Join our family, dogs and acroyoga project in the countryside near Kohila, Estonia

Details

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  Description

  We are Natalia (48), Joshua (33) and our son Malachi (13), living on 2.6 hectares in the Estonian countryside near Kohila. We live in a small summer house with our two dogs and are gradually creating a simple family home surrounded by nature.
  
  We spent the last eight years travelling around the world as nomads, meeting people and learning about different cultures. Now that Malachi is starting school in Estonia, we are settling down for a while. Since we won't be travelling as much, we want to continue the cultural exchange we enjoyed while travelling by welcoming people from around the world into our home.
  
  We are interested in sustainable living, permaculture, forest gardens and growing some of our own food. There are always ordinary household and garden activities to share, such as planting, keeping outdoor areas tidy, general maintenance, walking the dogs and preparing meals. We do these things as part of everyday family life and are happy to work alongside our Workawayers, share what we know and learn from their knowledge and ideas. No particular skills are required. We are also interested in sustaibale construction and in the future would like to build a straw bale house but this is still an aspiration.
  
  We are acroyoga teachers and organise acroyoga events, and we also run an online business. Workawayers are not expected to work for our business or events; hosting is about sharing our home and family life.
  
  We live close to Rabivere bog, with beautiful forests and a lake, and Lohu train station is nearby. From there it is around 40 minutes by train to Tallinn, so there are plenty of opportunities to explore independently.
  
  Workawayers will have their own room. We enjoy spending time together but also value personal space, so we are looking for people who are sociable, communicative and comfortable being independent.
  
  One thing to know is that we don't have flush toilets: we use composting toilets. We do have hot water, showers and a bathtub, and we use eco-friendly and biodegradable household and personal-care products, we would like our guests to use them too.
  
  Malachi is 13 and loves cycling, freediving, table tennis, padel and computer games, especially Minecraft and Roblox. We think a parent travelling with a child could be a particularly nice fit, but we welcome people of all ages and backgrounds.
  
  We look forward to making new friends and connections.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Light gardening

  Creative DIY projects

  Animal Care

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Light maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Carpentry

  

  Animals

  

  Gardening

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Performing arts

  

  Nature

  

  Yoga / Wellness

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Hiking

  

  Cycling

  

  Camping

  

  Beach

  

  Sustainability

  

  Pets

  

  Self development

  

  Farming
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We are an international family. I am Polish, Joshua is from the UK and our son Malachi was born in the UK but has a Polish passport. We have spent the last eight years travelling as nomads and have met people from many different countries and backgrounds, so we really enjoy the exchange that happens when people from different places live together.
  
  We can share our experience of travelling, living as nomads, acroyoga and creating a smallholding from the ground up. We would be happy to introduce Workawayers to Estonian countryside and everyday life here, and to some of the places we enjoy, including Rabivere bog and the surrounding forests. We also have Estonian friends who live just a few kilometres away with their two children, so there is an opportunity to meet a local family and get a little more of a connection to Estonian life and culture.
  
  We would love to learn from our Workawayers. We are interested in sustainable construction, permacultire, forest gardens, food, traditions, ways of life, worldviews and experiences. We enjoy cooking and eating together, so sharing food from different countries would be a natural part of our time together. We would like to learn some Estonian and hope that living with people from different countries will give Malachi the opportunity to continue experiencing the international environment he has grown up in.

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  Projects involving children

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

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  Help

  We would like help wound the house and our smallholding. We would like to plans some trees this autumn and plan an orchard and a garden, some light maintenance help on exisitng building and cooking some meals. We have two active dogs so we would like our guests to participate in walking them and spending time with them.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Polish: Fluent
  Welsh: Intermediate
  Spanish: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  We speak English, Polish and Welsh, and we know a few words of Spanish. We are currently learning Estonian and would love to improve it through everyday conversations with people who are happy to teach us a little. We are also always interested in learning new words and expressions from the languages spoken by our Workawayers.
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  Accommodation

  Workawayers will have their own room / shelter.
  We don't have a house but rather a set of tiny homes on our land.
  If you have ideas you are welcome to add to our collection of tiny homes.
  
  We provide 3 meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
  While we often don't eat breakfast ourselves (intermittent fasting) our guests will have access to cooking facilities and provisions.
  We like to eat lunch and dinner together and take it in turns to cook meals for everyone.

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  What else ...

  Here are some of our Land Rules:
  - no smoking or vaping
  - no chewing gum (we don't want to pollute the land, you can chew gum outside)
  - no alkohol (you can drink outside of our land)
  - minimum processed sugar (no sweets and junk food in our house, if we don't see it it won't bother us so you can have your own stash)
  - daily products only from a local dairy farm
  - minimise use of plastic (it's hard to avoid it completely but we try)
  - eco friendly, briodegradable detergents, soaps, shampoos etc only.
  
  We have Starlink Wi-Fi.
  
  There are bicycles available for Workawayers to borrow. Lohu train station is only about a five-minute walk from our house, and trains take around 40 minutes to Tallinn, so getting around without a car is quite easy.
  
  We are also open to families. We think teenagers could be an especially good fit because Malachi is 13 and would enjoy having someone around his age.
  
  Most importantly, we value clear communication, consideration for others and people who are comfortable being part of a shared household while also having their own independence and space.

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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 ask for 4 to 5 hour of work per day 5 days a week, the rest of the time is up to people, digital nomads could work from our land.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  People are welcome to park their motorhome on our land.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  I'm alergic to cats so we don't accept those but we have 2 dogs so dogs are welcome.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  My animals / pets

  Tommy and Shelby (2 years)

  We have two active medium / large size dogs adopted from a local shelter.
  Shelby is a black female, 2 years old, mixed breed, calm, sociable, likes cuddles and belly scratches.
  Tommy is one year old, light colour, full of energy, loves to play, swim and run through tall grass.

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