Donald and Amy Nikkel's Photo

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  • Last login 6 months ago

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Overview

  • 16 references 11 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in English; learning French
  • 41, Other
  • Member since 2007
  • One of us is teaching highschool and the other is startin...
  • We both completed BEd degrees and are moving on (read: tw...
  • From Northern Ontario/Rural Manitoba
  • Profile 100% complete

About Me

CURRENT MISSION

To lure unsuspecting couchsurfers to the Interlake

ABOUT ME

We moved out to one of the provinces' forgotten corners 12 years ago, and have since been experimenting with how we most enjoy spending our time. We have been alternatively building our home, timber framing, and starting up an organic grain farm and milll, all the while teaching at the local high school in order to fund our 'bad habits' (read: farming). We also spend a lot of our time discovering where the abandoned asparagus patches are and just what to do with cattail roots. Over the past years of building, we have been half enjoying and half regretting the slow evolution towards luxeries like hot water and electricity, but we now feel we have reasonable accommodations to offer to any couchsurfers who are willing to slow down, take detours and meander off the main highways.

PHILOSOPHY

This is a tricky question as it demands a concise and witty answer that at first glance is both appealing and endearing. Therefore I give up because I feel that my true answer is none of the above.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We learned about couchsurfing four years ago while traveling in Greece, loved the idea, and have since had the opportunity to be on both the giving and receiving end of the couchsurfing project.

Interests

Organic agriculture, canoeing, cross-country skiing, timberframing & sustainable construction, eating things we find on the ground (with a few exceptions) and most things that get us outside. We are also interested in spirituality and religion and how others have forged an understanding between these two ideas. We have also taken it upon ourselves to learn how to ride the unicycle, although it's certainly getting the upper hand so far.We tend to enjoy philosophizing and pondering - although this is not typically an extreme sport, we like to think otherwise.

  • chickens
  • gardening
  • traveling
  • canoeing
  • skiing
  • sports
  • agriculture
  • religion

Music, Movies, and Books

Some books we've enjoyed include Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, Kundera's Immortality, anything by Kurt Vonnegut or Salmon Rushdie, Camus' The Stranger, Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang, selections from the Nag Hammadi library, and...
We are proud card-carrying members of the Lundar Library, and thus have priviledged access to the largest selection of Icelandic poetry we've ever seen.

Teach, Learn, Share

We know a little about everything and a lot about nothing. So if you know a lot about anything we would love to learn it and if you know nothing of something we would love to teach you. Right now in particular we would be happy to teach or learn from those who are interested in sustainable building, gardening, chickens, wild edibles, and...

Countries I’ve Visited

Egypt, Germany, Iceland, India, Jordan, Syrian Arab Republic

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Greece, Turkey

Old School Badges

  • 3 Vouches

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