Help us transform our country home into a thriving homestead near Santo Antonio do Pinhal, Brazil

Details

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  Description

  PLEASE, READ THE PROFILE UNTIL THE END
  
  *We are looking for a reliable family or couple for July/August 2026 for housesitting, petsitting and management of the chicken coop and veggie garden (6 to 8 weeks)*
  
  *I'm with a big demand of my work right now, looking for a last minute workawayer who could help with creative play and homescholing based in the Waldorf Pedagogy*
  
  
  Hello and Welcome to our profile!!
  
  I'm Mickaela (35 yo), my husband is Fernando (37 yo), and we have a little daughter (2 yo toddler). We also have 2 dogs and and 1 cat in their elderly ages, 3 little kittens we are giving a temporary home ultil adopted... 2 ducks and lots of hens.
  
  We live in São Paulo countryside, up in the mountains of Mantiqueira, in a very cute and touristic little town.
  
  Here we need help with the everyday life, chicken coop,vegetable garden, fruit trees, cooking, organization, light cleaning, etc (more details below). We have a goal to use concepts of Permaculture and self sustentability in every aspect of our lives. I hope we can call ourselves a Homestead one day.
  The house is 30 years old, so we are always with some project going in renovation, building or painting.
  
  Workawayers bedroom now will be a small cozy room that is being renovated by the hands of our current workawayers. Thanks million for their work! From middle April ahead, the room will be set with a double bed and if you are a family we can arrange more beds or matresses.
  
  Anybody is welcome in our household, as long as you like animals and children, but we will give priority to host families when they apply to come, as it's beautiful when my daughter can have some company to play.
  
  We also go frequently to a busy city 40km away, with lots to do (walking distance from an avenue full of amazing restaurants, ice crem shops, açaí, cafes and pubs) , but with some peace at the same time, as we are close to everything (few minutes walk from big supermarkets, Mall, great bakery, gym, drugstore), but in front of our building is a big green area, and 10 min walk from a beautiful park). Fernando still works 3 days a week in the city, and somtimes I also go with my daughter to spend the day, coming back in the evening.
  
  We've been workawayers for a while, we traveled a little bit before having our 1st child and we intend to keep traveling, but not right now. We thought could be really nice to our daughter to have contact in her early years with different people, cultures and languages, share daily life with others and have the opportunity to create bonds and at the same time learn how to say goodbye or "see you another time".For us it's really important this daily sharing, this cultural exchange, to have good/meaningful conversations or moments of music, sharing meals together, storytelling or even dancing (it happened once with a family and it was really fun). We learn a lot, we love to connect with people, to make them feel at home and it's also very useful for us keeping learning and practicing other languages, so we decided to open to workawayers too!
  
  We are open to people who wants to stay 3 to 4 weeks. We can talk about the possibility of longer or shorter stays.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Teaching

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance

  Help with Computers/ Internet

  House & pet sitting
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  Interests

  

  Camping

  

  Beach

  

  Self development

  

  Sustainability

  

  Pets

  

  Farming

  

  Plant care

  

  Music

  

  Languages

  

  Hitchhiking

  

  Gardening

  

  Drawing & painting

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Animals

  

  Dancing

  

  Yoga / Wellness

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Nature

  

  Mountain
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We have lots of stories to share about our trips. We love traveling and love knowing other people and other cultures. We love to sit by the fire and have a good conversation, good food, good music.
  
  You will learn about brazilian cuisine, will get some experience with husbandry and the veggie garden and other things related with the help we need.
  
  We can teach you Portuguese of course, but we have to organize it in advance, as I'd like to speak English most of the time and in the busy routine I find myself forgetting to help with Portuguese in daily life. Let us know if you want Portuguese lessons.
  
  Sometimes, depending on how long you will stay, we can organize to bring you to beautiful and touristic places around, as we live close to the beach and the Mantiqueira mountains.
  
  Where we live is a touristic village, cute, with amazing regional cuisine to try out and nature walks, hiking, waterfalls and other adventure things to do.

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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 are interested in people who can speak English all the time with us and our little girl. Would be very nice to us if you have a drive license valid in Brazil.
  
  The help is (shared room avaiable for 2 or even 3 people)
  *5 hours a day, 5 days a week, 2 days free - not necessarily weekends*
  
  *Cooking simple meals and keeping the kitchen clean and organized.(Not always counting as working hours, we will organize together turns to maintain the kitchen as a community).
  
  *Homestead activities: preserving food for long term storage (canning, cooking and baking for freezing food, fermenting, drying herbs and fruits), composting, harvesting and seed saving, firewood preparation, lighting up the woodstove everyday.
  
  *Chicken coop: cleaning, keeping water recipients clean, feeding, collecting eggs, cleaning and storaging eggs.
  
  *Garden: mowing grass, taking care of flowers, herbs and fruit trees (pruning, watering, etc).
  
  *Vegetable garden: sowing, watering, pruning, weeding.
  
  *House renovation: painting, diy renovation, wall art, other small projects, etc (the house is 30 years old and there are lots to do).
  
  *Creative play (2 yo old very active toddler) and pet sitting/playing.
  
  *If you practice Yoga or TaiChi, or another martial art, would be lovely to TRY to practice together.
  
  (We expect from you to keep the house as it was yours. If you do a mess, you organize and clean after yourself.)
  
  About the PAID position:
  
  *Payment will be for a person who would like to stay 1 whole year, already has a visa to stay in Brazil. It will be full time. The PAID work will involve ALL these tasks: light housekeeping, homestading, homeschooling, light gardening, and other taks to be discussed.
  Most important skills: be an English speaker, be able to live as a community and be really part of our family.
  
  You can request more information by private message.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  Portuguese: Fluent

  This host offers a language exchange
  We can teach Portuguese and intermediate English We are interested in practicing English and to our daughter to learn English. Also interested in learning German, Italian and Gaelic (we don't speak these languages yet)
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  Accommodation

  The workawayers room is been renovated for the last 2 months and from May ahead its going to be ready. It will offer a double bed, if necessary we can squeeze in the room another single or bunk bed. The bathroom is to be shared with other people like guests or other workawayers, so just come if you are really confortable with this situation of sharing.
  
  For some special cases, we also have another double bed in the living room that can be sourrounded by big and long courtains for a bit more privacy.

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  What else ...

  We are looking for kind and reliable people, who love children and pets and can understand their responsabilities without being told all the time. We need people who understands community living and sharing spaces...
  
  The Food we offer (basics for daily life, speccially for lunch and dinner. Breakfast and snacks the Workawayers must buy themselves)
  
  **White rice and beans.
  **Pasta.
  **Oats and Tapioca.
  **All kind of vegetables in season.
  **Vegetables from our garden.
  **Fruits in season
  **Wheat and yeast for homemade bread and cakes.
  **Cow's milk and yeast for homemade yogurt.
  **Eggs and some meat (chicken or pork)
  
  We DON'T offer: dairy like cheese, yogurt from supermarket, butter, etc. Drinks (bier, coke, soda in general, bottled juice, oat milk). No sweets or other ultraprocessed food.
  
  If you are a big family, maybe we will need some help to buy the food.
  
  It's REALLY important to be communicative, and be happy with the tasks to be done. If you're not happy for any reason, you must talk to us and we can think about changes together.
  
  It's essential for us that the volunteers can communicate at least in English.
  
  We would like to TRY along the week, as much as possible, having some meals all together, alright? Even better by the fire with some music.
  
  If you are a smoker, I must ask you to smoke only outside the house/car, and never near my daughter, please.

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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

  If you are a digital nomad, that's fine too, if you can still help us part time. We can provide a desk and chair, and good internet cable connection.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  This host can provide space for campervans.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  Maybe, depending on the pet. Let's talk about further.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  My animals / pets

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