There we have the salad

02/01/2018 While we were in Vancouver and realized that it is more difficult than expected to find a job and accommodation for a short period of time, we spent the last few days taking care of a Workaway (also known as Woofing). In Workaway, you work in exchange for food and accommodation. Usually, it's around 5 hours a day for 5 days a week. We found a farm near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island that matched our expectations according to the description. The acceptance came very quickly and we were already on the ferry to Vancouver Island. Upon arriving in Nanaimo, we had to kill two hours until our host picked us up. We spent the time in a typical pub until John picked us up. At first glance, he seemed quite nice. Arriving at the farm (it was already dark), we couldn't anticipate what awaited us in the next few days. The first smells were a mix of wet dog, chickens, and a musty old house. And we already got a first impression of what our hosts understood by order and cleanliness. Our room was very spartan. The bed we were allowed to sleep in resembled a cot in terms of comfort. In the bathroom, there were two rat traps under the sink...'more pets,' we thought. Cool. By the way, the bathroom was only separated from our room by a curtain. A new level of intimacy. So here we were: arrived on a farm, in the middle of nowhere. At first, we thought...we can handle it for a month - a small challenge, but we can do it.

On the first day, we were shown the tasks we had to do. I had to empty, clean, and refill all the animal water buckets, feed the chickens, collect eggs (which also meant stealing the eggs from the brooding chickens), let the ducks out, and put together food for the chickens from expired food and moldy fruits/vegetables. Patrick's tasks were to distribute hay to the goats, keep the chicken area dry with wood chips, and saw firewood or help Will (our fellow sufferer) do it. In the late afternoon, we were allowed to go out again and 'prepare' the animals for the night - luckily it only took 30 minutes. Groundhog Day greeted us daily (theoretically for 6 days a week - we only had one day off), but with an increasingly lack of sleep - as we often woke up to check for rats and our bed simply wasn't made for our 'aging' backs.

On Sunday (02/04), the best task came. Cleaning the 'nest boxes' for the chickens - which were identical to a cat litter box. Perfectly suitable for proper chicken keeping - except for the fact that generally too many chickens were in the barns - very organic and all that. The highlight was that there were rat burrows under the litter boxes, so when we lifted such a box, several rats could come out to 'say hello'...that was really something for us. Maybe we're too sensitive, but that was not acceptable. The farmers told us that there was probably nothing they could do about the rats. We saw it differently.

The chickens lived on a muddy hill. The barns were put together haphazardly and the chickens received a lot of food scraps - a feeding frenzy for rats. We had so many ideas on how to improve chicken keeping and the rat infestation, apart from reducing the number of chickens. I lost my temper when I told our host that I couldn't deal with the rats and would only do the cleaning with Patrick. She pointed out to me that they work efficiently here and Patrick will now take care of the cleaning alone, as it wouldn't be fast enough otherwise. Oh, so two people are slower. Besides, the farmers had only had one helper in the past few months, Will, not three. Well, this woman obviously had little knowledge. Little knowledge of efficient work, appropriate animal husbandry, and friendly interaction with people. I was close to tears because it just wasn't what I had imagined, and I had been on farms before (without a rat infestation). We ended the farm experiment and had ourselves driven back to Nanaimo the next day.

In the short time, we had grown very fond of a little baby goat. She was raised with a bottle and was therefore very trusting. She couldn't walk straight, maybe a little blind too - but she always ran towards the stall when someone came in - she was very clumsy and just lovely, we would have liked to take her with us.

We then spent two days in Nanaimo, explored the city (although 2 hours would have been enough) and made plans for the next few days. Maybe we should rent a car? Tofino isn't that far away after all...