Help with daily life and animal care in Illinois, USA

Details

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  Description

  We are a couple with three sons and a bunch of (mostly rescue) critters. Our animals usually include indoor & outdoor dogs, ferrets, and young poultry. Outdoors we frequently have emu, chickens, peafowl, ducks, geese, farm cats, horses, llamas, alpacas, camels, goats, donkeys, and whatever else turned up on the doorstep.
  
  We have a tiny house on a small plot of land that we use for animal rescue, rehab, retirement and various activities of a hobby farm (a farm where you practice hobbies; it costs money instead of earning income). We are a local "drop-off" location for abused / unwanted / neglected / sick animals. In the past we also sought out animals for rehab and (if possible) re-homing. We used to do a lot more of this but have temporarily cut back to have time for our kids too.
  
  Some of our animals love to travel recreationally, some are here for long term retirement, some the kids use in 4H (youth development and education program), and many take part in free public education activities and free events for the local community. We don’t raise any animals for meat and nothing on the farm earns a profit.
  
  Our human family (parents in our 40s, kids circa 2015, 2017, and 2023) enjoy watching movies, playing video games, attending festivals, crafting, traveling locally, camping with our animals, and going trail riding when we get a free weekend and the weather is above freezing (April-October).
  
  Unfortunately, we both work away from home 40+ hours/week and the animals' upkeep has us very restricted by finances. We don’t get to do nearly as much recreation or traveling as we wish we could, so our hope with hosting is to meet new friends from around the world, get the animals a little more attention, and have some extra help here and there!

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Drawing & painting

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Art & design

  

  Politics / Social justice

  

  LGBTQ

  

  Charity work

  

  Pets

  

  Movies & TV

  

  Farming

  

  Plant care

  

  Gardening

  

  Animals

  

  Nature

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Camping
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Volunteers usually arrive with things they hope to learn, and we add those to current projects.
  
  Some things we have taught volunteers are:
  
  Horse and camel riding
  Large animal training
  Dog obedience
  House and farm maintenance / upkeep
  Raising poultry, milking goats, etc
  Sustainable homesteading / living off grid (Esther was raised this way and is very familiar, although we’ve chosen not to practice a lot of it)
  Gardening (flower beds /fruit trees /minimal veggies but the care is the same)
  Camping with animals
  Improving English / conversational English
  
  Other info: We enjoy the "community" of living with other people, and we will try to treat you like one of the family. You are welcome to join us on any last minute family activities that we do while you are visiting; be it a trip to the zoo, family BBQ, camping with the horses or just a lazy afternoon at the creek. We are also happy to recommend local sightseeing and trips, or even take you on trips with us when you don't mind everyone going together. We’ve had volunteers join us on all types of travel, from a grocery store run to a grand canyon road trip. Generally speaking, volunteers who come along on these adventures tend to have the best time here, which leads us to the next part:
  
  It’s hard to get the full story in a short bio, so occasionally volunteers show up and realize this isn’t the place for them. Of course it’s no problem to change plans, but we’d rather you have a great time here! After years of hosting, we’ve found that volunteers don’t get much out of a stay here when they are:
  • Afraid of animals
  • Scared of living in remote farm countryside
  • “NOT animal people”
  • Unwilling to interact with children
  • Annoyed by living with a family
  • Not a fan of the outdoors
  • Not interested in meeting new people
  • Can’t be left alone or do simple tasks alone
  • Won’t work with other people
  • Addicted to social media
  • Not interested in our farm or lifestyle
  • Not here to learn anything / have new experiences
  • Looking for a crowded social scene, night life, city experiences, constant transportation to and from the city, etc
  • Sleeping in late every morning
  • Not willing to follow house rules (Ex: no smoking indoors, no food upstairs)
  • Unable to take care of themselves (Ex: do your own laundry, dishes, meal prep)
  • Indoor smokers / vapers
  • Extremely allergic to animals, dust, outdoors, etc (ask us if you aren’t sure)
  • Want a pretty picture without the experience (Ex: nearly all influencers who’ve visited)
  
  I wish we didn't have to add this, but… it costs us time and money to host so please do not come if you don’t want this type of experience, don’t want to do any work, or just want a big, fancy, FREE ranch hotel to leave your stuff while you go party. Our house is small, we are broke, and we’ve worked sunup to sundown our whole lives so we just won’t get it :)
  That aside, we are EXTREMELY grateful for extra hands and truly appreciate every person that has supported us with extra help over the years!

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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

  Most people do daily animal chores (food/water/meds/ whatever is within their comfort zone), light help around the house or garden, and join us for any projects we are working on that they would like to learn about. We alternate working on our current farm or house projects, and teaching things based on the interests and learning goals picked out by our volunteers.
  
  Everyday task examples:
  Simple house and farm cleaning, flower bed weeding, mowing the yard, dog walking, basic feeding and watering for farm critters, just hanging out with the babies (chicks, goats, horses, etc), collecting eggs, hanging out/ grooming/ spending time with all the animals.
  
  Hours:
  
  We don't have a set schedule; work is self-paced. Some people take an hour for a job that takes another 4 hours. Some count their hours and quit the moment they’ve reached their max, and others help all day long and take breaks as they need. Some stay at our place every day all week, others travel a few days each week. We are flexible! Basically, our minimum expectation is that you spend some time working on simple projects on the days you are physically here.
  
  There are always ongoing projects that we are working on, but we are happy to slow down and teach you about them too! These are skills and trades that we know and can share with you, NOT things we expect volunteers to know or work on independently:
  
  Training animals, building sheds and pens, help repairing pastures & fences. These projects are done as we can afford them in the spring summer and fall (April through November), so if you are wanting to learn something specific send a message and we can see what is on the horizon. In winter we focus on indoor maintenance, room repair or remodeling, and house cleaning.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent

  This host offers a language exchange
  This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
  You can contact them directly for more information.
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  Accommodation

  House:
  
  We have a small farm house built in 1914 as 2-rooms, with a couple more rooms added since then. Accommodation is an upstairs guest bedroom, and we could potentially set up a second bed if you are traveling with another friend, child, etc. There is a small bathroom downstairs that is shared by all occupants of the house, although we will try to use the one in our bedroom as much as possible when we have guests. There is a shared washer/dryer, or we use a local laundromat if water is critically low.
  
  Water:
  Like many in our area, we suffer from ongoing droughts. We can’t take long showers, we rarely take large baths, we space out laundry, we can’t leave sinks running for a long time to wash dishes, etc. If people have unrestricted water use, our well runs dry for days at a time.
  
  Internet / cell service:
  Wifi internet is rural quality, which goes out in storms and will not support high bandwidth activity. We do have several streaming services (such as Netflix, Hulu, Disney+) with guest accounts that you are welcome to use. Cell service is usually poor, with some carriers are better than others.
  
  Food:
  We don't claim to be good cooks and don't have any special family diets, but we try to share an evening meal together each day as a household. Other meals will be up to you to prepare for yourself (we supply basic food and the kitchen is always shared). We also love to try new dishes if you like to cook or are willing to teach us! People that need special or expensive diets usually supply their own food and cook their own meals, they just prepare their own personal dinner to eat at the evening meal together.
  
  Environment:
  Before living with us, you should know we always have indoor animals and indoor children. We love our kids and animals but we have become used to the constant mess, smell, chewed item, and LOUD outbursts that they make. Furthermore, living in an old house in the country is a guarantee of the occasional wild visitor - no matter how hard we try, our house occasionally gets mice, bugs, bats, etc. So, basically we are asking you to please be open to living with animals and children in the house before you stay here!

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  What else ...

  We live in The Midwest, aka farm country, with big skies and flat corn & soybean fields as far as you can see. It’s a 2hr walk from the nearest towns which have no amenities and less than 1000 residents. Folks in this area all have cars and there is no public transportation. It's a wonderful area for peaceful time alone, reading books, taking walks, or riding bikes down country roads.
  
  For travelling we can occasionally drive you to the closest town with train service (25 min drive) or bus service (55 min drive) and pick you up again as our work schedules allow. We drive to and from town for work most weekdays. Our home is several hours from both Chicago and St Louis, and either city makes for a good day trip with lots to see and do.
  
  When weather permits we also have several great parks and trails for outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, canoeing and of course horseback riding.
  
  Since public transportation does not exist and we travel locally often for recreation, we always welcome you to join us on these adventures and generally get told this is what people enjoy the most from their time here.
  
  Weather is all 4 seasons (sometimes all in the same week!):
  • March-April is spring, with more rain, mud, and flowers. Animals are spicy from being off work all winter. We spend a lot of time getting animals back into riding, grooming or shearing winter hair, gardening, and farm clean up.
  • May-June are getting warm and drying out, usually great for camping, outdoor activities and bigger projects. The bugs arrive including lots of flies at the farm, ticks, mosquitos, & hornets at campsites.
  • July-early September summer is here with HOT and humid days, so we work outside in the AM & PM and inside in the middle of the day. We can’t ride or train if it’s too hot for animals to cool down afterwards.
  • Late September-November is prime riding weather as fall arrives, leaves change, nights get below freezing and campfires are fun again. Camping season ends at most parks October 31st, and our first snow can be anywhere from October to December.
  • December–February is winter, we volunteer with the critters through the Christmas nativity season and then we don’t go outside much due to high winds and below freezing temps. The animals take the winter off from most riding and recreation because we humans don’t like the cold. Because of this, we don't typically host winter volunteers unless you love to work in the cold or are primarily looking for indoor tasks.

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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

  We have had limited success with people working a second job while they are here. Both our wifi and cell reception are poor quality, so they work best for activities that don't need much bandwidth and are not time specific such as e-mailing or document upload.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We have a 50V camper hookup in a grassy area near our road. We can occasionally provide a hose for water to fill a tank. We do not have any dump stations. It's included in your stay, but if your rig pulls a lot of power a donation toward the electricity bill is much appreciated :)

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  Can possibly accept pets

  We might be able to accept workawayers with pets, but there are limitations. We have had both good and bad experiences with this in the past, so if you are interested in coming with your own pet let us know and we'd be happy to discuss further!

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  My animals / pets

  Mr. Meowski, MamaCat, ScaredyCat (all outdoor barn cats)

  Ferrets: Jack, Toots

  Donkeys: Cupid, Link

  Goats: Victoria, Macie, Acadia, Derpy, Jinu

  Camels: Casper, Juniper, Koda, Faye

  Alpacas: Hershey, S'mores, Keriwase, Shimmer, Gracie

  Caveman (Bearded Dragon, indoors)

  Emu, ducks, chickens, geese, guinea fowl, peafowl

  Dozer, Moki, Pirate, Nugget, Maple, Moonshine

  MarshMelo, Fang, Fluffy

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