Well bloody hell!!! Thank god this was not my first experience of woofing as I wouldn't be doing this again!!!

So as I said before, I arrived at the farm at 2pm after driving since 9am that morning and instantly the place didnt look like the pictures, I thought I was in the wrong place but there was a sign stating it was the farm. I couldn't see anyone, so I knock on the door and the owners were there to show me around.

Well instantly they started arguing infront of me, making me feel extremely uncomfortable from the start, it was so awkward and they were horrible to each other. She carried a parrot around on her shoulder the entire time and it kept making the most god awful noise that would pierce my ear drums! s***, what had I gotten myself in for! I was given myself enough time to get my bags in my trailer that I was staying in behind the house and then I was taken to the barn which is a massive workshop which is cooled like a fridge to keep all the produce fresh! So they got my working straight away!

The work here was good though, I enjoyed it and as my friends and family will know, I love to garden and grow my own vegetables and it was like that but on a larger scale. We would spend our days digging up all types of vegetables and greens, trimming them, washing them and then bagging them for market. It was hard work but the time flew by as there was so much to do.

So originally the website for this farm said you are to work 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, anything you do over this time is voluntary. Makes me laugh, as all of it is voluntary, I don't get paid, my payment is food and accomadation. So another guy tried to finish after his 6 hours, but oh no, that's not how it works, if they are busy, you have to carry on working! Which I wouldnt mind if they were not so bloody rude about it. Nothing we did was good enough, they just wanted more and more from us and there was never any gratitude from them. The atmosphere around them was horrible and everyone was stressed whenever they were about, they were patronising and ungrateful. On some days I was 10 hours, the food was sparse in the mornings and evenings, lunch was a big meal but would normally turn up after 2pm and so sometimes I had gone 8 hours without eating anything, a snack was eventually provided in the second week around midday as people were just flaking out, it was too much! We were not allowed in the house much before breakfast and had to be out of the house by 9pm, so use of the internet was sparse and it was a terrible connection, luckily I had the car to escape so I would alot of nights just to go and grab a cup of tea and use wifi! Rant over!!

I however did meet some lovely people on the farm, the other woofers there were in the same boat as me and I also made friends with a lovely person called Kali. She was my saviour and brought sanity to the madness and was a joy to be around, she adopted me while here and made sure I was looked after. She lived in Edmonton so I would go to hers and her lovely boyfriends, Skyler's, apartment in the evening or weekend. She showed me around Edmonton, Edmonton market and we went to the muttard, which was these pyramids with different biomes in them, tropical, arid etc, it was lovely. We went to the cinema for my birthday and had movie nights as well. She got me some gifts for when I left, a tigers eye necklace to keep me safe, a toy dog to guard me on my travels, plus some other very useful things, it was so nice and made me cry, the only thing that makes me sad about leaving the farm is leaving Kali there as well, but I wish her well in all her ventures and if she ever needs to get away she can come join me on my travels.

I also went to West Edmondton mall which was one of the biggest mall's in the world, it has a swimming pool, theme park, sea lion shows, ice rink, plus hundreds of shops and resturants. I spent a whole day there and then went to the cinema in the evening as well.

The farm was not too far from a city called Leduc, about 15km away, this was where the nearest shops were and I spent a lot of time going here in the evenings as well to get away from the farm, went to the recreation centre swimming one day as it was free and just enjoyed the jacuzzi to help with the back muscles after hours of bending over and picking beans!!!!

Alberta is a very flat province and is not as eye pleasing as BC, but its nice in its own way, it's like Norfolk with how you can see for miles over farms. It's a richer province due to all the oil here and that is what most of the businesses around here are about as well, oil! It makes the petrol cheap here but there isn't that much to do.

So I had originally thought about spending a month here, but that just isnt going to work, mainly the atmosphere here at the farm and how I dont feel welcome and also there isn't much here to see.

So I have another week road trip ahead of me and another woofing place near Toronto, its about a 3500km drive so no doubt be plenty of stories for you to read!!

So I know I sounded a little down on facebook the other day, but I've made the most out of my time here, met some great people as well and just going to put it down to another random experience on my travels and move on!