A day at B&W's Ranch in Wildood, AB

Hello Everyone,

After our road trip in the Rockies, we arrived at Barbara and Werner’s ranch. There are many animals such as sheep, alpaca, horses, chickens, rabbits, …

We arrived here completely tired because our nights in the car were not so good … let’s face it, they were bad so the first days were hard. All the different things to do at the ranch and the early woke up didn’t help us to recover quickly.

Our days were rhythmic and varied.

Every morning and evening, there were the chores to do : feed the animals, check if everyone looks good, fill the water tanks, pick up the eggs …

For the rest of the day, the week is cut in half, Monday until Wednesday afternoon is quite calm : work in the garden, move the sheep into another field, clean the rabbits’ cages, do the groceries …

Thursday to Saturday, we switch job, and become bakers but we remain farmers too. So, adding to the ranch, we need to prepare all the stuff that we will sell at the farmers’ market. There are lots of breads, cinnamonbuns, cheesesticks and other stuff (we estimated about 400 pieces to bake, package and sell).

Thursday it’s preparation time, scaling, set up of all the recipes and Friday it’s the BIG BIG DAY, you have to be awake and ready because it’s work time from 8 am to 9.30 pm. The first Friday, we were not prepared and got so tired because it’s a lot of work for just one day.

So Friday it’s exhausting but we said “it’s only one’s a week, we can manage that” and then the Saturday came. We wake up a 5.45 am. Of course, we are hangover. But it’s time to clean the whole house and when it’s done, time to go to the Farmers’ Market.

This market it’s not so far away … only 1hour. It’s started at 10.30 am and lasts only for two hours. At 10.20 there is all ready some people waiting to buy some good products then someone whistle and it’s rush time. Some sell, some manage the stocks, and it goes on for at least an hour ! It’s almost sold out every week ! At the end of the market we come back home to rest ourselves but not so much because the animals dodn’t wait.

On Sunday it’s chiller and we can do some activities like the rodeo or the Wildwood’s fair (the town annual agricultural fair). After one week, we were exhausted and during the break after lunch, we did only one thing : nap, nap and nap. But, as a gesture to thank us for our help, Barb and Werner also took the time to show us new things like riding a horse or have stick bread over the fire ! And During the last week of our stay, Rahel join the family : an awesome 23 yo Swiss girl, super positive and dynamic ! She was a great addition to the Ranch's team !!

Since we’ve been here, we saw, did and shared a lots off things with Barbara and Werner. It was totally the opposite of our last volunteering but the experiences seem more intense and real because we spend all our time with our host.

We see how it’s hard to manage a ranch, especially if you add baking to it ! We now have so much respect for the small local farmers and ranchers !