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Mixed farm help in beautiful off grid andaluz valley, Spain

  • Favourited 790 times
  • Last activity: 26 Mar 2024

Availability

  2024 

 Min stay requested: at least 2 weeks

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    From 13 April to 27th April, a mixed bag of help on a re-wilding project as part of a group of 5/6 helpers. A beautiful mountain valley, a basic off grid house to yourselves. You definitely need to be there the day before ( 12th April ); other dates might ( might ) be negotiable.

    I have a piece of land in the mountains and am trying hard to rewild it a bit, though nature is resisting my efforts... I need help planting trees, digging, mending fences, felling trees, chasing deer, wrestling wild boar ( optional ), irrigating, whitewashing, oh, etc.

    In return you get to experience the realities of that romantic notion 'off grid'; you live in a very beautiful quiet valley; three workaway couples have met here and then got married ( just saying - you don't have to get married ); you live in a house of your own; you experience rural Spain.

    We'll plan to do four days of help then a day off then four days of help, etc, for two weeks. For the first couple of hours each day we'll do just farm tasks - cleaning and painting irrigation tanks, cutting down trees to make into firewood, digging holes, mending fences.
    After a coffee break there should often be more choice for the last two hours. Eg if you're more interested in agriculture there should be lots of help with trees - planting, pruning, grafting, irrigating, potting plants etc. And if you're interested in building there will be whitewashing, making steps, cutting paths, building a verandah, etc.
    Then it's lunch and the rest of the day is yours.

    Some afternoons if you want I may teach about basic eco-construction techniques ( walls, rocket stoves, cobbling, sandbag walls...) and you can practise them if you like ( it's not rocket science ). Or you can get the wood fired pizza oven working, go to the river, build a solar water heater, watch many many birds, climb mountains, pick fruit, make limoncello, fresh orange juice, give or get shiatsu, learn Spanish... stuff you can't do without several permits in civilisation.

    You all live together and share looking after the house etc; you get a budget to spend how you like but which should be enough for a simple vegetarian diet for three meals; some groups have gone for the wine diet instead - your choice.

    And you really need to read the whole profile. No. Really. You do. Just, damn it, read the whole profile. I will know.

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    Help with Eco Projects
    Gardening
    DIY and building projects
    Farmstay help
    Help around the house
    General Maintenance
  • UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN goals
    No poverty
    Zero hunger
    Good health and well-being
    Quality education
    Gender equality
    Clean water and sanitation
    Affordable and clean energy
    Decent work and economic growth
    Industries, innovation and infrastructure
    Reduce inequality
    Sustainable cities and communities
    Responsible consumption and production
    Climate action
    Life below water
    Life on land
    Peace, justice and strong institutions
    Partnerships for the goals
  • Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    This is a small mountain village, a world far away from tourist Spain. It's very very quiet, but equally very friendly. You'll be greeted by everybody - they would love it if you can chat to them (though the local dialect / accent may make that a challenge...) . It's surrounded by a National Park, walking routes, a river, hills and mountains, forest land. If you want to see just how calm village life is, it's perfect; if you want to get right away from everything, it's perfect.

    It's a great base for traveling round Andalucia - you can stay on longer if you want.

    I can also teach about eco-construction techniques, shiatsu, tapas, international education, and, well, e.g. Japanese theatre ?

  • Help

    Help

    There's an endless list of maintenance jobs ( mending fences and tracks, whitewashing walls, bits of building ). And tree care ( cutting them down, planting them, pruning and coppicing them, irrigating them ). And some gardening ( making compost, caring for a small tree nursery, planting seeds...) . There's so much to do that for about half the time you can get to choose what you'd like to do / learn about.

  • Languages spoken

    English: Fluent
    Spanish: Fluent
    French: Intermediate
    Japanese: Intermediate

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    You'll have the farmhouse to yourselves ( I live in the village itself ). It's off grid and basic. So that means just enough 12v solar electricity to charge phones/laptops and a few lights at night; bucket baths not showers ( and you need to heat the water on a stove ); recycled furniture; a simple kitchen . We provide beds and basic bedding ( sheets, blankets, pillows ); two single rooms, two big double rooms ( and a Workaway-built cabin, or tents, if you really need your own space...), wood stove, pizza oven, patio, hammock, plunge pool, nearby river to swim in, an excellent library of books.

    Note - this is the third year of a drought here - you will need to be very conscious of how much water you use for washing etc.

    The shop is twenty minutes walk away, where there's also a train station, bus stop, several bars.

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    You can get to the village of Jimera de Libar by a lunchtime bus three days a week to / from Ronda, and there are two trains a day to the nearby station. It's easy to travel from here to the big places like Sevilla, Granada, Cordoba if you want to make it a base for getting to see Andalucia. It's a bus ride to Ronda from Malaga which has cheap flights from almost everywhere.

    This is a flexible workaway; we can negotiate almost everything about how / when / where; days on or off; tasks to do. Except the dates I mentioned are fixed. The weather is likely, not certain, to be mild or warm days and cool nights, and we are praying, uselessly, for rain .

    Sorry, but I really hate the general cut-and-paste applications - if you want me to take an application seriously, your message must include the words ' off grid, drought, flexible' . Thank for reading to the end !

  • A little more information

    A little more information

    • Internet access

    • Limited internet access

      Limited internet access

    • We have pets

    • We are smokers

    • Can host families

  • Can possibly accept pets

    Can possibly accept pets

    As long as they don't chase neighbour's sheep or want to sleep on the sofas

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    More than two

  • ...

    Hours expected

    20-25h a week

Host ref number: 251889422485

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