Farm Description

So in case you haven't heard...or you've forgotten...or I neglected to mention it, etc. etc. I will be spending 6 weeks in Southern California come September! I will be leaving Ohio on Aug. 31st and returning to Dayton on Oct. 13th.

I am working though a program called WWOOF - which stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. The organization is global and has a directory online of thousands of different farms, gardens, and communitities that are either in the organic movement or have farm practices that demand respect for both the land and the people working the land.

Volunteers usually exchange about 30 hours of a week in turn for food and accommodation, without money trading hands.
I will be working on a 7-acre exotic fruit farm located about an hour from San Diego, and about a half an hour off the coast. I will be traveling by myself, and working a mixture of probably both indoors and out helping to keep the farm running.

This will my longest solo traveling journey, and I am very excited by the prospect. I think God is slowly showing me, or rather I am slowly understanding more about the importance of food and the positive or negative impact one can have on others based on their food choices.

I am so excited to be a part of this and I am very thankful to God for providing the means and provision to allow this trip to be possible. I look forward to listening to Him as I face new and most likely unexpected challenges :)

If you're interested, read below for a full description given by the farm owners of their WWOOFing program. Also - I don't think I will have phone service and most likely not much access to the internet while I'm there so if you're feeling crazy and want to send me a letter, facebook me for the addres.

**UPDATE: Actually I will have my laptop and skype - so feel free to call me!! My name is carol.hays

FARM DESCRIPTION:
This is a 7 acre farm of avocados and all sorts of exotic tropical fruit trees and exotic flowers and macadamia nuts and bamboos and special grasses and succulents. We grow a lot of white sapotes, cherimoyas, tropical guavas, oranges, apples, peaches and nectarines. We are always building new things for the farm and making new gardens and doing maintenance on the farm. We have ducks, geese and chickens. It is about 1/2 hour drive to the beaches and an hour to the city of San Diego and 2 hours to Los Angeles. It is 20 minutes drive to small towns. It is a little over an hour to the snow (in Winter) and deserts and Mexico. It is about one hour drive to the San Diego International Airport if it is not rush hour.
It is warm and sunny all year around, with what little rain we get coming usually between November and March. The farm is frost free. It is pretty hot in the middle of the day in the summer, so working in Summer hot spells is better in the mornings or late afternoons. The farm is steep in places so one must be a bit careful and obese is not suitable. The work here is weeding and planting new plants and trimming trees and maintaining and making new gardens. There is some carpentry and concrete working and metal working. We can accommodate various lengths of stays, however, a longer stay is ideal for the right person as it takes a while to learn how to do everything. We can also accommodate durations as short as a couple weeks, to as long as several months or even more.
A good and skilled worker could become permanent. We can use volunteers all year around. We have fresh vegetables and fruit all year long. We have a separate little house and a room in the main house for Woofers. We can accommodate 1-6 Woofers easily. Some of the work could include housework. English speaking is best, but Spanish speaking could work well too. We would be extremely happy with a Spanish-English bilingual person to spend some time each day teaching us better Spanish. We are open to different ages as long as the person can easily do manual labor and not have problems working in sunny weather. There are usually very few flies, mosquitoes or bugs.

One might want to see the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park and Sea World and Balboa Park. The beaches are excellent. The mountains are beautiful and the desert is worth seeing. Los Angeles has some excellent botanical and art museums. There is good ballroom, Latin, and swing dancing in the city of San Diego. Public transportation is poor to non-existent around the farm and to get to the cities. There are some good small trains for some transportation in the cities. Taxis are way too expensive to be useful. A car is helpful, but not needed. We can help with some transportation at times. We speak English very well. We speak Spanish very poorly. The farm workers usually speak only Spanish around here. It is probably dangerous for young children here at the farm.

We have a big, white, male, Samoyed dog who is very friendly. We eat all foods. We serve a lot of fresh food here. We eat a lot of avocados and fruit and vegetables from the farm. We eat meat. We eat very well here. We can accommodate some special diets if you discuss it with us in advance. The Woofers often participate in the meal preparation and clean-up. There are many casinos near here on the Indian reservations. There are many excellent restaurants in nearby cities.

Transportation from the farm to the cities is difficult, but we can help at times if you have no car. One would usually work with long sleeves and pants and work shoes and a hat to protect from the sun. One could also dress cooler and rely on sun screen to protect from the sun. No smokers please. This is a fire hazard area. We are willing to transport Woofers to and from the train or bus stations in Oceanside or Escondido. Woofers say it is peaceful and beautiful here and the food is the best and the work is not usually too hard and varied and interesting. We provide the best for Woofers and we expect the best from them.