Share experiences and learn about plants near San Diego in El Cajon, California, USA

Details

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  Description

  February 5th update: Right now our house is full with Workawayers. For the next few months, it should be a beautiful green, but.... that also means tree trimming, weed trimming, planting, and so on. There are always garden tasks, and more.
  
  Our open dates at the moment include April and May and always in July, when my wife leaves for three weeks to Canada, back home for her.
  
  Thanks for looking! Enjoy the travels!!!
  
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  After a wonderful first few years of WorkAway, we are being a little more picky about our helpers. In general, we like travelers who are a bit more mature. We have had a few 19 year olds who want to Uber to Downtown San Diego, come home at sunrise and sleep to 2pm many days, and that does not work well for our schedule.
  
  For my wife it is usually best if there are two people, a couple or two friends, as this way she does not feel any need to 'entertain' people and she is usually the one at home. Independent/solo travelers are also welcome to apply and we may connect you with another solo traveler. We have one son, 25 currently at home, he is a professional fisherman. We also require that Workers speak enough English for a real conversation, as that is wonderful and a big part of why we do this.
  
  Almost every helper does a bit of weeding and yard help, along with plenty of house projects and nice cooking and light cleaning. There are always garden activities, as we are starting more crops. We always have mulch and making things and artwork. Over the past few years, what a wonderful bunch of travelers we have met!
  
  *️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️ We just decided, based on wise advise, that any Workers must have some sort of Health Insurance or Travel Medical Insurance, such as the one recommended by WorkAway.
  
  For anyone who does not know, unlike Europe and most of the modern world, Medical services are not free in the USA.
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  We are a married couple with two sons (27 and 25, with 27 year old in Arizona now and younger son fishing most days) and three young dogs and a few cats. Happy hour is a daily observance on most days.
  
  This is a 2.5 acre house in the local country, about 1/2 hour to the beach. 25 minutes to downtown San Diego.
  
  We have two rooms: One large room (the blue one) and our "Swiss Chalet" above the garage. This is in the bottom photo. Excellent food is available, with pool and toys, such as surfboards, mountain bikes, fishing gear, guitars, volleyball court, etc. (Since we do have a pool, no children please.)
  
  We have numerous projects on-going such as landscaping the yard, setting up or dealing with gardens, depending on the skill level, possibly painting or light carpentry. If you are a good cook, that is wonderful. We can get any ingredients.
  
  A few necessary details:
  
  - Since we already have a dog and cats, we can't accept helpers with pets.
  
  - No cigarettes on the property. Seriously, if you smoke regular cigarettes, that is not cool here and you will be asked to leave. We are not anti-smoking, nor anti-tobacco, just anti-cigarettes.
  
  - We do have fast Internet, as well as a TV and Netflix, etc.
  
  - We are NOT very close to public transportation, at over 2 miles, but transportation can be arranged. A car is very handy, but not needed.
  
  - travelers should have enough money to take care of themselves... we have had a few experiences with people out of money, and that is a shame, but not our problem.
  
  - we have added our photos to our profile, and we prefer to see a helper's photos on their profile as well.
  
  - In general, a one or two week stay is the maximum commitment we make at this time since we are not a farm or a business, but we remain open and flexible, and three or more weeks in July can work. It typically takes a couple days to figure it all out, then people are treated just like family. We are not a farm nor a business, and we just have many projects. We do host events from time to time.
  
  Thanks for reading! And we hope all have wonderful experiences. So far we have been thrilled with our experience with our visitors. We are world travelers stuck at home for awhile, so enjoy your journeys!
  
  Also, if you have read this far, here is a BIG HINT, for us and for other nice places.... in your message, say WHY you want this particular place. Good hosts get many requests, and we can tell which are very generic, being sent to many places. We always respond, but the personalized messages get a MUCH better response. Cheers!

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Events & social

  

  Plant care

  

  Music

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Animals

  

  Sailing / Boating

  

  Dancing

  

  Water sports

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Hiking

  

  Cycling
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Between my wife and I, we have traveled to all the continents at least 5 times, with Australia only twice, and not Antarctica. My wife is Canadian and in general, we are pretty well-traveled. Yet, we are here in San Diego for longer due to work, family, etc. So, we are open to both learn from others as well as share our experiences. We can provide a great room and really healthy food and we think a pretty nice spot to be. If anyone plays music, we can play together perhaps.

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  Help

  My wife will typically have a list of about ten possibilities. Travelers choose the tasks they enjoy and feel comfortable with. Over the past many months we have had tasks such as gardening, cooking dinners, trimming trees, creative art landscaping, weeding, light painting a variety of places. We are not a farm or a hostel or a business, just a big house on 2.5 acres with some tiny homes, a variety of gardens, and we enjoy learning about faraway places, sharing meals, and showing off San Diego.
  
  We do not want a whole bunch of visitors at once, but rather 2 or 3 at a time.

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Intermediate

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  Accommodation

  At the moment, we have a large private bedroom with private bathroom as well as a smaller room we recently added above the garage. The large room is is our oldest son's room and it is available when he is away. The house has a pool, horse shoe and games, volleyball court, and other nice things. As for food and work, we don't have an official time clock, but in general the trade is about 4 hours of your time per day for food and lodging. As mentioned elsewhere, happy hour observed most days as well. Many visitors prefer to work for a full day one day and the next day go to San Diego or the beaches.

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  What else ...

  With time off, wow..... we are about 30 minutes drive from downtown San Diego or the beaches. If you are taking trolley, it is a bit longer, of course. Beaches, city, and anything in San Diego is possible. From our house, we are close to hiking, mountain biking, a lake is a few minutes away, as well as unlimited videos, wi-fi, of course. In general, one of us drives most days past a trolley line, and arrangements can be made to drop or pick-up.

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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

  This host has indicated that they love having digital nomads stay.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We do have space to park a campervan.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  My animals / pets

  

  Three dogs, Shanti, Astro and Raven, plus a couple cats (4 years)

  Three middle-sized dogs, there are 4 years, 3 years, and 7 months in ages. Plus two one-year-old cats.

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