Profile information
Host rating
85 %
Last replied
24 Mar 2024
Reply rate
100.0 %
Usually responds within 66 days
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Details
Description
Warm hello, Workawayers!
We are a young couple living in the beautiful northern Quebec and our head is full of beautiful and amazing projects!! My name is Jolyane, I'm 30 and I work as a nurse and I also started a zero waste grocery. He is Michel, 33 years old, working in landscaping, but for this summer he will work only in our projects! We have been living here for 5 years in the beautiful nature of Abitibi. We live in a small house in the boreal forest, just by a big lake called Lac Malartic. We aim toward self sufficiency with our big gardens, our chickens, our bees, by doing wild picking and much more. For the last 2 years, we didn't have to buy once any vegetable or fruit at the supermarket! We can now grow all the fresh food we need for the whole year. The summer last for only 4 months here, so this means a lot of transformation and conservation! We also do natural building, we are renovating our house using used ceramic and making artistic design. We have a big greenhouse that we built with natural materials, where we grow a lot of plants, some exotics!
We newly bought a land near our house, where we want to expand our gardens in the goal to sell our organic vegetables in the town market. We do gardening using the permaculture methods, we have the project of planting an orchard of mainly apples, pears and plums, and small fruits like rasberries, strawberries and some less known like haskap berry and saskatoon berry.
We have a cat and a baby dog in the house :)
As of June 7th 2023 we also have a new family member called Elliot,our son! .That is why for a little while it would be a bit complicated to receive people in our house since we are adapting to a new situation and we dont want people to wake up at 3am to a crying baby! But the projects continues and in the future we might be able to welcome more people on our land
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We live in Northern Quebec where the culture is very strong, french speaking people here are very much into hunting and fishing, there is a lot of nature here and people love to enjoy it!! You will learn all the culture here, a simple and more natural lifestyle. Eating fresh, local and organic vegetables, enjoying the beautiful view on the lake, going for canoe at the sunset, taking walks in nature and learning about plants and wild picking. Our lifestyle is connected with nature and you can find yourself changed by this experience! Making bonefire, stargazing at night, swimming in the lake and camping on the beach are things you can do everyday!
You can also taste the delicious food we use to prepare here, with our fresh vegetables!!
You will learn how to garden, how to take care of fruit trees, how to transform your harvest (drying, canning)
Also learn about beekeeping and taste our delicious honey!!
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
The help we need is mainly physical but simple. Mostly make a wild field ready for a garden and an orchard, using manual tools. There will be a lot of weeding, shoveling, cutting wood, watering, planting and all sort of fun activities like this!! We also need help for making a ceramic mosaic on our house, using pieces of recycled and colorful ceramic. This is a lot of fun, we welcome any creative soul!! In the beginning of the summer, it is the planting time of our gardens at home, taking care of plants in our greenhouse, watering our fruit trees and much more!
Taking care of the chickens is a daily task.We have a baby dog that we are training to protect the chickens against all the wild animals.
There is also all kind of small constructions to do at the field (tool shead, watering installations, ect)
Most of the help is physical help in the forest.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: Fluent
Spanish: BeginnerThis host offers a language exchange
We can teach you french, we are interested in practicing our english and spanish!!
Accommodation
We have place for 2 persons inside the house and we also have tents, mattress and all for campers! There is plenty of space outside to camp and you can also camp on the land for a total nature experience!!
Our house is small but cozy, it is a very welcoming place :) The place for workawayers is either on the couch/bed in a room (connected to the kitchen, closing with curtains for intimity) Or we can inflate a large inflatable bed in the living room, there is large windows with a beautiful view outside! Some doors close there :)
There is a very big window south oriented with the view on the lake.
We use composting toilets, we have one outside and one inside, is it very simple to use and the goal is to make compost that we can use for our fruit trees. No waste here!!
They will be 3 meals a day. As we are vegeterian we do not cook with meat but feel free to buy some and cook it. Apart for the stuff we can't make (flour,rice,nuts etc) we use pretty much only what we grow so the food is seasonal but pretty diverse and delicious.
What else ...
There is a lot to do in your time off here!! Right at our house, you can enjoy the lake, chill on the beach, go for canoe or sailing on the lake, explore the islands nearby, fishing ect!
The forest is right here, you can go for walks around, observe animals and birds, do wild picking if you like it!
We live 10 minutes by car from the nearby village called Vassan, where there is a small grocery shop, a small restaurant, a church and a school. The biggest town is 30 minutes from here, we go there many times a week for work so we can bring you anytime! This town is called Val-d'Or, the population is 40 000 and it's mainly a mining town (you can go under the ground to visit a mine!!) but we have a microbrewery, a lot of restaurants and bars, a tower where you have a beautiful lookout of the city and more!!
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We have a good internet connection at home!
Can possibly accept pets
If you have a friendly dog or cat, sure they can come over too! :)
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Hours expected
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week
