Profile information
Host rating
80 %
Last replied
4 Apr 2025
Reply rate
73.0 %
Usually responds within 13 days
Feedback
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Details
Description
Hey folks!
This winter we've got a bunch of outside work that needs doing. We've got our little dome and the barn available for accommodation.
Our family and our 2 kids arrive back from our Mexico project April 26th and we're looking for (ideally) a couple of stellar, experienced and engaging folks to help with our kids age 2.5 and 7. We also hope to ramp up our summer projects with another couple of workaway's keen to help on projects outside. We're excited to be expanding our veggie patch, food forrest and walking trails. We're also thinking to build a sauna and jungle gym for our kids.
US AND THE LAND:
Our little family is on 50 acres in the Comox Valley of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Black Creek is tucked between crystal clear streams, mountain lakes, wildflower meadows and beautiful white sand beaches - it's a quiet little paradise in the North end of the Comox Valley.
Here we, Christina (40) and John (39), live with our family, Julianna (6) and our son Finn (2 years). We also share the land with dear friends Leslie (47) Dom (40) Emily (30) and Hartley (29)
On the land we also have a budding food forest, a small regenerative flower farm, 10 acres of pasture, 40 acres of forrest, a few farm animals like chickens and goats and 3 dogs.
This area is spectacularly beautiful and we are well located to access all of it:
Saratoga Beach - epic white sand beach (5 mins), Oyster River - many spots for walks and plunges (5-10 mins), Salmon Point - a gorgeous Ocean-side 5km well maintained path (5 min), Nymph Falls - epic waterfalls and swimming holes (20 mins), Comox Lake - beautiful for walking, hiking and swimming (30 mins), Cumberland - super fun little town with great restaurants, the best ice cream and right beside epic mountain biking and hiking (25 mins), Mount Washington - alpine meadow hiking and camping (25 mins), and so much more!
LENGTH OF STAY:
Given that many of our Workaways have asked to prolong their stays with us we'd like a minimum of a 3-4 week commitment and would welcome a longer stay. There's a lot to do in this valley and we'll gladly try and help you make the most of your stay.
FOOD:
We will provide kitchen staples as well as a weekly allowance for groceries. Either you can take a car and hit the local grocery which is a 5 minute drive or you can give a list to us and we can do the shop. When time allows we'd love to share meals together (this is more of a summer vs winter thing)
TRANSPORT:
You can take the ferries and arrive at a bus stop that is a 5 minute drive from our house. There is infrequent public transit that can take you to town that is about a 10 minute bike ride away. We have 5 bikes and a truck available for occasional use. You can tag along for grocery shop runs into town and borrow a vehicle once in a while to go to the mountain, beaches etc and you're welcome to tag along with us when we go.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Language practice
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Farmstay help
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Interests
Culture
Van life
Self development
Movies & TV
Farming
DIY & crafts
Plant care
Music
Gardening
Languages
Photography
Drawing & painting
Astronomy
Carpentry
Cooking & food
Books
Art & design
Animals
Water sports
Outdoor activities
Hiking
Cycling
Dancing
Mountain
Yoga / Wellness
Nature
Fitness
Camping
Beach
Adventure sports
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Getting back to the land!
Connecting with nature.
Connection with the wisdom of traditional cultures; we sometimes play host to sweats and ceremony.
We have a network of very cool folks in this neighbourhood that you can connect with.
We have a great outdoor gym and do workouts all together a couple times a week.
We love to cook together and share meals outside.
We have access to amazing outdoor activities: Stand Up paddle boarding, mountain biking, fishing, hiking. Stunning beach 5 minutes away, a beautiful riverside park that you can walk to, alpine meadows, lakes and hiking are a 25 minute drive. 4 funky little towns with lots to explore a 25 min drive away.
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
This would be a 5 hrs/day position. You would be living either in the barn described below or in a beautiful tent with mattress and hammock that is near the geo dome described below and the outdoor kitchen and shower.
Chores:
We've got a number of daily and weekly tasks that we'd like support with such as caring for animals, watering gardens and lawn care
Projects:
We have an abundance of garden and landscaping maintenance each year that doesn't require skill so much as willingness to learn and move quickly and efficiently.
We're thrilled anytime we can play host to a builder.
Next up? a sauna? Jungle gym? Pizza oven?
Meal Prep:
We've hosted a chef before and loved it. Cooking for big groups to eat all together, filling up the freezer and processing foods from the gardens are all super valuable for us.
Childminding:
Starting May 1st we'd be very grateful for daily playtime with our kids, age 7 and 2 years.
So what does this look like?
Creating some structured activities whether it's play, art, language or learning for our daughter. Any Spanish language experience would be great as our daughter is learning Spanish as we live in Mexico half of the year.
Julianna loves to be physical, adores active playtime and creativity whether with art, imagination games or exploring outdoors. J is in day care 2 days a week so help for us here would look like excited and enthusiastic engagement, following her lead with make believe and imagination, getting on the bikes and going for a bike ride, playing on the trampoline, making forts, learning basic math, abc's, Spanish practice, art time etc.
With our son, the big help would be attentive and engaged babysitting. Stroller rides around the farm, safe playtime and engagement via books, new sensory experiences
A few things we've learned from hosting the last couple years:
- We love duos or couples!
- We happily match efforts you make in trying to make your stay with us meaningful, meaning that we notice when you show up on time, and work hard.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: BeginnerThis host offers a language exchange
We are actively working on Spanish!
Accommodation
We have 3 areas available for work aways to stay.
1. The Barn: is a fully furnished and newly renovated gathering space with living room, bathroom, kitchen and bedroom. This is a space we use for hosting retreat groups but when there are no groups occupying the space we want to open it up to Work-Away.
2. The glamping bell tents: We recently constructed a new 22 foot diameter geodesic dome and adjacent bell tent that are set up for retreat guests and Workaways. Adjacent is a (beautiful) composting toilet (made by a french furniture making workaway!), outdoor shower and camp kitchen (complete with stove, oven, fridge and coffee set up) The dome serves as a common area for workaways and occasional accommodation for retreat facilitators.
3. RV site: If you have a trailer, camper-van or small RV we have a fully serviced, 30 amp site with septic hookup adjacent to the flower farm.
What else ...
We share the land 4 other wonderful people. Between us there's a lot of fun things we can connect you with – we've got a good bit of experience on the island and can direct you towards many sorts of adventures.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We installed StarLink internet so our uptime and speed is looking good!
Space for parking camper vans
We have a beautiful, fully serviced 30amp RV plug and sani connection site that is perfect for campervans and small rvs
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Feedback (7)
And we all agree!
We really enjoyed our time with Mark and wished he'd been able to stick around. Mark is strong and applied himself to tasks, he learned quickly and wasn't afraid to sweat and work hard. Beyond the effort Mark showed what I really… read more
I was supposed to stay there for an entire month, but I found an amazing oportunity to go hike for a week on the West Coast Trail. John and Christina was very flexible and understanding in theese changes of plans and they understand that you are… read more
The atmosphere is so warm, and you immediately feel like part of the community. The tasks are varied, and it's fun to help bring both small and large projects to life.
The accommodation in the truly… read more
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And we all agree!
We really enjoyed our time with Mark and wished he'd been able to stick around. Mark is strong and applied himself to tasks, he learned quickly and wasn't afraid to sweat and work hard. Beyond the effort Mark showed what I really… read more
I was supposed to stay there for an entire month, but I found an amazing oportunity to go hike for a week on the West Coast Trail. John and Christina was very flexible and understanding in theese changes of plans and they understand that you are… read more
The atmosphere is so warm, and you immediately feel like part of the community. The tasks are varied, and it's fun to help bring both small and large projects to life.
The accommodation in the truly… read more
My accommodations were in a spacious dome separate from the main house and facing the beautiful forest. I had access to my own kitchen space and was provided… read more
