Help on our lovely finca in the province Tarragona , Spain

Details

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  Description

  Profile:
  Hi, do you wanna hear the sound of silence? Join us on our rural finca in the mountains. We are a Dutch family: André, Monica and Rose, living in the rural area of Catalonia. We have lived in the Netherlands for many years, but in may 2022 we moved to a finca in the mountains. We really enjoy the silence of “the campo” (countryside). 🌺
  
  We live off the grid, we have solar panels and limited water.
  
  We have two daughters: one of them is married and has two kids, she lives in the Netherlands. Rose lives with us in Spain and follows her studies online (Final year VWO). André also works in the Netherlands and I’m a beekeeper and formal teacher. 🐝👩‍🏫 I like visiting botanical gardens🌵
  We have four cats😺
  
  We live in a charming rural finca with outside a plot full of olive and carob trees (3ha) We have a swimming pool close to the house. We look up to the mountains and are close to The river Ebro 🏞🎣is in the near area and the Via Verde🚴🏿‍♀️🏃 passes our house. If you want to know more about the area, you are very welcome to ask us anything. In the National Park is a natural spring from the mountains where we get our water. We are happy to take you on our expedition here (by car). There are many things to do in the area: you can hike in the mountains, fish in the river Ebro, visit the historic city of Tortosa 🏢🌇and there are many nice restaurants and shops. 🛍The beaches ☀️🏖are a 40-minute drive away and the Ebro Delta National Park with its flamingos 🦩is also within driving distance. This is really the place for you if you love nature and wildlife. I have a little book for you ( 18 pages) of the sights in the area, nature Parks, history of the towns and nice restaurants and shops :) I can send it you if you're interested. 🏞🌠🌆
  
  We are a very close family that enjoys spending time together. We love nature, animals, cooking, board games, discovering new places, reading, the sea, music, watching movies together ( Marvel, Star Wars) and lots more. 🏝🌊📚🍿📀🧑‍🍳🎂🦸‍♂️
  
  Monica loves to paint ceramics, read, cook, bake, writing in her journal, work outside ( garden), loves animals. Favorite movie: The Holiday and Guardians of the Galaxy. Loves music. Hates reality shows, things like Love Island and clutter. 👩‍🍳👩‍🌾✍️🎶🎨🐈
  
  Rose 🌹loves reading and reviewing books ( you are welcome to read her bookcollection), writing ( short stories and poems) , swimming, Asian cultures and food, Korean romantic series, loves sushi! Favorite movie: Pride and Prejudice and christmas movies and music ( all year, haha). Hates bugs, pickles and very high altitudes. :) 🍣🍱🎄🎶✍️📖🎥📜I teach English at a school nearby. I mostly teach kids, but I love teaching teens and adults as well. I recently got my TEFL, so if anyone would like to have English classes, I'm up for it😊
  
  André loves a good conversation, a good book and a good meal. He recently took up a journey in the wonderous world of classical music ( coming from appreciating progressive metal). He is very much into philosophy and theology and siliness, in no specific order. Most of the time I'm friendly and easy going, but sometimes a bit introvert. I hate not remembering where I left stuff and I don't like games, but I make an exception for the noble game of chess. ♟️🎧📖
  
  Creative minds are very welcome, for example, someone who is good at e.g. making murals, mosaics, macrame. We would love to have a mural painting on one of our walls. 👩‍🎨🖌
  
  We would love to host people who know a lot about living off-grid, solar panels or water systems. Handymen or constructers are very welcome. But you don’t have to be creative or good with your hands to stay here. We welcome everybody who wants to learn about our way of life and share our cultures together.
  
  We are a Christian ✝️family. But we are open minded and we understand if you have a different view on life. We usually go to church on Sunday morning. You can certainly join if you want. But it's also good to stay at home, of course. We only ask for mutual respect. 🙏
  
  No smokers 🚭No alcohol abuse, we do love a glass of wine 🍷🍇from time to time. NO DRUGS OF ANY KIND.🚫
  
  We would like to ask you to take into account that because we live in a remote area, water must be saved and that you can't shower for very long ( 1-2 minutes).🚿 We also ask that you bring biodegradable soap 🧼🫧and shampoo with you ( or buy it here). The water from the shower comes out on the land and that is why it is important that it is all natural. When you use the toilet, we only flush with number two’s. The toiletpaper🧻 goes in plastic bags, because we have a cisterna. You will get used to all this. We did as well.
  
  We separate waste. We don't have a washing machine. 🚫🧺We go to the city Tortosa once a week or two weeks to the Wash & Dry ( Laundromat). We can take you there.. but you will have to do your own laundry.
  
  take into account that it can storm terribly. There can be very strong gusts of wind that can last for days🤪
  
  On weekends you take care of your own food. Ofcourse you are free to use the kitchen🍳🍝🍜🌮🥪🌭🍕🍟🍔
  
  When you leave you 🪣🧼🧽🧹🫧 your own room, caravan or casita😊
  
  We have a guestroom (3 beds) a caravan ( double bed) and a little casita with a double bed. When you stay in the caravan or casita you will have to use the toilet inside the house. When you stay in the guestroom you are allready in the house😄 The workawayers share their bathroom.
  
  - We will be hosting a small group of workawayers at the end of november to harvest our olives.🫒 Please contact us if you're interested🤗
  
  Please write "Choca" ( high five in Spanish) in your email, so we know that you are really interested and read our whole bio 😀👍🏻

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Teaching

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Movies & TV

  

  Pets

  

  Farming

  

  Culture

  

  Charity work

  

  Writing

  

  Plant care

  

  Music

  

  Languages

  

  Gardening

  

  Drawing & painting

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Blogging

  

  Books

  

  Art & design

  

  Animals

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Nature

  

  Mountain

  

  Camping

  

  Beach
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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

  You can learn how it’s like to stay in rural Spain and to mix in the local village plus understand about the plant life in Northern Spain. Living in our finca is a real step back in time. The property is really like paradise, a beautiful place with breathtaking views of the mountains and with lots of olive trees. Our extended family include, Wild Boar, Foxes, Badgers, Mountain Goats and an abundance of different variety of birds who all frequent the area. 🦊🦅
  
  We all speak English, but we would really enjoy improving our not-so-good Spanish. So it would be nice if you speak Spanish. My daughter really loves asian cultures and would like to learn the basics of Korean. But we find every language and culture interesting, so you are always welcome, whatever language you speak. I would like to learn more about permaculture.

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  Help

  We are looking for nice and interesting people, who can help us by their presence and their helping hand. You don`t need to be a craftsman to come and stay with us ( though it is very much appreciated if you are one). 👷‍♀️
  
  We just enjoy chatting together, discovering new things, learning each other's culture and getting to know each other. We are looking for help with general things, such as wood cutting for the fireplace . We would also really like it if you have knowledge of solar panels or off-grid living.☀️ The idea is to work 5 hours a day - including food ( breakfast, lunch and dinner). 🍳🍽
  
  We need help with:
  
  General maintenance
  - Wood cutting for the fireplace 🪵🪚
  - Cleaning the pool ( landing net) 🫧
  - a lot!!! of pruning and weeding 🌳
  
  Building:
  - building a stone wall over the shower tubes
  - restoring stone walls
  -help expand the workshop
  Finishing the chickencoop, their home needs to be mosaiced. Half is done already....
  - we need little 3 wooden doors to protect the woodstorage.
  - We want to build a brick fireplace to cook on.
  - we need a little waterstorage-waterfall for bees-wasps etc... at the end of our showerpipes.
  - We would love to have a tree bench around one of the olive trees!! If you can do that...SUPER.
  - We need vegetable garden boxes made of stone.
  
  Creative:
  - a mural painting for one of the walls🖌🖼
  - mosaics on the pool. There are so many already.
  -help needed with making a sun-shade roof
  
  Help around the house:
  - cleaning ( mopping and vacuuming) 🧹🧺
  - doing the dishes 🧽
  
  If you prefer to work in a project format, that is also possible. Below are some projects you can work on:
  
  - Some animal pens need to be repaired. Think about: repairing the fence, repairing the doors, painting the walls in a cheerful color and if you are creative, we would also love it if you could mosaic some walls of the animal pens.⚒️
  There are no shelters for the animals to hide in. So if you can make one?
  
  - There is always garden work, maintenance, brushcutter work.
  
  -We are looking for someone who really knows something about making a roof for the caravan or car. The upholstery melts away from all the heat. That would be great!
  
  - Another project is making furniture from wooden pallets all our leftover bricks l, for example a bench, chairs or a nice table. In addition, it is also nice to refurbish the furniture with a nice lick of paint/stain🪑
  
  - We would also like to make a place outside the fence where we can light a fire, to burn our prunings from the olive trees and ofcourse...roast marshmallows and make music. If you could help with brainstorming and then, for example, make a circle of furniture with wooden pallets, that would also be great. 🔥🪵
  
  Weekends are free- not working days. The rest of the time is free time to explore the area, read, make music, swim, be sporty or meet new people.🚴‍♂️🏊‍♂️🎶📚🚶‍♂️
  
  We can take you to the supermarket in Tortosa at least twice a week.🏪🍍🍙🥨
  On days ( 17-20) that Roos teaches English, you can go into town ( Tortosa)...wander around, do some sightseeing?

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Dutch: Fluent
  German: Intermediate
  Spanish: Beginner
  French: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  We would like to improve our Spanish. Rose would like to learn the basics of Korean. ( or Chinese, Japanese) She could also use some help with her French ( preparing for exams 2024) But language exchange is not mandatory. We can share the Dutch language and culture in exchange and we can share the Spanish ( Catalan) culture as well. 🇪🇸🇰🇷🇳🇱
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  Accommodation

  The house is secluded with miles of olive trees on our property. But the local village, where you can find a small supermarket and a bar, is only a 10-minute drive away. Larger, more bustling towns with bars, shops and restaurants open all year round, are a 25-minute drive away.🚘
  
  The weather is generally warm throughout the year (sunbathing is still possible in most of December and January) but the nights can be cold in winter, but we light our log burner if it’s too cold. There can be a lot of wind in the mountains. If you will be on the roof terrace, I think you will be blown away. So pack warm clothes.🧥🧣🧤
  
  Your accommodation will be the guest bedroom with a double bed, closet for your clothes and a toilet, but you also have your own separate bathroom with shower and toilet. We have a caravan, but in the winter months you are very welcome inside.
  
  You are welcome to eat all meals with us, but if you want you can also cook for yourself. Most of our meals are whitout meat and fish. We don't mind if, for example, you only cook vegetarian meals during your stay. Only vegan is going to be difficult, because we don't know much about that. But you are always free to cook whatever you want. 🥗🥘🍛
  
  Our house consists of a kitchen area, a livingroom, a wide hallway and three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Outside we have a little fly-free zone at the front of the house and on the other side of the house we have a veranda and a swimming-pool. On top of the house is a large roof terrace where you can exercise, relax or simply enjoy the view of the mountains and the villages in the area. At night the view is very lovely, because you can see all the lights of the city Tortosa and the stars, of course.✨🌌

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  What else ...

  No families or children.
  Pets can be discussed. 🐱
  
  We welcome people from all over the world to our home. But some things are important to have. It is important for you to have a valid passport ( outside of Europe) health insurance (Spain) and maybe a liability insurance. These will be borne by the workaway, we cannot help you with these costs. You must be well insured, should something happen.
  
  If you don't have a car, we can pick you up at the nearest train or bus station. ( Tortosa train and busstation is 30 minutes). We do live off-grid, so if you want to go somewhere yourself it is necessary to have a car or a really good bike. The closest airports are Reus ( 50 min) and Barcelona El Prat airport ( 2 h). ✈️🚃
  
  Many things are possible, if you just ask and we will discuss it together. We would love to welcome you to our home and hope to hear from you soon. 💃
  
  Greetings,
  
  Rose and Monica

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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 an Internet Router and Wi-Fi pods. 💻In the event of a storm, the Wi-Fi may fail. But you can always go to an internet café in the area ( 20 min). ☕️

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We can host people with a camper or converted van.🚐🏕 We have a water tank which you can use. Water is a luxury off-grid, so there isn't much available. It is not possible to empty the camper toilet. But there is one nearby ( Tortosa - 10 km) and one in 30 km.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  We accept people with pets, as long as they are friendly and socialized. No pets inside. If you keep them in your own camper or caravan, then it is no problem. 🐈🐶

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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