Hello WWOOFERS,
My name is Julia, and together with my partner Ian, we are an energetic youthful couple in our 50’s on the fronts of many creative projects.
We live on a 14 acre property in Madoc, ON. Madoc is situated between Toronto and Ottawa, exactly 2.5 hours from both cities. The property has a large magnificent 6 bedroom country home, a separate workshop, a large warehouse, several barns, a chicken coop, a beautiful organic food garden & floral gardens, a small private lake with a dam, waterfall, stream, an ever-flowing spring, forests and open fields. The 14 acre property neighbours the magnificent Black River & 30,000 acres of protected and uninhabited wildlife abundant crown land.
Our heritage, organic chickens and guinea fowl enjoy free ranging on our property. They are all layers and not meat birds. Their rainbow coloured eggs are the best! The guineas are well-known bug terminators and predator alerts so help out on both those fronts.
The time of year & the weather will dictate what tasks need to be done. Our 2024 projects include planting hundreds of trees, shrubs and herbs to create several areas of organic berries, organic herb garden,s organic orchard, char/biochar gardens, an ecological pond/stream as well as native grasses and plants to promote butterflies and wild life. We need help clearing the tall weeds to prepare these areas for planting. We are also building new and expanding on existing walking trails on the property & in our forest.
Weeding, planting and watering our organic vegetable garden keeps us busy during the growing season. We are moving towards becoming more self-sufficient, which requires us to preserve much of our produce by freezing, canning and fermenting. We try to source locally from organic credible farms and shops. In the cooler months our efforts are directed towards cutting and splitting wood for winter heating as an aspect of our forestry management activities. There is a need to mark trees for future removal and/or to prune trees.
Our vision involves inviting people back to body-based practises and earth-based practises. We hope to inspire others to seriously consider nurturing what ultimately sustains us. We have decades of experience in yoga, movement, meditation, and embodiment practises and a growing understanding of earth-based practises. We invite you to join us in learning and growing together.
We enjoy eating clean healthy food and bake our own breads whenever time permits using organic spelt and rye flours. We have a grand piano and an extensive library room that also serves as our yoga/movement/community space. There is unlimited high speed internet in the house. The fire pit is situated next to our wood burning sauna and spring fed cold plunge that we use 3 times a week and is breathtaking on a clear starry night.
We have the following pets/animals:
1 dog Honeybrown,
2 cats that live in our home Harley and Ziggy,
3 cats that live in their own pad Yoni, Kali and Tigerlily,
17 birds, Bernie our Roosters and 9 Heritage Organic Hens plus 7 Organic Colourful and Vocal Guinea Fowl.
Our days will often begin with stretching/yoga/movement/journaling (not in the busy seasons), then breakfast, followed by time outside working from approximately 9am to 12pm. Then lunch and other land based activities will follow from 2-5pm. We finish the day with dinner typically between 6-8pm. Schedule is weather dependent and indoor work may be required to replace land based projects if/when it's fully raining outside. We often continue working in light rain.
We offer rooms that can each sleep 2-4 people in our country home. You will make your own breakfast and assist with lunch and dinner preparations and clean up. We offer you internet and wifi along with a substantial library of books. You are welcome to enjoy the sauna/cold plunge on certain nights (by invite only).
In your free time, we encourage you to enjoy the magical nearby Black River, the conservation areas, the interesting hamlets, artisan galleries, theatre and other cultural attractions in the area. Having your own vehicle to go exploring will make your stay more worthwhile, as there is no public transit. We go to town occasionally, but not for the purpose of site-seeing. We live in a beautiful area with ample opportunity for time alone, or with friends, in the great outdoors.
Organic Methods: We are devoted to the Back to Eden Method mulching with straw or wood chips. We do not use any chemical fertilizers, only cow, horse or chicken manure and our own compost.
Certifications: We buy certified organic seeds and grow organically. Because we do not sell our produce we have not bothered to become certified organic.
Current Projects:
-Weeding/Spot Weeding: We are busy with weeding throughout most of the growing season. Since we do not use chemicals we manually cut the weeds with sheers/hand cutters.
-Trail Building and Maintenance: Similarly we manually clear paths using weed wackers and other tools.
-Repairing Structures: We will structurally securing a wall adjacent to our garden.
-Seeding/Planting: We will be planting seeds and seedlings to kick off the garden season.
Read more
Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Poultry farming
Seed saving or production
Vegetable or fruit preservation
Food justice / sovereignty
Methods or systems
Holistic management
No-till farming
Mentoring opportunities
Woman-operated
Host type
Self-sufficiency property
Certified organic
5.6
Hectares
|
13.8
Acres
Accommodation
