It all started in the beginning of this year with a simple idea – to go volunteering on a farm. I wanted to dive into a life that I’ve been dreaming of for many years. It was a self-experiment to see how life would be living far away from the city and close to the wild nature. But it turned out to be much more than just an experiment…
A couple of months later, an application form, an online call and some documents later – there I was, in front of farm Veles. It is a home to a beautiful family of four, nestled in the tiny village of Svinjsko. The landscape is wild yet orderly in that unique Slovenian manner—a vast sea of green hills, Catholic church spires, and scattered red roofs. It lies about an hour from Ljubljana, though as the locals joke, everything in Slovenia is “about an hour away”.
If I had to describe Farm Veles in one sentence: It is where humans, animals and plants grow in perfect harmony. A dream… It is a special place that attracts special people. Some of whom I had the privilege to connect with deeply. I made more than friends there, not all of whom were even human. I send much love to Pumek, my best cat-friend. He would visit my bed to say goodnight, often curling up on my chest as we gazed at shooting stars during the long, fresh nights of the fading summer.
I saw Veles in its different moods. I was there completely alone, with one or two other volunteers, and sometimes amidst 30 people from across Europe and beyond. I experienced 33ºC scorching sun, 3ºC cloudy frost, heavy winds and rain, and ethereal mist. From calm days to magical starry nights, the farm embraces the beauty of natural diversity.
During my stay at Veles I engaged in all kinds of activities. From sowing lettuce, harvesting tomatoes and cucumbers, feeding the chickens to preparing and laying concrete and putting up giant oak columns. I was also able to leverage my photography and tech skills to do a whole remake of their webpage. Whether manual labor or digital design, it all felt like truly meaningful work.
What I took home, however, is hidden behind the mundane tasks. Farm life offers an inner stillness and harmony that are strangers to the gray city. It was an intimate embrace with wild nature. I embarked on a voyage to the depths of my being, discovering a lot of treasures and underwater rocks on the way. It seemed like a pause on life, enabling me to take a step back and look at it upside-down. This all led me to many realizations which helped me navigate this transitional phase of life that I was in. I was directed back to myself.
It is deep gratitude that I feel about this transformative experience. And with this on my belt, still very much alive in my heart, I continue on sailing with the wind.
– Angel Balashev
