Area: Asturias

Janet and John live in Asturias. We are now at the end of our fifth year of so called retirement here and love it. This is definitely not the Costas! We live in Valdes in Asturias….. a county of rugged coasts with super ( but often stony) beaches. The interior (where we live at 270 meters high in the hills and 30 minutes from the nearest beach) is largely mixed forest of sweet chestnut, oak, ash and beech with plantations of northern pine and eucalyptus. The valley bottoms and tops are mainly green pasture for cattle grazing or silage with flatter fields with maize for cattle. It is beautiful – a lake district without the lakes and without the crowds. Weather – This is green Spain so we have clouds and rain. The temperature is higher than the south of England – a greater noticeable difference in the back part of the year. When we bought our house we wanted a house with some land to grow veggies on. We ended up with two houses (one “the barn” had no floor and was only home to spiders and cobwebs – we called it the barn because it was the oldest and still had the cattle feeding stalls), a traditional Horeo, 5 fincas (fields - one with a small maize mill – not functioning) and two Montes (bits of hillside with lots of trees on.) Thank goodness three of our neighbours keep most of the fields clean by grazing cattle, sheep and growing grass, so I am left with only the finca (6500 m2 )below the house to look after. We have six chickens and two dogs (and a cat that adopted us). During the year we grow most of our own vegetables. John does most of the work on the land while Janet writes and directs two musical shows a year for her group of performers back in England

Area: Victoria

We have three young children and both my husband and I work outside the family home. I am an Osteopath and my husband is a vet. We live on 5 acres in the heart of the Yarra Valley tourist region, 1 hour from melbourne city. We have a beautiful home with a large flower, native and vegitable patch. Animals are a large part of our home, dogs, cats, horse and chickens. We are a very welcoming family who love meeting people from all over the world.

Area: Oceania

Jo and I are both long term residents of Vanuatu. Our Farm is being developed to be a working superannuation for Joe and myself, as well as a long term income for all the families involved. The tourist side of the venture is called Eden on the River, as is being connected to Paradise. My philosophy is not so much the need to be totally organic but definitely "Clean and Green". The property is 18 hectares and we operate quite a diverse operation from 1800 free range chickens producing eggs, free range pigs, tropical fruit, asparagus production, to our latest venture, tourism. We have a “petting zoo nearing completion” as well as other things on the burner.

Area: Evia

Myself my partner, and a friend run a conservation, education and welfare project with a rare breed of pony the small skyrian horse on the beautiful and unspoilt island of Skyros. We are always looking for volunteers who are either experienced with ponies and who are interested in helping to care and train our herd of very sweet natured ponies or enjoy farm smallholding work. We are based on a small farm which is near the sea and pine forest, in a traditional Greek area. We are really looking for Volunteers for March as we have an unexpected vacancy. It is a very interesting time on the island as in Skyros we celebrate the goat festival "Apokrais" and it is an amazing cultural event.

Area: West of Ireland.

Our Artfarm is a art dream in progress. It is hoped that in the future it will be a centre for art/film/music/workshops/classes and residencies for anybody with a dream of using their creativity in some way. Some day classes have already been run here including woodcarving and mosaic classes which were a great success. The dream is a work in progress with the ongoing restoration of house, outhouses and haybarn as studio space and organic veg plot slowly expanding. This creative space is in a rural setting in east Galway, 35 miles from Galway city, 15 miles from Roscommon town. It has a minimal footprint ethos with a great respect and love for the space and all its ecosystem. It is hoped that this centre can be a place where the local community both young and old are made welcome and where visiting workshop participants and artists can feel at home. It is hoped this place can be eco rather than ego driven. Anyone with an interest in art and environment is welcome here.