Canada
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Planning for Spring/Summer 2021 is a bit confused right now with the coronavirus affecting all our lives. Please feel free to contact us and we will discuss possibilities based on government health guidelines in effect at that time.
Stay well, travel safe!
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Welcome to our little slice of heaven! Julie and I (Pete) are slowly renovating our house and landscaping the 6 acre garden to make this (early) retirement home the place of our dreams. Along with our Alaskan Sled Dog, Loki, Siberian Husky Layka, and Daisy and Mario, the cats, we would like to invite you to join us for a summer in the shadow of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
We are located 7.5 km south of the town of Golden with the Rockies a stone's throw to the east and the Purcell Range of the Columbia Mountains just across the valley. For runners and mountain bikers we are in the perfect location - 500 m from the Mountain Shadows trail system and 4 km from Moonraker Trail system. With five National Parks within an hour of our front door Workawayers have access to some of the world's best hiking. We are both active hikers and would love to show you 'the neighborhood'. Also of note, the last three summers have seen a local project putting a number of sport climbs (~30?) basically overlooking our back yard!
Our big projects this year are fourfold:
1) Finishing the exterior of the house and barn; mainly wood siding repairs and staining - nearly complete.
2) Progressing on fence and outdoor living space construction - too much to finish this year!
3) Continuing with our landscaping and organic vegetable growing - lots of 'yard tidying' and keeping an eye on the veg patch.
4) Building a second tiny home - foundation going in November 2020.
Julie has some, limited French, German and Dutch understanding, and Pete knows both English and Canadian fluently!
We are aware that you are in Canada to see the sights and have some fun - and we will do the best we can to make sure that your stay is super enjoyable! With this in mind, the '5 days of 5 hours work per week' will be very fluid and weather dependent - the better the weather, the less likely we are to be doing the work, and the more likely we are to be out on the trails.
We are not in the town of Golden itself! We do have two vehicles so we can assist with your 'local' travels, but cannot act as 'taxi service'. When we say 'local' we mean we are happy to take you on our hiking trips up to three hours drive away!
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Creating/ Cooking family meals
General Maintenance
Peter is a professional interpretive guide and would love to share his knowledge of the area with workawayers. Julie and Peter are also developing their professional photography portfolios and would love to share their knowledge of the best of the Rockies and area with likeminded artists. Julie also does acrylic and watercolour painting . . .
As a retired university lecturer, Peter loves to research and teach - if the workawayer has an artistic, cultural or natural history project they are working on Pete would love to get involved and assist in anyway he can.
Julie's academic background is in garden design and can teach workawayers about both local gardening and the plants native to our region.
Most of our needs are for people who are happy to get their hands dirty and don't mind a bit of manual work:
Finishing touches on a really big, three-level, barbecue deck
Completing build on second tiny house
For artistic workers - inspire us and we might follow your lead building garden 'sculptures'!
Planting perennial plants to naturalize our pasture into wildlife/insect forage meadows
Planting/maintaining organic vegetable garden
Tidying deadfall from property onto bonfire pile - having barbecue and drinks around the bonfire!
Repairing barn (pine) siding with rough fir battens and cedar shakes
Repairing/building fences
Carpentry skills are an asset, but not a necessity.
Vehicle an asset, but not a necessity.
English: Fluent
German: Beginner
French: Beginner
Dutch: Beginner
Workawayers will have their own bedroom (queensize bed, two wardrobes - see photo) in the lower level of the house. They will have their own full bathroom (see photo) and will share laundry facilities. The lower level 'office' has been converted into a media room for our workawayers if they desire a little 'alone time'.
We have built a small 'crossfit' type gym with both indoor and outdoor components for those who wish to maintain their training fitness . . . just finished a 15 square meter bouldering wall in the gym as well!
Couples preferred. If two 'friends', we do have a second guest bedroom on the main floor, but we would rather keep that room available for visiting friends - however, I am sure we can work something out.
Julie and I are both gluten and dairy free (medical not 'fashion' reasons) so we need to be very careful in the kitchen. We envision sharing the shopping/cooking/washing up duties but are happy to work out other, preferred, kitchen arrangements.
Golden is
~3 hours west of Calgary
~1.5 hours west of Banff
~8 hours east of Vancouver
Golden has a great outdoor community and we can help workawayers find likeminded locals to share their outdoor pastimes - running, hiking, climbing, mountain biking.
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Lots of space to park and 'level up'!
Two
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week
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