Hi,

We are two crazy (but friendly) metalheads who love HeavyMetal-Open-Air-festivals (we were at Wacken OA in 2009/10/11 - amazing!): Alexandra and Jan ( 32, 32), and we are living on the countryside about 120 km north-east from Berlin. We are living together with our dog Lara, 3 cats, chickens and baby chickens, ducks and ducklings, 5 sheep (3 grown ups, 2 lambs born in early May last year, the 3rd lamb we had for barbecue on the 1st of October for our wedding party, and the other 2 were converted into Schnitzel and Bacon in February :-), and 12 rabbits on an old farming site, we have a garden for growing vegetables and fruits, and we have a lot of work with our old house (nearly 100 years old). We have been living here since July 2009, and there is still a lot to do..
We love preparing organic food with fruits and vegetables from our own garden, we are baking bread by ourselves, and self sufficiency is our big dream :-)
Jan is an artisan, and I am a biologist.

Before we bought the farm, we spent some time in Tromsoe, Northern Norway, where we also met each other there in 2006 while both doing an Erasmus exchange semester. Alex went back to Tromsoe for her bachelor thesis in 2007 for 7 months, and in 2008 we both spent another 9 months up there- Alex for doing her master thesis, and Jan for working as a guide for tourists. Jan is fluent in Norwegian.

Especially Alex loves travelling a lot (did a backpackertour through Vietnam in 2005 on her own), and after her degree in biology the plan was either to travel around the world for one year with Jan or to search for a nice place on the countryside to live. Well, then the farm crossed our way and we lost our hearts :-D

Back to the present on the farm: We have eggs from our own chicken, we are no vegetarians, but don't eat much meat. And if doing so, it is organic meat or meat from our own animals (chickens, ducks, rabbits, sheep).
We have had 33 ducks here during the last summer, and 28 we slaughtered in early December for selling them to friends and family, and some we kept for our own purposes ;-)

As you can see, some parts of the house are still building sites, but some rooms are quite cosy yet- the bathroom, the living room and the kitchen have all cockle stoves, so that it becomes pretty warm during the wintertime...


Well, I think the most important fact you should know is that we are living in the middle of nowhere :-D
We have 2 permanent neighbours in 2 houses, Günther is 84 and Waltraud is 75 years old. The other house in the road belongs to a very nice polish family, but they are still living in a flat in Stettin, as the house isn`t renovated at all (no water, no toilet etc.).
Around our house there is nothing but fields, and one tiny road that goes to Penkun, the town with 2000 inhabitants our place belongs to. Penkun has a pharmacy, a tiny grocery store, a bakery and a doctor. That's it.

We buy our milk at the farmers place in the next village, 1 km from here.
We are living pretty basic (I think you have seen the pictures on our profile), and since September 2010 we even have been having a water toilet, hurray!!! Before we were using a compost toilet...But now it`s much more comfortable :-)

We have a dog, Lara, she belongs to our family, is sleeping in the corridor at night and sometimes cuddling up with us on the sofa, so you shouldn't be allergic to dog's hairs...

Jan is very good in repairing and building, and there's much stuff left to do in and around the house, so we are looking for somebody that can help him with that.

We have been living here for 3 years now, and still living on a building site sometimes it is a bit hard...especially Alex struggles a lot with pretty often not being able to see all the positive things we have already done here , but just the stuff that is still laying around waiting to be done ;-)
That`s why we are enjoying the company of our volunteers so much: they have been all so positive and were really glad that they could have a hand in the whole process here. They even showed us that there`s more than work, work and even more work, building sites and hard dirt on our small farm :-D

We have been having 22(!) workawayers now in total since November 2010 (that`s amazing, still can`t believe this!!), so I would say we are experienced hosts now ;-)

So that was the most important stuff....besides, Jan could need some help in creating his website as he is planning to work as a freelancer, but this is not that urgent right now ;-)

Uecker-Randow

We have 4 caravans for visitors standing in our garden - and we would love to have some helping hands here. We offer free accommodation, lots of home-made food and fun!

We really live out in the sticks, so it's perfect if you are not looking for any pubs or shops around the corner. The work can be dirty, only wear things you don't mind getting wrecked ;-)

We always need help with the normal housekeeping, such as cooking, cleaning, feeding the animals, heating the stoves, chopping wood, walking the dog, tidying up, cleaning the stable...

A nice project for the winter will be to finish the bathroom (painting, grouting etc), and maybe fettling the walls...
Besides, the repair shop needs to be tidied up desperately, there`s some hard work waiting to be done in the basement (still full of rubbish and hard dirt- we got this as a gift when we bought the house. Thanks....).
For the summer there will be lots of gardening, harvesting fruits and vegetables, making hay, finishing the outer insulation of the house, painting the roof of the 3rd caravan, building a bathroom for guests in a compartment of the stable and much more..
It would be nice if you could stay with us for 2-3 weeks, or even much longer if we like each other ;-)

Of course it is great if you bring skills like building , using tools like electrical saws etc, experiences with carpentry or any other type of mechanical art, but it is NOT mandatory at all!
Basically, Jan can teach you everything you need to know...
We had an australian girl living with us for some weeks who was great in sewing and repairing clothes, she also taught me (Alex) how to felt (with the wool from our own sheep), another girl was cooking and baking all the time during her stay, the next one was great in organizing chaotic rooms :-D
So everyone has a talent, don`t be shy, just contact us!
I (Alex) am still hoping to have somebody joining us one day who has some skills in teaching Yoga, knowledge in traditional chinese medicine or massage ;-)

!! But please notice:
it is mandatory that you are able to work independently. It is no problem for us to explain things in detail, even twice, but you shouldn`t have "2 left hands", you should be able to cook basic meals so that we can take it in turns with preparing the meals.
It will be beneficial if you have your own housekeeping, and in case you still live at your parent`s house you should be used to help there with the daily duties and not living in "hotel mama".
If this may sound a bit strange to you: we just mention this so clearly as we recently made some bad experiences concerning those things.

Hope to see you soon, Alexandra and Jan

German, English, Norwegian

4 Caravans, 2 of them with camping toilet

Next train station (7 km from our place): Petershagen/Uckermark
Train to Berlin: 1,5 hours with local trains, Petershagen-Angermünde-Berlin.
We will pick you up from the station in Petershagen!