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Come and help create a non-profit off-grid yoga and healing center in the Kootenays, Canada

  • Favourited 850 times
  • Last activity: 27 Mar 2024

Availability

  2024 

 Min stay requested: at least 2 weeks

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    Our dream of creating a welcoming space to host off - grid, life changing yoga and healing events is coming true! Our goal is to create a space where we can offer healing retreats and workshops on a not-for-profit basis to better support our communities. This year, we will need a crew of helpers to work on making this dream a reality.

    We are located just outside of one of the most picturesque mountain towns in Canada. Nestled in the mountains of a region known as the Kootenays, we call the town of Nelson home.

    Our land is a part of a larger land co-op. This means, all of the members of our co-op share the ownership, responsibilities and work that is needed for our land. We are all stewards of this piece of property and strive to keep it wild, off-grid and peaceful. This makes it the perfect place to develop our retreat center.

    Why a retreat center? Well, we already own 2 yoga studios in nearby towns, that provide our income. Now we want to be able to give back to our communities with a healing/retreat center. We know how important healing spaces can be and our goal is to create space where community can gather, where we can share wisdom, knowledge, yoga and meditation. We can't wait to welcome people from all over to our little piece of heaven.

    This summer, we plan to build a large regenerative swim pond that will be almost 4000 square feet in area. To do this we will be bringing in heavy equipment for the digging process and need lots of hands to help dig, move dirt, build the pond walls, place the liner and then plant the aquatic plants that will become part of our regenerative beds. If you haven't heard of this type of pond, they are really amazing!

    We are also going to be working on our passive solar greenhouse that will increase our food production, allowing us to be even more self-sufficient. The gardens and greenhouse will be some of the main food sources for our retreat guests.

    We will also be building a large platform that will house a 10M geodesic dome where we will gather to meditate and practice yoga.

    We have a few other things on the drawing board too, but they depend on how much we get completed this spring.

    Starting in early May (or even late April depending on when the snow is gone) we will break ground and get going, so if you are planning on being in our area and would like to be a part of this exciting project, we would love to hear from you. We need helpers to join our crews. We will need a crew for cooking, cleaning and gardening and another crew to help with the building projects. While it is beneficial, experience is not required, we will guide you and teach you if you are willing to learn!

    We are looking for up to 10 good natured, positive and friendly people to live, work and share with us as we make our dream a reality. In exchange for your time, we offer a beautiful off-grid mountain community with lots of hiking trails, natural spring, and creek. Proximity to rivers, lakes, and the artistic community of Nelson BC. There are many other little quaint towns and villages to explore. Our area has a rich mining heritage and if youre interested, we can go explore some old mines and ghost towns!

    When you stay with us, we work hard, but we also value play time. We love to explore and enjoy the incredible area where we live, and we love to share it with our guests! So come join us and be a part of something special.

    We provide meals and accommodation for our guests. We have 2 spare rooms in the house, and also we have ample areas to set up a tent! Our large deck is also great for hammocks, or a thermarest and sleeping bag.

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    Art Projects
    Help with Eco Projects
    Gardening
    DIY and building projects
    Creating/ Cooking family meals
    Help around the house
    General Maintenance
  • UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN goals
    No poverty
    Zero hunger
    Good health and well-being
    Quality education
    Gender equality
    Clean water and sanitation
    Affordable and clean energy
    Decent work and economic growth
    Industries, innovation and infrastructure
    Reduce inequality
    Sustainable cities and communities
    Responsible consumption and production
    Climate action
    Life below water
    Life on land
    Peace, justice and strong institutions
    Partnerships for the goals
  • Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    As you can see from our previous helpers, we are pretty relaxed and wish to make connections with our guests/workawayers. We love to show how we live in community, off grid, and how we have developed ways to lower our footprint on the planet.

  • Help

    Help

    Generally speaking we will need you to help with:

    -Any projects we have during your stay; Our Regenerative swim pond, yoga dome, wood fired hot tub and sauna, passive solar greenhouse, cabins...
    -Household chores; dishes, cleaning, preparing food, and gardening
    -Clearing forest for wildfire protection. Cutting dead trees and moving the dead branches to a pile to burn (spring clean up)

    If the weather is hot we work as much as we can before it gets too hot to work. If it's too hot we will take a siesta or hit the river or lake to cool off. Our days aren't totally scheduled and plans change at the last minute all the time. Schedules don't really work around here, but we try and steadily work at our projects while taking time to rest, play, connect and share.

    We are open to learning from you and your skills just as we hope you would be open to seeing the benefits of our way of life and learning from us! Be willing to teach us something if you see where we can improve! Many helpers have taught us better ways to do things. Don't be shy! But be willing to listen to us too!

  • Languages spoken

    English: Fluent

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    We have 2 bedrooms available in our home but there is also plenty of space to go camping on the land. We are off-grid, and although we are close to neighbouring towns, we ARE in a remote location.

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    Because of our remote location we do not have septic or sewer. We use an outhouse. Trust me, it's not that scary. If I can do it, you can too!

    Proper footwear is going to be important. If you show up with running shoes/skate shoes/sneakers/sandals - expect to get wet, muddy feet.

    We will often take our volunteers hiking, floating down the river, to hotsprings and sightseeing. Even though we do these things occasionally, they are weather and time dependant. We usually work hard on projects when we have the time off, but we spend a lot of time relaxing and enjoying the incredible home we have as well.

    We are open to people who are trying to learn better English. However, if you don't understand something - tell us you don't understand. You can't help us if you don't understand our instructions - and we can't help you learn English if you won't tell us when you don't understand.

  • A little more information

    A little more information

    • Internet access

    • Limited internet access

      Limited internet access

    • We have pets

    • We are smokers

    • Can host families

  • Can host digital nomads

    Can host digital nomads

    We have wifi available in the house and close by, for a digital nomad we could provide wifi but as we are remote, the speeds can sometimes be slow.

  • Space for parking camper vans

    Space for parking camper vans

    We have a few flat spots where you could park your campervan. depending on size, we have a few options as to where you can park

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    More than two

  • ...

    Hours expected

    5 hours x 5 days

Host ref number: 965965789131

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