Join our little community and help with outdoor projects near Berlin, Germany

Details

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  Description

  Please note that we only host over the warm months from may till september/(october for the tough ones), since our accommodation for guests does not have any heating.
  
  We are a couple living in a small town in East Germany, 1 hour southwest of Berlin.
  
  We are living in a small old house, together with a HUGE and beautiful piece of land, with lots of space and silence. The house and all the barns need quite some fixing, and at different seasons, we have lots of fruit: blackberries, peaches, apples, walnuts etc. We try to take it easy and want to enjoy the place as much as possible - next to all the building sites and work.
  
  In the garden, a friend of ours has moved with her lovely tiny house on wheels. She is a great gardener and we are happily harvesting her fantastic vegetables every day. So our little community is growing.
  
  I think I can say we are all open-minded, friendly people, we are happy to have guests from different countries and cultures. At the same time, we are both introvert persons who need their privacy and enjoy quiet times. Also, there are times when we both work a lot. We are freelancers and regularly working in Berlin (one at the TV and the other doing improvisation theatre). This means, our place is definitely a place for people who have no trouble spending time on their own and be with nature.
  
  We created an infrastructure where you will be independent of our house: there is a guest kitchen where you will be able to prepare your meals, a composting toilet and an outside bathroom with hot shower from a solar panel. So you are completely self- sufficient, so preparing your own meals should be no problem to you. If you have a workaway travel companion, that´s perfect.
  
  Having said that, there will of course be moments when we decide to eat together, and exchange of course! If you want, we can go shopping together, show you around town a little bit.
  
  Ah, before I forget: also living here is an elderly tenant, upstairs in the house. He has lived here for 25 years, and he is a typical old man from Brandenburg - pretty grumpy but with a good heart. He doesn't like foreigners (he didn´t like us, originally being from West Germany;-)), he likes to curse a lot (we secretly call him grumpy) - but we like him anyway, somehow. So if you find him not smiling at you, don´t take it personal... luckily, he spends most of his time watching telly and feeding his cat.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Hard to say. Having bought this house and piece of land, I have fulfilled a very big dream and I am really happy that I have not let go of that dream. So I can offer motivating you to not let go of your deapest dreams :-)
  You can learn what life in the east-german countryside can look like. Older people who have lived in different political systems can surely tell lots of interesting stories. Or be grumpy and don't like foreigners;-)
  
  There is a huge alternative scene here, many people who have moved to the countryside to live a simpler way of life - I think that is special here. Lots of small and big sustainable communities, little organic farms etc. have grown here within the last 30 years.
  
  If you are a spiritually intersted person: sometimes, on the sundays, we have a meditative meeting in the garden with friends and neighbours. We (not all of us, the guys living here are not into spiritual stuff;-)) sing spiritual songs from different traditions, read texts or sit in silence. It is a beautiful start into the day.
  
  Further, you can simply experience a lot of silence and time in nature.
  
  Or, if you love the big city, you can do trips to Berlin - it's only a five minute walk to the station and then 50 minutes by train to Berlin.
  
  One of our workawayers used to meet people from other countries via a "single and tourist" app and went salsa dancing with them in Berlin or did sightseeing.

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  Help

  We try to keep our land , buildings and garden in a state where we can enjoy it. For that, it´s great if you join us in helping to keep them kind of clear. For example during the growing seasons, we welcome some weeding in the vegetable garden, we always try to clear some blackberry plants from the pathways etc. In autumn, we harvest our apples and store them, sometimes we do mowe the lawn and it´s great if you help us with that. Around the buildings, such as the old barn, we keep throwing away old stuff and take it to the rubbish dump - this is also something that´s more fun to do together.
  So the help you can provide is not difficult and does not need any special skills. You are always free to tell us which help you prefer to do.
  Cleaning the commonly used spaces such as your guest kitchen/the composting toilet should not be a problem to you.

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  Languages spoken

  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Dutch: Fluent
  French: Intermediate

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  Accommodation

  We have a very comfortable caravan to sleep in, which is quite nice inside. There is WiFi.
  There is a really beautiful composting toilet, as well as an outside shower with hot water from a solar panel. Here you must be aware that the shower will only be hot when the sun was shining for some time.
  You can use the guest kitchen in the barn which will be yours during your stay. We provide you with food of course, so if you like, we can go shopping together, so you can find the food you like, or you tell us what you need and we bring it, or you go shopping on your own and we pay, any way is fine with us. You are welcome to eat any of our produce from the garden, depending on what season you are there: lettuce, beans, zucchini, pumpkin, leeks, tomatoes, all kinds of cabbage, apples, pears, berries of all sorts. We also have our own apple juice and jam of all sorts. So you will have good food!
  You you should be fine with preparing your own meals in that kitchen. We can of course cook or eat together, or invite each other now and again, but mostly we will be independant kitchen-wise.

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  What else ...

  Our place is quite big, 3 hectares of nature, and it offers a wonderful view into the landscape. You can go for nice hikes through the forests or just hang in a hammock and enjoy the silence. It is a place for you if you live nature and silence.
  
  Bad Belzig is a small town with about 10.000 inhabitants. There is an old castle to visit, and for those who like spa experience, there is a thermal bath with hot pools and sauna´s.
  
  Further, there are some interesting alternative projects around. Also, one of our friends is a regular workaway host, so we might meet with them sometimes, doing some bigger tasks altogether or having a camp fire.
  Our house is very close at the railway station - 5 minutes to walk. The hourly trains will take you to Berlin main station in exactly 60 minutes. Also Potsdam and Dessau are interesting towns reachable within less than an hour.

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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 Internet connection. If you work full time as digital nomad though, we think Workaway does not make much sense.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We have lots of space for campers.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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