Help with small scale farming and nature exploring in Urubici, Brazil

Details

• 

  Description

  My wife and I are living with our 12 years old daughter in Urubici, Brasil, Santa Catarina. Urubici with its 15.000 inhabitants is surrounded by mountains in the heart of the "Mata Atlantica" and is located a 2.5 hours drive from the sea – the city of Florianopolis. Almost 3 years ago we have decided to start a new life in South America but just stayed here in this beautiful nature as we fell in love with the region with its numerous waterfalls, native forests, mountains, wildlife and lots of pure water. There is excellent internet connection, so we do both, work remote online and build up a small scale farming with a diversity of fruits and plants. We have planted around 70 fruit trees, have a 60 m² field and a 140 m² green house where we are experimenting planting a diversity of fruits/greens besides the standards like tomatoes, corn, vegetables and strawberries.
  Besides the planting part we have two guest houses. One is already on rental platform, the other one we are using ourselves at the moment.
  Our property is located 950 meters above sea level in a valley with some waterfalls. You have the opportunity to go biking, hiking, go by Quad, horse tracking or just have a bath in the river. It is a 15 minutes drive into the city but there is a general store in our village, approximately 3.5 km away from our house. A disadvantage might be that the public transportation is quite poor here. We can offer you to take you with us wherever we go. We drive to the city almost every afternoon and once per month to the sea side or make other journeys. We can do more, once you are here;-) Or you can rent a car for around EUR 250-300 per month from Florianopolis. There is an even cheaper private car sharing which you can use.
  What we like as Europeans is the fact there is winter-time here as well with degrees below 0 °C, a few days in July and snow if you are really lucky. Making wood is pretty sustainable here as there are trees which grow very fast and just reach some 10 years of age before you can use them.
  Besides the daily work in the garden there are bigger projects for 2025 like building a chicken house and improving our lake (around 600m²) in order to grow fish.
  If you are looking for both exploring a new culture and having adventures in nature you are at the right place. You can live in our guest house.

• 

  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Teaching

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  Hospitality/Tourism

  General Maintenance
• 

  Interests

  

  Vegetarian or vegan

  

  Pets

  

  Culture

  

  Farming

  

  Cooking & food

  

  History

  

  Music

  

  Plant care

  

  Writing

  

  Astronomy

  

  Languages

  

  Gardening

  

  Carpentry

  

  Adventure sports

  

  Animals

  

  Nature

  

  Fitness

  

  Camping

  

  Mountain

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Hiking

  

  Cycling
• 

  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

  ...

  ...

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  What's this?
• 

  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  There is a mix of native people and European emigrants who came here some 100 years ago so you will get to know the real European-Brazilian rural way of life. With you joining our family for a time, we will build a relationship (depth up to you), share our culture and lifestyle with you, and hope you will share/teach us also. Bring a good attitude and be flexible! Two of us take part in the martial art- Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which you can try too. You may join me in participating in a service of a Christian church and experience a completely other, lively approach of how you are maybe used to.
  You can learn how to fix small problems and repair things in a hands-on manner in our daily work. Also, you can learn a lot about plants and fruits, how to use them as food or medicine or explore wondrous things like taking advantage of a formicary in order to cure coughing.
  Of course if you would like to learn/practice German or Slovenian, we would be happy to help.
  We also really like to play games (board, card, yard), and enjoy good competition while not caring who actually "wins."

• 

  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

• 

  Help

  We have a variety of work to be scheduled on a weekly basis:
  - Daily work in the garden, like cutting the hedge, grass or tree branches. Taking care for the plantation and small projects and repairs around the house.
  - Projects like improving the lake in order to put fish there. Building a hen house. Extending the vineyard. Building a cob house.
  - Wood works as building a deck over the lake, hot tub and sauna,..
  - Establishing beehives for honey production.
  -Bathroom renovation and outdoor shower construction.
  - Assorted cleaning chores.
  So we would appreciate if you have some experience in construction (not professional). The most important is that you be able to work independently, take initiative, and communicate if you have questions or need clarification.
  - If you have any musical skills to offer for teaching daughter, as piano, guitar, ukulele, singing, or art skills we might be interested.

• 

  Languages

  Languages spoken
  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Slovenian: Fluent
  Croatian: Intermediate
  Portuguese: Intermediate
  Spanish: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  As our daughter is keen on learning French, French speakers are very welcome. We are happy to practice Portuguese or English.
• 

  Accommodation

  You may live in a newly built 40m2 cabin in the middle of nature; surrounded by a creek, old trees and a lot of birds. The cabin is located approximately 50 meters from the main house. The cabin has a bedroom with a queen size bed, another bedroom with a bunk bed, and a fully-equipped kitchen. We have a washing machine in our house, which you can use when we are home.
  
  We offer the following regarding the food:
  - Either we or the workawayer(s) will prepare one warm meal daily (late lunch) for all of us. (If the workawayer, the cooking time will be part of the working hours.) We will provide/cover for all of the ingredients except of meat and milk products, as we are vegan with some exceptions as home made pizza with cheese.
  - We have an outdoor kitchen space which you can use for preparing the meals, pizza oven, table and chairs where we can enjoy lunch together.
  - For the other daily meals we offer vegetables and fruits out of our garden. Shopping for any other ingredients or snacks can be done easily as we go to the city frequently.
  
  Please, no drugs or excessive drinking on our property. Also, it is important to maintain the cabin clean as well as keep up with personal hygiene.

• 

  What else ...

  There are a lot of things you can do in your spare time. Hiking starts directly where you stay. You can visit and explore waterfalls, go mountain biking, make Quad-tours or go horse riding which is very famous here. We can also go to the sea where you can try surfing, use our SUP or body board.
  We prefer stays of 2-4 weeks with a 1-week trial period to make sure all sides are happy.

• 

  A little more information

  • 

    Internet access

  • 

    Limited internet access

  • 

    We have pets

  • 

    We are smokers

  • 

    Can host families

• 

  Can host digital nomads

  The house has its own internet access with optical fibre. We have two dogs, a German Shepherd and a smaller mixed breed. We can accept couples as long as you are willing to work on separate projects sometimes, if needed.

• 

  Can possibly accept pets

  Yes. Just if you have a big dog we would like it to stay outside the house as our two dogs do the same.

• 

  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

Website Safety

Feedback (1)