Thursday, October 11, 2012
Leaving Early
So things on this farm are not at all what I expected, hoped for, nor want to spend more time in. The last farm was truly an amazing experience and I am actually returning to that farm tomorrow, rather than staying here my intended 2 weeks.
Nothing traumatic happened, but there are multitudes of problems from not enough hot water for all of us to shower, to the farmer being a lazy control fiend. At first I thought he was just eccentric, but after 3 days and discussing with a woman who has worked with him for 2 years, I'm realizing that this is not a situation I want to be in any more.
He'll tell us what to do and then spend most of the day on his computer on Facebook, or driving around on this new tractor he bought, but not really accomplishing anything. His house is filthy and lacks a lot of the basic equipment needed to improve the situation. His fields and polytunnels are utter chaos, full of weeds and rotting vegetables and that is incredibly disappointing and frustrating to see. This is not the sort of organic farm I imagined contributing to. He also seems to have a rather strong chauvinisitc, patronizing side, and severely mistreats and abuses his dogs (I just found out he keeps one of his old dogs locked in a shed all the time rather than euthanize her, and she's so weak now she can't walk and lays in her own urine and feces all day - it's so awful!!!!!!) I don't know what to do about it here myself, but plan to call some sort of animal humane services when I am gone. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know.
The upside is that I got to meet two other great girls that are currently WWOOFing here as well (we are all leaving tomorrow, ahead of our scheduled departure times, and I'm hoping this will be a wake-up call for him to make some fundamental changes). I'm also very excited to be returning to my first farm to see Frank and Azu again.
And a quick up to the minute update (I refrained from posting this last night with the paranoia that he would randomly find it online before we left). I am now well arrived back at Elmhurst with Frank and Azu. It's so wonderful to be back! Before leaving today, I tried explaining to Paddy why I was leaving early, but he wanted to hear none of it. I plan to post an honest review of his place on the WWOOF website, and hope it helps others avoid a similar situation. Now on to bigger and better things!
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