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Host rating
85 %
Last replied
7 Mar 2025
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Description
We are a young couple (Märta and Niklas) living on a farm outside of Flen, Sweden. We are a friendly and open minded couple who likes to meet new people, we love learning and doing a lot of stuff together on the farm.
Niklas is like the horse of the farm, always active planting trees or digging. He holds a primitive skills school where he teaches nature contact, community in the wild and earth skills. (Actually he spends quite some time on the computer each day doing admin work too)
Märta loves to sing, tend the garden and do handcrafts such as hide tanning and painting, always looking for something creative to do. She also works outside the farm as a social worker.
We are just starting up our farm so right now there is a lot of focus on renovations (skills in this is very welcome) and forest work (cutting trees, pulling branches etc = physical).
We plan on getting chickens, so we will clean out and prepare the chicken house.
When spring comes in april, we start planting, digging, preparing the gardens, etc.
The farm is both for growing foods/animals and forest gardering but it will also be a place for wilderness courses, meditation courses and courses in crafts, once the infrastructure is finished for this.
We value all skills related to building (handling tools like hammer, saw, screwdriver, measuring, etc), gardening, and physical endurance for forest work/wood work. If you have special skills concerning ex. machines, electricity, timber framing, motor saw, etc please let us know. Also please write to us if you have a car licence (valid in Sweden) and can drive with a trailer.
You will be working on your own a lot, so it's definitely a plus if you travel together with a friend, as we cannot ensure that there will be other volunteers on the farm at the same time as you. Märta and Niklas will mostly be working on other things during the days, so you will be working on your own mostly. Same with social life, we are here and will meet you during the days but we will also be doing our project on our own.
The days can look like this: in the morning you will eat alone, either you cook your own breakfast with the ingredients provided by us, or we provide cooked breakfast for you. During breakfast we have a morning meeting together where we go through the day.
You work according to the plan and then we eat lunch together or serve you lunch or serve you the ingredients for cooking your lunch. Then work continues and we eat dinner together, or separate, depening on the day. You will work 5 hours a day 5 days a week.
We eat together at least one meal a day, it can even be two or three common meals. But this differs depending on how much outside work Märta or Niklas has to to. We would rather have you be prepared for a lot of solo time (and travel with a friend), even though we strive to be with you as much as we can and are very happy to get to know you!
(In the months of oct-dec, we are looking for someone to assist more in the household with cooking, cleaning, etc, as we will have a newborn to take care of :) )
In your free time, there is a beautiful troll-forest to explore, big and versatile with a rich wild-life (owls, deer, elk, wolfs (not dangerous), foxes, etc.). Old trees and moss and several different lakes to bathe in.
Our own lake is a 2 minute walk away and it makes up the view from the farm. We have a wood-burned sauna situated near the houses, so not close to the lake, however still brings the rich nordic sauna experience.
Because we are located in the countryside, the night sky is full of stars, which sets a magical tone to the farm. In rare cases you could even see the northern lights. It's nice to take one night and sleep outside under the bare sky.
If you want to get a touch of civilization during your stay, there is a small village with a nice café and wifi a bike ride (8km) away, from which there is also a (rare) bus towards Katrineholm and Flen, a bigger city with stores, etc. (We have bikes you can borrow)
You may also borrow our canoes and kayaks we have, and paddle the lakes in the area as you wish. We also have a small tiny sailing boat you can use on the small little lake, and practice sailing.
Distances:
ca 120km from Stockholm Central (train Stockholm - Flen ca 1hour)
13km from Flen (grocery stores, train station)
7km from the nearest village with a lovely café. Accessible by bike (many up and down hills but a nice scenic route)
7km from the nearest bus, which takes you to Katrineholm or Flen (grocery stores, train station).
Types of help and learning opportunities
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We hope to share a traditional way of living and doing things where we live mostly from what nature gives us. You will come in contact with the life of the country side, including bathing in the sauna, chopping wood, butchering animals, eating all parts of the animal, harvesting wild herbs and preserving them in a traditional way such as drying and canning, dealing with the elements and natural materials of soil, wood, etc.
We can practice Swedish together while working or eating.
We hope that you want to share some of your culture as well, such as teaching us a word from your language and cook a traditional dish from your country, if you want to.
Help
We think that the best help comes from a place of joy - the kind of activity that you naturally enjoy doing.
Tasks on the farm can be selected to suit your personality, whether you are handy, like heavy activities or more soft and detailed jobs, are interested in food, gardening, etc.
We need help with all things relating to our farm;
-Garden; picking weeds, watering, digging holes, planting trees and bushes.
- easy tasks like hammering or screwing planks, etc.
-; painting, oiling, help with windows, fixing stuff etc.
-Tending the household; doing dishes, cooking, cleaning.
-Looking after the chickens; feeding, giving water, picking eggs.
-Wood; chopping (by hand or a simple machine), stacking wood
-Harvesting food; herbs, vegetables, fruits, wild herbs.
-Food preservation; drying, canning/pressure cooking, butchering animals and chopping, boiling bone broth, etc.
On our farm you may be helping out with the following (depending on the season - not all activities are done all year round of course) ;
Food forest garden (digging holes, planting trees, berry bushes, pruning...)
Other type of gardening (herbs, annual plants, pulling weeds,watering, composing the garden, etc.)
Building wildlife-shelters with primitive skill activities
Food preservation (wild herb harvesting, hunting and butchering animals, pressure cooking/canning foods, etc.)
Chopping and stacking wood
Building new buildings for future animals
Make parkinglots for cars and fixing/maintaining the road
We love to share our knowledge and also learn the knowledge you bring.
This is a possibility to share your own skills and knowledge and to learn new skills and experience something you might have never experienced before.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Swedish: Fluent
Danish: Beginner
German: Beginner
Swahili (Kiswahili): Beginner
Accommodation
The accommodation is a simple guest room with a double bed, right next to the chicken house. You will become best friends with the rooster :)
Near the guest room is a simple outhouse (no regular toilet, but a dry toilet with bucket and sawdust).
We also have a tipi if you want to live more wild, which is provided with a simple mattress on the ground and sheets, pillow, blanket.
Water is to be collected from the main house and you will have a water can in your room.
Showers are simply outside with the hose, the sauna or the lake.
We provide all the food, sometimes we will cook and sometimes you will cook. This is agreed upon in advance. We eat together although you might be eating breakfast alone sometimes.
What else ...
You will be provided with a bicycle for making adventures, and we can give you a list of nearby restaurants and other things to see in the area.
As with all situations and people, it takes time to get to know each other and get an impression.
We appreciate reliability.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Space for parking camper vans
The last road is bulky and steep hills. No electricity to be plugged in.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
