Région: Eastern Townships, Quebec

We are starting a cultural centre and auberge that will function out of a lovely old chapel and a seven bedroom farm house in the beautiful Eastern Townships of Quebec. The studio has no religious affiliation. Volunteers will work with us on both the house and church as well as the surrounding property, which is located in a peaceful village in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. The official opening date of Staycation Studios is the first of July, 2012.

Région: Umbria/ Tuscan border

Marcus is an Architect, Lucy an Artist, very late 30s. Plus 16 month Lola who is a joyful little soul. We are restoring a large old farmhouse and turning it into an artist's retreat, where people can come and learn many aspects of art from Lucy or visiting artists. Still much to do on the house, specifically including plastering and general tidying, also painting walls, a bit of carpentry making doors and a small wall section, then furnishing, veg patch and general gardening. Support making food etc is appreciated, and Lucy is happy most days to conjur up something tasty. Marcus really appreciates someone to work with, we both love getting to know our visitors, learning things and the general good feeling of reciprosity. It feels this house was meant to have more people in it as in the past it once functioned that way. All help needed asap please! We are very keen to have people now onwards. We are not available for June or second week in July. But we are working pretty hard up until then, after july we will calm down a bit. Lovely food guaranteed. Fancy an art or pasta or bread making lesson, or pizza made in the old bread oven? Come with us for trips into town for weekly markets. Our only animals are 4 freerange chickens we want to fence in a bit now.

Région: Lower Normandy

We are a busy but fun family who love horses ,dogs,cats , alternative therapy,drama ,acting,theatre,polo ,dressage organic plants and veg we work with dancing horses arabians,andalusians,miniatures race horses and heavy horses

Région: British Columbia

We are a little family of 3 (Oliver, 30, Meike, 35, and Emil, 2) who are seeking connection to the land and community. We value sustainability and want to live a satisfying, healthy and creative life. We have just bought a piece of property with the intent of starting an organic farm and forming an ecovillage. We would like to invite like-minded people in our age group (20-40ish) to inquire, help out, learn and perhaps join and create a wonderful interdependent community with us. We are located only minutes north of Greenwood and only an hour from Osoyoos. 142 acres with Jewel Creek running through it. It has crown land on 3 sides and trails all around. Less than 2 km to Jewel Lake. This summer we are focusing on establishing our homestead to prepare for the winter. We are renovating a log house, one of the few buildings that are already on the land. We are planning to eventually build a cluster of natural homes designed to minimize ecological disturbance and maximize use of the fertile, previously cleared areas for organic farming and gardening. We will use building material sourced from our land as much as possible. We are big fans of cob buildings and round houses. We will produce our own power by setting up solar and hydro systems so we hope to get off grid quite quickly. Grey water will be treated naturally and used for irrigation. Composting toilets will provide humanure for some gardens and plants. We want to consume food that is produced locally, ideally on our own farm, but always sustainably. Our organic farm will supply residents and visitors with fresh, organic food; surplus can be sold on local farmer's markets (twice a week in Greenwood) and to restaurants in the area. We will build root cellars to store fruits and veggies for the winter. We are going to incorporate Permaculture principles: zoning, swales, terraces, composting, humanure, mulching, rainwater catchment, hugelkultur, just to name a few. Some of us have experience with biodynamic gardening. We look forward to meeting many cool people and are excited about what we can accomplish!

Région: Tuscany

We are two bi-lingual and bi-cultural families, one British/Italian and one American/Italian living in a small village in the Appenine mountains in northern Tuscany. Charlotte and Claudio have 2 kids aged 7 and 5 - We run a small construction and property management business from our home and we would love some general help around the house and possibly some childcare and/or office work. We would also be interested in people able to help with building our new home or decorating the one we live in now! Laura and Jimmy have two daughters and would like a general hand in the home and perhaps with some decorating. In return we can offer an amazing experience in a medieval Tuscan hill town filled with friendly outgoing locals who will love to welcome you to their world.