February 14, 2014

Once again we were not the least bit let down with who and what we found through workaway. After our few days in Quito we took a couple of buses and a cab to what would be our home for almost 5 months.

The farm was located a few hours North of Quito just outside of Otavalo and was situated between the volcanoes Imbabura and Cotocachi with incredible views of both. We were immediately pleased with our surroundings and wide-eyed for the neighboring peaks that we hoped to climb.

Upon arrival we were warmly greeted by 7 dogs before meeting our hosts Lindsay, Shawn, and little 4 month-old Gus. They gave us a tour of the farm, introduced us to the pigs, cows, and cats, and explained what the work would be like in the coming weeks. (At this point we were expecting to stay at most a month.) We were excited for what was to come and settled in to our cozy beds in the attic space and enjoyed the first of many, many delicious meals with our new friends and family (which I believe was carbonara with some of Shawn’s own prosciutto – good memories). The next day a group of 7 piglets was born, only a few days before my birthday.

After the initial awkward “break in” period which in all cases has consisted of lots of dishes, cutting alfalfa, being almost oppressively involved, and asking lots of questions, we found that Shawn and Lindsay were incredible people excited to have volunteers who were interested in the biz. After a couple of weeks, Lindsay coyly asked us if we would be interested in staying for longer which happened to coincide nicely with Holly’s recently acquired internship in a neighboring town. With open hearts and able hands, we graciously agreed to extend our tenure which would turn out to be one of the better decisions we have made over the past year. When you make that kind of agreement after months of traveling and abbreviated stays, its a little like choosing home. You unpack a little more. You leave your toothbrush in the bathroom. It’s the little things that that make a person comfortable, and it was nothing less than excellent.

The duties involved were varied and I find myself breaking it up based on the other volunteers who came through as I’m sure the Geers do as well. The first week we were there it was just us, we did a good bit of gardening, redoing planting beds, clearing out rocks, and spreading out manure and eventually seeding two decent plots of land with alfalfa (which wound up never growing, but another decent grass did instead). About a week later, a couple from the US joined us and while they were there we continued gardening, butchered pig number 1, and got ready for a big farm style open-house. This involved making lots of sausage from the pig, a bunch of kielbasa, pepperoni, and various other meats for sampling with the whole point to be to get people to sample the new wares and have a chili cook off, but ultimately to just throw a party. We cleaned the house from top to bottom, set up tables and chairs outside, and I started making the farm entry for the chili cook off. Unfortunately for me, I was unfamiliar with a certain bean called Chocho which is apparently a super food but only after a rigorous preparation. Without such preparation, it makes all the other food taste like battery acid. Needless to say, the addition of this bean totally ruined a work of art. I had smoked tomatoes, onions, and peppers, soaked the tri-bean mix in fresh stock from the most recent pig,etc. etc. All in all I had about 2 days worth of prep into it with another whole day of low and slow to bring it home. Out the window. Not edible. The dogs wouldn’t eat it. It was buried along with my pride. After feeling totally defeated, I went back to the store and threw a quick chili together just to fill the spot and make sure there was enough food. It turned into a decent story, but I got 11th out of the 11 entries. In the end, I think over 100 people came to the farm, Shawn sold most all of his surplus supply, and we were left to deal with a half empty 5 gallon keg of beer from a local artisan brewer. Tough life.

After cleanup, we put the house all back together and got along with life on the farm. Soon after they left, another volunteer and eventual great friend showed up. This was Mr. Jeremiah. A laid back western state fellow with handy hands. With another competent work hand on the farm, we set into the task of dropping eucalyptus trees around the farm for fence posts, but more for our obra maestra, The Loft. The dropping of trees involved an underpowered chainsaw, a small wench, and about 10 meters of rope. We managed to probably fall around 20 monster trees, breaking them down further into manageable sizes, stripping them of their bark, and moving them around the farm to their destinations. Six of these posts (15 to 17 feet) were used for posts on the loft. These posts, after painstakingly removing the bark, were sunk a good 3 feet down into very rocky soil and so the building began. Getting everything cut, measured, planned, and sunk took a good while. Somewhere in there another couple, Ben and Iris, showed up to the party with their dog Kalev just in time for framing the roof and then roofing! Woot. This involved a lot of high ladder work, two drills, a bit of aim, puzzle work, and asbestos. Within a few days and 4 manly men aworkin’, the roof was up and we had a shelter.

While Jeremiah was still there, we also probably processed over 100 chickens for either ground chicken, smoked, or whole raw.

After Jeremiah left and with Ben and Iris still there, it was decided that it was time for another butchering, but this time two pigs. So I think on Monday we butchered and filled a freezer, Tuesday butchered and filled a freezer, and then made a ton of sausages, hams, bacons, and lard on Wednesday. I don’t think we did much that Thursday. Pig 2 and 3. We also went through another batch of a hundredish chickens with Ben and Iris.

After Ben and Iris left, the house was quiet for a couple weeks and we stayed busy planting trees, feeding animals, fixing things around the house, and various other chores. Eventually Shawn’s dad Tom came to watch the house while Shawn and Lindsay went back to the States for their yearly family visit. Before that happened, they took a family trip to the coast and left Holly and I to watch the house. With Holly mostly at work for the week, I was home to feed the animals, play with the dogs, dig fence posts, plant more trees, etc etc. I usually had dinner ready for when Holly got home and generally stayed busy. Lucky girl. When the family got back from the coast, Shawn and Lindsay busied themselves getting ready to leave and ultimately left ol’ Tom with the two volunteers.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of Tom, so here are some of the animals.

Our time with Tom was very pleasant. Holly would go off in the morning and Tom and I would get to work figuring out what to do with this massive lofted roof we had already built. Now keep in mind that this thing was built with non-standard building materials so nothing was really what you would call “straight” or “plumb” so that presented the majority of the challenge. With Tom being a carpenter, the main object was to figure out how to fit a usable space within the confines of Wonka-walls. As a master is capable of doing, Tom was able to picture the square inside the circle. With some wizardry, we were able to put up floor joists (after digging 4 more posts), framed plumb walls, a small porch with stairs, railings, etc. By the time Tom left, I had learned a lot about construction and we had mostly framed out the whole structure.

With the Maestro gone, we accepted another couple, Luuk and Lonneke from Holland, and they helped put up the walls on the loft, redesigned the garden, built a plant nursery, butchered pigs 4 and 5, and another hundred or so chickens.

After the Dutch left, Shawn and I finished framing the windows for the final walls, put up the walls, installed some pretty great windows and the loft was ultimately complete.

But this project was not just about production. We also cooked meals to feed armies. Shawn and I would usually battle back and forth about who ate more. We probably ate 5000 calories a day. We ate a lot. We had a rule that all leftovers had to be left even. All of the volunteers that came through really loved to cook, and that was a good thing. I started a sourdough starter that made it through the whole thing, cranking out probably 3 or 4 batches a week. We made a prosciutto that they will eat in about 10 months when it finally primes. 98% of the thinking going on in that place was devoted to food, either whats to come or what had been. It was a wonderfully creative place where we could take chances, try new things, and know it would be eaten one way or the other (except the chili, that was poison). Some other new foods (to me at least) that we made were tempered chocolate covered fruits, peanut brittle, head cheese, less adventurous flour tortillas, spetzle, roasted garlic tomato soup, gizzard meat tacos, heart and liver from various animals, chicken sausage, peanut butter, jams and marmalade, bacon ice cream, and a variety of sorbets. My god so much good food.

We also celebrated some good things, like Easter. Easter in Ecuador was great. I don’t remember exactly why, but Easter coincided with a major festival in the neighboring town so we spent it drinking beers in the park in front of the Church. Inti Raymi was also notable and was taking place when we finally left the farm, but that’s another post in itself. My and Holly’s birthdays were also celebrated in Ecuadorian style with some low key house parties. One Sunday we decided it was Bloody Mary Day and made a huge Bloody Mary bar and juiced about everything we had in the house. We also had a friend throw us a going away party (read; she didn’t want to be open anymore so she closed up shop for us, called Shawn and Lindsay, and we had a little shindig in her restaurant). Needless to say, we had a great time together.

Gus was also a great farm fixture. We walked into his life at the beginning of the “fun” phase. I spent a lot of my mornings tossing him around, making stupid faces, and generally acting like a doofus in order to get that kid to laugh. Notable achievements while we were there: rolling over, crawling (did I mention we built cabinet doors), eating solid foods, assisted walking and stair, and the like. He might have even said “Brent” a few times, but you can’t be sure.

Then there were the dogs. 7 beasts. 2 massive twin black lab/mastiff mixes Tony and Manny, their disabled mom Luna, a rot or something mix Miley, the princess shepherd mix Sarah, the old man Piolin, and the oldest man Dirk. They were also a constant source of entertainment and I was soon able to distinguish their barks from one another. They were great until night time where random barking would usually break out, sometimes climaxing in a seven (or fourteen depending on if the neighbor dogs got involved) dog howling session. This was great. I quickly invested in good earplugs. 3M makes the best.

The Farm also served as a weekend base camp for Holly and I, with trips to Fuya Fuya, Cotacachi, Imbabura, the Amazon, Quito, technically the Galapagos, Cuenca, Quilotoa, and Cotopaxi.

We also played cards with the two youngest of the Ecuadorian neighbors. One day the youngest Kevin came over and said he wanted to play UNO but he didn’t know the rules. So we taught him and it became clear that he had a higher capacity for cards. We then taught him the rules for blackjack, and he liked that but also soon got bored. We tried to teach him poker, but the rules and intricacies were lost in the translation, so we went back to blackjack and added the aspect of betting. With the prospect of winning candy, Kevin and his sister Eveline became a near constant fixture around dinner time. We would bet candies until someone lost out or we got tired of playing, they would retire back to their house and probably eat candy in front of their older brothers. Their traditional Kichwa mother probably thought of us as white devils tempting their youth with the poisons of gambling. I think they loved those nights.

Again, unfortunately we don’t really have any pictures of these moments.

Anyway, as you may be able to tell, we loved our time on the farm. There was always so much to do and it was never an issue because we were always together. Shawn, Lindsay, Gus, Holly, and I formed a strong team. We all worked well together, understood each other, and rarely if ever stepped on each others feet. We had an incredible time together and became great friends. Like I said earlier it was a highlight of our trip, our life, and something we will never forget.

We will miss the days on the farm, remember them fondly, and brag about them often.