Website: http://www.samothrakian.com
City: Samothraki
State:
Zip: 68002
Contact Email: Evanmillner@gmail.com
Contact Phone:
Contact Name:
This flourishing permaculture garden and queer friendly space is located in a quiet leafy village on Samothrace Island in Greece.
The beautiful gardens and charming conjoined houses are a very quiet space, with a calm
and delicious atmosphere.
Do not expect city comfort levels; this is a remote island where the pleasures of life are simpler.
We are free and open minded , in the spirit of the concept of a temporary autonomous zone (TAZ) where you can live naturally and enjoy the wild spirit of this place for a short or long stay.
Body freedom here, as on the beaches and in the mountain streams, is a choice you may wish to take. You can be clothed or naturist, dress up wild and express yourself. Here in this place there are no corridors, all rooms in the house open freely to the gentle garden; all spaces and people are open and can pass from one to another. The inside is outside.
There is a hot shower in the open plan bath room, (which deliberately has no door) adjoining the fully functional kitchen.
The diet here is simple, and includes lots of greens, beans and local organic goat and sheep meat and homemade slow fermented bread and food that has been preserved.
We eat, cook, talk and work together. Quiet evenings can be spent reading, dancing, or playing together. From October the rainy season starts, and the wind begins to blow in earnest.
Natural music (guitar, piano, other instruments and voice) is okay, but no music on the loudspeaker. You are encouraged to live with only the natural sounds of bird song, the human voice raised in song or recited poetry or prose read aloud in the fields.
If you really need recorded music, you can use earphones.
The house uses solar and wind power, and uses electric and manual vehicles and machinery; no fossil fuel machines are used. In winter power levels are minimal, as the days are short, because the sun is blocked by the looming mountain and the sometimes heavy cloud and mists.
There are vegetable gardens, and a growing collection of fruit and nut trees. The garden project only really took off after the traditional aqueduct from the mountain river was (finally) repaired during the winter of 2020, giving a supply of water for the garden through the summer. Work on the garden is ongoing, even in winter.
The goal is to achieve a high degree of self sufficiency, growing and foraging enough food to provide a large part of the diet, along with recycling and rescue of materials found round the island for reuse. Food gathering includes local foraging throughout the year for wild foods (fruits, nuts, and leaf vegetables) and medicinal plants.
No food is produced for sale; the aim is to be self sufficient with basic foods, and produce a small surplus if possible, for sharing with friends and neighbours.
In September 2021 we started with our first free range chickens.
Work on site includes gardening, food gathering and preservation, wood collection all year, sawing wood, chopping wood, stacking wood, seagrass collection at the beach (for soil building), helping build stuff like ponds and water channels, landscaping, and various odds and ends involved in running a self sufficient life. There is also an old ruined sacred site on the land, just a pile of rocks and jumbled marble blocks that could be made into a beautiful spot to contemplate or meditate under the trees. The property adjoins the forest that runs down the river valley, with a gate that leads out to the wilderness.
5 hours a day of contribution of time; more if you want to, but that’s up to you. There is a lot of work to do here, so if you like keeping busy there is a never ending list of things to do. We mostly only eat what we grow or forage from the surroundings, apart from a few selected items I buy (flour, cereals, cheese, olive oil, tahini, cocoa and coffee mainly, but even some of this comes from barter and exchange): in summer big juicy salads, and large pots of stew all winter. You won’t go hungry. Fresh produce is seasonal.
SLEEPING
The communal areas are clothing optional.
Sleeping here can be alone, or you can opt to sleep on the communal shared futons. If you sleep in a communal bedspace – not a dormitory arrangement, but shared bedspace – others may be sleeping together with you.
The communal bedspace is in an old rustic traditional Samothraki one room house, with two double futons laid out as one large mattress. This room is separate from the main house, and has its own front door.
The second shared room has two single beds in a marble floored room on the ground floor of the old stone house. (This room has the fridge and freezer in it as well, as it is the coolest room we have. It only has a door, which also functions as a window. (The fridge and freezer are turned off in winter time.) This room also is separate from the main house, and has its own front door. This room is also used as the food storage pantry.
There is also plenty of space to pitch a tent if you prefer that.
LIBRARY:
There is a study/library (Evan, your host, sleeps here)
BATHROOM
The bathroom /wet room doesn’t have a door by design, (but is in a semi private alcove area.) The wood furnace for hot water is in the bathroom, (used on cloudy days) which warms the kitchen area.
BATHING IN THE RIVER
You can swim nude in the river and at the beach all year round, and you are welcome to come along for the walk, and a swim if you dare the cold water. Evan swims in the river all year around – as the Kariotesriver is spring fed, it stays more or less the same cold temperature all year.
KITCHEN:
There is a large functional shared kitchen.
There is also a small outside wood stove and a large traditional bread oven (wood fired) for baking bread and pizzas. The electric stove is only used during daytime during summer, as at night the system runs on batteries; enough power for the small things in winter, but not for the electric cooker. This is why the electric stove and the washing machine can only be used during sunlight hours in summer. In winter, clothes are washed or boiled on top of the wood range, and rinsed in the large outdoor laundry sink.
In autumn and winter we use the indoor wood stove to cook on and heat the kitchen – this is the only room in the house that is currently heated during the winter.
There is a lot of electrical power in summer: from November to February/March we have much less electrical power: this winter will be the first with a new wind turbine, so hopefully there will not be too many days without some power during this winter.
The upside of being off grid on the island, is that the homestead does not suffer from power surges in the local electric grid, so your electrical equipment is always safe, and during the frequent power outages once the autumn winds start up or the snows begin there is almost always some power at the house.
Work
Type of work:
Animal care
Building
Gardening
General maintenance
Help in the house
Help with eco project
Hours per day:
5 – on an off during the day – some days are more relaxed, others more busy.
Work requirements:
HELP
Five hours help a day, more if you feel like it, but that’s up to you.
Length of stay? This is flexible, so if you want to stay much longer, just ask.
Ongoing projects: regular walks up the aqueduct to the source in the river to clear it of debris (and to have a swim – even in winter). Also an ongoing repair and maintenance project to fix it, repair small cracks and damage with cement etc on an ongoing basis. This means sometimes taking small amounts of mortar up the hill, and carrying it up to the aqueduct in a barrow, or in some places by hand in a bucket. Most of the aqueduct was fixed after a long project this winter, but it still needs more work, as it was not maintained properly for the previous 30 years.
Gardening: weeding, planting, digging, harvesting, maintaining the water channels in the garden, and preparing more channels and garden beds, moving the water around. This is ongoing all through the year.
Clearing brambles to extend the planted areas. Maintaining the fences to keep the goats out. (important!)
Food gathering and preservation. Canning/bottling.
Looking after the chickens.
Building things like shelves. This year help is needed setting up the food storage pantry in the basement of the old stone house, and additional food storage shelves in the kitchen.
Helping build a natural cold pools for water management and storage (that can also be used for cooling off on hot days).
Help in the kitchen, sourdough bread making and daily baking, communal cooking, and cleaning the communal areas of the house.
Helping design and build a small wood heated sauna using waste and scavenged wood.
Helping design and build a composting toilet for humanure for the trees (not for the vegetables).
Helping clean and restore the area around the ruined sacred site that is on my land.
Other projects you might suggest after you see the place can be discussed.
Wood gathering. Wood cutting. Wood chopping. Wood stacking. (ongoing all year, but more intense in autumn and winter)
Help building/extending the outside kitchen areas, and the area around the outside oven, making stone paths.
Building and/or repairing drystone walls, and building a wood shed.
Additional Info
About the area: The beach is 5 minutes stroll down the hill; and the icy cold river in the forest is about 15 minutes walk up the hill. Therma with its hot springs and tavernas is around 30mins walk away: There is a bus stop at the bottom of the hill with frequent buses in the summer season, only one bus a day off season. There are two tavernas in the village, ( but no shops.) These are only open during the tourist season, which is over by the end of October