Profile information
Host rating
100 %
Last replied
1 Nov 2024
Reply rate
100.0 %
Usually responds within 2 days
Feedback
16
Email verified
Badges (2)
Find your perfect host
Details
Description
Hello,
We live on beautiful Manitoulin island in Lake Huron, the largest fresh water island in the world. A great place to visit if you love nature and the outdoors.
We are looking for lovely work away(s) to come or in the fall or the spring.
We moved here a few years ago and desire to create a more fertile, diverse little hobby farm. We enjoy free range meat chickens and hens, maple syrup tapping, gardening and apple trees. (This year doing some small house Reno projects)
We are a friendly, active outdoorsy family of 8, with Children 28,25, 23, 20, 7, and 9 years old. (older ones away from home at university or work) We are looking for help all around our house, with children, gardens, yard, and forest/fields. We welcome those who want to practice English and teach us some of their language. My husband works at one of the local schools and I am mainly busy mother and homemaker and also enjoy work casually as an EA in a nearby town.
We live on a beautiful acreage (65 acres) with a stone house on a hill over looking a lake on one side and hills of maple,white pines and limestone cliffs on the other. There is a little sleep cabin beside the house we have. We have vegetable gardens as well as flower beds, many apple trees, chickens, maple trees we tap, the lake to swim and play in with canoes and kayaks and a sauna. Wild life is abundant with spring peepers singing, loons calling, Sandhill cranes trumpeting, geese and ducks flying by or landing in marsh and lake, bunnies hopping around, chipmunks and squirrels chattering in the trees, deer wandering past the house and in forest...
We like to eat healthy, tasty food, using as much home grown, local, or from the wild as possible.
Two small towns are 15min away-Gore Bay and Kagawong, both on the waters of the North channel of Lake Huron.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Language practice
Gardening
Animal Care
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 you will enjoy the beauty of nature here on Manitoulin island, with its wonderful combination of majestic whitepines, cedars, old maple trees and other deciduous forests, beautiful flora and fauna, and lime stone cliffs that are part of Niagra Escarpment. There are amazing sunsets, and a multitude of freshwater lakes and beaches; you could even try out fresh water surfing if you are up for the adventure. The culture of farmers and market gardeners, artists and indigenous people are all here to meet and experience as well. Practise of English and sharing some of your language is also a possibility. We all speak English as our first language, some of us a little French and my husband and one daughter speak Spanish. I speak a little Spanish as well.
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
We would love to have help with everything in the house, the garden, yard, projects we are working on.
Specific jobs this year are:
Late March and April : tapping maple trees in sugar bush, cutting stacking wood and also things listed in may-June if time for any. Sugar bush is usually finished early April. We have a dock that was damaged this winter we would love someone who is handy in building?repairing to repair.
May-June: gardening-planting and prepping gardens. House Reno’s. If someone is handy, we would love help installing a farmhouse sink and building a new cupboard below. We hope to do some painting, and porch repairs.
Or if someone is knowledgeable about pruning apple trees we have a lot of those.
Sept-October: harvesting, canning and more gardening, animal care, helping butcher 30 chickens if up for that. Wood stacking and chopping for winter. Possible house projects. Maybe helping install cork flooring.
Gardens are an ongoing project as well as wood cutting and piling. The House always has lots of cleaning and organizing to do. And the little ones always love someone to play with.
Schedule would be 4-5 hrs a day, 5 days a week with Sundays and one other day off to do what you like or join us for some fun. But we are flexible if something is going on that you would like to do.
You are welcome to lend a hand at anything that you see needs doing. We hope to have someone who enjoys children and being part of a big family; someone who is friendly, fun, tidy, trustworthy, efficient and easy to live with. Should also have a can-do attitude, enjoy new experiences, and be willing to work hard.
You should be able to work independently since I will often start working with you then have to attend to our children or go to work some days.
Also should enjoy quiet and nature, a willingness to live somewhere rural away from it all. There are social groups to join if you look (ie choirs, artists guilds, writers clubs, book clubs, bands, yoga...)
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Beginner
French: BeginnerThis 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.
Accommodation
In return for your help you will have a basement bedroom and full bathroom . You are welcome to join us for dinner, and have use of our kitchen to come in to get your own breakfast and lunch. You can enjoy our lake, sauna, and boats as well as explore the beautiful country side and forest walking trails around the property. We hope you will become part of the family.
We have internet but it is a bit slow.
What else ...
On your days/time off you can visit small town markets, cafés, museums, beaches, hiking trails, sail (we have a boat 24 ft) and you can rent them) rock climb, wind surf, kayak or canoe, or bike ( we have all these as well), attend local pow wows, music concerts, festivals, yoga classes, fossil hunt, or perhaps travel off the island to bigger city of Sudbury, or take the ferry to go south to Tobermory.
Our family values a healthy, Christian lifestyle and try to teach our children by good example so no smoking or drinking on our property is permitted.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Space for parking camper vans
This host can provide space for campervans.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Hours expected
4-5 hours per day, 5 days a week
Feedback (7)
I was involved in gardening, painting, watching the kids, cooking, cleaning, apple picking, but most of all: fun activities! I was lucky to get the opportunity to go hiking, kayaking, surfing, and much more.… read more
And on the hill by this lake is the house of even more delightfull and formidable people, Pam, Dave and Lily & Rosie and their manoul cat, Casper.
It's a pleasure to be around Pam, she… read more
Photos
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(5.0)
Communication:
(5.0)
I was involved in gardening, painting, watching the kids, cooking, cleaning, apple picking, but most of all: fun activities! I was lucky to get the opportunity to go hiking, kayaking, surfing, and much more.… read more
And on the hill by this lake is the house of even more delightfull and formidable people, Pam, Dave and Lily & Rosie and their manoul cat, Casper.
It's a pleasure to be around Pam, she… read more
Our purpose was lerning about living in nature and feeling real Canadian life. That goals have been achieved.
Their house is in big nature. The house was comfortable and cozy.
In the morning, we picked up apples from trees for our breakfast, picked… read more
They are the kind of people we wish the world was full of.
They open their home and family to me, they climbed to the neighbor's cliff with… read more
Math and Lulu
