Share family life at our small off-grid cabin in the woods in Herselt, Belgium

Details

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  Description

  WELCOME TO OUR LITTLE OFF GRID CABIN IN THE WOODS OF FLANDERS!
  
  Let us introduce ourselves. We are a family of four: Ine (31), Jovanni (33), Riley (7) and Logan (8). Jovanni has two kids who are every second weekend from Friday till Monday at our place. We also have one old cat Bodhi, a dog Zara and a pig Patrick.
  
  At the moment Ine is working as a cook in the kitchen at a local small restaurant (5min by bike).
  Jovanni is a carpenter/joiner who has a lot of knowledge with lots of different building projects.
  We've build our little cabins by ourselves. Our cabin works with solar panels and batteries. A system that Jovanni has installed so if you're interested he can tell you all about it. We use fresh ground water, only for the toilet we use rain water.
  We also have a foodtruck together (also build by us). Every now and then on some weekends we have a foodtruck event going on.
  
  For the near future we like to aim self-sufficiency, so we are trying to go for it. We already do some things like making our own soap and vinegar, trying to make kombucha, cutting wood, Ine like to buy secondhand clothing/stuff. But there is still a lot to learn :)
  We are both also very interested in spirituality like reiki, shamanic work, yoga/pilates, woman circles, tarot,...
  And sometimes we like to be creative: we drawed a mandala on our wall (see pictures), we like to do pyrography, macramé, ...
  
  The location is perfect for nature lovers. Forest is all around. There are a lot of hiking and mouintanbike trails to do.
  But it's not in the middle of nowhere. In 5-10minutes by bike your in the closest town with different shops: groceries, clothing, sport centre, bars, restaurants,...
  It's also very easy to go by public transport to any bigger city you like: Leuven, Antwerp, Brussels,...

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  You'll live a very pleasant experience through your staying with us. We are focused to live totally self-sufficient. We live in the forest (Flanders) and we produce soap, vinegar, infusions, electricity, soap, kombucha,... This year we would like to start with growing our own vegetables.
  Jovanni is qualified as a herbalist and carpenter. He can give you a lot of knowledge about that.
  Ine is qualified as a teacher and pedagogue but she's not in that workfield anymore. Ine has joined some woman circles and she's always in for a workout.
  Our cultural interest has brought us in a 2 month trip to Australia and 2 months in Costa Rica, looking for meeting people and wonderful exchanges. In Costa Rica in 2022 we were WorkAwayers ourselves. This is where we got the idea from to start to be hosts!

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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

  There are a few project we could use some help with. I'll list some of them:
  - making a chicken coop/pig coop. All our chickens were eaten by a fox, buzzard or marten
  - Chopping wood
  - building a little stream in the garden
  - building place where we can start to grow our own vegetables
  - collecting ivy to make soap
  - build a chicken fence
  - if you're an artist; we're also very happy with a piece of that :)
  - look after Zara when we have a foodtruck event
  
  But there are also other daily tasks if you would rather do that, like cooking or cleaning.
  In total we ask 3hrs per day helping (9am-12pm). Hours can vary if you would like that. We're flexible people.
  for 5 days a week (off saturday and sunday).
  
  We only provide breakfast every day.

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  Dutch: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  It depends a bit of the term you want to stay and if you're alone or a couple. If you only want to stay a week and the kids are at their moms, you can stay in one of their bedrooms.
  If you want to stay longer or are a couple, you can stay in our bedroom. Then we'll sleep in our other cabin.
  We've build the bedrooms around 50m of the living area. (you can see the cabin on the photo)
  Inside the other cabin (living area) offcourse you can use the toilet and shower! :D
  We have electricity, 4G internet (we can share our hotspot), a television with Netflix,...

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  What else ...

  On Saturdays and Sundays your off. We'll stop doing projects at 12pm on Fridays so you'll have the whole weekend to explore Belgium. Offcourse in the afternoons you can also do whatever you like.
  Chill around the house, read a book in the hammock, hiking, we have a electric mountainbike you can use, go into town, go to the sportscentre, go with us to a foodtruck event,...
  The closest train station is Aarschot. To get there you can take the bus in town. It's a 20min bus drive or if we have time we can drop you. Leuven is 13min by train, Antwerp 40min, Gent 1h20min, Brussels 30min, ...

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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

  One campervan

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  Can possibly accept pets

  Zara would love to have another dog to play with

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  Hours expected

  Maximum 4 hours a day, 5 days a week

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