WWOOFing What an experience

24th April - 4th May 2011

I spent 9 fantastic days on a Ranch/vineyard in Monticello Utah.  What is WWOOFing I hear you ask, it stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms, well check out this link for information on the WWOOFing farm i stayed at
http://www.montezumacanyonranch.com
The place is completely off the grid which means they rely on solar power and a back up generator, a great experience thinking about limiting shower times, limited washing (and should be no using the drier) and just thinking about how much you have the lights on and electricity in a big house. As we drove in we found his neighbors have their houses built into the rock effectively in caves it was an awesome sight to see, most of them also off the grid.

There were 7 of us (Renee, Carissa, Joey, Lee, Rose, Greg and I) plus Danny the host (a 24 year old film major from Santa Barbara come vineyard and ranch owner) all but one there on their first WWOOFing experience. The first few days I learned about and planted tress to prevent erosion as this is in a canyon erosion is a serious threat, pruned the orchard tress and general maintenance and clean up duties for the ranch.

Driving the Mule - I got to and yes i was on the right side of the road :-)

By night we all ate and drank (well except me as I was unable to drink the free beer PVR think me and wheat = don't mix)  As you can imagine cooking for 8 is a fun and interesting task with many yummy choices including Racklette (self melting cheese on baked potatoes), home made pizzas, enchiladas, home baked brownies, chocolate chip cookies and home made granola to mention a few.  Everyone was really good about pitching in with either the cooking or cleaning up and as Danny's pantry is enormous and full of food there was an endless supply to keep us going.

The vines were already set up for the season so we didn't get as much hands on there as I'd hoped (and the harvest season is in September a place and time to return to), the next task was to get the WWOOFers cabin built.  It was at the stage of just the wood foundations in place since last season, Greg and Joey worked on the electrics and once that was ready we all went over and insulated and then dry walled the place.  I learned loads (expanded my knowledge on insulation after having done it with Lee in our van and yes it is a super itchy job I wouldn't want as a career) did lots of drilling, measuring, cutting and above all team work and hard work to get it progressed well.  I would love to come back and sleep in it one day, though I've nicknamed it the crooked WWOOFers house (it will sleep 8 WWOOFers once complete) note to self I'd love to help build a small house or cabin with someone one day and know now how important it is to get the foundations completely straight as this impacted on every step after this.

After "work" we would relax, and then party. Danny let everyone shoot his guns at the clay targets (I watched but didn't partake just a personal issue I have after thoughts of my Dad and his guns etc etc).  I would run almost every morning with Greg and increased my fitness and then yoga to help loosen the muscles after a hard day of labour.  We get the weekends off and Renaes friends were all camping near Moab so we all headed there and made a tent city, enjoying a fun night keeping warm by the fire, lots of drinks and food and new friends.  Again the wind in the dirt of a canyon was horrible, everyone and everything was completely covered in red dust you couldn't even open your mouth without getting a dirt mouth full ha ha!

Greg had found a mountain he wanted to climb before I arrived and we could see it the whole approach to Monticello it was Mount Peale and looked beautiful. http://www.summitpost.org/mt-peale/150468
We couldn't find much information for winter ascents and the avalanche advisory board for the area had closed (thanks so much for that lack of help)!

Early Saturday morning (4am) we drove to the approach road to find it became impassable, though he had snow chains was reluctant to use them when the tracks had run out as we were the only 4wd out there.  Effectively this impassable road ended our chance of summiting as it rises quite a way and we would have had to add this time as extra hiking time and a massive amount of elevation gain to our already expected long day. Perhaps if we'd camped there over night we'd have had a chance. Not to worry we drove a nice scenic drive then found a snow shoe trail out to a lake and just explored, coming across lots of very fresh bear footprints, "Hello Bear" we called to hopefully keep it away. Then we headed to Moab to meet the rest of the crew.

The day before I left Danny gave us a tour of the vineyard and the cave in which he hopes to keep expanding to store the wine he is making plus lots of big plans and ideas he has as a creative young guy. Currently as the grapes are only 3 years old they are sold and made into wine else where but he does make his own for family and friends, including using a hand powered crusher for the grapes.  The whole vineyard/ranch has a magical feeling about it, yes we work hard while we are at work but with a great bunch of people, the opportunity to learn new manual labour skills and being situated in a deep canyon in Utah it was an experience I'll never forget.  Thanks to Danny for allowing me to contribute as a last minute WWOOFer and I'll love to return again one day :-)

Back to Vancouver as mum arrives in just 3 days