I am now accepting applications for people who want to do a work exchange at the Fruitful Vegan Village site. You can find the application here: https://wordpress.com/post/fruitfulveganvillage.com/6638

This is a wonderful opportunity for everyone involved to get to know each other to see if there is the potential for living in community together in the future. 

I’ve decided not to create a pipe line for joining the community because there are so many details that still need to be in place before someone can have voting power.

The way I am designing the 21 hour a week work exchange is that people can work 3 x 7 hour days if they like so that they can have a part time job. Since the site is only 20 minutes from Huntsville, where there are many job opportunities, a person could do the work exchange and work at another job. I will be supplying a tent space, two meals a day, a composting toilet, water for shower and clean up in general, and training for many physical and emotional skills. 

I am planning on hosting a healing retreat in the Spring of 2023 land–a week long event where we use a structured technique called Open Space Technology where everyone can  learn and teach various skills as well as have lots of play, campfires at night, sharing food preparation, meals, and in all ways be a healthy community for a week.

I know that I want to move in the direction of creating an intergenerational school. As a work exchanger, you can take free classes from me in such topics as 

• Wild edible identification 
• How to communicate effectively with children, 
• Sociocracy 3.0 for beginners 
• Homeschooling and unschooling for beginners
• Vocal lessons 
• Creating and working with Time Banking
• how to be a professional organizer
•  emotional healing techniques
• How to facilitate a Community Connect event
• Singing in a choir
• A modified version of NonViolent Communication

If work exchangers want to teach classes, they are welcome to do so as well. I will also be inviting other people in the area to join us in both teaching and learning.

People will learn on the job training, and get credit for their work in such areas as: 

• Permaculture  which includes planting native pollinators and food for wildlife.
• How to propagate plants such as comfrey, bee balm, longevity spinach and much more. 
• Organic gardening
• Propagating wild edibles
• How to be a professional organizer–by assisting Patricia with some of her jobs. 
• How to make nature trails

Eventually parents who are homeschooling with support can become part of the school. I am inspired by this prototype of a school that looks really promising. Here is a link: https://thelionpridetx.com/

The founders of the school want to make a documentary film about the school in order to teach  others to start a school such as this. Just watching the short video and reading minimally about the school inspires me to really commit to having a school.

There will be so many opportunities to interact in ways that increase the possibilities of making life-long friends, feeling the fulfillment and joy that living in a healthy community brings, and increasing the chances of actually living long term at Wilberforce Village

Some of the activities include: 

• Frequent evening campfires or indoor circles (depending on weather) where we debrief our day, sing, tell stories, dance and do other creative activities.
• Business meetings where we talk about decisions that need to be made that affect everyone using consent decision making in the Sociocracy 3.0 model of governance. 
• Community Connect events where we get to know each other better and have an opportunity to break out into smaller groups to share conversations, skills, and experiences that we want to have. We can open this activity up at times to neighbors, friends and family who want to participate.
• Cooperative games which increase our ability to be playful as well as built team skills
• Wim Hoff breathing and cold therapy
• Swimming in the nearby Prayer Lake
• Journaling together and sharing our thoughts
• Stretching
• Hiking around the land to the nearby waterfalls, or on trails that are in the area. 
• Singing at a local convalescent homes
• Hosting a Community Connect at a senior center or convalescent home
• Creating a mutual aid society where we cooperate with others in order to set up systems where we can all be mutually helpful and less dependent on big corporations for our need
• Learning how to put out a forest fire and other important dealing-with-emergency skills

I’m hoping that people with a variety of useful skills will show up to help with the following projects: 

Insulating the common house for winter

Finishing the common house in a variety of ways–carpentry, plumbing, 

Creating a rainwater catchment system

Building a root cellar by hand https://grocycle.com/how-to-build-a

M-root-cellar/

Digging a pond by hand. https://landscapingplanet.com/how-to-dig-a-pond-by-hand-in-8-steps/

Painting the camping decks

Repairing the Yome https://offbeathome.com/yomes/

Helping with a Youtube channel, making videos, uploading, etc. 

Making a documentary of the creation of the village

Remodeling the old trailer

Repurposing a wood stove and installing it the common house

Some projects that just require a lot of time and grunt work include: 

Getting all the soil amendments onto the garden and getting beds ready for fall garden

Mulching over Johnson grass everywhere it grows

Organizing the resource yard and getting rid of trash

Tearing down a fallen down house

A daily schedule will be created, to be adjusted as weather changes and we discover what works best. 

There will be a serious screening process so we can do our best to make sure that people are healthy enough to work with other people. I’m working on a conflict resolution policy so that when conflicts arise people can know exactly how to proceed. There will be a clear process that will be engaged if we need to ask someone to leave. Hopefully the screening process and conflict prevention/resolution processes will serve as prevention measures so we don’t have to do this. But we need to be ready.

Working on all the details just to have work exchangers is a rather daunting task but I am willing to do this challenging job because I know that by working diligently on this project, I be able to attract the kind of people who can live and work together harmoniously.