Join a vibrant family of four, living on a hectare of land in the beautiful Penedes region of Catalonia, Spain

Details

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  Description

  We’ve recently returned from living on a remote island off the Pacific coast of Canada where our second daughter was born. We are an adventurous couple (and family) that is looking to turn our newly-bought property into a retreat, wellness, and creative space.
  
  Our backgrounds are in acting, music, and creative writing, and although we’re not performing much at the moment we used to tour as a band and may again in the future as we put together some new material. We’re very much into health, wellness, sustainable living and enjoy meeting and spending time with similar-minded souls.
  
  Our house is on a hectare of land surrounded by fruit trees, nut trees, and forests where there are hiking trails to the many wineries and mountains that surround us. We have a newly-built pool for hot days, are 60 minutes from Barcelona, and 30 minutes to the beach.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Babysitting and creative play
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We’re a family of artists turned modern-day homesteaders, so the house is always full of music, performances, stories, and pretty good food. We’re not totally self-sufficient yet, but getting there as we improve the property more and more to be a fully sustainable home.
  
  We speak English, Catalan, and Spanish in the house (we are half Canadian) and are very much into herbalism and the healing arts. We also live in a wine and cava region which offers breathtaking hikes, biking trails, and of course, some of the world’s best wine and cava if you’re into that. As we mentioned earlier, we’re about an hour from Barcelona and 30 minutes from the beach.
  
  Aside from those things, you’d benefit from seeing how to harvest almonds, medlars, figs, apples, grapes, oranges, olives (lots of olives) from trees, care for an organic Mediterranean garden including medicinal plants, build basic structures using recycled materials, see how to harvest rainwater, maybe even learn how to make a glorious Sunday paella.

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  We are a vibrant family of four, living on a hectare of land in the beautiful Penedes region of Catalonia. We’re about an hour from Barcelona, 30 minutes to the beach—and surrounded by vineyards, trees, and crystalline blue skies. This also means that there is lots of work to do here.
  
  We have fruit and nut trees to look after, gardens to weed and water, areas to renovate, wooden decks to build, and of course: children to care for.
  
  This is mostly where you would come in: helping with the kids.
  
  We have two kids: 9 years and 3 years. They both speak perfect English, Catalan, and Spanish (the little one struggles a bit with Spanish but understands). They’re in school from 9:00 to 14:00, and we’d need someone to look after them after that—play games, color, paint, push on swings, make them a snack if they want one—you get the picture. Bonus if you can drive and pick them up (the ride up the mountain is beautiful). The property is big with lots of trees to climb, forest to explore, and an in-ground pool for hot days.
  
  We’d also be open to someone who is also skilled in some of the activities on the property: organic gardening, caring for trees, landscaping, and helping to build wood structures are the main things that occupy our time here.
  
  In brief, you’re someone who has experience with early childhood care and activities who could also help us from time-to-time on the property. But the main area we need is helping with the kids.
  
  We also have a cat (who thinks he’s a dog) and a hamster.

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  Languages spoken

  Catalan: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  French: Fluent
  Italian: Intermediate

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  Accommodation

  The idea is to turn this property into a retreat, wellness, and creative space. As such, we have one dwelling that is ready so you’d be staying there. It’s a good-sized room at the end of the house with a private entrance and bathroom (with shower). The room is lined with windows overlooking the forest so plenty of natural light and trees and birds and spectacular red sunrises in mornings as the room faces east.
  
  There’s a little adjoining porch with a chair to just kind of sit and ponder. We will feed you—we eat a wholesome local Mediterranean diet, make our own bread, etc. Vegetarians are welcome, but we eat a little of everything so you may need to supplement some of your meals.

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  What else ...

  We’re interested in people looking for a longer-term stay, minimum one month as the kids will need time to adapt. This stay would be ideal for someone who enjoys the countryside as we are quite remote. The nearest big city is Vilafranca del Penedès, about a 15 minute car ride, which offers buses and trains to all the major cities in the area (Barcelona, Tarragona, etc.). We are surrounded by dozens of wineries, hiking trails, mountains, and lots and lots of trees.

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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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  Can host digital nomads

  We have Starlink satellite Internet, which is quite fast.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We have a very large property with a forest and mountain views that is perfect for campervans.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  One

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  Hours expected

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week.