Alaska
by Stephen Sexton
WOOF – it’s not the sound of a dog barking, but the acronym for a hot new option for working holidays that more long-term travelers are turning to in these dire economic times.
World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms is a website that matches farmers with willing workers. The farmers receive free help around their property, while the “woofers” get a free bed and meals (usually healthy organic food), a unique experience, and if they’re lucky, a primer in small-scale organic farming practices.
Woofing has been around since the mid ’90s and but is only now taking off in a big way. That has much to do with the state of the global economy – more people are looking for a cheap way to travel, and the worldwide recession and the belt-tightening that has gone along with it has prompted many young people to look at different ways of living and consuming. In other words, not to rely on anybody for the basics in life, like food and energy. After all, if the global economy eventually collapses, as some more pessimistic woofers predict, then self-sufficient living will be the future for us all. Even if you don’t share that gloomy view, you may still love the woofing experience for other reasons. The chance to get back to nature and breathe some fresh air is a big draw from many work-weary city dwellers.
I recently returned from a summer of woofing around Alaska and can vouch for the spiritual aspects of farming. Feeding chickens and pigs can be a messy and tiring business, when you see those animals eye’s light up at the sight of you “it makes you feel good for some reason” one fellow woofer recounted to me.
“Getting all dirty is actually pretty fun… it makes you feel like you’ve earned a good night’s rest. You just don’t get that same feeling of satisfaction at the end of a day from office work,” said another.
The chance to see the world and spend very little money while you’re doing it is probably the main reason people choose to woof. As well, you meet the locals and learn about the local area far better than you can by staying in hotels and doing package tours.
I stayed on three different farms over the course of my summer, and each revealed some of the advantages and pitfalls of the business.
The first was a totally “off grid” farm, several hours out of Anchorage which is the largest city in Alaska. Electricity was provided by solar panels and a generator, while water had to be hauled from a nearby natural spring. It was an ideal place for learning true organic farming practices, and the couple who owned the place were only too happy to answer all my questions. They had about 25 goats (many of which were milked twice a day), four sheep, one pig, about 90 chickens, five turkeys, three old Alaskan Husky sled dogs and an organic vegetable garden. I found working with goats surprisingly enjoyable, as they have their own individual personalities and are somewhat dog-like in that they answer to their name and even enjoy being petted.
While the rustic setting was attractive, the ultra-basic facilities were the things that made me leave in the end. I was housed in an authentic Alaskan log cabin about a mile away from the owners’ cabin, and had no washing facilities after a long day of shoveling goat poop and the like. There is only so much bathing in a freezing creek one can do before it gets old, so after three weeks I moved on, though not before they took me on a ride in their bush plane across the Chugach mountain range and over the sparkling blue Prince William Sound.
The next location was a heli-ski lodge in Valdez. It sounds glamorous on paper, but the reality was a little different. I was given jobs like entering credit card transactions into accounting software and cleaning out the garage. The owner was a single girl taking advantage of an opportunity for some free male help around the house, rather than providing a true organic farming experience. In fact the place did not produce a single edible plant nor own any livestock. That taught me how important it is to learn as much as possible about the situation you’re walking into before you arrive at the doorstep. Suffice to say I did not last long in this job.
The third and last woofing destination was with a couple who owned both a small 2.5 acre farm in the city of Anchorage itself, as well as a 20 acre farm in Homer, a beautiful town on the sea about four hours away. Bill and Judy were unbelievably good to me, and really helped me enjoy my time in Alaska. They were very interesting people, being ex-hippies while Bill was a Vietnam war veteran and an outspoken anti-war and Green Party spokesman.
The usual woofing guideline is that a woofer will work for about 25 hours a week in return for food and accommodation. However Bill and Judy certainly didn’t make me work that long, and they also provided amazing Alaskan meals every night, including locally caught King Salmon that would be worth at least $50 a plate at a restaurant in my native New York.
Woofing is not just in America – it is a truly worldwide organization. Go to the main woofing website: www.wwoof.org and click on the geographical area you want to travel in. A modest joining fee gives you access to the directory of farms for a particular country, and then the would-be woofer must contact each farm themselves to arrange a stay. It’s important to keep in mind that the arrangement you make with a farm is privately negotiated and could take many different forms. The general rule of thumb of 25 hours of work each week is negotiable and only a guideline. And facilities vary widely – some farms will offer only a tent, while others will have much more comfortable accommodation.
With a bit of good luck in finding the right farm, woofing can be a great experience, even for the most hardened of city slickers.
Private Tour: Anchorage 3-Hour Tour
If You Go:
Keep in mind that the best of Alaska is often away from the well worn highways between Seward, the port where the cruise ships berth, and Denali National Park to the north. Between these two points is where the majority of fellow tourists can be found but the best of Alaska is far off the beaten track, including the counter culture capital of Alaska, Homer, situated on the water at the far end of the Kenai Peninsula.
Also, you can find the highest concentration of big mountains in North America in the remote yet stunningly beautiful Wrangell St Elias National Park, located about eight hours east of Anchorage near the border with Canada. The town to go to here is called McCarthy (population 30), located in the middle of the national park and connected to the outside world by a very rough dirt road (no rental cars allowed).
Other highlights are the 26 Glaciers boat cruise around the spectacular Prince William Sound (www.26glaciers.com), which leaves from the port town of Whittier, and the Denali Highway, another dusty gravel road that goes through some very remote but beautifully scenic country east of Denali National Park.
As mentioned in the article, if you wish to WWOOF, then you will need to go to the www.wwoof.org website to find out more.
About the author:
Steve Sexton is a freelance travel writer currently based in New York City. He is originally from Australia but has spent the past six years exploring his new country after winning the “green card lottery,” an immigration program run by the US government that grants permanent residency through a random draw (much to the amazement of many Americans).
Photo credits:
All photographs are by Steve Sexton.
Stop by the Abbott Magic Shop off Colon’s main street any time of year for a $5 coloring book that colors itself, or a magic wand for a Harry Potter wannabe – Abbott sells over 25 different models ranging from $8 to $150 as well as illusions that costing thousands of dollars. On Saturday afternoons during the summer the Abbott Magic Shop presents live shows in its 50-seat theatre.
Hank Moorehouse, an award-winning magician, travels the world evaluating magic acts, inviting the best magicians to perform in Colon, Michigan. This year’s line up includes, among others, Yumi, Japan’s favorite female magician and Kerry Pollack who Teller of Penn & Teller calls “One of the most powerful and charming performers I know”. Hank, a perennial favorite of magicians and magic fanatics, will perform his hilarious version of Houdini’s famous straitjacket escape.
The entire town celebrates its heritage during the festival. Churches and civic groups host fundraising dinners and Tammy Johnson serves up dishes of Blue Moon ice cream and bowls of Buckshot Chili at her retro-café. The Chamber of Commerce provides an evening fireworks show. The library sells gently used books collected during the year at the annual arts and crafts fair.
The museum holds some three hundred objects relating to the raid; one such item is the Stebbins (one of the residents of the settlement) family door, which bears the Indian ax marks left by the invading force. The museum also has on display an early edition of the memoir of Reverend Williams, who survived the raid and the ensuing three-hundred-mile march through heavy snow to Quebec. He eventually returned to Deerfield and wrote 
, where he described the ordeal on the march to Quebec, the murder of two of his children, and his final redemption for him and his family (wife and remaining five children).
We began our royal weekend celebration with high tea at the historic James Bay Tea Room. To commemorate the wedding of H.R.H. Prince William and Miss Kate Middleton, there was a special tea service with traditional goodies such as cucumber and cream cheese finger sandwiches, homemade scones with fresh clotted cream and strawberry jam, fresh strawberry cup with orange liquor and assorted petit fours. Of course, complete with a big pot of English tea!
This quaint little tea house, tucked on a back street behind the Provincial Parliament Buildings, is a turn-of-the-century house, built in 1907 as a family home. It was transformed into this charming restaurant/tea room in the 1980s and is a popular spot for tourists to experience a real British style afternoon tea. It was a perfect place to celebrate the wedding, surrounded by royalty memorabilia with pictures of the royal family covering every inch of the walls, 
Robert Pim Butchart began as a cement manufacturer in Ontario and by the turn of the century had become a successful pioneer in this industry. He was lured to the West Coast of Canada because of the rich limestone deposits vital for cement production, and built a factory at Tod Inlet on Vancouver Island. His family established their home there and as the limestone in the quarry became exhausted, his wife Jennie conceived the idea for refurbishing the quarry into a beautiful garden in the style of the grand estates of the period.
The limestone quarry was transformed into the magnificent Sunken Garden. Mrs Butchart planned the landscaping of the property, transforming it into a garden that covers 22 ha (55 acres) of greenery, woodlands, flower gardens and horticultural displays. Mr. Butchart collected ornamental birds from all over the world including peacocks and ducks and built many elaborate birdhouses through the gardens.
The Butchart’s love of Italy is evident in the lovely Italian Garden, located beside their house. Their tradition of collecting unusual objects when traveling is displayed with the Fountain of the Three Sturgeons, and the big bronze boar near the entrance of the Gardens, both from Florence Italy. A newer acquisition is the Rose Carousel, crafted by Brass Ring Entertainment of Sun Valley, California. It’s the only carousel on Vancouver Island and is a wonderful menagerie of thirty animals ranging from bears, horses, ostriches, zebras and mirrors. The designs were chosen by Robin Clarke, the Garden’s present owner and great granddaughter of Jennie Butchart.
Founded in the 1880s by Dirty Dan Harris as he was known because of his somewhat less then scrupulous dealings, we only discovered this charming town a few years ago. Since then we have returned on numerous occasions. Fairhaven Village is an easy day trip from anywhere in Metro Vancouver by car or from Vancouver by train. If you are traveling from Victoria B.C. this historic town is a three-hour Washington State passenger ferry ride away.
Often we go to Fairhaven for the day but on this occasion we decided to overnight at our favorite boutique hotel and spa. “Welcome back.” We step through the front door of our hotel and the front desk clerk greets us. A sense of calm washes over me. Something about this hotel makes me want to curl up on one of the oversized couches in front of the fireplace with a good book and veg out. We joke that they must be pumping something intoxicating through the venting.
The fishing industry in this part of the west coast was at it’s peak in the early 1900s and remnants are visible all along Bellingham Bay. Reminders such as pylons that once supported a cannery jut out of the bay at low tide. The remains of a workshop its metal siding rusted by years of neglect and exposure to the weather sit precariously on the banks edge. It’s not difficult to imagine the sights, sounds and smells have long gone fishers off loading their catch where it would be readied for the market.
While Fairhaven has seen a bit of a building boom the old town flavour is evident everywhere. There are a few newer buildings but most brick or sandstone structures are from the late 1800‘s through the early 1900‘s. The Terminal building is the oldest still standing and since it was built in 1888 has housed everything from a grocery store to a saloon. Next door to it is a steak house that bears the name of the town’s founder.
