Come stay with us and be part of our busy summer here on beautiful Manitoulin Island, Canada

Details

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  Description

  Hello travellers! We are Anastasia and George, a gardener and a carpenter living on a quarter acre of land overlooking hedgerows and fields out in the country. We live 1.5 kms out of a small village of Tehkummah (pronounced: tA-ku-ma), 15 minutes away from the ferry in South Baymouth. There is a general store, gas station and a library in the village. There is also a tiny farmer's market happening on Fridays during summertime.
  You will wake up to amazing sunrises, see rain clouds coming in from the east, observe the darkest sky and brightest stars and an occasional Aurora borealis. There is a "dark sky reserve" just down the road.
  
  We have a small organic kitchen garden, a greenhouse, 2 bee hives, a cat, and a woodworking shop. Anastasia takes care of the two vegetable gardens plus ecologically gardens and does landscaping all over the Island. George is a self-employed carpenter, specializing in traditional timber framing.
  
  We have a 4 year old boy.
  
  Before settling down on beautiful Manitoulin Island, we hitch-hiked across the Americas, travelled as trades people in Europe, 5 years on the road altogether, and now we are looking to support and host travellers.
  
  While hosting we like to share our knowledge about gardening and foraging, cooking, preserving food and a bit of homesteading. George could guide to through some woodworking & handymen projects!
  
  During your stay we would like you to be self-motivated & organized, ask questions, be involved on our house chores & be proactive.
  
  In 2024 we have a few projects in mind:
  - splitting wood for kindling
  - organizing & stacking firewood
  - spring garden tasks & green house clean-up, seeding
  - moving lawn
  - raspberry patch cutting, mulching
  - painting shed
  -helping with food menu and weekly cooking
  
  Exploring the Island - Although there is bus route around the Island on some weekdays, it is very limited to where you can catch a ride on it, but hitch-hiking is common and pretty easy. We could also take you see places with a car when we travel to and from work.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Language practice

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Staying with us you would get to see the Island life from the inside. We often invite friends to our home, visit pot lucks. Summertime is quite full of cool things to see and do on the Island.
  We'll make time to show you around in our time off.
  There are lots of stunningly beautiful spots on the Island: hiking trails, beaches, forests, swimming under the falls.

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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

  Things that we would appreciate help with are:
  
  -weeding, watering and maintaining the vegetable gardens
  -harvesting, processing and preserving in season produce
  -mowing the lawn
  -cooking, especially lunches
  -light house cleaning
  -babysitting when we are home
  -speaking French or Spanish to us to help us maintain these beautiful languages

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Russian: Fluent
  Spanish: Intermediate
  French: Intermediate

  This host offers a language exchange
  Our French is rudimentary and we are always up for practising it. We lived in Montreal for 2 years but didn't get fluent enough. We also travelled in Latin America for 2 years, and our Spanish was fluent at one point 10 years ago. We love to keep those neuron connections fired up too once in a while!
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  Accommodation

  You would be staying in a private room on the second floor, overlooking the fields. There is a cozy loft bed with a thin firm mattress. Bed sheets, blankets, and towels provided.

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  What else ...

  These are the House Rules that we ask our overnight guests to follow:
  
  1. Do not bring alcohol or drugs.
  We don't use alcohol or drugs, so we ask you not to bring those to the house. No smoking inside or outside.
  
  2. Internet.
  Use your own device to connect to our WiFi.
  
  3. Day Schedule.
  We meditate twice daily, morning and evening. You don't have to join with the meditation if you are not into it, just a head up. We are early to rise (4:30-5), and early to bed (8:30 - 9). We usually have breakfast around 6-6:30 on weekdays and a bit later on weekends. You are welcome to join us or wake up later. We'd love it if you would join us for at least one meal a day.
  
  4. Food.
  We eat a varied diet with some meat and fish. We do home cooking and rarely go out. We try to stock organic food in our pantry (rice, beans, flours, sugar, etc). If you need your own snack, please make sure to bring them with you. The nearest big grocery store is 30 kms away.
  
  5. Child rules
  
  Please take care to exhibit appropriate behaviour when interacting with the child
  Please do not display photos of the child on the internet
  Please don’t take the child outside the property without permission
  
  
  6. If you have read to this point:
  - Write the following in your request: "I/We have read and agree to follow your rules." This will show us how thoughtful and attentive to detail you are.
  - In your message, describe what you are hoping to learn/do while you are staying with us and what motivated you to contact us specifically.
  - We get a lot of generic messages, and we hope that yours won't be one of them! Looking forward to meeting you.
  
  Anastasia, George and little Vasily

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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 host digital nomads

  We have a Starlink connection, it's high-speed internet with a few interruptions. You'll have a table to work at and a decent WiFi.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  Our parking area is pretty tight, but with care a small to medium sized van can park there for some time.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  Hours expected

  5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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