Francia
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We are trying to revive the degenerated Domaine surrounding our Château, which nowadays consists of an animal farm with 25ha of hilly pastures, a 45ha forest, a saw-mill and some holiday homes. When we (Bianca, who was trained to be a nurse, and Paul, who had been stuck in an office for far too long) were in our mid 40's, we decided to get away from it all. So it was in 2005 that we left our studying sons behind and emigrated from the overpopulated Netherlands to the tranquility of rural south-west of France. We have embraced some of the local Gascon lifestyle, in which we like to enjoy a full table, both food and company, after a hard day’s work. Our son Tobias joined us early 2014 to start up bee-keeping as part of the farm activities. In spite of all the progress made, the domain never seems finished. So YES, we do welcome volunteers to help out on the farm, with the forestry and to generally fix-up this quiet Gascony glory!
Jardinería
Proyectos de construcción y bricolaje
Mantenimiento general
Ayuda en una granja
Ayuda en proyectos ecológicos
Cuidado de animales
Hostelería/turismo
Ayuda con ordenadores/Internet
En este proyecto podría haber niños. Para obtener más información, consulta nuestras directrices y consejos aquí.
In one project, we will saw tree trunks in to planks and beams with which a shed and a barn need to be renovated. The large branches are to be (machine) split for firewood, and all the medium and small branches will be shredded into chips for the wood burner of the central heating. A secondary destination for the planks and beams is to convert the roof of a large hangar in to an area for solar panels to generate electricity.
Another project is to renovate a building that in the 1950’s and 1960’s housed the farm workers. The idea is to change it in to a shop (boutique) to sell our farm produce, especially honey. In case you might be interested in bee-keeping, there are already a few "past" workawayers who started their own hives at home, based on the experience and knowledge they pick up from Tobias.
Meanwhile the decoration and renovation of the main house is not yet finished, the surrounding garden, adjacent vegetable garden scream for attention and general maintenance at the farm and the two holiday villas and pool is never finished. Of course our animals (mainly beef + bees) require continuous care with which we welcome a helping hand...
Alemán: Fluido
Inglés: Fluido
Francés: Fluido
Holandés: Fluido
The 3 guest-rooms in the mansion share their own bathroom. We will provide for your preferred breakfast but you'll have to prepare it yourself. But the other 2 meals will be prepared for you, a cold meal at lunch and a warm meal in the evening. Laundry can be done. The daily chores will be shared by all who enjoy the household.
We have plenty of experience with (mostly young) people helping out at the farm, being it family, friends and WorkAwayers ever since 2005. We started with a group of 15, family and friends, including our 2 sons and some of their friends (city boys and girls) who helped us out during the summer holidays. They all enjoyed it and some so much that they returned regularly in the following years. The last 5 years we had, on average, a dozen WorkAwayes visiting us every year, and some of them left a review on this Internet site.
As a consequence of most of our activities we virtually live outdoors starting April. On a daily routine, the closer we get to the warm season, the earlier we rise to benefit from the early light and avoid the heath. We do warm lunches, which often cause the inevitable siesta.
We know that our place sounds idyllic to some people, so we prefer to be straightforward about what people may expect here. You should realize that it is a lot of physical work around a farm/forest? Don’t be afraid to break a fingernail occasionally or to get your hands and knees dirty. Sometimes we even do some muscle fledging, backbone-building work, and that goes for the both of us (in our fifties).
From experience we would prefer to have WorkAwayers as from the age of 21 years upwards, and for at least 2 weeks.
Acceso a Internet
Acceso a Internet limitado
Tenemos animales
Somos fumadores
Puede alojar familias
Este anfitrión ha indicado que le encanta acoger a nómadas digitales.
a campervan or motorhome can easily be parked on our premises, but having invited WorkAwayer to come and stay with us, we do prefer to shelter them in the big house.
we have had WorkAwayers visiting with their pets (dogs only) , which worked out fine with our own free roaming dogs and cats but only if the visiting pet.. eh, no, dogs only, is well behaved and can sleep outside together with our dogs. No cats or dogs allowed inside the house !
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