Help around our hobby farm near Vancouver, Canada

Details

• 

  Description

  My husband and I are a professional couple and we own a small hobby farm (2 acres) in a suburb of Vancouver BC.
  
  It is a private homestead.
  
  We live in a beautiful area, close to trails for hiking, biking, rivers, etc.
  
  We have a small barn, with 5 stalls and attached paddocks and currently have 3 well behaved geldings living with us and one rescued mare that is currently being emotionally rehabbed and retrained.
  
  We are both entrepreneurs and both work from home primarily online via Zoom so will be around a lot but many times tucked away in our home offices.
  
  We also have one small pug. We have no 2 legged children. We primarily welcome help with farm, animal, property care for both the equine area and residence, and seasonal projects. Some tasks will be consistent for each placement and others will depend on the season and what we need help with.
  
  Please read the description of our workaway before you apply, as it does include Saturday and Sundays I like to be transparent as possible. But since the help varies I’m happy to answer any questions you may have in advance :).
  
  While you don’t need to be a horse expert, you MUST have some previous horse experience that includes basic handling (catching, haltering, leading, etc) to volunteer as there is a lot of tasks to be done in and around them and your safety is paramount. 3 of my horses are retired from riding, and one is in restart, so there is no riding offered in this placement.

• 

  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
• 

  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  The Vancouver area is absolutely stunning with many outdoor and cultural activities. Not to mention the mountains, ocean and beaches
  
  Where we live specifically we are near mountains close to rivers, lakes, hiking trails, bicycle riding trails etc. It's a great opportunity to improve your English skills, and we also love to learn other languages and if you feel like sharing some of your traditions with us - from meals to rituals, we'd LOVE to learn.
  
  For those who would like a bit of company or guided tour we will be happy to take you to some of our favorite spots when we aren’t working.
  
  How I work with my horses is relationship first, training second. I do not use aversives, and take a whole horse approach, that includes considering all aspects of their well-being in their training. Spiritual. Emotional. Energetic. And Physical.

• 

  Help

  This placement will require help on Saturdays and Sunday mornings, and then the other 3 days are up to you what days you want to help. The placement is a combination of property/facility, horse care and seasonal projects, most of it outside.
  
  Saturday and Sundays will always include (but not limited to) cleaning out stalls and paddocks,. Weekdays those are usually already covered, but if our barn manager is not available in the week, you may be asked to cover those days as well, Depending on how fast you work it takes between 90 minutes to 2 hours to do the stalls, leaving time for the other projects the rest of the day. There are random horse chores in the week as well such as safety checks, cleaning water buckets, picking manure from the fields, filling hay feeders, and keeping the outbuildings clean etc.
  
  During the spring months there will be a lot of yard and spring cleanup and maintenance getting the property ready for the summer months, and in the fall a lot of raking and leaf collection. And we do have a lot of ad hoc projects that come up whether for the animals or the property.
  
  We are flexible on how you want to work your time - ie -if you prefer to do longer days to have more full days off, etc as long as the animals are taken care of on the days they need, and the rest of the tasks get done. We don't expect or want you to work more than the 25 hours a week, we want you to enjoy your time in our lovely city too!. We just ask for good communication, and since some of the tasks may be weather dependent that you take that into account too when scheduling.
  
  Because we both work from home, occasionally there may be business activities or client events here at the farm. However none of the tasks we need help with in this listing are related to either business.

• 

  Languages

  Languages spoken
  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.
• 

  Accommodation

  You will have a private bedroom in our house that's on the complete opposite side of the house from our bedrooms there's a full bathroom with a deep bathtub& shower right across from it, so you have privacy.
  
  We usually cook dinner every night, which you are welcome to join us for, and for breakfast and lunch we tend to just grab and go and you'd be able to simply help yourself from the fridge to whatever you want.
  
  We have 2 living rooms, that both have sliding doors to close them off if you need a private space that’s not a bedroom to decompress
  
  We have a beautiful swim pond, an onsite gym with cardio equipment, free weights, a weight rack, TRX and other sundry equipment that you are free to use, we also an in-home theatre where we do like to watch movies.
  
  We don’t expect you to prepare meals for us or do general housework, but we do ask you to clean up after yourself in the kitchen, bathroom and other common areas that you use.
  
  If you would like to share your cuisine by cooking a meal, we certainly won’t say no. We are very adventurous and love to try new foods and will happily shop for the ingredients you need

• 

  What else ...

  We have bicycles that you are welcome to borrow if you want to hit the trails. We are very close to a series of dykes that you can bicycle or walk with breathtaking views of the mountains and other horse farms.
  
  We are a short car ride away from parks, rivers, hiking trails and lakes
  
  We unfortunately are not on a public transit route. Uber is available. The main transit hub stations are a short UBER ride away connecting you to shopping, restaurants, the beach, ocean and more are both short Uber rides away.
  
  In the summer we love to hit the lake on our boat and if you're here during that time you'll be welcome to join us.
  
  Also as mentioned there is no horse riding available here in my farm, but if you do want to spend some time in the saddle there are a few excellent riding centers in the area all within walking or biking distance.

• 

  A little more information

  • 

    Internet access

  • 

    Limited internet access

  • 

    We have pets

  • 

    We are smokers

  • 

    Can host families

• 

  Can host digital nomads

  We have a fully functioning high speed internet. There’s even a hub out in the barn.

• 

  How many Workawayers can stay?

  One

Feedback (4)