Canada
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We are a large family with lots of adult children. (There are three children still living at home). The head of the household is handicapped. We love people. We are protestant (Reformed Presbyterian) and have 2 dogs and a cat and a dozen chickens . We are located half way between Montreal and Ottawa. We travel to the two cities regularly. English is spoken in the house with French and Dutch also understood. My children like to sing, play soccer, hike, swim, dance, horse back ride and play board games and snow board. We also enjoy various kinds of music and have a piano and organ. Our house is located in the country side but within 10 minutes drive of the town of Lancaster. There are walking and bike trails close by our house.
Gardening
Building
Babysitting / child care
General Maintenance
Cooking / shopping
Farmstay
Other
Help with Eco project
Help in the house
Animal care
Charity work
Language practice
Art project
Help with Computers / internet
Teaching
Welcome to Canada, where we are all made up from immigrants that have settled here. Our family background is Canadian-born but with Dutch heritage. We have 9 adult children. So far 5 are married each one married to a different ethnic group like: Bolivian/Irish, British/Dutch , Native indian/French-Canadian, Scots and German .We enjoy discussions around the table about philosophy and theology and enjoy learning about other cultures and meeting new people. We have been told that we have excellent spoken English and have been very helpful in teaching new skills and in explaining the English language. We like showing our local heritage sites and love going to museums , nature walks and adventure activities like, water parks, paintball, snow boarding, horse back riding. ..When people come, we ask what kinds of activities and sites they would like to see and do, and then we plan our week accordingly.
So when you come you must try local specialties like: beaver tail pastries, smoke meat on rye bread, our local Lancaster perch ( fish) and poutine, as well as some different meals from all over the world. A true Canadian experience.
We are still finishing building our home so there are lots of little jobs to do like finishing our garage, painting jobs, finishing a bathroom, trim and moulding to put up... Also we have a large garden where we need weeding, hauling wheel barrels of wood chips, help with harvesting, processing the vegetables and fruits for our large family. Learn to drive a tracter. There is always house work to do as well like: vacuuming ,dusting, washing floors....In the winter there is always some snow to shovel, fire wood to stack and haul... We have lots of grandchildren coming to visit who love to have people read them stories and help bake cookies.
English, (French and Dutch understood)
We have both individual and shared room accommodations. We all share 2 bathrooms until the next bathroom is finished. The bedrooms are large and we have a spacious kitchen. We provide towels, face cloths, soap, bed or mattress and linen, pillows, blankets.... you bring personal toiletries. Our house is air conditioned in summer. We heat mostly by solar and fire wood during the winter. Our family enjoys movies and music in our recreation room in the basement and like lounging around or reading in the large, bright, open living room upstairs. The music room is where our organ and piano are located and we often end the day watching the sunset on our front porch.
Be prepared to get dirty working and also there is some construction so bring good closed shoes/boots and bring clothes that can get paint on them. Most people prefer working in jeans and t-shirts and sun hat or cap for the summer and lots of layers like sweaters and thermal underwear for the winter. If you need to purchase famy these items we love going shopping! Let us introduce you to thrifting.
We take amateurs and will train you.
We love people and are open to different points of view and cultural differences but we won't tolerate rudeness or disrespect towards anyone and would have to ask people to leave if they are disrespectful/rude .
A few rules: clean up after yourself, please don't leave toiletries and clothing items lying around. Help with the clean up of dishes please, and no girls in boys rooms and no boys in girls rooms, (unless married couples get their own room). Let us be considerate of each other and call/share if there are changes of plans or going to be late. On Sundays we go to church and hope you'd like to come with us or if you would like we can drop you off at a train station and you can visit Montreal for the day. It costs about $12 for the train and metro/bus pass for the day. Several days of the week someone goes to Ottawa where we could drop you off at a bus for the day.
We have a large extended family. There is always something going on, join in the fun and commotion and be prepared to be flexible.
Welcome to our home we're honoured to have you visit us.
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
More than two
up to 5 hours/day, with Sunday and Mondays off. This can be negotiated as opportunities arises for activities.
