Bulgaria
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Update: Please apply only if you are vaccinated against Covid-19.
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Are you interested in permaculture, gardening in harmony with nature? Do you have knowledge and experience, or do you want to learn the practical skills?
We've bought a house with 2 decares of land which we will gradually turn into a permaculture project. We're in the blessed situation of having a 'blank canvas' to start with - a sunny plot with healthy, fertile soil, a permaculturist's dream.
We've started planting 'food forest' (polyculture orchard with plums, apricots, peaches, cherries, sour cherries, pomegranates, apples, pears, quince, persimmon, walnuts, raspberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, aronia, goji berries, tayberries, jostaberries, gooseberries and more... surrounded by a flowering/fruiting diversity hedge that will provide food for us, attract bees, and shelter wild birds. Do you want to help us with this?
You don't need to have previous permaculture or gardening experience (though if you have, great!) because we can train you. However, you have to be willing to do physical work, e.g. turn the compost heap and dig planting trenches.
Some of your help will be in the house. There's always a lot of cleaning and tidying to do.
If you have special skills, we'll be happy to allocate you relevant tasks. For example, you may be able to build a composting toilet, solar energy shower or rainwater harvesting system, do small repairs around the house, paint walls, restore old wooden furniture, teach us yoga and tai chi, groom and train our dogs, do some social media posting, cook (mostly vegetarian) meals, make jams and fruit preserves, give us physiotherapy or create a mosaic from collected ceramics shards.
If you're a couple, you can divide the tasks between you, e.g. one does the gardening and the other the housework.
I'm a writer, and will often sit at my desk to work on a book while you get on with your tasks in the kitchen or the orchard.
It's quiet and peaceful here. The main sounds you'll hear are birdsong, the humming of bees, the chirping of crickets, the 'clapclapclap' of storks' beaks in early summer, the 'toctoctoc' of woodpecker's beaks in the winter, the moo of cows and the meeh of sheep, interspersed with goat bells and dogs barking. The location is rural and ecologically fairly clean (though some rubbish gets irresponsibly dumped). The village economy is based on sunflower-growing and solar energy harvesting.
If you like, we can introduce you to the people in the village, who are really friendly and helpful, though they don't speak English.
We can host in the winter months, but most of the tasks during this time will be indoors (housework and cleaning) rather than gardening. We can't plant trees when the ground is frozen. Do you want to give our home a thorough clean? :-)
We have hosted many volunteers over the years (not just through WorkAway) and are quite good hosts to work for :-) However, we won't tolerate dishonesty of any kind. If you pretend skills you don't have, fabricate lies or plan to deceive - don't come here. (We had to ask one dishonest volunteer to leave to protect ourselves and our home. Her review dragged our feedback rating down. :-( The real volunteers have always given us top rating.)
Does this sound good you? If yes, tell us what interests you about this placement and what skills you can contribute. Please be honest about yours kills and everything else. We look forward to hearing from you.
Rayne
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
We'll be happy to tell you about Bulgarian life and culture, introduce you to local people, and help you in becoming a temporary part of an authentic Bulgarian community. We can also practice German or English conversation with you. We can train you in practical permaculture and gardening skills (depending on the season).
Gardening (planting, landscaping, digging, weeding... depending on the season), DiY/building/construction/home improvements (depending on your skills), cleaning, tidying, cooking, shopping,. If you can train my dogs, teach me yoga, instruct me in personal fitness, give me physiotherapy or do social media posting, that would be great.
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
We have a nice comfortable guest room with a large bed, suitable for a couple. There's a shared bathroom.
If you want to live in your own tent or camper van , there's space to set it up or park it.
There are several buses daily to the towns of Elhovo and Yambol, but the bus stop is 2km away. Taxis are cheap, and I'll pay your taxi fares where needed (e.g. to bring home shopping).
The village itself has three shops, a post office and a library (which stocks a few English and German books).
The landscape around the village is mostly flat with some hills, with a river and small lake nearby. A large nature reserve is nearby. We're not far from the Black Sea and the Turkish border, so you can go on excursions there.
Internet is overall good with occasional outages.
The assignment would best suit a couple. It's great for a single, too, as long as you like the quiet life, are content to be alone much of the time and don't require entertainment. If you're a group, you would need to be willing to 'rough' it for the accommodation, i.e. bring your own tent or sleep on the floor in the house.
Please don't apply if you dislike (or are allergic to) cats or dogs. :-)
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
If you plan to work on your own projects as a digital nomad, that's fine - but remember that you owe me 25 hours work per week. Doing both may not leave you with much spare time for sightseeing and leisure. Internet is very good, with occasional brief outages.
We have space for a campervan, but it's not a dedicated campsite with facilities. Also bear in mind that Bulgaria is very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter.
If your cat or dog is used to travelling and at ease in new surroundings, and gets on well with other cats and dogs (ours), we're willing to consider them. The dog will have to stay outside, not allowed into the house.
Two
25 hours per week, flexible schedule
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