My winter came and went pretty much as usual.  Went up to Alaska in March to volunteer for the Iditarod again.  I’ve been doing that since 1995.  We’ve been continuing with the Friday homeschool program for three of our grand children.  They have learned a lot and have produced a couple videos for YouTube about current events.  You can check them out at YouTube.com.  We’ve also taught the kids to swim pretty well on Friday nights at the YMCA pool.

This spring we took a couple fun road trips with the grand kids.  First we went on a loop from Olympia, WA south to Vancouver, WA and then west to the Oregon coast to fly kites and wade in the ocean surf.  We spent the second night at Astoria, OR and toured the Lewis and Clark exhibits at Fort Clatsop National Park.  Last weekend we took a loop north to Steven’s Pass, Hwy 2 and east over the Cascade Mountains to Leavenworth and then south to Yakima and over Highway 410, Chinook Pass to return to western Washington.  The weather was beautiful as was the scenery.  We fit in a couple short hikes and lots of swimming time in the outdoor pool at our Leavenworth Hotel.  Temperatures climbed to 92 degrees in eastern Washington.

This week I’m leaving for my 16th summer as a tour guide in Alaska.  I was packing up my stuff today and came across something one of my tour members had shared with me last year.  It defines success based on age.  Hope you’ll enjoy it!  It sure gave me a chuckle!

Success is. . .

At age 4 success is not peeing in your pants.

At age 12 success is having friends.

At age 16 success is having a driver’s license.

At age 25 success is having sex when married.

At age 35 success is having money.

At age 50 success is having money.

At age 60 success is having sex when married.

At age 70 success is having a driver’s license.

At age 75 success is having friends.

At age 80 success is not peeing in your pants.

And so it is that life goes full circle!

I doubt I’ll find time during the tour season in Alaska to write any blog posts, but if anything really exciting happens, I’ll do my best!

Here are some pictures of our two oldest grand children enjoying our last road trip over the mountains to Leavenworth.

Bruce is a retired elementary school teacher living on San Juan Island in Washington state. He is married to Tina, who is of Australian heritage, and this past fall they embarked on a year long trip to Australia and New Zealand. Currently he and Tina are WWOOFING on a dairy farm at the southern end of the south island of NZ and they plan to do another project at the northern end of the island once they are done at that farm.

When our mother got the email about this WWOOF experience, she was a little confused as to what it was all about. I told her I’d look into it more and here is what I’ve found.

WWOOF. It stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms and was started in the UK in 1971. It provides volunteer opportunities for all ages and levels of experience. You can WWOOF in over 70 countries in any season for variable durations. It’s a great way to get around the world “on the cheap” and have fun learning new things.

In return for your work you generally receive food, accommodation, and training for the project you’re working on. Although most WWOOF opportunities involve either organic farming or gardening, there are also opportunities for handy persons, cooks, teachers, builders, child care and and just about any other skill you might have.

WWOOF volunteers do not pay for their stay and WWOOF hosts do not pay their volunteers for their help. There is a small fee to join a WWOOF organization in the country where you want to work.

This sounds like fun and I’m not surprised that my brother has become involved with WWOOF. He has always been the more adventurous one in the family. I get my adventure fix every summer by heading up to Alaska to work as a tour guide, but someday when I finally retire from that adventure, maybe Dale and I will look into WWOOFING.

At http://www.wwoof.org/ that they have a list of all the countries that have a WWOOF organization. Let’s see now – where should we go first?? Of course you can WWOOF in the US as well as in Canada. It all depends on how far you want to travel.

So What’s the Take Away?

WWOOF has become an international movement that is helping people share more sustainable ways of living. It’s an affordable way to travel, it’s educational, and you make lots of new friends. And it’s all about going green and the low carbon footprint that we’re hearing so much about these days. If you’ve got the time, but lack the money for a luxury vacation, maybe WWOOFING is for you.