WW161 & 162 Sarah and Tom

Sarah and Tom stayed two weeks and there were more pears and apples to pick and bottle and they helped us with a lot painting of a little cottage we just bought in Timaru a 5 minute walk from Rusty's work. This is a long term anti-commute plan for when the girls have left school! Having Tom and Sarah help with the painting made the work go along so much quicker, which was just as well as the weather was getting more autumnal. They also helped with a compost project and laying out some paper in gardens as a weed deterrant.

Sarah got a new hairdo. I tried to make her look like a photo she had on the laptop (not bad results) and Tom played Chinese Checkers with Wal.

Sarah learnt to make soap and yoghurt and loved the nail gun...sounds dangerous!

WW159 & 160 Susan & Julia

Susan and Julia are now prepared to become "proper housewives" after a full course in making jam and bottling pears and cooking from the garden. The also learned from Shannah how essential tomato sauce is to the fkavour of a well tasting dinner!

Susan and Julia stayed nearly 3 weeks so they felt like part of the family and of course Jess enjoyed their company too- more ball throwingpower around the place!

Susan and Julia wrote out a sudoku for Wal for homework-( PS it is finished.)
and for the girls and I we got a recipe for "Schweineohnchen" which we have yet to try.

WW157 & 158 Alan (R) and Sarah

Alan has emigrated to NZ after his time wwoofing with Sarah and we had kept in touch-it was great to have Alan come back and visit (see post for Alan in May 2007)Alan helped us make some doors etc and the house was still very much a building project. Here's what Alan has to say....

"What a pleasure to come back and see the house all finished and everyone moved in. Can't believe the progress after 3 years-it still doesn't feel like I'v been gone very long. Can't believe how beautiful and colourful the house is, and the garden is amazing already and I am very envious and hope to come back again soon."

And we would love to see Alan and Sarah and, indeed, any past wwoofer. It is a real joy to have people come back. It's almost like family turning up. You're always welcome.

WW156 + 2 Sophia, Melvin & Catherine

Sofia brought her two children from Taiwan to stay with us for 10 days during their winter holiday. The children had a great time playing on the trampoline and went camping in our new tent on the front lawn. Sofia made newspaper logs, made some fences with Melvin's help, palnted a small garden with their own plants, made some jam (actually 100 JARS OF JAM), went out for BBQs and Melvin enjoyed playing with Thomas, one of Ami's friend's brothers.

Sofia and the children fitted in wonderfully and it was great to share the last of the summer holidays with them.

WW154 & 155 Silvio and Lorenzo Christmas 2009

Silvio and Lorenzo are our first Italian wwoofers and we loved having them. They stayed 11 days through the Christmas period and then returned for 4 days after New Year. They were great at helping out in the kitchen, pavlova of course was on the Christmas menu so we needed the boys' muscles to whip the meringue. Rusty and Silvio had several international matches at table tennis. We have just started to use Matt's table for games. Skinny but a good length. I won't announce the scores becasue it was embarrassing for Italy! Come and try again, Silvio!

(Lorenzo-I need a photo of you!)

WW152 & 153 Jennie and Andy

Jennie and Andy arrived late on Christmas Day and stayed for dinner. In the morning they helped out with a couple of small projects. We finished the Oamaru stone fence and used the leftovers to make a border for the front of Shannah's garden as well as suppressing the weeds using flattened cardboard boxes.

Jennie and Andy are friends with Matt and Carrie and though it was brief we enjoyed the opportunity to connect with friends of friends. Thanks for coming.

Merry Christmas to all wwoofers

Thank you to you all where-ever you are for Christmas. As a token of appreciation we donated gifts to charities overseas. We hope that all our wwoofers and recipients of the gifts also will be blessed at Chritsmas and in the coming year. If you are able please drop us a line (send a short email) we do like to know what you are doing!

WW150 & 151 Harmony & Nicolas

Harmony and Nicolas helped Wal build a rabbit hutch as the girls were to get rabbits for Christsmas. Unfortunately they felt pressured by circumstances beyond our control and needed to move on and find work. A word of warning-it is a huge risk to buy a car which has not been vetted (checked) Join the NZ Automobile Association and get your vehicle checked by a certified mechanic before you buy. Especially if you are spending more than $2,000.

WW148, 149 and 2 halves

Adar and Anna from Israel came with their two children Aya and Ellie. Aya and Shannah got on really well and Ellie enchanted us with her bright smile. We enjoyed lots of family time together including attending the Christmas pageant at church and a picnic at the park. Adar put in a few poles so I could make some ornamental fences to set off the gardens down the drive. Anna and I started an Oamaru stone garden and weeded Nao's garden.

WW145-147 Khang, Teh and Joey

Khang, Teh and Joey are our first wwoofers from Malaysia. We enjoyed learning a bit about Malaysia and they learnt from Shannah that Malaysia has the sun bears. Wal and the three made a new garden which is now flourishing with broccoli and courgettes.

WW144 Maria 2009 14 November

Maria was a well seasoned traveller from Canada. We enjoyed listening to her stories of various trips. Maria is a more "experienced" traveller than most we host so did fairly light duties like cleaning. She cooked us a wonderful Chinese meal one night enjoyed by all. The weather must havebeen cold again because Maria enjoyed the cosy comfort of the wood stove in the evening and the delicious smells of the baking.

WW141-143 Hendrik, Cathleen, Andreas

Hendrik, Cathleen and Andreas helped out quite a bit with the garden during the week they were with us and one of the boys cut up a bit of firewood. Just as well, the summer has been so sappalling we are still lighting the fire regularly. Ami learnt how to make a pavlova at school so we had one one night- we all take turns using the handbeater to get it whipped stiff enough.

WW140 Sarah 24 Oct 2009

Sarah worked for a few days and learnt how to make a "Taranaki gate". She then helped us out by staying and looking after the house while we went away. She writes of this time in the scrapbook " it caught fire twice, I broke the cable for the phone and the internet and Jess unfortunately ran away cause I didn't feed her and left the gate open.......just joking"

She also wrote a funny German poem in the book

Dark was it, the moon was shining bright,
whena flash-fast car was driving around the corner,
when a rabbit, shot dead, was iceskating on a sandbank,
And a curly haired blonde boy with deep black hair was sitting on a blue chest, which was painted in red.

WW139 Nao

Nao came back to visit us AGAIN (third time) and it was wonderful-now we are waiting for the 4th time????????? Nao might have weeded the garden she made the time before. Now it has a fence and windbreak around the rabbits aren't getting in. The grasses have really come away this spring. In autumn I will split them and double the number.

WW138 Shani 2009 20 Sep-9 October

Shani stayed for 10 lovely days and helped out with a variety of jobs-probably including weeding ( we have lost our wwoofer log so things are a bit hazy-and we lost our camera so hlease send us a photo.)