Join us and thrive on our busy off-grid home in Ourém, Portugal!

Infos

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  Description

  Welcome! Come and join us in our totally off-grid home in a forgotten magical valley in Central Portugal. We are located in the Beira valley, with a river close by the old house we have been slowly renovating over the past few years. We live partly in yurts and need help with creating the best out of this special place. Experience in permaculture, natural building, off grid living useful but not essential. We are learning as we go.
  We have 3 children (two teeage daughters, and a big 5 year old!), two beautiful big and small dogs and will soon have hens etc. We are learning Portuguese. We enjoy making, creating, learning and plunging into the crystal clear river. Practical hands a must, and those who aren't afraid of loud, busy, family life!

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Projets artistiques

  Pratique d’une langue

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Enseignement

  Jardinage

  S’occuper des animaux

  Cuisine/repas pour la famille

  Aide à la maison

  Entretien général

  Home sitting
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  Centres d’intérêt

  

  Événements/vie sociale

  

  Végétarien ou végan

  

  Dev. durable

  

  Animaux de compagnie

  

  Vie en van

  

  Soin des plantes

  

  Musique

  

  Bricolage / artisanat

  

  Art et design

  

  Jardinage

  

  Cuisine et alimentation

  

  Dessin et peinture

  

  Menuiserie

  

  Animaux

  

  Plage

  

  Danse

  

  Montagne

  

  Voile / bateau

  

  Nature

  

  Camping

  

  Yoga / bien-être
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  We will welcome you and hope you enjoy your stay.
  At some times of the year we make yurts and if this is happening we can show you some beautiful ancient techniques if this interests you, for example how to steam wood so you can bend it into shapes! We could potentially also also teach you green wood work skills, spoon carving, pole lathe tuition for example
  We can help you learn about off-grid living, we are constantly learning and appreciate new ideas and knowledge. Ben is an accomplished guitar player and could help you learn. You are welcome to practice yoga with Lizzie.

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  Aide « au pair »

  Cet hôte recherche des jeunes filles Au pair.

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  Projets impliquant des enfants

  Ce projet peut impliquer des enfants. Pour en savoir plus, consultez nos directives et conseils ici.

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  Aide

  ODD tasks, : If you have experience in diys of any kind we would be very grateful for your guidance! We have recently completed a small extension and made a bedroom for our daughter, so help with simple decorating, putting up shelves, moving furniture etc would be appreciated.
  We are making the kitchen and have many ideas to try, We are learning about lime rendering and using clay from the land nearby to make beautiful earth colours.
  
  OFF GRID: We get electricity from the sun, and water is limited so we need you to be mindful of this.
  We are still making designs for a septic system, drainage, garden design and landscaping. There is so much to learn and so much to do. We use a compost toilet, and we have hot/cold shower heated by gas but we're working towards heating our water by solar.
  
  ART & MUSIC, Aerial SILKS & YOGA: We also welcome artists, musicians and craft people, enjoy this space, we hope you feel inspired! Lizzie practises yoga and we are hoping to make a small yoga platform on one of the terraces.
  Anyone with enthusiasm for anything I have mentioned is welcome, we can discuss your length of stay depending on your schedule and ours. The children also practice aerial silks and would love anyone with experience to help further their skills.
  
  GARDEN: We need help with the garden, making HugelKultur beds and also wicking beds as an experiment, installing a small polytunnel, getting the garden to grow! Sadly many of our Olive trees were badly damaged by forest fire last year so they are in recovery. Help with pruning and harvesting Olives during winter months would be useful.
  
  CHILDREN:
  We have three children. Two teenagers who like their own space and need peace and quiet to study, which is quite ironic really because they're the ones who make the most noise! We also have a 5year old who is pretty good at getting stuck into whatever we're doing and always wants to help.
  Family life can be loud and hectic at times in our home, our teens have a lot of pressure with studying right now and at times tensions run high! Luckily we have lots of outside space and so you won't have to witness the brunt of the chaos!
  Our daughters enjoy practising aerial silks at home and they all love the huge trampoline, taking their body boards and paddle boards on the river and the lakes, making art, youtube videos, good positive energy. We've never actually got around to making a YouTube video so if you want to be the first to facilitate this then please suggest it!
  
  PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE:
  If you speak Portuguese this would be great for us for extra learning! If you want to learn Portuguese we can learn with us!
  
  Yurt & Tipi making is our family business. We don't need help with this, but it would be really good to know that other tasks around our family and garden are being taken care of so at busy times we can get on with our business and focus on this, knowing that other things around our family home and garden are moving forward.
  
  We have wifi so this will be readily available to you, although our internet dish just got damaged in the recent storms so internet could be limited if you stay before we get it sorted again. Please ask before you decide to stay if this is important to you.
  
  COOKING: If you love to make meals (we are vegetarian) then we would welcome that too!
  We eat 2-3 simple vegetarian meals a day. We will stock the kitchen in the caravan for you so you can help yourself to food, and if you enjoy cooking then let's talk about eating together some times in the family home. If we have two Work away volunteers at any one time we feel having your own space to sort out your own meals works well, so you guys can hang out together and there's not so much involvement with the family setting. We find at this time of life our teenagers appreciate their space and their time studying/hanging out.
  
  Use of the car is available.
  We would expect you to want to help us 5 hours a day 5 days a week. Singles, couples and small families could all be welcome, lets speak first and see what will work at the time.

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  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Anglais: Courant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  We are from England and Lizzie spent most of her childhood in Wales. We are learning Portuguese and welcome anyone who wants to learn with us or those who can teach!
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  Hébergement

  You will stay in a caravan or you are welcome to pitch a tent. We have lots of room for tents. We may also have a yurt or tipi available for you but ask beforehand.
  Your bed is a Double or single bed or single bunk bed in the caravan!
  
  We will most likely stock the caravan kitchen with dry food, tinned food, fresh bread and milk. We will provide for your length of stay based on 3 simple meals a day. You can cook when you like and we can discuss when you complete the work for us in return. For example some projects involve set times and us being involved, other times you will be able to complete certain tasks during the day when you feel like it.
  We are a Vegetarian mainly, but on occasion we do eat fish ( rare).
  If you love to cook then please offer to cook for us! We all love cooking but at times it does feel like a chore! Happy for the help.

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  Autres infos...

  This area is perfect for walks in nature, we have a beautiful roman bridge and ruined mills up the river. If you want to bring your bike it is perfect for mountain bike trails.
  It is a wild place.
  We are a half drive to the cultural town of Tomar, it has a beautiful castle and monastry to explore, good cafe;s and restaurants along the river and a huge market once a week. It also has a brilliant local swimming pool where we go almost daily as our eldest daughter trains at the club there.
  Our local town is a ten minute drive from here, a good Monday market, bakeries and cafes.
  We are an hours drive from good beaches. We are 15 minutes from a beautiful river beach with a popular cafe and bar during the summer months.
  We are non smokers, and prefer non-smokers to stay but only because we are ex-smokers and the temptation is sometimes too strong. If you need to smoke, just go for a walk and please don't litter with fag butts :) - We enjoy vino tinto, but we are not inviting you here to get wasted! We have lots to do and appreciate clear minds.
  We collect our water from the Spring and enjoy vegetarian food. We are eager to get our vegetable garden to produce more, organically, so we don't have to buy non organic from the markets.
  We are pretty relaxed but when we have a project we expect enthusiastic helpers who aren't afraid to get dirty and break a sweat.
  We hope to meet people who can be mindful of our off grid lifestyle, those who can be conscious of limiting water use, those who can think of others, those who can enjoy family life and be patient in times when the children are challenging.
  We enjoy meeting people and hope you like the idea of joining us here on our wild bit of land in Central Portugal.

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  Informations complémentaires

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    Accès Internet

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    Accès Internet limité

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    Nous avons des animaux

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    Nous sommes fumeurs

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    Familles bienvenues

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  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  We have unlimited WiFi. Feel free to connect. ***Update: our internet recently went down in the storms and so internet is currently down - only mobile phone interent possible on your own device until further notice :)

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  At certain times of the year we can welcome small camper vans , possibly larger motorhomes. The roads are rough so we'd need to discuss this so you are happy and aware.

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  Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux

  please discuss beforehand.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Deux

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  Mes animaux

  Daisy

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