Come learn to farm with us in Victoria BC, Canada

Details

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  Description

  It's busy here and we're doing our best to respond to inquiries quickly. To that end, we encourage everyone to message more than once if you are serious about coming to Victoria to get our attention! We have plenty of projects underway, including increasing water capacity and a we'll be running a stone walling workshop here soon. Extra support for weeding and watering is always needed - it's a nice time to appreciate the garden and listen to music or a podcast.
  
  We are a small farm in development at the exciting stage of soil improvement and creating more growing space. We are approaching farming from permaculture and regenerative agriculture perspectives. The land has been used to raise sheep for many years, but we are moving toward growing vegetables to share, and plan on building a new chicken coop soon. My elderly parents live next door, but are avid gardeners themselves. We our dog lovers, but our remaining dog is older and unsociable with other dogs, so no pets can be accommodated - sorry!

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Farmstay help

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  You will learn lots about the native species here on the Canada's West Coast, as the property contains a large area of protected Garry Oak ecosystem. You will learn about the challenges and rewards as we learn to farm. We're also happy to teach you everything we know about small livestock.

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  Help

  Other than the simple willingness to help and do what is needed, a valuable skill someone could bring here are vegetable gardening and experience in construction or building fences, but we are also happy to share the knowledge we have in these areas. We have our first crops going in this year, and we need help with planting, watering & weeding. We are also installing a new irrigation pump and water lines. We can always use help repairing and building new fences. For the horticulturist, there is an established ornamental garden that we can teach you more about.
  
  We prefer relatively independent self motivated people. In hotter months, you'll have the best experience if you get started early in the day on a project, and feel a sense of accomplishment by the time you finish and have lunch, and still have time to get out and explore in the afternoons. We tend to have quiet evenings on the farm, but often have extended family drop in for outside social time on the weekends.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  Portuguese: Fluent
  French: Intermediate
  Italian: Intermediate

  This 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.
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  Accommodation

  You have your own private accommodation here in a self contained clean and dry RV / caravan / travel trailer that gives you your own private space on the property with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living area and forest views. It is best suited to a single, couple or up to three or four friends as there are two separate sleeping areas. We provide the basics, and there is food to share from the garden.
  
  We are easy going and open minded, with just a few basic requests.. the property is non smoking, and we cannot accept pets (due to older small dogs and sheep on the property).

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  What else ...

  Our farm is located on the rural edge of Victoria, BC and is surrounded by ocean beaches, lakes, cycling and hiking trails and are a 15 minute walk from the nearest shopping, and close to a well serviced bus route that can take you a half hour to downtown Victoria, which is rich in culture and scenery. All of our past helpers have enjoyed using this location as a home base to explore the area, and several have returned for repeated visits.

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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 decent high speed internet connection 98% of the time, however, we are in a rural area, there are sometimes range and service limitations. If you need a connection with 100% uptime, know that most people find this an elusive utopian ideal, and we recommend having a cellular data plan as backup. You may also want to bring a range extender to extend our signal further than it is currently broadcast because while we have unvested in our wireless network, there are geographic and distance limitations.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We can provide temporary water and power hookups, or access to water and power to recharge your batteries, we have ample sunny spaces for recharging your solar power system. You will need to have holding tanks for wastewater. Our site is not suited to high traffic in wet weather.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  Maximum 4 hours a day, 5 days a week