Please take the time to read our entire listing. Then, when you contact us, please include details of your background, your experience with rural living in a snowy environment, why you are interested in housesitting at our place, any references or police checks that you have, and any questions you have. Thanks, we are looking forward to hearing from you :)
We are looking for practical and responsible house sitter/s who have their own vehicle capable of handling country roads in winter, who are financially independent and able to make a modest contribution to the cost of utilities during their stay and who have lived in this sort of environment previously. If you live close enough to visit ahead of time to meet us, learn about our place and our area that's a plus. We would consider sitters with a well-behaved pet if we can meet you and the pet ahead of time.
We don't currently have livestock or pets so this housesit is for folks with a love of nature and the outdoors. We have been experimenting with permaculture plantings with native plants and some non-invasive food plants to create bio-diverse habitat with a focus on pollinators. We are also experimenting with re-establishing blight-resistant American Chestnuts although that project is on hold at the moment as we are currently away most of the year managing a family situation and return for a few months over the summer to do some work on the property. We would consider a multi-year stay for a housesitter who is excited about conservation, native plants, ecological restoration, gardening etc and who is prepared to do the property-management tasks that we currently do over the summer.
We have had lots of experience with housesitters and have housesat ourselves and find that it works best when our housesitters arrive a few days ahead as this gives us the opportunity to help you get settled in and familiar with the local area and neighbors, comfortable with what is involved in living here, training you on using the generator etc.
We have a housesitters manual with a modest checklist of things that need to be checked regularly such as a tractor and generator that needs to be run periodically to maintain battery and engine. Other than that the responsibilities are those that you would have in any house that you own or rent - keeping the house clean, bringing in the mail, putting out the trash, shoveling snow after a storm, mowing the lawn as needed, letting us know if there are any issues that need to be addressed etc.
We have an area of the garden where we have grown veggies, strawberries etc in the past - if you are a gardener and want to grow your own food, you would be very welcome to resurrect the veggie garden. If not, we will set it up so it can be managed with mulch or mowing.
Communication is really important to us and we appreciate regular updates. We are usually available by or if you have any questions or concerns. We also have great neighbors who you can call on for advice or help if you are unable to reach is for any reason.
We are 3 hrs west of NYC and 1 hour north of Philadelphia with a great community of artists and musicians and organic farmers in the area. There are lovely country roads for long walks or cycling and an easy drive to great music venues and festivals, good hiking areas, the local ski area , regional cultural/historical attractions (Landis Valley Museum, Lancaster County, Goschenhoppen Museum, Goggleworks, Valley Forge, Mercer Tileworks & Museum and much more). We also have an extensive library of books on farming, sustainability, philosophy and other misc topics that you are welcome to use during your stay.
While we have several supermarkets within a minute drive, if you are into fabulous fresh food we have farmstands and farmers markets in the areas where you can get seasonal veggies, delicious cheeses, pasture-raised and/or organic meats and all sorts of baked goods, preserves and pickles, plus there is a good bulk foods store in Fleetwood.
We love our house and this area of the country and are looking to find like-minded house-sitters who will appreciate all this place has to offer. Our house is a simple, lived-in farm cottage that has idiosyncrasies of the type that you would expect to find in an older house, so please be aware that this is not a high-end country estate! The house has three bedrooms, however the housesitter/s would be using just the one bedroom unless agreed otherwise ahead of time. We also don't have a dishwasher in case that happens to be a deal-breaker. We do have a lovely view of the garden and woods from the kitchen sink and washing dishes is an opportunity to be entertained by chipmunks, birds, passersby walking their dogs, even the occasional bike pelleton out for a hill ride :) And as we are 1,100 ft above sea level, it is a lot cooler up here in the hills than it is down in the valley so we have never found the need for air conditioning in the summer for the few days that it gets really hot.
We were in the process of working on house projects when we had to leave unexpectedly to help with a family situation four years ago and are back in the house for the first time this summer so while we are trying to deal with some of these projects in the next couple of months, there will be projects that are still in process during your housesit but the house is warm and comfortable and functional. Heating is with a propane furnace as well as a woodstove and the house is well-insulated so it is easy to keep it warm in the winter. We ask that you replace the propane and firewood you use so that the next housesitter will have full propane tanks and plenty of firewood when they start their housesit.
We are on a very quiet country road up in the hills. If you like solitude and trees that is a plus, but if you enjoy the hustle and bustle of city life it might be a little too quiet and out of the way. This location also means that we can get power outages so although they don't happen often, you would need to feel comfortable operating our generator if the power is going to be out for more than a few hours (training provided). The house has reliable dsl wi-fi, but if the goes out in a storm the internet goes down too, although this rarely happens.
We do get snow in the winter and we have a great road crew in the township that usually has our road plowed by 8 am, but you need to feel comfortable driving on icy or snowy roads, and be OK with sitting tight if the weather is really bad. We don't have a driveway, just a parking area off from the road, so you would need to shovel snow from around your car, the path to the gate etc or hire someone else to do it for you.
Note that the map doesn't show our exact location but we are near Boyertown, PA.