Wwoofers

For some time now, we have had wwoofers on the farm.   Our farm isn't organic, wwoofers is an acronym for Willing Workers on Organic Farms.   We've changed that to willing workers on our farm.
We've met some delightful people through this scheme.   The deal is that they work for at least 4-5 hours, six days per week for their food and lodgings.   We find, however, that our wwoofers work most days all day.  We reward them well by feeding them fabulous meals, give them wine and beer,  (and so far, there has been no abuse of that, no drunkenness or drinking issues at all), unlimited access to internet, TV (when Himself hasn't got control of the remote), and use of a vehicle.   They work in the garden, they work in the house, but they far prefer working on the farm.   Some of them have attempting to shear a sheep, some of them have helped with tailing, fencing, weed control, dipping, drenching, shearing, feeding, moving stock, and whatever jobs come up.  

I wish I had of been able to use a scheme like this when I was travelling.   It would have suited me nicely.   Most of the travellers that come here are young but we have had a couple in their 50s and then a few in their 30s.   Recently we seem to have had a lot of British, including Joe from Ireland who stayed for three months.   We also have had a lot of french and german people.   Other nationalities include American, Canadians (great workers), Danish, Spanish, Austrian, Korean and Swiss.  No Italians so far....

They are supposed to have a work permit as working in return for lodgings is considered working by the NZ Immigration Department.    We have registered on the website http://www.helpx.net/ - its free although you can pay extra to be a premium helper.  Well worth having a look at.