Live with a homeschooling, homesteading creative family near Bellingen, Australia

Infos

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  Description

  We are a family living on a rural property within an intentional community. We look after about a hectare of land and share the care of the wider land comprising 70ha of native forest, paddocks and riverbanks along the Bellinger River. We homeschool our children (11 F and 15 M), they spend time at home learning and also.participate in a range of lessons and activities outside of the home. They and our whole family is very musical. Our son loves drawing and spends many hours into that, both he and she loves playing violin (esp folk) and music is generally a big part of life. Out daughter is hugely into animal care and loves looking after babies and smaller children. Both contribute to household life making a weekly meal and learning life skills. Their mother, Catriona (myself) is most involved in food production, animal care, cooking and the children, and also is a creative (contact improv dance practice/teacher/community leader). She is also active supporting a more community-oriented approach to daily life, initiating and maintaining community garden and other collaborative, resilience-driven activities. She works as a natural health practitioner (naturopath wuth ayurvedic focus) and has meditation and yoga practice embedded in daily life as much as possible. Catriona has studied permaculture and syntropic agriculture and has intentions for a lot more work in that area to help the region be resilient. Benn is a musician, music producer and is a hands-on homeschooling dad who also has a teaching and performance practice in Improv theatre. Benn has a qi gong practice and strong nature connection. Life is busy and full for us all, and we are grateful for a rich and diverse reality with much abundance (except time, it seems). Realities of raising a family and a living life the way we have chosen (village aspirations, nuclear family, homeschooling, wearing many hats) mean that we are are far from fully self-sufficient, yet we do a lot of work on the land here to manage the orchards and we also have a small vegetable garden, goats and chickens. It's a beautiful part of the world and there are regular daily and weekly connections with our neighbours on and off the farm. The nearest town, Bellingen, is 30 minute drive and it is a small yet vibrant community with a lot of music, dance and other creative pursuits.
  
  Daily life for a workawayer would vary depending in the time of year but mostly we are.looking for help managing the grass, trees, weeds, making and maintaining new garden areas, some outdoor maintenance help . There is so much to do here so we are open to a range of practical skills that you may bring!

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Jardinage

  S’occuper des animaux

  Cuisine/repas pour la famille

  Aide à la maison

  Entretien général
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  Centres d’intérêt

  

  Politique/justice sociale

  

  Dev. durable

  

  Dev. personnel

  

  Ferme

  

  Musique

  

  Soin des plantes

  

  Arts du spectacle

  

  Dessin et peinture

  

  Jardinage

  

  Bricolage / artisanat

  

  Cuisine et alimentation

  

  Animaux

  

  Yoga / bien-être

  

  Nature

  

  Danse
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  We live on a community and are homeschooling our children so there is often daily interaction with other adults and children. We have some regular weekly-ish activities on the farm like yoga class, group meditation sit, a small gardening group (at our place mainly) and other social events within the local community. There is a natureplay group on the farm that meets fortnightly that you may want to come along to if you are interested. We enjoy living with creek and river access and there are tons of lovely bushwalks around us. Catriona runs weekly dance classes in Bellingen and we regularly drive into Bellingen for activities with the children so there is time for you to get involved in local offerings- in particular we have a rich music scene here given the small population and always lots of fun classes are going on. As we are living 30 minutes drive from Bellingen, we would need to coordinate driving in- there is limited public transport from where we live so you would be somewhat dependant on us in that regard- but there are neighbours driving in too so you can get in and out practically daily if that were wanted. Catriona connects with friends on other communities along our country road and you would be able to learn about these and how people live off-grid and less dependant on external conveniences and systems. Those interested in craft, weaving, bamboo and other traditional natural fibre uses may also have a chance to learn from the amazing skilled humans we are so blessed to know and spend time with.
  
  Our community practices Sociocracy for decision-making so you may be able to sit in on meetings, participate in our monthly working bee and generally get a feel for how it works on a generally-functional intentional community!
  Catriona is passionate about local resilience and happy to share with you her diverse skills in food growing, harvesting, preservation (fermenting, drying, pickling etc), how we use our dairy milk (kefir, yoghurt, soft cheese), cooking from scratch (wholefood diet) as well as what we have done so far on the farm (and plan to do). A lot is not "done" or "finished" so you will see the works-in-progress as well as have a chance to participate in these projects yourself.We are also finishing some building works to our home such as a compost toilet, and lighting/electrics/solar, so if you have skills in that area please let us know,
  For workawayers with an interest in alternative ways to raise a family in these times, our lifestyle may be of interest to you as you will have a chance to interact with our children and we can share our life experience and perspectives. It is not glamorous and is very quiet and simple, yet also very busy, diverse and at times overwhelming! But we live in beautiful land here and are extremely blessed to be here, so you would get a chance to see the realities of how this all unfolds.
  
  We would welcome the chance (especially for the children) to meet people from other cultures and learn about their different ways of life, interests and language. We love languages and have a little spanish, french and beginner japanese so would be glad to further our skills and give the kids a chance to have direct contact with people from those cultures.

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  Aide

  Gardening (weeding, whippersnipper, pruning, bed and path preparation, mulching, mowing). Tasks are ranging from light to heavy and we would support you to learn what to do. In most cases Catriona would "set you up" with the task and be on hand for support or clarification when needed.
  
  At times household help may be requested (light cleaning tasks) or some cooking depending on what is happening.
  
  Other homesteading-related activities such as animal care, harvesting and food preservation/preparation are also here and for these Catriona and maybe her children would be doing these with you.
  
  Regarding the garden and homestead tasks, experience is not necessary, only a willingness and capacity to do physical work.

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  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Français: Débutant
  Japonais: Débutant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  We are hoping to visit Japan later in 2026 so would be open to having a Japanese workawayer with good english skills who could be active in sharing and practising basic Japanese with us.
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  Hébergement

  Basic room large room with latex futon-style bedding, we have 2 single foam mattresses suitable for children or small adults. We have one flush toilet and one composting toilet. Depending on availability you may be staying in the community's cabin which is studio-style and has kitchenette and own shower and composting toilet. Otherwise you would stay in our main family house with the family and have access to a lovely indoor bathroom (not yet finished! so the toilet options are in the adjacent buildings). There is a shower and a bath in the bathroom (from pristine creek water, which is also our drinking supply). If you wish you have the option to sleep camping-style in a canvas belltent which is lovely too though a bit cold in winter! All meals will be provided. Generally it would be a hot breakfast (porridge, baked goods) or at times eggs, toast etc. Fruit for snacks is here in abundance either on the trees or in the freezer from previous harvests. We can supply daily cows or goats milk and yoghurt. Lunches and dinners are usually vegetarian and onion-free. For example rice and beans and baked vegies, pasta with seasonal vegies, or egg dishes with vegies, We cook with indian, mediterranean, or asian flavours usually, not too spicy though. Occasional meat dishes from high quality meat. We also don't eat wheat much but instead favour gluten-free or spelt grain products, If you are able to eat wheat we are happy to provide foods that you are used to such as bread. We make different types of bread such as buckwheat, spelt, lentil. Similarly we can work with food intolerances as we have a few of our own and are creative cooks! We would chat in advance about your typical diet and preferences and find a simple balance for everyone's needs.
  In terms of meal timing, we eat together as a family at dinner time around 5.30pm. Breakfast and lunch vary within the family so we may just provide your meals at a regular schedule for you even if we do not eat together. In this case you are welcome to come and eat in the kitchen even if we are not all there. There is no WIFI but there is phone reception so you can tether from your phone for internet. Ask anything you are unsure of as we are happy to help if we can.

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  Autres infos...

  Apart from info already mentioned, we are minimal technology users and ask that our guests do not scroll at the dinner table or use phones or tablets as entertainment devices when in the presence of our children. They don't form part of our social life together, there is a bit of internet use daily by them but it's regulated.We are teaching them to respect appropriate tech use (our son is an avid artist and uses digital as well as hand-drawing) so it's in our world but they don;t have phones and are not exposed to a lot of the craziness on the net. Of course you are welcome to use your phones when you need to, just not in the communal places/times eg around meal time.

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  Informations complémentaires

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    Accès Internet

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    Accès Internet limité

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    Nous avons des animaux

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    Nous sommes fumeurs

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    Familles bienvenues

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  We have a small flat area for a motorhome, and a few camping places. This could be discussed on application to see if we will be a good match.

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  Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux

  On the farm we are not allowed to own dogs, but we welcome doggie visitors. Dogs must be on lead or trained to be close at all times, as we have no fences between us and our neighbours and they would not welcome exploring doggies ! Cats are not allowed either, so if you have a cat it would need to be trained and be kept indoors at our place at all times and definitely not let out day or night night due to the incredible bird life here that we strive to protect. There is a lot of wildlife here and we love animals so ask us.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Plus de 2

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  Mes animaux

  Chooks

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