Join us for eco projects, permaculture projects, aquaponics and organic food on the great plains of Nebraska, USA

Details

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  Description

  We are a family that lives and works in the Great Plains region of the United States. The community in which we live is small with around 24,000 people. Industry here is cattle ranching and railroad. This community was also the home of Buffalo Bill and there is much history related to the settling of the Wild West.
  
  Our family consists of 4 kids (only one remaining at home), we normally have a small flock of chickens, quail, rabbits, and some yellow perch in our aquaponics system. The youngest child is a Junior in High School and still lives at home. We have a large intensive garden, an outdoor three bed aquaponics system (flood and drain-which is taken out of service each winter) and a variety of fruiting trees and shrubs. We have a good size annual garden as well as a variety of perennial permaculture systems in place. The chinese style aquaponics greenhouse is still under construction. It has radiant floor heat to heat the concrete and the water in the aquaponics troughs. We will be moving on to building the troughs, and plumbing in the spring of 2022.
  
  We are a small urban farm that produces food for our household, not for commercial sales. Free accommodations are either in our guest house or the main house. The guest house is used for many things including our workawayers, lodging for our artists workshops as well as when friends come to stay. Most often our workaway guests stay in the main house.
  
  The weeks that it is comfortable, we are outside. In some winter weeks we work inside on different things. We also would love to have help cooking and with daily household chores.
  
  Allison, the lady of the house is a teacher, my name is Tim and I am an artist, author and teacher. We look forward to meeting many people.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We have had aquaponics for several years. The aquaponics greenhouse is a hands on project. We will build the troughs, set up the manifold for the radiant floor heat and plumb all of the water lines. When finished one will have a good working understanding of aquaponics. Another area we could spend some time is in cladding the inside fireplace. We will be carving concrete to make it look like rock. There are always a few construction type projects or remodeling/improvements going on. There is typically some sort of propagation going on even in the winter. We take cuttings in each season, succession plant as well as seed start at various times of the year. This small place is a good example of an urban farm homestead using sustainable permaculture principles.

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  Projects involving children

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

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  Help

  We have a number of projects we are working on as well as ongoing yard and garden work. In the winter of 2022 we will be working hard to finish the greenhouse as well as finishing some concrete carving and other inside remodel chores. The art studio is in a state of flux and we added a woodshop that we are doing some work on as well. We also are interested in learning about new recipes for organic and raw foods. We are trying to find more ways to be more self sufficient and to eat a more diverse and healthy diet. We dry, freeze dry, and pressure can produce from the garden and food forest.
  
  We have a number of construction projects coming up as well. New raised beds will be added to another area of the yard. More permaculture projects will be added such as water catchment for the chicken coup. There is always fencing, planting and some sort of garden clean-up to be done. We also have earthbag wall construction, roofing on the garden shed, that needs to be done, a guest house to do finish work on and a host of other fun eco friendly projects.
  
  Current priorities are the greenhouse. Spring of 2022 we are expanding the food forest and prepping to start a food forest nursery which means planting of hundreds of trees, shrubs, climbers, herbaceous annuals and perennials.

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  Currently we have a few different opportunities for accommodation. We have a spare bedroom in our main house as well as a guest house next door. It varies whether the guest house is available but the spare bedroom is typically open except during holidays.

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  What else ...

  There are a variety of historical sites to visit locally. A heritage museum and Buffalo Bills ranch are within 1/2 mile of our property. There is an avid cycling club, a lake on the south side of town and the river at the edge of town. A locally owned book store has a very active open mic night and there are various other activities to enjoy the arts. This is typical small town great plains living and may not be a good fit for someone who wants the jet setting, mega party city life. There are no night clubs here and the night life is pretty mild and plain, many young people might say boring. We work, we play, we rest.

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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

  Digital nomads are welcome at specific times if they are staying in the main house. They are also welcome anytime the guest house is open but they will need to provide their own wifi at the guest house as currently it is not available.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We have a large concrete parking pad that can accommodate up to a 60 ft rig. There is electric and water but no sewage or waste disposal on site.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  Five hours daily per adult staying, M-F. Hours can be flexible as coolest time in summer is 7am to noon, and warmest in winter is afternoons.

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