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1 Jul 2024
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Details
Description
Our homestead is a ten acre paradise located in Catawba, VA. Our specific location is Craig Valley in the Washington and Jefferson National Forest of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We are new to the area and the property (moved from Pennsylvania on 3/18/2021) and we wish to build and grow a sustainable lifestyle here with expansive fully organic gardening, self sustained water supply and electricity. Currently we grow hay for our neighbor's 80+ cattle and they maintain the field. Soon, we will begin designing and installing a solar power array in 2023. On our property, we have a 300 meter long brook with multiple small waterfalls (1 meter high), and the brook drains into Craig's Creek which is larger and has trout in it and many other small fish, turtles, frogs and other animals. We have a LOT of wild animals in our area such as deer, turkey, hawks, bald eagles, lynx, coyote, and even black bears. The famous interstate Appalachian Trail (AT) is 1 mile behind our home, on Brush Mountain. The most photographed site on the AT (McAfee Knob) is also close by and also Dragons Tooth trailhead and Cascade Falls. If you like hiking and great weather and the outdoors, and creating and living a sustainable lifestyle, consider our location a perfect spot for you! If you are creative and artistic and want to paint some murals on our barn, we'd love that! If you enjoy organic gardening, we have this are expanding it.
About us: Steve holds the position of Associate Director of Climate Action, Sustainability and Energy and Campus Energy Manager at Virginia Tech (University) located 25 minutes away. There, he directs activities that lead to 2030 carbon neutrality for the university's Climate Action Commitment. Christen is a homemaker and essentially sustains the property and would be forever grateful for your help to make our homestead a more sustainable property. Our son, Andrew, graduated university with a bachelors degree in communications in 2022 and is now working at Virginia Tech School of Architecture and living nearby in Blacksburg (the workawayers enjoy him!). Daniel (3rd year university student obtaining a bachelors degree of Nursing -RN), is away at university and has intermittent involvement with the property given school is a 6 hour drive from home. We are a close knit, loving family with full respect for life, inclusiveness and difference and can foresee a great relationship in the making here with workawayers! Andrew created a quick Youtube video about us and workwawayers that have enjoyed staying with us (video not posted yet).
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Language practice
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Coming from outside of the United States, you would absolutely become very accustomed to the American way of life experienced through seasons, holidays, etcetera and also the local culture of southwest Virginia and the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's a farming culture here so you'd see how locals manage that lifestyle. If you are religious, you likely could share that with others in the region, our family included. Virginia Tech and the Blacksburg Community is an excellent local resource for everyone especially young Workawayers! We would provide you access to those attractive resources as well (Steve works there). You'd have the opportunity to learn about clean, renewable electricity and much more around sustainability.
Help
If you've got some gardening experience and most importantly, you enjoy gardening and being outdoors, then this could be good for you. If you want to learn how to operate the farm tractor, we have that. If you want to learn how to design and actually install a solar array, we need you! If you have previous experience with solar, even better, but not required. We have begun composting better so any support improving that would be beneficial. We have a barn that we are considering doing some updates to, especially if you are creative and want to paint some murals onto it, that would be very cool, we'll supply you the materials. For the right person, we are flexible and if there are other ideas or initiatives while here that you would like to pursue, we can certainly consider those.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: BeginnerThis host offers a language exchange
This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
You can contact them directly for more information.
Accommodation
You would have your own bedroom, fully furnished, heated and airconditioned. You would have your own bathroom. We have laundry here for you to use. We live in a very nice 2300 square foot brick ranch house. There's always plenty of food and snacks and ice cream, things like that in the house. We keep a lot of fruit around and we grill a lot of vegetables on the grill. We do eat meat but not lots of it. We'll feed you well, as if you were part of our family. Also, we have the most loving and fun pets, a rescue dog, three cats and a crested gecko (hopefully that okay with you).
What else ...
Again, Virginia Tech and Blacksburg is a big draw for some people, the AT is a big draw for hiking, there are lots of hiking and fishing opportunities (we have the fishing gear), there are state parks nearby, the bus station in Blacksburg will take you to Washington D.C. or New York so you could travel there for the weekend, for example, or maybe we will show you around there. We have bikes that you can use. We go into Blacksburg almost daily and even Roanoke, so we can transport you as needed.
You:
the right person for us is someone who is humble, who is kind and loving, who is eager to learn and create and manage a sustainable lifestyle. Ideally, you would be interested in learning about our culture (and us learning yours!). We expect you to be open and honest and communicate very well. We like to stay fairly well organized and clean up after ourselves. When and what we work on each week can be flexible. Some weeks there won't be as much to do so you'll have more free time (no pressure from us).
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
How many Workawayers can stay?
One
Hours expected
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, maximum 5 days a week. We are flexible.
Feedback (5)
Their ranch and family are very welcoming, even if you're in the deep nature, you could never feel alone with them and their lovely animals!
They love talking and knowing you, they will treat you as part of the family... i can say to have found a second family with… read more
After staying 3 months with Steve and Christen I can finally say how incredibly true this is ! Since the very first day they made me feel like I was their own daughter, they never made me miss anything, and i will never forget all the beautiful, touching conversations and magic moments we all… read more
Photos
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Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(5.0)
Communication:
(5.0)
Their ranch and family are very welcoming, even if you're in the deep nature, you could never feel alone with them and their lovely animals!
They love talking and knowing you, they will treat you as part of the family... i can say to have found a second family with… read more
After staying 3 months with Steve and Christen I can finally say how incredibly true this is ! Since the very first day they made me feel like I was their own daughter, they never made me miss anything, and i will never forget all the beautiful, touching conversations and magic moments we all… read more
