Apologies for my absence – I lost internet
connection for a while, and then unfortunately managed to injure my self & found it uncomfortable sitting long
enough to write blog posts! Hey ho, I am up and
about again now & getting there, slowly. Here is part 1 of a summary of
what I've been up to since last time...
Firstly though I feel that I should explain a
little about how it is that I am doing what I am doing, and where these
working opportunities come from.
WWOOFing
I have joined an organisation
called WWOOF UK (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). This is a
membership charity, teaching people about organic growing and low-impact
lifestyles through hands-on experience in the UK. The organisation holds a list
of organic farms, gardens and smallholdings, all offering food and
accommodation in exchange for practical help on their land. The range of
opportunities is staggering, from full scale commercial operations to small
woodland permaculture projects and communities exploring low impact living and
self sufficiency. The list can be previewed for free at http://www.wwoof.org.uk/civicrm/profile?reset=1&gid=12
(It is also worth mentioning that Wwoofing
opportunities are available all over the world via www.wwoof.org)
For my £20 per year membership fee I get
access to the contact details for these hosts, where-by I am able to get in
touch with projects that interest me independently and organise a placement.
The deal is variable but usually something
like all meals and somewhere to stay (usually with the family) in return for 5 full days work per week,
which generally includes on-the-job training.
So that’s it really. As a “wwoofer” my living
expenses are very low, and I’m soaking up all that learning like a sponge. Every now and again I hope for a short paid contract to bring in a little money & keep my budgets on track.
Anyhow, back to Devon:
The working day here begins at around 0800
where it is the responsibility of us 3 wwoofers to let the chickens and ducks
out of their coops, feed and water the pig, count the cattle, check drinking
water, & feed Jem the pregnant mare - she gets a bowl of cereal (horse muesli) with garlic and vitamin B twice a day since she's eating for two. We also clean out the stables and bring
in the horses if they are to work, in which case they get a supplementary breakfast,
a good brush down and their hooves cleaned out as a matter of routine. Everyone
gets a thorough mucking out on a weekly basis.
The day “officially” ends at around 1700 when
we lock up & feed the said animals again, although in practice the work often extends
into the evening depending on what is happening that day.
Once the animals are cared for, the day’s
jobs are metered out. I’ve been utilizing my tractor skills to cut rushes on
the fields (very much as I would have done at work) to stop them taking over
and replacing the grass. They grow prolifically on compacted waterlogged soils,
which these heavy Devonian clays have a tendency to do, especially in such a
wet year. I’m pleased to say that I managed the task without getting the
tractor stuck (although it was pretty close on several occasions).
Meat
6 pigs came back from the butchers one
afternoon & it was all hands on deck to get the meat processed & stored.
What a contrast it was to shift out of the days cow-dung covered trousers and
mud coated arms into food hygiene mode in the blink of an eye!
These were Dylis’ offspring who had left for Hatherleigh abattoir shortly
before. This is Dylis enjoying the sunshine at the foot of a pile of oak logs, most of which are due to be cleft into fence posts.
I have some experience in butchery, having
lived on road-kill venison for 4 years in Scotland. I used to gralloch and skin
the deer behind the office at work & then cancel my plans for the evening
so that I could get the carcase sectioned into sirloins/frying steaks, roasting
joints, burger mince & offal, which all went into the freezer bar the liver and tenderloins which I would eat as a celebratory tea.
Here though the butchery had been done professionally
as much of the pork was for sale. Our task was to cure it all with salt & sugar for hams and bacon. This
I had never done before so it was great to be involved.
The loins were rubbed all over with a mix of Demerara
and salt, packed into polystyrene boxes and refrigerated. The salt/sugar mix
was reapplied daily for 3 weeks, with the excess liquid drained off.
The hams were soaked in buckets of heavily
salted water with lemons, cloves and a dash of whiskey & refrigerated for a
similar period.
Without an electric fridge these could of course be stored perfectly well in a cold cellar.
Here Flora is re-salting the loins
After 3 weeks they were all ready for smoking
in an old wooden barrel with the flue of a caravan sized wood burning stove routed
through it. Oak shavings left over from woodworking was the fuel of choice, for that special oak smoked flavour.
Clearing
up week
The other week I was mostly... driving a 10-ton
dumper truck. The two-year old inside me went wild! Not exactly low impact I
admit, but quite effective at moving sh*t from A to B. I’ve been making huge piles of manure in the fields ready for spreading.
The dumper and a digger were on hire for a
week so it was a pretty manic week getting all the jobs done in time.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to drive the digger, but hey ho, the dumper was a
lot of fun, particularly when bogged down in a wet heap.
The digger was used to restore some typical
Devonshire ditch & bank hedging which has replaced an old barbed wire
fence. A good choice of stock proofing I feel. Barbed wire is horrible to deal
with and it always feels great to have taken out old rusted fence lines, removing
them from the countryside forever – this is all to often regarded as an
inefficient use of time on farms, with a new fence being placed over the top of
the old one. Old redundant fences are litter in my book, whereas this ditch and
bank system is multifunctional in that it is stock-proof, will drain water off
the land, and incorporates a hedge which is beneficial to wildlife and provides
some shelter. Plus it leaves no dangerous metal behind.
I did a bit of prep work with the chainsaw to
free up the line of the bank which involved felling some trees that were in the
way and some aerial tree surgery to remove overhanging oak branches. These were
extracted by the horses and will be processed for fire wood. No photos unfortunately.
