a call for the wild
2019 landmate opportunities


​The woodland harvest mountain farm family is seeking folks to join our co-created community oriented permaculture farmstead collective to steward the land and continue offering teaching and learning opportunities in our community and beyond!

we are a unique family with two amazing sons, 14 & 18, two awesome moms, and we share our farm with one full-time & two part-time caretaker/stewards, many volunteers & visitors, and a variety of animals!! woodland harvest is a vibrant unique ever-evolving permaculture teaching & learning farmstead that continually grows with the many people who pass through each season from work traders, friends, family, beloveds, community members, college students, to other earth enthusiasts.
 
our family spends many months each year in North Carolina on our farmstead, and we also travel some each year to further or teaching & learning skills and give our boys a chance to see other lands.  this season, we’re taking our family on the road again to stabilize our finances, steward land and build community across the country, so we're looking for the perfect folks to come try their hands at homesteading, gardening, living on and with the land for the growing season or possibly longer! 

our landmate opportunities range from one to 12 months.  in years past, we've hosted heavily hands-on apprenticeships & internships, but we're seeking folks with some homesteading/off-grid experience, so we can try to pull away from some of the principle tasks that go into running the farmstead.   we’ve been experimenting with a variety of living situations here & at other farms.  we envision a collaborative situation where two-five eager dedicated somewhat experienced farmer homesteaders live on and work the land to maintain and grow through a permaculture lens.  we prefer people commit to a 1-12 month stay at Woodland Harvest. for full-time dwellers, we ask for $200-300 per adult per month, which is negotiable based on many variables, but we can host folks who prefer a work-trade only option depending on experience, etc.  there are several options for sleeping indoors or outdoors or parking an RV or tiny house, etc.  we have one full-time steward, Mike who lives in a small hand-tool built cabin, and we hope that perhaps a small group of likeminded folks and/or some partners, friends, etc., will join us soon.

skills required within collective -- we realize that not every person will have skills in every area, and they’ll certainly be better honed or learned while here. which is why we know that it takes a collective to live with such intention.  following is a basic list of essential skills we’ve found necessary to maintain and grow the woodland harvest spaces and visions:

  • carpentry (rough & finish)
  • alternative energy installation, maintenance & problem solving
  • how to use basic tools (ie. shovels, post hole diggers, hammers, chainsaws)
  • understanding of radical weather shifts at nearly 4,000 ft. in the mountains (living & working with snow, ice, rain, wind, bitter cold, etc.)
  • general homestead problem solving
  • organic & biodynamic gardening
  • water management (ie. plumbing, graywater, spring maintenance)
  • consensus process, group facilitation, conflict resolution, participatory democracy & community building
  • open attitudes & social dynamism when interacting with guests and community members
  • cooking for and with large groups of folks in a rustic setting
  • entrepreneurial mindset & skills (ie. small business management, finances, marketing, planning, etc.)

our basic expectations of the collective:

  • maintain infrastructure & further projects in progress
  • maintain off-grid electrical system & possible renewable energy installations
  • maintain and improve water systems (gravity fed spring water, graywater, etc.)
  • harvest & season wood from land for woodstove heat & cooking
  • problem solve (ie. frozen pipes, fallen tree, low electricity, leaky windows, loose dogs, etc.)
  • take initiative around projects that interest you which further the vision of woodland harvest
  • seek donations of time, money, expertise, and resources on an on-going basis & participate in & promote barter/trade
  • offer teaching & learning opportunities in line with our permaculture values
  • participate in local events & offerings to promote farm products & teaching & learning opportunities
  • maintain relationship with WWOOF, Alternative Spring Break & other partner organizations
  • maintain cabin rentals for income offsets

disclaimer:  we've hosted thousands of people on the land over the past decade from very short visits to multi-year stays.  we've had probably 98% powerful positive experiences with folks.   however, for this situation, we must ensure that the right folks have a temperament that is concordant with the rhythms of the land, animals, and other humans on the land and the vision of the farmstead.  this is a sacred healing land, and we cannot tolerate abuse of any kind for even a moment from property damage to intimidation of women, children, animals, and never violence. 
we are a strong loving family and embrace visitors with open hearts. 

for folks who are seriously interested in becoming a part of the woodland harvest family, we prefer an email introduction with details around your desires and goals to live at woodland harvest and some background information about yourself and skills, resources, strengths, weaknesses, etc., that you’d bring to the farm. we hope to have folks join the farmstead this season to have some overlapping time with us on the farm before we depart. we’re so excited to share our magical space with folks in this new creative way and look forward to what and who the future brings!

send an email to woodlandharvestmtnfarm@gmail.com

blessed be, elizabeth, lisa, landrum, aydan, mike, & tracy

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