[Rosemary]

Anyone any experience of this either as host or volunteer? We're thinking about hosting but I read the stuff from other hosts and felt quite intimidated 

[Susie]

Hi,
I know of people who have volunteered their way around Austrailia doing this and a farm over here that has had people to stay. On the whole I think the experiences are positive for both sides, although the farm has occasionally had a volunteer that didn't want to/ever seem to do much and were maybe just using it as a way of travelling or a way to learn English. Be careful of people looking for really long term stays that just want to use it as a way of studying over here. The people I know who volunteered researched where they wanted to stay really carefully so they could learn new skills that were important to them. When you write the description of what you are offering and want help with, it helps if you provide as much detail as possible so that you can get a good match with the volunteers as different people are looking for different things. You get to decide who you take - volunteers contact you directly, they aren't placed with you. In theory I guess this means you can check how good a fit you think they will be on your farm. Some people offer really long term stays but you could start with short term and see how it goes?
Good luck,
Sue

[northfifeduckling]

Rosemary, if you go ahead with this you must let us know how you get on. I'm sure we all like to know and could do with one of those volunteers! I know of 2 places who host (Culdees eco-village and Pillars of Hercules) and they only had good things to say.

[HappyHippy]

I looked into it a bit too - but was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. Plus, I think you've got to be organic (don't know if you've got to be certified or not) which kinda put me off a bit too. I'll be interested to hear what everyone says though 
Karen x

[Anke]

I volunteered for a week a few years back, just after we moved out of Edinburgh and BEFORE we actually started the smallholding. My OH insisted on it... I really enjoyed the experience, but it was also "something else". I was also not the usual volunteer - I had children and husband at home, and really just wanted to see a smallholding in action. Staying in someones house was also quite strange for me (I used to do conservation work and am used to stay in village halls, tents and all sorts of group accommodation, but as an individual in someone else's house, who was a complete stranger to me was a bit intimidating).

The couple I worked for are in Dumfriesshire, and at the time I was very keen on pigs- they had Tamworths. But, and this is the big BUT - they also had beautiful Golden Guernsey goats - and it took me about 4 years from staying there to getting my own, but it was "love at first sight".

I think taking in volunteers you would have to ask quite a lot of questions, especially about their previous experience (and if they minded if you contacted other WWOOF hosts fofr a reference maybe?) and also why they do wwoofing and what they would want to get from your farm in particular. Have you got ny accommodation independent of your house?

I could certainly do with some help for some of the larger projects round here, but could not cope with regular guests in our house - with two girls under 10 it is hectic enough.... I also find I need my space (and my mess)...

[Troubled Waters]

We WWOOFed round New Zealand for 6 months. We had some great hosts who welcomed us into the family, we worked hard for them and they showed us local places that tourists wouldn't get to see. We also had some awful hosts who treated us like slave labour. We made great friends with some and have to say we did run away from one (after we had done our mornings work I hasten to add)

Not everyone we stayed with were Organic, even though they were supposed to be and some weren't farms. We got a book when we joined with all the hosts in and we chose which we wanted to stay with based on location, what they did and what skills we could contribute or learn. It was a great experience and we have recommended it to many people.

Our better hosts were ones we worked with and learnt from, rather than those that went out to work and expected us to get on with just weeding or similar.

Any questions we can help with give us a shout.
Helen.  

[Fleecewife]

This past summer we hosted some HelpXers - similar system, but wider ranging in what people want to do.  We really needed help with some big tasks, as both my OH and I have major health issues, so we chose our helpers very carefully from their profiles and from chatting with them via several emails (HelpX is an online system).
All four people we had here were really pleasant and interesting but we will never do it again. I seemed to spend all my time in the kitchen preparing food for them, or in the garden growing extra food for them, and my OH spent far too much time clearing up after them (tools dropped on the ground, paintbrushes left to go hard, gates left open).  All in all, we felt that we would have achieved more on our own.  They all did valuable work but needed to be supervised and guided - my OH has to spend a large chunk of the day sleeping and during that time disasters happened.
I think that if you like living semi-communally, or have separate accommodation and can make strict rules, and can work with the volunteers the whole time they are working, then this could be for you. But if you need time to yourself, privacy and a rest sometimes, don't do it !!
Having said that, WOOFers I understand tend to be more experienced and are more interested in the work for its own sake, whereas HelpXers just want somewhere to stay while they move around the country.
We found that our workers ideas of what they could do and what they actually could didn't match up very well.  We had also set 5 hours work 5 days a week as being reasonable, but although all our workers were happy with that, they simply wouldn't go out and explore the countryside or towns after their hours had finished or on their days off  - they wanted to stay with us, but do nothing - that's very annoying when you still have several hours more work to do !!
I think our problems were more to do with us than with the workers - we just don't have the extra energy any more to cope with teaching, mistakes, or the extra work involved in having guests for months on end.
Finally -there are a couple of problem helpers out there - one had to be removed from someones place by the police for being extremely abusive, and another was found to be a convicted paedophile from France, on the prowl (fortunately these were not some of our helpers I'm delighted to say).