WWOOFing on Rennaldburn Farm

Tonight is our last night of WWOOFing at Rennaldburn Farm, and I have to say we're both going to miss it. Through our time here, we've made some great friends, had a lot of fun, and learned a lot about roofing.

Rennaldburn Farm is located in Eskdalemuir (basically middle of nowhere, which we like). There are plenty of fields to roam, with sheep galore (which we also like). Here are some of the cool things about Rennaldburn...the house:

We actually don't sleep in the house – instead, we've been cozy in a little loft over the barn. Probably a lot of you are like “What? Sleeping in the barn??” but we actually really like it, especially when it rains and you can hear it pouring down on the roof, which is quite often here. Anyway, here's where we sleep (a bit messy, sorry):

And here's where the chickens and ducks sleep:


The river, which is really low right now so it's more like a creek at the moment:



Awesome two story treehouse:



The hammock that I very much enjoyed:



So that's pretty much the tour of where we've been staying. The house is actually partly where the family lives, and partly a holiday cottage. So if you're ever in the area, it's an excellent place to stay! But yeah, a few people have requested a view into our daily lives. We've actually been working for the most part during the day to day events, but I managed to take a few pictures of what we've been up to. Mainly, we've been working on the roof, putting up slates so that they won't be left out in the cold for the winter. Here's a pictures of Marco, an Italian who's also WWOOFing here (an awesome guy, too) and Seth (who is a really cool guy, too):

Seth has mainly been on the roof, but I have also taken on several other little jobs, since I'm kind of just an assistant on the roof (really not strong enough to put the slates in, so I just hand the strong men the things they need and do little tasks). So I also painted some in the kitchen and upstairs part, as well as a few tiles. I sadly don't have any pictures of my masterpieces, but you can just imagine how wonderful they look, if you know my art skills (haha). One day it was raining, so we couldn't really work on the roof, so Seth and I cleared out this valley beneath the house that was covered in these huge fallen limbs and felled trees. They wanted to use the limbs for firewood and just generally wanted to clear up that area. So we hauled all of the big limbs out of the valley, and then they asked us to just burn the small brush that was left over. Seth did a great job creating a fire...I did a great job of cheering him on and trying to help (I hope):





Last week, we also had an opportunity to travel to Samye Ling, a Tibetan Buddhist temple near Rennaldburn. It's actually pretty famous—it was the first of its kind in the West, and David Bowie even spent some time studying there. It was an interesting experience – they were having some kind of party where there was free cake and lots of people selling fruits and vegetables, and plenty of bagpipes (of course, even at a Tibetan Buddhist temple, they have to maintain the Scottish heritage). Here's a few pics of Samye Ling:

Sunday we took a little break, read the Bible, had some worship time singing and guitaring, and then we headed for a walk down to see some ancient stone circles that were not far from the house. So here they are, and just for old time's sake, there are some pictures of fields and hills as well:






And also a cool tree that we found on our walk:


Needless to say, this has been an interesting trip. We've both learned a lot, both about the people we're staying with as well as about roofing. It's been a great journey, even though we have been in one place. Tomorrow we head off to London to trip and find an apartment to rent for the year. Since school is starting up soon, all the apartments are beginning to disappear. Earlier today, I was getting really distressed because I was calling place after place to see if it was still available and not getting anything. We have been offered student housing, but it's really too expensive for our budget, so we don't want to take it unless we absolutely have to. The problem with that is the deadline for student housing is very soon, but I was not exactly sure when. After having my huge stress moment, Seth and I prayed that God would lead us to the right place to live, and that He would be in control of our lives. A little while later, I came back to check my email and found that I had an update on when the deadline would be to decide on the student housing. The deadline is not until August 26th, which is the day after we look at all the apartments we have managed to find that are still available. So God is providing that for us, even though we don't really deserve it. Really, we should completely trust in Him, and not need any place to stay, and know that He will provide and take care of us, but it's like He put the deadline at that point just to comfort us, to make us feel better. It's just so mind blowing how we can be so untrusting and lukewarm, and yet God just continues to pour our love until it overflows onto us. Anyway, that was just something I wanted to share.

The last, and most important part of this post, are the feline friends we have made at Rennaldburn. Ita and Chris (the people we are staying with) have two cats, and one of them had just had kittens a week or two before we arrived. So there are five sweet little kittens running around Rennaldburn at the moment, and they are so adorable. Seth and I have a favorite – we've named him Sock Cat because he loves socks and he has little white paws. Here he is:





We're going to miss Ita, Chris, Sock Cat, and everyone else here at Rennaldburn and we will always remember their friendship and hospitality. Who knows – maybe we can return some day! But tomorrow we head towards London, so please keep us in your prayers as we try to find an apartment and make our way around the big city!

Sock Cat just tried to play guitar with his teeth. Just wanted to give everyone that update :)