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We are a family of four and have small farm at the coast of the Baltic sea close to Oskarshamn. The farmhouse is more than a hundred years old and is located just a few meters away from a lake, which we can use exclusively for fishing, swimming and anything else. A good work-life-balance is very important for us, and this is also what we have in mind for our helpers. It's not only working here, we also want to show our helpers the laid back Swedish lifestyle here at the Eastern coast. Both sides should feel that they did benefit from your stay at our place. Hein: I was born in the north of Germany, and my profession as a carpenter has a very important role in the realization of our dream life. I’ve always felt at home out in nature, fishing, sailing or mushroom picking,. I like to work in the garden and cultivate home-grown fruits and vegetables. Astrid: I love living in the nature and the freedom here in Sweden. By profession I’m a surgery nurse, nature and the garden are a good balance to my professional life. It gives me great joy to explore and try new things, I also like to cook. Because of this, in the garden and kitchen I experiment often. My family is very important to me. In addition, I am very interested in photography, literature, animals and music. We also have two children, Fridtjof and Fredrik. Both boys are growing up here in the middle of nature and learn early on where the food comes from, that the fish and meat does not come out of the freezer at the grocery store. You explore the surrounding area by bicycle or walk the hiking trail that passes our property. We have a boat for rowing or fishing both at the lake and at the sea. You might explore the archipelago at the seashore by kayak, or do a canoe tour down the beautiful river Emån. There are forests all around our property, and the Baltic sea is not even a kilometer away from the house. With the help of previous volunteers we created a fantastic permaculture garden for growing vegetables, and of course some of the tasks in summer have to do with that, like picking strawberries or beans. We are going to need help with constructing different smaller buildings, like a tiny house, a greenhouse and a guesthouse. We also have to do some restoration on the the smaller house next to our home. Another project is building a floating pavillon on the lake. There are other long term projects, like growing hops, keeping bees and some other animals. We have three cats and a dog. We expect from our helpers to be independent and reliable. You don't need to have any extraordinary skills (even if it would not be a disadvantage), you will learn what to do and how to do it. Inside all buildings is no smoking area, we expect you to respect that. We are non-vegetarians and won't do any extra dishes. You will have good homemade food every day. We speak English, German, Swedish and Norwegian. Since we are not native Swedish speakers and want to raise our children at least bilingual, we usually don't speak Swedish at home. During the time we have volunteers in the house, we speak English the most of the time. But since we have experience in emigrating to Scandinavic countries and have learned their languages, we can help you with both of that too, if you are interested. Our helpers will have all their own guest room for privacy, and one ofe the first projects is building a guest appartement with its own bath and kitchen. Our helpers have access to wifi at our house. For further information please have a look at our website. We prefer helpers willing to stay for at least 4 weeks.

Mi lugar

We live north of the small town Oskarshamn, directly at a lakeside just a few hundred meters away from the Baltic Sea. The closest neighbours live about a kilometer away from our house. Our place is surrounded by forest. Oskarshamn is about 24 km away from our place.

Proyectos

The recent years we have been working mostly with our vegetable garden, which is a permaculture based system. This is by now completes and only needs relatively little work. The main project now is the restauration of the farmhouse, using ecologigal materials, such as celluose insulation. At the same time there will be various smaller construction projects, like a guest house floating on the lake, a greenhouse and a firewood shed.

Alojamiento

During the summer months we have a caravan standing at the lakeside and which was loved by every helper that used it to sleep in it. We also have two smaller guestrooms inside the farmhouse. Kitchen and bathroom are inside the house and are used by us all.