Hi- we are a small herb farm in NW Arkansas.

We've been wwoof hosts now for about 3 years and had about 150 wwoofers and help x volunteers come through -from all over the world. I wanted to brag about both programs!

The volunteers have been willing, interested and Interesting, a real asset.

Of all those folks we have only had 3 negative experiences.

One young man didn't believe me when I said "Primitive" -he turnrd tail and left-zooommm!

One problem was a couple that were having quarrels a lot and did not keep them out of our home.

The third were some great helpers who were shocked when we killed of an animal that had hurt people. In farm life , you don't pass that kind of problem , by giving it to someone else that might get hurt-that's not being responsible. We are loving and kind to all our animals -use genlte trasing methods etc. This animal was one we had inheritied-from someone who didn't set behavior boundaries for their animals.

I was sad to see her go and hope she can live a life where she doesn't have to cope with these things, but life is real..

Part of volunteering is learning to be flexible AND if something doesn't work out being able to accept it and move on.

A really funny expeience was on youngster who was REALLY a city boy-what sticks in my head is realising he had never used a non-electric can-openner before -I had to teach him how to operate a hand can openr. How funny , but he enjoyed being here so much and it gave me a new sense of wonder , seeing things through his eyes.I love our life and see it aas unique and special, but it is always good to have that re-newed!


Our WWOOF-ers have been an absolutely fabulous group- living in tents, sharing their stories, and all the other good things that happen when you are open to new experiences. I HIGHLY recommend the program tto both hosts and volunteers. It will change your life.

Nene

I think helpx is great, too. here is the addy. The caretaker network folks have the link on their free links page (boy is that hard to find, I crown myself a master net surfer for finding it at the bottom of the cool links page...thank you, thank you [applause in the background]thank you very much!)

http://helpx.net/

Thanks Sally for pointing out the free links page. I really think there are some great postings on it (like Helpx -- which is a fantastic site). The link for the page IS hidden, unintentionally, at the very end of the cool links page.

Webbie