airbnb
Type: volunteer in exchange for room & food, more (see below)
Host: Two Sisters River
Location: Guelph, Ontario, Canada
About Two Sisters River
We’re Mike & Mary-Kate, Rowan (8), Sikhona (6), and River (4). We’re
interested in access to local food, and fostering a physical connection with
the earth. We’re transitioning our backyard into an urban farm and community
hub. Our backyard is like a public park, with a playground and trampoline for
kids, and 12 heritage chickens all laying different coloured eggs. We’ve
had backyard hens for 15 years. We’ve loved watching our children learn to hold
chickens, discover eggs, and develop a connection with their food. Rowan even
learned to count, collecting eggs every day. We’ve worked out a lot of the
challenges, and we’re excited to help other people get backyard hens. We
believe there should be a chicken in every willing backyard in Guelph. We’re
also interested in growing more vegetables in small spaces using permaculture
principles. We’ve posted our backyard on the Wwoof Canada site,
and have hosted three dozen Wwoofers over the last 12 months. We’ve hosted
travellers from Germany, France, Spain, Australia, United States, Korea, and
even Guelph! Each person has contributed beautifully to our family and our
community. It’s like travelling without leaving our home.
Assistant Needed
Looking for a person to fulfill a multi-faceted role in the centre of our
family and range of income projects. This is an opportunity to immerse yourself
in the heart of an intentional urban community. You will work on our urban farm
in downtown Guelph, take care of our backyard hens, and maintain the backyard
property (weed, tidy, cut grass, plant vegetable garden). We have an unusually
large 200ft backyard property very close to downtown Guelph that we are
developing as a model urban farm. We want people to be inspired and learn
what’s possible to create in an urban setting.
You will also have an opportunity to assist with setting up and taking down
rental urban chickens with Backyard Bok Boks. This is one of our businesses
that provides an experience of trying out backyard hens in the summer for 2
weeks to 3 months without the risk of committing to a full year permanent
chicken coop set-up. Your role is to keep track of inventory, to organize Bok
Bok materials in preparation for a set-up, to assist with the set-up on
Wednesdays each week, and to clean up and put away items in storage at the end
of the day.
You will also assist our house manager with inside maintenance of our house,
and Airbnb turnovers. This involves cleaning up the kitchen, doing dishes,
wiping counters, and doing laundry. Assisting with the Airbnb turnovers is
helping to clean our studio cottage and other apartment spaces, removing sheets
and doing laundry, making beds, and preparing the spaces for the next guests.
The position is requires 30 hours a week in exchange for room & food.
Further financial compensation is available if you would like more than 30
hours per week. There is also a half-exchange option to work 18 hours a week
for your room, and you cover your own food. You stay in our house around the
corner from our primary residence. This is a neighbourhood house that has been
converted into a beautiful hostel-style home with beds in a shared room, a
private room, and a separate basement apartment listed on Airbnb. The living
room, kitchen and washrooms are shared. The house is filled with a friendly and
worldly group of international travellers who share inspiring conversations,
and also appreciate their reflection time when needed.
Please contact Michael Craig with your letter of interest at:
info@twosistersriver.com
