WWOOF!

Delicious smoothies

Wow. We are diiiiiirty. And tired. And our shoes are covered in cow poop. Man. We are WWOOFing!

For all of us laypeople, WWOOF stands for "Willing Workers On Organic Farms".

We had been touring through the New Zealand winter for two weeks when it dawned on us (actually we were cramped into our spaceship for the third consecutive night, in the freezing rain, with the bathroom a hundred yards away) that we could be doing something much more rewarding than just eating pies and drinking flat whites.

Suddenly, though a series of coincidences, we acquired the WWOOFing handbook and began calling organic farmers to see if they needed help.

The exchange of WWOOFing is: We work for 4-6 hours, and the farmer provides all meals and lodging. Sweet, especially because we couldn't find anywhere to park our spaceship for under $25 per night, and $15 eggs benedict breakfasts were quickly beginning to break the bank.

So here we are. It is truly beautiful here, we are in a secluded valley, surrounded by tree-covered mountains which create a microclimate that is misty and cool in the mornings and evenings, perfectly sunny in the day, and brackishly, fiendishly cold at night. But the stars are the best we've ever seen. Really.

I am using the farmer's computer, so I will have to make this brief. For now, just imagine us looking really dirty and awesome, in a fantastically beautiful farm setting.

Our main job at the moment is pruning kiwi fruit vines. That is so awesome! As they say, "When in New Zealand, prune kiwis." I think that's a saying. Anyway, don't quote me.

We are way out in the sticks; it is 15 minutes to the next town, down a series of windy mountain roads.

This work has been extremely grueling, and we have thought "what the hell did we do this for?" many times, but after our 5th day, we feel fantastic. We are so truly hardcore that it is hard for me to type any longer. I just want to rake something and use a dangerous tool.

OK. Back to making organic dinner from scratch to feed our new farmer family. We'll write more in a couple days, and promise to get some photos, and if you're lucky, a movie.

Love
Dan&Kim

PS. In Nelson is the shop where "The One Ring To Rule Them All" was made for the Lord of the Rings movies. The man, Jens, has died, but his son's name is Halfdan. Isn't that wierd? Anyway, I had him make me a ring. A "promise" ring. So I've got a sweet silver band now and it makes me look married. But really, I just have the power of the one ring. Which makes me awesome; AND I get Kim. Nice!

About the black water rafting: its rafting through pitch dark caves. . . but we didn't do it. We went straight to Jeremy's place.

mad hands posted on 2010-01-30 at 1:59 pm

With pleasure!

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MARK posted on 2008-01-14 at 7:26 am

Thanks for the card sissy, it was great to hear from you! Hope your holidays were great for you both, I dont see how they could have not been. I love you and miss you,Jesse says hi. Take care of yourselves and be safe. Peace out! um-kay!

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e-dad posted on 2007-09-02 at 12:10 pm

Hello my lovelies, Next week I will be attending Aaron Russo's memorial. Thursday evening (9/6/07)will be a gathering of family and close friends, Friday will be a public event at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip. I am looking forward to connecting to and reminiscing with my long lost cousins about our lives and those family members we lost. I am also excited about the possibility of meeting a famous person, although I fear being tongue-tied if I do. Love you both, Dad (e-dad)

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katerina posted on 2007-08-26 at 10:57 pm

awww! i hadn't watched the video....you DO get to wear a fancy blue worksuit....nice!

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stewy posted on 2007-08-25 at 3:03 pm

what up braha!i really dig the pictures from hell.have fun kickin it around the world.

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Auntie posted on 2007-08-25 at 2:11 pm

Whew!! I was beginning to wonder where you were. I was going through withdrawals and needed a Danberly fix, and lo and behold as I was thinking about Danberly strongly last eve, I logged on to my email to discover the path to the realm of your latest adventure. How fun!! I didn't know Kiwi grew on vines like grapes!! Do they make kiwi wine? Jeremy must be single, didn't see a Mrs. Jeremy. What beautiful country. No central heating tho, huh!! Sounds like some of the adventures I experienced in my early days. You guys look like you are having the time of your life. It will be fun to see how you explain WWOOFING to young ones. Thank you, once again, for taking the time to put together a synopsis of your travels and include pictures, music and video. I enjoy every read and am a true picture nut. Love it, love you both. Kio tsukete until next time. Mata ne.

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katerina posted on 2007-08-24 at 7:21 pm

where's your fancy blue worksuit, kim?

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rus posted on 2007-08-24 at 10:18 am

your videos are really great and each one adds some new level to create a story, i especially liked that kim talked in this one. what music was that in the beginning. i enjoyed it very much. (sidenote to dan: i'm really glad to see how happy you are) sidenote to the world: if you get a chance to see it. my favorite part of lord of the rings is when the "Nine" are having their meeting and the one 'man' says "we should use the ring against mordor" and vigo mortenson loses his accent or something and says "we canaught. iz too powwurfull, wee canaught wheeled it" if you get a chance to see it.

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James Burgin posted on 2007-08-23 at 9:37 pm

It seems you guys are becoming acclimated to non-US climes already! I mean talking about eating pies and drinking flat whites - how are your American roots rellos expected to understand the Kiwi and Oz lingo?

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Your lovely cousin ;) posted on 2007-08-23 at 8:24 pm

You two are goofballs!! ;) but I love ya!!

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David posted on 2007-08-21 at 12:00 pm

Ahh yes, real WWOORK. Could this be the next career change? Are you going to WWOOF in the vineyards next?

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Nash! posted on 2007-08-21 at 11:20 am

i'm glad you two finally know what its like to work for a living amongst sheep herders and cow feces. do they have laws against outsiders working in NZ? are there minutemen waiting at the borders in lawn chairs with beer coozies?!?! i must know!

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katerina posted on 2007-08-19 at 10:48 pm

will it get boring if i just keep telling you how much i LOVE danberly and the magic it brings me here in the "heavenly hot" desert? and i love that you're wwoofing! you guys are rad.....except for the part where you make fun of people's names...you guys are mean

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Nona,Poppi,Mom & Dad posted on 2007-08-19 at 6:05 pm

Hi you poopy two (Halfdan and Halfkim): We all missed you at Gavin's 2 year old birthday party. We all just got back and are enjoying reading about your trip. Following are off the cuff comments from us sitting and thinking about you:Mom: awesome, wish I was there with you; can't wait for your return so you can work on our garden; Dad:it's heavenly hot here in Scottsdale(mom's neurolinguistic editing job, hell is out);Poppi: as good a time as we had visiting it would be even better if you were here, you were missed!; Nona:the video of you riding the bicycles was adorable, loved the dog chase! I can't wait to see the knee deep in poop pictures...We love you XOXOXOX!

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