Profile information
Host rating
80 %
Last replied
1 Dec 2023
Feedback
14
Email verified
Badges (2)
Details
Description
Open again to host volunteers, accommodation is camping for now as the caravan is under renovations.
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Hi!
This small project is in West Cork, Ireland surrounded by mountains near the source of the river Lee.
I live in a little cabin in a clearing in the woods where I grow vegetables, sometimes keep poultry and grow fruit trees. Its a small site but there are lots of different things to do here.
I work as a self-employed permaculture designer and this is my home where I try out ideas. I also provide an orchard care service mostly apple pruning in the summer and winter. Hosting volunteers can also be a source of motivation for me to organise and do work that I may have already grown accustomed to, and I am very happy to share the design concepts behind any work we will be doing. If you are interested in permaculture and motivated you will be able to learn quite a bit on the job : )
It would be an interesting place for anyone interested in permaculture, cooking, gardening, poultry and preserving food. Its important for me that you are already good at sharing space and conscientious. Its an advantage if you have an interest in, and are happy to cook and prepare meals with natural ingredients, prioritising the efficient use of the organic vegetables that we are growing here.
I'll be with you to show you how to do every task at the start and really enjoy working with volunteers, inevitably however as I also am running a design consultancy I sometimes will have to leave to tend to those other commitments, including over night at times.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Depending on how long you stay, and on your prior skills and motivation, and what is happening here at the time you could learn some or alot of:
- how to operate a low maintenance poultry tractor system (if I have poultry at the time)
- sheet mulching
- hot compost making
- french drain building
- building skills
- vegetable gardening skills
- other permaculture related skills/info
This is a Gaeltacht area. It could suit someone studying the Irish language, but English will work here too. I also speak French and Spanish relatively well. If you are interested you will be able to pick up some permaculture design concepts and techniques plus some of the Irish language.
Help
The main activities that I'd want help with here are (depending on the season and other factors) :
- weeding and hoeing
- cooking & baking
- cleaning
- planting vegetables
- drain building
- making hot compost
- sheet mulching of the nursery and garden
- watering
- painting
- Looking after poultry if I have them at the time. This involves moving the electric fencing & mobile chicken house, cleaning it out and collecting eggs.
- fruit tree care
- harvesting vegetables
- preserving vegetables - making kimchi and chutney
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Fluent
French: Fluent
Irish: Fluent
German: Intermediate
Accommodation
There is a caravan for volunteers. It has two sleeping areas at either end and a gas cooker in between. It has no running water or electricity however. During the summer camping may be an option especially if you bring your own tent and gear. At night, especially in the winter and spring months, it can be cold. The caravan has small wood burning stove but as yet is not well insulated. If you don't have much experience of camping or how to use a stove you'll need to want to learn how! You'll have to have experience in, or be eager to learn how to keep warm.
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Caravan is under renovations. Half of it is available for tea making, volunteer breakfast, indoor sitting and hanging out. Lunch and dinner are generally down on the covered deck. Accommodation is camping - I have a large tent or you are free to bring your own.
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This is a wild and beautiful place - but it is still wild and beautiful because it is remote and sometimes inhospitable. Everyone wants to be in touch with nature, but not everyone wants the discomfort and challenge that truly living in nature brings. In my opinion the living is good here but quite simple.
The place is basic in some ways - compost toilets, limited electrical power - especially in the winter.
Spring water on tap in the cabin. There are two rooms to the cabin - my bedroom and the living room-kitchen-office. There is also a large covered deck which we use for lunch and dinner as much as possible. Cabin access is generally limited to kitchen related activities, charging devices, filling water etc, as its small and is my office also.
Meals are from the garden vegetables, foraged vegetables, and eggs from the chickens (if I have them at the time), supplemented with a mix of bought organic and non-organic food from town. Vegans/vegetarians welcome but its important to accept that I also eat eggs, dairy products and meat, and occasionally kill animals here for food.
There is a gas shower we can use and compost toilets, but these are about 60m away
I share a well with my neighbours and water use is often restricted in drier weather.
Bathing opportunities in a beautiful but cold river pool nearby - I go in here sometimes but its cold, deep and about 800m away.
What else ...
Beautiful scenery and nature. Great but cold swimming places. I'm near Gugán Barra which is a famous beauty spot with hikers and pilgrims.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Hours expected
Maximum 5 hours a day, 5 days a week
Feedback (7)
Paul was organised and he had a list of tasks written out on a board in order of importance so that the volunteers had a choice in what task to do and when to do it (within reason).
Paul was relaxed and flexible with the… read more
By the time I got to Paul's place, the other 3 volunteers who had been there for a couple of weeks before me had ploughed… read more
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(4.7)
Cultural exchange:
(4.9)
Communication:
(4.9)
Paul was organised and he had a list of tasks written out on a board in order of importance so that the volunteers had a choice in what task to do and when to do it (within reason).
Paul was relaxed and flexible with the… read more
By the time I got to Paul's place, the other 3 volunteers who had been there for a couple of weeks before me had ploughed… read more
Basti completed… read more
When we were going to his home our bike got flat and he offered to pick up us and also gave us his tools to fix it. Everything we needed he helped us. In the time that we have been with him, he has transmitted his passion for the permaculture project and Irish… read more
Bon voyage Amandine!
