Alternative Art and Grow Project in the Mojave Desert
California
The PROJECT
Our property, Villa Anita, is taking an inter-disciplinary approach to stewarding the land. We are artists, designers, dog-carers, builders, chefs, and farmers living in one of the hottest deserts in the world, trying to create a self-sustainable art site. We are exploring how we can influence the aesthetic of growing while finding ways to incorporate art, architecture, renewable energy, recycled waste products.
We are Jack and Carlo (couple and owners), and our nephew, Weston, who has joined the team for the last 2 years. We live here and will work alongside you everyday. Along the way, you will meet other guests and travelers that stay for nightly stays on the property as well.
What We Need From You
Our ideal WWOOFer looks like this:
*required-non cigarette smoker
*required-loves dogs
*required-healthy and strong
.-wakes up early, self-contained
– has a passion that he/she can enjoy on off hours
- wholesome, down-to-earth, non-convoluted
Bonus:-can work with power tools-has construction background-can plumb-can run electrical-can weld-has experience with renewable energy
Our work day looks like this:
We wake up at 7 a.m. and work together to make breakfast. We eat communal breakfast at 8 a.m. We work until lunch. Then we work again until an hour before sundown and then we take the dogs for a run in the desert, and sometimes finish the day by getting clean at the local hot springs’ resorts. Then, we cook and eat dinner together, and the rest of the evening is at your disposal. It’s a simple life set in a brilliantly beautiful backdrop. Working towards common creative goals is the order of the day. With your help, we are creating a haven for alternative design, where art, life and nature converge.
Projects within the PROJECT
1. Designing a long lasting desert foodscape.
2. Removing adobe soil in exchange for sandy loam.
3. Building shade structures to protect plants from the sun
4. Maintaining/Removing/Transplanting invasive bamboo roots
5. Building bottle walls
WWOOFers quarters are renovated, comfortable trailers with full electrical, bathrooms, furniture, and beds. There are plenty of outdoor seating areas for realxing, getting on the internet, writing/art-making, etc. Our accommodations are very comfortable!
Our town of Tecopa, CA feels like an island in a sea of sand. It is a town of about 100 full-time residents, so it's quite small. The nearest “regular” town is 45 minutes away. Hidden just beyond our property, down a canyon is a date-palm oasis called China Ranch. Twenty miles south is Dumont Dunes, where Ansel Adams took some of his most famous photos. Forty-five minutes north is Death Valley National Park. Sprinkled throughout the area are uncharted architectural oddities, abandoned mine-sites, and dried communities. It’s truly a unique place, but it is isolated. You have to be ok with that. You must love dogs and be o.k. intermingling with them throughout the day. Please respond to this call-to-action with a very brief explanation why this project speaks to you which should include previous experiences or areas of study.
Please decide if this is the right place for you. You have to be able to put in a full day’s work. That means being physically capable and mentally enthralled. If you need constant internet interaction, this is not the place for you. If you don’t find joy and curiosity doing simple physical work, this is not the place for you. Come here to be inspired and learn how to practice art as life, and life as art.
Certifications: NWF
Internet access available
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Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Fruit or nut farming
Dairy farming
Flower farming
Traditional crafts
Methods or systems
Permaculture
Mentoring opportunities
LGBTQ+-operated
Host type
Nonprofit / Community
Certified organic
Former WWOOFer
4.1
Hectares
|
10
Acres
Accommodation
Jack
Member since 2015
Languages spoken:
English, French, Spanish
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Response rate: 100%
Response time: typically within 1 day
California
Las Vegas
My past WWOOFers
Jack has not had any confirmed visits.
Reviews
Damien
France
•
October 2019
FIrst time I was in the desert The villa itself is colorful and funny. Food was good and they didn't hesitate to buy what I wanted if I asked. sometimes i felt like i was in a municipal waste. Horse flies during summer One of the owner went on holidays 3 days after I came. Another one sometimes was upset and shouting at us for nothing. He apologized saying he had a lot of things to think about, and he was jus putting his anger into a wrong direction: our direction. They made me bury plastic trash in the ground underneath what they want to grow: "because it melts"! Not so fun being there.
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Reply from Jack
It's sad Damien decided to leave this review. When he left, we shared a big hug and talked about him coming back. I'd like to convey we don't twist anyone's arm here. We consider everyone here adults, and if you don't like what's happening you have to raise your concerns.. That said, any point during his 3-week stay he could have decided to leave. He did not. Probably because we cooked 3 multi-course meals a day, paid for hot springs visits, took lots of breaks, and had cool people coming through who were fun to talk to including the fellow worker he left to travel with (interestingly unmentioned). That worker is also coming back to work on other projects with us. Damien didn't communicate with us about his feelings because it would have left him open to criticism from us.When you talked to Damien about fun things, he could talk to you for hours in English. However, when you explained a task and left him to it, he would lean on his "poor understanding" of English as the reason he wouldn't complete things. He often disappeared. It was frustrating and insulting. I thought we did enough to deserve better.
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Quinn
United States
•
April 2019
Really amazing experience. I would say that it is a lot more isolated from what a lot of Wwoofers are used to, given its smack dab in the middle of the desert, sitting nearly an hour and a half away from Vegas, and 45 minutes away from the nearest town. It's so quiet most of the time that you can pretty much communicate with eachother on opposite ends of the property at an indoor volume. The isolation also leads to everyone's personalities becoming a lot more noticeable than they would be in other situations, especially Carlos who already has a deafeningly big personality. As pretty much everyone else who's worked here has said, it's pretty much impossible not to come away from this experience without a sizable impact on your psyche, spirit and outlook. Carlos's family is great, and there's a good chance you'll get to meet at least some of them while you're there. Aaron is an amazing artist who is prolific enough to have been able to fill some 40-odd acres of property with his work. Both Aaron and C have some breathtaking stories about their lives, in how they intersect and how they've departed from one anothers'.
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Ellie
United Kingdom
•
July 2018
My girlfriend and I stayed at Villa Anita for 2 weeks and really I feel there are not enough words. It was a pleasure, even with the heat and the work load, you can learn an awful lot about alternative ways of living whilst being amongst wonderful company in a beautiful setting. Thank you, Carlos, Aaron, Kaitlyn, Jack, Yenta, Dill Pickle, Betty, Dwight and Guido. We love and miss you. See you soon
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Taylor
United States
•
January 2017
Villa Anita is a feast for the senses. From the delicious food to the unreal art, their glorious record collection and the overall feel of being in a place unlike any other. Carlo, Aaron and Ry made me feel welcome and apart of a family as soon as I got there until the day I left and continue to do so. They were willing to help with anything I needed and were patient through my learning their day to day operations. The work was difficult but rewarding in that I learned a great deal about creating something from nothing. You can count on some really awesome projects from building bottled walls to alternative energy sources. Villa Anita is also a great place for getting back in touch with your creative side. They have a glorious throwing wheel for pottery and with all of their own art everywhere its hard not to want to create something yourself. The guys however cannot take all the credit for the greatness of this oasis. The dogs are just as much apart of the home as the people. I'm so thankful to the guys for everything and I'll definitely be back to visit soon.
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Helen
United Kingdom
•
September 2016
From the moment I saw Villa Anita’s listing I sensed there was something extremely special about the place. After a brief exchange with the hosts to ensure I was willing to get stuck in, I was warmly welcomed into this creative oasis. Villa Anita is a visual spectacle that you will realise very quickly has been made possible not only due to the extraordinary artistic vision of the proprietors but because of their committed work ethic. It’s an incredibly inspiring environment where if you are willing to muck in and work hard you will be rewarded with the kindness of the hosts (and their extended family!) and walk away with the sentiment that anything is possible. Visiting Villa Anita was an incredibly formative experience for me - in ways even more so than I could understand at the time. The creativity, social intelligence, kindness and industrious ambition of the hosts is remarkable and I feel extremely fortunate to have been afforded the opportunity to experience and learn from them.
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mati
United States
•
May 2016
Death valley. You drive through tecopa and feel the grasp of death. Like this town was run down by zombies.. i even saw a few. You get to the end of the world, take a right and you enter a different dimension. An island of creativity surrounded by a sea of dullness. A lively hill in the valley of death. A scream of joy in the vast silence space. With time you find the life in the lonely desert. Animals are scares but they exist. The flowers wait till the perfect timing and explode in a super bloom. The desert is dry on the surface, like humans. Search deep inside and find a river of flowing life. Hot warm energizing mineral water bubble out to smooth the scratchy surface. Soak, relax, let your mind go, find your river. Thanks for the invitation, i felt at home from the first day.
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