Sustainable Life Skills Internships Details

Curriculum

  • Permaculture Design Certificate [72 hours]
  • Ecovillage, Neighborhood & Home System Design Practicums
  • Tantric Sustainability
  • Holistic Health & Natural Medicine-Making
  • Conflict Resolution & Non-violent Communication
  • Consensus Decision-Making
  • Creative & Expressive Arts
  • Implementing Permaculture Systems:
    • Natural building – Cob & clay-straw
    • Building Ponds
    • Building Rock Walls
    • Gardening & Orcharding
    • Animal Stewardship

Accommodations

Interns will have bunkroom beds in the Medicine Wheel House, an Earthaven housing collective, with an option to also create a primitive camping space in Medicine Wheel neighborhood. Classes and meals will be at the Medicine Wheel site.

Schedule

Beginning & Ending

Registration is from 1 - 4pm on Saturday, April 12th. Our class will begin with an orientation to Medicine Wheel neighborhood at 4pm, followed by supper at 6pm, and Opening Circle at 7:30pm. The class ends on June 15th, at 5pm. Departure is expected by June 16th.

"Normal" Daily Schedule

7:30-8:30 Breakfast
9:00-12:00 Class
12:00-12:30 Lunch Prep - all involved
12:30-2:30 Lunch/Siesta
2:30-5:30 Project
5:30-6:30 Design Team/Chores
6:30-7:30 Supper
7:30/8:00 Evening Activities

"Normal" Weekly Schedule

M - Th mornings PC class
MTW afternoons Hands-on Projects
Th Afternoons Domestic Arts - Cooking, Cleaning, Gardening
Wednesday nights Art/Music/Dance
Weekend Workshops, Intensives, or off

What to bring

* optional

  • *[optional but advised] Camping gear - including tent, groundcloth, canopy, sleeping pad, bedding
  • Clothing for any extreme
  • Shoes to work and walk in + sandals for every-day use [slippers for in the house]
  • Paper and pens/pencils
  • Raingear & sun hat
  • Flashlight/lantern [There are no street lights at Earthaven!]
  • Water bottle
  • *Favorite books, videos, or other reference material
  • *Lawn chair or camping chair
  • *Musical instruments (non-electric)
  • 3-ring binder for the 100 pages of notes we’ll give you
  • Gift for Giveaway Ceremony at the end of the course - something you’re ready to pass on.

Suggested Reading List

(In no particular order, p = Permaculture books, f = fiction)

As preparation for the class, you may want to begin reading some of these books:

  • p Permaculture: Pathways Beyond Sustainability, David Holmgren
  • p Permaculture Designer’s Manual, Bill Mollison
  • p Gaia’s Garden, Toby Hemenway
  • p An Introduction to Permaculture, Bill Mollison
  • The Chalice and the Blade, Riane Eisler
  • The Humanure Handbook, Joe Jenkins
  • A Green History of the Earth, Clive Ponting
  • My Name is Chellis and I’m in Recovery from Western Civilization, Chellis Glendenning
  • f Ishmael, Daniel Quinn
  • f The Fifth Sacred Thing, Starhawk
  • The Party’s Over, Richard Heinberg [Clearest explanation of Peak Oil that i know of]