Holiday at RANCHO ROMANTICA DE RED ECOFARM

Learn gardening, horse and farm animals breeding.
Spend your holiday with a real farmer :)

Romantica Ecovillage

I have 11 hectares certified eco farm in the most beautiful part of Poland – in the region called The Green Lungs of Poland – for its pure nature and clean air. The region geographical name is The Hilly Masuria – for its hilly landscape full of small clean fish lakes and charming ponds rich in frogs.

My farm consist of 5 ha pastures where graze my wonderful, colourful horses and white friendly milk goats and my rancho consists of 5 another hectares of young orchard where I have planted 2500 fruit trees – apple trees, pear trees, plumb trees, cherry trees. I keep also some hens for eggs.

I  have here also around 1 hectare of forest and several ponds and charming streams.

I live in a 300m2 big house which I partially renovated. In the house there are right now 2 bedrooms and two bathrooms, 2 kitchens, huge basement in which I plan to build sauna and Turkish bath. At the top of the  house there is huge spacey attic which I want change into a comfortably apartment. Downstairs there is the third room with bathroom which needs to be finished.

Apart from that, I have two big stables. One of them I want to redesign into a hostel for travellers and couch surfers.

I am also considering building new house – just for rent.

In this spring I am going to grow vegetables in the big garden – in order to be sure, that I will have enough food for volunteers, couch surfers and other travellers.

I don’t have a tractor and my horses are not trained yet to work in field, so this spring I will have to hire a tractor and find a trainer who would train my horses (or at least the big and strong like a dragon stallion) and make them work in the garden and forest.

My property guard two brave dogs. My grain and food guard one little but very special cat :) The cat is little, but her character is big ;))) Telling truth – all my animals  have visible characters :) Each of them!

Besides I plan to breed here geese – for eggs and for meat. Apart from geese – I want to buy new cows (the old ones I have eaten) – in order to breed them for milk and their female calves for cows and male calves – for meat or for sell.

My aim is to be independent from the economical system as much as possible and be self-sufficient as much as possible... :)

As a Nature Lover I worship simple life close to the Mother Nature. I love Earth, Sun, wind, frost and each of 4 climatic seasons. Each of them is special and has its role in the Nature life.
So I love winter which makes all world white and so clean, which kills bad insects and lets plants to rest. I do love springtime – when wild life awakes and starts to sing from happiness making me inspired, I love hot summer time – when Nature is so rich in greenness around full of happy animals grazing in the warmth of the Sun, I appreciate autumn when we collect fruits and vegetables...

I am experienced farmer and would like to share my knowledge, projects and amazing paradise with other Nature Lovers.

I am also considering establishing a new ecovillage – so some of you could stay here for a long period of time. I have already a name for it – it would be Romantica Ecovillage :)

I believe that place make not only scenic landscape, but also people, so I would like to invite at my farm positive people full of good energy and emotions...

So if you feel like taking part in my projects or just want to rest from noisy and fast city life
come and join me :) I would be very happy to host here every good person :)  

Love and Life,
Isabelle

Paradise Park Project Poland

Hello Nature Lovers!

I have just started clearing my little forest of about 1 ha in the North Eastern part of Poland where I would like to create a kind of beautiful and useful paradise park with flowers, nuts, berries, mushrooms - all these goods for people wanting to spend here their vacation at my Ranch during spring, summer or in the autumn.

The landscape around is amazing and the nature really pure and abundant in wild animals, especially wild birds. You can easily see here wild animals like boars, roes, foxes, hares, hawks and many many rare wild birds.

If someone would like to join me helping in anyway, from now or later in the spring/summer months, I would be really happy... as I am really looking for people who would like to participate, hopefully also in a long-term way.

Any kind of contribution would be appreciated, as the ideas are many and the place offers lots of possibilities: first of all clearing and making spacey and beautiful Paradise Park full of berries and other goods, then in spring sowing vegetables in a big organic garden, in summer some garden work and renovating the farm house and other farm buildings, organising interesting workshops and trips... and what else we can imagine! Maybe permanent ecovillage??? :)))

At the moment I live here in a farm house, where I can host CouchSurfers or volunteers and provide food for them.

I hope to hear from someone soon! Especially from creative and interesting people :)

Love and life,
Isabelle

You may contact me via FB, CS or directly via Skype: CreativeIndianka, email: RanchoRomanticaDeRed@yahoo.com or mobile phone: 0048607507811

Fencing

Today I rebuild the electric fence for my horses. Its not heavy job, but it takes some time. In order to do it well, you have to know characters of my horses very well - but I know them very well, so I know how to build the fence in order to prevent them from escaping from it.

For example for the stallion one wire can be enough, but for mares - no. Mares are very smart and can sneak under singular wire, so I usually construct for them electric fence consisting of two wires.

Before I fininish the construction I always make sure, that wire is well connected together, so when I let electricity run along wire - the whole fence will be under electricity. It is also important, that the wire isn't touched by grass or doesn't lay on ground. When grass or ground touches the electric wire - the electricity in wire is weakend and may be not enough powerfull to stop horses from escape.

When my horses have enough green grass in their meadow - they don't try to escape.
But when one of mares has her period - she is eagger to escape to the stallion and electric wire can be not enough to stop her. In such situation its better to take her to stable and shut down or take her to the meadow where fence is stronger - made of wood. The same about stallion - when he senses, that one of the mares has her period - he gets crazy. He can be even dangerous then and even attack somebody who wants to stop him from escaping. Be aware not to go to the stallion, while a mare has her period. He can kick you or bite you or even knock you over and kill.

LIST OF TASKS TO DO

I have decided to publish the list of tasks to do at my farm. The list is long, as here are lots of tasks to do.
These are my works here. I work at my farm 9 years, most years on my own without any help. Since one year I am inviting volunteers who would like to spend their time at my beautiful farm for free and help me here in my numerous tasks.

The tasks to do can vary depending on the season of the year, wheather and other factors. The list consists of tasks available during all year. In order to learn which tasks are need to be done right now - you may ask me.

So  here we go:

• renovating my house and farm buildings (plastering, laying stones, bricks, putting tiles, putting glass blocks, making conrete floors, some electrics, some hydraulics, repairing roofs, correcting roof tiles)
• cutting wood 
• collecting wood
• fencing
• collecting branches
• clearing banks of my river
• clearing my forest
• making hay
• gardening
• planting trees
• cleaning stables
• painting stables
• feeding hens
• milking goats
• training horses
• cooking
• washing dishes
• cleaning kitchen
• washing clothes
•  planting home plants
• farm paper work
• collecting stones
• cleaning yard 
• building or rebuilding electric fence
• collecting seeds
• doing shopping
• taking pictures
• making websites
• making jam
• making cheese
•  fertilising fruit trees
• fertilising garden
• planting flowers outside
• planting fruit bushes

So you can see - the list is very long, but still not complete. It's a lot of work for just one person, but most things I can do on my own without any help - just it takes more time, when you work on your own without any help. For sure I need some help with renovation of my house and farm buildings and with training horses and also with cutting wood, or rather with sharpening the chain saw.

I know, that most volunteers don't have the skills I need here the most, so I am also eager to accept help of these ones, who just want to help me in my simple farming tasks which don't require any skills but just good will. I usually explain every single task to each volunteer, so you won't be lost here :) You can learn a lot here.

Presently I am focusing on fencing and collecting wood for the winter. I will be happy to find a volunteer who knows how to sharpen a chain saw. But I can also accept other volunteers - I can find you many other tasks here, so you won't be bored for sure :)))

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A trip to Szwałk

Today wwoofer Victor went for a trip to visit the Szwałk lake and more villages around. I have given him some proviant for the trip. Soon he leaves to his city. Before he leaves, I want to make at least a part of the planned fence, because the two persons are needed for the task. The drill is heavy and needs two people to handle with it.

The most poles are ready. I have painted many of them today. Tommorrow they will be dry and ready for use.
I will have very colourful fence :))) Red and green and mahony... Made of wood from my forest and banks of my little river...

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Minęło lato

W sierpniu był Wiktor i Francuzi, potem Witek wyjechał na kilka dni i we wrześniu znowu wrócił. Ciągnie tutaj już trzeci miesiąc. Francuzi byli 9 dni. Po nich przyjechała Krakowianka. Zakochała się w Witku i wyjechała. W tym samym dniu wpadł Szczepan. Po paru dniach dostał robotę w Warszawie i wyjechał. Ma wrócić zimą na narty, bo tu górek sporo więc jest po czym jeździć...

Tymczasem skończyło się lato. Już jesień. Robi się coraz chłodniej. Witek na poddaszu stajni śpi w śpiworze i pod grubą kołdrą. Niebawem i on wyjedzie.

Time for wine

Indianka and Victor have been working very hard last month. Indianka decided – its time to celebrate the time and good fruitfull hard work… She made the grill. They were talking and drinking and eating white sausage with onion and freshly baked bread…

Victor is planning to go to Dublin in September… He wants to stay in the local gurudwara. He is a fun of fun religions…Obviously he is searching his place in the world… Who searches - he finds… Good luck, Victor!…it was unusual experience to get to know you and have opportunity to talk to you and listen to your ideas and beliefs… Thanks for your help at my farm! God bless you…

Free Ecological Workshops at the Rancho

The ancient apple tree

Mare Indiana is standing next to the very old apple tree. The apple tree is
100 years old and still has got fruits every second year or even each year.
Since I have put there manure around the tree, the apple tree has got apples
each year... The apples are not sweet :))) but good for using them in the
sweet cake or for making jam...

Spacy pastures

My horses have got broad natural meadows for eating green grass, walking and
running... Ideal place for horses...

What horses love to do?

My horses love to do this... :) and they do it everyday several times - its
wonderful massage for them and helps to get rid of insects like flies,
moskitos...

Hossa sp

Hannibal's mother. I used to ride her a lit of bit. She was very quiet.

Hannibal

His mother: black Hossa sp
His father: white arabian stallion from Janów Podlaski

About farming animals and the Host

At my Masurian rancho I breed horses, goats, hens, geese. I used to breed
cows as well. My green farm is charming and extremally peacefull place...
Ideal place for meditation... Ideal place for spiritual and good people...
Ideal place for hardworking people similar to the Pilgrims. I am like the
Pilgrim. I believe in hard simple work. I believe that a single person can
do a lot if she is persistant. I also believe in honest and practical
cooperation with other hardworking people full of good will. I admire
Mormons and like their style of life. I celebrate Thanksgiving Day as well,
because the God helped me to surivive here on my own for 9 years and each
year gives me something new and ecouriging: new goats, fowl, cheeks... I am
a good person. Very good person. Mentally very strong person. I like simple
and pure lifestyle close to the nature. I have got strong, good character. I
am unique individual and very independent person as well. I like
enthusiastic, intelligent, hardworking people with broad horizons. I love
creative people, because I am extremally creative person. I love to share
interesting ideas with fascinating people. I adore to create my farm due to
my imagination. I have bought the farm in order to be able to develope and
feed my imagination and make use of it. My farm is food for my imagination.
I dream about making paradise here. I keep trying to make it come true.
Already the farm is naturally beautifull place, but still I want make it
even more beautiful - just lovely and pleasant paradise. I have broad
professional knowledge from different fields of knowledge including farming
knowledge. I used to work as a teacher and I have got teaching talents, so I
can teach you lots of usefull things if you want to learn them from me.

How to apply?

You can add me at Facebook and talk to me there.

My storks

In spring and summer you can meet here storks which nest at my yard every
year... It happens, that after their arrival from Africa, they knock to my
door of my house... :) They always come back here from Africa in spring and
stay with me until late summer. At pastures they walk together with my
horses...

Motherhood

Goats are very tender with their babies...