Welcome to Sevadouro
Hi, thanks for looking! We are; Kate (mother and grandmother), a very experienced gardener and qualified botanist; James (son-in-law), a professional arborist; Lucy (daughter), a qualified homeopath and also a gardener; Harvey, (2 1/2 years) a talented hammerer and we have a baby, Ruben, (1 year.) We also have a dog and keep chickens.
We've been here for nearly three years, and have already dug and planted many vegetable and fruit beds, cleared land, pruned olives etc, but we need WWOOFers to help with these and other projects.
Future plans include replacing the roundhouse; re-building the small-scale water mill to produce power; building a new compost loo; re-roofing the main house and making cycle-powered battery chargers and washing machine.
Definite tasks here would be re-claiming overgrown terraces by clearing, strimming etc; watering; seed sowing; weeding; digging; growing and care of food-producing plants (training given); rebuilding terrace walls (in stone), renovating adegas (underooms) in the 100 year-old house and firewood processing/woodland management (supervision given).
Optional jobs include jam/preserve making; dog walking; child care; didgeree-doo carving; poi and fire-poi making; cooking and using saw-mill planker.
We can provide a basic living vehicle with a double bed, 2 ring cooker and small sink - a cool, comfortable underroom and we have plenty of tents, airbeds, tarps and mozzie nets for the summer months. There is a solar shower outside and a conventional indoor bathroom - help is needed to complete the indoor compost toilet and make an efficient greywater collector, too.
We would like our WWOOFers to work with us for 30 hours a week - the hours and days are flexible, as we live within walking distance of a river with beautiful swimming gorge, so if it's too hot to work, we all go there!
Early mornings and late afternoons in the summer are good for the gardening, we work in the house or shady woodland at other times. The Summer here is hot, it's cold and frosty in the Winter and sometimes very wet, and the Springtime is idyllic.
We are close to Serpins, Lousa, Gois and Poiares for 'town' trips with plenty of lovely river beaches nearby.
We are happy to provide 3 meals a day plus toast, fruit etc. for snacks. We are an omnivorous household, but can cater for vegetarians and vegans. Smokers welcome.
Do send us an email and we hope we can be one of your hosts for your working/learning/travelling experience!
UPDATE JUNE 2010;
We have a friend locally who needs one or two WWOOFers for an immediate start. He has quite a lot of land, two dogs, two cats. three chickens and currently 11(!) puppies who need lots of love and attention and assistance in rehoming - so volunteers must be animal friendly! Accommodation is a truck in the garden, with use of the house's 2nd downstairs kitchen and the bathroom in the main house. This is a 'rough and ready' quinta, the owner is very keen and enthusiastic to new ideas and projects on the farm, but also runs a business hiring out generators, amps, speaker rigs etc, so music fans, vinyl fans, night owls, smokers and people willing to overlook a certain level of delapidation most welcome! The quinta is near to Vila Nova de Ceira, but is situated up a long hill, so WWOOFers must be up for being at the property on the whole, though there are lovely forest walks on the doorstep. Persons with initiative and up for shared cooking a must, please! This placement can be 'tacked-on' to a stay at Sevadouro by arrangement. Please contact Hannah at;
headoverfeethannah@hotmail.com or Sevadouro with the reference; 'Pat's house'.
