Help out family with sled dogs, horses, a garden and a greenhouse in little Kasilof AK on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, USA

Infos

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  Description

  We are a friendly but busy family and have been living on the beautiful Kenai Peninsula for the last 30 years. Katie recently retired and now bakes a lot of bread, John is an internal medicine doc. Daughters are in college, med school and/or bopping around the world (Elena is home currently). We live in a little village/town/hamlet on the central Kenai Peninsula 20 minutes south of Soldotna, with a scenic view over the Kasilof River valley. We live together with 20 beautiful sled dogs, a pandemic black lab (born April ‘20), two horses, a few inside dogs and a cat named Norman. When we are not busy with work, school, sports and other activities, we run our sled dogs nearly daily in the winter and keep a little family table farm in the summer. We have two horses and a super friendly cat named Norman. Worth noting that we also have a piano, guitars and a violin that love attention.
  
  We had two workawayers in late '17 who stayed with us after they stayed with a friend involved with workaway. Those were nice experiences so we decided to join as well (in fact, this description of our family was originally written by workawayer #2, Alfiana! - Thanks Alfa.). Since then, we have shared our winter with a slew more really cool fun people from all over the world. Its been nice to get to know these open and engaged folks, plus having the daily animal chores done (which we've been doing ourselves for 20+ years) is an added bonus.
  
  We run our dogs recreationally all winter long (which is a total blast and sublimely lovely) and spend the summers working the gardens and greenhouse as well as camping, hiking, boating and all the other fun things summer up here has to offer. In between summer and winter we do those shoulder season tasks - like collecting firewood, processing the great produce that the summer provides, etc. The gardens, greenhouse and bees keep us occupied all summer and fill our cold storage with staples. Running the dogs with a 4-wheeler in the fall before snowfall is also a blast.
  
  We could use some help taking care of the animals, the greenhouses, and the garden, and accomplishing the little chores around the house... and sharing your stories, perspective, and life. From our standpoint, we’d like someone who wants to be wholeheartedly engaged with the dogs and their care in the winter, and interested in growing things (planting, weeding, harvesting, processing) in the summer. We’ve had some really great self-starter workawayers who liked to be given a project and just go off and do a good quality job on their own.
  
  If you would like to spend some time with sled dogs and enjoy our pretty wholesome northcountry life, we would love to have the helping hand and get to know you. We are pretty blessed with the gig we have up here, and in general we make an effort to make our workawayer’s stay here fun, trying to accommodate/guide them on day trips or longer.

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  S’occuper des animaux

  Aide dans une ferme

  Aide à la maison

  Entretien général
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  If you want to experience Alaska, learn a bit more about sled dogs, like to spend time with horses and like outdoor activities, the Kenai Peninsula is a beautiful place to be. Our home is marginally remote but not off the grid. We live on 80 acres bordering an enormous wildlife preserve on the Kasilof River 5-10 river miles downriver from huge Lake Tustumena

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  Aide

  Help taking care of the animals: preparing the food, feeding, cleaning the horse stalls or the dog yard and spending time with them - nearly everyone falls in love with the dogs - they are super social/loving not to mention exceptional athletes. In the summer there will be a bunch of garden and greenhouse work. We can also use help with little chores around the house.

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  Langues parlées

  Anglais: Courant
  Espagnol: Intermédiaire
  Français: Intermédiaire
  Chinois (mandarin): Intermédiaire
  Italien: Débutant

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  Hébergement

  You will have a spacious private room above the garage with a nice wood stove (see pictures) and a kettle, hot plate, etc. One thing, you will have to share it with Norman, our super friendly cat! We have bikes that workawayers frequently use, and taking an old retired sled dog on a walk to the state park near us has been a common habit our workawayers seem to enjoy. Full bathroom a short walk to the main house.

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  Autres infos...

  We live close to a nice park and a river. In the winter it is lovely to hike, come with us when we run the dogs, summer it is also good for hiking and you could enjoy the river. We have kayaks, bikes and you could explore nature a bit. The Kenai Peninsula is very pretty but transport is limited so if you would like to be really mobile renting a car could be an option. If you have plans to explore and travel further we could help you plan your trip.

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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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  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  Cet hôte a indiqué qu’il aimait accueillir les digital nomads.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Deux

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  Nombre d'heures attendues

  2-4 hours a day, depending on the season

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