Work Away
A work away is where you stay at a working place for free and they provide food and lodging for your services. As a family of 6 (oldest 10, youngest 6), we're not the ideal people to have work, but our host allowed us to come. You typically are expected to work about 4-5 hours/day and you get weekends off. The work away we're at has about 24 horses, about 75 lambs, a dog, a pony, several rabbits, a very old dog named Bailey, and four chickens.
Tuesday
We arrived Tuesday evening and were acquainted with our host, Lisa, and her son Ryan (age 6). Lisa is British which was a relief so the language isn't a problem. Lisa is wonderful. I have really enjoyed speaking with her. She's very down to earth and personable. It's amazing to me that she hosts people from all different countries, nationalities, languages, etc. in her home for weeks! She doesn't have much of a way to vet them, so I think she's learned to be incredibly tolerant of others. She also recently got back together with the father of her son so she is staying with him in a caravan while we take over her house! I feel kind of awkward about this, but I don't really know what else we could do besides stay in a hotel.
We learned how to bottle feed a lamb named Joker, we met the 12 horses here on site, the male sheep and the very old dog. We learned how to water and feed the horses.
Wednesday
Lisa showed us the other horses and lambs that are off site. Mostly, we just talked a lot today. I think she was trying to assess our capability today by finding out about us. We learned all about her, too, which was very interesting. She's been living in France for 13 years now. She didn't like the political climate of England, especially how the Muslims are taking England over and not assimilating like normal immigrants.
We also went to Huelgoat and got our clothes washed at the laundromat and found a cool hike that included the Grotte de Diable! Very interesting.We got to bed really late. Ryan joined us for scriptures and prayers and found it all very confusing, but wanted to pray.
Thursday
I went running this morning. Ugh. Fed and watered the animals this morning. We also rotated sheep. She rotates the big group of ewes every 2-3 days to help the grass recover. So we helped open the fence and watched the lambs run in mob style for the new pasture.:)
Lisa and Ryan left for a relative's wedding in England around 3pm. She said it would be "lovely" if we mucked out a stall, so we did.
It was hard and very stinky work! The kids were champs though. However, we did rest for as long as we had worked in the middle.:) Almost everyone's rose today was that they got to work. I love how work gives people a feeling of purpose and accomplishment.Friday
The kids try to get up early to be the one to feed Joker. After feeding and watering the horses, we mucked out another stall this morning. It took us about 2 hours - and we did it with no break. Great improvement.
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| Talmage seeing his muscles grow! |
Dan got his hair cut. When he arrived, they asked him, in French, if he was the 2pm appointment. He thought they asked if he wanted a haircut. He said, "Oui". So he got shampooed and then the 2pm appointment showed up. The lady then asked, "What's your name again?" He had to wait.
I've loved being able to cook meals here. This past month, we've been eating a lot of prepared meals. Tonight we had baked potatoes with cheese sauce and broccoli. It was so yummy. I really prefer home made foods to prepared foods.
Saturday
Mucked out the last stall. Good thing it was the last and the easiest. We were all pretty tired from the week's activities. Dan and I were out until 10:30pm trying to get one of the massive round hay bales (500lbs.) rolled to the lower horse paddock. The sun set was at 10:04pm.
Earlier that day, we went into Huelgoat for Dan to get a hair cut, check out the 15th century church and grocery shop.
Sunday
-Went to church 45 minutes away in Quimper. An elder translated for sacrament meeting and priesthood was translated as well because there were a few English speakers. Primary was all in French and one woman did both hours. Dan and I helped out with the 2nd hour. I loved hearing the Relief Society lesson in French and understood most of it. I wished I had tried to speak more when I was here as a teenager. I'm great at listening and figuring out words I don't know, but speaking is hard for me. In Relief Society, I volunteered to play the piano for "More Holiness Give Me". I've definitely played it before, but I bombed it! How funny to volunteer and then bomb it. They must've wondered why I volunteered! Ha ha!
-I fixed cowboy salmon with rice.
-Visited the Roche Tremblant (trembling rock)
in Huelgoat forest as well as the Champingon Rock, the mushroom rock. The kids had a great time, Talmage especially, jumping from huge rock to huge rock, crying out, "Superman!" It was a nice day. We also visited the surprisingly enormous cathedral in the tiny town of Saint Herbot. Apprently, a wealthy family who lives nearby paid for its construction. They were really into weiner dogs, so there are Daschound gargoyles.
Monday
Hung out at the farm all day. We managed to roll one of the huge bales of hay into the barn, moved the sheep, visited the stallion paddock for the first time and helped Piers load a bale of hay to take to the other horses.
We cleaned the upstairs and vacuumed and the boys and I spent a lot of time trimming the blackberry area and the front of the house. Blackberries love it here! They grow up everywhere in tandem with stinging nettle, unfortunately. We picked enough for me to make a blackberry pie for our FHE treat and for Talmage to make his favorite blackberry drink with smashed up blackberries. We talked about the first two paragraphs in the The Family: A Proclamation to the World.
I made potatoes au gratin for dinner.
Tuesday
Lisa arrived home from her time in the UK with her son, Ryan. She came at about 11. She just wanted to talk all day, until about 5pm. We ate lunch during that time; I made apple muffins with a crumb topping. We kept asking her how we could help, but she didn't seem to have anything in mind. Dan did make her a saddle rack which I'm sure she appreciated. I made chicken curry and rice for dinner (Ryan didn't eat any and Piers bought a pizza on his way home from work).
Wednesday
The kids fed the animals, I went for a beautiful run (feeling so much better), and Dan made puff pancakes for breakfast. After Lisa came, around 9, we got ready and left for the beach around 10, arriving around 11 near Saint Come.
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| Part of the beach was steeped in this red algae. Weird. |
Ate a snack at a boulangerie - can't get enough of their yummy pasteries! Then we drove to Huelgoat and ate a creperie for dinner. It was delicious! Ended by playing a very long game of pool in the restaurant/bar. Our last night in Saint Herbot!
Our last day in on the work away began with feeding the animals and eating breakfast.
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| Brianna with Flower the pony and Joker and Dan with Indy |
I took pictures of the kids' favorite animals. Then we helped Lisa move the sheep. We then "helped" (I don't know if the kids were more of a help or hindrance here) separate the sheep into two groups - the new lambs she wanted to sell for meat and the mothers and females she wanted to keep for breeding. It took all of the morning and was very hot! We packed up around 2 and left around 4pm. It was good we did work on our last day.:) We got dirty! I loved watching the sheep come running when all Lisa called was, "Here, sheep! Come, sheep!" They really do know her voice.
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