Chris Chisholm

The Conservation College Blue Skye Farm Internship is an entrepreneurial, sustainable homesteading program informed by the principles of permaculture that trains participants to be energy efficient and self-sufficient living off the land.

Our certification with the Washington State Farm Internship Project allows us to fill just 3 positions available in this, our 20th Anniversary Year, with one room still available for a couple or single applicant. Apply by April 30th to start May 7th, 2017 on our mini-farm at 1026 14th St SW, Puyallup WA 98731.

Our farm internship training positions are available for adults who want to develop skills of energy conservation and self-sufficiency at our home campus on Blue Skye Farm. You will work to learn homesteading, sustainability and “permaculture” skills which include a revolutionary lifestyle of appropriate living that cultivates the home environment in a way that benefits nature as well as humans.

Skills you will develop include • Farm Animal Care & Cultivation • Organic Fruit Orcharding, Herb & Vegetable Gardening • Sustainable Building • Natural Selection Forestry • Budgeting & Profits from Entrepreneurial Cottage Industry • Wild Edible Foraging & Preparation • Paleo Cooking & Food Storage • Medicinal Herb Collection & Preservation and more.

FAQ – Mission, Participants & Cost

The mission of the internship is to guide you to become a self-sufficient homesteader and an expert on sustainability skills.  It is designed for aspiring homesteaders, hobby farmers, permaculturists and budding entrepreneurs want to learn these subjects.

No matter your previous experience, you will be expected to fully participate in every possible training opportunity to push your skills to a higher level of excellence, although your own health will be the priority. We hope that along with your development of a personal medicine wheel of health, guided by permaculture principles, the values of earth skills, and your own self-care and self-motivation, you become a person to whom anyone could turn to in times of need.FAQ – Internship Directors, Dates & Costs

Farm Internship Directors: Kim & Chris Chisholm will be your mentors through this experience, and participants will also receive guidance from veteran staff.  

Full Time Tuition with Room & Board: All expenses including tuition, room and board at Blue Skye Farm total $1,950 minus discounts for early work trade and previous experience considered, and you can earn that tuition back with farm sales. Instructor Certification & College Credits may be available for extra fees. There are also other apprenticeship focus options you can choose which vary in required dates and base costs up to $2,950.

2017 Dates:  May 7 – September 24 are required full time, and you can extended your stay with complimentary room and board through October. Our certification with the Washington State Farm Internship Project allows us to fill just 3 positions available in this, our 20th Anniversary Year, so apply by April 30th.

FAQ – Farm Internship Benefits & Background

Our apprenticeship programs have run every year since, with the farm internship piloted a couple times over the years until the Washington State Farm Internship Project legislation finally passed in 2015 and we began the program in earnest. More than half our staff have come on board via our apprenticeships and now farm internship, while others enrolled to receive training in advance of starting their own schools or to gain experience for employment elsewhere. Check out our apprenticeship testimonials from novice apprentices, former campers-turned-instructors, and experienced educators who all succeeded in our summer apprenticeships and agree that results far exceeded expectations.

Beyond tuition and insurance, you need not spend another dime all summer, as all additional expenses are covered with work trade. Some might think that not spending any money all summer, and gaining income from farm sales are the bottom line benefits, but the real bottom line is your transformation into an experienced farmer with foundations in small business management. Successful participants also gain eligibility for employment at Wolf Camp and have strong recommendations for employment elsewhere.

FAQ – Work Priorities & Skill Goals

Your goals will expand over the course of the summer, from learning the basics of sustainable farming, to the development of your entrepreneurial skills, to being given teaching opportunities during the summer. Curriculum for the program will include field exercises from the Wolf Journey Earth Conservation Course including Book I: Trail of the Neighborhood Naturalist, Book II: Trail of the Traditional Herbalist  and Book VII: Trail of the Sustainable Citizen.

1st Priority: Learn to earn a living by producing, marketing and selling farm produce. The Conservation College will cover expenses like farmer’s market booth fees and city permits for farm stands on the street, so revenues will be split 50/50 on everything you produce and sell from our farm.

2nd Priority: Take care of yourself, while nurturing campers and supporting other staff. It is important that you come into the program as healthy and prepared as possible, for although during the training portion of the program your educational needs are the focus, during the summer camp season, the needs of the children at camp will be the focus, so you will have to learn to remain healthy amongst constant camp activity.

3rd Priority: Develop a working knowledge of the skills. Interns always relate how at the end of the summer, they were amazed at how this “just happened” but on the other hand, with skills like these, it’s all about studying each and every aspect at length.

For more information, call Kim & Chris Chisholm at 425-248-0253 or for all the details and application see http://www.wolfcollege.com/internships-apprenticeships/full-time-summer-residential-outdoor-education/blue-skye-farm-sustainable-homesteading-entrepreneurial-self-sufficiency-permaculture-program/

Kim & Chris Chisholm of the Wolf College, and Kelda Miller of the Divine Earth Gardening Project would like to invite you to attend our inaugural Permaculture Home & Garden Workshop this Sunday, May 15th, from 1:00-4:00 at the Wolf Home Campus in Puyallup. This workshop will be a prototype for a monthly series to resume starting September 25th.

Free for permaculture graduates (please bring your PDC certificate or note from permaculture teacher verifying your certification if Kelda Miller doesn't already know you) in exchange for bringing a pot-luck dish to share plus work-trade helping with workshop projects. The cost for the general public is $25 for one person, $20 for the second friend/family member attending together, and $15 per additional friend/family member attending together.

For more information, or to register, visit our website: http://wolfcollege.com/wolfjourney/workshopssun.html

In this workshop series, we will:

• Gather in our library of nature books and self-sufficiency guides to
overview the Principles of Permaculture and discuss at least one of those
aspects in detail, which in May will be "observing and interacting".
• Monitor recent changes to the landscape including wetlands, soils and
micro-climate, which in May will include soil modification and amendments to prepare for planting.
• Discuss methods for maximizing garden space which in May will include planning a keyhole garden and spiral herb garden. If the soil is warm enough, we'll even plant summer crops today!
• Identify plants growing on site and consider their benefits and uses
(edible, medicinal, utilitarian), which in May will focus on the plants
which have naturalized in the yard since the land was last farmed. We also like to focus on a specific plant that you'd likely find in your own lawn, harvest and prepare it, which in May will be Plantain, a "weed" and miracle plant for bee stings and a variety of other herbal uses.
• Identify beneficial wild animals on site and consider their benefits and
uses, which in May will focus on nesting birds who are dependent on our
yard trees and shrubs.
• "Hang with the Peeps" which in May will include the pros and cons of
raising chickens in the city.

Taught by Kelda Miller of the Divine Earth Gardening Project with Kim & Chris Chisholm who are on a journey to turn the Wolf Campus into an herbalist’s delight, a wildlife sanctuary, and a sustainable home that will provide food for family, students, neighbors and community. Our goal in sharing our process is for you to take home new knowledge and skills so that you, too, can create a more self-sufficient landscape around your own house or apartment.

Winter Series focusing on Permaculture Design:

January 10, 2010: Winter Is - The Most Important Time for Gardens. Meet at 1:00 PM at the Wolf Camp home office, 1026 14th St. SW, Puyallup WA 98371, and receive a tour of our property (and harvest a winter plant medicine from trees on our property) before reviewing the basic tenets of permaculture. In the second hour of the afternoon, we will again walk the property, mapping a cursory permaculture design, and deciding where to place our herb gardens. In the third hour, we will stake out the garden, take soil samples to send in for testing, and conduct some initial work on the plot in order to set up observe how water, soil, and naturalized plants will respond over the coming month. $15 for one person, $10 per additional friend/family. Simply RSVP at 425-248-0253 or email us and we'll set a place for you!

February 7, 2010: Time to Lay Down Roots in the Lowlands. Meet at 1:00 PM at the Wolf Camp home office, 1026 14th St. SW, Puyallup WA 98371, and observe how the work we completed during the last class effected the property (and harvest a medicine from a trees or shrub growing on the property) before receiveing a deeper review on the tenets of permaculture. We will also review the results of our soil samples, and discuss which kinds of plants will do well without changing soil composition. In the second hour of the afternoon, we will again walk the property, adding detail to our permaculture design, and make changes based on observations of water, soil, fauna and flora over the past month. We will also discuss various methods of organic gardening, including the fucuoca and biodynamic methods. In the third hour, we will start working the land in order to cultivate our herb gardens. $15 for one person, $10 per additional friend/family. Simply RSVP at 425-248-0253 or email us and we'll set a place for you!

March 7, 2010: Sprung to the Earth. Meet at 1:00 PM at the Wolf Camp home office, 1026 14th St. SW, Puyallup WA 98371, and observe how the work we completed last month effected the property before receiveing a summary review on the tenets of permaculture, on which plants do well in which kinds of soil, on the various philosophies of organic gardening, and on the permaculture design we've set for Year One on our new property. In the second hour of the afternoon, we will work to complete our herb garden preparations, and harvest an emerging medicinal plant naturally growning in our lawn. In the third hour, we will decide which plants to begin cultivating, separate and exchange seeds that participants may have stored over the past year, and look over various places from which to order and wildcraft seeds and plants. We will also transplant some herbs into the garden from our prior residences, and make plans for what topics of permaculture and herbalism to cover in the next three months. $15 for one person, $10 per additional friend/family. Simply RSVP at 425-248-0253 or email us and we'll set a place for you!

Spring Series focusing on Herbal Gardening

April 11, 2010: Herbal Medicine "98101". Meet at 1:00 PM at the Wolf Camp home office, 1026 14th St. SW, Puyallup WA 98371, and receive a summary review of the lessons learned over the past three months, and harvest a medicinal plant naturally growing in our lawn. We will also overview our plans for these three months to come, which will focus on herbal medicine as part of a permaculture lifestyle. In the second hour, we'll plant the herbs which are best to put in the ground at this time of spring, discussing their gifts: to the earth, and to us. In the third hour, we'll take a look at the herbal certification courses available online, discuss various herbalists in the region, and define our version of herbalism. We will also look at hand-outs on herbal vocabulary, flip through various books on herbal medicine, see a catalog of herbs within taxometric order, and identify some of the herbs which most interest us. $15 for one person, $10 per additional friend/family. Simply RSVP at 425-248-0253 or email us and we'll set a place for you!

May 2, 2010: May Day & Beltaine Celebration. Meet at 1:00 PM at the Wolf Camp home office, 1026 14th St. SW, Puyallup WA 98371, and receive a summary review of last month's work, especially our overview of herbalism whose details are a life-ling learning pursuit, and help us harvest a medicinal plant growing in the wetlands around our property. In the second hour, we will plant more the herbs which are best to put in the ground right about now, and discuss their gifts of nutrition, medicine, utility, and ecology. Finally, this weekend is a special moment in the year, as it's a traditioinal celebration of fertility (see beltaine, may day, etc.), so we'll spend the third hour planting a May Pole in the center of our new herb garden, walking the traditional ribbon up its spiral path, and celebrating with song and hors d'oeuvres that participants bring using ingredients from their home gardens, or from traditional May Day faire. $15 for one person, $10 per additional friend/family. Simply RSVP at 425-248-0253 or email us and we'll set a place for you!

June 4, 2010: Summertime ... and the Livin' is Easy. Summer is fast approaching, so after a review of the knowledge we've gained over the spring, we'll need to weed the herb garden (which is actually just harvesting and storing medicinal plant that naturally come up in our garden which we want to minimize) before spending the second hour planting the heat-loving herbs we hope to have in our gardens this year, discusiing their gifts of nutrition, medicine, utility and ecology. In the final hour, we will strategize how to take care of the herb garden over our busy summer season, and write an outline for next academic year's permaculture herb gardening series, which will take place twice a month! $15 for one person, $10 per additional friend/family. Simply RSVP at 425-248-0253 or email us and we'll set a place for you!