Pays-Bas
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Hello Travellers,
Melle and I bought our first house about two years ago. We spent the previous five years together working and travelling around the world. Now that we are here and have our own space, we'd like to welcome people to come to our little patch of paradise.
About a year ago we extended our family with a Bearded Collie puppy dog called Luna.
Upcoming January/February (2021) we are expecting to welcome a little baby boy into our lives. This will bring a lot of changes for us and potentially for the volunteers staying with us.
Here's a little introduction:
Melle is Dutch, so he is pretty good with languages (German, Spanish, English and a little of French and Italian). When he is not fixing up the house, he can be found reading, training the dog or helping me in the garden.
I (Rebecca) am English and I'm trying very hard to learn a different language: currently studying Dutch and I can understand some German.
When I'm not studying, 9 times out of 10 I'll be working away in our front garden, back garden or allotment garden.
We don't have a television, but do have good internet connection. We like to play board games, watch documentaries and spend plenty of time outside (walking or relaxing in the sun). We try our best to live life creating as little waste as possible, but we are far from perfect and still learning.
We have a cute puppy called Luna. Just as the moon, she has an enormous impact on our life :) It's a one year old Bearded Collie. She is always happy, energetic and very social!
And there's another addition to our family on it's way...
We dreamt of a patch of land and house that was completely overgrown and needed a lot of love and attention. Our garden was just that. For a while we called it the jungle, we've managed to tame it a little since then but there's still plenty of work to do. It's an allotment garden (less than 10 mins by bike from our house) that was left for some years. We are slowly turning it in to a vegetable garden, using ideas taken from permaculture.
Our house is a completely normal terrace house, on the edge of a completely normal neighbourhood. From our living room we look out to the dunes and see wild cattle grazing. Within two minutes on a bicycle we are at the beach. It's a great spot for going on walks either through the dunes, where you can see more wild cattle and horses, along the beach or through the woods.
We inherited a pond in the back garden which, at the moment, holds a whole heap of frogs and a dozen fish; we now consider them our pets :)
Living in Den Helder means the Island of Texel is only a 20 minute boat ride away. Den Helder is a small town but has everything you could possibly need (train stations, markets, supermarkets, cinema, sports centres, libraries, hospital, chemists, shops, pubs and coffee shops). We have bikes for you to use during your stay with us, we don't own a car- we really don't need one here.
Here’s a little more information about the way we like to live, what is important to us and what we expect of volunteers.
The main thing we are looking for with all volunteers is to reach balance and harmony. For us that comes in two main forms.
The first: Balance between work and free time and harmony between all people in the house.
Being fair, honest and respectful to each other. We are inviting you in to our home, where you will have your own bedroom, use of a bike, plenty of food and free time. We expect in return that you can help us out for about 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. Sometimes we are very busy, so you will have to regulate that yourself. For this reason, we are looking for mature and independent volunteers that can handle the responsibility.
We have had volunteers that gave more than they took and others that took more than they gave. We would prefer that it feels fair from both sides and that by the end of the stay there is a good feeling for everyone 😊
The second: Aiming for balance and harmony with nature.
We are working towards creating as little waste as possible. Water, food, energy (especially gas); we are reusing and recycling as much as we can. Here are some of examples: We don’t use any chemicals for our laundry, so we harvest the water to water our plants :)
We all have different habits but during your stay we would like you to work with us on low waste goals. Here are some things that came up in previous stays that we feel don’t fit: long hot showers every day, electronics left plugged in, lights left on. What we don’t want is volunteers to feel uncomfortable about using the resources in the house, but we would like it that volunteers are conscious about what they are using to try avoid wasteful behaviours.
We are still learning and developing our ideas. If you see other solutions during your stay, we are happy to hear them.
Projets artistiques
Jardinage
Bricolage et projets de construction
S’occuper des animaux
Cuisine/repas pour la famille
Aide à la maison
Entretien général
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
You can try a variety of Dutch meals as well as international dishes. We enjoy food from many different places where we have lived. In some places we learned how to prepare food in a special way and we are happy to share that with you!
Here we have a really wide range of help required.
We think it is nicest if you have some choice in what you do during your stay with us. We would like to see independence, combined with a responsible and proactive mindset from volunteers.
At times it can happen that we are both working at the same time and therefore leave you for a couple of hours to run the show :)
Our current to-do lists:
General chores around the house:
Dehydrating/preserving fruits and vegetables
Preparing food for meals (we love to try different things)
Doing the dishes
Cut wood to size for wood burner
Making paper pulp plant pots
Walking and grooming the dog
Cleaning the house
Go to the woods or beach to collect pine cones, pine needles or seashells for paths in the garden.
Garden to-do list:
General weeding
Trimming hedges
Mowing the lawn
Sowing seeds
Harvesting
Turning over compost
Digging foundation trenches for greenhouse
Building greenhouse
Building shed
As you can see we have some big and small projects. There's plenty of jobs for if you are planning just a short stay. We hope that if you start a project, you have the intention of finishing it.
Langues parlées
English: Courant
Dutch: Courant
German: Intermédiaire
Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
We are interested in learning or improving several languages such as Dutch, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Italian and maybe a new one!
We are happy to teach you some Dutch or English if you would like that.
You will have your own bedroom in our house, with a comfortable bed and a wardrobe to put your things in. The bathroom and bedrooms are all upstairs. We like to think that we're considerate about usage of energy (water/gas/electricity) and would ask you to do the same.
The WC, kitchen and living room are downstairs and are all shared. With shared spaces we ask that if you have used it to leave it how you found it.
We have a washing machine, which you are welcome to use.
Food: We have plenty. Help with preparing and conserving food is always welcome!
Assume that breakfast and lunch you will have to serve yourself (but you are welcome to take from the cupboards and fridge), for dinner we'd like to eat together (if you would like to cook, we'd like that too, but if you don't enjoy cooking there's no obligation). Normally, dinner is prepared for 6-6:30pm.
Beach!
Accès Internet
Accès Internet limité
Nous avons des animaux
Nous sommes fumeurs
Familles bienvenues
Cet hôte a indiqué qu’il aimait accueillir les digital nomads.
We have a dog and she is very social! If it fits, your pet is welcome.
Un
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week
Ce sont des évaluations supplémentaires en option lorsque les membres laissent un feedback. La note moyenne pour chaque option est affichée.
Exactitude du profil:
(5.0)
Échange culturel:
(5.0)
Communication:
(4.3)
