Enjoy peaceful life and pure nature at our big old house in Parikkala, Finland

Details

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  Description

  We are a family with 2 houses next to each other. Looking primarily for someone to live in our old house, taking care of heating and maintenance of the house where you live. We are used to having au pairs, friends and guests from different cultures living with us, and I enjoy learning to know new people, cultures and creating friendships. We hope you want to participate in rural every day life with gardening, possibly forestry and making firewood, which are all included in the way of living here.
  
  We live in the country side. Life where we live is really slow, quiet and peaceful, right In the middle of nature. You need to be prepared for no restaurants, no shopping, no public transportation, no social events. Instead you can have all great pleasures of pure forest, fresh air and time for yourself, for free.
  
  It is nice if you can engage with our normal daily tasks (in wintertime it takes a few hours daily to heat the house) but you have time to study or work full time doing your own things if you like. We welcome someone who is calm, independent, reliable, helpful, friendly, cleanly, healthy and focused. You will need to be open for a different way of doing things from what you are used to and follow given instructions. The most important thing is that we find a good understanding and communication with each other.
  
  You have to be able to communicate in English, Swedish or Finnish especially for safety reasons.
  
  About us:
  Me, Jessica, 49 years old, former office worker, now studying for profession in natural resources and being an entrepreneur around wellbeing. I like doing yoga, biking, kick sledging, skiing, foraging, growing vegetables, reading, crafts, music, spending time with friends, relaxing, taking walks, iron age related anything, swimming, volunteering, thinking, nice conversations. My core values are freedom, family, health and helping others. While the others are busy with theirs, I'm usually mainly in contact with our guests.
  
  My husband, Jussi, 55 years old. Works driving a milk truck. Likes to work around the house and in the forest.
  
  Esja, 12 years, goes to school. Likes to hang out with friends, anything with horses, swimming, downhill skiing, crafts, taking care of Ilona. She also likes to use her phone for staying in contact with her friends, playing, making and watching videos.
  
  Eirik, 15 years, goes to school. Likes to play on the computer, wrestling, fishing, hunting, downhill skiing, swimming, motocross, mopeds, hanging out with friends, taking care of Ilona.
  
  Ilona, dog, 6 years, West Siberian Laika. Likes to run in the forest, hunting, humans, treats.
  
  Winter picture of our family is already a couple of years old. I just realized both kids are already taller than me :).
  
  We are not looking for someone to work for us. This is a cultural exchange and making new friends while helping each other.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance

  House & pet sitting
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  Interests

  

  Culture

  

  Charity work

  

  Beach

  

  Sustainability

  

  Pets

  

  Self development

  

  History

  

  Music

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Gardening

  

  Animals

  

  Yoga / Wellness

  

  Nature

  

  Winter sports

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Cycling
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  - You will be the close by neighbor of a regular family living a simple life in countryside of Finland. You can learn some Finnish or Swedish and take time away from city life and stress. Hopefully you will get new life time friends.
  - Sometimes if you want and when possible, you can join in our activities, like making fire wood, taking walks in the forest, picking berries and mushroom, fishing, hunting, gardening, plowing the snow, skiing, skating, swimming, watching movies, going on errands, playing board games.
  - You can learn how to be nearly self sufficient on heating, from getting firewood from the forest to burning it to get warm water and heating all around the year.
  - I'm not a big fan of cooking, but I like good food, so I'm very happy if you want to cook and share some meals.
  - I like to discuss topics like how to get to know yourself, how to find your own potential and enjoy life in the presence. Also anything related to viking-age, old traditions, mythology, spirituality, self development, natural nutrition and healing.
  - I will tell you about our culture, how to do things, and I hope you will feel comfortable and happy as our neighbor. You will get explained in details how to do things around here, I hope you appreciate it and follow the instructions and learn perhaps new ways to do our everyday chores.

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  Help

  Living in the house requires heating (wood, central heating oven) and keeping the house clean. In the winter plowing the snow is also necessary.
  
  Daily heating needed in winter time varies from 3-6 hours depending on how cold it is. In summer once a week is enough. Other seasons are something in between. During heating time you need to present and monitor the process, but once you get used to it you can read or do something similar while heating.
  
  Some general help in the houses and garden like cleaning, plowing snow, mowing the lawn, or lending a hand if needed, is appreciated. Depending on the season we have different tasks to be done inside and outside the houses. If you are able to help with firewood (mainly April-September), it would be great. We need to do forestry tasks, cut trees, weed, chop, stack and move firewood. You can participate according to your skills and preferences.
  
  Help driving the kids sometimes to their hobbies is appreciated, so it would be good if you have a driver's licence.
  If you have experience with dogs it's also nice if you want to take Ilona with you on walks sometimes, at least if we are not home.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Finnish: Fluent
  Swedish: Fluent

  This host offers a language exchange
  It's nice to learn phrases, songs, words in different languages. We can also teach everyday Finnish or Swedish if you like.
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  Accommodation

  A big old furnished wooden 2 floor house with sauna, shower, toilet, kitchen, 4 bedrooms, living room. You will have a private bedroom. We still use the house as storage (there is still a lot of our stuff there) and sometimes as guestrooms. So we still visit your house weekly. Mostly you will stay and live by yourself in this separate house, but we can sometimes join for meals and activities as agreed if you wish.
  Often there will be other guests in the house too. You will have your private bedroom and share other spaces.
  
  You will be provided with fire wood (heating and cooking if you wish, sauna once per week), electricity and water. You need to buy your own food and necessities and prepare your own meals. Except for winter time (November-April) there are many resources in the nature for nutrition.
  
  We hope that you have a tidy and environmentally healthy lifestyle including energy saving and recycling. I'm not cleaning in your house so you need to commit to keeping everything clean and comfortable.
  
  Since it is an old house, and since power cuts are possible, we experience sometimes short periods when electricity/water/drain/toilet is not working. You need to be comfortable with possibility of this occasionally until problem is fixed. There is also an old house smell and there used to live cats and dogs.
  
  We don't accept smoking, using drugs or heavy alcohol use.

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  What else ...

  You can enjoy walking, skiing, biking, photographing, swimming, relaxing in the nature. Peaceful location for studying, reading, working, getting some time for yourself. No public transportation. Closest village with grocery store, pharmacy, school, library, pool and gym is 10km away. Closest city, Savonlinna, is 1 hour away. You are welcome to come with us on errands when you need a ride for buying groceries.
  In the forest lives bears, boars, wolf, lynx, elk, fox and smaller animals but we rarely see the bigger ones. In the summer we have lots of insects outside.
  
  Since we plan to share daily life as close neighbors and friends, it is important to have a video call to get to know each other a bit before making decisions on both sides.

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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 have a good wifi. However it is not 100% stable and fast all the time. Sometimes we also have power cuts and the connection is cut too. Some working online is still possible, but heavy online working that requires constant fast connection may not be possible all the time. Wifi cost is 15€/month if you want to use it. Ilona is not living in your house but she can visit you if you want. Your own pets can be discussed, a friendly dog could be ok to bring.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We live in the country side and you can park your car by the house.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  My animals / pets

  

  Ilona

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