AK Adventure Days 29-30: Homer, AK

I moved over to one of the Jones brothers’ homesteads farther out East End Rd in Homer.  The 3 Jones brothers’ parents homesteaded the area way back when!!  Within the 3 Jones brothers’ farms, there are 29 people living onsite!!  It is quite some kind of family COMPOUND!!

There is another Workaway volunteer at the Jones farm where I’m located...she’s from Quebec, Canada.

Even though the Jones Farm is only 30 mins east of Homer, it is at a higher elevation...1200 ft above sea level...so when it is warm—it is warmer there...and when it is cold—it is colder there.  I could certainly tell the difference over night in the van!!  I CAN have access to electricity for the van...but for the one night, I was fine.

This Jones farm raises peonies for the cut-flower market, raises meat and dairy cows, MANY horses (they ALL ride horses and for 30 years had a hunting guide service where they trekked hunters out into the bush via horses for a week at a time!!), raise vegetables from a greenhouse and garden, they rent out log cabins and platform “glamping” tents...and have a “wedding” venue—house, barn and covered outdoor party area, with 17 weddings scheduled between now and October!!...it is ALL something ELSE!!...and why aren’t they MY family!!??

The Canadian girl and I were assigned to side-bud peony plants (take off the extra little buds to only leave one bud per stem)...and also to weed around each peony plant. I’ll be there next week, too...so I’m sure there will be all sorts of OTHER jobs to be done!!  I’ll capture more photos, too!!

We had a GREAT first day together...delicious home-cooked food...MANY stories told by ALL!!...and that first evening we joined some of the family members for an impromptu bonfire on the beach...the farthest point that the road goes out east from Homer...ending at a Russian Native Alaskan village!!

After another great breakfast, more storytelling and a little more weeding the peonies...I went in to town to babysat a little bit for the Callahan’s and then got to visit their seine boat before I headed out to Kenai to spend the night again in the Kenai Beach free parking lot!!  I had an early dentist appt the next morning...so got to enjoy a MOST LOVELY evening stroll along Kenai Beach...more driftwood and rock collecting!!  LOVE IT!!