Help us create a self-sufficient homestead in the Thuringian Forest, Germany

Details

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  Description

  What I offer you is a quiet place for people who love nature, animals, simple living and creating things with their own hands.
  
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  Hi, I'm Danny, 39, German, and I live with my parents on our old family homestead in the Thuringian Forest.
  
  After around ten years travelling through Europe – much of it on foot and with my donkeys – I spent four years living and working on a small farm in Croatia, where I learned a lot about permaculture, gardening and self-sufficiency. When my parents became older, I returned to Germany, have now a part-time job as landscape gardener and caretaker. So I decided to continue developing what I had learned in Croatia.
  
  Our old four-sided farmstead sits on more than one hectare of land, about one kilometre outside the small village of Langgrün. It's a place for peace, nature and plenty of space – surrounded by forests, meadows, fruit trees, gardens and vineyards.
  
  We have 🐑 sheeps, 🫏 donkeys, 🐔 chickens, 🦃 turkeys and 🪿 geese.
  
  This is not a commercial farm. We produce much energy with solarpanals. And we mainly produce food for ourselves. At the moment, our gardens provide roughly 60% of what two people need throughout the year. My long-term goal is to move towards around 95% self-sufficiency.
  
  The work changes with the seasons and the weather. You might help with:
  -growing, planting and harvesting vegetables
  -caring for fruit trees
  -preserving, drying and storing food
  -grinding flour and baking bread
  -feeding and caring for animals
  -building and repairing fences
  -working on the meadows
  -helping in the vineyard
  -building and repairing things around the farm
  
  One vineyard (he is 10 kilometers far from the house) currently has around 50 grapevines, plus another row (directly in the home areal) of about 80 early-ripening red and white varieties. I make small amounts of wine from our grapes for our own consumption, without chemical additives.
  
  I want to start an new project, what is needing couple of years: Buildings, fences and creative paths trough fast growing trees, they are growing much to only one building together. This projekt is inspired from the gardenarchitect Arthur Wichula (he has living before 80 years). Without the second worldwar this guy want to be today a hero of naturebuildings.
  
  I'm good at practical work and getting things done with my hands.
  What I sometimes lack is creativity and new perspectives.
  So I especially enjoy people who don't simply wait for instructions, but like to think, experiment and contribute their own ideas.
  
  You don't have to be an expert. Experience with gardening, animals, woodworking, construction or permaculture is great, but curiosity, reliability and a willingness to work with your hands matter more to me.
  
  If you enjoy peace, nature and simple rural living, you may feel very comfortable here.
  There are then sounds of birds in the morning, sometimes fires in the evening, dark skies full of stars at night – and plenty of time in between to do your own thing.
  
  You help 4–5 hours per day, maximum 5 days per week. In your free time you can hike, explore the countryside or borrow my bicycle and visit places such as the nearby Thuringian Sea.
  
  The nearest railway stations are Blankenstein/Saale and Bad Lobenstein, around 10 km away. Hof is about 30 km away and Jena about 60 km. If arranged in advance, I'm happy to pick you up in Blankenstein, Bad Lobenstein or Hof.
  
  
  For me, Workaway isn't simply an exchange of work for food and accommodation.
  I see it as an exchange between people.
  
  You bring your skills, ideas, culture and personality. I share my farm, knowledge and experience with you.
  Maybe you learn something from me – maybe I learn something from you.
  And maybe together we create something that wasn't there before.
  
  I don't believe in the traditional idea of a God somewhere in the sky. For me, nature itself deserves deep respect and almost spiritual appreciation.
  
  I want to explore how we can live more with nature instead of constantly working against it.
  The farm is my personal experiment in that direction.
  It is far from being a finished self-sufficient homestead – and that's exactly what makes it exciting.
  
  If you enjoy nature, animals, practical work, new ideas and slightly unusual projects, I'd love to hear from you.
  Tell me a little about yourself, your interests and experience, and what you would like to learn or contribute.
  I have the land and the project.
  You bring your hands, your ideas and your story.
  Let's see what we can create together.
  
  Location: Langgrün, Thuringia, Germany
  Nearest towns: Hof / Bad Lobenstein / Jena

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Light gardening

  Creative DIY projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals
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  Interests

  

  Camping

  

  Farming

  

  Writing

  

  Photography

  

  Gardening

  

  Books

  

  Animals

  

  Nature

  

  Mountain

  

  Hiking
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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

  What you can learn from me: Getting a feel for how to use resources, ecological and alternative farming in the garden, baking, working with animals, how to make wine including growing and planting wine, making wooden and natural fences, practical experiences Permaculture, experiments, understanding the laws of nature, spending time with pure nature.

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  Help

  Help with coordinate the recources of the farm, to help with the garden / wineyard, anaimals, cooking, bring ideas in the project, enjoy the living far from city.
  
  Some of my plans include:
  
  -building a small wooden house in the second vineyard (a part is almost ready)
  -creating a multifunctional oven for heating, cooking, baking and smoking
  -developing a third garden
  -building natural fences and shelters for the animals
  -experimenting with traditional food-storage methods
  -exploring more permaculture and self-sufficiency ideas

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  Languages spoken

  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Serbo-Croatian: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  As sleeping places I have a room in the house with a wide bed (2x1.4m), the wineyard hut with the same size of the bed and later the new arbor in the second vineyard can also be converted with a narrow bed. The house is large with a lounge, but needs some renovation every year. If requested, I am happy to provide an outside bed on the veranda in summer. I have an enclosed grass pitch for tents near the house. There is only a shower in the house, but not in the cabins. The cabins have toilets (inside and outside).
  
  We heat the house with wood in winter. If it is too hot in the wineyard hut in summer, meals are prepared there on a solar cooker.
  
  The meals are varied with meat, vegetarian, eggs from chickens, vegitabels and fruits saisonal from the own gardens.
  
  From the end of autumn onwards, chickens, turkeys or sheep are slaughtered for meat and sometimes preserved in the old-fashioned way, but mostly consumed in winter. In addition to water and wine, other drinks include homemade syrups.
  I can buy special juices and beer at the market if there is a need.

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  What else ...

  The biggest water recervoir of Germany is the "Thuringian Sea" and is only 8 km far from me and 1 km far from my gardenhouse.
  
  The "Thuringian Slate Mountains" you have all around you.

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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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  Space for parking camper vans

  This host can provide space for campervans.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  female or castrated dogs, donkeys and horses.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  My animals / pets

  

  Benni

  My donkey at a party of an hiking- company

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