Woodland Homestead
British Columbia
My name is Shandra-Lee, and for the past five years my partner Cole and I have been hard at work building our off grid homestead, Fernwood Farm, from the ground up. Cole grew up on a conventional farm in the prairies, went out to see the world, and quickly realized that the path to a good life leads through the forest, and by some strange twist of fate we were able to buy 10 acres in the Kootenays. We seek a simple and peaceful life, close to nature, where we can learn exactly what the necessities of living are, and what it’s easier to do without. Fernwood is very community based, so there are always a handful of folks living here, and in the summer we have constant visitors. We have a 1/4 acre garden, several greenhouses, an orchard, and many fenced in areas for animals. Our farm produces the majority of our own food, and give what we can to friends and neighbors, while actively working towards developing the vegetable production into a larger scale that we can rely on for income. I’m not entirely sure how many animals we have in total, but there are a large mix of dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, pigeons, rabbits, goats, sheep and who knows what’s next. I am a lover of animals.
Edgewood itself is a vibrant mountain hamlet, situated an hour and a ferry ride from the nearest grocery store. The people here are what make the place so enjoyable. Farmers, artists, and musicians come together to make this a truly unique community. The village itself is on the Arrow Lake, which offers endless adventure and exploration.
I have done my fair share of volunteering and as such I think I have learned how to host you in a way that will be best for everybody. I have worked on farms where the host would give us a job and we wouldn’t see them for the rest of the day. That won’t happen here. If there’s a job that needs doing we will be working side by side. I’m not doing the program so much for the help as I am for the building of community and I think our life here will reflect that.
The majority of our work is focused around maintaining the gardens and orchard, weeding, pruning, harvesting, and cleaning vegetables. Over the years Cole has become a jack of all trades and really enjoys doing an abundance of projects, so it is a good crash course in self reliance if you too want to move into the woods and start a life for yourself. He designed and constructed all of our buildings, water systems, and electrical systems. We will work to grow food in our garden and greenhouse, as well as working with animals, whether it be milking the goats, shearing sheep, or collecting eggs and caring for chickens. He also slaughters/butchers livestock but if you’re not interested in being involved we can work around that. As well we preserving and storing food for the winter. There are lots of carpentry projects, putting up new buildings or maintaining old ones, mechanical projects like working on farm vehicles or fixing up the army of continually breaking tools. Or sometimes we work in the forest, harvesting firewood or cutting and transporting logs that we can turn into boards on the sawmill.
All seasons are different and as such the work changes accordingly.
We are not like most other farms where you are needed 5 hours a day for 5 days a week. Ideally we expect 3 days of working together usually for about 4 hours. There are daily chores you can help with, and if ever you have down time I can always find something for you to do. In exchange we provide staples like oil, flour, rice, noodles etc, and whatever else the farm produces at the moment such as vegetables, cheese, milk, and eggs.
It all depends on how many people are here. If you plan on staying for more than a month chances are that you’ll be able to stay in our volunteer cabin. If that space is full I have both a camper and an old bluebird bus available as accommodations, both comfortable and outfitted with wood stoves for when the weather gets cold.
We are entirely off grid so power is limited, but I can charge your phones or computers at the main cabin and set you up with rechargeable lights. We have unlimited access to some of the best spring water known to man. Cooking is done with propane which I will supply. There is a wood fire bathtub outside for bathing, and hopefully this summer we will be able to build a solar heater for an outdoor shower as well.
In the summer when the campfire ban is gone we spend lots of time around the fire, whether at home or down by the lake. We play music and enjoy ourselves as much as possible. I can take you hiking up mountains or more relaxed treks if that is intimidating. Depending on the season we can go mushroom picking. I am very involved in the community and so you will come and meet the many interesting folk that make this place so incredible. You can go fishing if you wish, either in the big lake or at Snowshoe Lake which is only a few km from my yard. We live on 10 acres but it’s bordered by crown land, so there’s millions of acres to explore.
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Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Fruit or nut farming
Sheep or goat farming
Wild foraging
Cheesemaking
Meat processing
Vegetable or fruit preservation
Beer, cider, wine, or juice making
Renewable energy production
Mechanics / tools / technology
Methods or systems
Regenerative agriculture
Host type
Self-sufficiency property
Former WWOOFer
6
Hectares
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14.8
Acres
Cole
Member since 2014
Languages spoken:
English
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Response rate: 100%
Response time: typically within 1 day
British Columbia
Kelowna
My past WWOOFers
Cole has not had any confirmed visits.
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