Help with a creative events centre in the beautiful nature of Upper Franconia, Germany

Details

• 

  Description

  Hello Workawayer/s
  
  *Update: We're wishing for a couple or a couple of friends who would like to be in a peaceful, beautiful and restorative place, where a fun and enthusiastic family would really appreciate help with mostly gardening and woodland type jobs. It's really healthy for the mind, body and soul! (I know, I used to run a horticultural therapy centre in London) Ideally asap, April, May time! We'll make nice food, it's a lovely creative place with good accommodation etc
  
  Greetings from family Mitchell: Peter, Silka, Leonard 22, Edgar 19 and Erik 12, Django (dog), Thompson & Thomson (cats), 13 chickens and a family of kestrels returning to nest each year.
  
  After years of living in East London ensconced in the rat-race, we decided the time was right for a complete change of lifestyle. So here we are living in a remote farming village by the wild woods of Upper Franconia in northern Bavaria. A decision also prompted by the arrival of a new member of the family in Nov 2011. Erik was born in London but won’t remember much as he was only there for 40 days!
  
  Our mission is to turn what was a dilapidated farm into a creative hub which contributes to the discovery of this beautiful region through creative and healthy output. It's a fairly big task, which is why we're looking for help and enthusiasm.
  
  The place includes 3 acres of garden and woods with five buildings in various states of condition. We're looking for help with both the land and buildings, ongoing artworks and help round the house such as cooking, cleaning or playing with the boys. Jobs include building ‘natural fences‘ through the woods and preparing firewood for the winter, restoring the vegetable garden and maybe the order of our rather neglected house!, laying new floors in the barn, clearing the small beck, or unwanted trees from the woods, and much more...taking Erik to the pool!
  
  The area has a big scale about it, large wild forests, rolling hills and ruggedly beautiful landscape. Weissenbach is a small active village (approx 35 houses) situated at the end of the road, so there's no through traffic. The area beyond is forest and fields, other than the Buddhist Monastery, which is about a 30-minute walk through the woods. The nearest shops/restaurant/bar are in Wirsberg, 3km down the hill and there's a train station in Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg which is 8 km from our house.
  
  We're an open minded, well travelled family who love to work hard, eat well and have fun and we would like to offer volunteers the same in a beautiful place with good air and wonderful bird song.
  
  We have bicycles to lend for fantastic on and off-road cycling, including a lovely cycle path to the historic town of Kulmbach, famous for beer making and the Plassenberg Castle with the largest lead soldier collection in the world! We're surrounded by wonderful woodland walks and there's a great outdoor swimming pool and water slide nestled in the tree lined valley about a 15 minute bike ride from our place.
  
  This is a great place for anyone who wants to hear themselves think or get in touch with nature! The air is wonderful, the area is charming and I'd like to think we are a positive and fun bunch to work with.
  
  ps. we love music, food, games and laughter!
  pps. If you're interested in learning more send a message and ask fro our website address.

• 

  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance

  Help with Computers/ Internet
• 

  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Anyone interested in design and art can benefit from our experience of over 25 years working in this field. They can be part of the journey of developing a project aimed to benefit the local community and attract tourism to an area once well populated by visitors. We speak both German and English in the home and have travelled, lived and worked in a number of other continents.

• 

  Projects involving children

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

• 

  Help

  Renovation work in beautiful old timber barn
  Renovation work in beautiful old tiny house.
  Help with ongoing art projects
  Cutting dead trees out of woods
  Preparing firewood for winter
  Caring for the vegetable, fruit garden and chickens.
  Building living fences through woods
  Preparing barn & studio for next events
  Cooking & helping in the house
  Playing/doing homework with Erik our 10 year old!
  General landscaping work

• 

  Languages spoken

  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent

• 

  Accommodation

  Two double bedrooms in small house.
  One double bedroom above Studio.
  Two ‘Hay hotels‘ in main barn which sleep 3-4 people each.
  Wide range of other tents and camping equipment
  Use of own kitchen, bathroom and toilet

• 

  What else ...

  The local area is full of beautiful, unspoilt walks through sweeping valleys and huge pine forests. There is also a very small Thai buddhist monastery nestled within the woods, approximately 25 mins walk from our home, which offers daily group meditation sessions.
  
  Kulmbach is our nearest town, a one hour cycle away with a picturesque historic castle, beer museum and cobbled back streets. Bayreuth, famous for the Wagner Festival is a 15 minute train ride and worth a visit for shopping, the Wagner museum, Ermitage park etc. Bamberg, Kronach and Coburg are some of the other notable historic towns in the region and all within a 1.5 hour range of our home.

• 

  A little more information

  • 

    Internet access

  • 

    Limited internet access

  • 

    We have pets

  • 

    We are smokers

  • 

    Can host families

• 

  Can host digital nomads

  We gladly host digital nomads and generally our internet connection is good. We run our design business from here and rely on the internet. Mobile phone connection is not good, which is another reason we rely on the internet!

• 

  Space for parking camper vans

  We have a three space car car which would be ideal for camper vans. There's other options here too as we have a very large garden (approx 3 acres)

• 

  Can possibly accept pets

  Pets should be no problem. We have quite a few already!

• 

  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

• 

  Hours expected

  5 max/day (25 hours per week)

Feedback (31)