Small farm, building, family life and garden stuff in Telemark, Norway

Details

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  Description

  Please read the whole profile before contacting us!
  
  Want to have a workaway experience in rural Norway?
  We are a family of five happy humans living on a small farm in the countryside in beautiful Telemark, Norway. Mom Vibeke, dad Reynaldo and three boys; 2, 10 and 15 years old. Vibeke is from Northern Norway, and Reynaldo is from Bolivia, so we speak spanish, english and norwegian fluently. Reynaldo has experience from building natural homes in two different eco centres in Bolivia, and has a lot of different skills and interests. Vibeke is also very versatile and knows a lot about a lot of things😅 Vibeke is a registered nurse works part time, (but also studied organic agriculture and regenerative agriculture,) and Reynaldo works outside the farm five days a week.
  
  Reynaldo and the boys practice karate kyokushinkai twice a week. Vibeke knits and cooks, and does the garden work 😅
  We have a kitchen garden, and a few animals on the farm, striving for self suffiency and practicing permaculture. A flock (very) free range hens provide us our eggs, and during summer we usually keep a few pigs, that we slaughter in autumn. We currently have a bunch bee hives as well. Always big plans in developing our little homestead.
  We need help with the daily routines of the farm and kitchen garden and general maintenance, like painting the buildings.
  
  We love our homegrown-homemade food, and hope you will too. We eat meat/fish/dairy/BUTTER every day, so if you are a vegan this might not be the right place for you. If you are vegetarian and sure that your diet preferences will not give us more to think about, then we might figure something out. Depending on the time of your stay we might slaughter animals for meat while you are here.
  Vibeke will do most of the cooking. That way we are more time efficient, resource efficient and also she can keep track of the pantry . But hopefully you will cook something delicious from your home country (cultural exchange!), and maybe help doing easy meals such as breakfast and supper. We eat all meals together.
  
  Our kids love practicing their english and spanish, and are very eager to get to know new people.
  We hope to host open, honest and hard working, respectful workawayers, that are open to new things, and maybe a very different lifestyle.
  Welcome to be a part of our family and help around the farm fun!

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We are a bicultural family, and we love to get to know new people. Here you can learn about small farm work, practise your spanish, english or norwegian, cold climate gardening, regenerative agriculture/permaculture, construction/building, sourdough baking, foraging, and simple living. If you want to try out karate you are also welcome to join the boys for their training. There are very nice hiking possibilities around the farm, both long and short hikes, and we have some hiking gear (tent, sleeping bag etc) if you want to try that.

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  We have a lot of different things that needs to be done on the farm, so if you are familiar with gardening, homestead farming, fixing or building things (or really like organizing) this is your place! We are planning to paint the outhouses this summer, so we need help with painting, some work with motor saw and fire wood, as well as taking care of pigs and chickens. Animal care will not be the main work as this only takes a few minutes each day.
  
  The most important thing: As long as you are kind and respectful, eager to help out and take initiative you are very welcome to write to us.
  
  We are very flexible, but we expect that you will help around the house and farm 5 hours per day, 5 days a week. Or approx a total of 25 h per week. We hope we can talk openly about any expectations regarding this.
  
  So, in short, your tasks might be, (but not exclusively);
  * performing your especially useful skill
  * weeding
  * gardening/planting /watering
  * harvesting
  * helping with construction
  * painting buildings outside and inside
  * cleaning chicken coop
  * feeding animals (chicken, pigs)
  * cutting fire wood
  * simple housekeeping/cooking
  * general repair
  * cleaning and sorting old stuff
  * decorating/interiour design
  * doing some creative project on your own initiative (painting, installations, art work, decoration, we love creative people!)
  * if you are skilled in ANY CRAFT we would also love to hear from you
  
  - according to your skills, interests and abilities we will together agree on what you will do when you are here.

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  Norwegian: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  The accomodation will be a guest room in a separate building. You might have to share your room with an other workawayer, in the case of your stay overlapping eachothers. You will be informed before you arrive if this will be the case.
  We will do our best to make everything as comfortable as possible for you. You will use an outdoor toilet, it is simple and rustic but it works just fine. Hot shower in the bathroom, but please dont shower all the time.
  
  If you are flexible we are also. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions.
  
  You will be sharing the meals with the family, and we expect you to help with some cleaning and the dishes, as you would in a normal household.
  
  We also expect you to be social with us, and not only sit in your own room during your stay here.
  
  We eat meat and dairy (we eat a lot of butter/fats, no refined vegetable oils, mostly healthy, local real food diet), and we enjoy a beer or wine every once in a while, but not get drunk.
  
  We can offer unlimited WIFI, with good connection in your private room.
  
  
  TO GET HERE
  Most workwayers come here from Oslo. The easiest way to come here is by train, about 3h from Oslo.
  We pick you up at the Drangedal train station, it is only ten minutes away.

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  What else ...

  We live in the countryside, so there are beautiful forests, lakes and areas to explore by foot, or you can borrow one of our bikes. The village centre Drangedal is 10 min drive away. The city (Skien/Porsgrunn) is about an hour drive away.
  
  We expect you to:
  - not be smoking in or around the house, not get drunk nor use narcotics.
  - share about yourself and your culture, to take initiative and share a good vibe.
  - have clear communication so that there will be little misunderstandings and so that we can talk about things that is not according to your/our expectations.
  - tell us what we can do to improve our role as workaway hosts.
  - limit your phone use when you are together with us.
  
  You need to bring: Clothes according to season, it can be freezing from sept - april. We might have some winter/working clothes for you to use, please ask. Clothes for working and getting dirty/painting. Waterproof boots is also handy.
  
  
  - No, you can't see the northern lights, midnight sun nor do we have the polar night here. To see that you need to go north of the arctic circle.
  -Look at the map and you will see that we do not live in a fjord.
  -Unfortunately we do not have the possibility to help you get a job in Norway.
  -The lama in the photo is not ours, but if you want to check out lamas our neighbours have two of them🦄
  -If you read all this and feel that we could be a nice host family for you and that you can contribute to our family, but you still have some doubts, please feel free to write to us with any question you have.

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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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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  Hours expected

  5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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