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Username: | Quintadamandragora |
| Gender: | Male | |
| Member since: | Jan 05 2010 | |
| Location: |  Portugal, Lisbon |
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| Presentation: | To all interested: We have decided to take a break until spring again unless you are traveling with your own camper/caravan. We will not have resources good enough during winter to host volunteers and the weather in our area can be quite extreme with a lot of wind and rain. In case you are up for the challenge and carry your own housing, feel free to contact us. Our farm, situated in Avessada ca 35 km from Lisbon in Portugal, is planned to be turned into a course center focused on historical handicraft, experimental archaeology and self-sustainability - mainly using older methods. We aim at doing as much as possible with materials that can be found in our near surroundings and to use simple tools rather than heavy machinery to create what we want. We will grow our vegetables, herbs and similar purely with organic methods. No chemicals allowed! The idea is also to explore older types of crops and cultivation methods to get an idea about what people ate some centuries ago. (The vegetables/herbs in the late medieval/early renaissance kitchen garden is starting to spire!) As for now, we are just starting. This farm has only been in our care the last year, and our main focus has been on fixing the main house, since it had been standing unused for a long time. The land has also been untouched in most parts - only some potatoes have been grown on a smaller area. This gives both some work, but also the advantage of using untouched areas that we can turn into what we want them to be. Volunteers will be offered to participate for free (besides some material costs) in the courses we arrange during the time of your stay as long as it can be combined with the daily work (which will generally be quite flexible). A great oportunity for whomever is interested in everyday life of the past, historical recreation and similar. Do you enjoy historical handicraft, re-enactment, experimental archaeology and similar and would like to spend some weeks on our farm 35 km from Lisbon? Our aim is to build up a small course centre that is also a self-sustainable farm, using mainly older techniques. Here we plan to hold courses/workshops in the fields of historical handicraft, old building techniques, bio-farming, preservation techniques, animal care etc. We need you to help us prepare the land for the upcoming workshops and to construct some basic things needed. We offer you: * The chance to learn about older working-techniques that are still useful today. * Housing in a beautiful countryside surrounding. We offer you to stay in a tent with access to the kitchen and bathroom of course. A wind-shelter is in the making and also we plan to have some medieval or viking tents later, but so far it is not finished. * Food 3 times a day – breakfast and lunch you might need to cook yourself, but we offer the ingredients and to use our kitchen (or outdoors kitchen supplies if you prefer). Dinner you can have with us if you want. If you are vegetarian or vegan you need to cook your own food besides the occasional times we eat such food ourselves. Until we have our garden providing us with what we need, we make sure to buy good quality locally grown vegetables and meat/fish from the nearby market. * The chance to visit Lisbon (a beautiful city with lots of culture and a fun nightlife), Sintra (magical forests, castles etc), Ericeira (beaches, surfing, fishing) and maybe Óbidos or Tomar. The buses leave from the bigger village ca 3.5 km from our house and occasionally we can drive you there. * The chance to participate for free in the courses we arrange, as long as it is possible to combine with the work tasks. (Material fees might be added to some of the courses though.) * To rent our rehearsal-room in the house by the hour. (Instruments can be borrowed such as drums, electrical guitar and bass.) What we wish from you: * 4-5 hours work per day, 5 days a week. The days and hours can be flexible. * Autonomy, since we will not be able to monitor all work. We will give you specific tasks and we do have a plan settled for what we need already. * To be a person who can appreciate to live a bit primitive for a while and see this as a rewarding experience. (We do have a proper bathroom with shower and a washing machine though - it's more the sleeping accomodations that are "primitive" - but we promise that you'll have enough blankets and heating to stay warm and dry.) A bonus is if you already have an interest in some forms of historical handicraft, older preservation techniques and similar. Tasks we need help with (to start with): * Building a historical tent/pavillion/shelter for you and coming volunteers to stay in. * Clearing off parts of the land from excessive grass, thornbushes etc. * Maintenance work and expansion of the vegetable/herb gardens. (The vegetables/herbs in the late medieval/early renaissance kitchen garden is starting to spire!) * Pre-sowing of seeds for later planting (+ possibly building a mini greenhouse) * Taking down some smaller trees, cutting them into firewood and staple for drying. * Continue fencing (round-pole fences and similar). * Collecting useful materials (there is a lot to find in the surroundings). * Build a cob oven. * Start building animal shelters - first a chicken shed. * Minor indoor repairs. Besides this we are up for suggestions if you feel you have some special knowledge that we can have use for. If you happen to be particularly good at something we procure for our courses, maybe we can offer you to be one of our course-leaders, meaning you will be paid for that work. If you happen to know Portuguese we do have some other work tasks which involve contacting people in the area to expand certain parts of the business. Knowledge of permaculture is very much appreciated since we wish to incorporate that way of thinking all over our place. (Although none of us have a certificate yet, but wish to attain it.) |
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| Last ten topics: | May 31 2011 02:07 - Better presentations of Wwoofers would be appreciated. |
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| Profil aktualisiert.: | Dec 27 2010 18:13 | |
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