Welcome on our huge piece of land near Berlin, Germany

Details

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  Description

  GARDEN CARE WANTED
  From JUNE 23rd to JULY 28th we are looking for someone to look after our garden and do a little something in the garden while we are on vacation. It should be a German-speaking person because our older tenant on the farm cannot speak English and he is the only resident on the farm at the time.
  The deal: you spend about 2 hours in the garden on 5 days of the week and provide yourself with food. But you have peace and quiet in a beautiful place, live in a cozy, comfortable caravan, use our guest kitchen in the annex, composting toilet and warm outdoor shower.
  Belzig is a small town with a thermal bath and a castle, and many hiking trails. We live very close to the train station, which takes you to Berlin Central Station in 1 hour.
  
  GARTENBETREUUNG GESUCHT
  Vom 23.JUNI bis 28.JULI suchen wir jemanden, der unseren Garten betreut und ein bisschen was im Garten macht, während wir im Urlaub sind. Es sollte eine deutschsprachige Person sein, da unser älterer Mieter am Hof kein Englisch kann und er der einzige Bewohner am Hof ist in der Zeit.
  Der Deal: du machst an 5 Wochentagen ca. 2 Stunden im Garten und versorgst dich selbst mit Lebensmitteln. Dafür hast du deine Ruhe an einem wunderschönen Platz, wohnst in einem gemütlichen komfortablen Wohnwagen, nutzt unsere Gästeküche im Nebengebäude, Komposttoilette und warme Außendusche.
  Belzig ist ein kleiner Ort mit einer Therme und einer Burg, und mit vielen Wanderwegen. Wir wohnen ganz nah am Bahnhof, der dich in 1 Stunde zum Berliner Hauptbahnhof bringt.
  
  
  We are a couple living in a small town in East Germany, 1 hour southwest of Berlin.
  
  We are living in a small old house, together with a HUGE and beautiful piece of land, with lots of space and silence. The house and all the barns need quite some fixing, and at different seasons, we have lots of fruit: blackberries, peaches, apples, walnuts etc. We try to take it easy and want to enjoy the place as much as possible - next to all the building sites and work.
  
  In the garden, Birgit, a friend of ours has moved with her lovely tiny house on wheels. She is a great gardener and we are happily harvesting her fantastic vegetables every day. So our little community is growing.
  
  I think I can say we are all open-minded, friendly people, we are happy to have guests, and we also love to have lots of privacy and quiet times. We are all freelancers and regularly working in Berlin (one at the TV and the other doing improvisation theatre), so there will be days when only one of us is at home or you will even be on your own.
  
  Also, we have noticed that having guests can create a special kind of stress, some kind of "having to be sociable", having to find work to do, having to cook meals etc.
  
  So it would be helpful if spending time on your own as well as preparing your own meals is no problem to you. The infrastructure for guests in the summer is quiet good: there is an extra summer kitchen in the barn, a composting toilet and an outside bathroom with hot shower from a solar panel. So you are completely self- sufficient.
  
  Ah, before I forget: also living here is Walter, an tenant, upstairs in the house. He has lived here for 25 years, and he is a typical old man from Brandenburg - pretty grumpy but with a good heart. He doesn't like foreigners (he didn´s like us, originally being from West Germany;-)), he likes to curse a lot (we secretly call him grumpy) - but we like him anyway, somehow. So if you find him not smiling at you, don´t take it personal... luckily, he spends most of his time watching telly and feeding his cat.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Hard to say. Having bought this house and piece of land, I have fulfilled a very old and huge dream and I am really happy that I have not let go of that dream. So I can offer motivating you to not let go of your deapest dreams :-)
  You can learn what life in the east-german countryside can look like. Older people who have lived in different political systems can surely tell lots of interesting stories. Or be grumpy and don't like foreigners;-)
  
  There is a huge alternative scene here, many people who have moved to the countryside to live a simpler way of life - I think that is special here. Lots of small and big sustainable communities, organic farms etc.have grown here within the last 25 years.
  
  If you are a spiritually intersted person: sometimes, on the weekends, we have a meditative meeting in the garden with friends and neighbours. We (not all of us, the guys living here are not into spiritual stuff;-)) sing spiritual songs from different traditions, read texts or sit in silence. It is a beautiful start into the day.

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  Help

  This October, we need some help cutting a lot of young cottonwood trees that have grown in our apple orchard. There are hundres of them and they are to big for our mowing machine. So they have to be cut by hand. We have some electric cutting devices for that.
  
  
  Apart from that, we have lots of other jobs and to- do- lists in our place, dependingon time of the year and priorities. We will take care that you find some work that fits to you, so don't feel shocked by the long list:
  
  - planting new fruit trees
  
  - Clearing blackberry plants - a never ending story in our piece of land - we really have lots of them and this could definitely be part of your job. Actually, it can be quite satisfying to clear a patch now and again.
  
  - mowing the lawn (we have a machine to sit on and drive around - big fun), cutting wood can be something you might want to do.
  
  - For those who know how to work with wood and metal, we have lots little jobs to be done, for example doors and gates that are a bit stuck and could be fixed, old window frames that could be renovated etc.
  
  - clearing and cleaning: step by step, we want to empty and clean some spaces such as the big barn, which are filled with lots of things we don´t need (and a lot of it cannot really be reused). So we can always do some trips to the local waste management authorities to drop old wood, metal, old tires, rubbish etc. Other things we take pictures of and offer them on ebay, so they are not wasted.
  
  - cleaning the commonly used spaces such as kitchen/bathroom should not be a problem to you.

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  Languages spoken

  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Dutch: Fluent
  French: Intermediate

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  Accommodation

  We have a very comfortable caravan to sleep in, which is quite nice inside. There is WiFi.
  
  You can use the outside toilet/bathroom and kitchen. There is a really beautiful composting toilet, as well as an outside shower with hot water from a solar panel. Here you must be aware that the shower will only be hot when the sun was shining for some time...
  
  We have an extra kitchen for guests, so you will be able to prepare your own meals and you can have your privacy any time.

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  What else ...

  Our place is quite big, 3 hectares of nature, and it offers a wonderful view into the landscape. You can go for nice hikes through the forests or just hang in a hammock and enjoy the silence. It is a place for you if you live nature and silence.
  
  Bad Belzig is a small town with about 10.000 inhabitants. There is an old castle to visit, and for those who like spa experience, there is a thermal bath with hot pools and sauna´s.
  
  Further, there are some interesting alternative projects around. Also, one of our friends is a regular workaway host, so we might meet with them sometimes, doing some bigger works altogether or having a camp fire.
  Our house is very close at the railway station - 5 minutes to walk. The hourly trains will take you to Berlin main station in exactly 60 minutes. Also Potsdam and Dessau are interesting towns reachable within less than an hour.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  This host has indicated that they love having digital nomads stay.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We have lots of space for campers.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  Hours expected

  about 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, but flexible

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