Wilfred

Travel information

I am currently

Description

I would like to live a self-sufficient, sustainable life. My dream is to start my own small farm and grow my own food etc. I have been visiting and volunteering with individuals and communities who are doing this since September 2020, so far in England, Wales, Greece, and Spain .

Before this I was doing a PhD in Environmental Science. I suspended this in order to pursue living in a way which is not damaging to the environment, feels connected with nature, and also connected with the people (community) around me.

Interests

Plant care

Sustainability

Sailing / Boating

Outdoor activities

Music

Gardening

Books

Beach

Water sports

Team sports

Nature

Farming

Astronomy

Languages spoken

English: Fluent
Spanish: Beginner

Skills and knowledge I'd like to share or learn

I'm interested in:  

Gardening

DIY and building projects

Life at a Farmstay

Eco Projects

Animal Care

Art Projects

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Some knowledge of:  

Babysitting and creative play

Being an elderly companion

General Maintenance

Creating/ Cooking family meals

Helping around the house

Hospitality/Tourism

Charity Work

Languages

Helping with Computers/ Internet

Teaching

More details about your skills

I spent 3 months living in a self-sufficient community in Wales (https://brithdirmawr.co.uk/). This gave me experience of:
- Growing vegetables (weeding, harvesting, applying manure, composting).
- Creating firewood (felling, coppicing, sawing, chopping, splitting, stacking).
- Cooking and heating with fire.
- Looking after animals (chickens, ducks, goats), and more.
- DIY (adding wood panels and chicken wire to make a chicken shed fox-proof!).

I also spent 5 weeks volunteering at www.sunseed.org in Spain, where I learnt similar skills but in a different environment (different growing conditions).

I spent several months growing my own food at home (tomatoes, leeks, potatoes, squash, beans, onion, garlic).

During my PhD I spent much of my time measuring and caring for plants (Cocoa, Fatsia).

I have done numerous environmental volunteering projects:
- 3 weeks measuring mangrove trees in Malaysia in order to calculate the carbon absorbed.
- 3 weeks doing presentations on Climate Change (RCPs and others ) for WWF Malaysia.
- 3 weeks living in the Borneo rainforest doing conservation work (removing invasive weed from lake, removing vines from saplings in reforestation area).
- 2 weeks doing other reforestation work in Peninsular Malaysia.
- 3 weeks building a school in Chile.
- A few days building a cob house in Wales.

I also have a degree in Product Design and Technology BSc. This gave me skills and experience in designing and making things by hand (working with wood, metal and more, sawing, cutting, sanding, filing, joining etc).
I also worked for 1 year as a Design Engineer

My degree in Physics MSci and my PhD gives me a good understanding of science and how to work independently solving practical problems.

Age

38

Some more information

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  Smoker

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  Driver's licence

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  Allergies

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  Special dietary requirements
  Lactose intolerant (I avoid dairy if possible). I have pills I can take which helps.