Karl & Kathy

United States
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Profile information

Travel information
We are currently
At home
Activities we are interested in:
Making things, Fixing things, Sailing, Kayaking, Mountain Biking, Hiking, Meeting people, Making music, Helping out
Our next destination:
Nova Scotia Island, Canada - from Jan 2026 until Mar 2026
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Description
We are a retired couple. We've been married 40 years, have three children and 6 grandchildren. We work to stay fit and active. We sail, camp, ski, hike, and paddle our tandem sea kayak. For 5 years, we lived aboard a sailboat on the island of Guam.

Karl - A retired music/science teacher, I stay busy making things; boats, a Koi pond, a mountain bike training track, musical instruments, a folding composite camper. My latest big project was replacing the engine in our 44' sailboat. I am most content when I am busy doing something where I am both using developed skills but also discovering new ones.

Kathy - I love meeting new people, helping others and staying busy. I am best known for being friendly, approachable and hard working. I retired from my position as Director of Counseling 3 years ago. I lived aboard a sailboat with my husband, 3 girls and our dog for 5 years on the island of Guam. Varnishing, painting, and cleaning our boat hull was a regular part of life. I worked full time as a counselor for elementary students with emotional disabilities during that time. I have also worked as a counselor and therapist for people from age 5 to adults. We have 6 grandchildren that I love playing and interacting with. Every summer, I have a grandma camp for them and even my 18 year old granddaughter keeps coming back for time with cousins and all the activities I arrange for them.

In our first Workaway experience I took on cleaning out and reorganizing two workshops, grouted stonework, cleaned and prepared rooms as well as stepping into the role as host, meeting and greeting guests for events. In our second Workaway experience I did a mixture of garden work, household duties and teaching English to an 8 year old. We also visited with school children to expose them to our culture and English speaking skills. In our last Workaway experience I painted windows and bedrooms. I cooked and I helped my husband with wood working projects. I also worked with our host in organizing and decorating her house.

We both enjoy a challenge and have experience, knowledge and skills to offer. We are reliable, friendly people who commit to following through on tasks and take initiative to be helpful and useful.
Interests
Gardening
Plant care
Performing arts
DIY & crafts
Winter sports
Yoga / Wellness
Water sports
Sailing / Boating
Nature
Outdoor activities
Music
Mountain
Fitness
Hiking
History
Events & social
Culture
Camping
Carpentry
Cooking & food
Astronomy
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Intermediate
French: Beginner
Indonesian: Beginner
Skills and knowledge we'd like to share or learn
Some knowledge of:
Helping with Computers/ Internet
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Hospitality/Tourism
Gardening
Able to teach about:
DIY and building projects
General Maintenance
Helping around the house
Teaching
More details about your skills
Karl -
Fiberglass/epoxy repair and construction
Woodworking
Sailing - RYA Day Skipper certificate
Music teacher
Science teacher
Engineering teacher
Trail building (MTB single track)
Diesel mechanic (novice)
Small engine mechanic (novice)
Welding (novice)
Excavator operator (novice)

Kathy:
Painting and refinishing
Housekeeping/Organizing
Enjoy gardening
Sailing - RYA Crew certificate
High School Director of Counseling
Family therapist
Adolescent in-patient therapist
Age
65 & 68
What else ...
On a recent workaway, I helped our host plan, purchase, and create a DIY woodworking shop from scratch for her property. The project was thoroughly satisfying and I was able to build a mortise and tenon window that matched the style of the very old building with the tools and equipment we bought. If you have similar needs, we have the experience and enthusiasm to do something similar for you.
Some more information
- Smoker
- Driver's licence
- Allergies
  Karl has some animal allergies and can't mow grass. While daytime exposure is OK, accomodations need to be free of dander.
- Special dietary requirements
  No - We enjoy exploring new food choices and are fond of meat in our diet.

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4 Sep 2024

Left by host (Help with gardening and ...) for Workawayer ()

I highly recommend you welcome this fantastic couple. They helped us with multiple tasks and karl really knows how to help you truly professionally. Thank you for everything, good luck on your next trips

(Excellent )

30 Jul 2024

Left by Workawayer () for host (Help with gardening and ...)

Isaaco, Barbara, Sophia and Tisbe are delightful humans who made us feel welcomed and appreciated. We shared lunch and dinner most days as well as coffee breaks. Besides working around each other, we also spent down time with the family visiting and hiking. Sophia invited Kathy on a hike around the lake and Isaaco took us all on a hike to Gleno… read more

(Excellent )

3 Jul 2024

Left by host (Chalet-hotel located in a ...) for Workawayer ()

It was great to have Karl and Kathy stay, and they were a great help and very keen to get involved in anything going on around the place. With their experience we were able just to let them go and get on with the jobs and projects, and it was a very productive couple of weeks! So great to see the improvements all around the building, and was fun… read more

(Excellent )

29 Jun 2024

Left by Workawayer () for host (Chalet-hotel located in a ...)

Paul was kind, accommodating and calm from the start. He picked us up in Annecy and dropped us off in Geneva, despite having a very busy schedule. Paul's family is amazing. Jess and the kids were such a pleasure to meet and so very nice. We got to watch Elodie's concert and Ollie's football match and Maisie, the dog is a sweetheart.

Paul gave us… read more

(Excellent )

2 Jul 2024

Left by host (Repairing and recommissioning ...) for Workawayer ()

A charming couple and a pleasure to have met; urbane, witty and knowledgeable, they are trustworthy, hardworking, clean, tidy and dependable.
Good Luck!

(Excellent )

28 May 2024

Left by Workawayer () for host (Repairing and recommissioning ...)

Paul and Millie are very gracious and kind people who are very invested in seeing that there Workawayers have a pleasant and enjoyable stay. Paul brought us into Belgium for the good sausages and beer and to the Maginot line and Verdun to visit some important WWI battle sites and memorials. We were surprised at how limited our knowledge of the… read more

(Excellent )

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4 Sep 2024

Left by host (Help with gardening and ...) for Workawayer ()

(Excellent)

30 Jul 2024

Left by Workawayer () for host (Help with gardening and ...)

(Excellent)

3 Jul 2024

Left by host (Chalet-hotel located in a ...) for Workawayer ()

(Excellent)

29 Jun 2024

Left by Workawayer () for host (Chalet-hotel located in a ...)

(Excellent)

2 Jul 2024

Left by host (Repairing and recommissioning ...) for Workawayer ()

A charming couple and a pleasure to have met; urbane, witty and knowledgeable, they are trustworthy, hardworking, clean, tidy and dependable.
Good Luck!

(Excellent)

28 May 2024

Left by Workawayer () for host (Repairing and recommissioning ...)

(Excellent)

12 Nov 2023

Left by host for Workawayer ()

What a great and inspiring experience with Karl and Kathy.
A precious encounter that I wonder how many times it will happen in my life.

While searching for the right person for my project, I came across their profile and instinctively contacted them.　
As a result, my intuition hit the jackpot, and thanks to that, I had a wonderful encounter that… read more

(Excellent)

11 Nov 2023

Left by Workawayer () for host (Old stone house in ...)

What a delight our stay with Megumi has been, we recommend her as a host without reservation.

This past month we have been living a dream. Our relationship with Megumi has been so easy and rewarding and the town of Cabrespine and its people are straight out of a storybook set in the middle ages. Great food, rewarding tasks, and depth of history… read more

(Excellent)

9 Mar 2023

Left by host (Learn how coffee is made and ...) for Workawayer ()

Hi Mr/s Ingersoll, or should I call you Opa Karl & Oma Kath 😊

Thanks for the very nice feedback!

The experience with you guys was really fun and unique. It's not every day that we get "life-experienced middle-aged volunteers" in here. For a moment I felt like I had grandparents from abroad.

I'm so happy to see your enthusiasm in understanding… read more

(Excellent)

25 Feb 2023

Left by Workawayer () for host (Learn how coffee is made and ...)

Wima, the owner of the plantation, his wife Mei, son Aga and sister-in-law Lidia are absolutely delightful. We felt welcomed and appreciated and had a wonderful experience.

Hiking and walking opportunities are numerous and delightful. We walked daily through the village and were greeted with great enthusiasm. Nearly everyone asked where we were… read more from with many taking the opportunity to exchange greetings in English and offering help with our Indonesian and Javanese. In one instance, we were invited into a community center that housed the gamalang and invited to try our hand playing them. The plantation is situated in a stunningly beautiful river valley and we took great pleasure in hiking along the trails. These are not hiking trails but rather, the primary means of transporting workers and crops. It is commonplace to meet up with a scooter loaded beyond capacity with durian fruit, sugar cane, cassava, or livestock feed. Despite the fact that we felt a bit self-conscious and like we may have been an inconvenience, all of the people we passed greeted us warmly and acted as if it were perfectly normal for us to be walking around in the middle of their “work”.

Over the course of our 4 weeks at the plantation, we grew very close to many of the regular employees. Despite some rather stark differences in social norms, we never felt like we stepped wrong or made some unforgivable faux paux. Figuring out how to address each other was a delightful cultural dance with the local employees settling into calling us Oma and Kakung (gramma and grandpa) or Uncle for those closer to our own age.

We were on the plantation during February and there was very little coffee work being done, though we were shown the production areas and did some sorting, packaging and observed some roasting. produces cloves, durian fruit and some other tropical fruit products as well as coffee. It was another dose of reality, taking part in hand-sorting of coffee beans and cloves, as well as the packaging process. Nothing is mechanized and it is all done by hand. While we didn’t get to see it, the local cane and cassava fields are also harvested entirely by hand, a process that I would love to see and simply cannot fathom.

This Workaway was an unexpected learning experience. We imagined ourselves seasoned world travelers with eyes wide open but we discovered that we still view the world through a privileged lens. Having stayed in a wide range of accommodations from tents to boats to backpacker hostels, we imagined we were prepared for any living conditions and, based on the reviews from past Workawayers, expected something that fell well within our past experiences. We were surprised. The room is clean, provides shelter, has a bed, a nice shower and toilet. What we didn’t realize we expected but didn’t find were: a dresser, table, closet, chairs, fan, or screens. What we learned was, this was entirely adequate but it also gave us a new appreciation for all that we have at home, things we routinely take for granted.

““We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” TS Eliot - We travel to open our eyes to the world and this trip opened our eyes in ways we could not have anticipated, reminding ourselves that it is easy to overlook our own assumptions about the world.

We highly recommend a stay with Wima and his family.

(Excellent)

16 Aug 2022

Left by host (Looking for construction and ...) for Workawayer ()

The dynamic duo, K2... Kathy & Karl... what a team! And that's exactly what you'd expect from a retired couple that rides a tandem mountain bike. We weren't disappointed.

If you're fortunate enough to have Kathy and Karl knocking at your door, please do invite them in. They were such a joy to have here. They also are tremendously talented and… read more

(Excellent)

14 Aug 2022

Left by Workawayer () for host (Looking for construction and ...)

Corina and Ryan are amazing hosts. They treated us like family or close friends. They do everything they can to ensure that workawayers get the most out of their experience with them and with the island. They shared a meal with us almost every day and they took time each week to give us some island experience (hiking to the tide pools, night… read more

(Excellent)

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