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Host rating
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Last replied
28 Oct 2026
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Min stay requested: at least 3 weeks
Details
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Description
*Winter Housesitting Update*
December 30, 2026–April 30, 2027 · Black Creek, Vancouver Island
We’re looking for a caring, dependable person or couple to make our home their own this winter while we’re away.
This is a little different from our usual Workaway experience. You’ll be living in our family home, caring for our two kittens, Pete and Midnight, and our dog, Lily, while helping look after the home and land.
Our home is a cozy sanctuary, with a wood stove, backyard sauna and outdoor hot bath. We’re hoping to find someone who will deeply appreciate the space, enjoy settling into its quieter winter rhythm, and care for it with warmth and attention.
What the role involves
The heart of this stay is thoughtful care of our animals and home, along with errands and general caretaking. Practical or handy skills would be a welcome bonus, with opportunities to steadily chip away at small projects.
Clear, reliable communication is especially important. John will be in regular contact throughout the winter, and we’re looking for someone comfortable sharing updates, asking questions and letting us know when something needs attention.
We’ll continue to provide our grocery allowance of $120 /person per week. We’ll agree on responsibilities, hours and arrangements for time away together before confirming the stay.
Winter life on the land
This is a shared property and home to our land family. Hartley and Emily will be settling into life with their newborn, and Lesley will be here when she isn’t away in Nunavut.
Our community slows down over winter. There are fewer potlucks and gatherings, and you may be the only Workawayer—or Workaway couple—on the land. Our learning community will still bring life to the property through its twice-weekly school program and monthly farm program.
This stay would suit someone who enjoys independence, nature and a peaceful home base, and who is comfortable with a quieter social season.
Who we’re hoping to welcome
Ideally, we’d welcome a Canadian citizen who can obtain a criminal record check with vulnerable sector screening, allowing us to explore occasional support with the learning community where appropriate. Neither Canadian citizenship nor that screening is a requirement for the housesitting role. Most support will involve errands and caretaking rather than working directly with children.
Above all, we’re looking for someone who loves animals, takes initiative, communicates well and will treat our home with genuine care.
If this sounds like your kind of winter, please tell us about yourself, your availability, your experience with animals and housesitting, and any practical skills you’d enjoy sharing. We’d especially love to hear what draws you to a quiet winter here.
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Hey Folks!
Welcome to our community oriented project located in Black Creek on Vancouver Island.
Black Creek is tucked away the North end of the Comox Valley. Between crystal clear streams, mountain lakes and wildflower meadows of the nearby Strathcona range and the beautiful white sand beaches and rain forest on the east coast.
For the past 8 years our family has been invested in making our land useful. Arriving here we asked ourselves, what communities, initiatives and work that informs grassroots level connection and change making deserves our support?
In our answer to that questions we've been living in a small community, sharing the land and load. We've been hosting occasional healing retreats, growing flowers in a small regenerative flower farm and most recently started a nature based alternative learning community for kids k-9.
We're doing all this on 46-acres of forest and field, and (mostly) having a great time doing it :)
Workaway volunteers join us in the flow of daily life — working on building projects, helping care for our kids, tending animals and gardens, splitting firewood, helping with the learning communities volunteer roles and doing errands in town.
Work varies with the season, and creativity is always welcome.
We invite you to explore the best of the area, using our mountain bikes, paddleboards, canoe, camp gear and 4x4 pick up truck. We share meals at a weekly potluck and invite cultural exchange and dialog. We try to host multiple Workaways so there is a sense of community and camaraderie shared between our visiting family.
We're in our third year of Workaway and having a blast doing it. So many great friends and adventures brought to us through this initiative.
Come curious! Leave changed :)
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The surrounding area:
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 generally welcome longer stays. There's a lot to do in this valley and we'll gladly try and help you make the most of your stay.
Groceries:
We will provide some kitchen staples and a weekly allowance for each workaway of around 120$ for groceries
Getting here:
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
Light gardening
Creative DIY projects
Farmstay help
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
Light maintenance
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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
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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 sweatloge 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 lots of fun lawn games and do workouts 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.
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Help
This would be a 5 hrs/day position.
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. We have an abundance of garden and landscaping projects each year that doesn't require skill so much as willingness to learn and move quickly and efficiently.
Projects:
We're thrilled anytime we can play host to a builder, carpenter or trade. Next up? An upgraded workaway outdoor kitchen and lounge area and a Sauna.
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:
We're always stoked to play host to excellent caregivers. So what does this look like?
Creating some structured activities whether it's play, art, cooking or learning. Any Spanish language experience would be great as our kids are 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. 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.
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 groups but when there are no groups occupying the space we want to open it up to Work-Away.
2. From May-Oct we have two canvas bell tents that are set up for Workaway. Adjacent is a (beautiful) composting toilet (made by a french furniture making Workaway!), hot outdoor shower and camp kitchen (complete with stove, oven, fridge and coffee set up)
3. RV site: If you have a trailer, camper-van or small RV we have space for your rig in an area close to the composting toilet and ourdoor kitchen. -
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.
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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 installed StarLink internet so our uptime and speed is looking good!
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Space for parking camper vans
We've got a couple of suitable areas for campervans
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Can possibly accept pets
We've already for 3 dogs on the land so we're not super keen to add more woofs!
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How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
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My animals / pets
The Miniature Goats and Chickens
Sonic
Cota
Lily
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback (10)
If you are … read more
She is exceptionally bright, worldly, thoughtful and kind, with a maturity and ease that made her a joy to live and work alongside. Our connection … read more
He brought such a positive, energetic, and supportive spirit to his time with us, and quickly became a dear friend to both our children and to us. Michael threw himself wholeheartedly into the experience, … read more
After spending years in city life, I came to Vancouver Island looking for a change, a deeper connection with nature, and a chance to slow down. From the moment I arrived in Black Creek, I felt welcomed and cared for. John and Christina created an … read more
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Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(4.9)
Communication:
(4.9)
If you are … read more
She is exceptionally bright, worldly, thoughtful and kind, with a maturity and ease that made her a joy to live and work alongside. Our connection … read more
He brought such a positive, energetic, and supportive spirit to his time with us, and quickly became a dear friend to both our children and to us. Michael threw himself wholeheartedly into the experience, … read more
After spending years in city life, I came to Vancouver Island looking for a change, a deeper connection with nature, and a chance to slow down. From the moment I arrived in Black Creek, I felt welcomed and cared for. John and Christina created an … read more
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
