Description
We are Sigrid and Thomas, an Austrian/Swiss couple. We are retired artists/sculptors and run a small hobby Alpaca farm in upper Austria. On our little non-commercial farm we have 5 Alpakas, about 15 chickens and some cats. Also we grow our own organic vegetables and fruits and produce hay for the animals in the summer.

Since the farm has been taking a lot of space besides our actual profession as artists, we would appreciate some help with the farmwork and work in the house for september and october. At that time of the year we harvest a lot of apples and grapes for producing fruit juice, walnuts and vegetables. There is also a great variety of other everyday-tasks which we would appreciate some extra help with!

Everyday-tasks on our farm are taking care of the alpacas (cleaning the barn, training them to walk on a leash and get used to humans, feed them, ...), cooking lunch/dinner, watering the gardens, harvesting vegetables and fruits, make products out of fruits (like jam, dried fruits, ...) and take care of our tiny self service shop where we sell our organic products!

The four main buildings of our farm are built in the 19th century and renovated by ourselfes when we bought this place over 30 years ago. As mentioned before, we both work as artists, with diverse materials. Thomas is professionally working with stone and wood, while Sigrid works with plenty of materials apart from stone, such as clay and other natural materials. We have a workshops and plenty of professional equipment, so if you are interested in trying making small sculptures or other objects out of stone, wood and many other materials, you have the perfect opportunity here! Since you will not be asked to work more then 5 hours a day and there can be days where there is less work too, we would appreciate if you had some projects and interests yourself that you can pursue in your free time. We also appreciate if you come as a couple or friends, so that you can spend your free time together, since there is not much going on socially in the area. It would be practical if you had a drivers license, since the next town where you can go to cafés and bars is not well accessible by public transport and you are welcome to borrow our car for trips like that.

We are open minded and would love to meet interresting people from all over the world. You will be a part of the family, eat with us, maybe share international dishes? We are looking forward to meeting you!
Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre
Projets artistiques
Jardinage
Bricolage et construction
S’occuper des animaux
Aide dans une ferme
Cuisine/repas pour la famille
Aide à la maison
Entretien général
Objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU que cet hôte essaie d'atteindre
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Qu'est-ce que c'est ?
Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre
We would not consider our family as a traditional austrian or swiss family - we are not religious and don´t follow any specific national traditions. We are very open for other cultures and other ways of living and eager to learn something new. We have a lot of contact to other local artists and galleries and you are invited to learn about the art we are working with and our life as artists on the countryside. You can experience a creative space at our farm, a slowed-down life without the cities stressful daily routine. We are happy to get to know people from different cultures and backgrounds and look forward to inspiring conversations and a friendly, appreciative cooperation!
Projets impliquant des enfants
Ce projet peut impliquer des enfants. Pour en savoir plus, consultez nos directives et conseils ici.
Aide
Work depends on the seasons. But there is always work with the Alpacas, cleaning the barn, bringing them food and general animalcare. It would be great if you could spend some time with training the Alpacas getting used to headcollars and walking with a leash, so you can take walks with them.
There also is plenty of work in the gardens, that need to be weeded and new plants need to be grown in spring. In summer the lawns need to be mawn and we need help with the hayproduction and harvesting berries and fruit.
Additionally there always is work in the house with cleaning and so on. Cooking will be a shared chore, depending a bit on how keen you are on cooking. We would very much appreciate to have some help with cooking.
There are always some projects to work on beside everyday tasks like mentioned before!

It would be practical if you had a driving license, as public transportation is poor, so you can do some shopping as well and are more flexible if you want to go on a trip on the weekends.
Langues
Langues parlées
Allemand: Courant
Anglais: Intermédiaire
Italien: Intermédiaire
Espagnol: Débutant
Français: Débutant
Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
We are speaking an Austrian and a Swiss dialect at home and are happy to teach some of it to you! Also, teaching some standard German is possible. Sigrid speaks good english, Thomas doesn´t speak much english. Both of us speak italian.
Hébergement
Our farm has four houses; depending on availability and season you will either have a room or a little flat in one of our houses. The rooms are heated by woodstoves. If we host more than one person, the workers will share these rooms, but there is enough space for everyone to have their privacy. You are not supposed to cook for yourselfes, unless you want to. Usually we will share our meals. You don´t need to bring sleeping bags. You will have your own bathroom and we can provide towels.
Autres infos...
If you like to spend time in nature this is a good place for you! We live very near to a forest and many fields you can take walks in. You also have plenty of opportunities concerning art on our farm, if you are interrested. We can show you how to work with stone and wood and you can use the materials we have if you like. We can also show you how to spinn alpaka wool by hand.

If you want to spend your time off in a city doing some shopping, visiting museums or going out you can take the train to the nearest really big city called Linz, where there are many opportunities. It takes a little more then an hour to get there, and you need a car (or a lift) to the trainstation to get there.

We have two cars, if you want you can borrow one sometimes to visit some places on the weekends, or you can go by train. The nearest trainstation is 6km from our farm, only 10 minutes by car. To Vienna and Munich you need about 2,5hours by train, a little bit less to Salzburg. The nearest City is Ried im Innkreis, which is about 15 minutes by car.

We might also have some bikes you could borrow.

We are smokers but do not smoke inside the house.
Informations complémentaires
- Accès Internet
- Accès Internet limité
- Nous avons des animaux
- Nous sommes fumeurs
- Familles bienvenues
Espace pour garer des vans
We have a parking place in front of the house that can be used for all kinds of vehicles.
Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux
It depends on the pet! But if you have a pet you need to take with you, we can talk about it.
Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?
Deux
Nombre d'heures attendues
Maximum 3-5 hours a day, 5 days a week