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10 Jul 2022
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We are a busy horse owning family always in need of help around the house, garden and with our animals.
Andy has a building business and spends a lot of time renovating other peoples homes, he has recently semi retired so he can spend more time onour own home. Karen (me) I runs a business from home, have cleints visit me at home where I have a dedicated office. I (Karen) am recovering from cancer so I tire easily, so getting help from time to time is a bonus. I ride and it would be great to have someone to ride out with.
In the summer you can enjoy the pool or visit the local bathing lakes and rivers. We try to get to the beach/sea a few times as well. We also like to get out as much as possible on a Sunday, visiting local areas or markets and you are welcome to join us. We have French and English TV channels and subscirbt to Netflix and Amason Prime. The small town we live in has a library with an English section, a theatre, swimming pool, gym and train station.
Our area of the Charente is lovely with lots of places to visit and on the main route through to the South or North. We are about 2 hours from Paris by train. Cheap flights can be found from airports at Limoges, Poitiers, Angouleme, Bordeaux and La Rochelle. There is a main railway at Angouleme and Poitiers where you can catch daily trains to our town of Ruffec. We also have a local bus that takes you to Angouleme for 1€ - there are currently 3 services per day. 2 in the morning and one at lunch time. Ruffec has plenty of shops, swimming pool and cinema. We are two hours drive from the sea, and only 4 hours from Spain. Our area of france has lots of interesting places to visit and we recommend that you take some time to do this. If you like walking there are plenty of great walks in the local forest and countryside. IGN maps of these can be found easily online.
We are quite easy going and flexible, we ask our helpers respect the workaway ethos of helping 5 hours per day, how you spread this is entirely up to you. In return you receive your accommodation, 3 meals a day, some with alcohol, coffee and tea etc till it comes out of your ears, and free internet and the use of the telephone if you need to contact anyone who is not on the internet. For those of you who horse ride -there is unlimited access to our rideable horses, you can use the pool anytime in summer (we close it down in winter). We try to keep weekends free for socialising and relaxing but there may be times on a saturday when we need to get a job finished and of course animals need 7/7 care. Both our sport horses are undergoing training and we will be going to some competitions. Any good riders are welcome to join in the fun, we will purchase an FEE licence/insurance for riders.
We are quite a sociable family and enjoy lots of outdoor eating with friends in the summer. We also try to spend a lot of time just relaxing especially on a Sunday and on the cold days of winter. There is without doubt not a dull moment in the Johnson-Jones household. We are 'noisy' and chatty, dont stand still much, but we do have our moments of calm and tranquility, and we will do our best to make your stay welcoming and fun. I (Karen) am recovering from cancer so I tire easily and I do get a bit furstrated with myself for not beong able to keep up with everything. As a result of chemo, I have some small mobility problems, but that does not stop me from doing things, though a marathon is of the cards. Join us and become part of the family.
We have a bedroom with a double bed for our workers, so ideal for a single person or couple. We can accept castrated dogs travelling with owners but we dont allow them upstairs.
We are English by Nationality and speak English (1st language) and French (2nd language). We are happy to accept any nationality of helper on long or short stays throughout the year.Types of help and learning opportunities
GardeningDIY and building projectsAnimal CareCreating/ Cooking family mealsHelp around the houseGeneral MaintenanceHelp with Computers/ InternetCultural exchange and learning opportunities
Travellers who come to us will benefit from gaining skills they can use at other hosts in the future particularly renovation skills. We are well travelled ourselves and we are happy to share our experiences and to show our helpers our wonderful part of France.
We like to treat visitors as an extension of our family, so your stay will be a home from home experience that we hope you will enjoy fully.Help
We are still renovating our house and there are a lot of tasks still to be done and lots of skills to be learned. You do not need to have skills if you are prepared to have a go and learn, that is OK with us. The garden needs tending we have one area in need of clearing to create a medaterian terrace.
Then there are the horses. We have four- GeeGee who is 30 years old and retired, Cuddles who is a rescue pony age 15 companion to Geegee, Then we have Dixon a 8 year old who has recovered from a tendon injury and is being bought is back into work. He is a showjumper but we are also retriaing for dressage. Finally Beau who is 16 this year, semi retired dressage horse. Helpers who can ride (English style) are allowed to use our horses and enjoy the local forest and fields on our doorstep. You must be able to groom, tack up, ride safely (walk, trot, and canter) and clean the tack afterwards. . If you have never ridden but would like to try, we are happy to intorduce you to riding. We do also have 3 well behaved dogs and a cat. You can join us for walks with the dogs in the forest and countryside.
In the Winter the main help is the horses and stables.
In the summer we have a big project of pointing the external walls of the house and of course looking after any horses that are stabled.
There is always something to do but it does depend on the weather. We are pretty felxible if you need to take a day out to go visiting the area, we can organise work rostas accordingly.
Whilst we are meat eaters, we are happy to host vegetarian workawayers especially if you can show us the way to cook vegetarian from scratch.Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: FluentAccommodation
Semi renovated, rustic farm house. The bedroom available to helpers has two single beds that can be pushed together to form a double. The room has excellent internet access.
What else ...
The most important thing is that you enjoy your stay with us, that the cultural exchange is beneficial to us all.
We have been doing this exchange of skills since 2008, we have met many lovely people from all over the world, many from countries we may never visit in our lifetime, but which we learn about from our visitors. It is lovely to travel without leaving your home and it enriches our life.A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We have an excellent wifi/internet connection including by the swimming pool.
Space for parking camper vans
We have quite a large property, so can accomodate most size of campers but always better to ask first if its a supersize vehicle.
Can possibly accept pets
Happy to accept dogs, they must be castrated and friendly around our cat and dogs. Sorry no cats as our cat perseus will just not accept feline visitors. Dogs are allowed in the house just not upstairs. They are not allowed in the pool. We have a forest on our doorstep so plenty of space for walks.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Hours expected
5 hours per day per person Mon to Fri