As much as it’s been an “experience to remember” here in Kyneton, whether that could be said for better or for worse, we’re excited to leave once again! Since I’ve written the first blog on Kyneton (only having had been here a couple nights), I must say, my thoughts on Adrian and this place has certainly changed.
He’s an old man set in his own way and is content being closed minded to the outside world. While he might read an occasional book or two of which he’d love to tell you all about, he enjoys being completely cut off from the outside world- or even bothering to know what his neighbor’s are up to. He looks at us like we’re just his workers, not bothering to ask us what any of our names are; or, to ask us things like what we’re doing in Australia, what are interests are, or what are opinions are on certain things. And, we’ve been here a week! Since I’ve arrived, he’s called me “girl number 2;” leaving Riley to be named “girl number 1,” and Annie, “number 3.”
We now realize how good of a setup WWOOF has been for him over the last years because he hasn’t had to do any work around the farm (including simply tasks like house cleaning or cooking). He’s had WWOOFers to do it all. And to think on it, back when we initially called Adrian to ask to arrange a stay on his farm, his first question for us was, “Can you cook?” If the answer was, “no,” well, then, he would’ve said, “goodbye.” The working agreement was if we work 5 8-hour days to earn ourselves 2 days off as long as we stayed a minimum of a week. Well, turns out what he meant was, you better work 40 hours in the week to get 2 days completely off. Apparently we weren’t able to achieve that.
Because we arrived at noon the first day and was only able to put in 4 hours it didn’t count towards a full-day’s work. Therefore, he felt justified to put us to work today (even though it was our second day off!) trimming boysenberry plants. You can just ask Annie how that went over. My guess is, she would tell you that it wasn’t very fun. Our arms still look like wrestled with a cat from all the scratches we got, and our fingers were blood-stained from all the stabs we endured from the long, needle-sharp thorns. I think our work here is done- both in the field and around the house. We’re ready to move on and work somewhere that might pay us a little to do the same work that we’ve done here.
But, I have to admit yesterday’s daytrip to Ballarat was really enjoyable and it’s been nice to see the surrounding area. It was amazing how refreshing it felt to “rejoin civilization” just after a few days’ away, and how wonderful it was to have certain “luxuries” (like a flush toilet or soap) at hand again. Oh, what a week of peeing a bucket will do to you. We definitely needed a break from the farm!
And, today’s bike adventure to the local winery (a kilometer away) was certainly nice. Riley, myself and another WWOOFer, Uta (from Germany), went and were pleasantly surprised to discover that tastings of all their 15 wines were free! Fortunately each taste was less than an ounce’s worth and we were able to ride back safely in time to make Adrian and ourselves dinner.
Tomorrow we’re going to another town nearby called Bendigo and staying for at least one night. There’s also thought of heading north soon to Adelaide in the weeks leading up to Tasmania. There, we hope to find paid work.
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