Profile information
Host rating
100 %
Last replied
22 Mar 2024
Reply rate
81.8 %
Usually responds within 18 days
Feedback
14
Email verified
Badges (2)
Details
Description
Our family of four (Lauren, Eric, 10 year old Ember, and 8 year old Solwyn) plus our big white dog and little cat, live about 20 minutes outside of the funky town of Nelson B.C and half hour from funkier, tiny Winlaw. We reside on a land co-operative that shares 88 acres of land with a total of six households powered by our own micro-hydro system. We share a community garden, meet for pot lucks and fun, but each have our own acre to make our own.
Eric is building handmade portable yurts in our backyard. Lauren works for the Infant Development program, is a prenatal educator and occasional Doula (providing birth support for women). Ember and Solie are our adventurously awesome kids who have filled our lives with joy while simultaneously making it more challenging to complete projects!
Types of help and learning opportunities
Teaching
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We work towards what we are passionate about: eating quality food, preserving food, fermenting food, adventuring with with our kids, growing our own food, connecting with community, and simplifying, while trying to make some income here and there! Balance is a tricky act, but we are going for it! If you would like to help us out we are excited to share what we know and to learn from you!
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
Yurt Making - Will need help with all aspects of yurt making, I am currently building a 18' diameter yurt
Gardening - Need help with Harvesting and food processing! We are often overwhelmed by giant piles of fresh produce in our garden and kitchen and need help to eat, prepare, and preserve it!
Firewood - always firewood to collect, buck, chop, stack
Cooking/Food preservation/Fermenting/harvesting - We strive to eat as local and healthy as possible from either our garden, nearby farms, or hunted/gathered wildly. It is really difficult to keep up with meals while attempting all our projects and giving our children time. Help in the kitchen is REALLY appreciated :), We eat an animal based diet and try to eat a diet of soaked/sprouted/fermented grains and legumes to support. This is a not a place where you will get fancy food from us, we are functional eaters :) and require you to fend for yourself quite often.
Childcare - Our kids are full of life, love, and are becoming very adventurous! Extra hands and eyes are an incredible gift. Parenting is not meant to be left alone to parents, but shared with the community. They like climbing stuff, cooking, starting fires, helping in the kitchen, helping with tools, drawing, writing stories, visiting the neighbours rabbits, pretend play and learning from you!
We expect that smokers will find a place where our children are not seeing this regularly. Thank you.
Harvest season (especially August to October) - We often miss the boat here for extra hands, but would love someone to integrate with our family, and help keep up with the loads of food that needs dealing with! Canning, butchering, drying, etc...
These are the main aspects of our life that we could use extra hands with, we can see when you get here what tasks are best suited for you. Usually we can get to more involved projects once the basics are taken care of, but sometimes takes a little time to get there. Many hands help so much, and we are so grateful when we can get the help!
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: IntermediateThis host offers a language exchange
it is a bonus to have someone speak other languages with our kiddos :)
Accommodation
Accommodation is our 16' diameter Yurt. it has a couple Futons, Christmas lights, a hammock (or swing), and wood stove for cooler nights.
Our toilet is an outhouse but it smells like forest, sounds like birds and if you leave the door open you get to appreciate the beauty of the trees around you.
Our drinking water comes straight from the creek, we are the first to draw from the creek. We then have the option to filter it in-house. This creek is also what fuels our micro-hydro system, that gives us our electricity.
We live in a queer friendly off-grid land co-operative sharing 88 acres of mountainside forest with 5 other households. When you are here you will meet our neighbours, might be able to help them with various natural building projects/animals and would be expected to be a healthy community member as well. We work together on a community garden and some other projects.
We live up a 1 km driveway that is pretty rough. if you have a 2 wheel car, we'd talk about shuttling you up, to save our driveway. In the winter the driveway is closed to cars so we toboggan down to our cars and hike up. The driveway usually opens in late April.
What else ...
Things to do nearby:
5 minute walk to bird creek (you can drink the water straight from it)
Visit with other residents of the land
Epic tobogganing
Skiing
Mountain biking
Fishing
Yoga
We live about a 20 minute drive from Nelson, B.C which is a funky, creative kind of place where magic and serendipity seems to happen on a regular basis. There is a bus nearby or you could catch a ride with someone heading into town from our land coop, or hitchhike if you are comfortable.
The Valhallas are close by, as are many incredible mountains with hiking trails all over them. A drive away are various hot springs, some developed and some wild!
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Space for parking camper vans
Room for one camper van in our "flat" spot
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Hours expected
Maximum 5 hours a day, 5 days a week
Feedback (8)
We felt part of the family since the first day. We had also our own privacy with the yurt outside.
We really enjoyed discover the life inside the eco-community, everybody is very friendly and we could taken part of every event with them.
The work was… read more
We felt since the first night as a part of your family guys.To help you with the yurtes was amazing eric and to meet your friends from the community to.they rock:)
The way are you living should be a… read more
I spent a little less than two weeks living with this family and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I felt like a part of their family and hope to see them again in the future. I helped out with gardening in both their family garden as well as the community garden. I helped cook and clean inside their… read more
Photos
Feedback
We felt part of the family since the first day. We had also our own privacy with the yurt outside.
We really enjoyed discover the life inside the eco-community, everybody is very friendly and we could taken part of every event with them.
The work was… read more
We felt since the first night as a part of your family guys.To help you with the yurtes was amazing eric and to meet your friends from the community to.they rock:)
The way are you living should be a… read more
I spent a little less than two weeks living with this family and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I felt like a part of their family and hope to see them again in the future. I helped out with gardening in both their family garden as well as the community garden. I helped cook and clean inside their… read more
-Eric
During my time with them and their great family (4 year old Ember and 1 year old Solwyn), I was… read more
