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18 Feb 2025
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Description
Pls read our profile fully to see if we align.
We offer a very high quality experience & have spent years volunteering & we believe we offer a good deal.
Hello, salud, bienvenido!
We are Sarah & Henry, long time Workawayers, travellers & free-spirited wanderers who, after a decade of being fairly nomadic, have finally settled and found a home in Northern Spain.
We recently bought a stone finca with surrounding land and are looking forward to restoring the buildings & rewild the land giving back to this community & working with some amazing people from all over the world.
We want to be inclusive to families as we found it particularly difficult to volunteer with our kids, and would like to create something of a world -schooling hub & the chance to connect with the Earth in the middle of abundant nature.
We are situated within the heart of green & verdant Asturias, half an hour from the cities (Oviedo & Gijón), half an hour from some of the best beaches in Europe and half an hour from the Picos de Europa. What more could you want?
The closest town, Nava, is 5 mins away, has 3 supermarkets, shops, bars, cafes & an attractive plaza. It also has the Cider Museum.
We can offer you either a private room next to the family bathroom with shower, or our very comfortable caravan which can sleep up to 4. The heating & stove work perfectly. There’s also the option of parking your own camper.
It would be advantageous if you could manage your time well, so that your free time does not get frittered away - happens easily!
Expect around 25 “on hours” per week (this excludes group responsibilities such as cooking / clearing away because you would have to cook for yourself anyway!) & this is not a hard & fast rule; sometimes depending on projects & situations a little longer days might be needed - it’s up to you to keep track of the week overall!
You can decide how you manage this by either spreading it throughout the week or doing a few longer days to have more days free time to explore the region.
Use of car & bike included.
*if you need to prioritise online paid work pls discuss your schedule with us in advance*
FOOD PROVIDED:
Breakfast: you are welcome to join us for breakfast, we would normally have a freshly squeezed OJ, homemade juices or smoothy with quinoa, millet or oat porridge
LUNCH: our biggest meal of the day - always together around 2pm - we normally make about 4/5 different dishes, almost always plant based & would welcome your help preparing & cooking for everyone.
In Spain it’s custom to have a light Merienda for dinner / supper - we don’t really have much, the children have a snack and drink before bed at 8pm
I am also a yoga teacher & student (my teacher is based in the city - Oviedo the capital of Asturias which I go to at least twice a week on the bus or train. We are very well connected to the city but live a peaceful life out in nature so have the best of both worlds) & like to start my day with some asana, pranayama & meditation practiced in the shala. You would be welcome to join for this.Types of help and learning opportunities
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Interests
SustainabilityPolitics / Social justiceMovies & TVEvents & socialCultureCharity workFarmingPetsSelf developmentPlant careMusicDrawing & paintingGardeningDIY & craftsCooking & foodBooksAstronomyArt & designAnimalsOutdoor activitiesWinter sportsYoga / WellnessWater sportsMountainNatureFitnessHikingAdventure sportsUN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We are from the UK but wish to commune with spanish speakers - we found learning a language very challenging at home & have been learning Spanish now for around 12 years on & off. We learned in Guatemala and used Latin American Spanish during the time we were travelling. Now we want to improve our mainland Castellano - our children are fluent & learning Asturiano in school.
We are in the Celtic homelands of Northern Spain, country of bagpipes, cider & mythological forest dwellers.
Our property is boarded by ancient Roman Camino - original *Camino de Santuarios* so if you’re looking for something more under-the-radar and less travelled than the famous *Camino de Santiago * then you have found the right place.Au Pair Help
Further details can be found here
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
We moved into our finca in Feb 2024 & are doing some light renovations & DIY around the house. Mostly painting & decorating & trying to finish off updating the decor in the side we live in.
For bigger projects we will be bringing in local tradespeople and hopefully will be renovating the downstairs bathroom - including fitting a nice big bath over the next few weeks.
Re general maintenance and smaller jobs we will be working along with you & want to enlist help to play with the children (5 & 8) & the 3 cats (2 new kittens). We have a wide range of tasks & projects around the property, which will change depending on our current situation & the season / weather.
Inside jobs include some basic DIY like;
painting & decorating;
furniture upcycling;
plastering;
digital marketing;
childcare;
cooking;
tiling;
cleaning.
and outside jobs (weather dependent) will be preparing the ground, organising and creating spaces around the land;
A big very important job for Autumn is collecting and storing the wood pile for the winter. We have heating in the house but prefer to put on a fire every evening / morning.
There is always gardening (weeding, planting, mulching, making raised beds / compost piles & maintenance of beds);
fencing for animals
animal care
building a chicken coup
Labouring - moving rocks / large stones
Once we have some nice neat piles of rocks and stones we intend to pay local skilled dry stone wallers & we eventually wish to restore the gate arch.
This list is not exhaustive and we like to work with our volunteer’s strengths and preferences ... so you will have lots of flexibility & can choose how you spend your time.
We like to eat one meal together at 2pm so would love your contributions in the kitchen, cooking, making bread, baking cakes & preserving to keep us all well-fed!Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: IntermediateThis host offers a language exchange
We wish to provide a real cultural experience for our guests & volunteers and are well connected with the local community through our children’s village school. Our boys are bilingual and speak Spanish pretty fluently now they are also learning Asturianu at cole. So if you’re looking to improve your English or Spanish we can help with that - it will be full immersion!Accommodation
We have two spare double bedrooms inside the house, a comfortable 4-berth caravan, or you can park your own campervan on our land.
We provide breakfast and will cook a shared meal for lunch (usually vegetarian but not strictly, any meat is locally & ethically produced). For dinner we usually have a smaller meal but you are welcome to make your own from the kitchen.What else ...
Having your own vehicle is useful, as we are a short journey from many attractions. It’s half an hour from the coast and 45 mins to the Picos de Europa. There are closer mountain ranges within 10 mins drive away. Cycling is a very popular activity in the local area and there are many good walking routes. We have a couple of bikes you can borrow to stay local & there are amazing hikes within 20 mins.
It is an easy walk into the nearest town, from where you can take the train or bus into Oviedo, or visit the Cider Museum or local bars & restaurants.A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
Sarah also works online teaching and tutoring and although our internet is not fibre - can be slow, we don’t have any problems zooming, downloading or anything that requires decent internet.
Space for parking camper vans
we have a park up space and plug in / connect to the electricity point from the barn so our courtyard is perfect for parking up
Can possibly accept pets
Yes but dogs will have to stay in the garden / garage or outside
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Feedback (2)
Many thanks for having us in your home. Hay no palabras!
A Sense of Place
Workaway is a unique opportunity to make friends with someone else. The experience can be special. Uniting with the landscape is not altogether a different experience. In this place, where surely Roman legions passed and the faithful… read more
These guys don't mess about - they quickly orient themselves, find out what needs to be done and get to it!
Timothy is a very experienced & knowledgeable gardener, did a beautiful tiled edging project in my kitchen garden & gave… read more
Tey just moved in, so it was new for all of us.
Sarah and Heny are very kind and thoughtful people.
We could always talk to them if we had a problem and spending time with them, for example when we went to a pizza place in Nava or when Sarah took us to see Oviedo… read more
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Many thanks for having us in your home. Hay no palabras!
A Sense of Place
Workaway is a unique opportunity to make friends with someone else. The experience can be special. Uniting with the landscape is not altogether a different experience. In this place, where surely Roman legions passed and the faithful… read more
These guys don't mess about - they quickly orient themselves, find out what needs to be done and get to it!
Timothy is a very experienced & knowledgeable gardener, did a beautiful tiled edging project in my kitchen garden & gave… read more
Tey just moved in, so it was new for all of us.
Sarah and Heny are very kind and thoughtful people.
We could always talk to them if we had a problem and spending time with them, for example when we went to a pizza place in Nava or when Sarah took us to see Oviedo… read more