The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Backinwellies on September 07, 2013, 05:02:29 pm
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Hi
Has anyone experience of having helpx volunteers working for them .... how did it go? How many hours /day or week did they work for you?
Any tips??
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Ours was a summer of not very good experiences. We decided that sharing our place with others is not for us and having others helping with our work is also not for us - they never do it our way :hohoho: We are obviously not a very gregarious pair ;D
Some of the things we learnt are:
# always supervise - don't leave your workers to carry on on their own. They will not value your tools and property and a small mistake can and will turn into something expensive if you're not around.
# any job will take longer with a HelpXer there so you need to be realistic about what can be achieved during their stay. We spent longer undoing their mistakes than we got benefit from their help, and we spent more on food than could be justified by the work they did.
HelpX works well if you have heavy jobs or jobs which need an extra pair of hands. If that's what you want them for then have the jobs ready before they get there, so you get maximum benefit from their help.
Find out in advance if they have a particular skill which you want to use, and have it set up to start work as soon as they arrive.
# research your helpers thoroughly before they come. If you have children then be EXTRA careful about who comes to stay - this sort of scheme is an excellent hunting ground and very difficult for the organisers to police.
# set a short stay initially - say a week or a fortnight - it's awful if you don't get on and they will be staying for a couple of months.
# lay out their work hours before they arrive - about 4 or 5 hours a day is about normal
# we had expected ours to go out to explore in their time off but none of them would budge, so while we were still working to all hours, they were loafing around waiting for me to cook their dinner.
# they eat loads !
# we had ours one by one - I'm not sure if a couple would be better or not.
# don't take any crap.
# if possible, don't have them living in your house unless you really don't want any privacy or free time for their entire stay. Ours stayed in our granny flat and I think it was just too comfortable for them so they didn't want to go out or leave. Bunkhouse style accommodation or a caravan would be better if you have it.
# on the plus side, you meet interesting folk from all over the world and have some amazingly good conversations.
# get your Health and Safety equipment in place before they arrive and don't expect them to do anything remotely risky, because they won't.
# assume they don't know a weed from a crop.
# don't get too friendly or they'll get bossy ??? and won't leave
In the end we decided having HelpXers was more stress than it was worth, but our situation is unusual so it was bound to be difficult to fit strangers in.
We know of people who work their holdings almost entirely with HelpX and Woofs labour and couldn't manage without it.
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Many Thanks fleecewife for your comprehensive reply (I'm now more nervous about the whole thing!) Anyone else any experience?
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I dunno about HelpX - but always assume inexperienced volunteers hinder rather than help and plan accordingly.
My dad 'helps' me sometimes.......... :innocent:
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Many Thanks fleecewife for your comprehensive reply (I'm now more nervous about the whole thing!) Anyone else any experience?
Oh don't be put off by me - I'm an anti social kind of person :eyelashes: As long as you expect the worst you will probably be pleasantly surprised.
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Having spent my whole working life with inexperienced people ......... agric students I dont see that as a problem .... yes a bit of prep and some thought before hand and it should be fun ... provided the helpxers are really keen to help (have heard from different source that some foreigners think they are on holiday and some brits use it as an address for benefits!) .......... I love having people about and passing on my experience ....... so no problem there Fleecewife.
......... livestock may need warning!!
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We haven't had HelpXers - just WWOOFers who have been FAB.
I agree with what FW says about having the heavy work jobs which need and extra pair of hands lined up.
Food wise - it can be expensive. We make it very clear that they have their own breakfast in the caravan, soup, bread and cheese for lunch and supper in the house. If they want between meal snacks then they can come in and make toast.
I have found it easier to use them for specific tasks that need all of us working on the task so the supervision is there already. They also really seem to enjoy cooking and preserving activities involving home produce.
We've been really lucky I think. I read horror stories of hoards of French students petrifying on sofas with smartphones......
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Thank's Suziequeue
As the first pair are 50 something potential smallholders I'm not anticipating any real problems.
But yes can see food could become very expensive.......... have boys of my own!! (think if I was having young people I would make kitchen out of bounds (they are not living in house) and just leave them some bread and jam for fillers (they would soon go and buy some crap food of their own I guess)
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So: you want people to 'work for free' to gain experience and provide their own food?
My god there must be some mugs out there.
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Sorry SteveHants you have misinterpreted me ............... I was implying I would provide 3 proper meals a day ......... and bread and jam ................... knowing young men they often shy away from the 'proper' food and plough there way through biscuits crisps and other expensive items if given the chance (these I think should be bought themselves if they really have to have them.) ........... it would probably still be cheaper to employ a worker on min wage!!
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the cheapest option in the long term is to employ a skilled worker who does it right first time, but a lot of people don't see it that way and just want cheap!!!
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My motivation wasn't to get skilled work done cheaply......... we are occasionally employing someone to do skilled stuff. It was really to get some jobs which need less skill but take lots of time for one person done and to test the ground (pun not intended!) for running courses in the future (using my qualifications and experience) .
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to test the ground (pun not intended!) for running courses in the future (using my qualifications and experience) .
reminds me of when i wanted to do childrens pony parties - did a trial run and hated it, 2 of the parents were arguing and i thought never again...lol
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So: you want people to 'work for free' to gain experience and provide their own food?
My god there must be some mugs out there.
Well they only work approx 20 hours a week normally, and only on weekdays. And they get free accommodation usually in stunning places that you pay an arm and a leg to stay at. And 3 meals a day on top......
Not a bad deal.
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So: you want people to 'work for free' to gain experience and provide their own food?
My god there must be some mugs out there.
Well they only work approx 20 hours a week normally, and only on weekdays. And they get free accommodation usually in stunning places that you pay an arm and a leg to stay at. And 3 meals a day on top......
Not a bad deal.
and sometimes people pay £200 per weekend... or is that a smallholding course :-J :-J ;D
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So: you want people to 'work for free' to gain experience and provide their own food?
My god there must be some mugs out there.
Well they only work approx 20 hours a week normally, and only on weekdays. And they get free accommodation usually in stunning places that you pay an arm and a leg to stay at. And 3 meals a day on top......
Not a bad deal.
From what its sounding like - 'accomodation' appears to often be in a caravan. At minimum wage, its about £125/week 20hours. I dunno what caravan sites cost to stay in per week.....
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£300 - £400 per week for a caravan in a good place.
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We've had Help Xers, the best ones we had were local and english! They wanted to enjoy the experience without going too far. The thing is that often Help Xers are people who don't actually have a real skill and no katter how willing they are, they need clear instructions; supervision; AND then you may think "it's not as I would have done it". We've had people want to stay months or over Christmas (yeah, cos there's a lot to do if it's peeing down with rain - NOT!). We also had one who turned out to be a bit of a squatter :thinking:
Good luck though :)
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AND ;D a couple eat more but a singleton kind of hangs around needing a chat more. Quite tiring.
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AND ;D a couple eat more but a singleton kind of hangs around needing a chat more. Quite tiring.
Ha! I always reckon you get two types of farmer - the first doesn't speak to anyone all day, but doesn't care because he doesn't like talking/people etc. The second also doesn't talk to anyone all day, so when they do find someone to yarn to, you can't shut them up....
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AND ;D a couple eat more but a singleton kind of hangs around needing a chat more. Quite tiring.
Ha! I always reckon you get two types of farmer - the first doesn't speak to anyone all day, but doesn't care because he doesn't like talking/people etc. The second also doesn't talk to anyone all day, so when they do find someone to yarn to, you can't shut them up....
:roflanim:
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AND ;D a couple eat more but a singleton kind of hangs around needing a chat more. Quite tiring.
Ha! I always reckon you get two types of farmer - the first doesn't speak to anyone all day, but doesn't care because he doesn't like talking/people etc. The second also doesn't talk to anyone all day, so when they do find someone to yarn to, you can't shut them up....
:roflanim: I have been known to disappear for a 3 hour long 'hot bath' :innocent: