baby driver: Ward

Ward is just 30 minutes away from Parikawa, so the landscapes, views, and vegetation were very familiar. I stayed with a woman named Kate and her family. Alessia, an Italian girl, and I were Kate's first WWOOFers. We were received with open arms at Gulchlands (the name of their farm)- Kate was another incredibly lovely woman, and her family was equally as lovely.

Kate's family lived almost entirely off of their farm and land. Her boys and husband were expert sheep shearers, musterers, and hunters. Kate had a beautiful vegetable garden which we ate from every morning, noon and night. In addition to our work, Kate made sure to show us exactly how they lived and we participated fully in their daily activities. Though we were both 'hired' to help harvest Saffron, the season was slow and our Saffron work was less than an hour each morning. After the Saffron we would do things like collect and split firewood (my arm soreness went away after about 3 days, but the badass feeling is still with me!), make jams from her fruit trees, herd and divide beef cows, groom horses, garden, and a whole lot of other fun and interesting tasks. Kate also took us on lots of little field trips. We went to watch Mike and Ben shear sheep, to a rugby game, to watch Ben break in a horse, and to view the prizes of her husband and friends' hunts. We also went on little trips to town, for coffee, and we partially hiked this great trail with incredible views through waist deep water.

Mike and Ben shearing

dairy cows in the yard!

this one was my favorite

Saffron dividing. This was such a cool experience. Every morning at around 7:30 we would walk out to the Saffron fields armed with buckets and collect these beautiful little purple flowers. We would then take them inside or onto the porch where we carefully remove the stamens and placed them on trays to be sent to the dehydrator.