Home in Haldreka

Sean mowing the lawns
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With the bus stopping in little Nurste, we had begun our little taste of Estonian life in the village of Haldreka. Priidu (the farmer) picked us up and took us the 2 km to his and Alice's house. When we got to the house we were introduced to our best friend in the following weeks – Pipi the resident Jack Russell. We suspect though that her devotion to us was really because we scratched her tummy and gave her food.

It turned out that we were the first people to work at the farm through WWOOF. Priidu has about 500 Ha on which is run cattle, dairy and even rabbits. Alice works for the Estonian version of DOC (Department of Conservation) for most of her time. The rest is spent as a real estate agent.

Who knew that curds could be so tasty?

Alice and Sean off for a swim, it's very shallow very far out!
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We felt lucky that we got on so well with Priidu and Alice. The first night we spent talking until 1:30 am and we spent many nights up late chatting. Both work hard and don't have much time to get everything done, which is where we came in. Alice had bought the house about 6 months previously and inherited a legacy of Soviet land management - there was a lot of clean up to do.

Our first breakfast introduced us to a highly addictive and wholly delicious Estonian delicacy called Kohuke. Who knew that curds could be so tasty? We're happy to dedicate precious writing space to these marvellous morsels because they proved to be so tasty. Basically they are like bars of chocolate coated cheesecake. Mmmmmm......

Awww Pipi!!
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The work was general labouring. Our first task was to mow the lawns and clean the house. Most of our time was spent either cutting and burning trees or building basic fences. We were meant to clean up the buildings of a Soviet pig farm that P&A had bought but most of the stuff to shift was insulation and it looked to be fibre-glass. It wouldn't have been a problem if dust wasn't coming off it. We weren't keen to have respiratory problems in the future and our new friends weren't keen on inflicting us with them either.

Weed whacker Sean
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An indoor long drop was still in use because the septic tank had to be upgraded but we didn't find it a problem. Another novelty was the sauna. It's a long respected tradition in Estonia and quite a social event. The wood fire also provided hot water for the shower in the sauna – the downside was that it took about 1 ½ hours to heat up. It proved easier to shower every second day!

Within 24 hours Sean was trying his hand at driving a car on the wrong side of the road i.e. on the right. No problem and soon it was second nature. We were allowed to use the car on the weekend and often were asked to pick up Priidu or someone else.

Pipi knew where the food was kept...
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Sunday was generally lunch at Priidu's mother's house. We relished going there because it meant fantastic Estonian food - Grandmothers are great! It's hard to pick (or pronounce) a favourite dish. A couple of things common to our Estonian meals were bread (very good), butter and sour cream. Our dairy consumption sky-rocketed but at least osteoporosis is now highly unlikely.