We would like to reassure our readers that we will continue to provide great content on a weekly basis in these difficult times. We will strive to maintain a high standard of blog hygiene to reduce the risk to you, our valued reader. When we started this blog, coronavirus was only a problem in a very far away place. Now it is everywhere, including Vancouver Island. We have had to rethink our plans to visit the east of Canada. Even if it was possible, we are not keen on sitting in a train full of humans for 5 days, or even a plane full of humans for 5 hours. So for now we are staying put, but there are definitely worse places to be stranded! We would like to preemptively apologise for the lack in variety of the following posts. Everyone has to make sacrifices, so you will just have to put up with more pictures of mountains, beaches, forests, boats, sunshine and unidentified wildlife.
Unfortunately Workaway opportunities are diminishing, as people are shutting businesses and choosing to isolate themselves. Our next host has cancelled, but our current host has agreed to let us stay until the end of the month so we can find something else. We have mostly had negative responses, but one “maybe” with another farm on a smaller island, Gabriola, not too far away (Rosie is hoping for this one because they take care of retired horses).
Just to make life even more difficult, Rosie stepped off some decking into a hole and sprained her ankle. It’s a bit swollen and bruised, so she has been resting it and not pulling her weight around the farm. Double work for Ollie!
We’ve done lots of work since our weekend away to Tofino and not been out much. Some completed tasks:
- Collecting waste food and coffee grounds from local cafes for feeding the chickens and composting
- “Broad-forking” vegetable patches to open up the ground and let in oxygen
- Weeding weeding weeding
- Insulating a new greenhouse and blocking holes where birds were getting in to eat the seedlings
- Planting garlic and peas
- Chasing the escaped dog
- Digging a hole to bury the escaped dog’s victim
- Screening below the decking to stop animals crawling under it (mainly the dog)
- Wrapping an apple tree in wire to stop the sheep eating the bark
- Pruning the apple tree
- Beekeeping (inspecting the colonies, cleaning out dead ones and feeding)
- Building bee boxes
- Transplanting maple trees
- Making a goose nest
- Sorting seeds
- Shovelling chicken poo
- Tidying the garage
- Building fences to keep rabbits and sheep away from different areas of the farm
- Spreading a lot of compost!
By the next blog, we will hopefully have secured another Workaway to take us through to mid April, when we can reassess the situation. We hope all of our readers can remain safe and sane during the next week. How about playing one of our favourite board games…
Roaming Rollie 
Well you have certainly chosen a beautiful place to be stuck in. Plenty of exercise, good food, fresh air. …… good luck with getting another place, though staying put is a safe option. Take care x
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Definitely a great place to be in isolation! We will be here until the end of the month and then the family wants to have some time on their own. But things are looking promising for another farm workaway that we should be able to stay at until things improve.
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Take care too. We hope you are all well. x
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One year old Bald Eagle or summing.
Red breasted Sapsucker, duck.
Chicken in a bucket.
Canadian step ladders are massive, don’t they know they should have four legs.
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The ladder is surprisingly stable! I made sure to watch our host go up and down a few times before I went up it.
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Great to have you here to do the bird identification so I don’t have to! Do you think the red-breasted sap sucker made all of those holes?
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Looks like you guys are keeping yourselfs’ busy in these isolation times. You’ve been a tad unfortunate with the timing of the beginning phase of your adventure, but once the dust settles on all of this, and that shouldn’t be too far off, you can continue with your adventure to the East Coast 🌤️. Look forward to seeing more updates
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Thanks mate, appreciate your words. We hope you are finding working from home OK and, more importantly, you aren’t too devastated that we likely won’t find out if Liverpool could have closed out the season…my guess is no, utter capitulation.
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