Stay in our Swedish self-sufficient farm surrounded by nature in Ruda, Sweden

Details

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  Description

  We are a couple from originally Austria which moved to Sweden to build a farm to live self-sufficiently in the beautiful region of Småland (lots of tourist attraction but still quite isolated, natural surrounding). We have 12 ha land with a small flock valois blacknosesheep and swedish flowerhens. As we started to build most of our farm from scratch in 2022 there is still a lot to do besides constant maintenance and animal care work. We plant our own vegetables and try to be as self-sufficient as possible. I am a trained vet but mostly working in homeoffice if I'm not working on the farm, my partner is mostly an incredible handyman building houses or doing maintenance stuff as well as working with our animals. All we produce is for our own consumption and we try to be as self-sufficient as possible. We do not run a business other than selling fruittrees which you would not be helping with.
  We have a nice little cottage with its own garden next to our house which serves to host our guests. There are 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room with a cozy fireplace and a bathroom with a normal watertoilet so you've got a lot of privacy and have the possibility to cook in the middle of the night if you're up to it =)

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  General Maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Pets

  

  Sustainability

  

  Farming

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Plant care

  

  Gardening

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Animals

  

  Hiking

  

  Nature

  

  Camping
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We can teach a lot of practical skills and knowledge in regards to farming, animals, animal welfare and plants as well as help with learning a language (english or german, we cannot teach swedish on an advanced level since we are not that profecient in that language either) or how to repair stuff if you want to. We will spend a lot of time together while helping on the farm chores but ultimately there will be some days where there is little to do on the farm or which we need to work in our jobs. So there is still a lot of sparetime and possibilities to explore the surrounding.
  We like to eat together (lunch and supper) and you are most welcome to join us.

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  Help

  We have always a lot of different tasks that pile up while we are trying to keep up with all the tasks that needs to be done right there and then. The tasks range from preparing planting pots (january-march) to helping with maintaining the fences (f.e. cutting smaller and bigger branches and bushes, collecting fallen wood, sitting by the campfire with bread on a stick), helping with building the barn on the inside, helping make new vegetable beds, getting rid of all the weeds in the existing beds, sheering sheep and topping up their haymadrass, building new nests for the chickens, helping cleaning out the stables (once a month), harvesting (during summertime) etc.
  During wintertime there are 2 cats staying in the cottage as well so taking care of them would be one of your duties (feeding & petting them, cleaning the litterbox). They do not like my other 2 cats so unfortunately they cannot stay together with them in our house.

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  Languages spoken

  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Swedish: Intermediate

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  Accommodation

  We have a little cottage with 2 bedrooms (1 doublebed, 1 singlebed) and its own garden that is embedded in our farm. It has a full kitchen and bathroom as well as a nice and cozy livingroom with its own fireplace. We have no TV (neither in the cottage nor in our house) but we are happy to provide good evening talks on occasion (we go to bed quite early on most evenings since we like to get up early - which is no requirement for you).
  
  We will eat together (lunch and supper) but since breakfast is not really a thing here and you can get up whenever you want that is something you would eat alone (if you eat breakfast). Gregor loves to cook so that is where we get food from and most things we eat are produced on our farm. We can adjust to vegetarian kitchen but are not vegetarian ourselves so it is a little bit harder to switch to entirely vegan if you are.

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  What else ...

  We are in the middle of nowhere so it would be good to come by car so you can go whereever you want whenever it suits you best. There are tons of nice places and sights within an hour of driving (astrid lindgren museum / world, elgparks, lakes, hikingpaths, kalmar castle, öland etc)
  
  You are not supposed to help more than 4 days a week, the rest of your time is completely up to you and we are quite flexible as to when you help. During fall and winter you have more time off than that, for there is not so much things to do and we are only out if the weather is ok.
  We have hatchlings from march onwards and lambs from estimated february onwards. That means lots of sweet fluffy furbabies and a little bit of extra help.
  However I need to mention that we slaughter animals from time to time (mostly chickens from april to oktober, sheep only in september), we do not send our animals to the slaughterhouse in order to keep it as humane as possible. You need not stay on the days or help with it but if you feel strongly against the killing of any animal you should probably consider if it is okay to stay with us regardless. You can however learn how to slaughter if you want (I am a vet so I learned how to do it correctly and our sheep are relaxed and eat while I stun them).
  
  Please only come if you do not smoke or at least can guarantee to leave no cigarettebuds outside of a jar. Those things kill our free range chickens quite effectively and are toxic to the ground we plant food in.

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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

  You've got access to starlink so there is highspeed internet available at any times.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  Feel free to camp in your van or take a break from vanlife and live in our beautiful small cottage. Whatever you chose: you've got free access to a bathroom and the kitchen in the cottage (we have no possibility to discharge of a chemical toilet but feel free to use the watertoilet anytime you need)

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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