Help us to put love back in our old farm in the Limousin, France

Details

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  Description

  Hi, We are a british family living on an old farm located 30 minutes south of Limoges. We slowly putting love back into the neglected farmhouse, buildings and land. Located 1,5km outside of the village of St Germain les Belles, it is quiet and peaceful appart from some animal noise.
  
  The property used to be a large farm, with huge barns and outbuildings but most of the land was sold away leaving only 2 acres and lots of buildings all in various state of dis-repair. We try to do as much recycling as possible when it comes to renovation, making and building most things ourselves. We have lots of lots of projects to do, from emergency ones like roofing to more simple ones like the constant weeding and keeping track of the garden. The land currently is used as a large semi-wild "garden", but I love to plant flowers, roses & shrubs everywhere I can. I am very interested in beekeeping and have started to learn about keeping hives but for the time I am planting flowers for the bees! Keeping brambles and nettles from taking over is an annual never ending job, making sure the fences are all ok. Most of the land is surrounded with trees, so there is always broken branches to collect, making sure ivy is not growing on the buildings, keeping hedges under control. Once the temperature gets warmer and everything starts to grow quickly, making sure that the whole place is not lost in vegetation is ongoing.
  We love nature and wildlife, birdwatching, listening to the wind in the trees and we have a big big sky here so star gazing is the best. Laid back, quiet and magical it is!
  We run an online business so are always here and doing something.
  We have 2 dogs, one is a rescue dog and is very nervous of people and the other is a barker but will love you, 2 cats who love cuddles and to sleep on your bed,3chickens who just get on with their own things!
  
  We would like apx 5 hours of work per day for 5 days. You can set which days you want to work. We would like someone who is quite happy to potter about by themselves as well as be a part of a team when needed.
  
  June 2025 - this summer we are particularly looking for an extra pair of hands so we can try to get some of the roofing done. So if you have done any sort of building work before that would certainly be an asset this summerl.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  General Maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Pets

  

  Vegetarian or vegan

  

  Blogging

  

  Photography

  

  Plant care

  

  Music

  

  History

  

  Gardening

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Art & design

  

  Architecture

  

  Animals

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Camping

  

  Nature
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We are an english, welsh and french speaking family but could do with more french speaking. You will enjoy the peace of the countryside and nature, to be hidden away from the world.
  We are creative and arty, we have lived all over the world and love all types of art, crafts, music and even politics. All different levels of building work from lime pointing to roofing. It's a beautiful place to stay and be deep in the countryside.

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  Help

  June 2025- Lots of gardening and clearing/ tidying work is what you would be mainly doing at the moment.
  
  General maintenance
  Light building work
  Painting
  Diy
  Renovation
  Repairing
  Garden maintenance

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  Welsh: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  French: Beginner

  This 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.
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  Accommodation

  This is for the summer months only*
  
  Camping. We offer camping facilities, we have tents and comfortable sleeping arrangements (bedding, blankets, pillows etc). There is a main large round tent with a sofas and chairs as well as a table and bench. There is an electric hook up in the barn and if you wanted we could also provide a small electric cooker. You will have use of our bathroom for toilets and showers but there is an outside compost toilet. A washing machine for clothing is also available. We can also accommodate travellers with their own tents and camper vans.
  
  We are a vegetarian household so meals will not include meat. We do make some vegan meals but most of the time there is some dairy (cheese & eggs) in our food. We eat outside most of the summer months. You can eat with us or take the food to your camp. We are totally easy and want to make your stay a wonderful experience. Mealtimes consist of breakfast, lunch (about 1pm/13h), sometime a snack between & supper. Supper is usually from 8pm/20h and it is our main meal. If you want to help with cooking and prefer to make lunch the main meal, then that is fine for us.
  You can also have a campfire should you wish- by prior arrangement so we can get some stones to build it safely to avoid any fire hazards.
  When you want to work during the day can be flexible as long as the hours are done. July/ Aug gets very hot during the day so you may want to not work from 1pm -5pm and opt to work mornings and evenings instead. Again this is something we can discuss and be flexible about.

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  What else ...

  We have good internet- wifi, you can have access to from outside of the house but not in your camp. You can also use the kitchen or living room to go on the internet. The village has a small convenience store, boulangerie, bar/ tabac, post office, doctor & pharmacy- pretty much everything you could want from a small village. There is a large swimming lake and beach with a bar & restaurant.
  The village is 1.5km from our place. Public transport is rather non-existent, the trains run north and south a few times a day- so you can go to Limoges or Paris (about 3-4hrs) or south to Toulouse etc. .
  We are on the edge of the Millevaches national park so loads of fantastic walks and activites, not too far from 2 beau villages france- Ségur-le-Château and Collonges-la-Rouge plus chateaux in Pompadour and Coussac Bonneval. Limoges is just 30 minutes up the motorway. During the spring and summer there are endless vide-greniers ( car boot sales) and fetes that take place in all the villages as well as music & food festivals.
  The village of St Germain les Belles has a railway station so we can come and pick you up as well as an airport in Limoges about 35 minutes away.
  If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me.

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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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  Can host digital nomads

  We have very good internet ( fibre) in the house and around the building so for example you could be in the garden and still get a good signal.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  Workawayers with their own campervans/ cars/ truck are most welcome, infact it's probably better than camping as it's not very warm at the moment.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  This is a maybe. Most probably not due to our dogs but if you want to message me and discuss then that would be better rather than for me to say a definitive yes or a no.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  My animals / pets

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