Profile information
Host rating
100 %
Last replied
14 May 2024
Reply rate
87.5 %
Usually responds within 2 days
Feedback
46
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Details
Description
May 2024 Update: we are looking for mature, responsible, attentive folk for May, June, July and August. For the right fit, we can offer a long stay that could include significant house and farm-sitting responsibilities while we are on short vacations.
Join us and be wrapped in the warm care of a homesteading family for 2-3 weeks (or more if its a good fit!), with healthy home-cooked meals, locally-harvested teas and foods, snuggles with cuddly pets, sports ad board games, and good sleeps in a unique retrofitted 1970s bus overlooking the forest. Our farmstay is best described as a truly immersive experience and is suited to a single person who want to experience the day to day realities of living in relationship to the land and participating in family life, focused on the values of deep ecology, Indigenous wisdom and reconciliation, decolonization, magic, seasonal living, and imagining into a beautiful and safe world for future generations.
We live on 3 acres of mixed crop fields, woods, ponds, fruit trees, gardens-in-the-making and a lovely skyline. This is the fourth property we have hosted helpers on, and it’s our favorite way of 'staying home' while connecting to the world. We grow hemp in the fields and food in the garden using permaculture and regenerative land practices. We also have a sweet dog, a cat, and from time to time some different farm animals.
We love hosting as it brings different cultures, worldviews, languages, art, cooking and friendships into our lives when we have stopped travelling in favor of a localized land-based life.
Important: When you message us, please share a little bit about how you resonate with our profile. We do not respond to messages that only say your name and when you want to come. For best results let us know:
- Your interest in spending safe and quality time with children
- Your interest in participating in family and household life
- Your ability to work and learn with a good attitude
- How you will take efforts to prevent bringing contagious viruses into our family home, particularly in the travel days leading up to coming here (we interact with Elders and vulnerable populations who we do our best to keep safe).
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Language practice
Help with Eco Projects
Teaching
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Help with Computers/ Internet
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Our family is mixed indigenous and european descent. Staying with us you'll learn about indigenous resurgence, Canada's colonial history and the current work of reconciliation, and being a good visitor in relationship to the land you are on. You'll also have the opportunity to learn about permaculture, organic gardening and hemp farming. We are an alternative family who focuses our energy away from mainstream culture and values, and towards a life-sustaining society that promotes collective liberation, diversity, inclusivity, resilience, holistic health practices, and deconstructing the patriarchal, white supremacist extractive capitalist systems of oppression that impact us all. We do this through compassionate inquiry and a trauma-informed approach.
We are the #83 bus route and can lend a bike. We also offer to take you on adventures such as forest walks, town trips, and beach trips. Nearby you’ll find parks and trails, the world-famous Butchart Gardens, ocean access with kayak and paddle board rentals, coffee shops, thrift stores and more.
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
Typically, we ask for help with routine garden, farm, and homestead tasks. These can include shoveling dirt, compost and wood chips, weeding the fields and pulling invasive plants from the woodlands, trail and path maintenance, plant care (pest checking, fertilizing etc.), fence maintaining, general yard care, and seasonal household chores. Lots of shovel work.
Inside the kitchen is a constant work zone and we usually ask for daily contributions to kitchen help.
Up to 20-30% of hours may be household cleaning projects, and sometimes we may ask you to do random once a season chores like cleaning a vehicle, doing a freezer inventory and so on.
Our kids, age 9 and 12, also appreciate if you spend some time with them sharing your skills and passions or engaging in one of their favourite activities such as art, music, basketball, soccer, Uno, chess, lego or boardgames.
Basically, you’ll be involved in every aspect of running a family homestead! And in everything we ask you to do, we usually share a teaching or two about WHY as it relates to permaculture, regenerative and restorative land stewardship, and inter-species relationships!
If you are an artist or healer we can discuss reducing hours of homestead work in exchange for your skills.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Fluent
French: FluentThis host offers a language exchange
This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
You can contact them directly for more information.
Accommodation
Your “room” is a small retro Mercedes bus with access to bathroom, kitchen and living room in family house a few meters away.
We offer healthy whole foods (minimal packaged or ready-made items), and ask you to purchase any special items we don’t normally supply. We eat minimal wheat & dairy, and try and only eat sustainable and ethically raised/harvested animal products.
We have some water challenges and provide instructions on saving water, including limiting showers to five minutes once a day.
What else ...
We can pick you up from most locations in Greater Victoria including ferry terminals and airports.
We prefer to receive new folk on Thursdays or fridays.
Our place is best suited for people who truly want an immersive west coast family farm experience. We expect workawayers to be resourceful, independent, mature, healthy, courteous, and adaptable. We generally do NOT like to host people who want to spend all the free time in their rooms or online, or people who do not have an ethic of reciprocity and responsibility.
We offer references to those seeking jobs in Canada and worldwide and have provided reference letters and reference phone calls to many of our helpers.
*ABSOLUTELY no tolerance for cigarettes/vaping/commercial tobacco.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
Let us know personal work requirements and we can determine together if it’s a good fit (e.g hours, required bandwidth, space set up etc).
Can possibly accept pets
Pets must be clean, de-flead and de-wormed, and be safe with children and other pets. We have a dominant dog.
How many Workawayers can stay?
One
Hours expected
Maximum 5 hours a day, 5 days a week
Feedback (21)
Kirsten is a fantastic communicator, so I was always clear on what task I was doing and my… read more
We helped the most of our time in the garden with weeding, planting tomatos, cucumbers and collecting medical herbs. But we worked also in the forest or build a fence for the lama. There were all such nice experiences and challenges we definitely… read more
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(4.9)
Cultural exchange:
(4.9)
Communication:
(4.9)
Kirsten is a fantastic communicator, so I was always clear on what task I was doing and my… read more
We helped the most of our time in the garden with weeding, planting tomatos, cucumbers and collecting medical herbs. But we worked also in the forest or build a fence for the lama. There were all such nice experiences and challenges we definitely… read more
Kirsten and Blake are very mindful people who value attentiveness, general awareness, and open communication. They are constantly creating an inspiring life for… read more
The kids Nahko and Asher are so cool and easy to be around. Asher taught me how to play chess haha! They’re smart and like to do a lot of things , so connecting with them is fun. Blake and Kirsten love to share thoughts and have… read more
She did every task with a good attitude, asking for… read more
Blake and Kirsten are very attentive and well organized, they give you information about the organization of the week, the planning day-by-day, precise… read more
Not sure where to start exactly, maybe with the youngest member of the house. SWEEPY! (don't know if I'm spelling her name correctly). Sweepy is the sweetest dog. She's full of energy and excitement, if you are having a bad day and come across her,… read more
WOW. when they say "immersive" they mean it, and its a great thing! I was looking for an immersive experience, with lots of learning, childcare experience, farming, and lots of outdoor time. That is exactly what I got, but with SO much more.
Staying with the family was such a balm… read more
I have learnt a lot about how much effort it is to take care of the farm, and kids too! Bit about permaculture system and indegineous situation in Canada, reciprocity, communication. I enjoyed harvesting the gifts from garden, playing with the… read more
I t was a blast! I learned a lot and worked a lot. My stay literally had everything you could think of.
Tasty tasty food, mystery birds, Lego spaceships, brotherly battles and brotherly love,
scorching sunshine, hail, riverside adventures, bug attacks, cow births and so much… read more
Between the two of them they: mulched garlic, built new garden beds, cleaned the chicken coop, prepped early spring garden beds and seeds, deep cleaned various indoor and… read more
First, the place is amazing! A huge farm with eagles, salmon, deers (and we suspect bears...) just around!! There is a river and a forest around! Fields are quiet, relax and beautiful place from the first to the… read more
The farm is part of a beautiful environment, very peaceful. You can ear and see birds coming for food in the garden, you enjoy the sunset from the deck, everywhere is greens and yellows and reds - I was there in October. I forgot to mention the river and its… read more
It was my first workaway experience and I couldn't have chosen a better one. I felt like home and family from the beginning (well, obviously you need few days to adapt but, you know!). I did work a lot in the garden and learned a lot of things about permaculture and different… read more
