Help with gardening and household tasks at our farm house in Coanana de Quiros, Spain

Infos

• 

  Description

  In May 2023 we moved from The Netherlands to an old monumental farmhouse in beautiful lush Las Ubinas La Mesa Nature Parc in Asturias, Northern Spain. We are Rob and Elvira from Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Rob has extensive experience in renovating houses, and Elvira is a startup entrepreneur focused on sustainable innovations. It is our wish to live in a more sustainable way, closer to nature, and discover new and old ways to tackle issues.
  
  The farmhouse is like a museum; it has typical Asturian wooden grain sheds called a horreo and a panera, an area to smoke meats, fish and other products, a big cider press to produce apple cider and more. It is our plan to restore all these elements, and include some modern features (kitchen, bathrooms, solar energy) while respecting the layout of the house. The house is on the edge of a small village, and there is a big community of off-grid / permaculture people in the area.
  There is a big finca with pastures for animals (no farm animals yet), and an orchard. We created a vegetable garden and a greenhouse and we have some harvest but it needs to be improved. Water is not an issue in this part of Spain fortunately!
  Besides the restoration we need help setting up our website where we want to showcase new and old techniques for solving issues on our farm. The focus will be on sustainable, organic solutions and practices, and this will require some experimenting...
  
  We have set up our own blog, and together with the sustainable entrepreneurs in our valley we are in the process of setting up another site. For both blogs we need to produce content on a regular basis (blogs, vlogs, photos).
  
  There are hiking paths behind our house, and the whole area is an outdoor activity paradise (hiking, mountain biking, canoeing, climbing, swimming a.o.). Oviedo is the closest big city, and the beach is not very far either. We are about 40 min. from the Camino del Norte (Santiago de Compostela trail).
  
  We speak Dutch, French, German, English and we are learning Spanish. It would be wonderful if you could help us with our Spanish while you are staying here!
  We have a guest room with a double bed, and hot running water. The bathroom and kitchen are functioning but need to be modernized. Internet is super fast, we have fibre connection and 5G.

• 

  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Pratique d’une langue

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  Aide dans une ferme

  Entretien général

  Aide informatique/internet
• 

  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  Our farmhouse is like a museum; you will learn with us about historical ways of life in Asturias. There is a lot to discover. Oviedo is the closest city with its beautiful historical centre. This is also an important city on the Camino del Norte (Santiago de Compostela route). If you like hiking, climbing and mountain biking in unspoiled nature you will definitely enjoy your stay.

• 

  Aide

  Update October 2024:
  We need help pruning the ancient fruit trees. We have 20 apple trees, and 20 pear trees, and more! Also tiling and helping to dig an irrigation channel in the garden are jobs that are high on our 'to do list'.
  Also help is needed building and filling our own blog/vlog/hub Backto.Earth dedicated to searching a new way of life here in Asturias, and Asturinautas.com, a blog about the extraordinary entrepreneurs in our valley. We have met with many people and initiatives here in the valley, and we would want to learn from all the people here who are living a more ecological, more sustainable life. Helping with this will require IT and multimedia skills, and a lot of curiosity.
  Preferably 1 person, and no dogs (so sorry, we do like dogs, but our cats just don't like them too much...)
  
  Other less urgent work:
  Although the farmhouse was in a relatively good state because it has always been lived in, it needs full restoration. Work that needs to be done in and around the house: renovating bathrooms & kitchen, painting, and there is lots of chestnut wood that needs to be cleaned and restored (windows, doors, bits of flooring, historical wooden objects like carts, kitchen and farm equipment, the horreo and panera). For the renovation of the kitchen and the bathroom some DIY skills are necessary, for the woodwork dedication and patience!
  Do you have gardening skills, or know how to set up a permaculture garden? We also have to maintain and improve our vegetable garden (including installing irrigation in the greenhouse). Also we want to draw up a plan for solar energy.
  We don't have farm animals yet, but maybe you know which ones will fit our permaculture plans best?

• 

  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Anglais: Courant
  Français: Courant
  Hollandais: Courant
  Allemand: Intermédiaire
  Espagnol: Débutant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  We need to learn Spanish!
• 

  Hébergement

  You will stay in a private double bedroom with access to a sitting area on the first floor. The bathroom is shared for now. There are 3 toilets in and around the house: A 'normal' one in the bathroom, and on the ground floor outside, and we have compost toilets (in the former chapel).
  Breakfast is yoghurt or bread and tea or coffee, lunch is normally at 13.30 or 14.00, dinner around 20.00. We normally have bread and salad or fruit for lunch and a hot meal at night. This can of course be switched (so hot meal at lunch). We can cook vegetarian, but we are not strict vegetarians. You are welcome to teach us more vegetarian recipes with local products!

• 

  Autres infos...

  Be aware that work on the farm requires physical labor, so make sure you are in a good shape.
  In your time off you can go hiking to the villages close by, you can rent a bike to ride the Senda del Oso to Proaza or Teverga, you can go rock climbing, swimming in the river, visit Oviedo or go to the beautiful Asturian coast. Also the Picos de Europa are close by, and Leon is also worth a visit (especially when it rains in Asturias).
  There is a bus that goes to Oviedo, the closest train stations are Trubia and Pola de Lena. We have a car and go to Oviedo at least once a week, you are free to travel with us, or maybe it is possible to drive there with somebody else from the village or the permaculture whatsapp group.
  We keep the alcohol level low during weekdays, and we don't smoke.

• 

  Informations complémentaires

  • 

    Accès Internet

  • 

    Accès Internet limité

  • 

    Nous avons des animaux

  • 

    Nous sommes fumeurs

  • 

    Familles bienvenues

• 

  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  We have super fast glasfiber internet, and 5G phone connection.

• 

  Espace pour garer des vans

  If the campervan is small than it can probably access the road behind our house. If it is big, there is a big parking space below the village.

• 

  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Un

Sécurité du site

Feedback (3)