Small regenerative farm with cattle in north Sweden
Västernorrland
Hi!
We, Beren and Stefanie and our daughter Sara, live on a beautiful little farm on the Swedish countryside. We share the farm with a growing flock of heritage breed cattle, heritage breed chickens, two senior dogs and a large orange cat. Mosquitoes and lots of other sticking insects during summer we must not forget to mention here😉.
Surrounding the farm is mostly forests, lakes, small villages and if the cows and chickens are quiet, silence! There is a great lake to swim 1,5 km from us and the nearest village is 15 km away and has a grocery shop, school and a gas station.
We use the decision-making tool Holistic Management to manage our farm to build topsoil, increase biodiversity and take care of the landscape and everything that lives in it overall. In practice that means a lot of fencing work and moving the cattle through the landscape! 😊 But we also open up fields from encroaching bushes, make room for tree species that are important to biodiversity, make piles of branches for wildlife habitat, reintroduce plants and much more. Another branch we will start to work with this year is the production of wildflower seeds.
We work outside during much of the day, taking care of the animals and the fields, fixing with the old barn (for example clay plastering walls), making firewood and we also try to maintain a simple vegetable garden. Beren is an ecologist and works with different kinds of nature surveys and must travel for work regularly.
We are looking for support, ideas and skills with all the different kinds of activities we do depending on the season and interest. We have a variety of skills to teach and to exchange knowledge about:
- Regenerative Agriculture and Holistic Management
- Animal care and handling
- Basic building projects
- Landscape management
- Gardening and wildflower seedproduction
- Species knowledge, and management to promote biodiversity.
- Handicrafts
Things that we always need help with:
-Cuddling with the cows and checking on them. Especially during calving season in May-June we need to keep a close eye on them.
-Setting up temporal wire fencing for the cows.
-Mucking out.
-Mowing and weeding (around the cultivation of wildflowers for example)
-Cutting the grass under the fences.
-Cleaning fields of encroaching bushes.
-Growing vegetables/gardening.
-Diverse building /maintenance projects.
Please write what you want to learn and why you want to be on our farm! We would also like to hear which skills you want to contribute to. You don´t have to be an expert in farming or have a lot of experience. Most important is that you are genuinely interested and motivated to learn new things.
There´s a cabin located 400m from our house which you can use. It has electricity and (hot) running water during summer and has two bedrooms with double beds, a small kitchen, living room and a shower. Please note that the toilet is for now just a bucket with a seat which must be emptied in the closed compost bin! We want to build an outdoor toilet as well but that is a nice future project.
There is no Wi-Fi in the stuga but mobile data is usually available. There´s no TV either, just so you know😊.
We welcome also families/ couples or two friends who come together, but we might need other agreements regarding food supplies for example😊. It might also be a good idea to come together if you feel lonely easily. Of course we spend time together, but we also need a little own time. And it´s good to know that there are not so many people living close by to hang out with. But if you appreciate the silence, then you can really enjoy that here😊.
Note that if you want to take your dog or other pet, to discuss this with us beforehand.
If you like hiking in trailless forest, swimming, fishing or other outdoor activities, the possibilities are endless. Of course we can help you with tips and advice about what you can experience.
Some of our interests/hobbies: hiking, riding, drawing, reading, fishing, running, camping, nature, all kinds of handcrafts.
Read more
Learning opportunities
Cattle farming
Seed saving or production
Traditional crafts
Methods or systems
Holistic management
Regenerative agriculture
Rotational grazing
Host type
Production farm
6
Hectares
|
14.8
Acres
Stefanie
Member since 2017
Languages spoken:
Dutch, English, Swedish
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Response rate: 100%
Response time: typically within 1 day
Västernorrland
Örnsköldsvik/Umeå
Reviews
This host doesn't have reviews yet. Be the first to review Stefanie!
