Australia
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We're a friendly, busy family with 3 energetic, sports loving boys (11,9,8) a dog and birds.
Our home is on a big (4,500 acre) research farm where Guy works. The driveway is 3km long so it's fairly isolated, though not so far from our small town Narrabri (15km away).
Ingrid runs our cherry orchard in Mudgee (3hrs away) so we travel a lot.
December is very busy for us with cherry harvest, sales and preserving. We open the farm for pick-your-own visitors in season and sometimes have stalls at farmers markets and food events with our fresh or preserved cherries and our BBQ smoking woods.
Fun but busy for us ...
At that time we’re keen for some help with keeping our boys happy, motivated and fed! They have their regular school routine then swim squad & homework in the afternoon, orchard on the weekends, etc.
Other times we're pretty flexible - there's always something to do!
Our home has a big beautiful garden in need of some love and care. Fantastic views of the Nandewar Ranges.
Kangaroos in the paddocks and they’ve been into the garden lately - with the long, long drought there's not much feed anywhere else. We've a tennis court with a stunning view!
Narrabri is a great place to explore the Australian bush - especially Mt Kaputar National park. It's a major cropping area (cotton and grains). We like to take guests on some local adventures when time allows. We enjoy hiking and camping in the local Mt Kaputar National park and when the river is up canoeing on the Namoi.
We'll share with you our family meals which you'll find are healthy and varied - we also ask you to cook your favourite meals for us too as food is such an important part of a cultural exchange.
We believe the cultural exchange of WorkAway is really important for our boys - so we're best suited if you're keen to join in as part of our family.
Gardening
Building
Babysitting / child care
General Maintenance
Farmstay
Help in the house
Experience country Australian family life in a friendly, welcoming family.
Enjoy the countryside and visiting kangaroos.
There are always things to be done around the house and garden and we can make a plan to suit your skills and interests.
We're keen to meet helpers who can share their culture with us, help out with gardening, housework and projects. Outside of our busiest times we're pretty flexible about what projects you do - though usually it will involve some gardening!
If you come during the season your main role will be to take care of the boys' after school activities in Narrabri and take care of the boys while they help at the orchard in Mudgee on weekends. "Taking care of" includes some meals, tidying up, helping them with their jobs and homework, etc. Days off midweek works best for us.
We are a busy family. An exchange with us is two-way - if you offer to help and take initiative in simple things that will be very appreciated and we'll do our best to show you a great experience. If you expect to be waited on and cleaned up after without offering help then it won't work for you or us!
Our expectations are in line with the Workaway description:
"remember it takes a lot of thought for someone to invite you into their home, so be prepared to help as much as you can! It is not a hotel or a youth hostel it is an exchange - a few hours help per day in exchange for food and board. Housework i.e. cooking, washing-up, etc should be shared."
English, some Danish
comfortable spare room with queen bed and ensuite. Shared bathroom when in Mudgee.
Plenty of bush to explore on the farm.
Mt Kaputar National park and Sawn Rocks are nearby. We have kayaks and a canoe for the river.
Narrabri is approx. 6.5 hours drive from either Sydney or Brisbane.
We can collect you from the train in Narrabri (daily service from Sydney Central around 9:30 am, arriving around 5pm bookings.nswtrainlink.info ) or Narrabri airport (FlyCorporate fly from Brisbane or Sydney) or sometimes it's possible for us to collect you from Moree (an hour away - there is a daily bus from Brisbane and train from Grafton a few days a week).
Depending on when you are here we may also take you to the farm in Mudgee with us. This is a beautiful region with wineries and food events.
In summer the boys will insist you learn to play cricket! and play soccer, footy, tennis, etc
Reading stories to our boys is great English practice :)
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Two
4-5 hours/day, max 5 days a week
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Cultural exchange:
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