Family farm with horses welcomes some help in the farm near Tartu, Estonia

Availability

  2025 

 Min stay requested: at least a week

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    Hello! We are a family living in the countryside near Tartu (15 km). We bought the place in 2020 and have done some work, but more is on the list, like always at the countryside. In the last three summers, I have hosted a few volunteers and can host a few this year too. As we take you into our family and want to host you as well as we can we are capable of taking only a few workawayers each year. You are a good match for us if you have high motivation and some basic skills for work tasks and are a nice person to spend time with.

    NEW! Opportunity for September 2025! We have a plan to build a greenhouse from old windows. There will be another person who has experience in building a greenhouse and who will lead the work. You are most welcome to join us, if you want to get hands on experience from building something like this from scratch. We have separate rooms for two Workawayers upstairs in our house.

    We have several horses. I (Piret) train them according to the academic art of riding principles and offer them as natural living conditions as possible. If you are interested, I can show you what I do, but please note, that I do not offer riding with my horses.

    Also, I am into environment, sustainability, permaculture, and have worked as a climate policy expert for quite many years. We have a 4-year-old son called Iko and a 2-year-old daughter Iti. One day, we will have more farm animals, for sure, but not yet. My other half Tenno is working in the IT sector, and he used to be a sound engineer. We used to travel around quite a lot when we were young(er). Thus it would be nice to host some travellers in our home too!

    We try to combine modern conveniences with eco-conscious living, having solar panels and an electric car, and an automatic heating system, but then try to grow more and more food ourselves, reduce our environmental footprint, buy local and organic, and preserve food for winter etc. The farm is still a work in progress, and I am still starting up with the permaculture-style garden.

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    Help with Eco Projects
    Gardening
    DIY and building projects
    Farmstay help
    Creating/ Cooking family meals
    Help around the house
    General Maintenance
  • Interests

    Interests

    Camping
    Politics / Social justice
    Sustainability
    Culture
    Farming
    Photography
    Gardening
    Plant care
    Books
    Animals
    Hiking
    Nature
  • UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN goals
    No poverty
    Zero hunger
    Good health and well-being
    Quality education
    Gender equality
    Clean water and sanitation
    Affordable and clean energy
    Decent work and economic growth
    Industries, innovation and infrastructure
    Reduce inequality
    Sustainable cities and communities
    Responsible consumption and production
    Climate action
    Life below water
    Life on land
    Peace, justice and strong institutions
    Partnerships for the goals
  • Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    We can share the Estonian way of living, and our knowledge of our land and culture. I (Piret, the host) can tell you about horsemanship, groundwork and the academic art of riding, which is my passion. Also, I can share experiences on how to keep horses - I am developing a paddock paradise (track system) for my horses and can tell you all about that. I can also show you how to take care of the hooves of the horse if you are interested. I recently finished a gardening school, though I am still a beginner in permaculture gardening, but have some knowledge which I am happy to share. Tenno's favourite topics are IT, sound engineering, music, and foreign politics, which he is always happy to chat about.

  • Help

    Help

    Some examples of tasks (depends on timeing and your preferences)

    - Fencing work
    - Painting stuff around the farm
    - Preparing garden beds (digging and getting rid of weed roots) +some other gardening tasks
    - Help around the house

  • Languages spoken

    English: Fluent
    Estonian: Fluent
    Swedish: Beginner

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    You have your own room and a separate toilet on the second floor. We expect you to keep your own place tidy and help out with some weekly cleaning chores as you live here in our home. We live on the first floor. On the first floor, there is a bathroom with a shower. You can also use a sauna (separate house) as you wish. We will heat up the sauna from time to time, especially for social events, which you are more than welcome to join.

    We eat a lot of local and organic food. We also eat meat (prefer organic), but I also cook vegetarian food, no problem to do some vegan food as well if you prefer so. It would be nice if you are willing to share your cooking skills with us.:) We eat what we currently have at home and do not shop every day. My cooking style is to look into the cupboard and mix something up. Eating times are not by the clock, though we eat 3 times a day. Morning always comes with porridge.

    We spend quite a lot of time at home, but sometimes also go away for a few days. If we go somewhere for a day trip and you would like to join, then we are happy to take you. For example, last summers we have taken our volunteers for a music festival, a hiking trip, parties with friends, roadtrip to South-Estonia and swimming by the nearby lake.

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    It is possible to reach our place by free bus ride (20 min) from the Tartu bus station. Buses go around once every hour and Tenno often goes to the office during workdays, which makes it easy to visit Tartu.

    We live in the countryside, so it's a quiet place and it's possible to walk around our land (including a small forest) or on our village road. However, we don't have hiking trails or anything like this next to our property. For that, you would need to have a trip to some nature trail (we can recommend you, if interested).

    You should be able to work on your own, but I would be there with you helping out as much as I can.

    If we have a trip together somewhere for fun you are expected to pay your own admission fees, meals ect.

  • A little more information

    A little more information

    • Internet access

    • Limited internet access

      Limited internet access

    • We have pets

    • We are smokers

    • Can host families

  • Can host digital nomads

    Can host digital nomads

    We have decent wifi here and have a home office for ourselves too.

  • Space for parking camper vans

    Space for parking camper vans

    We can provide you with electricity and water.

  • Can possibly accept pets

    Can possibly accept pets

    If pets can stay outside, then there is no problem (if they don't chase horses). We prefer no pets indoors (the main reason is that we do not fancy cleaning). Our own cat spends the summer outside and only stays with us in the house in the winter.

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    Two

  • My animals / pets

    My animals / pets

    Profile photo of Nine horses at the moment

    Nine horses at the moment

Host ref number: 629919115823

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