workaway: trading our way through Europe

After a year working indoors, and living in a big city, the fresh air of this farm is a great relief! after some research I found this program called Workaway. It is a work trade program. The options for work are vast, and we have chosen to work with some form of sustainable farming, permaculture, or eco-living. The basic structure of the program is that we work half day in exchange for a place to stay and all meals (and wine!). However, it is not a large organization that houses many volunteers at a time, placing them where there is demand, instead it is a program where individual families or homes take one or a few volunteers at a time, so each experience is personal and different. 

We are staying with a small family in central France. They are an English couple with their cute (and smart) three year old daughter, Izzy. They settled into an old farm house in the French countryside, with  acres and acres of green fields and a big, beautiful garden plot, and a view of the vast sky and rolling hills. Their home is a traditional long house, about 400 years old, with the old stable houses attached, now used for shops and storage. 

We have a room on the ground floor of the house with our own entrance and bathroom. The home is warm, lived in, and generally smells like freshly baked bread or tart or something else equally delicious. Across their property is a crumbling, old stone house, in ruins now, but a project for their future. It is stunning. As are most sights around here.

Spring has sprung, and the French countryside is beginning to bloom and come alive. The gardens are being planted, the trees are blooming, the birds are migrating, and the bees are coming around to spread their pollinating love. 

They have sheep and two new lambs, which are cute as can be! They have chickens and even a rabbit. They used to have pigs, but now there are some awesome dinners. And so it goes.... I do enjoy eating healthy meat, knowing that it is not tainted with chemicals and antibiotics... it tastes a lot better and it's better for you... So I better not get too attached to these guys....

The garden is large, they doubled it this year, so I hear. I have been working here these past few days. I have planted carrots, parsnips, and radishes. I've weeded and raked and prepared several of the empty beds for planting (it is that time of year), and today I spent the day setting up a drip water irrigation system that will conserve copious amounts of water and more effectively nourish the plants. 

Things are going good out here in the countryside. The fresh air and hard work is a great contrast to my previous experience. It's adding loads of ideas to my already active imagination, relaxing me, and keeping me in good spirits. Digging in the dirt, planting organic food, tending to the garden beds, and finally reaping the benefits of the crop is a great reward that I am happy to be a part of here in this little slice of the region.