General help with our little family in the mountains of Ariège, PYRENEES France

Details

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  Description

  4 years ago we decided to settle down here in the mountains of Ariège, Pyrenees, in a rather wild, isolated place. We adopted a simplier way of life, closer to nature. We are in the process of renovating a little typical mountain house, called « grange ». This place is simply stunning to us, it is very calm, the view is magnificent, the possibilities endless in this magical place…
  It only requests lots of physical work, for sure. There isn’t a big proportion of flat ground here !
  
  We love farming, cultivating as much as living in the middle of the forest.
  We have a vegetable garden and a greenhouse, an orchard (the trees are young for now), a medicinal garden and we also harvest wild edible and medicinal plants. We are off grid for energy and water and we ensure the satisfaction of our needs thanks to some installations.
  Hervé loves to tinker, he’s a handyman perfectly at ease with – and enjoying, let’s be honest - all the practical aspects of this alternative way of living.
  Medicinal plants and animals are my things. We have a few here with us : a horse and his friend, my dear Justine (a donkey), a cat Plume and two adorable young sister dogs, Mouche et Miette.
  An we both love gardenning.
  We are interested in practical things as much as spiritual. It is an important part of our life to take care of what kind of individual we are, to try to get better by getting perspectives on ourselves. We will be happy to welcome open minded people here with us, so we can share with and learn from you, and get even more perspectives.
  
  The area is gorgeous, it’s mountains and forests all around our home, there are tons of hikes to do. You can also bike or do all kind of mountain activities. The little villages around are plenty cute. What we like most here in Ariege apart from nature is that it is a welcoming, resistant and culturally active land. There are plenty of cultural events especially in summer in Ariège.
  Take note that we really are in the forst in the mountain, which means we are far from civilisation.
  From our little village, it is a 30 min drive (with 4x4, simple cars dont get to our place) or 1.30min walk, and from the bigger city (saint girons) it is 1hour drive. We go to the city at least once a week, so we and you can get the stuff you need =)
  
  NO DRUGS and NO ALCOHOL at our place.
  Take note that this is mountain/forest living place, you need to be in good shape, and you need to have hiking shoes for every day living and for work - simple sneakers won't do !!
  We also ask you to bring :
  - only organic ecological hygiene products, as they all go back to earth.
  - clothes for cold weather, even in the middle of summer (it gets damp/cold every evening/morning)
  - clothes for rain

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Hervé is always happy to share his knowledges in all the areas I talked about (building, gardening...) and also energy self-sufficiency (solar and water system). I can talk to you about the properties of medicinal and edible plants, I also love to share about how to keep us and our animals in health with natural products (plants and such).
  We are both french, so culturally that's all you get! haha I am Franco-Algerian and Hervé is from Marseille. We love eating, as good french people ! A good meal makes us happy =) We love to share, to chat, to discover new people and other cultures. Meetings are always rich and enriching. We live an alternative life in the mountain, aiming towards self sufficiency, we can share about choosing this life and what it implies.
  I do not know what else we will be able to pass on to you, but we will do it with our hearts, thats for sure !

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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

  Always things to do here =)
  For the vegetable garden and a greenhouse, an orchard and a medicinal plants garden, the usual : seedling/sowing, subculturing, planting, harvesting, weeding, mulching and general maintenance… depending on the season. It is of course more intense in spring and fall.
  
  Taking care of animals : feeding the horse and donkey, and medical care if needed.
  
  Also the general maintenance of the place : wood work (logging : firewood and opening up pastures – we practice slow wood cuting, with a limited number of trees to cut each year) so tree cuting and spliting, wood storing…, fence maintening, maintaining the pasture clean (taking out brambles and ferns) and such
  
  We also have building projects, of course. Renovating the house, dry stone walling, fence building, building wood store, workshops, dry toilets or other stuff… which imply all kinds of job.
  
  We try to make it so you do a little bit of everything, as far as possible for us and depending on the season and your preferences 😉
  Contact us to know whats up at the moment you want to visit us !

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  French: Fluent
  Spanish: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  I speak french and english, and I would love to learn spanish - which I understand better than I speak =) Hervé speaks french and a cute frenglish, english speakers will help him improve his english ! We will be happy to discover your language, whichever it is
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  Accommodation

  The accomodation is a caravan, in which there is one bed for two people. So we can welcome 2 persons, only if they are ok to share a bed ;) It is also possible to camp.
  The caravan is on our land, it is not very far but independant from our house. Inside there is a gas cooker, so you can cook for yourself. In front of the caravan outside, a space with water, a big wooden table and a beautiful mountain view. If nice weather condition, solar shower outside, if not, warm shower in our house. Internet is in the air, you can connect to it with your phone. We don't have a wifi spot, we can share internet with our phones if needed.

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  What else ...

  You can do walks, hikes, meditation in the forest, contemplation, painting, drawing, doing music (we suck but we love it and we d love to learn!), spending time with our animals, visiting friends and people around here in the mountain, they have nice life projects to discover, visiting the little villages around, taste the specialties from here, you can find all the mountain actvities ever (biking, kayaking, paragliding and so much more). Farther away from our place, in ariège and in summer, many cultural events.

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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 possibly accept pets

  We have 2 young female dogs, a cat, a horse and a donkey. If you are to come with your dog or other, it must be educated and used to farm animals, so there isn't problems with our animals. There are wild animals in the forest and herds around, but our land is completely fenced ;)

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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