Old McDonald Had a Farm

...And from Ken and Shirley's to Jeff and Rachel's.

Jeff and Rachel had a lovely home on several acres, next door to Claire and Jan. Being in an area named McDonald, they had named their farm, aptly, McDonald Farm. And on this farm, they had a dozen chickens (ee-i-ee-i-o). And, having a dozen chickens, they received approximately a dozen fresh eggs daily--the difference between fresh, home-laid eggs is, as Shirley said, "day and night".

The coop that Jeff built

Good morning, ladies!

 And on this farm they had some WWOOFers. We planted corn, butternut squash, peas, beans, leeks, cucumber, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and oooooodles of kale (here a kale, there a kale...).

Rachel and Jeff had a delightfully polite and generous three-year-old son, who rechristened us "Those Guys". After several days, we found ourselves responding only to "Hey, Those Guys!" So, in addition to planting and weeding and tending to the kitchen garden, we spent a good deal of our time fingerpainting, making playdough people, and reading Franklin and Berenstain Bears stories. It is possible that we were more enthralled by these activities (especially Berenstain Bears, just as entertaining as we remembered) than our preschooler accomplice was.

Apparently, our overall dexterity has improved since we last did this.

Our home from the 9th of June to the 17th

On our second or third day, we bonded with our toddler friend over music. He had seen us carrying our guitars in from the van to the cottage on the day we arrived, and tentatively asked if we'd play for him. We obliged, whipping out the hits: "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain", "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", and, clearly, "Old McDonald Had a Farm". Our avid listener responded with equal enthusiasm. He cracked out a host of dance moves, tucking his arms into his armpits and flapping his elbows like a bird or a rollicking aircraft. "Play more and more and more forever!" he instructed us, before turning to Rachel and inquiring, incredulous, "How do they know all these songs?!" Halfway through a third chorus of "Yellow Submarine", he announced "Enough!", and departed the concert. A lot of people probably feel that way about "Yellow Submarine".

But we've neglected to mention Taiga, Rachel and Jeff's loyal and fragrant Golden Retriever. Taiga slept on our the front porch of our cottage, valiantly defending us from intruding raccoons.

We had a wonderful time WWOOFing, learned a great many things, and met some incredible people. Leaving Jeff and Rachel's on the 17th signaled the end of our stay on Gabriola, a tiny Gulf Island we had only intended to stay on for 10 days, originally... 

Next up: this mystery animal and more!

The Quest Quotient by Nancy Howie and Steff Werman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at thequestquotient2011.blogspot.com.