alain.(it sounds like Alan) They have a beautiful farm and the biggest apple orchard I have ever seen – not saying I have seen many apple orchards!

I got letters from all my friends at school and it made me homesick. I also got the class photo and I missed my friends. I wrote back to all of them and my grandmother is taking the letters back to Australia, but it is going to take a while because she is still travelling for another three weeks.

My grandma also brought me some maths books that I  have been doing and I really like them. In a couple of days I will be flying to London and we are going to a place called Penzance to work on a farm there called ‘Plan-It Earth’. I am looking forward to staying there and doing lots of interesting things in their garden and their property.

Some of the grapes we squished and turned into grape juice - yummy!

I hope all my friends are really well and I hope they like the letters I wrote to them.

By Zoe.

Time to reflect

One of the most challenging things about a life of WWOOFing is the mystery of every day. Quite often you arrive at breakfast with complete ignorance of what your mind and muscles will have done by lunch. This leap into the unknown is even greater when travelling between hosts – accommodation, food, work requirements, attitudes and lifestyles are as different as the farms themselves.

The one thing that they all have in common is that they are WWOOF hosts and I think it takes a certain attitude to open you house (and your fridge) to complete strangers. Sure, they are getting cheap labour, but it is not as simple as that. You are basically strangers who have to live together, often for weeks or months. This can present a certain joy as you meet and bond with new people and you share your stories and ideas. It can also bring stress if you do not ‘click’ or if the host treats you merely as cheap labour…

It is a joy getting your water straight from the stream

There are so many things to learn. The more you know, the more you know there is to know – if you know what I mean? By stepping outside one’s lifestyle and social sphere, you become exposed to so many new things that it can sometimes make you feel highly ignorant – ‘no, sorry I don’t know how to weld – yet’, ‘apologies, but how exactly do I drive that sort of tractor?’, ‘yes, I know using a chain-saw is easy, I just haven’t used one and, if possible, I would like some tips on keeping most of my limbs attached’.

When much of your life has been spent in cities, there just ain’t that many opportunities to deconstruct a wheat thrasher.

When a rare fire rainbow appeared as we met one of our hosts, we knew we were in for a treat

It’s wonderful though, how things just seem to work out. Hosts spend a bit of time up-skilling you, or you find work that is aligned with your strengths of knowledge and experience. Basically if you are willing to have a go you will probably do OK. Then comes the satisfaction of a job well done and a good days work achieved.

Perhaps the best bonus of all is when you feel like you have been really useful.

Most of the farms we have visited have too much to do, so the hosts are just doing what they can. When you are able to tackle that job which has always been on the back-burner, or that pile of unsorted mess that they just have not had time to get to, but walk past several times a day. It is a lovely feeling. You feel that you have made their lives a little bit better. You feel like you have contributed towards something positive. You feel good.

Changing of the guard

Life as a WWOOFer is filled with challenges, but it is also filled with new friendships, laughter, fabulous food, hectic times and time to chill. We have been on the road for eight months now and even though the homesickness is starting to niggle, every day is a wild ride and we are savouring the journey.

Plenty of time to play in the wild

It seems that when you WWOOF at a place for a good length of time, the line between host and friend dissolves. This is a lovely thing, because you end up feeling like you are helping out a mate, and it makes the work you do become even less of a chore.

The 'wagon' with our neighbours in the foreground.

Such was the case with Fabian and Antonie on their lovely little property in Baltak, Sweden.

We were the first WWOOFers hosted by this young couple,who have recently emigrated from Dresden in Germany. Our accommodation was a timber ‘wagon’ they had built when they themselves were WWOOFers (at Bossgarden funnily enough- see our last post), perched on the edge of the forest in a field with three sheep. The wagon was beautifully crafted and fitted out with an eye for detail and a flair for style.

Fabian and Antonie (Toni for short) have a beautiful baby boy called Janosch and live on two hectares on the outskirts of town. They grow lots of their own vegetables, are renovating their lovely but run-down house and have a few sheep wandering around their back paddock. The house is bordered by forests full of mushrooms, blueberries and raspberries which they like to collect and make use of in their cosy kitchen. We spent a few afternoons wandering thought the forests ‘shopping’ for the tastiest offerings. The property is also bordered by the village church, whose bell rang for about two minutes at 6.30am and two minutes at 6pm… we never really figured out why.

Toni, Zoe and Janosch hunting mushrooms.

I asked Fabian why he had moved to Sweden and he said that even though his life was pretty sorted in Dresden – nice flat, good job, friends, family, social life – he and Toni felt that something was lacking, it felt ‘hollow’. Their life now is much more challenging and with that, they feel it is also richer. Funny how difficulty can also bring happiness.

My main task at Baltak was to help build a fence for the front of their property and it quickly became clear that we were not just whacking up a fence, we were building a structure that was to last as long as the materials would allow. I once read a great saying in a hardware store, which said something along the lines of; “If you didn’t have time to do it right in the first place, how come you have time to do it again now?” and this seems to be one of Fabian’s mantras.

Fabian has started a timber mill in a nearby town with his good friend Marcus (also from Germany). They repair old furniture and timber buildings, mill timber and take on other odd jobs when time allows. The picket-style fence was to be built from off-cuts from their mill and a bunch old posts they had lying around.

Debarking hundreds of these with chisel and 'pull knife' was like meditation due to the simple skills of the task.

I will spare you the details, but to make this fence (which was about 70 meters long) the timber had to be pulled from the off-cut pile, loaded and carted to the house, cut to length, debarked, treated with an old recipe for ‘weathering’ timber, sorted, stacked and then put together. The poles had to be cut to a point and painted with concentrated pine sap to protect them from insects and rot.

The job took a long time, but the result is a fence that is sympathetic to its surrounds, made of local timber and built to last two or three times longer than timber sourced from the local hardware store.
In the end we did not want to leave and they did not want us to go, but plane tickets were booked and our next destination awaited, so we  bid a tearful farewell to our newfound friends and headed down to the South of France.

Hosts and friends - from left; Vanessa, Marcus, Fabian, Toni and Janosch. If you look closely you can see some of the finished fence in the background too.

Zoe doing some weeding in the vege garden

At the moment we are in Sweden.

The last farm we went to was called Bossgarden and it was very nice. We got to stay in a caravan, and it was big – I mean huge! We had lambs running around the caravan, it was cute.

Dad helped move Buta the pig to her new pig sty in the field.

Now we are at a farm in Baltak not too far from Bossgarden.

We are staying in a beautiful hand built wooden wagon that is next to a forest – my bed feels like sleeping on a cloud! The farm also has sheep and they are in the same field as the wagon.

You can walk to apple trees and plum trees that grow close to the road and find delicious apples and plums on the ground beneath them. Tom and I go for lots of walks with Mum and Dad in the afternoons exploring the areas around the farm.

On the weekend we went mushroom hunting and found lots of mushrooms in the forest that we could eat for dinner. We also found lots of blueberries in the forest and they were delicious.

Hunting mushrooms for dinner

The owners are called Toni and Fabian, they have a little baby called Janosch, he is very cute.

I like it here in Baltak.

Walking in the countryside

Jonas & Saana at 'fika' time in their front yard.

They grow a wonderful diversity of crops, vegetables, fruits and berries, run a small herd of sheep, cows and pigs (well a pig) plus a flock of chickens, make their own cheeses, breads, cakes, jams and preserves, run a cafe and boutique on the property on weekends and a ‘pub’ in the 150 year old refurbished pig sty once a month. They have cut down some of the spruce forest on their land and replanted with a greater diversity of tree species. They are also involved in local politics and cultural events such as the upcoming annual film festival.

Well that is the abridged version, but you get the general idea, this is not a place to be idle.

Jonas has been working on this farm in the South midlands of Sweden for around seven years and during that time he has been managing all of the above whilst restoring the ancient thatch roofed barns and timber homestead. Oh, yeah, he likes to restore the old machinery on the farm too, not just for show either. He firmly believes that the old machines often outlast and outperform the newer versions.

The man is sharp-witted, versatile, well educated, multi-lingual and surprisingly laid back for the large amount of brain floating around in his skull. He is also a lovely WWOOF host and we totally enjoyed our stay with him.

The Bossgarden homestead.

The farm is a beautiful piece of land that’s laid out in a seemingly odd way – only around 100m wide, but almost 1.5km long. This narrow strip stretches over hills, marshes, fertile fields and streams. Apparently this sort of farm is not unusual in this part of the world, the rationale for the dimensions being that it allows the farmers to own a diversity of land and thus produce a diversity of crops.

In the summer heat with a sun that seems to rise minutes after it sets, it seems that life here is pretty easy. Speaking to Jonas and Saana though, the summers are short and the winters are long and harsh, so one should not be deceived. Life on the farm is not just thinking from day to day or even season to season, it involves planing years ahead at at time.

Fat fields almost ready for harvest.

Jonas acknowledges that an essential part of the farm’s success has been the WWOOFing workforce and he does his best to return a good day’s work with a feast of fresh food and comfy accommodation. Breakfast of homemade toasted muesli with homemade jam, bread and a type of yogurt (called ‘filmjolk’) is followed by two hours of work. Then comes the ritual of ‘fika’. Fika involves a range of amazing homemade cheeses, on the homemade bread, cakes freshly baked from flour grown on the farm and ground in the local mill, and of course great coffee, which until they find a variety that grows in a nearly arctic climate, is imported, but at least it is fair trade.

After Fika comes another couple of hours work until a hot lunch is served. Lunch is generally hearty and filling to the point of needing to get back to work so as to burn off some of the calories… So fortunately there is one more two hour shift before finishing for the day.

The farm’s atmosphere is social and everyone seems to enjoy helping it grow and prosper. Such lovely people in such a lovely part of the world.

Evening sunset in the house vegetable patch. The crazy yellow light is a result of the low angle of the setting sun at summertime in this high latitude.

In terms of financial viability – there really isn’t any. In terms of security of labour force – no, none of that. In terms of materials and monies needed to run a farm and maintain infrastructure – you guessed it, not happening.

So how is it that nine years down the track the farm is still thriving?

The man with the plan, Doug, in post surf chill mode at Wikaninnish Beach

After a fair bit of head scratching, it seems that it works because of one man’s vision, energy and focus. Douglas Brooker has created this place and he is the one that keeps it happening.

I was fortunate to get some time with Doug, away from the constant demands on his time and I asked him about it…

Well, let me be more specific… I was driving him to the other side of the island (he doesn’t have a license) in a car that was given to him for $1, to pick up some scrap steel that someone else had decided to pay for, which would be used by a bunch of volunteers to build a cabin for him to live in. Nice.

OK, so he told me some of his secrets and I have to warn you that we’re going to venture into territory that may make some readers a bit uncomfortable… I would also like to tell you that I have seen Doug’s ‘powers’ at work first hand, and it is pretty impressive.

Basically it all boils down to meditation and manifestation. It doesn’t sound too out there I know, but when you see the level of success he has, it really makes you stop and think.

Every day Doug spends a varying amount of time meditating. I feel that to reveal the details of his meditation may not be appropriate here, but let’s just say there is time spent on being grateful, forgiveness, surrendering his will and focusing on what is needed to ensure things keep on keeping on.

What seems to happen is that Doug gets an idea of what is needed and then he somehow makes it happen. It is all very much in the vein of “The Secret” and I saw examples of it pretty much every day.

The shack, at the end of week 1 - three of the walls and the floor had been built by someone else.

Here is a little one to give you some idea…

I’m working on building Doug’s new cabin and we need a door. Now, the frame for the door was built before I got there as someone had framed up three of the four walls, and the gap for the door was much larger than any standard size. I tell Doug that we are ready for a door and so off he goes for his lunchtime meditation…

Later that afternoon he rocks back into camp after the salad deliveries (in the $1 car with someone else driving), with a door that will fit the over-sized frame almost exactly. The door was sitting under the house of some random guy that he got talking to and it seems that the guy had planned to use it for ages but then suddenly decided that it was taking up space and he will never need it, so he may as well get rid of it.

This is pretty much the normal way that Doug gets what he needs. Charisma, a big smile and serendipity.

The inside of the cabin at the time we left.

The whole building project was a study in… I don’t know what to call it… manifestation? serendipity? good fortune? Well all of those and more. Every time an unusual piece of timber or nail or bracket was needed, you would just have to have a little look around and it would be there, almost waiting to be fitted. Most of the time the timber would only need it’s ends squared and it would fit snugly. Sometimes it would not need to be cut at all.

Now to have this happen once or twice would be worth noting. To have it happen numerous times a day was uncanny to the point where it became, well… hilarious. That was my reaction anyhow. Often people would visit the  site and find me smiling away as I had just found another unlikely piece of the jigsaw awaiting assembly.

We found this ladder after building the loft, and in keeping with the project, it was the exact height with pre-cut notches to rest on the supporting beam.

Now perhaps it was just me, perhaps it was the power of my subconscious mind looking at a pile of bits and brilliantly calculating how they could be most efficiently assembled. I would love to think that I am that clever. Really though, I believe there was something else going on and it is something that I am not going to try to name or explain. All I want to say is that it felt good to be in the ‘flow’ of things constructing that little cabin. It made me feel like my place in the universe was supposed to be exactly where I was, doing exactly what I was doing. It really felt more like play than work.

So, 6 weeks after we arrived (for our one week stay!), we left the sanctuary of the Medicine Farm. We leave enriched, inspired and a little bit sad, as we will miss our fellow WWOOFers, who had become like our extended family.

There are more stories to tell, and now that we once again have access to electricity and the internet, I will get around to sharing some of them.

Front view of the shack, everything you see is a salvaged, reused or recycled material.

The dog print to the left of the bear is from a dog that is the size of a Great Dane - big bear!

We are working on a property called Medicine Farm, and life here is all about chasing waves, which suits me just fine. There is, of course, work to be done before the waves are chased, and everyone seems to push towards the common goal of getting that work done quickly and joyfully.

At present there are ten fellow WWOOFers of ages that range from low 20s to low 40s and everyone has managed to get along rather harmoniously considering the diversity of backgrounds and circumstances. It is actually a tribute to human nature as some of our fellow WWOFers have been through some pretty rrough times…

So many stories to tell, but for now, let’s stick to the farm.

Medicine Farm is run by Doug. He is the man with the plan, and so far it looks like that plan is working rather well.

The property consists of around 20 acres of forest that was logged, blasted and left for dead. The fact that it is now a micro-climate of fertility and abundant water is a testament to Doug’s gardening savvy and his knowledge of the local climate and its cycles.

There is no electricity, no phone and no neighbors as the land is surrounded by a thickly forested reservation. Cooking is done by bottled gas and everything else is wood fired or non-existant. It is quite wonderful to be so cut-off from the rest of the planet.

He grows organic lettuce, kale, silver-beet, spring onions, garlic chives and other salad crops for the two local tourist towns of Tofino and Uclulet (Pronounced you-clue-let). These two towns are where Canadians come for their summer sun, because it just about leaves them for the winter months of the year.

The farm is market scale and well thought out. The land itself is covered in dams, cabins, terraces and roads, with the roads being a hangover from the logging days.

Some of the terraces and beds that Doug has created -spot our cabin in the top left

The accommodation for WWOOFers is a funky collection of cabins or trailers parked in all sorts of secluded nooks and crannies of this undulating property. Doug meanwhile lives in a moldy dark trailer where he has been for years, but things are changing.

As luck would have it, I have been able to work on the construction of Doug’s new ‘shack’ where he plans to be until he has built himself a real house. (He reckons he will have moved into his new place within two years – I give him four), but I reckon his little shack will be around for at least another forty, give or take a decade.

The whole project has involved salvage, scrap, mill ends recycled timber and driftwood, and there is still a way to go before it is livable. However it’s interesting the way that things seem to just turn up when they are needed and they seem to almost be built to order…

Jeff (my partner in construction) and I have hammered hundreds of reclaimed nails flat and forced warped and twisted wood to do our bidding. The weather has been kind and the surf good, so everyone is pretty happy.

I guess the fact that our two week stay is looking to be closer to a month says it all. More on the farm and Doug next post…

The forests here are a green I have rarely seen, and everything is dripping in moss.