Gardening, Dog walking and home help+ share my lovely Victorian apartment and garden in Buckfastleigh , England

United Kingdom

updated

Favourited 87 times

Host rating
Feedback
8
Last activity
20/02/2020
Reply rate
81.3 %
Average reply time:
within 43 days
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Availability

2020

Min stay requested: at least a week

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Description
You can come and share my lovely Victorian apartment and garden in Buckfastleigh in one of the most renowned regions in England on the edge of the stunning Dartmoor national park, near the beautiful beaches of the South Devon coast and alongside the incredible kayaking region of the dart valley river. My passions are the wonderful outdoors on our doorstep, yoga, holistic therapies, and well being in general.
Type of help
Gardening
General Maintenance
Cooking / shopping
Help in the house
Animal care
Help with Computers / internet
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Experience life in beautiful South Devon with me, my daughter at times and my 2 lovely lurchers dogs. I am involved in holistic therapies, yoga, and wellbeing, so like to share this way of being.
Alongside, there are often guests staying in the room, often interesting guests from around the world who come to stay for local courses varying from things such as Shamanic training on the moors, African dance in the town to Drs conferences at Buckfast Abbey and holistic funeral training on the dart.
The small town of Buckfastleigh is on the doorstep with its local ameneties and You will have the beautiful South Devon countryside from the moors to the beaches, to the river dart valley nearby; the internationally renowned Dartington hall and Schaumacher college and Riverford farm just up the rd. Totnes town with its quirky shops and characters is a short bus ride or steam railway ride away.
There is a great deal to see and experience locally which makes this area such a popular destination for travellers and tourists alike.
Help
I have 2 beautiful lurchers who require a certain amount of daily care mostly dog walking and some loving attention! I also have some general household and gardening tasks.
Some regular household tasks such as hoovering, cooking, recycling, bins, washing and cleaning. Thinking about getting some painting done around the house and small DIY jobs.
Some garden jobs in my little garden and terrace such as seasonal jobs, pruning apple trees, work in the vegetable patch, flowers, weeding, hedges, clipping, cutting back etc.
I'm not very good with anything I.T so sometimes could do with help with doing stuff on my computer from basics
Languages spoken
English
Accommodation
Small single private room in 2 floor apartment in Victorian house sharing the kitchen, bathroom and lounge aswell as outdoor terrace and garden. You will be eating with me and maybe my 19 yr old daughter if she's home or if i'm away food will be provided.
What else ...
There are local buses to nearby towns and villages and the cities of Exeter and Plymouth, a steam train to Totnes, main line trains from Totnes. Coaches also to and fro from nearby to Bristol city and Bristol airport.
A little more information
- Internet access
- Limited internet access
- We have pets
- We are smokers
How many Workawayers can stay?
One
Hours expected
4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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Feedback left by and about host (8)

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)

09/08/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Josh)

Josh was a very helpful, considerate and capable workawayer, easy to have in my home. He is self reliant, good with getting on with tasks as needed, cooked alot of his own meals as i was fairly busy and did a great job looking after the house and the dogs.
He was also good company, patient and unflappable!
Happy to have him back at any time.

(Excellent )

04/08/2019

Left by Workawayer (Josh) for host

I had a wonderful time staying in Buckfastleigh with Uma and her family. The accomodations were lovely and the work was varied and interesting. Uma is a very thoughtful and considerate host! Her lurchers, Lucy and Pie, are a lot of fun and a pleasure to walk. The area is beautiful, boasting a ruined hilltop church, bat-filled caves, a quaint… read more

(Excellent )

04/04/2019

Left by Workawayer (Emilie) for host

I stayed 1 month with Uma, she was a fantastic woman! she was really interesting, and she always took time to discuss with me (even if my English wasn't really good!) We shared good moments! I did yoga with her and we walked dogs together in beautiful place, like Dartmoor National Park and the Jurassic coast! Dogs were so kind it was a pleasure to… read more

(Excellent )

01/04/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Emilie)

Emilie was a pleasure to host she was friendly, easy going, hard working and a good cook aswell as dog walker. She helped with everything i asked of her and more, alot of cleaning and general houehold support. She was also good company, caring and kind.
I highly reccomend her as a workawayer.

(Excellent )

22/12/2018

Left by host for Workawayer (David)

I believe David meant well and was not an unpeasant guest but for me he was less than ideal.
On the positive side he did do some good dog walking for me, whilst i was working, (i bought him Wellys because of the rain and mud!) it appeared to go ok and he managed this task without incident,and this was important for me, although i didn't detect a… read more keen connection from him with the dogs.
He also did some garden maintaince cutting back brambles, hedging and clearing weeds, he was fairly enthusiastic about this job once he got going, although he wasn't keen to go out in the rain which was alot of the time during his stay.
He also had a go at pruning 1 of my 3 lovely old apple trees, this job, which he had stated in his profile as being skilled at was the reason i chose David to come for his 3 week stay.
Unfortunately this was not successful and one of the reasons for my less than positive feedback. We discussed the pruning, he said he had learnt to prune with his Dad, i bought some new tools as my clippers were abit old and a good job was important to me, but unfortunately i wasn't available to supervise the first cutting, he took off some branches quite haphazardly in odd places with bad cuts tearing and damaging the remaining branches. when i saw his work i stated with my limited knowledge that the angle, placement and care of the cuts didn't look good, went through discussion of the best way to do it after watching utube tutorial. I suggested for him to just cut back the brambles from the tree but more branches seemed to be attacked.
A worker who came to give a quote on constructing a fence happened to also be tree person looked at what had been done and backed up my belief that he really didn't know what he was doing, was infact causing harm and he did his best to rectify the situation and minimise damage to the old tree. I am so glad that i caught this before all of the trees were damaged to a greater degree.
I didn't get flustered just asked David to stick to the brambles and hazel cutting and clearing, unfortunately he wasn't able to distinguish one of my special old shrubs, which also got an bad harsh pruning which i do hope it survives.
So what i realise is David needed alot more supervision than i was able to give him, needing someone to work alongside him to prevent such incidents. This is a good lesson for me, however i do believe workawayers should be really honest when stating a skill, especially when its the reason for taking someone on.
He also stated he was skilled in carpentry but although i suggested some jobs like mending chairs, putting latches and fixings on doors and gates, he didn't show any iniative or interest in completing these tasks. We did begin a job of screwing down some floorboards that were squeaky, it was discussed twice, my partner even lifted a board to show him where pipes went under, before going to work, however luckily as it turns out the drill stopped working after the first floorboard was done, all the screws were in the wrong place and could have caused damage, so this was the second job i asked him to leave as i was losing my trust and confidence in his abilities, aware that things could have gone alot worse, with both jobs if not caught when they where.
From the beginning i had suggested some simple, basic, no mess jobs to get on with when i was working that didn't require any skills as other important jobs weren't going so well, i hoped he would take the intiative to get on with like cleaning cupboards, shelves, sideboards etc but these didn't get done either, despite reminders.
He did abit of hoovering which was ok and moping, not so good mostly getting alot of water on the floor without great result, missed corners, behind doors etc.
He says in his feedback that the work was relaxed at mine but i don't think he was skilled or very capable and really i was just trying not to stress about things as i didn't want to make things awkward but he obviously didn't pick up my discomfort with the work he did and didn't manage to do. Maybe i should have been abit clearer with him but it can be tricky with someone living alongside you.
David cooked some meals for himself and for us both and although he did manage this task, he did leave alot of oil around all the cooking surfaces and stained pans from having the flame up too high with alot of spitting and smell, i kept telling him to watch the heat and clean up afterwards but this didn't seem to go in very easily.
I also felt his understanding of a fair trade of work for accommadation and food was abit unbalenced, i don't think i helped the situation by really wanting him to feel at home and comfortable without any unease or tension which is unpleasant for all involved but i suppose the skill is to balence this with clear boundaries, instructions and rules.
I bought alot of food in for the first shop we did together making sure there were things he liked, however after this he kind of demanded lots of stuff, an awful lot of fruit, snacks, pizzas ( i bought some cheaper variety but he wouldn't eat them), and even presented me with a bill for crisps, croisssants, mustard (- we already had some -) when i sent him to the shop for bread and milk.
David was not a talker and only really communicated on a basic level of times of events and household goings on and despite me trying to be back at home for him as much as possible around my busy hectic schedule whenever i returned he asked what was happening the next day and apart from eating dissappeared into his room.
All in all i realise i require an older more experienced workawayer who has lived away from home, has more of a concept of what is involved in running a household, has more skills, social interaction, understanding and capabilities.
I am fairly busy person, and its help that i need rather than a student type, i did take time to try and show him around, communicate about various things but i didn't get alot of interaction back.
It's really important to have pleasant easeful company in one's home and unfortunately this time it didn't work out for me, i always try very hard to be a good host so David didn't seem to comprehend how difficult and challenging and even upsetting (re the tree and shrub) the whole experience was for me, so i will go for over 25's from now on!
But we made it to the allocated 3 weeks without unpleasantness and i was very ready to drop him off to his coach for the airport and back home.
Of course dynamics will always be different with different people.
I have to understand he is young and inexperienced but honesty and integrity is vital to this workaway experience, i ask that he reviews his skills list and reflects on this review to improve the experience for a future host.
I wish David all the best for the future.

(Neutral )

16/12/2018

Left by Workawayer (David) for host

It was really good to be at Uma's house. She is a very lovely person, she provied me all the things that I needed, even she bought me a waterproof boots. I mainly walked the dogs and I did some cleaning on the house, washing the dishes and also I did some gardening, but the work was very easy and relaxed. Also, Uma helped me to go to Exeter,… read more

(Excellent )

09/10/2018

Left by host for Workawayer (Guadalí)

I really enjoyed having Gaudali to stay as my workawayer, he was really helpful, hardworking, cheerful, calm and had a go at everything i asked of him and was great company aswell.
He was really good at getting me and my daughters computer back on track, aswell as my promotion.
He also got stuck into the garden, some painting, lots of dog… read more

(Excellent )

04/10/2018

Left by Workawayer (Guadalí) for host

Uma took me in as if I were a member of the family, she made sure that I would feel comfortable with everything and always asked what I needed. She is super easygoing and funny!
I got to see a lot of the surrounding landscapes such as Dartmoor or the amazing coast of south Devon and Uma helped me get there as well as showing me lot of places… read more

(Excellent )

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