Profile information
Host rating
80 %
Last replied
8 Mar 2025
Reply rate
72.4 %
Usually responds within 34 days
Feedback
13
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Details
Description
Hi! We are an artistic family of 4 living in rural Norway.
We love to eat local foods, and source organic and wild meats, keep a vegetable garden, and gather a lot of wild foods from the abundant nature all around us.
We invite you to come take part in our daily life, and perhaps learn some new skills?
We are striving to be as self-sufficient as possible when it comes to food. We are growing organic vegetables in our small permaculture garden, and we are hunting, trapping, fishing and more.
Our two kids are aged 7 years, and 1,5 year old. We pracitce attachment parenting, and love "The continuum consept", respectful and peaceful parenting. Our home is inspired by waldorf/steiner and montessori education, with natural materials and wooden toys. We are homeschooling our 7 year old.
We strive to keep our home toxin and perfume free. We are a homebased family and mum is staying home, and dad is working online and is a teacher by trade, working from home now, while the kids are small.
Our big dream and goal in life is to live in a ecovillage or community of likeminded people, growing food in beautiful permaculture gardens, making art, living sustainably and raising children together in love and collaboration. This is what we are allways working towards and have in the back of our mind with everything we do.
We try to live sustainably and try to live by the zero waste principles as much as possible in our home.
A bit more about us:
Hi! I'm Marie (mum) and I am 31 years old. I am an artist and a herbalist and i love, history, art, singing, reading books, crafts, nutrition, womans health, self sufficiency skills, cooking, fermentation, gardening, permaculture, womans circles, sprituality, yoga and much more. I am working to start my own online apothecary and I'm also reading the curriculum of the doula-school, contemplating starting doula and postpartum services in a couple of years. I am planning to take permaculture-design education this coming spring. I am currently taking a course to become an expert in edible wild plants. I host a womens circle in our home once a month, which you are welcome to take part in. I am educated in art history, theatre and religious studies, and worked with children and handmade herbal products for many years, before choosing to stay home with the kids.
I'm Jon Edward (dad), I'm 36 years old, educated PE teacher, multimusician, love cross country skiing and reading by the fireplace. I love spending time outside in the forest, working in the woods and doing manual labor. Love The Beatles and James Taylor.
Our 7 year old daughter is an active, happy and creative little girl, who loves hiking, drawing, singing, dancing, reading books and more. She loves learning english with workawayers, and is getting good at communicating in english.
Our 1,5 year old is a cheeky, happy baby, who is very curious and playfull. He is walking, running and starting to talk
Do you share any of our dreams and interests? Please let us know, we would love to host likeminded people who can blend in well with our family.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Language practice
Help with Eco Projects
Teaching
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
House sitting
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
During the course of a year we usually do some of the following:
Make herbal medicine from local wild plants, make sauerkraut and other fermented foods, prosess whole moose and sheep meat, make bonebroth, homemade meatproducts, cure and smoke meats, harvest vegetables, prepare, can, dry and store foods, gather mushrooms, berries, wild herbs, tap birch sap, fish, icefish, make homemade skinproducts, composting and fertalizing the garden, sow and plant vegetables, sewing, knit and make clothes, make paintings, do needlefelting, make homemade waldorf dolls, making cheese products and other dairy products, and much more. We also spend time playing music, singing, and do warious creative and crafty homeschooling projects with our daugther.
We live quite far north, so you can be able to see the northern lights between september and march. Quite a few workawayers have been able to see it during their stay with us.
In summer the sun only goes down for a few minutes, so there is only a brief dusk, before it comes up again, so it is basically midnight sun here, which gives the summer evenings such a special feeling.
We bake our own sourdoughbread, and you will be able to learn how to bake a lot of different baked goods with organic spelt sourdough.
Marie grew up on a old sheep farm, and has a lot of knowledge about traditional norwegian culture and history and would love to share.
We have a lot of knowledge about the local plants and edible wild herbs and medicinals, and are happy to teach you about this. In summer we harvest all our greens from the garden and surrounding area, and we make a lot of different delicious meals from wild plants. We also make lots of different herbal medicines, such as tinctures, elixires, oxymels, herbal oils, salves, syrups etc.
The surrounding area is good for nature loving people, with lots of hiking options in the mountains. There are some beautiful places to bathe in the river next to our house, and lots of beautiful nature, with lots of berries, mushrooms etc.
There is an alpine slope with lifts 5 min. from our house, where you can enjoy downhill skiing, or you kan go crosscountry skiing too. We are happy to help you lend free gear for you skii-trips, alpine and downhill-skiis.
If you like peace and quiet; you will love this place. We love the outdoors, and like to go on hikes and make bonfires, making food over the fire.
We would love to show you the local attractions, such as the sami-museeum, ancient burial mounds, stone circles, stone carvings and more.
During the summer we usually travel a lot, visiting friends, going to different gatherings, and building community.
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
We need help with daily tasks in our home, making food, cleaning, doing dishes etc.
We are also in the process of going through our things and downsizing, so we need help with watching and engaging our kids while we organise. We would love to host somebody who likes doing creative projects with our little one.
We need help painting our house, and other buildings, flooring and home-upgrading in general. Woodworking and beautifying our home is also welcome.
We will also grow some vegetables this spring, so we will need help with that too. We are not planning a huge garden this year, since we are planning to travel a lot during summer, but we are growing some staples.
We chop our own wood, and would love help with that.
Building a fence.
We are also planning to buy a camping vagon that we need to renovate and decorate.
We need help with harvesting herbs, wild plants, mushrooms and berries.
We would love help with hand sewing viking reenactment clothes.
There will be many different projects to help out with during your stay with us, depending on what time of year you are visiting. Please let us know what you are interested in!
You will not participate in any business-related activities.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Norwegian: FluentThis host offers a language exchange
We would love to teach you some Norwegian while you stay with us. We would also love for our 6 year old daughter to learn english, spanish, german or other languages, mainly through interacting with you. It is important that you can speak english fluently.
Accommodation
You can choose between staying in our cozy cabin on our property, which we also have as a guest rental, or you can stay in a bedroom in the basement in our house. In the basement you have your own bathroom, with a shower, and your own washing machine. You also have access to a small WC in our hall, which is even closer to the cabin, if you choose to sleep there. If somebody requests to rent the place, you will have to move into the basement bedroom for their stay.
We keep in stock lots of healthy and varied food. We eat mostly organic, highly nutritious food, inspired by Weston A. price/nourishing traditions and we make a lot of food from scratch. It is important that you are able to eat eggs and bone broth, because we mix it into a lot of our cooking. We process a lot of meat ourselves, and eat a lot of wild moose, hunted by our extended family.
You will be sharing meals with the rest of the family, and we expect you to help out as you would in a normal household in addition to the work hours.
We don't drink and our house is smoke free.
We have two cats.
For winter: Winters in our area can be cold, ranging from -30 to +5 celcius. You must bring warm clothes if you are staying with us in the winter. A warm hat, mittens, thick wool socks and warm underwear. Preferably boots that can handle wet and cold. This is important when it is very cold. Let us know beforehand if there is something you miss, we might have some things on hand or arrange for something.
To let us know if you have read the whole profile before sending us a message, please write the word "Mandrake".
What else ...
You will have access to our bikes (one electric) to get to the store. Train station is 8 km away, buss stop to the house for and we can pick you up when you arrive, and drive you there when you leave.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We have wifi. 3mbps.
Space for parking camper vans
We have much space for parking.
Can possibly accept pets
Just let us know what animal you have.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Feedback (7)
She stayed for a month, in it was such a busy time, and she was such a great help!
She is so kind and caring, and we feel so thankful for her kind gestures and thoughtful ways of caring for others. She wrote cute little notes for our daugther when she made lunches for her, wrote some… read more
This is a home where food is prepared with love, where sustainability is a way of life, and where creativity flows freely. I learned how… read more
She is such a positive person, very gentle, kind and pacient.
She is very good with children, playful and funny. She cocreated many of our daugthers favorite games, which she still loves.
Laura is quite handy, and was helpful with helping us paint some walls in our basement. She is a great cook, and she… read more
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Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(5.0)
Communication:
(5.0)
She stayed for a month, in it was such a busy time, and she was such a great help!
She is so kind and caring, and we feel so thankful for her kind gestures and thoughtful ways of caring for others. She wrote cute little notes for our daugther when she made lunches for her, wrote some… read more
This is a home where food is prepared with love, where sustainability is a way of life, and where creativity flows freely. I learned how… read more
She is such a positive person, very gentle, kind and pacient.
She is very good with children, playful and funny. She cocreated many of our daugthers favorite games, which she still loves.
Laura is quite handy, and was helpful with helping us paint some walls in our basement. She is a great cook, and she… read more
Flynn has an outstanding positive personality that make people around her smile and be inspired. She is a trustworthy person that was very patient with our kids. Our kids love Flynn! She is so fun and lets the kids play with her to their delight, while she is laughing and spreading joy.… read more
They do a great job at making you feel instantly welcome and a part of the family. They took their time to get to know me and are kind and thoughtful. Jon took me for a wonderful hike, Marie taught me how to make sourdough and all sorts of brews.
The location is wonderful for hiking and… read more
She has such a positive spirit and attitude, she allways have something motivating and inspirational to say. We bonded really quickly, and she really felt like a part of the family.
Nele is hardworking, helpful and kind, patient and good with children. She is funny,… read more
