Log 30: WWOOF!
At least for now, my time at Featherlite has come to an end. And what a glorious time it was. While I’m sure it’s hard for all the guys to see me go, it’s a new year, and time for me to move onto my next big adventure.
Things I’ll miss:
José slipping me muffins, candies, and donuts
Finding Graeme asleep on the shop floor
Shipping packages incorrectly as soon as Preston wasn’t there to supervise me
Endless time for podcasts
The rivet gun
The forklift
Things I won’t miss:
Daily 6am wake up
Greasy hands
Sawdust
Standing
Since the genesis of my year off, I’ve been casually looking into an organization called WWOOF. Sounds fun, right? It stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Basically, WWOOF finds a bunch of small, independent farms, and then connects them to a bunch of rudderless, gap year-taking twenty year olds who would like to work on said farms. The farm provides you with a place to stay and pays for your food (for the most part), and in exchange you do whatever work they need done.
WWOOF has locations all over the world, so to narrow things down, I started my search with one main parameter: it has to be somewhere warm. Lucky for me, there is a large presence of WWOOF affiliated farms in Hawaii. Believe me you, these farms had my full attention pretty early on.
Four days from now, I’ll be on a plane to Honolulu, and from there to Kula, Maui. The farm I’ll be working on is called Liberty Vista, and they primarily produce honey and coffee. When people ask what my plans are for the upcoming months, and I say, “I’m going to work on an organic honey farm in Hawaii,” they usually have some follow-up questions. Unfortunately for them, it’s unlikely that I can answer many of them. I really have no idea what I’m doing with this one. I don’t know anything about honey, I don’t even drink coffee, I have no camping experience, and I have never traveled by myself. But despite all that, I’m feeling a lot more excitement than nervousness. Let’s hope I’m still feeling that way when I get on the plane.
You may have noticed my use of the word camping a second ago. Liberty Vista’s sleeping arrangement for WWOOFers is… a campground. Like, with tents. Like, I’ll be sleeping in a tent. I remind myself of this as often as possible, to make sure I fully understand what I’m getting myself into. The past three nights I’ve slept on my sleeping pad on my bedroom floor to prepare myself. To create a comprehensive outdoor living experience, I also play tropical forest sounds throughout the night. To be honest, I usually have a hard time falling asleep with them on, and end up turning them down until they’re barely audible. To be even more honest, the last two nights I’ve transplanted myself back into my bed halfway through the night. So yeah, you could say I’m pretty much primed for the camping lifestyle. Here’s to hoping I can fit all my stuff into my pack!
