Help on a small organic farm near the small town Ludza, Latvia

Details

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  Description

  We have a farm (country house) near from small town Ludza (4 hours by train or bus from Riga). Ludza is the oldest town in Latvia dated back in year 1177 and celebrating its 840 anniversary this year. I have bought an old farm in a beautiful place next to the Zurzu Lake some years ago. We have started some biological farming/gardening activities. We have a cow. I have been involved in several traditional agriculture and forestry activities before, and now we have started also fishing activities because I am an owner of small lake also (part of the Zurzu Lake).
  
  I have an office in Rezekne where I am usually located from Monday until Thursday. We (me and my girlfriend) go to the farm during on weekends. My neighbour takes care of cow while we do our office job on working days.
  
  All guests visiting my country house until now have really enjoyed different kind of activities like the traditional Latvian sauna (pirts), picking up wild mushrooms, skating, jogging, biking, swimming, fishing, harvesting apples and many other activities.
  
  How to get to the farm?
  You have to take a train from Riga Central Railway station to Zilupe. There are 2 trains per day - at 9:47 and 17:00 on working days. Trip lasts about 3,5 hours. I can pick up you either in Rezekne 2 railway station or in Ludza train station. There is an additional train at 11:38 on Saturdays and Sundays. There are also some bus connections with Riga but they are more expensive and is not so fast like train.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  Farmstay help

  Help around the house

  Language practice
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We propose to learn some more traditional activities we are doing in the farm like chopping of firewood, fishing, picking up wild berries, mushrooms, hazelnuts or special plants for herbal tea in a forest in surrounding meadows.
  We can learn some languages - English, Russian, Latvian.

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  Help

  We are looking for volunteers who could help us doing regular everyday activities living in countryside. The scope of help very much depends on season. So, we need much of help with the garden weeding in summer time to achieve better results in organic farming. Another important job in July is to collect forage (dry grass) for winter season. At the moment we own only a cow but there is a plan to enlarge the flock by number of sheep in future.
  We expect that volunteers could help us 4-5 hours per day, 5 days a week but it is flexible.

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  Latvian (Lettish): Fluent
  Russian: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  There are some sofas and several mattresses for my guests in private room in a really old-fashioned countryside house built up around 100 years ago. All bedding stuff like blankets, pillows, sheets are available on place. It's also possible to do camping in summer time. There is a nice place next to the lake where you can build up a tent and make a fire.

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  What else ...

  We offer to host volunteers in my country house, we can accompany them getting around the most beautiful places in Latgale (Eastern region of Latvia called also as "Land of Blue Lakes").
  The village Ņukši centre is 4 km far away, local bus stop - 2 km, train station - 4,5 km, Ludza town - 13 km.

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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

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week