The WWOOF Life at Thorn Chase Cottage

The pace of things here at Thorn Chase Cottage is refreshingly calm. The mornings start off with everyone slowly making their way to the kitchen to make some breakfast. Usually I make an omelette with farm fresh eggs, and a cappuccino from the espresso machine. After breakfast, the chickens, quail, and rabbits need to be fed and watered, the sheep need to be let out to pasture, and the plants need to be tended to. That might sound like a lot all at once but the number of animals is relatively small, and the plants are mostly irrigated. Later in the year there would be more to do with the plants as they would need to be harvested and cycled, but for now in early spring, they are just seedlings that only need water and protection from the elements. There are also two other woofers here who are just as eager to help and learn as we are, so chores go pretty smoothly.

After morning chores are completed, the only other project to work on around the house is pulling weeds out of the front yard where a future herb garden is to be constructed. It’s going to be built into a huge spiral. I hope we get a chance to show all of you how it turns out.

Renee’s son, Charles, is working on turning his property into a productive farm so we often spend some time over there planting seedlings, such as lettuce, chard, beans, sunflowers, squash, eggplants, and tomatoes. His land has seen some tough times as it was recently ravaged by both a hurricane and a tornado. He has a number of projects going on around his home. There’s the recently tilled and irrigated field that we’ve been planting in as well as another stretch of land that he is working on remediating. In addition, he has dug a giant “pond” in which he plans to farm tilapia. I say “pond” in quotes because it’s really more like a small lake. Apparently the hole is 44 feet deep!

We’ve really been enjoying working with the animals here. In the sheep pasture is a very loving donkey named Kiki who acts as the flock’s guardian. Renee’s dog, Lucy, is only two years old but is the size of a small bear and loooves attention almost as much as she loves being chased around the cars in the driveway.

The chickens are like stars in a TV drama, which is always entertaining to observe. And the sheep, oh sheep. Sheep are adorable, but can be quite a pain to manage. I’m starting to perfect my animal coaxing skills because once sheep are in a location that you didn’t intend them to be in, the only way to get them back seems to be to slowly ease them back with a handful of grain. We’ve had a lot of practice in coaxing sheep lately because Isaac, the alpha ram, had an altercation with his eldest son, Lambchop, on Friday, leaving him with a large gash in his forehead. Due to their headbutting and his injury, we have had to separate the other rams from the flock, so that he can have his ewes and lambs all to himself. It’s been difficult to properly sort them out into different pastures every morning, but we’re becoming quite good at moving them around!

The meals have been great here. We plan out a menu at the beginning of the week, deciding who is going to cook what and when. So far we’ve enjoyed soups, chili, fried plantains, homemade pizza, and shepherd’s pie. We’ve gone out for dinner a couple of times as well. Renee highly recommended a local Irish pub called Seanachai because of their “burger and a beer” Tuesday special. I had a burger. The burger, really. Didn’t even put mustard on it! We’ve also tried seafood such as crab cakes, fried shrimp, and fried oyster. Renee is planning on making shrimp and grits (apparently a staple in the Lowcountry) later this week.

We still have one week left here so stay tuned for more adventures in small-scale, organic homesteading!