couchsurfing/wwoof/ect ect

[Gypsy Wagon]

Fuck woofing!!! I was conntacting this honey farm once for a week every day, telling them about myself and why I wanted to werk there. When they finnally sprung the ultimate lame ass question..."do you have a woof number" I sayed no cause I copied the book (which apparently your not supposed to do) in the spirit of piracy. And asked them if they really beleive there should be a middle maan to it all (you have to pay the creators of the book 40$ in canada to woof) I never heard from them again. Fuck it Everything cost money in this fucked up modedrn time. Fuck the woof system!

WWOOF-ing in the states is only $20 for a one person directory that is not pirated......I bet you would have learned some usefull shit too.

I worked on this farm for 4 months in South Carolina. The people I stayed with did a lot of ocean fishing, so I learned a lot about shrimping, fishing, crabbing, digging for oysters and clams, etc. They also had a preety expansive garden. While I was there I stayed in a tipi and had tasks like feeding the chickens, collecting fire wood, weeding and composting. I helped with several big projects like installing irrigation pipe, building a greenhouse, brain tanning hides and experimenting with forest dwellings. The guy who I lived with was kind of a prick, but I learned a lot of cool shit and got to squat for 4 months for free. This was my first experience on the WWOOF program and its really sweet...I'm now off to Alabama to work on a goat, sheep, and organic vegetable farm. I'm sure that there are some large scale commercial farmers who are on there, but most of them are just small-scale families who obtain a good portion of their own food. The program is fairly cheap ($20 for one person $30 for two) and you can squat for short term or long term while learning some preety cool shit........

 

[stove]

I've couchsurfed all over europe, and little but in North America. So far, everything has worked out, I've met some awesome people, and I've learned TONS (I found StP through a CS friend, thanks Lily!). It's worth a try.

 

[Gypsybones]

I wwoofed in Ireland on 2 separate farms and It was an amazing experience!
I stayed with two women from northern Ireland (they lived in Wicklow co) very polite very humble folk.
on the second farm I even was fortunate enough to experience a Irish drought, two weeks no rain alll sunshine! fucking amazing!

 

[Mejnun]

Ive been on CS for the past few years and have had amazing experiences all - US and internationally-around and made some lasting friendships through it- One thing that I really dislike is the "verification" system, which seems to be gaining import on the site. A Cser becomes name and address verified by paying 25 bucks to prove you have an address via your CC payment. Thats all fine and well, but many people on the site are true wanderers and never stay in one place very long. Even if they wanted to pay for the service they dont stay at an address long enough...A few years ago this never seemed to be an issue but now when I use the site it seems that there is a real push to get everyone "verified." I was at a CS meet-up once and heard people mention that they would only stay with verified hosts etc etc...as though by having a CC someone could be somehow more reliable or more trustworthy...The site and community is great, I just really dislike the push for verification and how it may effect whether a host or surfer responds to me.

 

[dirty_rotten_squatter]

Ive done couch surfing a couple of times and everytime have had awesome experiences, the people were all really cool and hospitable.

 

[hg14]

hospitalityclub.com dead site here's what you get http://hospitalityclub.com/

 

[SpaceCadet]

It's .ORG and not .com

 

[Hollywood]

i haven't had success with wwoofing yet. i feel a lot of farms take advantage of cheap labor. plus the whole feedback system is terrible because there really isn't one. at least on the USA one.
this seems obvious but i think the best thing to do if you wanna volunteer on a farm is go to a farmer's market. find a farmer and ask if you can come out and work. this is how i worked on a farm in my hometown for 3 years.
i unofficially wwoofed by meeting someone on couchsurfing that volunteered on a farm. so, there are ways to do it by not joining the organization.

 

[pola negri]

I had an amazing experience with WWOOF. Read the descriptions carefully, communicate well beforehand, and then just hope for the best. I talked to a lot of ranchers/farmers before I settled on the one I ended up going to.

 

[luckydub]

Also check out helpexchange.net yes there is a $30 dollar fee, which i think is about the same as the average wwoof, but seems like a lot of cool folks on there. Good variety too.

 

[Poking Victim]

wait...wwoofing costs the worker $30?
I met some wwoofers on a small farm in BC. They seemed to like the arrangement; they had there own house.

 

[SpaceCadet]

To sign up on the website, it costs the worker. I've read some farms that you had to pay and also some that paid you. A lot will offer a small house/cabin for the wwoofers.

 

[pola negri]

I suppose it's all relative, but paying a $30 fee to have the resources they gave me, someone welcome me into their own home, teach me skills, feed me, shelter me, etc was more than worth it. I had my own room, my own horse, went swimming everyday in one of the most beautiful places I'd ever been to in my life...it is what you make it.

 

[nitepeepole]

i'm all over couchsurfing. i love that site. its my main source of housing...but i put in my time hosting as well. i've never met a bad egg from cs. sure ive met a couple of annoying ones but that's to be expected.
woofng...i'm considering it but i'd rather just live in a tent on the beach than work on a farm.

 

[hardlyart]

i've been using couchsurfing since last summer and i stayed for 3 months with people on there, and had a shit ton of people stay with me. it is an incredible site and a great way of connecting with people within certain communities in different cities. never had a bad experience yet.