Beautiful mountains, organic food and permaculture gardening in Dafins, Austria

Details

• 

  Description

  If you write me a message here, I normally reply in a couple of hours, max 2-3 days. This profile is quite long and clear and a lot of what I wrote here is because of the experiences I had with past workawayers. If I reply to your message with my phone number, it might take from a few hours up to 2 days to reply ( I am very busy ;-)
  
  
  I am searching for workawayers who
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  - can help me finish building the wooden hedge and build 4 roofs for my peach trees
  - have a passion and talent for cooking, cleaning, washing, household chores, and maintenance tasks around the house
  - can make garden beds
  - putting in water pipes in the garden for a hedgehog and a bird fountain
  - putting cables in place for a camera system to watch animals during the night
  - can build a chicken house and a fence to keep the chickens in, and a fence around the garden, to keep them out of the garden
  - can help with extending the current "electrical fence" against slugs
  - can do garden maintance, chipping wood branches, compost making, planting seeds
  - help with installation of a heat pump
  - help with digging a trench for a small hydroelectric power plant
  - general gardening
  - making marmelade, collecting berries, peaches, figs, baking cakes, cooking :)
  - building the wooden dead hedge and a trail path around the property
  - digging holes, watering, mulching, taking care of the fruit trees, spraying the trees and raspberries
  - making and handling of the hot rot compost & worm compost (feeding the worms)
  - taking care of the hedgehogs
  - setting up the bird houses
  - some DIY projects (like automatic watering system, electrical wiring, building bee and lacewing housings out of wood, etc)
  - would be great if someone could make some videos of my guidelines document (mainly operational stuff) so that workawayers always have a reference on how to operate washing machine, oven, rice cooker, etc etc
  - would be great if a workawayer would participate in the workaway video challenge during the stay, I count working on the video as working hours
  
  
  Why this workaway might not be for you
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  Due to the variety of skills you can learn here, some workawayers arrive with high expectations. To gain the most from this experience, it's best to stay for about six months. My description is just a glimpse of what you can learn; the longer you stay, the more you'll benefit.
  
  Indoor activities increase during bad weather, such as frozen soil in winter or heavy rain in summer. The work varies by season, weather, and ongoing projects.
  
  There are times when I can spend more time with you, and other times when I am busy with my job and will only be able to teach, explain, and demonstrate tasks briefly. Don't worry about running out of tasks or not understanding something; I provide detailed explanations and there's always plenty to do.
  
  I try to be available for yoga in the mornings and meal times, and I’m sometimes around during the day. I prefer workawayers who are proactive and look for tasks themselves. If you have a strong willingness to contribute and treat this place as your own, you are exactly who I am looking for!
  
  Please know that the work here can be quite demanding at times, so I am looking for active people who love being outside, enjoy sports, are independent, can think for themselves, are reliable, and are doers.
  
  Building a deep connection may not always be possible, especially if you stay for only 2-3 weeks. Staying for at least 2 months ensures there will be time to connect. Some workawayers have left early due to limited interaction, which I understand. On the bright side, there have been wonderful hikes and memorable visits with workawayers when my job was less demanding.
  
  I prefer workawayers who stay for a couple of months, with a minimum stay of 4 weeks. If you want to stay shorter, try to convince me that it is worth it, for example, if you have special skills that could benefit the project or are extremely motivated.
  
  Please do not apply if you tend to leave messes in the kitchen or cannot clean up after yourself. If you can't handle being asked to keep the bathroom clean, please don't apply.
  
  Unfortunately, due to past experiences, I need to emphasize: If you haven't lived alone and can't manage cleaning, cooking, washing your clothes, or being alone without company, or if you can't help with household chores, this is not the right place for you. Additionally, if you need long breaks after minimal physical work, please do not apply.
  
  Ladies: If I ask you do to weeding in the garden, I expect you do weeding. The basis of our deal is your work for accomodation+food. While I do try my best, it is not my job to entertain you with a task you like and learn a thousand things while doing it. The property is huge and there is indeed a lot of weeding needed to be done. You learn about different weeds and how to deal with them. Also if you cannot handle me (because I am a man) asking you respectfully and politely to do tasks like weeding, cleaning, laundry, then please do not apply. I try to distribute fairly amongst workawayers if the distribution of tasks in the group does not work but also sometimes by my choice and in the end it is my decision.
  
  Guys: If after digging a hole to plant a tree for 10min, you need a break for 15min, please do not apply.
  
  Everybody helps to keep the house, the kitchen and the property clean.
  
  You should be comfortable helping out 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, and treating the house/property as if it were your own. This means returning items to their place, cleaning up after yourself, and addressing tasks without needing reminders. At the end of the day, everything should be as clean as you found it.
  
  There might be some days where I ask you to work a bit longer, for example if the weather forecast says that it is about to rain and the the wood or hay which is out in the open sun gets under the roof in time before the rains begins :)
  
  In return, I provide:
  
  - Very nice and clean accommodation, clay wall heating system in every room
  - Organic, high-quality food (vegetables, fruits, etc.)
  - A well-stocked fridge
  - A very big kitchen with excellent equipment
  - Knowledge on the topics described above
  - Practical hands-on experience
  
  If one day you would like to leave earlier for a hike for example or switch days to stay overnight in a mountain hut - I am normally flexible and we can make that happen. Mountain huts are normally open around June to October. Please always make a reservation in the mountain hut and ask if they are open and if the paths leading there are open.
  
  Now on to the fun part and why this workaway might change your life in a way you might have never imagined :)
  
  
  The project
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  I live in a small paradise in a tiny mountain village (couple of hundred people) in Dafins, Austria. But still only about 10 min from the valley. I live completely organic, and also everything in and around the house (pond, small forest, huge garden, river, spring ...) is held in a enviromentally friendly, sustainable and organic way (permaculture). I do terra preta composting with vegetable coal, do as much recycling economy as possible, I have a vermicompost of worms. There are around 30 fruit trees, 30 berry bushes, 3 walnut trees, 2 haselnut, 2 chestnut trees on the property. I have lizards, birds, butterflies and many many small bugs (ladybug) and friendly insects (earwig - it eats the louses on the trees) here. Every tree has it's own earwig housing :) I'm about to also build housings for green lacewings (they eat the aphids of my trees). There is special butterfly area where always dozens of butterflies are active (I specially planted plants for butterflies there). I make and store my own wood for the heating system in the house and I also have power with solar panels on the roof. I buy organic food in a local organic store. My philosophy is not to become self-sufficient, but to buy what I can from a small family-owned local organic food store to support the farmers who also then support the animals and soil in their area. Also I can never be as efficient as a farmer specialized on a special type of vegetable. It makes more sense to me to buy carrots from a farmer who has perfected this (carrots need very loose soil - almst like sand, which I don't have here). I plant in my garden mainly things I cannot buy like ripe fruits (with some exceptions). In my garden I have green figs, peaches (because I cannot buy ripe peaches), amarillos, berries of all sorts, peas, mini-kiwis, physalis, apricots, apples, tomatoes, salads, spinach, arugula, herbs and much more. I have advanced toolery, a small tractor, and the best high quality garden equipment so that working makes fun and is efficient :) Last year I installed water pipes to most area of the garden with a pump. This year I'm installing water pipes for bird bath and hedgehog fountain. I currently have no animals or pets, although there are a few cats who frequently visits the property, they seem to have claimed this area as there property ;-) .... but I have a lot of root voles, moles, deer, badgers and foxes coming by (filmed with my camera) and eating my broccoli and berries from my garden ;-) I want to build a henhouse soon - workawayers eat a lot of eggs :-D ( ... we have a lot of foxes so the house needs to be safe) and get a dog, cat and goats sometime in the future. Sometimes I get hedgehogs from a local hedgehog sanctuary to release them into the wild here. You would then have to feed the hedgehogs.
  
  What am I trying to accomplish here? First of all this is a huge property and huge house, which are way too big for me to live alone and handle all by myself. I was thinking for quite some time what to do with it. I had various options available. But then I heard about workaway, so I immediately thought that this is it. I can do some good here by making my dream come true to build a paradise in nature for nature with the help of other similar minded people and at the same time spread the word about sustainability, how to treat plants, insects, animals and our earth with respect. To reveal the secrets of how plants interact with our soil and how the recycling economy actually works handson. Because 500 years ago nobody was fertilizing our lands with mineral fertilizers or poisoning our soil with chemical pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, heavy metals and other poisons. Why do we think it is necessary today? Actually I know it is not, and I want to show you and teach you so that this knowledge spreads to as many people as possible.
  
  With the plants, it is like with humans. The industry makes us addicted to substances so that we keep buying them. The same principle is with plants, the more our plants get "addicted" to water soluble mineral fertilizers (mostly as salts), the less need there is for them to interact and grow microbacteria, Mycorrhiza, bacteria which feeds the roots of the plants with nutrients. If the plant then doesn't need them, it won't supply them with what those organisms need most: glucose (carbon/carbohydrates), the symbiosis betweent the plant and the living organisms in the soil degrades. So the soil quality degrades, less carbon goes into the soil, the "life" in the soil starts to "die", meaning you need more and more mineral fertilizer. Since the organisms in the soil also protect the plants against deceases, and since they get less and less, you need more chemicals to kill of deceases (funghi, pests, etc). If you want a healthy plant you need healthy soil without fertilizer. Only this promotes growth of living organisms in the soil who which can then supply the plant with the necessary nutrients. This also does not wash out nutrients like with the mineral fertilizers and does not not pollute our ground water! In fact if you make a drip test yourself, water coming out of "living" soil comes out clear, where as water out of "dead" soil comes out all brown.
  
  Also how to live and really do the Zero-Waste Philosophy, because there was no real waste (microplastics, hard to break down chemicals, PFAS, etc) either 200 years ago. Hopefully if you come to this paradise here and learn how to treat various plant deseases naturally, make super healthy microbacteria enriched terra preta compost and so much more you will share your knowledge with others and spread the word :-)
  
  
  Workawayers 2024 (to keep everybody in the loop)
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  04.01 - 31.01 Hannes Germany
  06.01 - 21.01 Ashley Germany
  20.01 - 11.02 Katrine Denmark
  03.02 18.35 - 18.02 Aimee UK
  04.02 - 18.02 Abu (Germany)
  19.02 - 09.03 Edgars (Latvia)
  03.03 - 13.06 Hugo France (guest room)
  04.03 - 14.03 Briellen - USA
  14.03 - 28.03 Anton Germany (Fitnessroom - upper floor )
  09.03 - 16.03 Tyron (my brother)
  14.03 - 24.03 Emma UK (piano room)
  27.03 - 26.06 Jacob (Denmark)
  17.03 - 19.04 Josy Austria (yellow room)
  22.04. - 31.05. Atussa (july in fitness room upper floor) (cov ok)
  04.05 - 04.06 Nicholas usa (cov ok)
  13.05 - 12.06 (originally 2.7 - 02.08) Méryl & Grégory France (piano room) (cov ok)
  15.05 - 31.05 Matt uk (fitness room) (cov ok)
  08.06 - 28.06 Adam (Scotland)
  16.06 - 07.07 Ido (Israel)
  21.06 - 25.06 Nicole (my sister) plus friend in a separate room
  17.07 - 01.09 Marc (Spain)
  03.07 - 03.08 Manuel (San Marino- Italy)
  10.07 - 31.08 Lucia+friend (Argentina)
  01.08 - 28.09 Veronica Italy (cove ok) shared room
  01.08 - 01.09 Georgi Australia (cove ok) shared room
  29.08 - 30.09 Ella UK (cove ok)
  
  July: 3 rooms, 2 guys, 2 ladies
  August: 3 rooms, 1 guy, 3 ladies
  Sept: 2 rooms, 2 ladies
  
  Please try to come and leave at the beginning/end of the month.
  
  People from outside the Schengen Zone need a valid visa to come to Austria. Please only apply to this workaway if you have a valid VISA.
  
  Even though safety is of the upmost importance to me, an accident can happen at any time and it's important that - no matter how unlikely - you have health coverage in case you need to go to a hospital because of a sickness or injury. For this reason I only accept workawayers who have health insurance coverage in Austria. If you don't have one, check out the workaway offers (world nomads / genki).

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Some of the things you potentially could learn here: Handling with wood, building a dead wood hedge (google "dead hedge" ;-). Wood and garden machinery. Wood splitting machine. Organic & permaculture gardening. Organic hot rot composting. Recycling economy. Worm compsting, Vermicompost, Terra preta compost, Organic farming, Fertilizing of the garden and fruit trees without chemicals - compost, sand, organic fertilizer, mulch, plantbased slurry for spraying on trees and plants. How to create plantbased slurry (stinging nettle, field horsetail, comfrey, and garlic) to strengthen the plants (then they can fend off diseases and parasites more easily). I have very sophisticated tools for repairing stuff. If you are into DIY I can show you how to do handcrafting things from electrical engineering to networking, building things out of wood and drilling holes into walls with a huge drilling machine :-D
  
  For the gardening part, I can show you how to do permaculture gardening. You can observe how plants get well again for example if they have a sickness or lice, fungus etc.
  
  Learn how to grow shitake mushrooms on logs or to cut grass with a scythe.
  
  There is a huge bookshelve with hundres of books, a lot of them have to do with composting, worm composting, hot rot composting, sprouting, growing fruits & vegetables that taste better, herbs, cooking, etc. Quite a few are in German, but there are also English ones.
  
  Sorry, but no smoking or alkohol in the house or on the property! Also no smoking outside on the street, I smell this immediately when you come back and it is not pleasant.
  
  We try to produce as less waste as possible (zero waste goal). We make our own
  - laundry detergent for washing the clothes in the washing machine
  - liquid soap (dishwashing liquid) for the kitchen
  - dishwasher agent for the dishwasher
  
  We use soapflakes, sodium bicarbonate (natron), sodium carbonate (soda), and citric acid to make some of the cleaning agents. Some other ones I still buy (for when the self-made ones are not so effective).
  
  I speak fluent english and german and a bit spanish, I am certified CMAS rescue diver, was part of a life-guard organization for 5 years but I don't actively practice it anymore since I moved from the lake to the mountains :)
  
  I really love to go salsa dancing, rockhill climbing and fixed rope routes (via ferratta) in the summer when there is no snow on the mountain tops. where you could also tag along if you like. Also I do acroyoga, tango argentino and CrossFit sometimes. There is a large and thick 4x4m acroyoga training mat in the yoga room.
  
  About 4-5 times a week I do Yoga in the mornings at around 7:30 where you are welcome to join. I setup the laptop on the floor and follow a instructer lead program. I say this because Yoga helps a lot of people and it brings attention back into their own body. I wish more people would focus more on their own senses, on the present moment, feeling their feelings, and focussing on their body, than spending so much time in distracting things, which brings our attentions away from us. Very important: Sometimes when you go into a yoga pose, you might want to go deeper, but sometimes you might also want to back off a bit. Yoga is not a competition, it's about learning about your body. You should not feel pain in yoga, so please back off a bit when you feel that the pain comes. Learn about your body's limits and learn to respect them!! Every person is individual and in a different shape. Don't compete and compare yourself with others in Yoga.
  
  If you like I can show you how to grow various sprouts like fenugreek, alfalfa, sunflower etc to put in salads or on a piece of bread. You can observe how sprouts come out of the seeds and how quicky they grow! Learn about possible mistakes and how to take good care of them.
  
  Learn how to use a pressure cooker to make the -imho- superdelicious beans, rice and millet fast and easy. Learn how to eat healthy and how to live a healthy life by taking good care of your mind, body and soul.
  
  Learn to make sour-dough bread for yourself and other workawayers, from ginding the grains, to keeping the starter alive to the finished bread.
  
  I am a very open and spiritual person and I welcome questions of all sorts. I practice Yoga, I meditate, I sit infront of fires, talk long walks in nature, go swimming in waterfalls, go through via ferrata trails and encourge you to join in for your personal growth: Being in an environment of nature and spiritual practice can teach you a lot about how to deal with your emotions, thoughts, and challenges that come from living and working together with others.
  
  Kindness, loving care, respect, awareness, and meditation in action are important to me in this project.
  
  There is a lot of great stuff to do around this area. Some examples I have listed below. Depending on my work stituation, if I am able to make some time, I can show you some nearby very beautiful waterfalls or awesome mountain hikes on fixed rope routes.
  
  You will be part of the workaway "Dafins workaway onsite" whatsapp group, so you can communicate and share pictures with the other guests, after you leave -if you wish- you will be part of the "Dafins workaway longterm progess" whatsapp group, so that you can stay in touch with everybody who has ever been here and see the progress of what you started and in order to still feel connected if you like (all workawayers have left a mark here in one or the other way - like the bee housings with custom made drawings).
  
  
  Other random listed possible tasks I can think of:
  labeling trees and plants, making firewood, making fires, cleaning floors from dust, carrying couches and furniture back to their original place, creative cooking, ethernet cabling, mounting outdoor animal surveillance cameras, electrical wiring, garden electrical sockets, building wooden houses for the hawks (so i can attract hawks to hunt mice :), building housings for weasels, making wooden frames for berry plants, covering the pond with a net so leaves don't fall into it, covering the garden soil with leaves for mulch
  
  The longer you stay the more you will learn and the more I can show you. If you are staying for a shorter period there is only so much I can show you. I would estimate that 2-3 months is a good time to get a good overview of most things going on here and 4-6 months to deepen the knowledge so that it becomes second nature to you. Not everybody will be able to do everything, depending on weather, season and harvest.
  
  Things we can do together in our free time: hikes by lakes, indoor rockhill climbing, waterfalls hikes, lunch with my parents, walk by lake constanz or something on the list below
  
  Things to do in the area
  ====================
  I will send you links to everything via whatsapp in my pdf file, apparently workaway does not display them, just google (maps) the terms in the meantime :)
  
  Swimming & chilling in a beautiful nearby lake (I go there frequently and you can join) "Baggerlöcher"
  
  Visit various beautiful waterfalls around the area, for example "Frutz wasserfall", "Rotes Tor Wasserfall",
  Marvelous Waterfall very nearby "Gabor Wasserfall"
  
  Visit the Rappenloch Gorge "Rappenlochschlucht Dornbirn" / Go Hiking up Karren Peak "Karren cable car"
  
  Various hikes (public transportation) and hiking App: download the outdooractive app and then search for the region of Vorarlberg
  
  Nature show experience museum (go there by train) - "Inatura"
  
  Cablecar "Pfaenderbahn" to the top of a mountain with a beautiful view of lake constace (go there by train)
  
  Summer activies in Bregenzerwald (rockhill climbing, ..) (you need a car)
  
  Rockhill climbing indoors (there are lots of outdoor rockhill climbing places as well) (go there by train) "K1 Dornbirn"
  
  Lagoon round trip at the entrance to the Rhine river (highly recommended) (you need a car)
  "Lagunenrundweg an der Rheinmündung"
  
  Visit old town of Feldkirch (james bond scenes)
  
  Old castle museum in Feldkirch
  
  Walk around the magical Seealpsee 2:15 (you need a car)
  
  OR EVEN Better, if you don't mind a hike 3:15 - you hike up the mountain and will see a house built into the mountain - very cool!! and go down the mountain with a cable car or hike up and down 6:30 (pictures of the house built into the mountain here)
  
  Walk around the Lünersee (one of the largest natural mountain lakes in the Eastern Alps) - you need a car
  "Lünersee"
  
  Really cool climbing Route (check out the pics :) - but check if it's open before going - you need a car
  "Klettersteig Pinut"

• 

  Help

  Examples of qualities I am looking for in workawayers:
  - When you use things from my kitchen, you put then back in a clean state
  - If you see something dirty in the kitchen and it wasn't caused by you, then you feel ok to clean it up anyway
  - If you see dirt in the entrace area, you would get the vacuum cleaner and clean it up by yourself
  - When you take a tool from somewhere you put it back in it's place in a clean state, even if it was dirty when you got it
  - When the bathrooms & toilets need some love, you feel ok in attending to it
  - When the plastic garbage gets full, you empty it into the big container outside without me asking you
  - When you fill the bathtube with water you don't go out of the bathroom to do something else in the meantime
  - You know how to cook for yourself and are happy to do so together with others
  - When you see injustice somewhere or feel uncomfortable about something you are ok with communicating this to me
  - Before leaving you tidy up your room and the bathroom like when you found it
  
  More information about the help I am requesting:
  The house is quite huge and there in the large natural scenery around the house so there a ton of things to take care of. Also there are quite some projects I would like to implement, for example currently deer are nabbing on the barks and leafs of my fruit trees so I have decided to build a fence around my property. Since I want everything to be as ecological as possible I want to build a dead wood hedge for insects, hedgehogs, lizards, etc. This can be light work in simple piling up the wood in the hedge or also more challenging work with sawing the wood and carrying logs around together with me. I will attach pictures in the bottom describing this in more detail.
  
  Also help in building wild bee, eagle, lacewing and weasel housings (let your creativity flow when drawing the holes to a pattern) would be greatly appreciated :)
  
  There is a lot to be done in the garden from preparing the soil and planting in the spring to lots of weeding in the summer and watering and mulching. Some trees need a "garden bed", wooden surroundings.
  
  Regarding the house, there are lot of tasks as well, like putting groceries away, cooking, cleaning and laundry, emptying the organic waste, paper, plastics, taking out the trash etc. Just normal things which come to having a big house.
  
  I don't mind if somebody just wants to work on rougher more strenuous work like sawing wood, carrying, moving compost, sand or soil, digging holes for trees, building a stone wall etc or finer things like piling up small sticks on the hedge or planting seeds and plants in the garden or weeding, or other things as long as there is a good climate and good understanding and respect with each other. So basically I have things for people who like physically demanding work, and also things that requires fine handwork like with plants in the garden.
  
  I can also need help in building a nature trail around the property and also building some stone walls.
  
  I have come to appreciate if workawayers who have a passion for making a home look nice do this here :) I'm always open to change so that the house feels more comfortable and welcoming. My goal is that all visitors get connected with the place, with each other, with yourself and that everybody has a great experience :) It should also be a place where you can arrive, be in the present, come into a flow, spend time with yourself (with a hike or some time infront of a waterfall) and reflect about your life and find out what you want in life and what is really is important to you.
  
  We try to communicate to each other openly what went well, what didn't go as planned, what we liked and disliked, and if we identify an area where we could improve, we try to adjust so that the experiece is as good as possible for both of us. Only if we communicate our thoughts, feelings and needs openly we can understand each other better through empathy. A good book I stronly recommend in this regard is NVC - "Nonviolent communication" from Marshall Rosenberg or in German GFK - "Gewaltfreie Kommunikation". NVC is a communication tool with the goal of first creating empathy in the conversation. The idea is that once there is empathy between the parties in the conversation, it will be much easier to talk about a solution which satisfies all parties' fundamental needs. It is about gathering facts through observing without evaluating, genuinely and concretely expressing feelings and needs, and formulating effective and empathetic requests
  
  I have to work a lot from my home office and unfortunately I cannot go as much outside as I would want, that's why I am grateful for help in and around the house. I will share my knowledge and experience regarding nature, sustainability, cooking, gardening, sprouting, composting, yoga+acroyoga, salsa dancing, meditation, spirituality, life experience, humbleness, food preservation, meal prepping, electrical engineering, craftmans skills, etc. When you leave this place I hope you will pass on this knowledge to others in the world :)
  
  Regarding the schedule in the mornings we do a short information exchange either the night before or after breakfast or during the day. I'll let you know what needs to be done and we also do a short feedback round from time to time.
  
  I don't mind on which days or which hours you work as long as I see progress and you work around 5 h a day 5 days a week (public holiday are normal working days).
  
  I normally go to sleep at around 22:00 and wake up at around 7:30.
  
  When it is raining heavily outside we try to do some work inside the house, like cleaning, vacuuming, meal prepping, baking, making a fire 🔥 in the big wood stove in the basement for the central heating system- in order to have warm water for a shower ;-)

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  Languages spoken

  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  The house is very big, there are 3 empty guest rooms, each has a double bed - 1,80m wide. All have windows. One has a really nice and beautiful view to the valley and with a piano in the room. All three guest rooms have been renovated and now have clay walls with copper heat pipes. 2 of them have new curtains to close so that the sun doesn't shine inside in the morning. They are all warm and cosy. All sheets are new. Towels are here as well. You can use the kitchen and the washing machine, which is shared with me. There is also a small cinema room which you can use from time to time when I am out of the house. Highspeed Internet WLAN access with 250/100 installed everywhere around the house. There is an additional fourth "room" in the upper floor of the fitness room where somebody could sleep there in a double bed, however you „climb“ up the wooden ladder to get up. There is an additional temporary fifth room (my office), which can be use as a temporary bedroom. Additionaly there is a tiny apartment outside with shower/toilet but does not have wall heating but only traditional heating with a radiator.
  
  There is a nice guest bathroom with a bath tub and a shower, which workaway guests inside the house share. If you are the only guest, then you have the whole guest bathroom to yourself.
  
  I provide uncooked staple organic-only food like rice, millet, potatoes, beans, oats, fruits & vegetables, eggs, sourdough bread, butter, jam. >> You cook for yourself or together with other workawayers << - This is important - you need to be able to cook for yourself! - I currently am on a special diet (because of my stomach issues), so I cook for myself everyday the same thing: rice/millet+vegetable soup+eggs+meat. Most of the times we eat at the same time together. If I have already eaten (because of my eating schedule, I always try to be there while you eat to talk about the day etc and for the company).
  
  If anything runs out, you write it on a list and I will get it from the organic food store. I don't pay for sweets, meat, chips, chocolate, but I can get it for you if you want, or you can join me when going to the organic food store and buy it yourself, or you go to the nearby shop yourself. If you however would like to make a typical austrian (recipies are available) or other desert or cake for the whole group in your free time, I am happy to pay for all the ingredients.
  
  Learn how to eat healthy. Learn how to cook millet, buckwheat, barley, rice, potatoes in a super delicious way super easy in a rice cooker.
  
  Learn about edible flowers, plants and leafs from the garden and integrate them into your meals. Watch birds and woodpeckers from the kitchen table while you eat breakfast/lunch.
  
  Taste selfmade jam from berries from the garden. Eat self grown potatoes and fresh self-made sprouts in the winter and fresh garden vegetables in the summer.
  
  The large kitchen is equipped with lots of macherinery (vitamix mixer, grinder, machine to make grain flakes, sprouting systems, drying machine to make dried fruits, gas stove, electric stove, wood stove, ceramic oven, deep fryer), energized water filter. You can make bread or pizza in the fire wood stove for example if you like, tastes super delicious :)
  
  All rooms have at least 1 clay wall with heat pipes built into the wall (built by workawayers in 2023). This makes a very cosy and warm atmosphere (because of the wall heating and the natural white clay). They have been completely newly renovated and painted in 2023. They are very clean and it is important to me that they stay very clean. There is an open fire place in the living room. This is super cosy in the winter. Feeling the warmth of the fire on your skin, watching the flames do their thing and hearing the crackling sound of the fire is kind of meditative :) All rooms and also the tiny outdoor apartment have been newly painted in 2024.
  
  In the summer you can use the very comfortable deck chairs to lie in the beautiful foregarden and seeing hearing observing/smelling all the butterflies/insects/birds/etc. Or make a bonfire outside as a group.
  
  There is a concept2 rowing machine in the fitness room if you are into rowing. The fitness room has a pullup bar, rings, a long climbing rope, kettlebells, a rogue bar+rogue bumper plates.
  
  There are a couple of board and card games in the Yoga Room to play with.
  
  I grew up with animals so dogs & cats are welcome. If you want to come alone - great! If you come as a couple - perfect! If you want to come as a couple with a cat or dog awesome! :-)

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  What else ...

  Only when I list your name and your dates in this profile further above, then your stay is confirmed by me. If I give you a verbal confirmation and your name does not appear in the list in 2-3 days above then your stay is not confirmed. Then please come back to me, probably I just need a quick reminder.
  
  There is a bus going to the valley regurarly, or it is about a 15-20 min walk to the busstop in the valley. If you miss the bus or underestimated the time it takes to come back home and it's getting dark and you are afraid, of course I will come and pick you up.
  
  When you are coming here for the first time, I will pick you up from the local train station in Rankweil, Austria - not before 9:00 in the mornings and not later than 21:00 in the evening please. I will wait for you at train platform number 1 in a white car.
  
  When you write me a message through this workaway platform and it seems like a possible fit, I will reply with my whatsapp number, so we can do a whatsapp videocall to talk to each other. Or Signal if you don’t use whatsapp. This way we can get to know each other a bit and check out the vibes :) I will then inform you of my decision and if we are good to go I will send you a copy of my "Workaway Dafins Information, Guidelines and House Rules.pdf" document (mostly common-sense stuff I have learned from experiences hosting workawayers ;) for you to go through and to see if this is ok for you or not. If I don't send you this document because of time constraints, please remind me.
  
  If we have an agreement, here are some recommendations to prepare for your wonderful experience here:
  
  • Make sure you have a valid Visa and health insurance coverage in Austria, if you don’t please don’t come
  • Please make sure you bring shoes and clothes where you don’t regret when they get really dirty and muddy
  • Warm clothes: it can get quite cold during the nights (5-10 degrees in autumn / -5 to +5 in the winter)
  • Swimwear: if you want to go swimming in the nearby lake or waterfalls, perhaps shoes that are ok to get wet
  • Good hiking shoes, mountain clothes, and a backpack if you want to go hiking in the mountains
  perhaps a light sleeping bag and earplugs if you want to stay overnight in a mountain hut (people snore)
  • Install the "outdooractive" app beforehand and explore at possible routes in Dafins and Vorarlberg Austria
  • Yoga mat if you like to join me in yoga sessions
  • Helmet and via ferrata set (fixed rope route set) if you are into this kinds of hikes - I have some used kits here for you to use
  • Please read the "Workaway Dafins Information, Guidelines and House Rules.pdf" document i sent you 1-2 days before arrival to refresh your memory - I will ask you to sign that you read the document once you arrive, if you did not get a chance there is a copy here for you to read
  • There is a link to my website which includes hiking and things to do list in the PDF document i sent you, check it out, there are some real gems there as well as bus time tables and info about transportation :)
  • Choose a fixed (manual selection) Austrian mobile phone provider like "T-Mobile Austria" (best reception) or "A1" when you get here in order to not get charged high roaming costs because your phone changes to a swiss network provider (Dafins is quite close to the swiss border) by chance
  • Send me a reminder of your arrival time in the Rankweil train station 1-2 days before and ALSO on the day of the arrival that your train is on time and has no delays, make sure I confirm your arrival time, I will pick you up at platform 1
  
  
  When you leave please clean and tidy your room and bathroom perfectly like you found it when you arrived - so it is ready for the next guest.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  I have a very good internet connection and wifi in the whole house.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  There is space for a small van.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  This host has said they are willing to accept those travelling with a pet.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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