Volunteers
Overnight/long-term volunteers
 
   We can accommodate overnight volunteers between April and October.  If you are interested in volunteering, please read the information below and consider whether this is a way of life in which you are willing and able to participate.  Then send us a letter describing yourself, your motivation for coming to the farm, your work or volunteer experience, and any physical or mental health issues that affect your ability to work and live in community.  Volunteers begin with a visit between Monday and Saturday.  There is no minimum time commitment.  The initial time can be extended by mutual agreement.
 
Community life:
 
     We live together intentionally.  We share work, meals, and time for silent prayer and reflection. When tensions or conflicts arise we acknowledge them and try to work through them.
The current core community is a Quaker family--mother, son who was 15 and daughter who was 19 when we came to the farm in 2001.  We see our work as a spiritual calling, and we welcome people from different faith groups.
 We have set some boundaries that help us to model an alternative and to welcome guests without unnecessary tension or confusion.  We ask volunteers to refrain from smoking, using drugs or alcohol,  or engaging in sexual activity outside marriage while they are with us.
        The competitive consumer culture is concerned with appearances, with looking good, with image.  We ask visitors to bring work clothes they won’t mind getting dirty or paint-stained.  Shoes should be sturdy.  Warm clothing may be wanted in spring and fall or even on a chilly summer night.  Sexy sells in a consumer culture, but the farm is a community of faith.  We may be working side by side with men from Unity Acres or have Amish neighbors stopping by to visit.  We have no dress code but we ask that visitors consider modesty and respect in their choice of clothing.
 
Daily Schedule
    
    Monday through Saturday we start with morning prayer from 7 to 7:30. Breakfast is ready by 8 and after that we work until lunch at noon.  In the afternoon we work from 2 until about 5.  We eat supper about 6.  After cleaning up, people may gather for a sunset walk or music or talk or take time for their own pursuits.
 
Much of the work during the months volunteers come to stay is in the garden.  Help is also welcome with firewood processing, construction and building repair, landscaping, fencing, haying etc.
Volunteers work with members of the core community, and sometimes also with men from Unity Acres (the shelter for otherwise homeless men whose property adjoins ours), local volunteers, migrant workers or other guests. Some of the people with whom we spend time have mental health difficulties. Patience with and respect for people from different social backgrounds and with varying abilities is essential.
Volunteers will also participate in other aspects of the community’s work as they are able and interested; this might include milking goats, canning and freezing vegetables, cooking and cleaning, welcoming and listening to guests etc.  We want visitors to have opportunities to learn and do what interests them as well as help with whatever needs to be done.
 
Writings by previous volunteers: Visitors’ Perspective by Abraham and Kate Land , June 2002 Quotes from Bishop Ludden HS Students , September 2004 Global Encounter at SFF by Mike Urbanowski, April 2006 Reflections on living at St. Francis Farm by Melinda Kurowski, December 2006 Minke’s Story (international visitor, August 2007) Dan Kauffman’s Story from the September 2008 newsletter A Pivotal Time of Help and Hope by Bob Bartell, from the December 2008 newsletter An Alternative Model of Life, Work and Learning by Michael Clark (a WWOOFer who volunteered with us in fall 2008) WWOOFers’ Week at St. Francis Farm by Aya and Amy Mares (June 2010) Stories by Joe Kruse , Ruthie Cole and Daisy Lopez from our September 2011 newsletter Sean Wood’s comments on his time at the farm, posted on our WWOOF webpage in winter 2011 Abe%20and%20Kate.htmlBishop%20Luden%20Quotes.htmlGlobal%20Encounter%202006.htmlMelinda%27s%20volunteer%20experience.htmlMinke.htmlDan%20Kauffman%27s%20Story.htmlA%20Pivotal%20Time.htmlMike%20Clark.htmlAmy%20and%20Aya.htmlJoe%20Kruse.htmlRuthie%20Cole.htmlDaisy%20Lopez.htmlSean%20Wood.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5shapeimage_2_link_6shapeimage_2_link_7shapeimage_2_link_8shapeimage_2_link_9shapeimage_2_link_10shapeimage_2_link_11shapeimage_2_link_12
All who live and work at St. Francis Farm are volunteers (see the mission statement on the home page). From April through October there is always more work to be done than hands to do it. Volunteers are welcome. Whether you have experience or energy and willingness to learn, you can help with gardening, preserving, renovating or woods work.  Put together a group for a work day or come on your own. Please do not bring pets. Call ahead to be sure someone is available to work with you.
Other information
 
Volunteers usually stay in the farmhouse where there are individual bedrooms and shared bathrooms.  Larger groups of volunteers stay in  dormitories in the barn,  one with 6 beds and one with 8.  Each dorm space has an adjoining bathroom with showers.  Towels and bedding are provided for volunteers who stay in the house.  Volunteers will have access to email and telephone and are welcome to use our bikes, a library, and musical instruments
 
Public transportation access:  Syracuse is the nearest city and has an airport, bus and train stations.  There is bus service to Pulaski (6 miles from the farm) twice daily and volunteers can arrange to be picked up there.  
 
Working
Why --do we live like this? --would anyone else want to try it? In his book Hamlet’s Blackberry, William Powers writes of the importance of getting away sometimes from our screens and the virtual crowd surrounding us in order to experience more depth. He poses the following questions: Does your screen help you think and work better? Does it deepen ties to friends? Do you come away in a better state of mind than you were in to begin with ? Think about your own life: which moments mattered most?  Didn’t most of them entail being involved in something larger than yourself?  Either out in the hugeness of the natural world, or working together with those around you toward some common end, often for no material gain?--Deep Economy by Bill McKibben. We must achieve the character and acquire the skills to live much poorer than we do.  We must waste less.  We must do more for ourselves and each other.  It is either that or continue merely to think and talk about changes which we are inviting catastrophe to make.--What Are People For? by Wendell Berry
There is an intrinsic value in anything we do with our hands . . . for working by hand brings with it a meditative mind and self-fulfillment.
--Satish Kumar in The Case Against the Global Economy
Simplicity doesn’t mean meagerness, but rather a certain kind of richness, the fullness that appears when we stop stuffing the world with things. --The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life by Thomas Moore
Our own version of why you might want to come
• an alternative--away from commercial messages and virtual reality and preoccupation with image and mindless consumption and junk/fast food
• work--manual labor to meet basic needs of self and others and opportunity to learn practical skills
• nature--woods and fields and starry skies and opportunity to learn about the creatures that share the planet with us
• silence for reflection, focused conversation
or not
The challenging nature of coming to the farm is the consequence of these same things--eating unfamiliar foods, getting up early, dressing practically instead of for image, showering in water that smells of sulfur, getting tired and dirty and hot, encountering bugs and snakes and worms and bats, facing all the inner fears and doubts that can be avoided by distractions and noise.