Volunteers 2014

What will you be doing this summer? If you don’t know and want an idea then why not pop over to Poland and help on stage three of our straw bale house?

As you will see from the blog we have pretty much completed the outside of the house and we are ready to start inside; one or two coats of lime render after a bit of patching up of the clay coats, stone and wood floor laying, plumbing and electrics and of course looking after the veg garden and top field crops (potatoes, wheat, rye, peas and beans.)

As we are expecting our first baby this year, any day now at the time of typing (Feb 13th), it is hard for us to provide a schedule of work, but it is our hope to continue some time in April. So if you are interested then please drop me and email and I will get back to you with the latest news and plan. Eddy@winko.co.uk

Accommodation is primarily be in the straw bale house, which provides shelter from wind and rain and now has the added luxury of running water, albeit cold! But don’t be put off as the  wood fired cooking range provides heat and hot water; with a little planning:) Toilet facilities are courtesy of a couple of composting toilets, and we now have electricity and a wireless Internet connection to a limited area.

Sleeping arrangements are courtesy of three of sofa beds as well as two camp beds, allocated on a first come first serve basis, so hurry! We also have a partially converted stable which good for sleeping once the weather warms up a bit. And of course once it has warmed up the you can camp; we can provide a limited number of tents and sleeping bags; just ask if we have any spare. There are several locations available, our favourite is in the orchard, which we camped in, back in the summer of 2011.

Food and drink will be provided to all participants, breakfast, lunch and dinner and whilst we are not vegetarian we are able to cater for you if you are; many traditional Polish dishes are vegetarian, so don’t worry! And if you want to be part of the team helping to keep our stomachs full then there will always be a place for you:) This last part is even more relevant now as baby duties may interrupt the usual restraint hours 🙂

Participants will be expected to commit to at least four hours a day (Mon-Fri)  in exchange for  food, drink, accommodation and the experience ; leaving you plenty of time to explore  the surrounding area, including the beautiful Bieszcady Mountains which is about a two hour drive or Krakow in the other direction, for culture and night life.

April 2014

• Patching up cracks in the earth plaster internal walls and starting on the lime render
• Building of internal partitions
• Electrical and plumbing installation
• Installation of under floor heating pipes
• Floor laying; wood and stone
• Reed mat and earth plaster internal partitions
• External maintenance of the building; lime wash, wood treatment.

There may also be a few jobs around the plot such as picking fruit, potatoes and other crops as well as a few land management tasks such as tree planting and felling.

If you have read this far then there is a good chance you may be interested or want to know more? Please send me an email Eddy@Winko.co.uk and we can exchange details and work something out. Everybody is welcome and if you can’t get on with other people then you will be taken to the forest and shot!

Airports: Rzeszow (RZE) less than an hour away. Krakow (KRK) just over 2 hours away. Either way we will pick you up 🙂

Rzeszow (RZE) from: Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin, East Midlands, Glasgow, Luton, Stansted and Manchester with Ryanair

Krakow (KRK) from: Birmingham, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Leeds Bradford, Liverpool, Manchester and Stansted with Ryanair

Belfast, Bristol, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London Gatwick and Paris with Easyjet

Newcastle with Jet2

We are located near the town of Czudec in the South East of Poland.

Before the blog and this link should provide you with a good idea of the area and what we are trying to achieve.

Finally many thanks to those who have taken part so far, your number may be small but you contribution is big and will be remembered  long into the future and you will always be welcome back to work or to rest, if we ever finish! The most rewarding thing about the whole process is meeting people and making new friends that would not have otherwise met, so thank you.