2023 Internship Curriculum

Maybe I'm using the word "curriculum" too loosely, maybe not; you be the judge

2023 Interns, the Founding Class: Jack D., James S., and Nick S.

If I had to sum up the objective of our Primal Woods/Homestead Rebel internship program in two words, they would be “character development.” In my post We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us I talked about the fact, really only my opinion I suppose, that We (are not) the People that the Constitution was made for. This internship program is part of our small effort to correct the situation. Naturally, it involves a lot of farm work, but so much more.

Then I will just briefly mention something I find to be true: In this modern age of large-scale, industrial agri-business, and when trying to recreate on a small scale a true agri-culture, there must be multiple streams of income, each perhaps small, but together enough to support those engaged in the enterprise. For example, in our case sawmill services, pure maple syrup sales, meat sales, this substack, traditional soaps eventually, and so on, need to be enough to support ownership of the farm and provision for those engaged in the farming. It’s a tall order, believe me. With that as context, let’s have a look at the “curriculum.”

Major Farm Enterprise Projects

1. The Original Three:

   1. Maple Syrup Marketing

   2. Goat Brush Management Service

   3. Traditional Soap Process and Product Development

2. Plus:

   1. Farm House Rehab

      1. Farm House Marketing ideas & plan

      2. Lake access restoration

   2. Pig Fencing (incl. White Oak gates)

   3. Sheep Fencing

   4. High Tunnel Water

   5. Sheep Pasture (Water)

   6. Pig Pasture (Water)

   7. Workshop

   8. Wood Shed

Minor Projects

1. Garden

2. Brush Hog blade replacement

3. Meat Birds introduction

4. Barn organization

5. Sugar House organization

6. Cleanup of logs/branches behind Farm House

7. Harvesting of Maple logs from the woods

8. Collect White Oak boards from neighbor's property

9. Install three runoff "tubes;” one to provide high-and-dry access to either end of the High Tunnel, one in Paw Paw Draw.

Farm Routine/Chores

Daily Animal Feed & Water

1. Layers

2. Meat Birds + Move

3. Pigs + Fence check

4. Goats + Fence check

5. Dog and Cat care if Geri/John off-farm

Periodic Work

1. Mowing (pasture)

2. Firewood

3. Milling jobs

4. Pure Maple Syrup orders

Intellectual Pursuits

Continuing Education

• Leadership experiential workshop w Sean Georges and John Buford; On Mission Leadership

• The Genesis Story

• Plato

• Becoming a King: The Path to Restoring the Heart of a Man, by Morgan Snyder

• Gene Logsdon and/or Wendell Berry

• Joel Salatin - several books; perhaps best suited to the task at hand, The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs

• Intern guest blog posts on this substack

Business Development Ideas

• Hanging planks for engraving intern names

• Marketing/selling of Ad Astra coffee

• Sell Stanley products

• Sell branded knives

• Setup Shopify for the Primal Woods store

• Build a Farmhouse lending library

• Add 2024 Internship link/button to Newsletter

Extracurricular/Re-Creation

• Shooting guns

• Shooting bows

• Fishing

• Swimming

• Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, ad infinitum

Plan to have ongoing a Major Project and a Minor Project; intellectual pursuits in the heat of the day.

In general animal chores and manual project labor will be scheduled to occur between 0700 and 1200, to avoid the afternoon peak heat.

Summation from My Point of View

I couldn’t be more excited. We have a truly awesome group of young men, who will likely teach us (as Geri reminds me often) more than we will teach them.

The breadth and depth of this curriculum is daunting. We will fail here and there, and that’s good thing.

If we achieve even the half of what has been laid out above, we and the farm will be much improved.

And, this experience is going to force me to perform at a much higher level, which is also a good thing.