Wwoofing in Saskatchewan

My first experience with wwoofing took place on the shore of Murray Lake in Saskatchewan. Wwoof, for those unfamiliar with the acronym, stands for worldwide opportunities on organic farms.
What this is is a network of farms, all organic, though not necessarily certified as such, that accept travelers who wish to come stay on a farm and work in exchange for room and board.  This organization has been around for a long time and several of the people who had couchsurfed at my place in Edmonton had told me about it. Stays on a farm can vary from a few days to several months, depending on the individual arrangement.

I can't say that I'm passionate about farm work, but in the back of my mind I did think that one day I'd like to try the wwoofing experience. One thing I definitely wanted to get into was horseback riding, so I thought I'd try to find a farm which had horses and where I could learn to ride.
I found several in Saskatchewan that accepted me, and ended up choosing a CSA farm located about 40 minutes north of North Battleford. My initial plan was to stay for two weeks or so, but I left it open to see if I liked the experience or not.

When I arrived there on Tuesday afternoon, after taking several wrong turns and driving aimlessly for half an hour on Moosomin First Nation, I was welcomed by the two families that live on the property. Josephine, who takes care of the wwoof program at the farm, is the daughter of Tom and Judy, and has a brother named Johnny. Their neighbours are Shawn (though it may also be Sean, Shaun, or other, similar spellings) and Janice, with their three kids Christopher, Rowan, and Robin.
The farm raises cows, pigs, and chickens, and grows a variety of vegetables and some fruits. Additionally they have four draft horses, one riding horse, three dogs, and two cats.
Their way of life is extremely simple with a back-to-the-land ethos. The entire community is off-grid, with solar panels for power and water being sourced directly from the lake. Their only connection to the outside world is an internet connection in each house.
Their toilet consists of an outhouse with a bench into which a hole has been cut and which covers a 5-gallon pail. There is no toilet paper, instead there are old discarded shirts and other rags, which can be cut into a convenient size using very sharp sewing scissors. The outhouse has two windows, one on each side, which allow anyone to see inside from a distance, and there is no lock on the door. Needless to say, this took me a little bit of time to adjust to.
Meals at Tom and Judy's are simple, consisting of whatever vegetables or fruits happen to be in season, and usually lots of dairy, unpasteurized, of course. Meat is consumed during the winter months but less so in the warm part of the year.

On Wednesday morning we had breakfast together around 9am. This consisted of wheat porridge with yogurt and raspberry preserve, and apples. Not being a big consumer of dairy products myself, and never having had unpasteurized butter or yogurt, I was surprised by the odour and flavour. Everything seemed to smell slightly of cow manure, though the taste was alright. Afterward I retched up quite a bit of phlegm, and decided not to eat any more dairy products. This, in combination with the bland taste of the porridge, led me to eat breakfast on my own in the following days.
That day was CSA pickup, so I helped dig out potatoes and clean them, then we made two batches of vegetables for CSA members. It rained until the afternoon so not much work was done, and after it stopped I got to ride Princess, the riding horse. I had ridden her once before on Tuesday night, after a wonderful communal meal together with Shawn, Janice, and their kids.

My principal reason for wanting to try wwoofing was the chance to learn horseback riding, but I started having qualms about this as soon as I first rode Princess. I thought about the discomfort I was causing the horse, especially by pulling on the bit in her mouth. This seemed like animal abuse, or exploitation at least. I didn't like it, and fortunately the experience of riding didn't do much for me either. I didn't want to ride anymore.

On Thursday I went to North Battleford with Tom and Josephine on some errands, and we came back around lunchtime. We had vegetable soup with pancakes, and I noticed the copious amounts of dairy the family was eating. It made me feel a little sick.
That day I helped Josephine load humanure onto a wooden cart which she had hitched up to two of the draft horses. We took this load out to the field of wheat, where it was spread out. I got to drive the horses back, and though it didn't seem as bad as when I rode Princess, I knew that I no longer supported the use of horses for work or pleasure.
In the evening the family went to visit a relative and I had supper with the neighbours. The food was excellent and afterward I had a wonderful two-hour conversation in my camper with Christopher, the eldest son. I've written more extensively about this in my other blog.

Friday came and I spent a few hours pulling dried peas for seeds while chatting with Judy and Josephine. My experience with the four people in this family is that they are all very strongly opinionated, stubborn, and quite set in their ways, so that it is impossible to introduce any new ideas into their minds. A strong streak of pessimism and even fatalism runs through the family, especially among the men. I found this unfortunate and it contributed to my decision to cut short my stay and continue on my way.
I spent the rest of the day chopping wood and puttering around, then after a light supper I retired to my van and did some writing.

All in all I must make clear that this was not a bad experience. I learned a bunch of things, made a number of interesting realizations about myself, and did in fact enjoy the conversations I had with everyone in the community. I also concluded that I was no longer interested in horseback riding, nor wwoofing, and I find these to be important milestones on my journey; they made the four days I spent there worthwhile.

On Saturday morning I said my goodbyes to the two families and drove off towards Little Manitou Lake and Craik Ecovillage.

Saskatoon

I extricated myself from Edmonton with much difficulty on a Monday afternoon. After saying goodbye to my friend David and his sons, I headed downtown for a last few errands. I stopped at the new location of Earth’s General Store, then met a friend for lunch at Veggie Garden. Afterward I picked up a last batch of locally raised honey and finally left town, heading east.

Just outside of Sherwood Park I picked up my first hitchhiker, a young man named Chad who was traveling to Saskatoon. I was only going as far as North Battleford, which  was fine with him, so we rolled along together, exchanging small talk and our mutual life stories. We stopped in Lloydminster for coffee, then eventually arrived in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, around 8pm. I left Chad on the highway and parked at the Walmart nearby.

I had some food and was just relaxing in my van when there came a knock on the door. Chad was back, holding two cups of coffee. He couldn’t flag a ride so a friend was coming to get him from Saskatoon. We walked down to Tim Horton’s as the van was getting hot and outside was swarming with mosquitoes. 

As we sat at Tim’s, I was accosted by a man behind me who had noticed my t-shirt supporting the Palestinian cause. He was a strongly religious fellow who proceeded to lecture me on the Bible and related fairy tales. After Chad left, I went back to the camper and had an uneventful night.

The next day I drove to Saskatoon, about 2 hours further east. I parked at a Walmart, as is my habit, and set about exploring this smallish city.

Saskatoon is intersected by the South Saskatchewan river, which I at first mistook for the North Saskatchewan, the river that flows through Edmonton. I imagined I could have continued my canoe trip from two days prior and ended up in Saskatoon, which of course was inaccurate. One of the colloquial names for the city is Bridge City, the reason being that despite its small size, it has 7 bridges crossing the river, and I believe a new one is being planned for the near future. 

I biked along the river through the University of Saskatchewan campus, enjoying the views and cool breeze. The first thing I did after reaching downtown was to get a library card and borrow two books, though I had to lie about having a local address. I suspect this will become commonplace for me as I travel across the country. Afterward I set up my slackline at a scenic spot in Kinsmen Park, and watched as people streamed by on their way to see Shakespeare in the Park.

That evening there was a couchsurfing meetup, at which I ended up meeting four other CSers, two locals, one traveler, and one man whom I’d previously met at a CS meetup in Edmonton and who is currently studying in Saskatoon.

Over the next week I explored the city and its environs, taking my bike out for a trek to Wanuskewin Heritage Park, through the downtown core, along both shores of the river, and in and around the university grounds.

I met two other people from couchsurfing during my stay, one of whom invited me to the Mendel Art Gallery coffee shop and the other treated me to a delicious Korean supper.

I also picked up a few hours of work helping set up a pop-up Halloween store, operated by Gerald and his partner Shiloh, who requested to be named in my blog :)

Once the weekend was over I knew it was time for me to move on, and I had arranged to go to a farm just north of North Battleford to do some wwoofing, so after lazily packing up my encampment on Tuesday morning, I set out to try my hand at farm work and horseback riding.

Once more through Edmonton

So I made my way back to Edmonton once more, to volunteer at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, meet up with friends, make a bit of money, and tie up a few other loose ends.

I stopped in Leduc to visit a couple of friends I'd volunteered with at North Country Fair, Calvin and Terry. They're such a cute couple, extremely welcoming and generous. We had some food and roasted cat tails over a fire. I also got to meet their daughter Simone, who is a crested gecko afficionado, of which she has over a dozen, each one in its own enclosure. They are fascinating creatures.

I arrived in Edmonton on Tuesday morning and basically went straight to work. I spent a few days roofing, then I helped an old customer move to a new house, and I also put in a good number of hours helping my friend Jonathan who is in the final stages of preparing his new salt therapy clinic before it opens.

I got a chance to meet up with a number of friends during my three weeks in Edmonton, including my close buddy David, in front of whose house I camped out for a week.

The Folk Festival was not bad, though I wasn't very impressed with the artist lineup and I found myself being bored on the last day. This was my fifth and probably last year volunteering at the Edmonton Folk Fest.

Then, one day before my departure, I accomplished something which I'd had on my bucket list for over a year: in the company of two good friends, I took a canoe and we paddled from one end of the city to the other on the river. We did this in five hours, and it was a somewhat exhausting, though rewarding journey. Witnessing Edmonton from the perspective of the North Saskatchewan river is a completely new experience for me, especially seeing the End of the World, which is the site where several houses fell into the river a number of years ago and now only part of the foundation remains jutting out of the ground; this has become a popular spot for young people to sit and drink or indulge in other types of illicit substances. Access to the location is currently prohibited, but of course, that doesn't deter many people.

After saying my final goodbyes and picking up a last bit of Edmonton honey (go and try figuring that one out), I hit the road, leaving Alberta far behind me. New cities, provinces, and states await me.