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Spring 2010 Internship in Natural Building & Sustainable Systems Located at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in the rolling hills of Northeast Missouri, this internship begins in April 2010. Planned as the final stages in the construction of a timberframe strawbale house, we'll be focusing on many of the finishing touches of the home. Areas of focus will include interior cob and light clay straw walls, finish plasters, earthen floors, cabinetry, an outdoor kitchen, an outdoor hot tub, greywater system installation, landscaping, organic garden design, deck construction, and other such sundry items. We'll also be focusing a lot of attention on adding artistic beauty to the home in a variety of ways. A two month minimum commitment is required. Instructor: Jennifer Martin of Dreams to Reality Sustainable Building and Design. For more information, contact Jennifer at<timberhome@gmail.com> or link to http://naturallybuilt.blogspot.com for learn more.

Internships Available 2010. Gooseberry Farm, a three-year-old, off-grid homestead at Red Earth Farms Community Land Trust in northeastern Missouri. Our neighbors are Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage and Sandhill Farm egalitarian community. Gooseberry Farm hosts interns who have a strong interest in natural building, homesteading and/or permaculture. To find out more about this opportunity, please visit: http://mazzo-strawbale.blogspot.com.

Mid-April through September 2010. Natural Building Work Trade at Emerald Earth Intentional Community, Northern California. Come live and work with our community as we continue building our new Community House. Work includes framing, natural wall systems, base coat and finish plasters, living roofs and finish carpentry. Our Work Trade season runs from mid-April through
September. Visit www.emeraldearth.org or contact <community@emeraldearth.org>.

May1-June 15, Mariposa CA. Natural Building Intensive. Living Craft Project.
Students will build a 150 sf modified load-bearing straw-bale cottage, and gain experience in hand-crafted earthen plasters and troweled earthen floors on a 350 sf straw-bale home. Learning modules include, but are not limited to: carpentry, wall and roof systems, materials harvesting and processing, earthen plasters, earthen floors, and clay artistry. Classroom discussions include, but are not limited to: foundation design, passive solar design, natural wall system design, and pattern language recognition. Tuition: $3000. Includes all living costs. Application: Please write us letter or email introducing yourself, explaining why you are interested in the natural building intensive, and what you intend to receive from and give to this program. Contact: 805.886.7239 (Ask for Lyn), <lyn.giesecke@gmail.com>, 35070 Hwy 33, Maricopa, CA 93252 www.livingcraftproject.org and www.quailsprings.org.

Now through September and 2010. Bulgaria, Eastern Europe. Cob and Adobe House Construction & Natural Building Internship. Cob and adobe house construction, walls and gardens, and want some hands-on experience in natural building with instruction from an alumnae of Ianto Evans' Cob Cotttage workshops. 'Cob in Bulgaria' is Located 15 kms from old Capital of Bulgaria, Veliko Turnovo. Aim is to develop sustainable lifestyle skills such as local food production, permaculture and natural building. The house you will help finish in 2009.
To apply and for more information, contact Susan Hagan, <su.hagan@hotmail.co.uk> 07952 986504 (UK Moblile) 00359(0)895724164 (Bulgarian Mobile) 00359 6128263 (Bulgarian Landline)
www.ayurvedic-tours.co.uk

Natural Building Internship. Begins April 2010 at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, Northeast Missouri. Planned as part of final stages in construction of timberframe straw-bale house, focus is on finishing touches of the home. Areas included: interior cob and light clay straw walls, finish plasters, earthen floors, cabinetry, outdoor kitchen, outdoor hot tub, greywater system installation, landscaping, organic garden design, deck construction, and adding artistic beauty to the home in a variety of ways. Contact Jennifer <timberhome@gmail.com> or visit http://naturallybuilt.blogspot.com for more information.

Fall 2010, Moab, Utah. Seeking interns for Fall 2010 semester at Community Rebuilds, a nonprofit developing sustainable, affordable housing. Internship includes hands-on construction, workshops by alternative builders, study of building techniques utilized in housing projects, participation in sustainable activities in Moab, tours of existing alternative homes in Moab. Volunteers will work under the direction of a general contractor to assist in construction of low-income home. Visit communityrebuilds.org for more information on how to apply. Questions can be directed to Delite Primus <delite@communityrebuilds.org> or 435.260.8251

SB/Plaster and Natural Building – also Apprenticeships/Internships Summer/Fall 2010. Design/Build Practicum. Intended for designers, builders, skilled artists, and laborers as well as anyone looking to enhance their holistic design and building knowledge and skills, this program is envisioned as a Start-to-Finish Design/Build Practicum. Set up in three parts: development, design, and built, this five- month program will enhance the capacity for participants to develop appropriate design. Working as part of a team, interns will develop a comprehensive sustainable design plan and then implement that plan by constructing the project using local, natural, and reclaimed materials available on-hand. Location: Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, Northeast Missouri. Contact Jennifer at <timberhome@gmail.com> or visit http://dreamsrealitybuildingdesign.blogspot.com for more information.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY: Design-and-Build Artist Village located in Africa seeks volunteer project manager/creative fundraiser for a Design/Build Earth Home Challenge. From 2010-2015, developing a model artist village in Ghana and Uganda for replication in other parts of Africa. For the locals, it will mean resolution to age-old problem for artists, painters, sculptors, dancers, and others who require low-cost and expanse of space in which to work; and for persons in the arts from around the world, it will be a contact point for artist-in-residence for community-based arts projects. Some 50 and 500-1000 acres have been speculated in rural parts of Ghana, as are in Uganda, Cameroon and Botswana. If interested in facilitating the project or wish to suggest a resource person, please sent email to <africoae@gmail.com>. Additional information on the project will be upon request or visit www.focusonthearts.org, http://afropoets.tripod.com/eta

Apprenticeship Course. Three-month apprenticeship course offered (regrow, rebuild and rethink our way of living) at Kibbutz-Lotan, Israel. More information available at www.birdingisrael.com or <lotalbuild@lotan.ardom.co.il>

Three- to six-month apprenticeships available in natural building and off-grid living at Spirit Pine Sanctuary, a beautiful 160 acre off-grid site in the coastal range of CA. Longer term commitments are possible. Meals and camping are included. Aikido ueshideshi apprenticeships are also possible.
Call Betty @ 805.698.3840 or email <cobbetty@gmail.com> for registration and
information.

Organic Farm Manager(s), The Sandpoint Institute, Sandpoint ID.
Farm will establish setting for Sandpoint Institute, a new educational institute for organic farming and sustainable living, a
project of the founders of OrganicVolunteers, www.GrowFood.org. Finding interns for this farm will not be a problem.
One or more farmers needed to establish organic farm (360 acres w/70 available to be cultivated and certified organic; rest is forested. Sandy loam soil. 70 acres sown in a timothy, clover, brome mix hay for a small livestock operation or micro-dairy in addition to vegetable production. Abundant water w/two ponds and seasonal creek w/micro-hydro potential; one 60-ft well tapped into aquifer. Buildings include huge 1940s era traditional barn, old milking shed, granary, sheds and farm house (3 BR, 2 bath) and separate cabin. Kubota tractor w/back blade and cultivator implements. For responsibilities, experience desired, compensation information, and application process, contact <ethan@organicvolunteers.com> with the word 3organic2 in the subject to circumvent the junk mail filter.

Straw-bale Construction Certification. New distance learning program enables students to start at any time and work at their own pace. Now available through the Geiger Research Institute for Sustainable Building. Director Owen Geiger is a correspondent for TLS. www.grisb.org <strawhouses@yahoo.org>

Blue Heron Natural Builders Guild (BHNBG), Madison, WI. Gain natural building work experience in the 2007. Earthen plaster, lime plaster, natural paints, natural remodeling, strawbale, straw-clay, stone, tile, hardscaping, timberframing, additions. To learn more about learning opportunities in the southern Wisconsin, contact Eric Nelson <blueheron@naturalbuildersguild.com> www.naturalbuildersguild.com

June through November, Cumberland Valley, Tennessee. Looking for building-focused interns to work on projects from cob-ovens to a ferro-cement living roof retrofit, and building a natural building exhibit and doing presentations at a local festival. Work in July will be focused exclusively on framing in a three-story meeting hall of sustainably home-harvested timber, and milled on a woodmizer sawmill. For more information about site and life Sequatchie Valley Institute (research and education in sustainable living), visit www.svionline.org Contact <quasiperiodic@gmail.com> if you're interested in the internships.

Apprenticeship. Six-month (May 1 through November 1), two semi-experience people wanting to learn more about natural building (cob, SB, wood, plasters, earthen floors. Construction work and working farm and community responsibilities. White oak farm & Education Center, Box 450, Williams OR 97544 <info@whitoakfarmscsa.org> www.whiteoakfarmcsa.org

Apprenticeship. Emerald Earth International Community, Northern California. All phases of work with local natural materials. www.emeraldearth.org <workshops@emeraldearth.org>

Internship available at Black Range Lodge, Kingston, NM. Offering hands-on experience in natural building and permaculture projects. Work-trade for lodging and meals, plus payment, if warranted. Call 505.895.5652, <resources@StrawbaleCentral.com>.

Kleiwerks Internship. If you want to get more experience in the organization of a nonprofit, or in earth building and sustainability, and if you want to get into workshops for free, contact <West@Kleiwerks.org> Founded in 1998, Kleiwerks International is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that promotes social transformation and ecological regeneration by leading natural building and whole-systems training that results in community-based sustainable living centers. By invitation only, we collaborate with community-based people, projects and programs. Through hands-on educational trainings and building projects we construct activist centers, permaculture sites, orphanages, schools and villages. Significant results of our work nclude both the generation of regional activist networks, and the construction of public demonstration centers that serve community needs. Kleiwerks International is part of a worldwide movement that is reviving and refining the art and joy of natural building and living.

Apprenticeship Course - Three-month apprenticeship course offered (regrow, rebuild and rethink our way of living) at Kibbutz Lotan, Israel. More information available at: www.birdingisrael.com/LotanTourism/
ecoCenter/ga/ga2005.html or email <lotan-build@lotan.ardom.co.il>.

Apprenticeship Program - Ecovillage, Summertown, TN. Organic food production, natural building and permaculture. Five-week program. Field trips. College credit available. National/international instructors. Howard Switzer and Katey Culver, <ecovillage@thefarm.org>.

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This listing of internships, apprenticeships, job opportunities is compiled from information sent to The Last Straw Journal by individuals, groups and organizations. Send information about events, conferences, tours, workshops and hands-on training to: The Last Straw, PO Box 22706, Lincoln NE 8542-2706; <thelaststraw@thelaststraw.org> or call 402.483.5135.

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