Sichelschmiede: A place for growing. A place in transition.

Details

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  Description

  Live with us for a while on a small climate friendly subsistence farm (9000sqm), share the work in the house and garden, help our forest garden to grow, share the wonderful food our garden provides and also share this special place.
  
  This is a place where climate goals are not just theory but something to work on. We used to have goats and make our own cheese, but stopped that because of our commitment to CO2 reduction. We have planted trees and bushes on the former goat meadows in 2022, and we're exploring the cultivation of crops like soybeans, lupins, and amaranth to provide more plant-based proteins. We also grow our own vegetables.
  
  I am Ulrike, I own this place, I came here in 2011. When I first started the Sichelschmiede back in 2006, I had the idea for it to become a small community, 5 or 6 people living together, sharing subsistence work and doing a peace project together. While the peace work happened, the community didn’t, and for a couple of years Sichelschmiede was a two-people-project with occasional helpers. Now, it is a one-person-project with friends and helpers. But I still wish to live as a part of a small community. So, my vision for this place includes finding more people who want to join permanently, and turning it from private property into community property.
  
  But that’s a long process and for now, I am looking for people who want to join for a while, to be part of a community-in-the-flow. In this profile when I write “we” I sometimes mean myself and my housemates, sometimes maybe I mean a “we” that only exists in my vision, or a culture I wish to establish in this project.
  
  So who else is here?
  My father Bernd, born 1926. Sometimes my girl-friend Claudia. Andrea, a yoga teacher who came here as a workawayer and stayed. My dog Ranger and Andrea’s dog Enya, cat Nita and a couple of chickens.
  
  When people ask how many hours of work per day we expect, it is hard to answer. What do we consider work? Is it work to play chess with Bernd? Do you consider it work time when it’s your turn to wash the dishes?
  You can roughly count about 4 hours of project work on 5 days per week (mostly gardening or diy projects) plus about 1 hour of recurring tasks (like dishwashing or cleaning the chicken stable).
  
  When you’re here, you’ll be part of our community-in-the-flow. We have meetings to organize our work and life here. We take time to give each other feedback and to sort out conflicts when they arise. We sometimes do freetime activities together (like going to the lake). Some things have to be done even on the weekends – like looking after the animals, watering the garden, cooking lunch) and we share responsibility for making them happen.
  
  You’ll be welcome to make yourself at home, to use all the common rooms, take part in the family meals and plunder the fridge for a late night meal if you feel like it. You’ll have a voice in our meetings, and you’ll be invited to share some of the responsibility for what is going on here. You’ll negotiate your work hours according to your personal needs and ressources, and you’ll be responsible to say “no” if someone is asking too much from you as well as to offer more help if you see it is needed and you can give it.
  
  We would like you to be present here as a whole person.
  
  Sichelschmiede is a place where you are allowed to be who you are. And it is a place where you might be challenged to think about who you want to be.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Elderly Companionship

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Self development

  

  Politics / Social justice

  

  Vegetarian or vegan

  

  Farming

  

  Sustainability

  

  LGBTQ

  

  Pets

  

  Yoga / Wellness

  

  Nature

  

  Hiking

  

  Languages

  

  Plant care

  

  Carpentry

  

  Cooking & food

  

  History

  

  Animals

  

  Music

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Gardening
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  I see this farm as a place for learning together. Here, you may learn about organic gardening, about growing trees, about living together as well as many practical skills. Together with you I want to continue learning about nonviolent communication and a respectful way of dealing with each other.
  
  As mentioned before, there is a peace project connected to this place. The Peace Barn association (Friedensscheune e.V.) is based here, which commemorates the successful struggle of a citizen’s movement against a military air-ground-training range. That area is very close to us and is now partly protected as National Cultural Heritage, partly protected by the EU as a Fauna-flora-habtiat. I’m happy to tell you about this big example of a succesful nonviolent protest movement.
  
  I believe that the climate crisis makes it absolutely necessary to reflect our habits and to find out whether they are still appropriate in a changing world. A lot of the things that could be done to reduce CO2 emissions are just not done because people hate to change the way they have always been doing things. So, when you come to here, please expect to be challenged to reflect your habits, please feel invited to challenge our habits, and please expect to find some things different from how you know them from other places.
  
  Our food is mostly vegan, with the exception of the eggs we get from our chickens, and the occasional rooster when we have too many of them. We take a lot of care to cook great vegan meals with a lot of plant proteins. In our garden, we grow beans and peas, as well as Amaranth. We have planted a lot of nut trees. Please note that while we are happy to accommodate specific needs like glutenfree food, no eggs etc., we will not provide meat or dairy products. We will also not tolerate these things to be brought into the house. (Little exceptions confirm the rule.)

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  Help

  Life here is a blend of indoor and outdoor activities. Outside, tasks range from weeding, planting and harvesting to tending to our chickens, maintaining the greenhouse and watering our trees and bushes. Sometimes there are also diy projects, fixing or maintaining things. Indoors, we like to take turns with cooking lunch, using the seasonal fresh veggies from our garden. From July until October, more or less, there is also a lot of work with preserving food – like cooking big amounts of vegetable sauce and pasteurizing it, or cooking jam. As for household chores like cleaning, dishwashing and laundry, we like to share them between all those who are here. Also, my father lives with us. Going for walks with him, washing dishes with him, listening to his stories and coping with his peculiarities is also a part of life here.

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  Languages spoken

  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  French: Fluent
  Spanish: Intermediate

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  Accommodation

  Our attic has been converted into two private rooms for our workawayers so you'll have your own space to wind down whenever you like. When there are more than two workawayers, you might have to share a room.

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  What else ...

  Beyond the farm, Zempow and the surroundings offer a lot of natural attractions. You may borrow our bicycles for tours in the area. With its nice lakes, scenic cycling paths, forests and heathlands, the nature of Brandenburg is a great place to explore.
  
  Please note that it takes about 2,5 h to get from here to Berlin with public transport. We are in a really small village and if you want to go out at night, meet a lot of young people, go to parties, this is not a good place for you.
  
  How do you travel? We would like to encourage you to use trains or buses as much as possible rather than flying. We are happy to help you find the best available connections.
  
  If you apply to come here and if we agree on a time, I will ask you to make a commitment to actually stay for that period of time. If anything gets in the way of fulfilling that commitment before or during your stay, I expect you to talk to me and open a space for finding solutions together before making any decisions.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  The wifi achieves speeds of 40-50mbps download speeds and is rarely used by us during the day so you'll have no issue getting your work done. There is an extra desk in the office that can be used by workawayers.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  This host can provide space for campervans.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  This host has said they are willing to accept those travelling with a pet.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  My animals / pets

  Ranger

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