Hi! We have an off-grid sheep farm on a tropical island in Malaysia. If you are traveling in South East Asia, this can be a working break between Penang and Thailand.
If you love gardening, animals and woodwork, and are interested to learn about caring for a small flock of sheep, this may be the place for you! We are a retired couple, and our homestead is still under construction. We have a wood workshop, a small house, a sheep house and a vegetable garden...and pasture, forest and beach. We have 4 dogs and 3 cats, all very much involved in our everyday lives, so a visitor needs to be fond of animals to be comfortable. We are running entirely on solar power and filtered stream water, and our sheep are adding much-needed nutrients to our otherwise sandy soil. (We are NOT practicing agriculture, NOT producing food for sale, and are not a teaching example of organic vegetable farming, so please don't expect an internship in these fields. We merely have a small garden for our own veg and fruit, on a big isolated piece of land.)
We're looking for some help from a STRONG, HARDWORKING person, or couple, who can do gardening, woodwork, daily beach garbage clean-up, forest clearing etc. The work day is about 6 hours. Your free time can be spent relaxing, swimming in the sea, reading, exploring the beach or forest. Our place is isolated, and we rarely see people, so this is not really the place to learn about the local community and culture. We appreciate our volunteers helping to keep the place clean, wash dishes and prepare meals.
The seasons affect the work here
Mid Dec to mid April : Dry, no rain, very windy, leaves fall.
Main Work : LEAF RAKING , MOWING & COMPOSTING.
Mid April to August : Daily rain, humid, grass grows fast
Main Work: GRASS MOWING , RAKING & COMPOSTING and beach garbage.
Sept to mid Dec : Rains all day everyday. Very humid. Floods. Not recommended to come
Main Work: Odd jobs, clear fallen trees, raking, garbage, gathering food for sheep.
Accommodation, meals and schedule for volunteer workers:
Your private space is a loft bedroom (without walls) above the wood workshop. There are 2 single beds which can be together or apart, as you desire. Your bathroom is downstairs. Meals are prepared and eaten at our own house, up the hill, within calling distance. Our food is pretty healthy - high in vegetables, and we are NOT vegetarians. (We can feed vegetarians but we do not support a vegan diet.) Your work day begins at 7:45am with farm chores, which you can do daily independently once you have been shown how. Breakfast at 9, assigned task, lunch at 1. Rest till 4, more chores, dinner about 7:30. After dinner, optional tile games or retire early.
Organic methods: The soil in our raised beds and flower beds is enriched with compost which we make from sheep manure and mowed leaves and grass. We use no pesticides. We have fresh stream water, no chemicals, no neighbours.
Certifications: We have not sought certification, as we are only producing a little food for ourselves.
Current projects: We would appreciate help from strong volunteers with these projects:
Woodwork
We are building a wooden house using the Malay woodwork approach (no nails) joinery techniques. If you are skilled with a chisel and other tools, please let us know.
Farm
We maintain 10 acres of pasture (mowing, raking, composting) ; care for sheep, including feeding and washing their house ; maintain a vegetable garden, which includes watering, weeding, planting, harvesting etc. We need to do occasional tree-cutting with a chainsaw, as we gradually open up new areas of forest.
Beach clean-up
We gather and bag up litter left by picnickers and the tide, for disposal. More during rains.
Internet access ; available but low bandwidth
Read more
Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Sheep or goat farming
Green Building
Renewable energy production
Methods or systems
Biological pest control
Permaculture
Host type
Self-sufficiency property
4
Hectares
|
9.9
Acres
