Profile information
Host rating
100 %
Last replied
20 May 2025
Reply rate
100.0 %
Usually responds within 1 day
Feedback
18
Email verified
Badges (3)
Details
Description
Hello!
We are a young family looking for help building our small homestead, assistance caring for our young child, and enjoying daily life together on beautiful Manitoulin Island.
We live on a waterfront property close to swimming spots, a local town, and hiking trails.
Before settling down, we travelled around the world (Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, United States, Canada) and participated in Workaway as volunteers. It was a great way to meet locals and travel frugally. Now we offer our home as a destination. We value peacefulness and aim to live an enjoyable life filled with hard work, laughter, and relaxation.
We love living here as there is both the peacefulness of the country and lots of fun things to do. Festivals, gourmet restaurants, hiking, swimming, art tours, cycling, farmers markets, kayaking & canoeing: there is something for everyone! We are good friends with our neighbours: Manitoulin Permaculture. We often hold potlucks at our home and have friends and family to visit.
If this sounds appealing, please send us a message! We love getting to know new people and we are happy to create a schedule and tasks that suit each individual.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Interests
Events & social
Pets
Self development
Movies & TV
Farming
Plant care
Music
Books
Gardening
Cooking & food
Carpentry
Yoga / Wellness
Nature
Fitness
Camping
Winter sports
Dancing
Outdoor activities
Water sports
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We live a wholesome life, filled with healthy food, hands in the dirt, fresh air, and sunshine. We love to talk philosophy and challenge each other to think critically about the world we are creating together. We are trained in Permaculture and endeavor to apply these principles to our relationship with the land. We are learning how to raise a child and empower this new life to blossom. We also both have university degrees and degrees in the Skilled Trades (carpentry and mechanics). We love to teach what we know and also to learn from others!
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
Main tasks for 2025:
- Landscaping: Our property has a big lawn, a forest, and a waterfront trail. Throughout the season we will: mow the lawn with our lawn-tractor, plant trees, maintain our waterfront trail, chip branches, and clear new paths.
- Gardens: We have quite a few gardens with a wide-variety of vegetables. Throughout the season we will: dig new garden plots, tend seedlings, plant seedlings, weed, water, and harvest.
- Child care: Our child is almost 2 years old. She is good-tempered and, often, a joy to be around. If it is a good fit, help to care for her is great. This care may entail: exploring nature (the gardens, the trails, the forest) with her, helping her ride a bike/scooter, reminding her to use the potty, preparing/giving her snacks, reading books with her, doing arts and crafts with her, playing at the park, listening and dancing to music, etc.
- Household: Of course, every household takes work to maintain. We prioritize a natural and wholesome way of life. Our cleaning products are, mostly, non-toxic and natural. Cleaning tasks may include vacuuming, mopping, cleaning the bathroom, doing dishes, hanging laundry. For food, we love to cook from scratch. We enjoy baking bread, making yogurt and sauerkraut, sprouting seeds, making broth, and learning how to make delicious foods from all different ingredients. Tasks for cooking may include, harvesting food from the garden and washing/prepping it for mealtimes, preparing grocery lists and requesting ingredients, meal preparation, and cooking. *We are happy to accommodate dietary needs (e.g. vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, allergies, etc), please just let us know in advance.* Breakfast and lunch are for each person to do/eat as they wish and we aim to eat dinner all together each night. We often have friends or family over for dinner.
- Building/Renovations: This season we have a variety of building projects. On our main house, we will be installing exterior siding. We will also be renovating some of the rooms inside the house. We have some old decks to re-furbish and a boardwalk that needs planks installed outside. We also have a shed to replace. We have a nice variety of hand tools and power tools. We are happy to train those who are staying long term (more than 2 weeks)
- Auto-mechanics: We do the majority of our own vehicle maintenance. With a truck, 2 SUVs, ATV, and motorcycle, there is plenty to do. Ryan is a professional mechanic so he has a lot of skills in diagnosing and working on vehicles. Help or learn!
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: Beginner
Accommodation
In summertime, visitors will stay in our canvas tent. It is large at 16' diameter. We outfit this tent with a queen-size bed, comfy chair and storage for your belongings. We also provide electricity and light in the tent and a fan when it is hot.
We also have a large 8-person camping tent and a spare room in our house. If there are many guests, we will make sure everyone is comfortable.
We all share a bathroom, kitchen, and living area. There is a nice area outside to relax in warm weather and we have a comfy couch and hammock outside for relaxing. There is a fire pit for the evenings and a wood-fired sauna nearby.
There is plenty of internet reception at our property however we do not provide internet connection. We use data plans on our phones, as we feel this is enough for us.
What else ...
Our local town has most things: a library with computer and internet, grocery stores, hardware stores, gift shops, cafe, farmers market, drug store, dentist, hospital, LCBO/Beer store, etc.
We go to town often and we are happy to give you a lift.
If you are coming with your own vehicle, we have plenty of parking too.
We have a pretty awesome sound system, vinyl record collection, and smart TV. We enjoy these things during the day, and tend to have quiet evenings and nights so that our young child can sleep.
We enjoying having a drink with dinner but don't drink in excess. We are fairly tolerant of others and also work together to create systems that work for everyone. We aim to live and let live as long as peoples choices do not harm or limit the freedoms of others.
We hope to go to a few festivals in the summer and would be happy for you to come along!
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
This host has indicated that they love having digital nomads stay.
Space for parking camper vans
We have a large driveway and a few areas where a campervan could be parked. We have lots of trees to provide shade. If needed we could run power (electricity) to the camper as well.
Can possibly accept pets
We are willing to accept workawayers with pets as long as they are good with kids and cats. We are also close to a busy road.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Feedback (8)
She was eager to learn new things and also happy to share her talents. She painted is some beautiful murals and I will be so happy so see them every day and think of her!
We really… read more
I stayed 1 month with them, in the end of winter and it was a really good experience! Your life and your place it's really quiet and nice, the frozen lake and the forest, and all the island it's beautiful! and learn about the process of maple syrup it was super interesting.… read more
Photos
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Cultural exchange:
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Communication:
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She was eager to learn new things and also happy to share her talents. She painted is some beautiful murals and I will be so happy so see them every day and think of her!
We really… read more
I stayed 1 month with them, in the end of winter and it was a really good experience! Your life and your place it's really quiet and nice, the frozen lake and the forest, and all the island it's beautiful! and learn about the process of maple syrup it was super interesting.… read more
He played with our daughter a lot and loved our two cats. He made some very good pizza.
We were happy to have him come to stay and we wish him the best for the future!!
Even though I stayed only 2 weeks I learned a lot!
Monica and Ryan are so kind and always there when you need them.
Thank you so much for everything!
It was definitely the most interesting and memorable experience for us, because before that the longest stay with one host was one month.
We arrived in August and stayed until the end of October. Monica kindly met us in Espanyola and drove us to her house, because we… read more
You are very kind and happy to share your daily life with other people.
I really enjoyed being with your daughter, she is an adorable little girl. I also thank you for introducing me to your friends thanks to your fantastic dinners and for… read more
