Enjoy a peaceful farm and ranch stay near the Oregon Coast, USA

Details

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  Description

  Greetings from all of us here on the ranch/farm/homestead! We would love to share our place near the Oregon Coast with you and in turn, receive help with a variety of projects to develop this 30 acre mini-ranch/farm into a more beautiful place. We share this special property with twelve species of domestic animals and our daughter is passionate about growing flowers, mostly dahlias. The animals here include Nigerian dairy goats, rare Valais Blacknose and Shetland sheep, Kunekune pigs, alpacas, horses, a llama, a turkey, giant rabbits, livestock guardian dogs, little dogs, barn cats, and chickens and ducks. The total animal count in June is well over 200 (counting the 50 ducks and chickens). In addition, a herd of about 65 elk often visit this little valley in the fall and winter months. Our large seasonal pond with its island also attract various species of wild ducks and geese. It is both remote and very peaceful here. We are 20 minutes drive from the Pacific Ocean and the beach town of Newport and not far from the Coastal Range mountains. If you are looking for night clubs and city life, this is NOT the place for you. It is helpful if you have a vehicle because the bus schedule is very limited and most activities are beyond walking distance.
  
  UPDATE: We are so excited to be developing the back 15-18 acres of our "wild country woods" into a network of trails by enhancing the elk and deer trails that have been there for decades We started recently on the project and we are amazed at all the interesting features of our back wild country. We are overflowing with fun plans but it started with the idea of "hiking with goats". We have a herd of miniature goats that are super friendly and just beautiful with unique personalities to be the companions on the hikes. Anyway, if you want to work hard and be a part of something special, please reach out to us.
  
  We were previously full for the spring months but now we have a couple of potential openings available for a few select people from now (late March) and until mid July. Ideally, we are looking for special people about 22-36 years-old who are: adaptable, detail oriented, easy going, a good communicator, with a positive attitude, hard working, honest and trustworthy, and physically fit. It is also wonderful if you love animals and nature, are skilled in construction and/or landscape, and have some gardening experience. Plus, there is lots of work to do on the trail network! That was the "ideal" but we need a variety of helpers and love to meet new people so if you are excited to come stay here, please don't hesitate to ask.
  
  February was kidding season so now we have 28 adorable kids frolicking around! We expect super cute Valais Blacknose lambs in early June and more miniature goat kids in late April. If you love animals and are ready to work hard, spring is a great time to visit! We will also be gardening, landscaping, clearing and trail building in the woods, cleaning pens and stalls, small building projects, and of course we need to cook meals and keep the house cleaned up.
  
  Our farm sign says "Sharing God's Love and Blessings" and that is our hope with anyone who visits here. From May through October, we host monthly free OPEN FARM days where we share our beautiful property, animals, flowers, home baked cookies, and hugs and love with visitors. The OPEN FARM days are totally FREE and everyone is welcome to visit. We need help cleaning and setting up each month for OPEN FARM and also people to act as guides and help with the activities and/or fun events. In the past, we have had "little animal races", pumpkin games, scavenger hunts, and more. We welcome your creative ideas too, there are so many possibilities with your added help!
  
  Cameron and I (Anna) have been married for over 33 years and are blessed to have raised our three now grown children here (since 2000). Shantelle (wearing the orange blouse in the photo) is 29 and returned home about four years ago to help take care of this place and lives here about half of the time. She is a super hard worker and has really helped beautify this place with thousands of flowers. Our two sons (Tacoma, 27 and Jostan, 25) live in Corvallis (about an hour east of here) along with Tacoma's wife Jackie. Jostan just finished his MS degree in agricultural robotics at Oregon State University. Tacoma commutes to the Portland area for his first career job in architectural engineering and Jackie is a teacher (she is wearing the skirt in the photo). NEWS! We expect to be grandparents for the first time in September! Jackie and Tacoma are expecting a baby boy! We are over the moon excited!
  
  Tacoma and Jostan are too busy to help much here anymore, thus we now welcome Workaway helpers here to help us maintain and develop this special property. We love to meet new people and have hosted close to 80 Workaway helpers since we started with Workaway in Jan. of 2022. We have had up to seven Workaway helpers here at one time but that will only be the case in the summer months if we have special projects to work on. It is more common to have just a few Workaway visitors here in the less busy months.
  
  We basically have a dry season here in the summer months where there is little or no rain from July through September. The rainy season typically starts in mid October and up to 100 inches of rain can fall before we have our dry season again. Most of the rain comes in November through February and that is also the time when the days are short and so there is more darkness. If you are prone to depression or can't handle getting wet, this would be the time to find a sunnier place to visit. Since we are near the Pacific Ocean, our winters stay pretty mild and snow is quite rare. We do have some crazy wind and rain in the winter. Thankfully, the house is near the barn and there is very little mud to deal with. Winters are a nice time to slow down and snuggle in, the wood stove keeps it nice and cozy in the house.
  
  This property is unique and still mostly wild so the possibilities are practically endless for improvement projects, although more limited when it is raining. If you are inspired, we can help you find projects and adventures here. If someone wanted to, we can figure out ways you could leave your mark here. You could clear a trail and put up a marker naming the trail after you, build a small bridge or garden art, plant a tree or herb garden, paint a mural on an interior barn wall, build a small structure, develop a campsite or fire pit for future visitors, have a special newborn animal named after you, the possibilities to leave your mark and be creative are countless! There are also many photo opportunities if photography is your passion. Shantelle and I love to take photos but aren't professionals. Two new ideas I have thought of in recent days include instructing goat yoga classes or use some of our many alpaca and sheep fleeces to spin or otherwise use in fiber art.
  
  I am outgoing, creative, talkative, and joyful; staying very active and very busy here on the mini ranch/farm. Cameron works about 50-60 hours per week at Georgia Pacific, a big papermill about 20 minutes away. He is experienced in many areas and is a great "handyman" here. Cameron is a good leader and teacher, a very hard worker, and tends to be more private, mellow, and less talkative than me. None of us sit still for long and Shantelle is often found working late at night with a headlight on in her flower gardens. I kid her about how much dirt she brings into the house. Unlike Shantelle, Cameron and I tend to be "early to bed, early to rise", often getting our day started at 4 am.
  
  We are Christians and love God but we are not pushy with our beliefs; we just want to share our love and blessings with all people. We work very hard and expect the same from our helpers. We are kind hearted, caring, honest, frugal and humble people who love it here - it is not a fancy place but it is truly wonderful. We also know that fun and time off of work are important, although I can't remember the last time we actually took a vacation. We will do our best to help you have some amazing and memorable experiences, both here on the mini ranch/farm and in the local area.
  
  We aren't vegan or vegetarians personally but we can work to feed those who are, although during our super busy seasons, you may need to do much of the cooking of your special vegan meals. We will also need help from you to have your favorite ingredients on hand. Just let us know ahead of time what we should plan for. If you are especially picky, you could be the cook!
  
  My hobbies all relate to activities I do here, - raising animals, gardening, landscaping, cooking, baking, photography, and more. I seldom leave home except to buy animal feed and groceries and to go to church. I used to travel and stayed for a year in New Zealand as part of a university exchange. Cameron and I both have degrees from Oregon State University, Cameron in mechanical engineering and animal science for me. Shantelle decided university wasn't for her. Cameron likes to tinker in his shop, mostly doing projects to fix things. That is probably more than enough about us for now! We want to get to know you!

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance

  Help with Computers/ Internet
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  It is beautiful and peaceful here and healing to the spirit. You could learn skills related to all the above listed projects and activities, to name a few: meal preparation, cheese making, goat milking, gardening, building decks and small structures, land clearing, fencing, renovations, landscaping, gardening, flower arranging, animal care, alpaca and sheep shearing, hosting events and serving others, I will add to this list, I have so many creative ideas to make the stay here special!
  
  Even though we can't have you help directly with the care of the Nigerian herd and the Valais flock, you are still welcome to interact with them. Time permitting, I am also happy to teach you to milk a goat and share my extensive animal experience. You can take a goat or alpaca for a hike or have a photo session with your favorites or ???

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  Help

  We have many amazing animals here but due to labor laws, we can NOT have you help with any animals where we sell some of the offspring. This is the case with the Nigerian dairy goats and the Valais Blacknose sheep. We make little or no profit on the animals but since we do sell some kids and lambs, thus the rule applies. However, you are welcome to spend as much of your free time hanging out with the animals as you would like.
  
  The goats do provide milk for cheese making (and other dairy products) and love to help keep the bushes nibbled back. The sheep and pigs are also pasture animals and have a mowing role. In addition, Shantelle's horse lives here as well as my miniature horse, and we have a llama, alpacas, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, Shetland sheep, rabbits, and a turkey. These animals are family pets, browsers to keep the pastures mowed and help clear brush, eat bugs and slugs, lay eggs, and provide interactive and educational opportunities and "cuteness" for our FREE OPEN FARM days.
  
  Although we have many animals, none are house pets. We do have twelve dogs here so it probably wouldn't work well to bring a pet of your own. Six of the dogs are large but friendly livestock guardians and live with the livestock in the pastures and barns. The majority of the rest of the dogs are "over sized" farm Pomeranians.
  
  We can always use help from people with carpentry skills! Most jobs just require a strong work ethic and some require a bit of muscle (able to lift 50 pounds) but an average middle aged or younger helper should be strong enough for most of the tasks. The weather and the skills and interests of the Workaway visitors often play a large part in what projects and activities we focus on. Workaway helpers typically do a combination of jobs that must be done, although they may be dirty and not exciting, and other tasks and projects that are more in line with their interests and skills.
  
  A typical day would be wake up to be ready to do an hour or so of animal breakfast chores at 8 am. After the hour or so of morning chores, you can take a break, eat breakfast (or more breakfast) while I finish up my animal chores and goat milking. My chore routine takes the longest. Depending on how many Workaway visitors I have, I will sometimes have a morning meeting where we talk about what needs to be done for the day or the week. If things go as planned, I will have a list of possible jobs and priorities for the day. On a crazy busy day when I have no time for preparations, I expect my helpers to come to me and ask what they can do to help. When they finish that job, come back and ask again until they have done their hours for the day. If you have an animal chore routine, for example an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, you would be expected to do two more hours daily of help five days a week. It doesn't have to be Monday to Friday if something else works better for your schedule.
  
  If you have animal chores, which most people want because it is usually a fun routine and the animals have so much personality, you would still do your animal chores on the weekends unless plans were made ahead of time for someone else to cover your responsibilities. Most weeks you will work about 24 hours per week, sometimes a bit less, sometimes a bit more. We don't expect extra work except for the day before our monthly OPEN FARM days and on the day of the event. If you end up working a lot of extra hours on Friday and Saturday for the OPEN FARM, we will give you Monday off.
  
  As a family, we sometimes work 18 hour days and 15 hour days would be my norm, thus we feel having you work 4 hours per day to enjoy this special place is not a big sacrifice. We love it when people are like part of the family and happily work their hours with a joyful attitude and without counting every minute. We are flexible when you work and when you take breaks as much as possible. Sometimes jobs need to be done at a certain time or as a group but as long as I know you have a good work ethic and are doing your share, I am happy to work with your schedule whenever possible. When you work your four hours daily, we expect hard work as if it were a real job. If that isn't for you, we can talk about it and you can putter along at your own pace but do expect to put in extra time if you want to work at a slower pace. We don't expect you to work at our pace, we are workhorses and have years of experience but if you stay here a month or more, efficiency should come with experience.

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  Visitors are currently staying in the two upstairs bedrooms, one with a king sized bed and the other with a bunk bed with two full sized beds, and share the upstairs bathroom and live in the family home. In addition, we purchased a 40 foot 2012 park model trailer that we are calling the "bunk house" where our some of our helpers can stay. We have Workaway helpers staying in it now but is still needs interior work, like trim and new doors. It is currently place to sleep and has heat and electricity but no water or sewer yet but eventually it will be self contained. We have it set up in a pretty setting and plan to landscape the private yard area. There is now a nice 8 x 32 foot deck outside the door of the bunk house. The bunk house can house men and/or women travelers. It has a queen sized bed on one end and a full sized bed on the other end and a jackknife foldout couch that can be a bed in the living area. In the summer, we have a cute "bell" shaped, yurt type tent that is a nice place for two visitors to claim as home. Due to rain much of the year, the tent option will be just available for summer visitors. Hopefully soon, we will also have our enclosed 10 x 14 foot "Camanna Cabana" able to be used year round for activities, meetings, sleeping under the stars (clear roof), and a place for prayer, meditation, yoga, reading, etc.
  
  Our accommodations will get better over time. We will need you as Workaway helpers to achieve that goal! In a couple of years, we may even have cabins in the woods for Workaway helpers to stay in - if we have enough skilled carpenters come and help here.
  
  We have two well stocked refrigerators, freezers, and cupboards filled with food options. We also purchase food items suggested by our visiting helpers. There is food in great abundance! We will also have milk, eggs, seasonal vegetables, and other home grown meal options. In addition, I hope to have a helper for meal preparation and cooking at especially busy times of the year. I would like to train up a helper to make soft goat cheeses (feta, mozzarella, etc), yogurt, buttermilk and more. Finally, it would be great to have vegetable and herb gardening help to provide fresh produce and dairy products for meals.
  
  Most of the time, Workaway helpers select and prepare their own breakfast and lunches. There is plenty of food here and with a few exceptions, you can pretty much eat whatever you want, whenever you want. I do try to prepare dinners many evenings but I often welcome other cooks into the kitchen to create group dinners when they have the will and some skill. If you are a chef at heart, it is possible that dinners could be one of your responsibilities. We have a general rule here, the cook doesn't have to clean up after dinner and it is most fun when there are lots of willing clean-up helpers in the kitchen.

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  What else ...

  We are only 20 minutes drive from the Pacific Ocean where you will find beautiful beaches and the coastal town of Newport, Oregon. Both up and down the coast from Newport are many breathtaking rugged coastal features, coves, bays, rock formations, high vista points, and whale watching during certain times of the year. Inland are the mountain ranges and many more recreational opportunities. If you like trees, western Oregon has you covered! On our 30 acres alone, there are probably over 10,000 trees!
  
  There is a local bus route that goes through the tiny Native American town of Siletz which is about five kilometers from our ranch/farm. This local bus can take you to the coast or the valley with connections going to more distant destinations. Since we live in such a remote area with a small population, the bus runs only several times per day so the timing can be tricky. I commonly drop Workaway helpers off to explore the bayfront or the beaches and tourist attractions while I do my weekly grocery shopping in Newport or sometimes Corvallis. Some of our long term visitors earn the privilege of using our farm minivan for short excursions. Eventually, we hope to have a vehicle specifically for licenced drivers to borrow for after work hour adventures.
  
  There is no "night life" around here and no close by city. The university town of Corvallis is just over an hour away it you want to travel to have more of a city life adventure., although even Corvallis is only about 60,000 people.
  
  During free time, many of our Workaway visitors choose to stay here and relax, play with the many cute animals, swim in the river during the summer, learn about flowers with Shantelle and make bouquets or succulent pots, take hikes around the area, go running, take the goats on walks, fly their drones, and much more.
  
  We do not smoke, drink, or do any drugs and prefer you don't either. I worry about smoking here due to fire dangers (hay in the barn, dry pastures in summer) and I am sensitive to cigarette smoke. However, limited drinking is fine as long as it doesn't affect your work. Of course, we wouldn't want to deal with any issues or mess resulting from drunkenness. Drugs, ideally NO but limited amounts of legal drugs in outdoor and off-hour settings would be tolerated as long as their usage doesn't cause problems.

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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 high speed wireless internet access that usually works well both inside the house and outside in the barn/shop area. We do lose power at times with especially stormy weather but that is fairly rare. I am not very tech savvy myself but I think I can say YES, we are digital nomad friendly.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  This would depend on the situation. We don't have any hookups set up or spots designated for campervans but we may in the future. We can supply a heavy duty extension cord so you can have power and our outdoor Wi-Fi would give you coverage in your campervan. We have had two sets of campervan visitors so far and it went very well.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  20 - 25 hours per week of help. The hours per day and help days can be variable and flexible but need to be planned.

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