Homesteading, Housesitting/Farmsitting Help Needed on Manitoulin Island, Canada

Details

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  Description

  Hello friends!
  
  We are a couple starting out on a small homestead on the beautiful island of Manitoulin, growing fruits, veggies, herbs, and flowers in a natural, organic way. Our farm is 100 acres of forest and field, with a lovely pond, many abundant beautiful fruit trees and lots of wildlife. We created a no-dig garden where we grow heirloom herbs, veggies, and flowers. We have a wonderful livestock guardian dog, about 20 easter-egg laying chickens and 3 hilarious and super friendly purebred Nigerian dwarf goats that we care for.
  
  We are working towards self-sustainability and holistic living in many ways - starting our garden veggies from seed, creating our own compost, canning and preserving, saving seeds and generally tending and caring for the land that we call home. We are continuously learning and discovering, aiming to live mindfully, ethically, resourcefully, creatively, simply, and most importantly, from the heart.
  
  This farm is a magical place, with lots to discover. We are never bored and are always enjoying the various creative and building projects that come up.
  
  We strive for a balanced life of work, rest and play. There are always lots of projects to work on, and yet we also seek the balance where we can enjoy our time, have fun while doing it, and stay nourished.
  
  We both have a consistent morning practice of movement and meditation, and find this to be an essential part of staying balanced through life. While there are no obligations to a having a regular practice, it is encouraged to take that time to connect with yourself each day and have the space for self-reflection and growth.
  
  Tala loves to dance, create music, sew clothing, and is currently studying Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. Dávid is a carpenter/builder by trade, who loves studying neuroscience, quantum physics, personal development, and meditation. We love all things homesteading, love to cook and bake amazing meals, and love connecting with others and participating / creating community events.
  
  Visiting us you can expect to learn about: starting seeds, seedlings, planting, upkeep, harvesting, canning preserving, seed saving, livestock care in regards to chickens and goats, farm/homesteading systems, eco and building projects, art and creative projects, holistic meal creations/cooking, as well as joining us on our journey of learning about responsible land stewardship, local Indigenous culture and community, music and song, and general holistic life ways.
  
  The island is a special, magical place that we are grateful to call home. There are lots of beautiful places to explore on and off the property, and it calls us to slow down, connect with nature and enjoy a simple and peaceful life. Lakes, beaches and hiking are all close by.
  
  ~ 2024 UPDATE ~
  
  We are welcoming three primary types of travelers/ help for this season:
  
  1. Short term house sitters for the dates below: We have important studies / work projects we need to leave the farm for and would love to be able to host someone or a couple to help with the minimal upkeep in exchange for a room, organic food, and a fun learning experience.
  
  2. Short term travelers / help for other dates: we are happy to host people who just want to travel, visit, explore, learn, in exchange for a couple hours a day.
  
  3. Long term help: we would love to host a couple of people or even a couple for the spring, summer, or harvest seasons, or even all three. This would be our preference as it would minimize the time investment in training, and really allow us to build a deeper relationship, co-create larger projects together, and most importantly have peace of mind when it comes to covering the important dates below.
  
  Although we are ideally looking for people with some experience with gardening and caring for animals, it is more important that we find those with open hearts, good communication, and reliability (as there are cute and fuzzy lives at steak). Access to a vehicle is preferred considering our location, but we can most likely manage to make things with our farm truck depending on your needs. You would have the cozy, quiet cabin to yourself some of the time, especially on the dates below. Depending on the time frame you would come stay with us, the daily rounds and projects are different, but generally speaking the livestock maintenance daily rounds is about 20 minutes daily (which we all share), while the gardening and other projects can be between 1-4 additional hours, a few days a week.
  
  House sitting Dates:
  April 8-16th 2024 (filled)
  July 3-8th 2024
  July 24-29th 2024 (filled)
  August 8-12 2024
  Sept 9-16th 2024
  
  Seasonal Time frames:
  Spring - March, April, May
  Summer - June, July, August
  Harvest Season - September, October, November
  
  Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you!
  
  ~ Tala & Dávid

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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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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  An opportunity to slow down and experience a way of living that is connected to nature and wholeistic living.

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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

  Helpers will experience and participate in all the steps of growing a garden: seeding and caring for seedlings in spring, bed preparation, transplanting, weeding, water, harvesting, etc.
  
  As well as food transformation: sourdough, fermentation, preserving, freezing... making sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, tomato sauce, goat cheese, yogurt and soaps..
  
  Daily tasks include collecting eggs and milking goats.
  
  Depending on the skill set, we could use help with some building projects and general maintenance of the property.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  French: Intermediate
  Hungarian: Intermediate

  This host offers a language exchange
  We are actively studing Spanish but would also love to maintain our French :)
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  Accommodation

  A room in the house, or optional tenting anywhere on the property. We share a kitchen, and meals together while we are working.

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  What else ...

  It would be best if you have your own vehicle to explore the area as we are quite rural. There is lots to enjoy - beaches, waterfalls, canoeing, swimming, hiking trails and local markets.
  
  We have a solid two bars of cell service outside of the house, one solid bar with the phone in the window, but no reception inside of the house. The house itself does not have wifi, but we use hotspot to access the internet and it works just fine for our needs. If you dont have a data plan, ours is shareable. In summary, quite workable, but gives an opportunity to be mindful about technology and instead lean into grounding with nature. :)

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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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  Space for parking camper vans

  We've got lots of room for parking, many options/ special spots, as well as various locations and platforms for tents.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  Possible if they get along with our dog and are gentle with chickens and goats.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 4 days a week

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