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Semi-rural farm project seeks volunteers

World, North America, USA, South Valley

APPLY NOW

APPLY NOW

Travel dates

27°C, 13:15

About the workproject

We need 1 volunteer

Our next opening begins mid-January, for 1-2 people, staying in our cozy vintage travel trailer. Folks travelling in their own RV/camper trailer should feel free to contact us at any time as our availability sometimes changes and is often based on available housing. If this sounds good to you, please email us at yarrow@sunflowerriver.org!

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We are a small aspiring sustainable farm, on 4 acres, 5 miles south of Albuquerque at 4900-feet elevation. We are in our 11th year, and work is varied. We welcome honest, hard-working folks who love to get their hands dirty. We have a large vegetable garden, and do a lot of food preservation in the summer and fall. We raise chickens, turkeys, and peacocks. In addition, five adults, one small child, a dog, and three cats currently live on the property. While it is definitely not required, volunteers who enjoy kids are a plus; we have a charming and energetic 7-year-old, whom we homeschool.

Summer housing (April-Oct) consists of camping space, or the 16′ camping dome on our back acreage, which is green and pretty in a New Mexico kind of way. The dome can house 2 people comfortably out of the weather, and is located in our green-belt area. We have a nice camping pad next to it, that can host a tent of almost any size, and there’s good places to set up a hammock if you prefer. Winter housing (Nov-March) consists of a clean, vintage travel trailer, which can accommodate 1-2 people comfortably. The trailer has electric, heat, and wifi, but not plumbing. The trailer is also available in summer. We cannot accommodate dogs in the trailer.

Interns have full access to the community house for kitchen, bathroom, laundry, etc. In spring/summer we can accommodate up to 3 people at a time. Leashed, well-trained dogs who don’t chase chickens/cats are negotiable in summer.

This year’s major projects include: cleaning, organizing and maintaining all outbuildings, taking care of turkeys & chickens from day-old chicks all the way through processing, and as always, garden work, including planting, weeding, composting, harvesting, drip-irrigation system maintenance, organic pest control, harvesting food, and food preservation (freezing, drying, canning and cooking with it!) We are also working on the path around our back acreage, to create a better balance of human-use-space and wildlife-habitat. We will teach any work that is unfamiliar, and provide tools and information for every new thing.

You do not need to be experienced at any of these things. You do need to be a motivated self-starter, interested in hands-on learning. You will work with other interns, farm residents (as available), or solo, depending on the task, the schedule, and your own preference. Interns must be able to carry out work independently once they are given enough info about a project, without requiring full-time engagement from farm residents.

Several of us work full-time off the farm, so we appreciate highly motivated individuals, and can accommodate a range of work schedules and length of stay–anything from two weeks to 4 months. Internships of over 1 month will start with a one-month trial period to make sure we’re a good fit. If it works out well, then we can extend it up a maximum of 4 months.

We are connected by city bus and bicycle routes to Albuquerque. Our land extends back from a busy semi-rural highway to a tree-lined field with open views of wide green alfalfa fields and the mountains. We have lots of pretty, tree-shaded camping space available. We are omnivores, but we are good at working around food sensitivities. We are a half-mile from the Rio Grande. Central New Mexico has fabulous hiking opportunities, and the warm weather lasts April through November. (Note: Winters are *cold* here! We are at almost 5000 ft elevation.)

We are a pagan community, and welcome open-minded individuals of any faith. English in the only language spoken. We are queer and poly friendly. If you want to bring a dog, you MUST let us know in your contact email, and your dog must be controlled and well-behaved. Dogs that chase chickens or cats cannot stay here.

We have a strong preference for email communication. If you have the option to email us instead of phoning, please do.

For more detailed information, please check out our website:

https://sunflowerriver.org/

About the host

Kat (48)

Host since

2018

Languages

English

Among us we have a little bit of Spanish, but English is the only language we speak fluently.

Last seen online

more than 6 month ago

There are five adults and one child living at Sunflower River. The five owners (Stewards) are all in our 40s-50s, and two Stewards, Jenny & Tristan, have a 7-year-old son. We are a queer, polyamorous, pagan community, and welcome open-minded individuals of all orientations and faiths. We have three cats and one dog that live the houses. Four of us work off-farm during the week, so volunteers need to be self-starters.

Project dates

Open for offers, contact us


Work to be done

  • gardening
  • construction
  • farming
  • maintenance tasks

Expected workhours

  • 5 hours a day
  • 5 days a week

Work exchange deal

  • camper, tent, trailer / caravan

We have three types of accomodation: the travel-trailer, a small vintage trailer from the 70s, super cute, with its own heat, light and wifi (though it does not have its own plumbing); the dome, which is a 16' dome on the back acreage with a foam floor; and tent camping. All volunteers have full access to the community house for kitchen, bath, laundry, wifi, etc.

  • self catering

We provide food for all meals, and people are encouraged to cook for themselves at any time.

  • no money is involved