Help us at a little farm in the countryside in Valga Parish, Estonia

Estonia

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Feedback
13
Last activity
17/01/2021
Reply rate
88.9 %
Average reply time:
within 2 days
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2021

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What's this?

Details

Description
We are Imbi and Andres and we've been living in the countryside with our two sons since 2015. We have a small farmstead and enough land to grow food for ourselves. Our farmstead is in the southern part of Estonia 4.5 km from the Latvian border. The nature is beautiful of course.

Our main goal is to develop our handicraft cottage and be strong community members. There's a video on youtube where you can see a bit of the surrounding nature: Tule kuidas tahad by Tulekuidastahad Valgamaa.

We are experimenting with permaculture and hope to be someday as self-sufficient as possible. We have vegetable garden, goats, chicken, cats and a German Shepherd. Our food is 70% organically grown (more during the harvesting period, less in the winter and in the spring). We would like our food to be 100% organically grown and most of it from our garden. We use meat (rarely), dairy and eggs in our food.

Besides growing our own food we are occupied with crafts and all kind of dealings with the farmstead. We've been teaching different crafts in workshops for years (e.g. wood crafts, pottery, glass, metal). We study and revive old crafts and other skills. We really appreciate traditional folk music, dance, culture.

Our mother tongue is Estonian. Andres speaks Russian fluently, a little English, understands a bit German. Imbi speaks English fluently, a little Russian, understands very little German.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Creating/ Cooking family meals
General Maintenance
Farmstay help
Help with Eco Projects
Help around the house
Animal Care
Language practice
Art Projects
UN sustainablity goals this host is trying to achieve
...
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What's this?
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
You can learn about Estonian culture, nature, living in the countryside, native crafts. We can teach you some basics in wood and birchbark crafts (e.g. carving a spoon, weaving a salt cellar).
Help
We are looking for short term volunteers and for long term volunteers (preferably a couple because our neighbour can offer one room for long term volunteers). One long term volunteer would be helping mainly Andres (e.g. with building projects, chopping wood, harvesting materials for crafts) and the other would be helping Imbi (e.g. gardening, cooking, housework).

You might like being a volunteer with us if you want to try living a simple life in the countryside, if you like to work individually and with the family or other volunteers.

Bigger projects:
building traditional lath fence
building a little guesthouse by permaculture principles (probably not this year anymore)
insulating the main house
starting with a new permaculture field
new compost toilet

Smaller projects:
chopping, collecting and stacking firewood, harvesting natural materials for crafts, harvesting berries and mushrooms, canning food, smaller repair and building projects

Daily tasks:
taking care of animals, gardening, housework, cooking.

Actually the list is endless when living in the countryside.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Estonian: Fluent
Russian: Fluent
German: Beginner
This host offers a language exchange
This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
Please contact them directly for more information.
Accommodation
Water comes from a well. Dry toilet outside. Washing in sauna.

Long term volunteer/volunteers(if a couple) have a private room in neighbour's house with their own entrance.

Short term volunteer/volunteers can stay above our workshop.

The meals can be arranged together (NB! we are not vegans and the food we buy is not yet 100% ecologically grown; we don't have coffee at home, please bring your own!)

Wifi in the main house.
What else ...
Fishing, hiking, horse riding lessons, taking part in local social events, swimming in lakes/rivers.
A little more information
- Internet access
- Limited internet access
- We have pets
- We are smokers
- Can host families
Space for parking camper vans
This host can provide space for campervans.
Can possibly accept pets
This host has said they are willing to accept those travelling with a pet.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Hours expected
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

Photos

That's where we dry our laundry

Onother type of traditional fence needs volunteers' help in 2020

Waiting for volunteers... (June 2019)

Välk the friendliest cat, Andres, Imbi and Berry the dog

The end of May 2018. We have very little flowers in our garden. If you have good eye you can help us decide where and what kind of plant should be planted in the future.

Road to our home on a cold autumn morning

There's a lot going on in our yard in autumn 2018

Show all photos

Our vegetable garden in autumn 2015

Our vegetable garden in autumn 2017

Andres with his art project for an exhibition Ajatus (Timeless - an exhibition of inherited patterns and rhytms).

New life

Curious cats Käbi and Käblik

View from our property. There are our neighbour's horses at the moment.

About 1 km towards the river you can befriend our friend's cattle

View from the observation tower about 3.5 km from our place (Tellingumäe vaatetorn)

Feedback left by and about host (13)

These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.

Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)

Cultural exchange:
(5.0)

Communication:
(4.9)

01/09/2020

Left by host for Workawayer (Sam)

We were glad to host Sam! He chose splitting firewood as his main assignment and now we have nice stacks of wood waiting for next summer to be taken inside the shed. He was a great help in other ways also - e.g., in the kitchen and with our dog Berry. We enjoyed sharing the stories and moments with Sam. Thank you, Sam!

(Excellent )

31/08/2020

Left by Workawayer (Sam) for host

What a wonderful time I had in the Estonian country side! It was my first workaway experience and I couldn't dream of a better one. Imbi, Anders, Tormi, Mikk and Berri the dog are so warm hearted and easy going. Everything they do is always with a smile and positive mindset. Meeting the locals (mostly during sauna gatherings), going fishing,… read more

(Excellent )

22/09/2019

Left by Workawayer (Fiona Jade & Claudio) for host

I love the family! They're very open and willing to share whatever they can --- ideas, stories, food, home projects, etc. I stayed only for 2 weeks because I need to go for practical reasons. Nonetheless, I liked the rural living experience in Estonia. :)

(Excellent )

01/09/2019

Left by Workawayer (Lili) for host

My friend Rosi and me helped Imbi and Andres for two weeks and we were very happy to stay with this welcoming and interesting family. All four are very kind and warmhearted people and you can ask Imbi and Andres most any question you have about your stay or a task without ever feeling uncomfortable. The kids are nice too of course and communicated… read more a lot with us (Mick is amazingly good and patient in nonverbal communication). We completed a traditional fence, helped in the garden, cooked, made cheese, picked blueberries and mushrooms and went fishing for example. Quiet a lot to do and the list of tasks in the countryside is endless, so you are self-responsible for taking your freetime as a workawayer, which worked well for everyone. Once a week we helped Marelle, the neighbour we lived at with her horses and painting her house and also cared for them, while she was away. The room in her house is very nice and and you could definetely stay there for a longer time (for people planning to spend a longer time at Imbi and Andres:) Marelle is also very kind but quiet busy.

We can say that we learned a whole lot of things every day. Imbi and Andres are real specialists in Estonian culture, ecological and simple life in the countryside and traditional crafts such as woodwork without modern tools and of course making everything out of birch. A really cool thing of learning from them, for example how to milk the goats is, that they give you a lot of responsibility and trust without letting you alone, we could ask them anytime. Also they were very open to new Ideas, so we decided to prepare a big pot of applejam for winter, experimented a lot with cheesemaking and did our best to integrate our knowledge about plants and everything that could be useful for them.

Also it was interesting to experience such a supportive neighbourhood, they invited each other for sauna every few days (they have three types of sauna around!), helped each other where they could and also we got easily in touch with some neighbours, also many are speaking english very well. With Andres we sometimes couldn't communicate complex things, as our Estonian is very poor and his english is limited. Most of the time we understood each other anyways:)

Thanks again to all of you for this interesting time and the energy you put into teaching us as much as possible in two weeks, a just too short amount of time. We would like to come back to learn more, latest, when the fence beginns to rot in 20 years, to help you to build a new one;)

(Excellent )

26/08/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Victoria & Gordon)

Vicci and Gordy are so cool that we think about them even over a month later after their departure. We are very thankful because they arrived while we were suddenly almost overscheduled but they had good boardgames and card games to teach us and we had really fun evenings with them. And they connected really well with our younger son who now… read more

(Excellent )

16/06/2019

Left by Workawayer (Anton) for host

Helping and Staying with Imbi, Andres, Tormi and Mikk, was from beginning to end an amazing time and decision. I never felt as close to an different culture, that isn't my own, as in the weeks with them. From learning traditional dances, to sweating in the smoke sauna and then cooling of by swimming in the nearby river, and even learning how to… read more

(Excellent )

14/06/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Anton)

Anton first stayed with us with his friend Cat. They were very eager to help with building our new fence. They helped us so much with all kinds of smaller tasks also, so we were glad to accept Anton for an extra week. And Anton knows how to bake tasty buns and bread! Before leaving we had a little bonfire with friends and Anton taught us how to… read more

(Excellent )

08/06/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Artur)

We were happy to accept Artur and Aryuna for a week because we wanted to try out if we can host four volunteers at once. As new hosts it would have been harder but Artur as native Estonian speaker and Aryuna as fluent Russian speaker made it easier.

Artur was very enthusiastic with every task we gave him and he often did the work of two people.… read more

(Excellent )

03/06/2019

Left by Workawayer (Artur) for host

So far, I have done around 7 workaways - this one was probably the best. Imbi and Andres accepted us into their family on the first day and really cared for our needs, they had interesting jobs for us and showed us a lot of traditional Estonian things like sauna and building a fence from wood. For the first time in my life, I got to see a huge… read more

(Excellent )

08/06/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Catherine)

Cat stayed with us with her friend Anton. I really liked how they worked together: they were always discussing something or singing together. I really enjoyed the dining room talks with Cat and she made such tasty food to all of us. We have a beautiful fence in our yard to remind us the most time consuming task we gave to Cat and Anton.

I'm… read more

(Excellent )

08/06/2019

Left by Workawayer (Catherine) for host

Staying with Imbi and Andres made me feel like an exchange student all over again! They were quick to make me and my partner feel just like we were apart of the family, and there was no shortage of new or interesting projects to do on the farm. I learned quite a bit about living a sustainable life, and the friendly community is absolutely… read more

(Excellent )

17/05/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Veronica)

Veronika was our first foreign volunteer and we are so happy about it. She's independent and always helpful. We enjoyed the conversations and children already miss her.

Privet, poka, samaljot, vertaljot, sobaka, raketa! :)

(Excellent )

16/05/2019

Left by Workawayer (Veronica) for host

I would give my two-week stay at Andres and Imbi's house six stars if I could! Their wonderful family accepted me with open arms; and with their help, I've learned a lot about Estonia and its rich cultural heritage. No day was spent without learning something or somebody new from the local community. Thank you once more for everything!

(Excellent )

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