When Daily Life Is An Adventure: Home on the ranch

I had no idea what to expect when coming to Heifer. I asked, "Who else volunteers for you?" They replied, "People aged 18 to 80." I stopped asking questions.

Well, to be fair, volunteers are all ages here, literally between 18 and 80, but here's the more helpful version of that answer.

18 is the minimum age to volunteer at the ranch, so no one is younger. There are a few 18 year olds, mostly on their way to college, taking a year off between high school and higher education.

There are a lot of 20-somethings, finished with college and on the way to the "real world" of corporate jobs or another few years of education at grad school. They make up the majority of the work force, in all fields from livestock to education to gardening.

There are also a few older volunteers, retirees who greet visitors or staff the gift shop or coordinate maintenance.

No one else seems to be in the middle of a career. Everyone's either evaluating their options or enjoying retirement.

Everyone is very environmentally conscious, and interested in green lifestyles. People buy organic, local or vegetarian or any combination thereof. Also, they like to cook and prepare food. We have weekly potlucks, and often pool resources to make scrumptious meals.

What an awesome society to live in.

Residential volunteers live in volunteer houses on the ranch grounds. I live in the largest house, Valley View, which is divided into two households (upstairs and downstairs). I live downstairs with 4 other people. There are three rooms, with two people per room (oh, the joys of sharing a room... I thought I left those behind after freshman year of college). There's one man all alone in his room, and 4 women in the remaining two rooms. The kitchen is huge, well-equipped and spacious. Each room has a bathroom, and there's laundry right here in the house. It's very nicely laid out, and volunteers are well cared for by the company. It's not a bad set up at all. There's no college feeling around the place, as one might expect, with group-living in provided housing with 20-something-year-olds.

People work any of the 7 days, and get away on fun social activities on their time off. It is Perryville, Arkansas--so quite in the middle of nowhere, but we manage to find things to do.