We’ve Arrived at our Next Workaway
We’ve barely moved by Canadian standards, but we have left Victoria and arrived at a small hobby farm in Nanaimo 110 km up the coast. There are 7 acres of land, 107 chickens, 7 sheep (increasing) and 9 geese. We’re staying in another cabin, but this one is hexagonal and has table football!
Nanaimo is famous for the Nanaimo bar, annual bath tub racing and the highest number of pubs per capita in Canada (our bus driver told us this, but I can’t find any evidence so probably fake news).
Farmer Rollie
The farm is owned by a couple with two kids (slightly older than the last pair). The father works as a part time science/art teacher, part time ice sculpture and part time farmer. He has already spent quite a bit of time with us, showing us the farm and teaching us some new things. He even let Ollie have a go on a chain saw. Some jobs so far:
- Pressure washing the driveway
- Epic weeding in preparation for planting vegetables
- Preparing some old bee boxes for reuse by sterilising them with a blow torch
- Chipping up some old branches with the scary wood chipper
- Digging out some rotten wooden flooring from one of the barns
- Learning about grafting apple branches (we helped by fetching things)
- Regular feeding and watering animals and egg hunts
- Helping out with the creation of an ice sculpture for a retirement party (see videos below of Ollie finishing the surface and creating some snow to be packed into etched lines)
Ollie is coping quite well with the animals, but is certainly not going near Malachi the big ram. Rosie has already been pecked by a chicken, but in fairness she was trying to push the chicken off some eggs so she could steal them… We’ve been eating scrambled goose and chicken eggs for breakfast.
This weekend we have borrowed a car and are off to Tofino. A three hour drive over to the west coast, Tofino is famous for rugged scenery, sandy beaches and surfing. It’s a bit cold for us to go in the water though, we’ll probably chicken out.
Roaming Rollie 
Omletting someone else start the eggstremely annoying chicken puns (It’s no yolk) I eggspect you thought noone had noticed the one you slipped into the end of your post, but I’m too clever for you!!
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Eggscellent effort, not even ollie noticed the yolk at the end. Clucking hard when you’ve taken all the good ones, so my response is a bit paltry.
Ps. I’ve just finished The Bone Clucks on Audible, it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
Pps. I actually quite liked it but couldn’t make that opinion into something about chickens.
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It’s a ‘hen’ of a good read? As is your blog. I would totally ‘shell’ out for it if you serialised it. Eggs.
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