Portugal
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We are David & Eli, a Belgium couple and since 2014 we live and work on our 12 hectare beautiful land with view on the Serra da Estrellla mountains.
We have cats, dogs, chicken and goats and we have a big organic fruit and vegetable garden. We try to live a sustainable life and provide our essentials as much as possible from our own land, fruits, vegetables, eggs, milk, meat, wood, timber, water, ...
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Help with Computers/ Internet
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Our land is privately located and a dirt track of 1km separates us from the outside world. You can experience being in full nature enjoying the peace and silence. We have no direct neigbours but we are located between 4 small typical portugees villages on walking distance, each with a tiny grocery store and a local bar where the locals meet for coffe and social company. They are always very pleased and exited to see strangers coming by!
We are located about a one hour drive to the top of the Serra da Estrella mountains and the way to it leads you through beautiful and exiting places.
You will experience daily life in rural, central Portugal, and learn what it takes to maintain and run a farm on a 12 hectare land.
Unfortunately on the 15th of Oktober 2017 a firestorm hit our land and destroyed a lot of our belongings and our investments of the last few years. But we found the strength to carry on and to keep focused on our dream to live our life from the land and maybe create a ecological campsite/ holiday-rentals on our land so we can share our beautiful place with our guests, ...and volunteers of course!
We are generally looking for volunteers to help us with the maintenance of the land, the animals, the garden, the household, building and all round jobs.
The land is partly open, terraced and partly forest. The main part of our forest has burnt in the fire and all the dead pines have recently been cut down. We still have quite some wood to be processed... but also planting and pruning trees... we often need some strong and energetic people with a good physical condition to help us out on the land, cutting wood, processing and stacking firewood, clearing heavy vegetation, making fires, cutting grass, etc...
The animals, the garden, the kitchen and household also ask a lot of our daily effort. In this area we are looking for help in feeding the animals, milking the goats, cleaning stables, planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting, cooking and washing up and some general household tasks. Experiences are not required but doing the tasks with a smile and a good attitude are a must!
Are you a DIY enthusiast, and do you have some experience with woodwork/ carpentry we will certainly have some nice creative tasks for you! A lot of our trees have been cut into nice timber to do some building and constructing...
Or are you confident with plumbing or have you any experience as an electrician?... that could be very useful as well...
The work to do is usually very divers and often depends on the season, different things to do in different times of the year... and of course we try to take in account the interests and qualities of our volunteers.
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RIGHT NOW WE HAVE JUST STARTED A BUILDING PROJECT. WE ARE REPLACING THE OLD ROOF AND DOING A BIG RENOVATION OF OUR COMMUNITY AREA WHERE USUALLY OUR VOLUNTEERS CAN COOK AND EAT TOGETHER. SO FOR NOW THIS AREA IS TEMPORARY OUT OF USE AS IT WILL BE A BUILDING SITE... THIS MEANS WE CAN ONLY ACCOMODATE OUR VOLUNTEERS IN A SIMPLE CARAVAN FOR THE MOMENT. WE WOULD BE VERY HAPPY TO HOST VOLUNTEERS WHO ARE TRAVALING WITH THEIR OWN ACCOMODATION ALTHOUGH NOT A MUST... ALSO SOME BUILDING OR DIY EXPERIENCE WOULD BE OF SOME GREAT HELP!
English: Fluent
French: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
Portuguese: Fluent
We have caravans for our volunteers to sleep and in our community area our volunteers can cook and eat together.
We also have a extra double bed on the mezzanine in our community area. Sheets and blankets are provided and we have a comfortable bathroom (heated in winter) with hot water, shower and toilet.
Daily tasks like cooking, washing up and keeping our community area clean and tidy are shared responsibilities and we expect everyone to cooperate in these things.
We try to find a good balance between cooking and eating together but expect our volunteers to be able to take care for themselves from time to time (but then of course we provide the essential ingredients).
We offer our volunteers food and accommodation in exchange for help on our farm. We are not very strict in counting the hours per day you work but appreciate our volunteers to be flexible too. Some working days will be longer and harder than others and we regularly build in days of rest depending on everyone's needs!
We are open minded and try to divide the work depending on our helpers experiences and capacities. So it's important to us to get a little information about who you are, why you would like to join us and what you expect of your experience on our farm!
We are looking forward to meet motivated people who are open for adventure!
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
The mobile reception is very good on the land so people who bring their own hotspot can work online... Our wi-fi only works around our house and doesn't reach our accommodations.
People traveling with their own home on wheels are always more than welcome! The access to our land is by a long sand track but even medium to large vehicles can easily get here. We have a camper spot with water and electrics and have hot shower and toilets.
Only well behaved pets can run free on the land. We have dogs, cats, goats and chicken and we don't accept other animals chasing them! Also realize our land is big and sometimes the work locates far from the accommodation and pets have to stay home as the work involves machinery!
More than two
Flexibility is appreciated! With a average of 5hours a day, 5 days a week.
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