The Dog Says WWOOF! (San Rafeal, Costa Rica)

(From my journal 11-12-09)

It has been a bit over 24hrs since I began my WWOOF program. For those who don´t know, WWOOF (Worldwide Oppurtunities on Organic Farms) is a volunteer program where you stay on an organic farm and work in exchange for room and board, you can do it all over the world and I am now doing it in the middle of the rain forest in a non tourist mountainous area surrounded by waterfalls and lush jungle. The farm is called Barking Horse Farm, it is amazing here and I am now doing this writing in a treehouse which is my bedroom. I am surrounded by palm trees and the noises of animals, birds, and insects of all kinds, and the pouring rain. As the name implies there are a dozen or so horses here, a dozen dogs, including seven puppies, they also have goats which they milk for cheese, a plethora of chickens, a gaggle of geese, some ducks, too many cats, and three kids (baby goats.) There are also two human kids, Olivia, 15, the resident goat keeper and Sam, 12, who is the resident tree climber, frog catcher, and torturer of his sister, Liz and Steven are the owners of this fantasy property, and finally the three WWOOFers, Tina and Frances, Germans, and me, American. As you can imagine it´s a bit of a madhouse around here and always something needed to be done. I arrived yesterday just in time for the afternoon torrential downpour, so we sat around and talked while the clouds emptied their bladders. After the rain stopped I was given a tour of the property and by the time that was done it was time for evening chores, mainly consisting of feeding the animals and cleaning. I then helped Olivia with the milking and it looked a whole lot easier when she did but by the end I was getting the hang of it. Afterwards we had dinner with the family and then the girls and I went up to the treehouses for a glass of wine and to get to know one another better and then it was time for bed. Speaking of bed there is a huge tarantula named Fang that lives in the beams above my bed. Stay up there and we will have no problems.

The next day began at six as every morning does around here and we began feeding the numerous animals and then hiked twenty minutes through the jungle and across a river to where there is another small house that they own as well with another three horses, a cat, and a goat who is off right now impregnating some females at another farm. We got back in time for strawberry pancakes and yogurt and drank starfruit juice, and discussed the days projects. I had to make a run down the road with the neighbor to collect 100lbs+ of rocks and gravel to fill in some holes around the farm, after a bit of hard labor the rains started and so we stopped working and laid around in hammocks until night chores and dinner. Now I am laying in under a mosquito net with a headlamp writing this entry. A simple life, but I don´t mind it much. For now. Goodnight Fang.