Volunteer Application

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• One Month Project-Based Visits

Overview

Open Source Ecology at Factor E Farm has many opportunities for participation. For those of you interested in a hands-on experiential approach, a long-term (one month or more) stay may be a good option for you. We want this to be the "right" experience for you, so read the blurb below to get a feel of what life might be like on the farm. We also welcome student research projects, on site or remote. There is a large number of practical topics that may be turned to a research/independent study project, paper, or thesis. You have the opportunity to do exactly what you want and get college credit at the same time. We have a Ph.D., which helps facilitate academic credentialing for your study. If you are interested, please fill out the application and email it to: opensourceecology [at] gmail.com.

Introduction

The Beauty:

We collect rainwater from the roof. A composting system is our toilet. Chickens and goats provide us with eggs and milk. The car is converted to run on Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) from restaurants. And our electrical power is generated from the same WVO with a Lister engine.

Sounds simple and idyllic, doesn't it? Ecological living at its pinnacle.

The Truth:

But what happens when the water system sprouts a leak; you're ready for a hot shower that isn't working; the humanure bucket needs to be emptied; the chickens stopped laying due to a heat wave; the car breaks down- twice- because the WVO clogged and snapped the injection pump; and the power generator (the Lister) cracks from insufficient antifreeze during a winter cold spell.

All of these events have happened at Factor E. Sometimes, more than one at a time. We say this not to scare you, but to prepare you. Life is beautiful, but not always easy. As inconvenient as these upsets are, I wouldn't trade them in for city water or store bought eggs. These experiences teach us fundamentals, like the value of water and the reality of raising food.

When a difficulty does arise, we expect people to take responsibility for their own needs. If the water is down and you need to have a hot shower, we expect you to share in the responsibility of making it happen. That is what creates a progressively more beautiful Factor E Farm.

Beauty and Truth Combined

To reconcile the good and bad points of our life, it must be emphasized that things change on a daily basis. For example, we just secured almost 2 kilowatts of solar cells. After we set them up, we'll produce twice as much electricity as we currently use. We will be able to displace the use of the noisy Lister engine-generator completely - until we grow further and more people arrive.

Given the water dilemmas, we have succeeded in reaching water with our well-drilling rig. This work is in progress. And we'll be back-hoeing several storage ponds for irrigation water.

Most importantly, we'll be doing major building using the advanced CEB building method, using the machines that we have built. Moreover, we are building our own multipurpose tractor, to reduce our heavy equipment overhead.

The point is - when we hit a snag - we come up with a solution. At all steps, we are guided by principles of ecology and replicability. When we build or do something, we always ask, how can we make it accessible to others or make it into a high performance product. That is the core of our life.

What would I do at the farm?

This is all negotiable, but here is an idea of our proposed lifestyle.

1-2 hours: Personal development, study, meditation time. We strongly encourage volunteers to take time to meditate, pray, do yoga, journal, read, have quality intellectual time, etc. This is where we encourage people to cultivate other brain functions, focusing, and other spiritual activities related to peak performance.

2-8 hours: Pursue research and development. This is the core activity. Factor e Farm is intrinsically linked to the non-profit work of Open Source Ecology (OSE). The goal of OSE is creating "Just Tools for Life" for a "Global Village Construction Set." For those with motivation and/or skills, this type of work might be the major part of your day: Designing, Modeling, Networking, Studying, Writing, Building, Testing...

.5-2 hours: Chores: from cooking to cleaning to brewing biodiesel, everyone pitches in.

1-4 hours: Agricultural activities. Everyone participates in food life on the farm. This may include planting, harvesting, weeding, fertility building...

1-4 hours: Main physical work. This depends on what our current goals are. For example, we might be building with Compressed Earth Blocks, fixing the shower system, or processing food.

Where will I stay?

The present option (as of 2.9.09) is on-demand housing construction using standard construction methods, at $400 per 8x8x8 foot solar cubicle. This is until we master the CEB-Sawmill infrastructure. See our community portal for our program until the end of 2010.

What about food?

Some food is grown on-site. Everybody participates in agricultural production. However, we will still need to buy some food and we are asking for $50-100 per month to help cover costs. $20-40 per week or $5-10 per day. This is our cost estimate and I believe quite reasonable. I spent a summer planning meals for 100 volunteers with the budget of $1.06 per meal per person per day. We got discount prices ordering from big distributors like Sysco. We did not grow any of our own food. A dollar per person per meal per day is approximately $90 per month. If this is not within your budget, please let us know and we can work out something else.

We have a very small kitchen with a propane stove, but no oven. We do have a solar cooker oven with low, slow heat, a juicer, a grinder, and a blender.

Communication

Our sprint phone has poor reception on site, but there are certain "hot spots" that receive better signal than others. The performance of other cell phone companies may vary, but rural areas like this one are notoriously under served with reception.

We have a 1.5M land line with unlimited internet access.

What we are.

• A research and development center
• A farm
• A network
• A diversity of ecological living
• An experiment station
• Explorers of truth
• Durable
• Visionary
• Creative
• Self-directed
• Homesteaders

What we are not.

• Experts.
• Agricultural only.
• Luxury Lifestyle.
• Babysitters.

Is Factor E Farm for you?

Because of the diversity of our activities, we believe a Factor E experience can be exceptional and life-changing. But that doesn't mean its for everyone. There are countless opportunities available in the realm of sustainability and justice (ie. wiserearth; idealist; organicvolunteers; WWOOF; growing growers-- a Kansas City area based farmer's training program)...) Browse through our website; email or call us with questions. When you feel prepared, fill out an application.

The Application

If you've made it this far, congratulations. This application is not set in stone. If you don't like one of the questions, don't answer it. If you have a better question, please create it. The written word makes communication simpler. However, if you prefer to communicate through a different medium, feel free to do so. (if you need to send something via the postal service, please email us for a physical address .) Please give us one month to process your application. (If you were hoping to come sooner, please send us a note and we'll see what we can do.)

Name (real and preferred)

Age

Contact Info (Give us what you want, but the more info, the easier it will be to contact you. Email, cell/work/home phone, Skype name, location, etc.)

Proposed Stay What are your proposed dates of stay.

References Please include contact information for three references or attach a letter of recommendation from them.

Describe yourself In 5 words or a short phrase; In a story or anecdote or other media

Skills and Tools What type of skills do you have; will you bring a car, computer or other tools?

Interests Given the list below, what are your top two or three areas of interest? Is there anything that is not interesting to you? Why? Did we miss one of your key interests/passions? Add it in.

Agriculture: Animals, Gardening, Permaculture, Hydroponics, Orchard, Composting, Edible Landscaping

Processing: Dehydration, Lacto-Fermentation, Canning, Baking, Solar Cooking

Energy: Passive Design, Babington Burner, Solar Panels, Hot Water, Telsa Turbine, Solar Concentration, Wind, Combined Heat Power

Fuel: BioDiesel, Straight Vegetable Oil (?), Wood Gasification

Water: Well, Rooftop Collection, Filtration, Greywater/Reuse, Living Machine, Hot Water

Building: Smart Design, CEB Press

Tools: Agricultural tools, Food Processing and Kitchen Equipment, Workshop Tools

Communication Internet, Phone, Publications, Group Work

Health Food as Medicine, Healing Plants and Minerals, Exercise, Therapies

Art Beatification, Music, Dance, Visual Arts

Other Legal, Resource Development, Marketing, Website, Public Relations

R & D Proposal: Your actual activities will depend on our needs and your interests. A Research and Development project may be beyond the scope of your stay (especially for short-term volunteers). But imagine for a moment that you could pursue one of your top interests. Please describe what your effort might entail.

Experience Describe some of your most important experiences in your life: learning opportunities, as a Team Player, as a Leader, "Roughing it", how you draw Inspiration, in Pursuit of a Dream/Goal, Community Living, Resourcefulness

Goals What would you like to learn/accomplish/achieve during your stay at Factor E Farm? Does this goal coordinate with any of your life goals? What are some of your life goals?

Anything Else?

The Contract

Here is a sample contract that you will be given to sign if you are interested in a long term stay.

http://openfarmtech.org/Volunteer_Contract.doc

Here is a Waiver of Liability that you must sign if you are visiting for long or short term stays.

http://openfarmtech.org/Release.doc