Bonfire

Bonfire!!!

 Hey all!  Austin here with a blog for ya about our continuing adventures in Scotland.  Honestly, we are having sooo much fun here that the days seem to blend together and time almost disappears.  I am not really even sure which day of the month it is, and that is way ok by me.  A new awesome addition to our experience is a WWOOFer from France named Paul.  He arrived a week or so ago after WWOOFing on a tree farm in Wales, and wow is he a bundle of childlike energy and adventure.  Paul is done for anything, whether it is swimming in the frigid River Tay, going for runs after a strenuous day of moving firewood, or trying our homemade American delights like pancakes or any combination of peanut butter and banana (it's good on toast, in a smoothie, in your cereal, seriously the best food combo ever).  Kindra and I have really warmed to him, and the three of us often go jumping on the trampoline or kick the soccer ball around.  Antoine, the other French WWOOFer, is still a blast to be around (he has a more relaxed personality), but a knee injury is keeping him from the athletic adventures we have.

Meet Paul, our new WWOOFer in crime.

Going for a dip in the River Tay.  Brrrrrr!

Cooooold!

Trampoline fun!!!

Our WWOOF work this week has epically consisted of building huge bonfires out of "rubbish" wood from fallen trees.  It involves brute strength, endurance, and the joy of watching forty pound branches melt into ash in a matter of moments.  In short, Kindra and I agree this is the most awesome WWOOFing job.  Martin (the groundskeeper) chainsaws all the trees into movable pieces, while the rest of us either load a tractor with wood, unload that same tractor at the bonfire location or stoke the fire to make sure the wood burns efficiently.  My arms right now, after four days in of bonfiring, are absolutely fried.  I feel like one giant sore muscle, and it is amazing.  Besides delivering loads of lactic acid, bonfiring is also uniting the four of us WWOOFers.  We are both going to be really sad to leave Baldoroch next week :(

Kindra puts a nice side kick into that fierce fire.

Best way to stoke a fire?  Bulldozer!

Tiffy with another load of wood.

The four of us WWOOFers after a hard day's work :)

 I am having a blast taking lots of photos along the way, and learning how to capture better landscape and portrait shots.  For more pictures, check out the constantly updated Picasa album: https://picasaweb.google.com/117860913937238604610/Scotland

That's all for now!