Come gain some off-grid, agroforestry homestead life experience near Viseu, Portugal

Details

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  Description

  We are Tish, Gabe & Felix (age 7) living off-grid in North/Central Portugal with our 2 cats and 2 dogs. We are not a business. Everything is for self and community consumption.
  
  
  Our place is a 3 acre food forest that started off as a traditional Portuguese family farm with all its terraces of grape vines and fruit and nut trees. We have many different varieties of mature fruit trees but our biggest crop is our 135 olive trees. We are slowly planting more trees, vegetables and medicinal herbs amongst the original straight lines to create a more dense, more artistic and more biologically diverse situation.
  We try to work with nature as closely as possible, not using any commercial fertilisers or pesticides on the land and implementing permaculture and regenerative agriculture methods whenever possible.
  
  We take people on a 2 week trial basis with the potential to stay longer.
  This workaway stay would be suitable for a couple in which the young man would like to work with Gabe on the manual side of the agroforest and homestead, and the young lady closely with Tish, where some skills can be passed on in the home and garden.
  
  We like to have an online video chat with all prospective volunteers prior to booking dates, so you can see who we are and ask us any further questions. Our decision will be made shortly thereafter and shall be communicated.
  
  We hope you understand our discretion as our family will be using a lot of the same space.
  We only accept families with children during the Portuguese school holidays.
  
  
  Shared Facilities
  All volunteers have shared access to:
  
  Kitchen with sink, hob, wood burning oven (winter), BBQ (summer), tap for drinking water, plates, cups, cutlery etc
  Solar-powered hot shower (please bring your own towel)
  Compost toilet
  Fresh produce from the land depending on what season it is
  Hand-laundry washing station
  Very small solar power for charging mobile phones or small devices ONLY. No power banks, vapes or laptops.
  
  Mains electric installation is underway, so depending on when you arrive, we may already have it.
  
  
  A bit more about us:
  
  Tish is studying aromatherapy and herbalism whilst planting a medicine garden.
  
  Gabe was born in the Algarve and is a sound engineer and music producer. He can either be found cooking up something delightful on the BBQ or in the kitchen, if he's not in the studio or up a tree somewhere.
  
  Felix is at school Mon - Fri 9-5 with many friends. He is bilingual and wants the be a ninja when he grows up. He enjoys his taekwondo classes, loves his animals and dancing to Gorillaz.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Language practice

  Light gardening

  Creative DIY projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  Light maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Pets

  

  Farming

  

  Events & social

  

  Photography

  

  Languages

  

  Music

  

  Gardening

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Carpentry

  

  Animals

  

  Nature

  

  Mountain

  

  Hiking
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Tish is happy to teach you what she knows about plant medicine and aromatherapy and astrology.
  Gabe can show you what it takes to run a working homestead while he and yourself learn more and develop these skills and knowledge. See the seasonal and year round jobs list and ask us on our video call for any specifics.
  
  Gabe can also bring you with him for some of his dealings with the locals, to give you a feel for daily life in a rural setting, if that is of interest.
  He also enjoys fireside jamming, so please bring a guitar or something you can carry a tune with, if that's your thing.
  He is also keen on teaching and learning about cooking, natural building and other creative ways of handling the raw materials on the farm. So if you're interested please mention any of those things when we chat.
  
  Thanks so much

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  Help

  Workawayer Tasks
  
  Land jobs are seasonal and can include:
  
  Chopping fire wood
  Planting seeds
  Harvesting crops
  Processing produce
  Preserving produce (jam, cider, wine etc)
  Pruning trees
  Watering the garden
  Spreading manure
  
  Some jobs are all-year round, like:
  
  Walking the dogs
  Domestic chores
  Weeding
  Composting
  Taking the rubbish & recycling
  Posting on Instagram
  Tool & building maintenance
  Gathering supplies
  Improving land borders and animal enclosures (fencing)
  
  You will always be helping on tasks with either Tish or Gabe, except for on occasions when multiple things may need attention at once, you will have been set-up with your current task until comfortable carrying it out on your own. Gabe doesn't like working alone, so this won't be a regular occurrence.
  Company is crucial not just for safety but for good mood.
  
  Having more help on the land will allow us to:
  - Work harder on many aspects where we have in the past found ourselves cutting corners.
  - Provide a more complete homesteading life for our family and community.
  - Get creative and experiment with different methodology together, while documenting properly.
  
  This will help bring more people onboard, further spreading the knowledge, skills learned and good times shared while caring for our slice of planet.
  
  Seasons & Harvests
  (This is a rough idea—nature has its own ideas when it comes to keeping a schedule!)
  
  October = Quince harvest
  October - December = Olive harvest
  November = Sweet chestnut harvest
  January = Kiwi harvest
  
  Winter is generally ‘pruning everything and sorting for firewood’ season
  Spring is generally ‘strimming everything’ season
  Summer = Continued strimming, Cherries, Peaches, Plums, Apples, Pears, Loquat, Figs harvest season
  Autumn = Grape and Apple harvest season

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Portuguese: Fluent
  Spanish: Intermediate

  This host offers a language exchange
  This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
  You can contact them directly for more information.
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  Accommodation

  Lockable insulated container. A room just for you with 2 windows, bed, bedding, space for bags, opens right into the communal living/dining room space. Right nextdoor to the shower.
  
  We are able to accept Workawayers with their own camper vans at any time of year.
  If you would like to stay in our insulated guest room then this is dependent on availability.
  
  Tish and Gabe will provide:
  All food ingredients for work days (except for specific special things you're used to, ie. bacon, or dairy for example)
  
  You will be expected to make your own breakfast as we will be busy with the school run on work days.
  
  Preparing food and cooking will be shared between our family and volunteers, if that is of interest to you. Gabe loves cooking but will sometimes be working away or hylerfocusing on something, so more cooking would be expected from volunteers during these times.
  
  We are usually in and out of town and happy to take you grocery shopping when we go.

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  What else ...

  Work schedule:
  
  20 hours/week (4 hours a day, 5 days a week)
  Work hours don’t include cooking, washing up or personal projects.
  
  
  Free time:
  
  When not working, you will have access to the whole food forest and its surrounding area—which is a beautiful place to explore!
  There's a 10km walk just along a remote hilltop forest track and back.
  
  Nearby amenities:
  
  The nearest village is a short walk away (just housing and church and café on Sundays only)
  Every village has a spring for drinking water (if you can't find it, ask a local)
  The nearest café is a 20 minute walk. Some dry groceries, cured meats and wine can be purchased from here as it has a tiny shop, which will open on your request.
  The nearest restaurant is 45 minutes walk (Café Polónio)
  
  The bus stop is a short walk away from us, with one bus going into town, once in the morning and one coming back in the evening.
  The town (Penalva do Castelo) has all necessary amenities a town normally has.
  We are happy to drop you off and pick you up from places if we are going that way.
  Nearest city is Viseu (25 minutes drive)
  
  If you have your own bicycles, you’ll make good use of them here.
  There is a beautiful lake 20 minutes away with a nice circuit round it.
  We also recommend getting data on your phone as we do not have WiFi.
  
  By the way, if anyone has experience with dogs, we don't know what we're doing! And we also hope to get chickens and geese one day.
  
  Thank you lovingly and kindly
  Tish, Gabe & Felix

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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 don't have WiFi

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  Space for parking camper vans

  No mains hook-up, for now! This may have changed and we may have forgotten to update it.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  No jaguars, snakes or small rodents. Friendly dogs only. Our land is not fenced in, so bring them at your peril.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  My animals / pets

  

  Tufus

  The life and soul of the party. Just wants to make friends everywhere we go. Also really happy sleeping for hours in the day without being bothered by anything.

  

  Alex

  Flitting between timid of even the looks from passersby or thrilled to see you, and jumping ecstatically.

  

  Beamsy

  Ferocious and loud cuddle panda

  

  Squiffany

  Tiny sassy half Maine coon tabby princess

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