Help maintain a permaculture household in Sumadija, Serbia

  • Favourited 104 times
  • Last activity: 27 Mar 2024

Availability

  2024 

 Min stay requested: No minimum

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    I'm Lucile (30, French) and Milan (33) is Serbian. We met in Ibiza and after a few years in Pancevo near Belgrade, we decided to sell everything to go back to nature. Baby Sandre joined us last October.

    We moved to our new house located in Sumadija, 3 years ago. It is an old house and nobody lived there for +/- 15 years. Since then we have been renovating it and enjoying each minute of our new life ;)
    We have 5 hectares of land hills and forest, it is really a uniquely beautiful environment. We are only 120km from Belgrade so it is easy to reach us.
    Why did we decide to go back to nature? Simply because we are deeply convinced that nature is our original habitat and we should really start learning what it means to be a human living in his original habitat :)
    We wish to open a guest house in the future, I'm (Lucile) passionate about cooking in general and especially wild plants. Since we moved I'm like a child discovering the endless possibilities!
    For the moment we are renovating the household, taking care of the 5 hectares and making a huge permaculture garden..


    If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us!
    Ciao!

    Lucile and Milan.

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    Help with Eco Projects
    Gardening
    DIY and building projects
    Animal Care
    Farmstay help
    Help around the house
    General Maintenance
  • UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN goals
    No poverty
    Zero hunger
    Good health and well-being
    Quality education
    Gender equality
    Clean water and sanitation
    Affordable and clean energy
    Decent work and economic growth
    Industries, innovation and infrastructure
    Reduce inequality
    Sustainable cities and communities
    Responsible consumption and production
    Climate action
    Life below water
    Life on land
    Peace, justice and strong institutions
    Partnerships for the goals
  • Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Our home is located between hills and forest, you can just hike for hours and meet absolutely nobody if you go in one direction. But if you go in the other direction you will find our lovely hospitable neighbors all along the way and their beautiful houses. If you want a unique experience of Serbia and understand why a French girl felt in love so much with this place.. Come ! :)

  • Help

    Help

    We moved to our new house in august 2020. It is an old house and nobody lived there for +/- 15 years.
    We are now done renovating our house. We created our Permaculture garden from scratch and there is always something to do, to plant... :) We have reached a good level of productivity these last 2 years.

    We will also need help fencing part of our land.

    We have 5 hectares of land full of fruit trees so there is always work to be done basically :D
    I'm passionate about wild plants and it takes a lot of time to pick up, dry, and transform them, so you could also help us with this :D

    There is an old building that collapsed on our land. We have to clean it up (take down all material) and then we would love to rebuild it using eco-construction techniques.
    Basically, we are still in the "discovery" pioneer period and we would just love to share our daily discoveries with others. We would need 5h/day of help. Every 5 days of help, you can take a day free to enjoy and relax.

    Please, in order to make sure you've read our profile we have some questions for you that you need to answer if you wish for us to reply to your message (they will be no exception made.)

    1) We need to know how long and the precise date of your stay. We can't answer messages asking us to choose between many dates. Our lifestyle is not compatible with this kind of message. The maximum stay with us is 14 days and the minimum is 3 (working) days.

    2) Are you comfortable with doing hard physical tasks? We won't ask you anything crazy but again our lifestyle is not an easy one and even if it is extremely rewarding, the reality can't be harsh for those who are not used to cutting grass 5h/per day or pickup and conserving veggies by rounds of 20kg. We want you to enjoy and learn from your stay and not be exhausted.

    3) Please let me know what you eat and if is it ok for you to fit into our eating schedule (see below: Type of accommodation). If not, there is absolutely no problem, let us know what you would like for breakfast, and will accommodate, just keep in mind that our working hours are 9-15h (with a 1h lunch break at 12h). It is not that we want to be so strict but we have to work with sunlight rhythm and the end of the day is always busy with naps, animal care, and walking in the forest to relax our minds and body.

    5) Keep in mind we are 2km uphill to the supermarket and we usually don't go down much. Also no ATM before 20KM around. Take everything you may need with you (snacks, cigarettes, alcohol...) so you don't have to hike up and down for rolling papers ;) (talking with experience :D)

    6) Tell us a bit about your experience in projects like ours. If you don't have any don't worry we accept everybody ready to physically help 5h/day. Everything can be learned. :)

  • Languages spoken

    English: Fluent
    Spanish: Fluent
    French: Fluent
    Serbian: Fluent

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    We have a single room and a double room to offer in the house. You will have access to dry toilets upstairs that will be under your responsibility (making sure it's covered enough so it doesn't smell, emptying regularly, making sure the composting area is all good, cleaning and drying with care the bucket before putting it back.)

    For the food, of course, you're our guest! We do intermittent fasting and we are flexitarian. We don't eat breakfast, have a light lunch around 12, and have a massive dinner around 8/9 pm. We bake our own bread, and have chickens for eggs and meat, turkeys for meat, and goats for milk, cheese, and meat. Our garden provides us from June to mid-October with plenty of vegetables and fruits and last year we conserved around 200kg of food for the winter. If you are with us from March to June be ready to eat a lot of wild edibles which is what nature provides at this time of the year :)

    You can reach us by bus, the bus stops 1,4km downhill from our house.

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    On your time off you can hike, Ostrvica is 3km from our home through forest and magic! :)
    There is a bus line that goes to Gornji milanovac and to Cacak, the nearest cities.

  • A little more information

    A little more information

    • Internet access

    • Limited internet access

      Limited internet access

    • We have pets

    • We are smokers

    • Can host families

  • Space for parking camper vans

    Space for parking camper vans

    Our house is located 1km uphill from the main asphalt road, the road up is impressive but totally practicable. Many people came with campervan without a problem BUT if it rain you cant access all the way down to our house and will have to park up in the village road (200m from the house). You will be free to use the shower in the house.

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    More than two

  • ...

    Hours expected

    Maximum 5 hours a day, 5 days a week

Host ref number: 592536113411

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Cultural exchange: (5.0)

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