Dorchak Farm near Puerto Octay, Chile

We have planned and dreamed of our 8 month trip to South America for a long time. Longing for adventures and discovering new people and places, but it is exhausting! We knew that along the way we would like to do some volunteering or something meaningful. We are all very hard workers back at home and keep ourselves very busy, mostly because we love it, so after 3 months on the go we were very happy to have been accepted for a Workaway on the Dorchak farm near Puerto Octay. David kept making comments about finally getting to do some work!

Workaway.com is a website where people can connect; Some people need help in their business, home, or farm, while travelers are looking for something other than just tourism while they are travelling. We found the Dorchaks and were so grateful that they welcomed us to their farm.

Jim and Lori Dorchak are expats from South Carolina in the United States and have been building their farm with the plan to live “off-grid” as much as possible. They have some solar panels for energy, a wood stove, a large garden, chickens, geese, ducks and a pig named Oreo.

Charlie and Adeline feeding “Oreo” the pig.

We stayed in their guest cabin (which used to be their home before they built the bigger one they live in now), and we all had jobs. Thomas, their son, showed Adeline and Charlie how to feed the animals every morning, how to collect eggs, and how to put the ducks and geese in their pen at night. That became their job, and then they would spend the rest of their time having amazing adventures with Thomas in the forest on their property. David did some painting and heavy work with Jim, and Amanda did a lot of garden work with Lori.

One of the jobs for Charlie and Adeline was to feed “Lola” and the rest of the chickens.

It was fun learning the jobs of the farm and learning the quirks of the animals. For instance, when we arrived, Lola the chicken was such a great escape artist! The chickens had recently had to shift from being free range chickens to chickens living in a coop, and Lola was putting up a resistance! She kept finding a way to get out, and she was determined to get into the garden! Finally once, she broke into the garden and we watched her for a bit as she snuck into a bush of sage. We waited for her to come out, but she didn’t, so we crept over and peeked inside the bush to see what was happening, and there was Lola sitting on a nest of 3 eggs! No wonder she was so determined to get into the garden. The next day, 3:00 came, and there was Lola, fighting to get back into the garden. This time Adeline sat outside her sage bush to collect her egg and to make sure she didn’t dig up the garden when she was finished laying her egg. Lola clearly did not enjoy being watched, as it took her an hour and a half to finally get the egg out and leave her sage bush. After that, Lola did not try to break into the garden anymore.

It was refreshing having some English speakers to chat with all day. Jim had some pretty amazing stories to share. From working on a submarine, to being a part of a barbershop quartet, the stories were all very entertaining while we shared some wine after a days work.

We arrived to the farm at an interesting time. Jim and Lori had been experimenting with a new business opportunity. They are both great cooks and have created some killer sauces for BBQ’d meat, so they had agreed to cater a rugby party of a friend that was happening one week after we arrived. So Lori and Amanda made pot after pot of BBQ sauce and about two days before the event, David and Jim went to the friends farm to slaughter and butcher the pig and lamb that they would be serving. The day before the event was an all-nighter for the guys. They sat with the pork on the smoker grill all night, sharing some more stories and a couple of beers. The rest of the family joined them the next afternoon and helping in the cooking by the BBQ.

David tending to the BBQ

It was a pretty fun event to be a part of. Jim and Lori’s friends are dairy farmers that moved from New Zealand and were hosting a party for their Rugby club. Adults and children are all a part of the team so it was a fun family event. They had a slip ‘n slide going down one of their hills and a fun obstacle run that they invited everyone to be a part of. Needless to say, the kids had a great time, the adults had a great time, and we ate a lot of great food!

Back at the Dorchak farm, we earned our fulfilment everyday by working hard and learned some new skills from Jim and Lori. Near the end of our two weeks, Jim and Lori asked us to stay and watch the farm for a few days while they went on a weekend away with some friends. We felt humbled that they had the confidence in us to look after their farm, and happy we could be there so they could get away, after all it must be hard to ever take time off as a farm never really lets you get away. The animals always need to be fed! Of course we agreed and enjoyed our last few days on the farm.

How much firewood can Charlie, Adeline and David make in a weekend? Lot’s! 

Charlie, Adeline and David took it as a personal challenge to cut as much firewood as they could and by the time the Dorchaks came back home, there was a pretty big stack!

Adeline and Charlie also hunted for slugs and fed them to the chickens. It was funny seeing how the temperment of the chickens changed once they realized that whenever the kids came over, it meant that they had a juicy slug to feed them. They became quite competitive and the kids then had to change their strategy by feeding them multiple slugs at one time so the chickens wouldn’t fight and everyone could get some. We thought that the chickens really enjoyed the slugs because, while we would usually find 2 or 3 eggs in a day, we found 9 eggs one day while we were farmsitting. And Lori joked that the chickens went on strike once we left because they weren’t getting their special slug treats!

One of the many giant slugs Charlie and Adeline hunted and fed to the chickens!

When the Dorchak family returned from the weekend away, they offered to take us to a special place they had found a few years ago. It was a bit of a long drive, but it took us to Lago Rupanco where we hired a driver to take us by boat to the other side. They also provided us with a shovel, and on the sandy beach we dug our own hot springs! It was amazing! The lake was quite cool, and there was nobody else around. The water that seeped through the sand was burning hot, so it was important to dig a hole right next to the side of the lake and even have a canal for the cool water to enter and the hot water to escape. These were the best hot springs, especially for the kids, because usually when you visit thermal springs, you need to sit and be quite and not move around because people are relaxing in the pools. But here, the kids were busy digging, having a blast, and if anyone got too hot, they could just jump in the lake and cool off! What a gem!

We are so grateful for our time on the farm and would have loved to stay even longer, but after the refreshing break, we were excited to get going on our travels again. The kids really enjoyed being with the animals and having Thomas for a playmate, and they keep talking about when we go back to the farm! Maybe one day!