KAMSACK — Jill Strasser is staying at the Ravenheart Farms Equine-Assisted Learning Centre & Retreat, Kamsack, as part of Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), which is a movement to link visitors with organic farmers, promote cultural and educational exchange, and build a global community conscious of ecological farming and sustainability practices.
I was born in Duisburg, Germany and grew up in Dresden with my mother and four siblings. Since graduation from high school, I’ve gotten a taste of various areas such as event technology in Munich, car paint shop (financing my driver’s license), looking after young adults with physical/mental disabilities, setting up and supervising art exhibitions, photography for a blog, and floor laying before I left for Canada. Oh, and delivering newspapers at the age of 14 to have some money in my pocket.
So, after years of work in different areas, a break was in order and COVID-19 was the perfect time to think and go in a different direction. WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms) was born, thanks to my older sister, who did it years ago in Spain. I had a great start in Vancouver for a week and I was able to hike in Stanley Park, get my first sunburn of the year on the beach and feast at Seven-11.
Until the end of October, I was with my first WWOOF host family near Preeceville called Wildside Enterprises where they make world-class honey. My duties included feeding the animals every morning, feeding the bees and preparing the hives for the winter. But also a lot of firsts: catching sheep, slaughtering chickens, rounding up cows and fixing way too many fences.
And since the end of October until New Year’s I’m staying at Ravenheart Farms where Carol, Melva, and a friend and volunteer named James gave me a warm welcome, and (helped me discover) my joy in chopping wood.
Here too, feeding and the welfare of the horses always comes first as well as repairs to the fence and around the property. And of course, shoveling snow!
After that, I will take the train from Canora to Hudson Bay and will spend a month WWOOFing at Fir River Ranch and hopefully seeing the northern lights. Then I’ll skip Manitoba, (sorry), and travel to Ontario and everything that comes after that on my adventure.
So I don’t have a big plan for the future or time pressure, but USA, New Zealand, Japan and if I survive, Australia, are still on the list. But overall I’m doing my journey and what is coming is coming.
What I really miss but maybe find or make myself is bread and I mean the real stuff!
(EDITOR’S NOTE: In the email that contained Jill’s story was a note from Carol Marriott, owner of Ravenheart Farms. “Travelers and volunteers are discouraged these days from travelling to Saskatchewan due to the non-existent transportation system,” Marriott said. “She did find a way to take the train from Canora to Hudson Bay, but it arrives there at midnight. No STC sure makes it difficult to attract Wwoofers these days for Ravenheart. We used to host two to four Woofers each year from all of the world. We could pick them up in most nearby small towns.”)
