Join our quiet off-grid project and have a blast in Pahoa, Hawaii, USA

Details

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  Description

  Aloha! We are Will and Lana, homesteaders and the stewards of the land. A little bit about us: Will is from Asia & Lana from Europe. We are liberal, open, progressive, environmentally conscious, and care about many social issues. Living self-sustainably off-grid is our dream and it’s …coming, coming coming… true! 😆
  
  We don’t like to sit still! We enjoy the trips to the beach & hot ponds, volleyball, camping & hiking, horseback riding, biking and other activities. At home we love to veg out, listen to music, play games, watch movies, go for walks and do other fun and relaxing things. We enjoy good and deep conversations and love to listen and to be exposed to many unique positions and perspectives that differ from ours. We go the extra mile when it comes to the food quality and sustainability, not only choosing local & organic as much as possible but also using non-toxic, biodegradable products around the house and the farm. We like to cook and share meals together. We love trying & learning new things, so don’t be shy to share your favorite dishes with us! 😉
  
  The human connection is important to us, and we doing this not only to get help, but also to make friends, connections and learn from each other. We treat our volunteers as family and it is very important to us that everyone has a great experience. We try to take our work-traders on trips to see the island as a ‘Thank you!’ for the excellent work. 😉
  
  We are in Puna on an Island of Hawai’i, otherwise known as Big Island, on the south east side. The farm is located 3.5 miles (5.6 km) to a small, quirky & very hippyish town of Pahoa and about 30 min drive away from a beautiful black sand beach & about 45 min drive to salt-water hot ponds. (We are about an hour drive from Hilo and 2.5 hours drive from Kona.) Pahoa has a community center with free pool, shops, restaurants, bus stops etc. Walking or hitchhiking is the primary mode of transportation around here. However, we do have some bicycles you can borrow. 🚲
  
  Our farmland used to be an orchard and sugar cane plantation earlier in the day but had been sitting neglected and overgrown for a while before we got it. Right now we are on the journey of bringing it back and building an off-grid, eco-friendly homesteading paradise, filled with gardens, orchards, beautiful relaxing spaces and with a good assortment of farm animals and pets roaming around❣️🤩 However, we are just starting and don’t have much of our own produce yet, but slowly and surely we are starting to pick the fruits of our labor and harvest small amounts of the food we produce. We hope you will help us to get our food production figured faster! 🥳 We have bunch of chickens and a little bit of ducks. We have 10 cats and 2 dogs. …and we do hope you don’t have allergies! 😬
  
  Majority of the work at our place involves battling the jungle from taking over: mowing & maintaining the cleared area and clearing the new spaces, gardening, helping around the house, and helping with our animals, also brewing, jamming & making herbal teas and hot sauces. We also have construction projects small & large: raised beds, trellises, chicken coops & facilities, farm structures, etc. that we could use some help with, provided there are skills and the desire to do and learn.
  
  There is also no Internet on the farm, so you will have to rely on your cell signal which depending on your carrier may not be great. Cell towers are in town, so the reception is great there and there is a free WiFi in the town mall.
  
  We are looking for mature, hard-working, independent individuals with a solid work ethic to come and help us to make the paradise a reality! 😁

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Pahoa, is a small quirky town with hippy vibes located in Puna on Big Island. It is an amazing community of conscious, liberal, kind people who often will go out of their way to help. That was why we fell in love with this town. There are multitude of community events in Puna that spans across the week, from the drum circles on the black sand beach and on the grass lawn with an amazing ocean view, to ecstatic dances, open mics, music circles, and wide variety of farmers markets and fairs. Pahoa itself has a community center with free pool, shops, restaurants, bus stops etc. Our neighbor holds the Music Circle & Potluck night every Sunday so you can go meet people, enjoy the performances or perform yourself, and it’s only 15 minutes walk from us!
  
  As for us, Will is from Asia, Lana is from Europe. We have travelled some and appreciate uniqueness & individuality. We both like cooking and sharing meals together. If you are interested to learn different board games, mahjong, or the ancient game of Go, we can show you!
  We love to learning and we enjoy being exposed to unique views that may not be the same as ours. We love deep conversations and often find ourselves learning from our guests or debating the affairs of the humanity and our planet. We are open, environmentally conscious, progressive, and care about many social issues.

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  Help

  We are looking for hard-working, thorough and independent individuals with strong work ethic and communication skills to come and help us to make our vision a reality. We are looking for people who doesn’t mind grunt work and not afraid to get their hands dirty!
  
  The majority of our work is farm maintenance from housework to facility maintenance, and taking care of animals and pets. Farm maintenance includes a lot of weed-whacking, moving things, cleaning, organizing, etc. The general help around the house involves: washing dishes, cleaning, laundry. As for the animals, they need to be fed and watered and their facilities need to be kept clean.
  
  We need help with gardening. We have started several gardens and orchards that need maintenance and work. We propagate & plant trees, vegetables & herbs including native varieties. We are learning and applying environmentally friendly practices and avoid using chemicals. Most of the gardening work involves weed-whacking, scything, weeding, trimming, building soil, treating plants, harvesting, propagating and more.
  
  We also looking for people with many specific skill sets as we need help with construction & mechanical work.
  
  Construction: we have several construction projects in progress building a Pavilion and a Bathhouse in addition to constant small projects like building raised beds, trellises, fixing things, etc. The upcoming projects: animal facilities, Gazebos, small art studio, small commercial kitchen space, tiny house on a trailer, and more. If you have experience in construction work: concrete, wood framing, roofing, carpentery, electrical & plumbing, fencing, using power & hand tools, finishing wood & painting we need you!
  
  Help with cars & machinery: there are always machines at the farm that need maintenance or fixing to do the heavy lifting. If you have experience with diesel or gas engines, hydraulics, general maintenance we definitely can use your help. We may be interested in some welding also.

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  Languages spoken

  English: Intermediate

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  Accommodation

  We have four 8'x7' (2.6m x 2.3 m) tents set up on platforms off the ground and under another canopy to keep out the elements. A tent is occupied by two people at most. We provide carpet to make it cozy, cot, air mattress, pillow, beddings and blankets so it’s pretty much like home! ;) There is a compost toilet short walk from the tents. And we newly set up a cool field kitchen hang out space close to the tents where you can cook, eat and hang out.
  The main hose is also open during the day. The shower, kitchen and living area and the deck are available for shared use during the day. We have most of the shared meals and games on the deck or inside when it’s windy or rainy.

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  What else ...

  Island of Hawai’i is a beautiful place and we would love to share our home and our favorite places with you.
  
  We treat our volunteers like family and human connection is extremely important to us, but we hope you understand that our commitment is first and foremost to each other and our farm and animals. We ask you to be understanding and respectful of our space, relationship and personal time and we’ll do our best to make sure you enjoy your experience at our farm. 💗
  
  We expect strong and open communication. The issues arise and we need to be able to trust that we can have a conversation with people we are living with and resolve it so everyone is comfortable and happy.
  
  Please, expect to walk and hitchhike. We are about 3.5 miles from Pahoa town: about an hour walk, 15 mins to bike to town and 45 to come back uphill. We have a couple of bicycles available for you to borrow or you can catch rides with us when we are going to town. There are buses that run regularly between Pahoa-Hilo-Kona and other towns that are a cheep way to get around.
  
  A 4-week stay is a minimum here and we try to prioritize people that are looking to stay with us longer. There are a lot of different things going on on the farm and it takes a while to show the ropes and, unfortunately, it is impossible for us to keep training people every couple of weeks. Sorry :(
  
  We do not have Wi-Fi, so you will have to rely on your cell signal at the farm or get out to Pahoa to use internet.
  
  We have 10 cats and 2 dogs, we hope you don’t have allergies! :)
  
  We take our volunteers on regular beach and hot ponds trips. We also do touristy trips and get aways around the island with our helpers which are not promised or guaranteed but are a ‘thank you!’ for an excellent work.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  15 hours per week (flexible but can include weekends)

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