Learn about equiculture and permaculture while helping with some tasks around our hobby farm near Forster, NSW, Australia

Details

• 

  Description

  We have a small hobby farm of 10 acres, which we bought in a run down state (ie - endless projects!!). We've renovated the house, rebuilt the boundary fences, and have a wildly overgrown permaculture modelled vegie garden. We have 2 horses, and 4 chickens for eggs. We're self-sufficient with water and water treatment, ie we have tank/rain water at our place; and solar panels. Eugene works full time in IT from home, and Helen works in nearby Forster 4 days a week.
  
  Helen rides the horses, we ride in the nearby forest and also at the beach. Unfortunately neither of the horses is for a real beginner, although if you are a horse rider I would love your company on rides.
  
  We love to travel and meet people from other countries, and also love to share our lovely part of the world. Our favourite holidays have been cycle touring in Europe, meeting and staying with local people there.
  We live on our deck when it's warm - have all our meals out there, and lots of BBQs. When it's colder, we're inside sitting around the fire.

• 

  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  General Maintenance
• 

  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We have strong values around health and sustainability, for us personally and for our environment. We use permaculture principles in the garden, and as applied to horse property management. Our goal is to rejuvenate the land in our care. I also try to apply natural horse care where possible, such as having the horses 'barefoot', and avoiding stabling, allowing for greater freedom of movement of the horses while providing shelter choices.
  
  You could also learn about horses and handling horses, although we can't undertake to teach horse riding.
  
  The area we live in is a popular and well known holiday destination, with many beaches, surfing and fishing, boating, kayaking, bush walking, mountain biking, and many other outdoor activities. We of course have our favourite 'secret' spots off the beaten track!

• 

  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

• 

  Help

  Now that we've renovated the house, we have a myriad of smaller jobs such as some fence upgrades, some painting,... some horse stuff such as jumps and rails; and some bigger projects if you're game, such as horse yard repairs, shed repairs...
  There's also the usual farm maintenance activities, such as mowing/slashing, mulching, weeding. We're implementing permaculture principles regarding managing horse properties (Equiculture), which involves mulching any bare areas, moving the horses regularly before the pasture is eaten right down, and creating a 'home yard' that the horses return to for water and rest times. Lots to do with composting and mulching!

• 

  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  French: Beginner

• 

  Accommodation

  We have 2 spare rooms in our home, each with a double bed. You would use the main bathroom, separate to our ensuite. We'd like an initial stay of a week, which could stretch to a month or two, or until the jobs run out if all are in agreement! Our ideal is about 6- 8 weeks.
  We'd love you to join us for dinner in the evenings, and we supply breakfast and lunch as well and generally eat together. We eat pretty much everything, cook vegetarian meals regularly, and Helen is usually dairy and gluten free as well, so we're happy to adapt to pretty much any dietary regime.
  If you wanted to cook your favourite meals from home to share, that would be delightful!

• 

  What else ...

  We live on 10 acres, 400m off the main highway running between Sydney and Brisbane. There are 2 regional towns near us -
  North of us is Taree, 20 KM away, 26,000 people;
  south (east) of us is Forster-Tuncurry, also about 20 km, about 20,000 people, where I work.
  Then south of us is the village of Nabiac, 8 km away, about 2000 people - it has everything except for a saddlery!
  And directly east is the beach. Our favourite beach has a village of 2000 people called Hallidays Point.
  
  We travel in to Forster at least 4x a week, sometimes more.
  It takes about 15 -20 minutes to drive to the beach. There are acres of forest 2 km down the road, both State Forest and National Park, Eugene walks to it in about half an hour. The river is also close, about 5 km, for boating/fishing/walking alongside (but just to clarify, we don't have a boat! Yet!),
  
  This is a wonderful place for 1 to 4 people who like an active and engaged lifestyle, and would like to be away from the cold winters which you get further south. We would love to talk with you!

• 

  A little more information

  • 

    Internet access

  • 

    Limited internet access

  • 

    We have pets

  • 

    We are smokers

  • 

    Can host families

• 

  Space for parking camper vans

  We have 10 acres... parking should be ok!

• 

  Can possibly accept pets

  Cats if they're indoor pets; dogs if they're well trained. Our yard is now fenced for dogs!

• 

  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

• 

  Hours expected

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

Feedback (10)