Internship Details

Note: we have invited two couples to participate long term in our intern positions, so we have no available space for the foreseeable future. Our intern program is not currently taking applications. We heartily recommend Organic Volunteers website for interns and hosts wanting to connect.  (or the WWOOF website) Good Luck!

Work

The minimum amount of work that we require is 14 hours per week per person.

One hour of this total is to be spent maintaining and sprucing up the area immediately around the intern kitchen, and your sleep cabin, enhancing your “home spaces”. Some examples of “home space” chores: weeding your lawn, weeding around the intern orchard trees, cleaning screens, clearing the trails to your sleep cabin, cleaning the intern shower.

You will certainly learn during work sessions, but we consider these sessions your compensation for living in this environment, our focus is to attend to the needs of the farmstead. We love to teach and share, so learning opportunities are ever present; but/and the minimum work trade times are your chance to express appreciation by gifting to us your time and focus.

Throughout the rest of the week, there are a myriad of learning opportunities on our farmstead. Some people choose to work the minimum, and some work more; we are satisfied with either. And, we are quite willing to devote extra time and energy to support people who are more industrious or who have a specific area they want to explore.(e.g. learning to propagate bamboo or goat pasture management)

The lion’s share of the work that needs to be done on the land is “chop wood, carry water” kind of work. I notice that 90% of our work on the farm is unskilled labor. Weeding, carrying, shoveling, digging, chopping with machetes, pushing wheelbarrows are typical farm work. Jobs that require figuring, technical skills, and planting trees are what we call the “glory work”. For example, planting a tree takes approximately 2 minutes. Preparing the location takes twenty or thirty minutes of weeding and digging; then the tree needs to be maintained for the rest of its life. The primary maintenance for the fruit tree is pulling vines and chopping weed trees.

Being an effective laborer requires more practice than most people think.

A primary skill that interns learn here is developing a satisfying relationship with labor. It is possible to use your body in such a way that much gets accomplished, but one develops chronic injury in the process. It is also possible to work in such a way that refreshes and heals the body as a yoga practice would.

There are yogic ways to do farm work. If an intern doesn’t experience the pleasure of physical movement, s/he will never become a farmer, unless s/he is a martyr or a masochist. Learn to love the visceral experience of exercising your body in the process of laboring.

Bikes

We have several bicycles in a variety of conditions. They are available in ‘as is’ condition. At the end of the day, we ask that you return the bicycle in same or better condition as when you borrowed it. This means regular maintenance, repair, and an occasional gift for the bike. If you are unsure what this means, speak with one of us about it.

Ride Sharing

There are those of us with motor vehicles, and those of us without. We aspire to being car free. For now, however, we do own a truck and try to make efficient use of it. This means we go into Hilo town once at the beginning of the month. Each time we use the truck we pay $.50/mile to cover gas, insurance, repairs, depreciation, registration. This translates into roughly $35 for each town day. Interns are generally welcome to join us and share the truck usage cost.

Cooking fuel

Propane costs around $18 for a 5 gallon tank. We supply the tanks, you supply the fuel. We are estimating the cost is roughly $4 per person per week. You might use a collection jar and have all the interns chip in each week. However you want to arrange it with the other interns is up to you. There are propane stores in Pahoa, Keaau, and Hilo where you can refill them. It’s your shared responsibility to keep yourselves supplied with cooking fuel.

Harvesting food from the land

Interns often ask whether they can harvest food for their personal consumption. It is not a simple matter to answer.

Our farm is still young and not all our trees are producing yet or producing fully. Certain foods are available to interns when we have abundance. These are breadfruit, bananas, cassava, avocados, eggs from the intern flock, any produce from the intern garden, perennial greens (katuk, edible hibiscus, shisoo spinach, chaya, chayote, moringa).

There are many other foods that are available ‘sometimes’. These are foods that are not being produced in as much abundance on our farm yet. Examples of these are jakfruit, star apple, limes, lemons, bamboo shoots, rollinia, coffee, papayas, chickens, lilikoi. Please come and talk with us first, and we will create clear agreements with you around each of these types of food.

There are also ‘wild’ foods available in the area for hunting and gathering, such as coconuts, guavas, wild pig, rose apple, jungle avocados, wild mangos, and ocean fish.

If you desire, there is enough food around to become completely food self sufficient in this neighborhood. More likely, though, if you are enthusiastic you might harvest half of all your food from the farm and surrounding jungle.

Chickens

There is a flock of egg laying hens in our intern area. These hens are intended for you to harvest and eat the eggs, and also to experience the responsibility of tending a flock of chickens. It’s a lot of fun, and the eggs are the highest quality. It is your job to make sure their water is replenished every day, (they get thirsty very quickly) and feed them something every day.

Please throw them all of your food scraps, and chop open one coconut per day for them to eat the coconut meat. (please crumble up your egg shells before giving them to the chickens) Our chick raising area is also nearby, and when there are chicks being raised, they need food, water, and some greens every day. Please let us know if any of the chickens are injured, sick, missing or behaving strangely.

Mail

We have dedicated one of our rural delivery mailboxes for the use of the interns. The address is RR 2 box 3342, Pahoa, HI, 96778. The box is located about a mile and a half from our farm. Feel free to use this as your mailing address while you are here. When you leave you are responsible for forwarding your mail.

Phone

Bring your cell phone. Otherwise you can use a land line phone provided by land mates Cat and Arthur if you chip in to cover phone service.

Farm library

We have a very nice library of books which are available for those staying on the land. All we ask is that when you borrow a book, to record it on our “check-out sheet” so we have good information about the whereabouts of all our books. Then, when you return it, check it off as returned.

Tools

A similar arrangement applies to use of our farm tools: when you borrow a tool, sign it out. However, please check with us first; some tools are always available, some are never available for loan, and some require words of instruction or caution.

Guests

Our guest policy: Guests can stay either stay in one of our private tent structures or bring their own tent and camp. There is a nominal nightly or weekly fee. For more information, please see the tab called Agro-Tourism.

Shower

There is a solar heated shower for the use of the interns. The water is plenty hot almost all of the time if everyone is conscious of their hot water usage. During the sunny part of the day, hot water is abundant, but when the sun goes down, there is a 60 gallon tank of hot water stored until the next time the sun shines. This means limiting your evening shower to 5 or 10 minutes, and taking very brief showers during stormy or cloudy periods. You may store your shampoo and soap in the shower, but please remove any clothing and towels to your private cabin.

Pooper

There is a ferro-cement composting toilet near the intern kitchen. Please drop in some plant material (vines, leaves) when you are finished using it. There are plants with purple leaves which serve quite nicely as toilet paper. Otherwise, you may purchase your own paper. Please use toilet paper without perfumes and bleaches.

You may pee anywhere that is not under a roof. It is advantageous to pee near a fruit tree, in order to utilize the nutrients contained within.

Pets

no pets

Intern garden

We want to support interns to grow their own garden produce. All interns are expected to share in the gardening work, and the produce from the garden is for all interns to share. We have a variety of seeds, tools, and garden supplies, and there is a fertile garden area adjacent to your kitchen. Please try to perpetuate and enhance the intern garden during your stay here. Work in the intern garden does not count toward your work requirement.

Laundry

You may want to hand wash in buckets, or use the laundromat in town. We did our laundry in bucket for years. Ask us for handy hints.

Conflict resolution

We genuinely support open and honest communication. If you are feeling upset, please come and talk to us, and we will make an effort to resolve the issue. If there is something that you particularly like, feel free to say thank you. And conversely, if there is something that you don’t like, ask if it can change. We like to stay in communication, rather than making assumptions.

Length of stay

Generally, we would like interns to stay for at least one month.

The maximum stay is generally six months. We allow for the possibility of finding people who would stay for much longer.

Shared space

The cleanliness of the intern kitchen is the shared responsibility of all interns. If there is a conflict among the interns around cleanliness, our general rule of thumb is that the kitchen match the standards of the cleaner person. Please store personal belongings and extra shoes and clothing in your private sleeping cabin, not in the kitchen.

Pest control

Rodents and insects are ever present in the humid tropics, and will occupy a building if the conditions are inviting. Most importantly, please keep all food out of your private sleep cabins. Rats will eat holes in the screens to get in. Within the kitchen, we just do our best to reduce the presence of pest attractants.

There is a fruit safe right outside the kitchen. Please keep fresh fruits in there, rather than on the counters. We have provided a variety of jars and containers for the security of food items. Ask us for more or buy more of what you need. Ask if you need mouse or rat traps. Pesticides and poisons are not allowed.

Electricity

We operate our own solar power plant for our farm. Sunlight produces the electricity. The energy is stored in batteries to supply electricity at night and during cloudy days. This means there is a limit to how much electricity is available.

The rules for electrical usage are as follows: The only devices allowed are a cell phone charger, small boom box, laptop, and lighting. If you leave a building for more than 5 minutes, turn off the lights. Try to limit the number of lights on at any given moment to about one per person. Try to use laptop and cell phone chargers during sunny days, and most importantly, unplug them when not in use. These devices draw power even when they are turned off. When a bulb stops working, we will replace it with another compact florescent bulb.

Water

We operate our own water supply on our farm. We collect rainwater, store it in a tank, and electric pumps pressurize it and send it out to faucets and hoses. Water is usually abundant. The only likely thing to create a water crisis on our farm is if a hose were left on or a water line springs a leak. There is a network of water lines running all over the land, so be aware when operating sharp tools.

Every kitchen building has a water filter for your drinking water. There may be problematic bacteria in our rainwater, so always filter or boil water before consuming. The water filters need to be scrubbed clean every few weeks. Please ask us about the proper method and frequency of cleaning the filters.

General

If something seems amiss, let us know. For example, tell us if your roof leaks, or a light bulb is out, etc.

Guidelines:

For 14 hours per week of work per person we provide the following facilities:

• private sleeping space
• shared (with 2 other sleeping spaces) kitchen, living, dining space including furnishings and kitchenware, sink, electric fridge, 2 burner propane cook stove (provide 2 propane tanks but we do not provide the propane), filtered drinking water, lighting, AC outlet (for boombox and or laptop computer if you have one)
• rural route mail box available: RR2 3342, Pahoa, HI 96778.
• shared solar shower, shared composting toilet

We do not provide (but you will probably need):

• food (except food harvested from the adjacent garden, banana patch and chickens, and also the orchards when abundant)
• linens
• laundry services
• propane for cooking
• phone service (most interns have a cell phone)
• flashlights
• rain gear
• vehicle usage (but we do have bikes in various stages of disrepair that can be borrowed) Hitch hiking is easy and accepted in our area, and the bus service is limited, but free.

Work is mostly expansion and upkeep of orchards, nursery, gardens, chickens, goats, and infrastructure. In the tropics, our farming practices are very different than on most temperate farms. For example, we often wield machetes, keeping the invasive species at bay. Work is sometimes guided by us, sometimes independent projects, and some regular chores. We are quite knowledgeable, and there is the opportunity to learn a good bit about tropical sustainable living during your stay here.

Adjacent to the intern shared kitchen area we are developing a garden, banana patch and free range chicken coop exclusively to support interns to produce and harvest their own food.

Interns are responsible for keeping the shared kitchen area clean and tidy.

Things to consider

Everything grows abundantly in this lush jungle environment, including insects (mosquitos, centipedes, earwigs), vines, mold, fungus, geckos. there are lots of creepy crawlies.

We consider our animal and human wastes essential for fertilizer so we use composting toilets.

We have outdoor showers which are heated by the sun. They are largely hot and private, but not absolutely so.

It rains most evenings here and occasionally all day. We get about 100 inches per year.

We are off grid so our electronic and electrical needs do not include cordless phones, coffee makers, rice cookers, dust busters, clock radios. We do have a personal use laptop, electric refrigeration, plenty of compact fluorescent lighting and pressurized water.

Bring led flashlight, work shoes (we often wear rubber boots), long pants, sun hat, umbrella, sweater or fleece jacket, raincoat, water bottle, sheets, pillow, and towel. For longer stays a bike is a big plus  We provide work gloves for all interns. If you have snorkel, fins, mask, boogie board, bring them.