Choose your adventure at Wheaton Laboratories!

Adventures options available in August and September 2016.

Visitor's have jumped right in to Wheaton Lab adventures and we have a better idea what we can offer these days.

1. Archery, $15/hour - An archery experience with Evan includes using his 40lb recurve for shooting on his range with nice paper targets you get to take home. Careful, this bow has a pretty powerful draw!
2. Astrophotography 101 – Including tracking the ISS, planning for Iridium flares and capturing meteors, $20/hour. Bring your own SD card 4GB+. Many tripods and 2 cameras available.
3. Bird watching (photography) during Fall migration – September to October, peak in early October, $20 for the first hour and $5 every hour after that, subject to weather,
4. Build a debris hut $15/hour
5. Build and use a very basic solar oven that you can take home, $25 per hour
6. Carve a spoon, $15/hour
7. Cast iron cooking in a rocket oven built by Tim Barker FREE
8. Cob a wofati $10
9. Guerrilla gardening and Fukuoka style seed balls, $15/hour
10. How to use a rocket mass heater FREE
11. Hugel building, small scale built by hand FREE
12. Plant identification, $15 an hour
13. Rock harvesting for floor building, $5
14. Tool and knife sharpening 101, $15
15. Tour the lab and base camp, $15/hour for groups of 4 or less, Additional $5 per person for groups of 5 or more.
16. Seed collecting walk, $15/hour
17. A Day in the Life of an Ant, $15/hour, hang out with an ant and get done what needs doing’, subject to ant approval
18. A Day in the Life of an Ant, FREE, hang out with an ant and ACTUALLY get stuff done, subject to ant approval
19. Wilderness survival training, $15/hour
20. Make the dough and bake some bread in a rocket oven built by Tim Barker! $10 to cover cost of materials and clean up
21. Build basic roundwood furniture. Carry it with you are leave it behind for residents and guests. $15/hour

55. Build an outdoor worm bin.

Hunting, trapping, fishing.

Do we have access to trail broke horses at the Lab? What about horseback riding, guided horseback tours of the property?

Art/music events
Beekeeping
Birch/maple syrup collecting
Bushcrafting
Grafting
Horse riding
Natural swimming pool building
Outdoor movie screenings
Plant propagation
Sealing ponds
Seed saving
Storytelling
Survival/Prepping
Sweatlodge/Sauna

Here are some memories from my time at permies, five of which were on my bucket list.

Cook in a haybox
Experience a solar-heated shower
Learn waterless sanitation management
Practice low water living
Make cob
Butcher a rabbit
Take a permaculture design course
Go on a huckleberry hunt
Insulate with wool
Beekeeping
Make silver solution/colloidal silver
Write a song

Also:

Build a peckerwood fence (I forget Paul's official name for these)
Make and throw an Atlatl
Build a Yurt
Butcher a pig
Butcher a chicken
Build a root cellar
Build an ice house
Build with rock
Learn pleaching (living fence)
Plant trees
Make baskets
Weave cattails
How to live without creating garbage
Learn appropriate technologies
Learn alternative building options
Bushcraft 101
WOFATI 101
Brain-tan a hide
Solar greenhouse building & management
Nature photography
How to create a successful Kickstarter
How to fell a tree
Debark a log
Milk a goat
Animal husbandry
Natural remedies
Energy healing
Identify animal tracks
Make a Dakota fire hole
Make apple cider vinegar
Make citrus enzyme cleanser
Rainwater harvesting
Make a sun dial
Wilderness survival
Leathercraft
Spinning
Natural dying with plants
Weaving with a drop spindle
Community communication skill building
Meditate
Do yoga
Seed saving
Sustainable prepping
Biogas energy systems
Build a cistern
Make a hammock
Build a solar panel
Build a windmill
Grey water management
Make a solar still
Make yogurt
Basic bicycle mechanics
Make instruments from found materials
Nature drawing

(Sorry these are not in any kind of order. Just brainstorming -- gotta run)

Keep these fabulous suggestions coming! We have almost reached 100 adventures! What else can we do here at the permaculture playground? Paul added drive an excavator, use a chainsaw and drive a tractor yesterday. Me driving an excavator will be an adventure for everyone, but I still can't wait!

Destiny Hagest wrote:
Do we have access to trail broke horses at the Lab? What about horseback riding, guided horseback tours of the property?

We do not yet have a contact for horseback adventures for the labs. That would be good to figure out! (Even if Paul does call them hay burners! )

Haha you either love horses or you hate 'em! I've been thrown once, there's definitely a liability concern there. And of course, having them on site creates all kinds of logistical issues. But they're useful and fun!

Maybe donkeys - those are such great guardian animals. Donkey ride tours!

Lots of great ideas. Some quick and easy and others more long term projects.

My 2 cents:

Class on drying vegetables as a preservation technique
Design, build, and play a disc (frisbee) golf course. Can be just ribbons tied around trees.
Build a tree house (long term project)
Build a simple chicken coop on wheels (or not)
Animal track identification

Is the tipi or love shack available the nights of June 20-22? I am interested in a choose your own adventure. Thanks!

Hi Marisa, The Tipi is available those dates, but not the Love Shack. I'm sending you a private message so we can discuss the details and your adventure wish list! Anyone interested in renting a cabin or tipi can email me at bunks@richsoil.com for more information. Those dates happen to fall during the Appropriate Technology course with Tim Barker so the lab and base camp will be buzzing with projects!

Okay, we're one week out from leaving for our trip up to Montana. We're gonna spend a day in Yellowstone before coming to the lab, and plan to spend one day while staying there going to Glacier National Park.

Is there anything new or unexpected we should be aware of before we arrive? I'm hoping for some small project I could be helpful on. I'm pretty reliable on the monotonous tasks no one wants to suffer through. The interests of the other adults in my group would definitely depend on the project, but we're all fairly capable and industrious.

Hi Casie, we are looking forward to having you! We have hot water at the base camp showers now! Ooh la la! Not sure when you were here last, so I don't know what is new to you. : )

Paul declares you will be staying in Allerton Abbey. Expect mice, exposed strawbale walls in the cobbing process and to sleep on camp sleeping mats on the built in bunks.  How many people are in your group?

As for projects in the making, right now the ants are building houses and perhaps small projects too. One ant is slaving away on Paul's berm shed and a gapper is working on finishing Allerton Abbey. I'll check in with the ants and see where some extra hands would be helpful. Cobbing Allerton Abbey is a monotonous task that no one seems to want to touch but me. I would certainly appreciate the help and to company! : )

Six people. Four adults, two children just barely into double digits. I've sent you an email to confirm that you're connecting my group with some earlier communications, as my paypal isn't connected to my primary email.

I'm definitely willing to cobb. I'm making a point to pack one outfit to get absolutely filthy while I'm there.

This post will soon replace the above brainstorming post.

Updated Adventures thread options

Visitor's have jumped right in to Wheaton Lab adventures and we have a better idea what we can offer these days.

1. Archery, $15/hour
2. Astrophotography 101 – Including tracking the ISS, planning for Iridium flares and capturing meteors, $20/hour. Bring your own SD card 4GB+
3. Bird watching (photography) during Fall migration – September to October, peak in early October, $20 for the first hour and $5 every hour after that, subject to weather,
4. Build a debris hut $15/hour
5. Build and use a very basic solar oven that you can take home, $25 per hour
6. Carve a spoon, $15/hour
7. Cast iron cooking in a rocket oven built by Tim Barker FREE
8. Cob a wofati FREE
9. Drive a tractor, $15
10. Guerrilla gardening and Fukuoka style seed balls, $15/hour
11. How to use a rocket mass heater FREE
12. Hugel building FREE
13. Plant identification, $15 an hour
14. Rock harvesting for floor building, $5
15. Tool and knife sharpening 101, $15
16. Tour the lab and base camp, $15/hour for groups of 4 or less, Additional $5 per person for groups of 5 or more.
17. Seed collecting walk, $15/hour
18.   A Day in the Life of an Ant, $15/hour, hang out with an ant and get done what needs doing’, subject to ant approval
19.   A Day in the Life of an Ant, FREE, hang out with an ant and ACTUALLY get stuff done, subject to ant approval
20.   Wilderness survival training, $15/hour
21.   Make the dough and bake some bread in a rocket oven built by Tim Barker! $10 to cover cost of materials and clean up

So I'm curious, for the archery, is it instruction that's $15 an hour, or is it use of a space, equipment, etc?