Thomas

& Lea

Travel information

We are currently

Activities we are interested in:

homesteading, language learning(German), herbalism, sustainable living

Description

My name is Thomas. My partner Lea and I are a newly engaged couple starting out on our adventure together. Last summer, we met, finding love between rows of onions and beside the bonfire, chasing fireflies and dodging swarms of Minnesota’s unofficial state bird (or as they are elsewhere called: mosquitos). We are here looking for a place to continue our education in ethical homesteading, plant medicine and in time, hopefully find a community we can contribute to and call home.

This May (2024), Lea graduates with honors from CSULA with a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Communication and a minor in Computer Science. She comes from a small town in west Germany, has had a lifelong love of plants and nature her whole life. She has fond memories of having her own mini garden as a young child while shadowing her mother in their larger garden and has been dreaming about having a homestead of her own as long as she can remember. She’s got a green thumb and understands the beauty and our interconnectedness with the plant world, even growing and self-pollinating tomatoes in her dorm window using a paintbrush.

Over the summer of 2023, on a whim, she took a WWOOFing position in northern Minnesota at Hoodoo Valley farm. There she took part in caring for the garden, volunteering at a monthly food shelter and helping with animal chores. That’s where she met me.

I’ve been WWOOFing and Workawaying since 2022 when I left the world as I knew it, heading out to Minnesota to do some healing, learning, and to find my path. I’ve had an interesting, if occasionally odd, life that’s taken me to 3 continents, 7 states of residence, 4 years of Naval service, and through an abundance of experiences that has led me to become the goofy, jack of most trades, master of none that I am today. While in Minnesota, I finally heard my call to work with plant medicine, to learn skills that are needed now and in the coming years, and to learn how to teach what I learn to others. Minnesota was good to me. I’ll be forever grateful to the folks there for the chance to start my life over in a good way.

After I met Lea, I moved to the west coast where I enrolled as a full-time student at the American College of Healthcare Sciences to get my associates in Integrative Healthcare, while doing WWOOF and Workaway full time. Since coming out here last August, I’ve worked on a Christmas tree farm in Northern California with folks who milled their own lumber, at an urban homestead and permaculture playground in San Diego, and most recently at the homestead of a wonderful couple of Redwood War veterans who taught me about animal care, plant medicine, and the importance of being part of an active community.

Interests

Languages spoken

German: Fluent
English: Fluent

Skills and knowledge we'd like to share or learn

We're interested in:  

Charity Work

Languages

Eco Projects

Life at a Farmstay

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Some knowledge of:  

Teaching

Gardening

DIY and building projects

Animal Care

Babysitting and creative play

Creating/ Cooking family meals

Helping around the house

General Maintenance

Helping with Computers/ Internet

More details about your skills

I love taking care of plants and animals, helping people, seeing a project and a community coming together. It’s a joyous thing to feel the connection of mind, body and spirit that comes from doing something with my hands. I take pride in what I do while trying to stay humble enough to accept constructive criticism from both experienced folks and newcomers to a given task.

To give you a snapshot of my work experience prior to Workaway and WWOOF: I’ve been a sailor in the Navy, a farmhand, a retail manager, a deckhand, an internet/satellite installation tech, a tankerman, a dog trainer’s assistant, and a cannabis grower/trimmer, excelling at everything I’ve attempted.

Since beginning the journey in Workaway and WWOOF. I’ve done yardwork/barn work including mowing, weed-eating, fence repair and building, barn cleaning and clearing, small scale chainsaw operating (on downed branches, I’ve yet to learn how to properly fell a tree though I’m eager to do so) and small tractor/front loader operation. I’ve repaired, maintained, and installed irrigation systems with a little bit of designing. I’ve done designing and building of a few small garden/flower beds and garden rows, helped with construction, cleared a lot of blackberry brush and built raspberry beds. I’ve worked with chickens, sheep, goats, rabbits, pigs, dogs, cats, and ducks. I’m particularly helpful at and enjoy the harvest time, I also really enjoy foraging and wildcrafting. I’ve helped with butchering chickens, pigs, rabbits and sheep.

Lea is one of those rare people who are equally as comfortable around plants as she is around computers. She wants to put her degree to work, be it through volunteering or professionally with folks who could use someone with digital, practical, and artistic skills. With her experience in school and through volunteering, she’s designed dozens, if not hundreds of fliers, posters, and graphical outreach tools that have been very well received. While at CSULA, she finished a challenging 4-year degree program in 3 years, worked as a Student Assistant for Student Housing all three years, was a member of the Environmental Protection Committee as a Vice chair her junior year, the web master for the Society of Women Engineers and was a Residential Advisor senior year. She brings organizational and personal communication skills as well as experience with conflict resolution and crisis management. She has learned how to effectively connect people to resources and has proficiency with software including Office, Adobe, general programming, marketing and social media.

Age

38 & 21

What else ...

Lea and I are both from the country, even though we started in different countries, and we’ve been in the city long enough now to know we’d like to get back to the trees. We’d like to find a place where we can stay, work, and contribute initially for 6 weeks or longer. By the end of that time, we hope to have had a great time on the land, meeting good people and doing good work that will be remembered. If it’s a good fit, and everyone is enthusiastic about the possibilities of a longer stay, we’d like to stick around longer.

Ultimately, our goal is to continue our education in ethical homesteading, plant medicine, and learning how to be good teachers and stewards of the earth. The softly spoken dream is to find a community we can contribute to, where we can teach the joys of caring for the earth and each other, and a home to call our own.

Some more information

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  Smoker

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  Driver's licence

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  Allergies

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  Special dietary requirements