Urban wwoofing begins

We slightly nervously joined as Wwoof hosts I think back in September 2009. Friends of ours up on the Normandale hills nearby had tried out being hosts and enjoyed it. We looked at them with a garden similar to ours in size, a bit more organised and actually producing stuff and wondered...Could we really be Wwoof hosts? Is our garden big enough, do we have enough for people to do, where would we put them?...

Well it has been 4 months since we joined and already we've got lots done. We keep finding new jobs and need to keep looking back as it still seems we live a bit of a mess at times. But here's a list of what's happened so far;
Jacqueline from Germany
Glasshouse cleaned out, compost moved into garden beds, glasshouse and all compost turned, garden fencing done around raised beds, much weeding and of course childcare.
We also had a blast with Jacquie and her great sense of humour. She was really keen to go work on a sheep farm so we hooked her up with Alan and Helen from Waiora lamb . Alan worked Jaquie hard with 8 hours of docking lambs and sheep dipping them in the Manawatu. But she loved it.

Next came Matt from North Carolina
Matt was welcomed to Lower Hutt with Grits and fish and marinated seafood. Matt didn't like seafood!!! but as a very polite southerner he ate it and appreciated the effort. Of course he loved the grits.
Matt along Moritz the next Wwoofer did paving which we'd been meaning to finish for ages. Built a duck pond out of concrete, made benches in the garden for after work relaxation, was generally helpful and made it a fun time. Of course he did a bit of weeding too. One memory of Matt is of him being woken up very early by a keen Lego builder, (Henry) at maybe 6:30 or 7 am after a big late night out. Noisy Lego beside your head with a hangover is not the way to wake up. Luckily for Henry Matt brought his Southern charm even in that situation.

Moritz came while Matt was still here and moved into the lounge while Matt was upgraded to more plush accommodation in the spare bedroom. They got on like a house on fire and soon discovered a mutual love of doing the Arnie voice! "More proteins" was the call heard for the next two weeks. Moritz put his hand to anything and got stuck into mulching piles of branches we'd accumulated over the last year from trimming trees. He was great at our shop which we were just about to open in Jackson Street at that point. Moritz helped culture cultured by doing fantastic murals based on our design. We now have stylised plants growing up our shop walls. He helped cut perspex which was hugely smelly, not very organic sadly.

Louise came next the kids were sad to lose Matt and Moritz but so happy to get Louise. Quiet at first we thought but we soon got to know Louise and appreciated her caring, soft ways and constant smile. Bella loved having a big sister and doing things like drawing weird animals. Louise soon became part of our family too. She proudly sent pictures back to her family of the building projects she'd done in our garden. Thanks for the compost bin and for taking care of our children so well.

Vera from Oldenburg
Vera is more of an urban Wwoofer it seemed at times, (preferred the great indoors), well it was cold. She was willing and helpful and very cool with the children. Vera was here over Christmas and New Years and so got lots done as well as being very well fed. We dragged her to Xmas parties and she even looked after our house, our friend's house and all our animals while we went away on holiday. It was excellent to feel so comfortable about leaving. Vera liked working inside during our rainy summer so she sanded our kitchen, dining room, and the children's room then primed and painted all these windows. 6 large windows which we would never have got done without her help. While we were away she also painted a NZ mural on the children's wall with a Pohutakawa, Tui and other trees. Oh and took great photos for our future cheese website and of the children.

Ben and Sioux
American Wwoofers Ben from Texas and Sioux from Queens, NY, NY.
We learnt lots from these guys about life in the States. We had an excellent green curry meal and got weeding and our whole house cleaned on a wet day. Thanks for visiting and helping out with the children and the garden.

Annie We wish you could have stayed longer it was a lot of fun. Thanks for reinventing our raised garden to keep out the ducks. They haven't got in yet!!! We now have cucumber, courgettes, lettuces, basil, spring onions etc etc growing there. It has been fallow for a while so very good to get the soil working. We also have a screen to sift our compost through thanks to Annie which helps keep the big bits out of the garden. Annie was excellent with the children and thankfully had a great sense of humour as I managed to lock myself out of the shop and house while she was here. The many key problems became quite a running joke. Thanks for helping Ching Ern also.

Ching Ern Yee Malaysia via South Korea
Ching Ern helped us during a busy shop time by taking care of the children and looking after them while weeding!!! Amazing multi tasking skills, I find it very hard to weed and look after them :) We tried to cook interesting food rather than the usual Western fare but Ching Ern had met friends from a Malaysian restaurant in Wellington and we were a sad comparision ;) We love that you had such a fun time here going out meeting people and seeing our city. We love showing it off.

That's it so far, Lauren from Maine next and perhaps I'll try uploading some photos too