Chapter I: Wwoofing in McDonald Ranch

A new wwoofer arrives to McDonald Ranch. The wwoofer is the person who helps in a farm or similar and the host brings accommodation and food to the woofer. The name is for the organization WWOOF (World Wide Organization of Organic Farms). I used another organization about this kind of volunteer jobs, HELPX (Help Exchange). Is a good way for to travel saving money, meeting people from around the world and from the country where you are traveling and their lifestyle.

I’m lucky to meet a lot of nice people in McDonald Ranch. The owners, Linda and Richard, they are very kind people and the ranch is a non-profit organization that take care of homeless animals, and teach children about the wildlife and horse riding. Linda B is working on the ranch as well, she lives in front of the kitchen, in a small house with Gipsy, the dog, and some cats. Robert is the Linda’s son and he lives with Alexa in downstairs. 

The animals

The ranch is ‘‘a sanctuary for the animals and a university for the children’’. In here there are a lot of animals and the woofers take care of them. Up the hill are the 12 horses, 4 ponies and 2 goats. The lower animals are closed to the house; there are chickens, ducks, 2 goats, rabbits, dogs and cats, a lot of cats. Richard says that there are 60 cats and actually there are a lot of them. There are 4 dogs in the house and one more in the Linda B’s house, one of the dogs have only 3 legs and one eye, her name is Cassidy and she stay always with Linda.

The horses are very tame and smart; they know their box in the stable, we open the gates and they go by their self to their own box. It’s surprising! The horses names are Pilot, Star, Sundance, Romey, Pepsi, Naja, Torez, Zippy, Prince, Sunny and the big horses, Brandy and Down. Romey is the oldest horse, she is 29 years old, incredible!

Another animal who lives around here, but not in the ranch is the ''mountain lion'', ''puma'' in Europe. I haven't seen anyone yet, but Richard saw one in the road last week. There are dears also, I've seen them two or three times.

With the woofers

When I arrived there were other woofers in the ranch. Young is the Korean boy, he left the ranch my first Monday. Matt and Alisha are from New Zeland, I think they left the next Wednesday. Leah is from Seattle and Faye is from Quebec, they stayed more time and they left on my third week as Ulla, she is from Denmark and she arrived two days later than me. Emilien arrived the same day than Alisha and Matt left, he is from France and we are leaving the same day and together, we are going to rent a car and make a road travel around California. Chris is another woofer who arrived and he left two or three days later, he was not able to work in the Ranch and was very hard for Linda to say him it. The last woofer is Toby, he is from England and he arrived in October 16th, the Emilien’s birthday.

I am having very good and fun moments with the wwoofers, we learn about the others and we meet things from many places. We cook for all, one they cook someone and the next day other one, it’s funny and exiting. Ulla cooks very good bread and cakes, and Emilien and I learned how to cook and after Ulla left, we cook the bread and the cakes… mmmm! Thank you Ulla!! The Emilien’s French vinaigrette is very good with the salad and he put species in everywhere. Leah put Ketchup everywhere, and she cooked good cookies, she is vegetarian, but she is one or two levels under Faye. Faye is vegetarian and she cooked a vegetarian ‘pati xinoa’ with lentils instead of meat, she is crazy!!!! Where is the meat???  But the ‘pati xinoa’ was very good, surprising. My principal contribution about food is the ‘truita de patates’, all the people like it so much and I taught to cook it to them.

The kitchen is the place where we spent more time together, cooking very good food and also playing guitar and singing in the nights, very nice moments. Ulla plays the Leah’s guitar and all together we sing a lot of songs. Leah has a very good voice for singing and play the very better than me, many afternoons she plays in his room a weird song about the bathroom and I don’t know what else… 

In the kitchen we have the radio and we are always listening 92.9, a radio station from Santa Rosa that always play the sames country songs! It's funny and we are learning the songs.



In the pictures, Emilien and me cooking the Ulla Cake and Ulla Bread in our own way.

The first Saturday we had a play date and we go to an arena in Santa Rosa with some of the horses and children and the woofers participated in the play game ridding horses. It was very exiting and I won a fourth place ribbon on the big T, oh yeah… the Catalan cowboy rides so good!!! Leah is a very good rider too, better than me and she trains the horses and gives ridding lessons to the children. She won three ribbons in the play game.

The children are very nice, they know a lot about horses and Linda gives them lessons two or three times a week. Dana is the older, she is 13 or 14 and she is the leader, she rides very well and she also teaches the other girls and helps Linda.

The second Saturday we went to the Jesus camp ‘The Morton’s’ a very nice place, with a swimming pool and a very good place for ridding. We built a corral for the horses and spent the night under the stars beside the horses and a creek, with the children. We made a bonfire and Ulla made bread for all of us. We cooked the bread on the bonfire and put chocolate, hot dogs, and other things. When was dark, Ulla played the guitar and all the children and woofers were singing around the bonfire for many time. It was a very nice night. To sleep on the ground is not very comfortable but it was just one night and it wasn’t so bad.

Artesa Winery

Usually, we work four days on the ranch and we have 3 days off. On our days of we go to the town, Santa Rosa, or other places. Casually, closed to Santa Rosa, in Napa Valley, there is a winery that is propriety of the Catalan company Codorniu, his name is Artesa Winery, and it is one of the best wineries from Napa Valley. In one of our days off Faye, Leah, Emilien and I went to visit the winery. We went to Santa Helena in hitch-hiking and after we take the bus to Napa. I thought we can go walking from Napa to the winery, but it was impossible and I called to the winery and Rhona came to pick up us. When we arrived to the winery was amazing, the building is into the hill, the entrance is so beautiful and the view is spectacular, you can see the entire valley and sometimes the sea. We did a tour in the winery and later we tasted wines, but Leah couldn’t drink wine because she is 18. Then we finished the visit going to the shop. Faye bought a bottle and Emilien bought two boxes for to send to his family and friends. All of us liked so much the winery and we were surprised by the place and the views.

Redwood N.P. and Highway 1

The Avenue Of  Giants

View from Highway 1

View from Highway 1

Leah has already left the ranch and Faye and Ulla are the next. To profit our days off we decide to go to the Redwood National Park, which is around 5 hours driving from Santa Rosa. Emilien, Faye and I went to rent a car on Sunday but we arrived too late and the office was closed. But Monday morning we wake up earlier and Richard drive us to the office. We rent a car and start the road travel to north. We take the highway 101 until Cloverdale and then we go to the coast to take the highway 1, a beautiful road with amazing views to the ocean. We stop many times to take pictures; we stop in Trinidad, the Richard’s town, it is a small town with only 400 population, and is very nice.

When we arrive to the Redwood Park, we take again the 101 across the forest, and we can see huge trees during hours, we drive thru tree at the beginning of the park; the tree is really huge and has a hole where the cars can drive. Then we go to the visitor center and after we make a walk in the forest among the biggest trees of the world, really amazing. Later we continue driving some miles to north, while we are driving I say: ‘a the morning maybe we can see elks’, and suddenly we see elks at the left of the road. After that we drive back to south and we take the ‘Avenue of the Giants’, an incredible road across the forest, among very huge redwoods. The experience has been short (just one day) but surprising and spectacular. Is dark and we stop again in Trinidad, we buy something for dinner and some beers and we go to the beach, we eat and drink some beers under the moonlight and we can listen seals singing or screaming closed to the coast. Past 1 or 2 hours, the sheriff is coming and we have to go, we can’t park on the beach at night. Then we go to a small campsite and sleep in the car. At next day morning we come back to the ranch and Faye and Ulla leave at the afternoon.

Now only left two woofers, Emilien and I, but soon arrive Toby, and we spent the last week working, with just one day off for to go to the town because there is a lot of work on the ranch and we don’t have anything else to do. We enjoy cooking delicious food and watching a good movie every night. With the girls we watched the entire StarWars saga, the three first movies, the oldest, were in the ranch and we rented the episodes II, I and III. The DVD player doesn’t works very good and we have some problems with the DVD movies, but we can watch all the movies if we don’t fall sleep. Once, the DVD player wasn’t working and the led screen said ‘bad’ and was very funny, Robert lend us his PlayStation and we could watch Prince of Persia.

This is USA

Living in California, I am learning a lot about USA, the culture, the lifestyle and a lot of things. 

I am surprised because all the cars I have seen has automatic transmission; yes, it’s easier to drive, but is boring and all the cars are automatics. In the ranch there is the ‘Beast’, an old and huge Ford pick up, it’s maybe 20 or 30 years old and is automatic! it’s crazy! This is America!

Another interesting thing about the cars is that almost all the cars are good cars, news and expensive, a lot of RV's, mustang, cadillac... bfffff. And many beetles as well!!

One thing that is not surprising is how the american people eat! They put ketchup and butter in everything, they love ice-cream and mash-mellows, the peanut butter mmmm!!! it's amazing, I tasted it by the first time here in McDonald Ranch, was a funny moment, and Leah was very surprised because I never ate it before! The bread is not like the bread in Catalonia and there isn't llonganissa or pernil or fuet, ooh yes! I miss that!!

The cheapest transportation in USA is hitch-hiking! The american roads are very good for the hitch-hikers. In the city is difficult to find a ride, but in the hills or away from the town the people pick up you easily, in 15 minutes you can find a ride. If you are a girl or you go with girls is more easy, and when is dark the people stops easier, but there are less cars in the roads.