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Description
Through fortunate circumstances we found ourselves building our dream life in the Croatian countryside since one year ago. We are a couple living in a small wooden cottage that is not yet completely finished. Our vision is creating an educational center for natural living and personal growth through organizing artistic (painting) workshops and outdoor (camping) experiences.
Jolana speaks Czech, Croatian and English and is already very much settled in this area for many years, being known for her painting exhibitions, as well as kids' teacher, homeopathic therapist and for rescuing wild birds. Michael speaks Dutch and English, who is new to the area of Daruvar. He is artist working with wood, and inspired by permaculture-style building. Together we combine our knowledge and experience to cultivate wild meadow flowers and maintaining the surrounding forest edges.
Daruvar is a small town, and we live on the complete periphery, surrounded by calm, forested hills. The town has a central bus station, and from there it is a 45 minute walk to our house - for which we would love to pick you up by car.
We do have experiences volunteering ourselves, as well as an assistant-view on being a volunteer host for our neighbor running Renova Arka. As neighbors we aim to help each other, but with different content.
As for now, we are getting ready to host volunteers whilst we are here - but before we have sufficient accommodation we can now only host people that house-sit our animals when we are traveling. Some of our local friends are ready to keep an eye on our home once in a while, but we would love to invite eager people to really stay to take care full-time.
We love our animals very much, and we really wish to find someone who can enjoy the responsibilities of taking care for two weeks. So let's get in contact and really try to get to know one another before making agreements, please.
We live with 7 cats, 3 dogs and a bird. All of them very loveable.
For the cats, there is mother Tiri with 4 newborn kittens. And the other two adult cats are from Tiri's previous litter, Mali and Layla. They are very independent and love coming around for cuddles, sleeping and food.
For the dogs, there is lady Mazica. She is 8 years old and she already lives in this street for a very long time. She really goes her own way, coming and going as she pleases. The other two dogs are young siblings called Aida and Kay. They are about 10 months old and are very lively, kind and curious. Aida has young babies as well. None of our dogs is really leash trained yet, but accommodated to living freely in our meadows. We completely trust them to always come back home.
Last but not least is Hugo. He is a young crow, still learning to fly and live independently. Jolana has a lot of experience, raising more than 50 birds that fell from the nest or injured otherwise.
Types of help and learning opportunities
House & pet sitting
Interests
Self development
Pets
Plant care
Music
Books
DIY & crafts
Art & design
Cooking & food
Gardening
Photography
Writing
Drawing & painting
Carpentry
Animals
Nature
Camping
Dancing
Outdoor activities
Hiking
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We hope that you like to learn about our lifestyle, that we would describe as slow-paced, abundant in nature and surrounded by cuddly animals. Also our neighboring workaway host and potentially her volunteers offer opportunities for exchange.
Besides that, in the town are plenty of things to do. They include a swimming pool, cinema theatre, as well as a horse riding stable, some restaurants and pubs. Vegan options are limited but not impossible.
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
As part of our daily life, we take care of our house, garden and we live alongside the animals with which we share the home.
As for the house and garden we request you to keep it in good order. That mostly means to keep the house clean, and watering the garden. This would take two-and-a-half hours a day, or more if you feel inspired to. About the house it's important to know that we live without a water connection or a well, so water must be collected from a local source. And for electricity we have a small capacity battery with solar panels that covers basic use. We don't have a dishwasher, the shower is very basic, and we use a dry (sawdust) toilet system. We do have a kitchen equipped with regular stove on a gas bottle.
The cats and dogs are regularly fed - usually twice a day. And all of them love to go for a walk every day. So far the kittens and puppies are not yet walking and being fed by the mother. And the crow is fed more often. We give him meat or fruit when he asks for it, usually every two hours.
We suggest you arrive two days before we leave, letting us show you around. Besides that, our neighbor and friends are ready to help out as well.
Languages spoken
Czech: Fluent
English: Fluent
Croatian: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
Accommodation
During the initial first introduction days we share the house. We do have other options if you wish more privacy, these are negotiable; like space for camping, in the back of our mini-van or asking our neighbor if there is availability in her guesthouse. When we go on our two-weeks trip we leave the house to you.
Our garden will provide some fresh vegetables by the time you arrive, and we can offer you basic things (pasta & sauce, rice, oil and such things). Instead of a regular refrigerator, we use a cold shelf. Because of that fresh things like yoghurt have a shorter durability but for us that has never been a problem, especially when buying smaller quantities of groceries. We will provide three cooked meals per day when we are present to host you. In the case of house-pet sitting we can provide ingredients from our garden and local market for your to cook in our kitchen.
In the case we are present during your farmstay you will join our three meals a day. But in the case of petsitting, when we are not present, we can offer ingredients from both our garden and the local shop.
What else ...
Besides everything we tried to describe about the condition of the house, the care for our animals, food and transport, please send us a message with your questions and suggestions because many things are negotiable and we can find more solutions together.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We have more than enough battery capacity to charge a regular laptop, but no internet access. What we do is make a hotspot with our phone. Our neighbor does have wifi access, it's two minutes walk from our home.
Space for parking camper vans
It could be a little challenge to find a flat parking spot for your campervan, but we can make it work. But we would think you can sleep in our house.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
My animals / pets
Hugo
Mazica
Tiri
Layla & Mali
Kay
Aida
Photos
