Donkey whisperer welcome in our farm in Alquerubim, Portugal

Details

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  Description

  Farm is owned by Goetz and Amelia. Amelias lifelong dream was waking up every day to donkeys on a farm and whose dream has come true!!!
  Goetz is not much of a farm boy but is instead out surfing or kitesurfing living his dream in his campervan with our dogs Jackson and Annie who like a break from the farm sometimes.
  We have a large double story house (well I think it's a mansion! And live in a little village far enough away to feel like we live in the Shire but close enough to the city to get out and about. Think Adams family meets pippi longstockings, meets faulty towers!
  
  The house is always full of volunteers or companions to Oupa who in the lives in a cottage on the property next door. He has dementia and he joins us at dinner most evenings with his companions.
  
  The farm is a busy, unpredictable place and we are a boisterous irreverant bunch here, but full of love, fun, laughter and magic!
  We work 25 hours a week and all food is provided. Amelia cooks for us all 4 times a week, Friday is pizza night and weekends everyone does their own thing. We are mainly vegetarian but looove cheese! We have a generously well stocked fridge and pantry and breakfast and lunch is also help yourself.
  
  We are all diy beginners so not much to teach volunteers regarding diy, so it is more of a bumbling along, following youtube tutorials, giving it a bash sort of project and every now and then we get a skilled volunteer or worker who can teach us a trick or two. I am always looking for skilled people like builders or carpenters, welders and we offer payment for these types of skills in addition to workaway hours too
  
  There is a lot of gardening, pruning, harvesting, building, painting, turning the barnyard into a nice place for our animals as recently its been a bit of a building site.
  
  This winter I want to spend a lot more time training my donkeys for donkey therapy and taking them for walks rather than just looking after their basic needs.
  
  Our future goal is to turn barn into a workshop space for things we are interested in such as Shibari, craft workshops, diy building workshops such as cob building or tadelakt and animal care workshops such as natural horsemanship, barefoot trimming, donkey therapy and also offer accommodation to workshop attendees.
  
  We live 15 minutes from Aveiro in the countryside (we call it the Shire) but its pretty social here as there are always workaways and we have a son who lives here and works from home. My sister lives down the road and she mostly has workaways, so we spend a lot of time between the houses playing board games, jamming, barbecuing, swimming in the river nearby in summer, stand up paddling and the younglings often go into Aveiro to party. Porto is 45 minutes away so on weekends theres always the possibility to leave the Shire end enjoy the city vibe. In winter it is mostly hanging out and playing board games, jamming or making bonfires and burning miniature artworks we make.
  
  The farm is a fun farm for the pure pleasure of living and learning with our 3 donkeys, five ducks, 16 chickens, (2 blind chickens Hellen Keller and Stevie Wonder) 3 cats and 2 dogs Jackson and Annie.
  
  We aspire to make sure our animals have the best life. In fact it feels like most days we are their human slaves! We seem to always be putting up fences to stop chickens eating our veggies, dogs eating eggs, ducks bullying blind chickens! , donkeys escaping!
  
  The donkeys and all other animals need feeding, cleaning out, walking to the field and the garden is always begging for love and attention! We have this area covered by our current animal whisperer but she leaves soon.
  
  Although we are both 50, we relate a lot to alternative younglings. and our aim is to turn our space into a vibey, communal funky space that is a fun space for volunteers to hang out.
  We like to ensure we offer a fair exchange and value our volunteers and treat them like family.
  
  
  Amelia and Goetz

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Experience the Portugese countryside but not too far from Porto. Connect with other volunteers and learn and exchange skills and ideas.
  
  My husband can take you surfing.

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  Help

  Daily farm life cleaning out donkeys, ducks, chickens, feeding all animals, walking dogs, walking donkeys, CUDDLING DONKEYS!! helping with building, painting. Fences fences fences! We seem to always be making fences !
  
  Creating art installations, building a pond, sanding, painting, gardening, harvesting,
  
  Hours are 25 hours a week, mostly 9 to 2 Monday to friday. These involve gardening, renovating our two cottages and workshop space or looking after animals.
  We are pretty keen for handy people right now with basic carpentry or plumbing or building skills OR if not skilled, not afraid to give it a go after a few youtube tutotials.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  German: Fluent
  French: Intermediate
  Portuguese: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  We are desperate to learn PORTUGESE. !
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  Accommodation

  accommodation is rooms in our house with a shared bathroom, shared kitchen and once cottage is renovated this will be available. We also have a bell tent.
  
  We provide all food and a generously well stocked fridge. Breakfasts and lunches are self served. We usually all eat together at night and Amelia cooks on week nights. Weekends everyone does their own meals or joins up for meals or we make pizzas.
  We are 95 percent vegetarian but eat a lot of cheese!
  
  The house is a large double story old house that is being renovated where we all live together, with volunteers who have their own large room.
  
  We do 5 hours a day Mon to Fri
  9.30 to 1.30 then 1.30 to 2.30 5 days a week and a communal cleaning deep cleaning day every Saturday for an hour which is not part of workaway hours but part of living in a community.

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  What else ...

  We are mostly vegetarian. We eat meat or fish maybe once a week but cook for the vegetarians separate stuff. We eat eggs from our chickens and eat a lot of cheese!!

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  we have fibre

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  Space for parking camper vans

  we have water and electricity for you to plug in and an outside loo

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  Can possibly accept pets

  Any pets that arent chicken or cat killers.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  25 hours a week

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