Mike and Claire's Wonderland

I did some yoga on the beach here today...

Heaven

The Yoga deck that's a little ways away from the main house, so it's serene and peaceful - :)

They sell their food at a farmers market on Sundays, or just out on the street near town (and I'm told are usually sold out within a couple hours)

The corn patch that another wwoofer, Andy from Ireland, has spent the last 3 months here tending to!

Mike and Claire's Wonderland

Yet another wonderful and beautiful place to stay! They have been on this land for 20 years and every tree has been planted by them, it started as nothing. They have 3 boys, 2 of which live here and one back in the states, in NH, with Mikes sister (who is actually here for a few months helping out on the gardens). All the meat and fish they eat, they have killed themselves. Claire is really into deep sea diving and Mike is very into fishing and hunting (as you'll see from the photos in my Kodak album!)

You can hear the surf from the bay from the house, it's just about a 10 min walk to the beach, and tons of bush walking opportunity all around. They have a sweat lodge, an area to do Yoga on a platform over a stream, plentiful vedge gardens and fruit trees, a big garage area (the size of a small house) with a pool table, dart boards and a heavy bag, and on and on. They have only taken wwoofers for one year, so it's a reletively new experience for them, but I know I'm going to learn a lot about horticulture and permaculture and I've decided to stay an extra week already.

Claire grows the vegetables mostly just for their family, and some to sell locally, but she's been farming forever, as her dad was a brilliant farmer. I have learned to:

• bake homemade Sourdough bread
• make homemade yogurt, buttermilk and herbed cheese from raw milk
• make homemade butter (literally by hand, there's no churn)
• make homemade Kefir (the good bacteria stuff from the raw milk - it's fermented)
• make Kombucha

And that's just what I've learned in the kitchen! I have also learned quite a lot out in the garden and about their lives of hunting and living off the land. They are having a fishing tournament this Saturday and about 30 guys will be in the race and someone wins prize money at the end...then the party will be here.