Learn about photography, garden design and more in the shadow of the Canadian Rockies

Canada

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07/04/2021
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2021

Min stay requested: at least 2 weeks

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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!
___________________________________________

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!
Types of help and learning opportunities
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Creating/ Cooking family meals
General Maintenance
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
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.
Help
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.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
German: Beginner
French: Beginner
Dutch: Beginner
Accommodation
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.
What else ...
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.
A little more information
- Internet access
- Limited internet access
- We have pets
- We are smokers
- Can host families
Space for parking camper vans
Lots of space to park and 'level up'!
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Hours expected
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

Photos

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Feedback left by and about host (30)

These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.

Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)

Cultural exchange:
(5.0)

Communication:
(5.0)

03/09/2020

Left by host for Workawayer (Alex & Rachel)

Rachel and Alex were great to have as guests here in Golden. They were always eager to get to work and asking what they could do next - and saying they didn't feel like they were doing enough! Trust me, you both did more than enough!!!

It is lovely to walk around the property and look at all the projects they put finishing touches on for us.… read more

(Excellent )

30/08/2020

Left by Workawayer (Alex & Rachel) for host

Our stay at Pete & Julie's lovely home in Golden was such a great experience for us! They are incredibly kind and generous people, who made an effort to make us feel at home right from the start.

They have created a beautiful home nestled in the mountains of Golden, have lots of exciting projects on the go to get involved in and we rarely had… read more

(Excellent )

03/09/2020

Left by host for Workawayer (Zak & Hannah)

Wow! Just, wow!

Hannah and Zak were absolutely amazing guests to have around the homestead. Arriving in the midst of Covid they had self-isolated locally before coming to join us and were incredibly conscientious about staying isolated while staying with us. The two of them kept us entertained with board and card games (even making a Golden-Covid… read more

(Excellent )

14/08/2020

Left by Workawayer (Zak & Hannah) for host

Hannah and I loved staying with Pete and Julie. We had an absolute blast. They are kindhearted, generous and inspirational people. Pete has a thousand stories to tell (some of which are stranger than fiction), a thousand lessons to teach (we learnt how to build shingle art; the difference between pine, fir and spruce; running smarter, not harder;… read more

(Excellent )

24/03/2020

Left by host for Workawayer (Jack & Holly)

Holly and Jack (Harry and Jake?!!?) were absolutely fabulous to have around. We'll start with the cooking; we couldn't keep them out of the kitchen and they are 5-star all the way. Lots of scrumptious, veggie-heavy meals, spiced to perfection. Wonderful conversationalists with wicked senses of humour, they made wonderful companions for great… read more

(Excellent )

24/11/2019

Left by Workawayer (Karla & Daniel) for host

Its difficult to put into words how fantastic our time was with Pete and Julie but we will try, We stayed with them for 3 1/2 months and no two days were ever the same, one minute we would be painting and putting up wood battens the next day we may be planting trees or fencing or any number of the vast amount of projects going on at the property… read more at the time, suffice it to say there was never a dull day!.

While there was always plenty to do it was always made clear to us that we only had to do what we were comfortable and able to do (though Pete was always eager to gently nudge us to test our limits, where we found we often exceeded them and never reached the edge of our capabilities) We rarely worked more than 4-5 hours a day and on the days we worked longer they were always sure to give us a shorter day the following day or the day off entirely in some cases!. Truly a 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs' type situation!.

Pete is one of the friendliest, most laid back, and probably the most intelligent person we have met though he never lorded it over us, he would always be willing to accept and most often actively encourage our input on all the projects we were involved in and in many cases would adjust the plans to some of our modifications (assuming they were good ideas of course!) and I will say for me personally (Dan) he has inspired me to strive academically now I am home and I am actively on courses and studying again and I am sure he will do the same for others, the only thing longer than his list of academic achievements at this point are his countless stories he would share with us over dinner, which always kept the evenings interesting and the work days flying by!.

If Pete was the head of the house then Julie would most certainly be the neck, the two of them would synchronise together, Julie with the creative imaginations and big ideas, and Pete behind calculating how exactly he was going to make this work! Her knowledge of plants and local wildlife (alongside Pete's) is vast and deep and she has a wicked green thumb!, there were daily dog walks which we were always invited to although never obliged to if we weren't feeling up to it although a word of warning to any would be hikers, Julie is fast and if you're not careful she will leave you in the dust, you've been warned!, Almost every night we were there she would cook for us and it was always something healthy and tasty, and she shared Pete's knack for storytelling with an equally long list of stories so you can imagine there was never a lack of conversation at the dinner table.

And any review would be amiss without mentioning the animals! Loki (or Loc-dogg as we had taken to calling him) the most grumpy looking Alaskan sled dog, he's a total free spirit that's probably more wolf than dog, always hopping down gopher holes and chasing squirrels up trees!, he's a true sweetheart and will come and give him cuddles if you sneak him enough ham often enough!

Layka the Husky (or Layka loo's to us) a bushy tailed California rescue, she's a nervous girl but when she warms up to you she is the most loving and energetic husky around, part of our daily routine when coming up for breakfast was to come up the stairs and fully expect to see her nose and bright blue eyes poking over the stair gate to greet you, and greet you she did, usually excitedly and a morning play with her toy was our daily ritual while the kettle boiled.

Mario from the barrio, suffice it to say this cat is the most gangster creature we met in our rocky mountain adventures (and we met plenty of bears) he is friendly and sociable when he wants to be but if you cross him or wind him up a little too much then expect a kitty slap right in the nuts.

Daisy the older lady (Cat) of the house is 18 if we recall correctly though she doesn't look a day over 17! She would always come out and say hello as much as she could though at her age she likes to sleep a lot now, when she does make an appearance though you will know about it, her meow bellows as a clarion call, summoning all to her side for some food and attention.

All this, People and animals alike come together to form what has been for us three of the best months of our entire lives and the friends we made over there, Pete and Julie included, we still keep in contact with and will do for years to come, as they said to us when we first met and it actualised in the end, "come workawayers, and leave as friends", we could praise the entire experience until we were blue in the face but we will just say that if you are considering staying with them, definitely do, you will not regret it.

In the interests of keeping this somewhat briefer than we could we will just add that they took us out on many occasions, and took us to some truly amazing and beautiful places on days out and hikes, something we heard from other workawayers is a real rarity among hosts!, we were always included and invited to the many dinner parties and BBQ's and general social activities that went on in their/our lives we really felt like part of the family from the very beginning!

We miss you all and the mountains so much already and we will definitely be flying back over to visit you again, but until then we wish you all the luck in the world with everything and we will most certainly be keeping in touch.

Until Next time! ❤

Karla and Dan x

(Excellent )

20/11/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Karla & Daniel)

Karla and Dan stayed with us for over three months - the house seems empty now they are gone! Looking around the house and yard there is a weird sense of "wow, they did a lot - wait, what did they do?"

The "wow they did a lot" includes:
exterior siding and trim on the new mudroom extension; dry-walling the interior of the new mudroom extension;… read more finishing the big deck project; fencing in the new .75 acre dog playground; helping turf the 'mound' in the dog playground; moving 4 tonnes of gravel in the zen garden; clearing a driveway to access the build locations for the new cabins; and more!

The "what did they do" is all about everything they did looking so 'good and natural' it's hard to imagine what it looked like before all of their hard work - everything just looks 'right.' Big, heartfelt thank you!

Dan would often joke that as a "gym rat" he is "good at lifting things up and putting them back down" - suggesting he had limited 'skills.' He just lacked exposure to the tasks; once he was taught a new skill he was very good at adapting and doing. For example, when erecting the pergola on the upper deck all the timbers were notched before fitting, something Dan couldn't imagine doing, but something he actually did rather well! As for "picking up and putting down"? Super handy that Dan was as strong as he is when the timbers are 6x6 inch and 16 feet long! And four tonnes of gravel? Challenge accepted!!!

Karla is a sweet, quiet soul who quickly became my preferred lumber cutter - while Dan was getting a workout "moving stuff", Karla would methodically cut, trim, notch, stain and/or fit pieces for the mudroom and decks. Once she had the confidence to try things (knowing the worst case scenario was if she screwed up I would just hand her another stick of lumber to try again) she made very few mistakes (usually 'cause I gave her poor instructions!) and learned from those very quickly. It was a pleasure to watch her confidence and skills grow and to see her begin to really enjoy the woodwork. And when it came to "picking things up and putting them down" she showed great stamina and perseverance!

It was also a real pleasure to have them as house guests. Polite, charming, always helpful, respectful - just really good people. Karla has a deep social conscience and is very thoughtful about 'people issues.' This also extends to a respect for animals and nature. Dan is a wonderful bowl of contradictions: he can play the 'muscle-head' but it was an unique pleasure to be able to banter while working and not have to explain sideways references to things as diverse as Plato, Jung, Einstein and exercise physiology - and get the obscure banter right back, ten-fold. I am super excited that Dan is thinking about going back to school - his is a mind that needs to be capitalized on.

Thank you both ever so much for being absolutely great room-mates. We miss you both and wish you all the best. Please stay in touch. Big hugs from Julie, Pete, Layka, Loki, and Daisy. Oh yeah, Mario says, "Where have my victims gone?"

(Excellent )

06/10/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Ainhoa & Xavi)

Ainhoa and Xavi continue this summer's unbroken run of absolutely first-rate Workawayers. Xavi dug out all the heaviest discs in the music collection and had us all banging our heads while we worked. Ainhoa kept us all in line and made sure the work got done, despite the headbanging!
Their work on Mont Melo (the dog playground) was an instant… read more

(Excellent )

30/09/2019

Left by Workawayer (Ainhoa & Xavi) for host

Thank you Julie, Pete, Loki and Layka for have had us for a week in your home. It was our first Workaway experience and we already know that it would be hard to beat. You have made us feel at home.
We worked in the garden and in the new entrance of the house. We never worked more than 5 hours and work was very rewarding as we could see the… read more

(Excellent )

23/08/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Jess & Dan)

What a fantastic couple! Excellent workers; wonderful house guests.
Dan's hard landscaping skills were an absolute gift - his precision cuts when saddling and notching the beams for the pergola are a thing to behold. And his gentle patience when teaching both Jess and Baxter in the use of the power saws and other tools was a pleasure to… read more

(Excellent )

06/08/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Luis & Barbara)

What an amazing couple! Barbara and Luis were absolutely fantastic workers, very quickly coming to terms with the power tools used on our deck project. After seeing the deck frame languish over the winter it was amazing to see it come together so quickly and to actually (finally!) have a couple of evening meals on it. Thank you so much for your… read more

(Excellent )

31/07/2019

Left by Workawayer (Luis & Barbara) for host

It is very difficult to describe with words our stay at Julie, Pete, Daisy, Mario "from the Barrio" and Loki's home because it has been one of the best experiences we've ever had.
From day one it has been a pleasure spending time with Pete, he made us feel at home and he always tried to explain anything related with the area. We had very… read more

(Excellent )

13/06/2019

Left by Workawayer (Tabea & Florian) for host

We stayed with Peter for two weeks and he used most of our working hours to help an older friend of his although he has a lot of projects going at his own property. That already describes how generous and kind he is. He knows so much about the area and the nature and we learned a lot during our stay ("square for spruce" :D). Just a quick walk… read more

(Excellent )

10/06/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Tabea & Florian)

Tabea and Florian were an absolute pleasure to have stay with us. Both are mature beyond their years and genuinely 'good people.'
Most of our work together was actually helping an older friend make her garden more 'elderly friendly' and Tabea and Florian put in some very long, heavy days on the project - and then wanted to do more at my place as… read more

(Excellent )

28/02/2019

Left by Workawayer (Jeannie & James) for host

Best Workaway ever! Pete and Jules are the most wonderful, generous, funny and awesome people you could meet! We ended up here by chance as last minute Workaways, arriving at the end of summer. We then ended up staying for the Winter, after Pete and Jules kindly offered to rent us a room out so we could stay for the Winter and Ski!

The time we… read more

(Excellent )

19/02/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Jakub & Agata)

Agata and Jakub were a great couple to have around - very diligent and conscientious in their work and eager to explore and have fun in their down time.

Agata was very self-motivated and always ready to get going on projects with Julie or myself and Kuba was always eager to know the 'why' of a project or the 'why' of how we were doing things a… read more

(Excellent )

23/11/2018

Left by Workawayer (Jakub & Agata) for host

First of all we know we're totally late with it, however it's never too late. We spent wonderful time with Julie and Pete in lovely Golden! Actually we couldn't imagine better place for staying in such an beautiful place like this town. Jules is amazingly active person! You think you're tough outdoor guy? Ha! Same with us until we met Jules. She's… read more

(Excellent )

04/09/2018

Left by host for Workawayer (Matilda & Moa)

Matilda was great to have around! Knowing she would stay in control of the garden freed us up to push forward on other projects - many of which she also joined in with. When we came back from our week away we found that the entire south face of the house had been painted!!! Thank you!!!

Matilda is a very gifted musician and has a voice that is… read more

(Excellent )

03/09/2018

Left by Workawayer (Matilda & Moa) for host

I (Matilda) already miss being at Pete and Julie's! We had met earlier through other workaways around Golden and I knew I'd enjoy my stay there. The work is all very manageable - I did a lot of house painting as well as watering the garden (Julie is growing some mean zucchinis out there!). Me and a couple of other workawayers were also entrusted… read more

(Excellent )

24/08/2018

Left by Workawayer (Christian & Emma) for host

Peter and Julie were fantastic hosts! We instantly felt very comfortable with them, they were very generous sharing their home as well as opening the door to their lovely community of friends. Julie is a great cook and was very accommodating with food preferences.

We enjoyed watering the garden, cladding the rear elevation and creating a tree… read more

(Excellent )

15/08/2018

Left by host for Workawayer (Christian & Emma)

Emma and Christian stayed with us for a bit over two weeks and what a wonderful experience it was. Both are mature, good-natured, fun, funny, charming and diligent. Having done renovations on their own home and their with training in architecture and surveying, they were about as over-qualified to help with our renovations as they could get -… read more

(Excellent )

06/08/2018

Left by host for Workawayer (Nathan & Jennifer)

Jennifer and Nathan arrived as Workawayers, stayed as friends, and left as family. They are an amazing couple - great conversationalists, wicked senses of humor, very easy to get along with and simply a pleasure to have around.

They both brought very diverse skill sets with them and were also very good 'students', learning to use various tools… read more

(Excellent )

31/07/2018

Left by Workawayer (Nathan & Jennifer) for host

We spent 2 fabulous months there!
Pete, Julie, Loki, Mario, Daisy and all the gophers are very kind and welcoming! =D We directly felt at home ;)

We realized many different kind of work during our stay: gardening, construction, design, hike with the dog ... There is always something to do so you can be bored of this place. =D
In addition, the… read more

(Excellent )

31/07/2018

Left by host for Workawayer (Soňa)

Sona stayed with us for just over a week. During her time with us she was really good company; very thoughtful and insightful in her conversation, very socially conscious and very inquisitive. She is a genuinely kindhearted person - the world needs more caring people like Sona.
Her work ethic was great and her attention to detail and willingness… read more

(Excellent )

15/07/2018

Left by host for Workawayer (Laura)

Laura stayed with us for a few days before and after her week with our friend Dustin. Laura is mature beyond her years, very sociable and always up for a laugh. Handy with power tools, she got stuck in helping with our ongoing fence building project. She also was happy to get muddy and do some planting and weeding in the vegetable garden.
We… read more

(Excellent )

20/06/2018

Left by Workawayer (Ben) for host

For a couple who are relatively new to workaway, Pete and Julie are complete naturals. My first stay was just short of two weeks and the experience was so good I returned for another.

They both were extremely welcoming and I instantly felt comfortable in their home; it was a very relaxing environment and I felt completely at ease. They clearly… read more

(Excellent )

01/06/2018

Left by host for Workawayer (Ben)

Ben has been with us for just shy of two weeks and he has made a huge impact with all of his hard work. He has helped me (Pete) with lawn mowing (way too much lawn here!) and finishing a bench project I never got around to finishing - look on our host page to see the bench; looks great! He also repaired and re-tuned my mountain bike ready for some… read more

(Excellent )

30/05/2018

Left by Workawayer (Annika) for host

Thank you Julie and Pete for the wonderful 2 weeks we were allowed to spend with you, Loki, Mario and Daisy despite our stay being on very short notice and the season having been too early to do a lot of the work that needs to be done.

Nevertheless, we hope we could help you guys out by doing some garden work and varnishing the doors.
Beyond… read more

(Excellent )

24/05/2018

Left by host for Workawayer (Annika)

Julie and I had the pleasure of Lea and Annika’s company for two weeks in May of this year. They both impressed us with their English language skills and we were charmed when we heard them singing along in a mix of English and German to the ‘pop’ songs on their phones – when, of course, they didn’t think we were listening . . .

We confess to… read more

(Excellent )

24/05/2018

Left by host for Workawayer (Lea)

(Excellent )

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