Relaxed family in rural area is looking for people to join us starting our farm in Südheide, Germany

Details

• 

  Description

  Important: We are currently working on the Workawayer's room, so that we can temporarily only host people with RVs or those who are fine with sleeping in a tent (that we could provide).
  
  Hey,
  we are a family consisting of Svenja (28, mother of our two children and midwife), Jesse (28, father and teacher) plus Billy (4) and Kaja (1). We spent quite some time abroad working at other people´s farms (workaway-style) yet and would like to be part of a welcoming and open-minded world - now as hosts.
  We recentyl bought a property of 4000m²/1 acre in a rural area and now would like to turn it into a lovely place where we can grow and process our own food. To be honest: at the moment (January 2024) there's no proper veggie bed yet and only a few apple trees but we´d love to have some people around to help and experience the process of creation with us. We are no business and produce all the food for our own household (maybe including you?! ;) ). We have some lovely chickens on the property, most of them are "rescued" from conventional farms where they weren´t effecient enough and otherwise would have been killed.
  We´d be glad if you´d spend time together with us (having meals, making trips ...) but of course nobody will be forced to anything and you will have your own space where you can be on your own if you like to.
  We did that too, so you could also use our place as a kind of base from where you could start off to trips that take several days.
  We eat vegetarian and try to eat vegan often.

• 

  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
• 

  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

  ×

  ...

  ...

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  What's this?
• 

  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  First of all we´d like to mention that we see a benefit on both sides, so we are also really looking forward to having you at our place and finding out about your life and learning from you. With the two kids we aren´t able to travel as we did before we had them, so it would be a pleasure to us to have the world at our place. We see a huge benefit for both, you and us, just by spending time together, by exchaning views, ideas, music, recipes and whatever.
  It feels a bit like showing off, but we think that generally speaking you will experience a lifestyle that combines being laid-back with getting many things done and being a small part of changing the world for the better. We are very grounded and satisfied and we can imagine that some people would call it a benefit to have an environment like that.
  Regarding to skills you can learn how to
  - start a veggie bed and grow vegetables
  - preserve food so that you can live a more self-sufficient lifestyle
  - process food (e.g. baking bread, making butter or yoghurt from raw milk, each year we press more that half a ton of apples to make our own juice)
  - take care of chickens/ design a chicken-friendly and healthy chicken coop
  - do carpenter-work (before I (Svenja) worked as midwife, I worked as carpenter)
  - build a new water system that supplies the household with well water (water tank, filters, pipes...)
  - renovate an old house with maily natural materials. Besides, we are going to do some plumbing and check and repair the electrics there. Both hasn't been used for some time now..
  - grow apple trees (professional pruning and grafting)
  - maintain and fix cars, motorbikes, machines (but we hope that none of that will break...)
  
  If there´s anything that you´d like to do (maybe building a nestbox or something like that), of course we can share our tools and experience with you.
  
  If it fits the schedule at school, I (Jesse) could imagine to take you to my school where you could become part of a cultural meeting between you and high school students where both could learn something about each other.

• 

  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

• 

  Help

  As mentioned above, we just bought the place, so there are many different jobs to do at the moment. Some things that need to be done would be: carpenter works at the house, starting a veggie bed + seeding + taking care of it, renovating the old farmhouse, checking the property + maintenance, e.g. fencing. Besides that, the old farm house needs a check and maintenance of the electrics and the water pipes. One of the big reasons for us to buy the property was the food supply and therefore you could also process and preserve food, bake bread or make butter or yoghurt from raw milk. Besides that, there is a 40 years old camper van that we have kind of taken apart and needs to be fixed. And then there are still all the jobs of the usual business; mowing lawn, weeding, watering plants... So we´re sure that we'll find jobs that you´ll like plus we are convinced that almost every work can be fun if you have the right company or music - or both!
  If you´re more into taking care of kids it would also be an option that you spend some time with the kids while we do the work.

• 

  Languages

  Languages spoken
  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  French: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
  You can contact them directly for more information.
• 

  Accommodation

  There is plenty of space in the big farm house but since we are still working on it, we would have tot alk about the accomodation in advance to your visit. We also have a small wooden house next to a river in a forest 20 min away from our place where you could certainly spend some time off too.

• 

  What else ...

  We have several cars and would share them with you if you want to go somewhere (and have the driver´s license). You can have your own bicycle so that you can cycle to town. It´s also possible that we shuttle you to the next train station so that you can travel to bigger cities like Hamburg or Hanover by train. We both grew up in villages close to where our farm is now, so we know the area well.

• 

  A little more information

  • 

    Internet access

  • 

    Limited internet access

  • 

    We have pets

  • 

    We are smokers

  • 

    Can host families

• 

  Can host digital nomads

  I (Jesse) live without mobile internet on my smartphone and of course anybody who doesn´t want to be in touch with digital media is welcome!

• 

  Space for parking camper vans

  We have two camper vans ourselves, so why shouldn´t you bring yours too?!

• 

  Can possibly accept pets

  Please talk to us in advance if you bring any pets with you.

• 

  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

• 

  Hours expected

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Feedback (1)