Last Sunday we hired a car and drove from San Diego to just
outside of Sacramento where our host, Alice, picked us up. She took us straight to the Apple Hill region and to the beer garden down the road from where they live (yes they grow apples as well as grapes and Christmas Trees).
The family had been out all day and gathered there. We then went to their house where we sat
around the fire and ate pizza – we were enjoying this ‘workaway’ experience so
far!
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| Garden Cottage Where We Are Sleeping |
When we applied we had thought it would
just be us but there are 3 other ‘workawayers’. A German couple in their late thirties who are
in a room in the house, a young guy from the UK who is in a caravan in the
garden and we are assigned a very cute cottage that has been converted from a
storage area. The only drawback is a
shared bathroom in the main house (especially for the loo run in the middle of
the night) but we just pretend we are camping and it is fine. The garden is several acres and absolutely
beautiful although they have been doing a lot of work on house and garden since
they moved in 3 years ago and there is still quite a bit to do.
The deal is that we are supposed to work half days and have afternoons
and weekends off in exchange for food and accommodation. Bob & Alice our hosts have been extremely
generous with the meals they have provided and throwing in cold drinks (or
sodas as they call them) and even wine.
We have worked well with the other workawayers and in the past week have
completed the following:
ü Weeding and house cleaning
ü Catalogued and cleaned Bob’s vinyl records
ü Replaced their garden lighting system
ü Removed tree stumps
ü Planted loads of flowers and shrubs
ü Fixed the mesh fence on the chicken coop
ü Glued some kitchen tiles back into place
ü Collected an old stove stored in a barn
a few towns away
Anthony and I have also spent some time working on a template for
Alice to manage all the tasks she wants the workawayers to do and populating
it. (No surprises there).
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| Picture of Larsens Apple Barn With Storm Brewing - Taken On A Local Walk |
Friday night we went with the family to a nearby winery for a
picnic, wine and live music but unfortunately we got rained out before the
music started so we came home and had an impromptu party there.
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| Alice With Baby Blue Jay |
One other exciting thing that happened this week was we had a baby
Blue Jay fly into the garage. Alice got a stick and tried to shoo it away
and it climbed onto it. We took a photo
and then even managed to hand over the stick to Jean for another photo before it
flew off – hopefully to a safe place away from the cat, Primrose, who is a keen
hunter!
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| Baby Blue Jay |
Note On The Area:
Apple Hill is the trademarked name of the Apple Hill Growers
Association, and refers to the 55 ranches located in the Sierra Mountain foothills in El Dorado County, California, in and around the community of Camino. Since its formation in the 1960s, Apple Hill
has become California's largest concentration of apple growers as well as a
significant tourist destination noted for its rural ambiance, apple products including pies and cider, and other produce and attractions
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