Three days of work
on a mountain farm
Phone away. Hands dirty. Mind clear.
Three days of real work on a mountain farm: wood, forest, animals. No flipcharts, no role play. You think more clearly when you remember what work feels like. For everyone who wants to put the phone down and get out of the daily grind: on your own, with friends or with your team.
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Finding clarity through work in nature
On the farm there are no meetings you can sit out. The barn has to be mucked out, the wood has to be dry before winter, the tree falls where you steer it. Here it shows within minutes how you decide, how you work with others and how you handle pressure. That is true for managers and teams just as much as for anyone who simply wants a break from everyday life.
I don’t accompany you as a trainer with slides, but as someone who does this work every day and tells you honestly what I see.
- Phone off while working: During the day your phone stays in the box. When we work, you are fully there: no emails, no pings, no excuses. In the evening it is yours again.
- Forest work: Felling a tree by hand, with an axe or the old two-man saw as in the old days, plus clearing the forest and replanting. Responsibility, safety and coordination in the team when it really matters.
- Chopping wood: Physical work with a clear result. What you split today will keep you warm tomorrow.
- Farm work: Digging the garden, planting vegetables, setting fences, haymaking, pruning trees, harvesting fruit and vegetables. The season decides what is due.
- Working with animals: Everyday farm life with the Highland cattle and Zackel sheep, mucking out the barn, pasture and field work. Animals respond to how calm and clear you are.
What we do: work through the year
There is always something to do on the farm, but never the same thing. These are examples of what awaits you depending on the season.
Spring
- Replanting: planting young trees and protecting them from browsing game
- Clearing the forest after winter: removing snow damage and branches
- Digging the garden and growing vegetables: preparing beds, sowing, planting
- Preparing fences and pastures for the animals
- Finishing splitting and stacking the firewood that lay over the winter
Summer
- Making hay: mowing with the scythe, raking, building hay piles, bringing it in with the mule
- Keeping pastures free of brush (the traditional “schwenden”)
- Fence building and path maintenance
- Tending the garden, weeding and harvesting
Autumn
- Clearing the forest: processing logging debris and wind-thrown trees
- Felling trees and making firewood for winter
- Replanting: autumn planting of young trees
- Harvesting the garden and getting the beds ready for winter
- Last hay, getting barn and pasture ready for winter
- Working with the cattle: pasture, water, checking fences
Winter
- Timber harvest: felling trees and skidding the wood
- Chopping, stacking and drying wood
- Mucking out the barn and caring for the animals
- Keeping paths and access roads clear of snow
What exactly is due depends on weather, snow conditions and what the farm needs. We agree on it with you shortly before the retreat.
Hands first, then the head.
Every retreat follows the same course and three rituals that make it unmistakable:
While you work, your phone stays in a wooden box. No glancing at the screen. You are fully with the work and the people around you. In the evening it is yours again.
On the second day you make something with your hands that you take home: a carved spoon, a tool handle or another wooden item from the farm. I show you how. In spring and autumn it can also be a seedling to plant at home. It stays as a reminder of what you set out to do.
On Sunday you write a letter to yourself: What do I change? I send it to you by post after 90 days. Handwritten, no email.
Three days at a glance
Arrival from 12:00. We have lunch together, then I show you the farm, the animals and the forest. We talk through the coming days and have dinner together in the evening. Our cook prepares regional food with ingredients from the surrounding area.
Forest. 7:00 breakfast. 8:00 we head out to the forest. Depending on the weather, on one of the days we fell a tree entirely by hand, with an axe or the old two-man saw, a beautiful and very strenuous job you have probably never done like this. We also clear up and process wood, and in spring and autumn we do some replanting. Helmet, gloves and a thorough briefing come from me. 12:00 snack in the forest, then we carry on until 15:00. Then an hour of rest to shower and catch your breath. Afterwards we talk about how the day felt and what you take with you. Dinner at 19:00, again from our cook.
Wood and farm. 7:00 breakfast. In the morning we work with the wood from the day before: chopping, layering, stacking. After the snack at 12:00 the work changes with the season. In summer there is hay, in spring and autumn perhaps digging the garden and growing vegetables, in winter barn and forest. Then a break, and from 17:00 to 18:00 a walk together. At 18:30 we eat together, by the fire with goulash from the cauldron. In the evening we sit together and carve, each on their own piece: a spoon or a tool handle that you take home in the end. We talk about what you take with you, also about blisters on your hands and a sore back from the work. There is a lot of talking, or sometimes none for a long while.
Farm and farewell. In the morning we get stuck in on the farm, in summer with scythe, rake and hay, otherwise with pasture, barn or wood work (see above). At 12:00 we eat together. After that we take time for a round: What has stayed with you? You write the farm letter to yourself. Around 16:00 you leave.
The exact programme depends on the season, the weather and what is due on the farm. Real work cannot be run to a timetable.
Who will be with you
I am Tobias – alpinist, father, mountain farmer
Trained mechatronics technician, self-employed building climbing walls and high ropes courses, today a farmer at the mountain farm Kollreid. I work every day with animals, in the forest and in the fields, with everything that comes with it: responsibility for animals, guests and employees, and decisions that cannot be put off until tomorrow.
I believe people think more clearly when they do something tangible. That is exactly why I built this retreat: honest, down to earth and without show.
The basics
18 to 21 March 2027
8 to 11 April 2027
20 to 23 May 2027
More dates to follow
For you, your friends or your company. You can come alone or with friends. You can also send your team or individual employees out of the daily grind, for a break, for team development or as a thank-you. A company can book all six places of a date, and we are happy to invoice the company. Write to us briefly and we will sort out the date and details.
Please bring sturdy shoes and work clothes that can get dirty. A basic level of physical fitness is an advantage.
Ready for three days on the farm?
Write me a short note on who you are and what you expect from the three days. I will get back to you personally.
Request nowor by email to hofprinzip@proton.me