Ferme, forêt et bricolage en Midi Pyrénées, France

Infos

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  Description

  We are trying to revive the degenerated Domaine surrounding our Château, which nowadays consists of an animal farm with 25ha of hilly pastures, a 45ha forest, a saw-mill and some holiday homes. When we (Bianca, who was trained to be a nurse, and Paul, who had been stuck in an office for far too long) were in our mid 40's, we decided to get away from it all. So it was in 2005 that we left our studying sons behind and emigrated from the overpopulated Netherlands to the tranquility of rural south-west of France. We have embraced some of the local Gascon lifestyle, in which we like to enjoy a full table, both food and company, after a hard day’s work. Our son Tobias joined us early 2014 to start up bee-keeping as part of the farm activities. In spite of all the progress made, the domain never seems finished. So YES, we do welcome volunteers to help out on the farm, with the forestry and to generally fix-up this quiet Gascony glory!

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  Entretien général

  Aide dans une ferme

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  S’occuper des animaux

  Accueil / tourisme

  Aide informatique/internet
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  Objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU que cet hôte essaie d'atteindre

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  Qu'est-ce que c'est ?
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  Projets impliquant des enfants

  Ce projet peut impliquer des enfants. Pour en savoir plus, consultez nos directives et conseils ici.

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  Aide

  In one project, we will saw tree trunks in to planks and beams with which a shed and a barn need to be renovated. The large branches are to be (machine) split for firewood, and all the medium and small branches will be shredded into chips for the wood burner of the central heating. A secondary destination for the planks and beams is to convert the roof of a large hangar in to an area for solar panels to generate electricity.
  Another project is to renovate a building that in the 1950’s and 1960’s housed the farm workers. The idea is to change it in to a shop (boutique) to sell our farm produce, especially honey. In case you might be interested in bee-keeping, there are already a few "past" workawayers who started their own hives at home, based on the experience and knowledge they pick up from Tobias.
  Meanwhile the decoration and renovation of the main house is not yet finished, the surrounding garden, adjacent vegetable garden scream for attention and general maintenance at the farm and the two holiday villas and pool is never finished. Of course our animals (mainly beef + bees) require continuous care with which we welcome a helping hand...

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  Langues parlées

  Allemand: Courant
  Anglais: Courant
  Français: Courant
  Hollandais: Courant

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  Hébergement

  The 3 guest-rooms in the mansion share their own bathroom. We will provide for your preferred breakfast but you'll have to prepare it yourself. But the other 2 meals will be prepared for you, a cold meal at lunch and a warm meal in the evening. Laundry can be done. The daily chores will be shared by all who enjoy the household.

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  Autres infos...

  We have plenty of experience with (mostly young) people helping out at the farm, being it family, friends and WorkAwayers ever since 2005. We started with a group of 15, family and friends, including our 2 sons and some of their friends (city boys and girls) who helped us out during the summer holidays. They all enjoyed it and some so much that they returned regularly in the following years. The last 5 years we had, on average, a dozen WorkAwayes visiting us every year, and some of them left a review on this Internet site.
  
  As a consequence of most of our activities we virtually live outdoors starting April. On a daily routine, the closer we get to the warm season, the earlier we rise to benefit from the early light and avoid the heath. We do warm lunches, which often cause the inevitable siesta.
  
  We know that our place sounds idyllic to some people, so we prefer to be straightforward about what people may expect here. You should realize that it is a lot of physical work around a farm/forest? Don’t be afraid to break a fingernail occasionally or to get your hands and knees dirty. Sometimes we even do some muscle fledging, backbone-building work, and that goes for the both of us (in our fifties).
  
  From experience we would prefer to have WorkAwayers as from the age of 21 years upwards, and for at least 2 weeks.

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  Informations complémentaires

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    Accès Internet

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    Accès Internet limité

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    Nous avons des animaux

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    Nous sommes fumeurs

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    Familles bienvenues

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  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  Cet hôte a indiqué qu’il aimait accueillir les digital nomads.

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  a campervan or motorhome can easily be parked on our premises, but having invited WorkAwayer to come and stay with us, we do prefer to shelter them in the big house.

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  Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux

  we have had WorkAwayers visiting with their pets (dogs only) , which worked out fine with our own free roaming dogs and cats but only if the visiting pet.. eh, no, dogs only, is well behaved and can sleep outside together with our dogs. No cats or dogs allowed inside the house !

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Plus de 2

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