Help our family with non-profit community eco-projects in beautiful Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada

Infos

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  Description

  Our place is a bio-intensive micro vegetable farm that was started in 2009. Our vision is to create a productive and viable farm that regenerates soil and ecosystems, while developing a community hub for regenerative learning and sharing.
  
  Kristine and Thorsten are the main farmers - Kristine is responsible for the production, Thorsten for projects around the farm. Our team includes three wonderful kids (a toddler, a pre-schooler and a 7-year-old) that help us with everything. We love cooking and eating - often a zero-mile farmers diet (whatever is there, lots of it!). We love bonfires, hiking, activities, and evenings at near-by Sauble Beach.
  
  Thorsten and Kristine both enjoy the bridge between professional consultant work, teaching, community, and getting our hands dirty with really dirty work! Our property includes a small Aikido/Yoga dojo that we enjoyed together before our children made it impossible to sneak out together - Thorsten has taught small groups for several years. Before, Kristine & Thorsten had enjoyed years of dancing and started teaching Argentine Tango in Owen Sound - something that we had to give up when our kids were born :-P
  
  We produce over 50 different vegetables on approx. 1.5 acres and have some livestock (sheep, chicken, geese, dog & cat), whose main tasks is making manure, pasture management, entertain children and provide eggs, scare off animals and love children, and devour rodents around the house. We use no-till organic production practices to protect and regenerate our soil, which has quickly helped us to build resilience to weather variability. The property has around 20 acres of pasture and hay fields, and we also enjoy almost 80 acres of natural area with many trails. We sell locally as a CSA, to restaurants, and a local farmer cooperative that we were instrumental in founding.
  
  For several years, our farm is also hosting group activities - farmer workshops, gardening courses, Aikido and tango lessons. Furthermore, we host an online BnB that has remained somewhat disconnected from our other activities - something we want to change!

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Projets artistiques

  Pratique d’une langue

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Enseignement

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  S’occuper des animaux

  Aide dans une ferme

  Baby-sitting et jeux créatifs

  Entretien général
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  Objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU que cet hôte essaie d'atteindre

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  Qu'est-ce que c'est ?
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  New to WorkAwayers, we hope for guests who enjoy co-living with our staff, our interns, and who enjoy a lifestyle that reconnects with our planet's rhythm.
  
  Travellers can learn from both farmers about regenerative food systems, cutting-edge organic vegetable production practices (including some bad and the ugly ;-), ecological restoration of farmland, climate resilience, and community education. With the new forest & farm school, we are now focusing more on community spaces and let permaculture design principles lead us - a process that requires patience, and some procrastination and open-endedness. Your inclination will make a difference about where this place is going first.
  
  Culturally, we are immigrants from Germany. We believe that regenerative living requires an enabling and coherent lifestyle based on skills, sharing, and focus. With three young kids and a farm, we follow a fairly strict daily schedule ourselves - we can only harvest what we plant & tend! We have much shorter work hours than most other farms I know of, and cultivate an efficient but relaxed work rhythm. This leaves us room for family, community, beach evenings, joined meals, other interests, and fun. Visitors value and learn from our focus, our parenting and farming approach!
  
  We cook seasonal, regenerative meals from scratch - many enjoy learning about that. An evening last week, our 10-year-old son asked if he can make a bread for himself and his little sister, and we agreed... not expecting that he actually BAKED two fresh loafs of bread! But that's who we are.

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  Projets impliquant des enfants

  Ce projet peut impliquer des enfants. Pour en savoir plus, consultez nos directives et conseils ici.

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  Aide

  The main reason for inviting WorkAwayers is support with childcare, homeschooling of one of our school-aged kids (the other goes to school). We also have a longer list of projects and it depends on the skill and interest of our guests, on weather conditions and seasonal urgency, and on what projects are waiting to be finished because others started them. And if it is your inclination, you can do a project with our children. We gladly meet you with your interests, dreams, and skills.
  
  With our farm staff, we practice Aikido every weekday morning. You are welcome to join into this practice - a great way to build deep connections with oneself and with others.
  
  All WorkAway tasks are focused on community aspects of our farm, and our family. We expect that WorkAwayers are participating also in physical work - in particular in winter. We are very strategic around limiting hard labour to 90 mins/day - we like our bones to remain healthy!
  
  This year, tasks include:
  
  - AROUND THE HOUSE & CHILD CARE
  There are many ongoing tasks: helping with homeschooling, child care for our preschooler, tending our house garden, maintenance, or minor repairs.
  
  - BEAUTIFICATION AND BUILDING PROJECTS
  Our own farm construction projects are mostly functional (not much time with 3 kids!). But we would love someone to take time and create a few beautiful eye catchers - shading and trellising with cedar bentwood, painting two murals. We also have a few practical building projects - e.g. a couple of screened gazebos for our volunteers to hang out during mosquito hours.
  
  - ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT & RESTORATION
  We are always doing these - this includes maintaining field edges (machete, moving brushes), trail maintenance and new trails, removing invasive species, planting native plants, moving mulch, thinning tree plantations, building bird houses and bat houses, and many more.
  
  
  As farmers, our life is partly driven by what weather demands and allows. There are some seasonal tasks where we need all hands on deck. We take the liberty to shift people to other tasks based on our judgment. We cannot micro manage our visitors, so we expect a basic level of independence and maturity (e.g. knowing when to ask for help/advise, ability to clean up once task is finished).

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  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Allemand: Courant
  Anglais: Courant
  Espagnol: Courant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  We speak English and German. Thorsten speaks Spanish and some Italian, and daughter Marilla is learning french.
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  Hébergement

  Travellers, volunteers generally live in our walk-in basement of our house, which also has a separate entrance. It has three bedrooms, a bathroom, a basic kitchenette. Guests can also use our beautiful porch, BBQ, bonfire, and some bikes.
  
  There are 3km of trails and a considerable amount of wildlife on the property. You may find yourself sharing a pathway with a skunk or porcupine, encounter snakes, frogs, turtles, deer, a black bear, sandhill cranes, and a Grey horned owl, with many birds coming and going. And there are regular bear tracks in our wood - so take along a friend or our dog Nelly!
  
  Transportation to town or Sauble Beach just got much easier since there is a bus service in Grey County. We support biking (1 hour to town or beach!). We can occasionally arrange trips, but if you expect to move a lot, please bring your own vehicle. Other volunteers have joined to rent a car over a weekend - and were very happy with that.
  
  Food - We provide some food to volunteers (plenty of seasonal veggies from the garden, eggs, certified organic dry goods like beans, chick peas, flours, etc). The rest you will need to buy yourself. You can order online and it gets delivered to our house, or you join us once a week for shopping. During the day, volunteers and our farm staff eat together while we eat with our children for some family time. We often do community suppers with everyone!

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  Autres infos...

  We are not prepared to help with travel visa.
  
  Our farm is located in one of the most beautiful areas of Ontario at the entrance to Bruce Peninsula, only 15 min drive from Ontario's longest beach ("Sauble beach"), close to the Bruce Trail, and less than an hour away from the Bruce Peninsula National Park ... just google this with Image Search and you will be quite impressed.
  
  With our farm staff, we practice Aikido every weekday in our farm dojo. Visitors are welcome to join into this practice - a great way to build deep connections with oneself and with others.
  
  We do know all other WorkAway hosts in this area (Cheers to Pat & Emma, Grant & Julie, and Megan!), plus a large pool of other farmers who always have something on the go. So get connected and we connect you on!
  
  Couple final notes. We'd love if you are visiting us because you like the intentions we are putting out into the world and want to learn and develop with us. If you are simply looking for a place to hang out and play video, please look elsewhere. Lastly, we are a welcoming community that has created a space for all kinds of humans. Gay, straight, white, brown, trans, fluid, atheist, Euro, Asian, Indian, South American, African, spiritual, eccentric, somewhat boring - are all welcome here. If you identify as hard right politically, think everyone needs to convert to your religion, have racist beliefs, or are a "proud" supporter, please find somewhere else to go (I hear Mars is nice).

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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

  We have hosted a videographer and also a graphic designer who worked online. Our home internet does not allow for continuous ZOOMing. The videographer spent one day per week in a nearby internet caffee, where she did all large uploads and downloads.

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  We have an area with an outhouse and outside water. We cannot handle waste water so you'd have to deal with that separately.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Deux

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  Nombre d'heures attendues

  Maximum 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. Flexibility (e.g. work a full day, take another off)..

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