News from Nelson

Silver says hi too

Dear Lulu,


As you could have deduced from Ginger’s letter I have been living on a farm for the past week and a half helping out Kevin. He is an organic farmer and also has a bunch of goats that he milks and then makes tasty cheeses. I got to help make some of the cheeses and also milk the goats! I know it may seem sad to most that I got excited to milk a goat, but alas I did. It was one of the exiting parts of my day on the farm. Kevin is really sweet and tried to make my WWOOFing experience with him as good as possible. He made a point to teach us how to make fresh bread, fruit preserves, cheese, and gave us lots of organic farming and goat herding tips. You know, all the important lessons in life that are no longer taught. He tries to live as sustainably as possible and is a huge advocate in the fight to eliminate genetically engineered foods. I was shocked when I found out more about it. Something really does need to be done.

Kevin hanging the cream cheese to drain

Freshly made preserves

One of the gardens

You may be asking how I ended up on an organic farm… especially since I had my mind set on working on a vineyard. Well, turns out it was close to impossible to get a job for such a short period of time. Truthfully, I knew this all along, but denial is a strong force. So since I only had three weeks before I had to leave to come home for over a month I had to face the fact that a vineyard job wasn’t going to happen until I got back. I met a really sweet American girl who was couch surfing at the same house as me. We ended up becoming good friends and she had a WWOOFing account so we started going through it and sending out a few requests. We both didn’t want to pay the ridiculous prices for hostels here, $25 to $30 a night, and we also wanted to do something interesting with our time….so I find myself here at Kevin’s farm. He was equally as excited to have us since he was running the whole farm by himself! I don’t know how he was managing. It was almost too much work for all three of us let alone just him! His partner is away in England for six weeks and I think he is relying on the WWOOFing program for help. Poor guy, I was happy that we were able to help him, and the goats are just so cute too! Ginger is my favorite. She is so soft and cuddly. I try not to play favorites, but she definitely gets pet the most. The others get jealous and they will start nibbling at my clothes and pulling at them until I pay attention to them too. It is so funny. They are really smart and affectionate, very much like dogs. I can’t decide now if I want a goat or a cow….maybe I will just have to have both. My farm just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Grace petting Ginger and her mom(too bad you can only see Ginger's little ear)

Picking Beets

Feeding time! 

On top of all the great stuff he taught us, he also took a day off of farm work (don’t worry we still fed the animals) and took us on a day hike to climb Mt. Arthur. It was an amazing hike, one of the best ones I have done so far I think. It was really a unique experience because for most of the hike we were above the clouds! You know how you see those pictures of people who have climbed to the tops of mountains and are looking out over a sea of clouds as far as they can see and only the neighboring peaks are visible? Well, I have always wanted to experience that and I think that’s why I loved this hike so much. I wish you could have been there. Honestly it was strange hiking without you. Most of my hikes up to now have been with you. We saw a bunch of really cool birds with interesting calls that you would have held up the hike for hours looking at. I didn’t have anyone yelling at me for taking a million pictures either. It was all too strange. There was snow at the top and it made me think of Valaniracu in Peru( I don’t know if I spelled that right). It was nowhere near as intense though.

The forest on the lower part of the hike was really mossy and mysterious

A cool bird we saw on the hike. It looks like a parrot but lives in the mountains?

Grace hiking under the clouds

The view from the top

A view from under the clouds

I loved the way the light fell on the trees on the way back down

So that was my time on the farm. I can’t wait to get home and make breads and preserves and cheeses with you and the family. I hope the blueberries are in season so we can go pick them and then make pies and muffins and preserves….and then give them to people so we don’t eat them all! I know how your will power is when it comes to sugar. Don’t worry we will be doing yoga and riding our bikes every day. I will even do classes for everyone… well we will see. I have to fill you in on a few other ridiculous stories about my New Zealand time. I will leave them for another letter though. Let’s just say search and rescue was involved! Haha! Only me! Don’t worry I will tell you everything in my next letter.

Love,

Kiki

Funny little fan tail.  They are so friendly.  They are known to land on your shoulder
or outstretched finger.

P.S. Maggie how is the new bike? You have to get Lulu to give you a few pointers. She is a pro.