Simple living and contact with nature in Telemark, Norway

Details

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  Description

  🔸 House-sitting opportunity in weeks 22, 23, 24: we want to find the best possible match for taking care of our garden & our cat. Sending us daily updates while we are in Italy. We would like to spend some days together in week 22 to be sure you feel comfortable with our routines 🔸
  
  We are a family of 3 working towards living in an eco-community. Now we landed in Hørte, a small town in the county of Telemark. At the moment we live in an old house we recently bought. We want our home to be renovated to be as self sufficient and off the grid as possible. We hope to inspire others to take these types of choices as well.
  
  We make decisions following sociocratic processes. So that everyone in the group will share some power and decide.
  
  We also have a cat by the way!
  
  We do own and electric car. Our house is 4km from the train stasjon of Bø i Telemark. There is a road to Bø mostly on bike lines and we sometimes walk to town.
  
  We are used to and super interested in cultural exchange, especially we love to learn from cultures who still have a deeper connection to nature. But to be clear: we are not a family where to experience "Norwegian culture".
  
  We speak Norwegian (Thomas' mother tongue), English and Italian (Marta's mother tongue).
  
  We eat and serve plant-based food. Please apply only if you're okay with eating vegan during your stay.
  
  We are a parfume-free household.
  
  We want workawayers to be an active part of our family by reading a book in the common room, chatting together in front of the fire, playing role games or board games together, going for walk in nature and telling each other stories from experiences in nature. So if you think of being done with working for us and then spend all the rest of your time and your free days in your room, we may not be a good match.
  
  We value clarity and we are very flexible, so -for example - if you wish to spend some days visiting some other parts of Norway, we want to facilitate for it to happen, and it won't a problem if you want some extra days off to make it (at your expenses, just to be clear).
  
  Everyday we try to end up the day with a check-out or feedback round. Talking in a round means hearing what the others have to say without commenting or interrupting them. It can be a very giving moment.
  
  We only want to use free and open source softwares to communicate when you are here, and prior your arrival. This means that you should be willing to download - if you don't already use it - applications such Signal, or Jami, or Matrix (via clients such as Element).

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance

  House & pet sitting
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  Interests

  

  Hiking

  

  Fitness

  

  Camping

  

  Cycling

  

  Yoga / Wellness

  

  Music

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Culture

  

  Events & social

  

  Farming

  

  Self development

  

  Politics / Social justice

  

  Technology

  

  Vegetarian or vegan

  

  Sustainability

  

  Pets

  

  LGBTQ

  

  Charity work

  

  Languages

  

  Gardening

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Books

  

  Animals

  

  Dancing

  

  Nature
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We have a personal library with some interesting topics and books to be read and discussed. Among other topics: permaculture, contact with nature, brain development, floras, mushrooms...
  
  Thomas has trained as a teraputic game master and if you're interested we can play role play together.
  
  Hørte has a public space which is an art gallery open at summer time
  
  Not too far away there's a food garden which up to last year was also a communal place. We applied to get a spot there, and hopefully we will get it.
  
  In the area there's also an old school which is becoming a wood carving communal space.
  
  Bø i Telemark has an university campus with study lines such as nature and environment or outdoor experience (friluftsliv). It's a hub for deep ecology study.
  
  There are plenty of possible tours in nearby nature. And we could drive you where it's harder to get by public transportation
  
  In Bø there are:
  - a swimming pool
  - multiple gyms, included a climbing gym
  - a public library and a university library
  - a couple of thrift shops
  
  The train station will bring you in 2,5 hours to Oslo. This line goes all the way to Stavanger via Kristiansand.
  
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  We are used to and super interested in cultural exchange, especially we love to learn from cultures who still have a deeper connection to nature. So to be clear: we are not a family where to experience "Norwegian" culture.
  
  We speak Norwegian, English and Italian.
  
  We would love to learn a Sami language one day.
  
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  We are both facilitators in sociocracy (or dynamic governance) and Marta is training to becoming a trainer. This is a useful skill to organize I'm groups with a common aim you would pick up by having meetings with us.
  
  We do organize work to do around on a Kanban. So you could learn this method as well.

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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

  In this first year there would be quite some work for planning the next year, making systems that work for us living under the same roof and that will facilitate keeping the house tidy and organised.
  
  Consider a couple of hours per day will go towards household tasks (hoovering, setting the dishwasher, cleaning the kitchen, washing the floors, light up the stoves, taking inside firewood...).
  
  In the rest of your time here we hope to find some projects where you can learn (or teach us!) something you find valuable.
  
  Examples of projects to be done:
  - sun ventilation on walls
  - design of permaculture garden
  - fixing 5 old bikes on the property
  - painting walls with flaxseed oil paint
  - making the chicken house in stand for our 7 chickens (they live at a family member's place at the moment).
  - eventually feeding and cleaning the chicken coop
  - making food especially from organic food
  - finding and training in conflict resolution processes
  - make a pole lathe to carve bowls
  - carving bowls
  - wood carving
  - write bylaws for a cooperative
  - getting to know our new neighbors
  - chopping wood
  - small diverse building projects
  - gardening
  
  We make decisions following sociocratic processes. So that everyone in the group will share power and decide together.
  
  Tasks get done together, or in proximity, if everyone is comfortable with that.
  
  We also have a 22 months old at home with us, so there would be more or less constant interaction with our toddler. We don't look after someone else than us parent to take care of the kid, but of course having a small one around requires for everyone in the household to pay extra attention (e.g. don't leave warm tea cups or sharp knives around!) :) And whenever you and the kiddo trust each other more, there will be some times when while working together you will be asked to be the main person to interact with the kid, so to keep the workflow going.
  
  Whatever task we ask you to do, you're welcome to say no if it feels like something you don't enjoy. This is because we believe that people do their best when they actually thrive. And if you were to do something against your needs of the moment, it would probably end up with the task be done poorly and difficult emotions for everyone to navigate. Please apply only if you think you can say no to task and if you know you can take care of your need.
  
  We want workawayers to be an active part of our family by reading a book in the common room, chatting together in front of the fire, playing role games or board games together, going for walk in nature and telling each other stories from experiences in nature. So if you think of being done with working for us and then spend all the rest of your time and your free days in your room, we may not be a good match.
  
  Everyday we try to end up the day with a check-out or feedback round. Talking in a round means hearing what the others have to say without commenting or interrupting them. It can be a very giving moment.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Italian: Fluent
  Norwegian bokmål: Fluent
  Spanish: Beginner
  Portuguese: Beginner
  Sami: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  We are a bilingual family: Marta is Italian and Thomas is Norwegian. Thomas knows very basic Italian. Our child is growing to be trilingual. We do speak English very fluently. Marta's level of Norwegian is also high. Marta have a lot of resources for Norwegian learning, if you're interested in that. We would love to have more Sami language around us. We have dreamed about teaching ourselves and move.
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  Accommodation

  We find together the solution for accommodate your needs!
  
  If you're the only workawayer at this moment, you would have your own room with a door. Else the room will be shared between you, there are some curtains to divide the spaces.
  
  The other spaces are common. We have a living room on both floors. In case of need these areas can also be used as sleeping areas.
  
  At the time of writing we still have to start work to build a bathroom inside. Maybe done by spring 2026. So there is only cold water available on both floors at the moment.
  
  The toilet is in the garage at the moment, and the garage is a building separated from the main house (you have to go through the garden to enter the compost toilet).
  
  During summer we shower at the nearby river. Now we use a camping place 6 minutes away by car.
  
  We have a washing machine in the basement.
  
  The house is not well isolated. We do have 2 wood oven we use (also in the coldest day of summer), to warm up the house.
  
  We would like to add one oven to have a wood stove in the kitchen - and learning to cook on that instead (but we're not there yet). We have kitchen machines: mixer, deydrathor, instant pot, bread machine and water boiler. And at the moment we still have an electric stove we use to cook food.
  
  We also have a small dish washer, so that it's only bigger items who needs hand wash with the cold water mentioned above.
  
  There is also a workshop in the garage and other rooms at the second floor in the garage which can be used. They aren't very well isolated though, so we aren't using them as much during the winter. Also they need to be reorganized before using them.
  
  We do eat primarily plant based. Apply only if you understand what that is 🌱
  We can provide gluten free alternatives (we have a couple of friends with celiac disease and we can make our kitchen gluten free if needed).
  I like prepping food for multiple days in a row.
  
  There's always newly baked bread available, dried fruits and nuts, and other type of cereals to be eaten whenever you feel hungry. We try to gather at meals. We tend to make one warm meal per day, either for lunch or for dinner. During winter we like to start our day with warm porridge.
  
  We like to start our day early, but sometimes our child sleeps in. Then the breakfast happens later.
  
  There is variation in what we eat, and we will find a routine that works for everyone.
  
  We've also started eating around the fire in the garden when we feel like it.

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  What else ...

  We value self-care in this household. Take breaks, go and do a sit spot in nature, be active with you body, take care of your needs, give feedback.

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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

  We don't have limitations on size of the vehicles parked.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  My animals / pets

  

  Kin (9 years)

  Forest cat. Kin (for kinship) likes to be on his own. He also loves to get good bites. He gives clear warnings if he doesn't like something you do. Just follow his cues and you won't get any scratches.

  East, Miselin, Ndege, Jua, Fuzho, Moti, Maisha, Mvula (3 years)

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