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The Workaway Adventure Continues
July, 2017 |
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Last year's introduction to Workaway convinced us
that this concept could be very beneficial. This year proved it
beyond a shadow of a doubt. We hosted two gentlemen from Australia - Dan and Hayden. Workaway works like this: People who want to visit a different part of the world, volunteer to work 4-5 hours a day, 5 or so days a week, in exchange for room and board. Hosts sign up to provide the room and board in exchange for specific work. Everyone wins. The exchange is made via a website where hosts and workers both post profiles so they can find each other. Dan and Hayden found us, and we are so glad! Their work ethic was unbelievable. Their strength and speed was amazing. Plus, they were great fun to have around. They were polite, helpful, proficient with dishtowels, very sociable, humorous, ate whatever we put before them, and praised our cooking too. (Always a good way to win points with the cooks.) Of course, they did talk funny. We had multiple instances of "Excuse me? What did you say?" (And can you believe -- they thought WE talk funny!) And the conversion between centigrade and Fahrenheit, miles and kilometers, gallons and liters, not to mention miles-per-gallon to kilometers-per-liter, had everyone scratching their heads and sometimes whipping out the calculator. These 2 guys did in 6 days what it would have taken us weeks to do. There were hundreds of firewood rounds lying in the woods exactly where the trees fell. They need to be retrieved, split, hauled to the barn and stacked. We had no idea how much wood was out there, but we quickly learned. Over the course of their week here, they filled the barn with over 6 cords of wood. Of course, "cord" was a new word for them. In Australia, that is not how they measure firewood. We all had an international learning experience. |
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Before the guys showed up, we worked for hours hauling out
rounds and stacking them by the tractor road for easy splitting.
After only a couple days of this it was apparent it would take us a very
long time to retrieve all of the wood lying out there. We needed
help!! |
 It took us hours to move this stuff. The rounds in the rightmost photo are HUGE. Too heavy to lift, we were rolling them out of the woods. |
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Dan and Hayden would fill a wheelbarrow with 4 or
5 rounds and wheel them out of the woods, over lumps and bumps, up hill
and down. This photo is out of focus because Dan was moving so
fast! |
 This is Dan hauling it out of the woods. |
 Hayden tossed the wood to an easier access spot. I think he's aiming at the photographer! |
 Loading the wheelbarrow. |
 A small example of what these guys were dealing with. |
 It took them exactly one day to get the wood out of this spot in the woods. Then the splitting began. The guys would split the wood and toss it into huge piles. The two of us would load the split wood in the tractor trailer and haul it up to the barn. |
 Everybody kicked back once the work was over. We kept the work day to 4 hours. Then the guys could do whatever they wanted. Most days, they headed off with our inner tubes and played in the river. (We have no pictures of that!) In the evenings, electronics seemed popular! |
 New skills for both the guys, tractor driving. |
 These guys did not have a slow speed. They did everything pretty fast. |
 It is lunch time. |
 But first we have to unload the last load of wood. |
 The guys have moved on to another location for hauling rounds. How much wood would an Aussie chuck if an Aussie could chuck wood? LOTS! |
 The ladies are still moving split wood. We can't keep up with the guys. |
 YIKES! Major problem. The tongue of the trailer broke on the uphill climb and lost the load! |
 That trailer is 50+ years old. It has hauled tons of firewood. Darn! |
 Scary, but this is how we made it up the hill. Clamps are wonderful things. |
 More wood waiting to be split. |
 The next day the guys are back at splitting. |
 Yesterday afternoon as the guys headed out to play in the river, we went to town and came home with this. It is the exact same storage capacity - 17 cubic feet -- but we don't have to load it so high. We are back in business. |
 First load in the new trailer. |
 At last the guys get 2 days off. Want to know how they spent it? Backpacking 20 miles along the North Umpqua Trail. When we take days off, we don't do anything nearly so industrious. |
 "I know that bug spray is in here somewhere." |
 The mosquitoes are really bad this year. |
 They have finished all the splitting. All that is left is the hauling and stacking. |
 Hauling a load up the hill. Wise conservation of energy -- everybody gets to ride. That is SO not OSHA-approved! |
 Then they stack it. |
 WOW! Both these bays were empty when they got here. They filled these two, plus half another bay, plus a cord of madrone. |
 The guys all packed up, laundry washed, extra meals stashed, and ready to go. It was a wonderful experience as far as WE are concerned. Two great guys. We hope they have a fabulous time surfing in California! |