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Séjour min. souhaité : Au moins trois semaines
Infos
Description
* * * * * * * * *
NEW UPDATE
We lost our volunteers for May /June.
Is there anyone who would care to join us?
* * * * * * * * *
About us
We are two guys who live on a tiny, tiny farm in the central mountains of Norway. Our smallholding is in the district of Valdres, which lies in the central mountains of southern Norway. Our farm is a three hour drive north of Oslo, between two National Parks, and with a splendid view over the majestic Jotunheimen Mountains. Valdres is well known for its culture. We have rich food and craft traditions and also strong traditions in our folk music. Valdres has six of Norway’s remaining medieval wooden stave churches.
We have both great interest in our local folk music, and these traditions have a central place in our lives. Knut Arne teaches traditional folk dance and folk song. We both do crafts in our spare time; Olav does woodcarving, while Knut Arne makes stained glass windows, in addition to making national costumes.
We have a low income, but we chose to provide our Workawayers with good food. We also like to take trips around the mountains & fjords to reward our Workawayers (and ourselves).
We speak English and the Scandinavian languages. Our German is embarrassing
In the evenings we both like a glass of beer or wine, and we would enjoy your company.
What are we up to?
We are pursuing a BioChar / carbon capture scheme. Our goal is to promote carbon capture through new gardening techniques (save the world!). We hold courses in the production and use of biochar, in addition to providing garden accessories. We have designed a new pyrolysis kiln that will soon be in production. We are also trying to promote the use of probiotics in gardening, which is totally new ground in Norway. A central aspect is building an exhibition garden to show the benefits of these techniques. This is a big job that is just started, and will not be finished this year.
Long term perspective
We hope to build a tiny “Fairy Tale Village” consisting of several small cabins. Our Workawayers are housed in a camping wagon, but for the future we would like Workawayers to have special accommodation. This is still a dream.
WORK PROJECTS FOR THIS COMING YEAR
We have snowmelt from April 15 to May 15, and garden growth doesn't get going before May 20.
May is an intermediate season, often cool / cold. There are plenty of jobs to do while waiting for summer:
FOREST PATHS
We are working on a network of forest paths below our property. It's several kilometers of paths, going to seperate lakes and waterfalls. There is substantial windfall, so clearing these can be a heavy job. There is already one young man who has signed up, but theres plenty work for one more. This is a contribution to our local community.
FENCING
We will replace a traditional fence "skigard". This demands lots of material, making this is the bigest part of the job (preparing poles in the forest and carrying them home) + preparing the lumber
CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
We have previously advertised multiple construction projects, but have scaled back on these to a minimum.
* We plan to make a pergola entrance to our garden park. Our goal is to promote ecological gardening and we receive requests for group visits. This pergola will be made using round logs from our forest, and will need bracing.
These projects depend on who can assist us, and MUST be done in May / June.
GARDEN ASSISTANCE
We have a very short summer here in the mountains, and 7 months of snow.
The snow usually leaves by May 20, but we are not safe of frost before June 12 (if ever). This periode is very hectic, as all garden preperation mus be done as soon as possible, due to the short growing season. There's a lot of prep- and planting work to be done.
We might have room for another Workawayer in September, our task for September is taking down the garden in preparation for winter and finishing off projects.
OTHERWISE
Our focus this year is to get our carbon capture scheme going. The government has clearly stated that they do not support small projects like ours. Many fantastic Workawayers have given incredable assistance in our carbon capture project. Without help from them we would not have achieved this. We have now completed a prototype, and are currently working on EU certification of our pyrolysis kiln.
Our overall priority this year MUST be succeeding in this.
Our motto is that “every day you put one foot in front of the other. If you know where you want to go, that’s where you get”. It’s our daily lottery.
If you feel that this is something that you would like to assist us with, please contact.
We have several returning Workawayers, so much of the season is already filled.Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre
Aide avec des éco-projetsJardinageBricolage et constructionAide à la maisonEntretien généralEchange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre
A Workawayer with a genuine interest in culture will benefit from a stay.
Our main focus is advancing our ecological project, so we do not have the capacity to offer private tutorials to our Workawayers.Aide
Cooking and basic housekeeping is a part of daily life. All must do their share, so you will be asked to help out in the kitchen and with housecleaning. Normally this is not considered helping time, but exceptions are made for extraordinary housekeeping or housecleaning.
We will provide all meals; if someone has particular skills in cooking, this would be most welcome. We occasionally eat vegetarian, but we do not have the capacity to provide separate food requirements such as Halal, Kosher, Vegan etc.Langues parlées
Anglais: Courant
Hébergement
Our house is small, so we have bought a used camping wagon with a good standard for your use. We will share bathroom. The rest of our home is at your disposition, but you also have the possibility of privacy and retreat in your wagon.
The wagon is fine for one person. Two friends or a couple should get along nicely.Autres infos...
We also love our Mountains, we hope you will join us hiking in the mountains once a week.
We have reasonably good bus transportation nearby.
A bicycle will be at your disposition, and we also have a canoe that you may use.Informations complémentaires
Accès Internet
Accès Internet limité
Nous avons des animaux
Nous sommes fumeurs
Familles bienvenues
Espace pour garer des vans
Cet hôte a de la place pour les vans.
Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?
Deux
Nombre d'heures attendues
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week
Feedback (14)
We can highly recommend having Václav & Karolína as Workawayers.
Ondine is dedicated to learning as much about gardening techniques as possible, and did an incredible… read more
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We can highly recommend having Václav & Karolína as Workawayers.
Ondine is dedicated to learning as much about gardening techniques as possible, and did an incredible… read more
We have all the best wishes for Kende in the future.
My days were filled with diverse activities, ranging from laborious woodwork, grass cutting, forest maintenance, and ditch digging to the more tranquil tasks of blade sharpening,… read more
In addition to being a horticulturist, Lee is a true artist. This… read more
They were very kind people.
I was glad to experience many things such as maintaining the vegetable garden, and help develop flower beds.
Olav and Knut told me about Norweigan culture and shared their knowledge about soil health, and various other ecological… read more
Without any prior experience, she was able to acquire any craft in question. During her short stay with us she managed to complete carvings on a new garden gate - precisely… read more
Mirko has a genuine curiosity of other cultures, and… read more
I stayed there for 3,5 weeks in August/September. The hosts are really nice, I felt welcoming and as a part of the family from the first second. We went on some nice trips and hikes. Thank you again!
In the freetime you can take the bike or Kanu… read more
The place is just amazing. In the brief breaks between chores, I found myself staring at the beautiful scenery half-tranced and felt dizzy by the freshness of the air.… read more
Their place is overlooking majestic entrance to Jotunheimen, quiet and calm.
There was plenty of work to choose from, skilled, or labour. Olav and Knut did thoroughly introduced me to their methods of work and provided continuous support during my stay. However, I appreciate they gave me… read more
We have continuous projects, so we’re always lagging behind on housekeeping. Anna & Bea kept themselves busy, cleaned the entire house, did… read more
His spare time was just as busy: in addition to exploring all the nearby mountains… read more
Otherwise, Bobby is low maintenance, meaning that he is constantly preoccupied with projects, with little need to be entertained. His main obsession is photography, and I managed to learn a few… read more
They're located in a pretty out-of-the-way spot which was great because I got involved in a… read more
In half that time they managed to scrape and paint the whole barn – and also tore down an old addition to the barn and helped start the building of a new one.
By putting in long work days, they had plenty of time for hiking, biking, canoeing and… read more
To start with she did a week of heavy-duty cleaning; thereafter she undertook the huge task of weeding and cleaning up almost 800 trees.
In addition she spent much of her days in the kitchen, baking and making meals. Her wonderful salads kept us going through the day, and… read more
He expressed a wish to try woodcarving, and ended up doing all the window carvings on our new house. He seems to have a natural talent for learning new skills.
He’s… read more
He has an unforgettable humor that left us… read more