Homestead
Vestfold og Telemark
+++ In need of help in hay-season 2025 (July / August). Here it is done with horse and manual labour. Intense and fun. +++
Øyane is a horse driven small scale farm focusing on self-sufficiency. Here is a vegetable garden, a small greenhouse, 9 sheep (with lambs from spring), one adult horse and a two year old (in training), an old dog, 12 chickens and four cats. We, Maureen and Kjetil, live here, and have been living here since 2019. What needs to be done depends on the season: maintaining the forest which gives timber and firewood, preparing the vegetable garden in spring, cutting the sheeps wool, maintaining vegetable garden, haymaking (biggest task of the year), fishing, renovating buildings, collecting the sheep in the mountains late summer or making construction materials on the sawmill. We also do handcrafts such as spinning and knitting wool from our own sheep, tanning skins, blacksmithing, making homebrew, woodwork, conserving berries and herbs. We do eat and sometimes slaughter animals.
We try to use old and sustainable technics and methods, both in farming, in the forest and in handcraft, but still we use power-tools, welding machine and chainsaw when needed. It`s neccesary to be able to work and think both independently and collectively here, but we are patient and eager to teach and explain what needs to be done, if needed. If you are interested in a specific task or craft; please let us know! Here are no fixed working-hours, we do what is needed to be done, and every day is different. We are not experts but believe in learning by doing - sharing knowledge, experience and respect. This is a small mountain village, with lots of beautiful places to experience.
Organic methods: No chemicals - regenerative horse driven practice
Certifications: No chemicals - no certification - horse driven small scale farming
Current projects: Forestwork. Making firewood. Renovating the house both inside and outside. Gardening.
Internet access available
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Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Horse or donkey farming
Sheep or goat farming
Forestry
Wild foraging
Vegetable or fruit preservation
Beer, cider, wine, or juice making
Bakery
Traditional crafts
Mechanics / tools / technology
Methods or systems
Animal drafting
Rotational grazing
Host type
Self-sufficiency property
Former WWOOFer
13
Hectares
|
32.1
Acres
Kjetil
Member since 2018
Languages spoken:
English, Norwegian
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Response rate: 40%
Response time: typically within 15 days
Vestfold og Telemark
Bus station: Åmot, Vinje Kro
Reviews
Karsten
Belgium
•
February 2023
My wwoofing experience at Kjetils farm was realy great, I LOVED IT. 6 weeks it has been and i can say Kjetil is a great host and very interestting person to be around with. He learned me alot of things about farming the way they did it back in te day, always with some facts and explaination about the work and why to do it that way. I have learned so much about farming and life itself because of the good talks i had with Kjetil. Itw simply couldnt have gone any better.He really is a great guy who inspired me me with the way he is living his ife, and that doesnt happen fast with me😅. The location of the farm is also so perfect, like a fairytale, i highly recommend going there.
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Dorien
Belgium
•
June 2022
I would highly recommend Wwoofing at Kjetil’s place. He is a very skilled young man. He has a lot of things to do on his farm and we, my partner and i, loved our stay. We helped him with carpentry work (building a shelter above his sawmill, this project is still going), shearing sheep (with scissors), preparing the vegetable field with his horse, planting seeds and other small plants he had in his greenhouse, taking care of his vegetables from the greenhouse, shovel some manure, chopping wood, working with the chainsaw, built a small woodpile shelter, shoe smithing for his horse, baking a lot of different breads, making delicious pizza’s, going to the local market with his horse and carriage together with another self-sufficient farmer in the area, etc. We also met a lot of interesting people. Long story short, we learned A LOT and we had a lovely time staying there. He is a very open minded, interesting and intelligent person. You can talk to him about anything. He takes good care of his Wwooffers. He takes his time to explain the history about his farm, tell stories from the area, takes you to beautiful places. If you like a lot of projects (big and small), if you don’t mind to work for it, being independent and if you want to learn things, then his place is the place to be.
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Lydia
United States
•
June 2022
Spent 2 weeks in Kjetils farm - couldn’t be happier with the experience. This is a very practical farm with many opportunities for learning; no matter what skill level you posses. Kjetil has been a very gracious host in making sure there is time for tasks and projects that I had particular interest in. He is also very open minded and willing to hash it out over anything. Also, he is a great cook and baker so you are always well fed in some capacity.
The surrounding nature is breathtakingly beautiful with lots of hiking opportunities, as well as a lake for swimming if you wish.
Although I was a lone WWOOFer for the first week of my stay, the entire experience has been fairly social with lots of opportunities to get to know the neighboring farms and Kjetils friends who pass through frequently. The community here is very strong with lots of very interesting people to talk to and learn from. But due to the isolated nature of the land, I expect you could have a peaceful, quiet stay as well if you posses more introverted inclinations. :)
Overall, I totally recommend staying on Kjetils farm. This has been a great trip for me and I will miss it a lot!
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Katrin
Germany
•
May 2022
The 4 weeks I stayed at Kjetil’s farm went by very fast. He taught me how to work with a chainsaw what I really appreciated. We also seeded plants, spread manure, made fence poles and of course a lot of fire wood.
I always had the choice to join his work ( at the new sawmill) or to work on my own.
Furthermore he likes to play the violin, unfortunately for the cats they don’t like it :D
We had some trips with the horse and he showed me some beautiful places. His friends and neighbors are really nice.
He treats his animals very kind and two sheep’s got their babies just before I left.
Get it on!
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Roman
Germany
•
August 2020
We spend around 4 weeks at Kjetil' s Farm.And we had really good times! We had different tasks, making hay,cutting wood with a Chain saw or picking stuff for making tea or jam etc.
Mostly we were pretty autonoumus in terms of tasks But he always introduced us to the things we had to do.
Besides the work we also had good times with the Host who is a funny and friendly dude with cool friends.
And if it is not a hay making day ((;))
there is always Time for several swims in the lake or the river which are very close to the farm (5 minutes by walk).
The Farm is located in a beautiful landscape and you will find different interesting things to do!
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