Wheaton Labs

Last Updated On: March 14th, 2025 at 09:35AM MST

Contact information

Farm Address:
2120 S Reserve Street #351
Missoula, Montana, 59801

Primary Contact: Samantha Lewis
Primary Phone:
    Type: Cell
    Number: 206.399.6761
    Email: wheatonlabs@gmail.com

Website: https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp/

Website: https://permies.com/t/bootcamp

Internship information

General Farm Description: We are bonkers about permaculture and permaculture innovation. We have so many people interested in being part of our projects, that we have developed the permaculture bootcamp! Come spend 40 hours per week focused on permaculture food systems, natural building, appropriate technology, and general homestead living. We are global leaders in rocket mass heaters, hosting global rocket mass heater events - so everybody gets a chance to run rocket mass heaters plus rocket ovens, rocket cooktops and rocket water heaters. Some of the bootcamp values include: - no more than half a day, each day, working on any one thing - work is done, as often as possible, in groups - try to have lots of project diversity through the week - 90%+ of the work done is to benefit the bootcamp (food and shelter) We also host several huge events per year, bringing leading experts here - and the boots share meals and experiences with the experts. We are also pretty generous at giving boots access to our events as attendees. Events include: - Permaculture Design Certification Course - Permaculture Technology Jamboree - SKIP event - Rocket Mass Heater Jamboree - Garden Master Certification Course Wheaton Labs encourages experimentation and innovation. Some of our successes include: - Rocket mass heaters, rocket ovens, cooktops and water heaters - wofati - a natural building design build from logs and cob - willow feeders - an dramatic improvement over composting toilets or humanure - fruit trees from seeds and pits - round wood timber framing - solar food dehydrators (one with a rocket assist) - hugelkultur and berm food systems - dry stack - truly passive greenhouse - skiddable structures - junkpole fence - haybox cooker and "the easy bake coffin" - thorns style community The bootcamp has been upgraded to facilitate more boots and improve our overall velocity in developing new innovations!

CRAFT Member Farm? No

Internship Starts: About once a month
Internship Ends: Must commit to at least a week
Number of Internship Available: 20
Application Deadline: Applications accepted year-round.
Minimum Length of Stay: one week

Internship Details:

Our Permaculture Bootcamp is available all year.

Our focus is on living the most glorious gardening life. How do we grow more food with less effort? Can we grow beautiful, lush gardens with less irrigation? Maybe even zero irrigation?

What is the ultimate home design for a gardener? Can we build it exclusively out of materials that we have gardened?

We manage dozens of experiments every year. All low tech. All involving gardening and natural building.

Rather than a profit based organization, about 95% of the effort in the bootcamp is to benefit current boots and future boots. Expanding gardens, building infrastructure, preserving the harvest …

We have 220 acres near Missoula, Montana – adjacent to thousands of acres of forest service land.

We have national/global experts in gardening and natural building stopping by for a week or two and leading people in projects. We have had multiple visits from Uncle Mud (natural building), Helen Atthowe (Master Gardener instructor and author of “The Ecological Farm”), Ernie and Erica Wisner (rocket mass heater experts and authors of “The Rocket Mass Heater Builder’s Guide”), Jacqueline Freeman (honey bee expert and author of “What Bees Want” and “The Song of Increase”), Thomas Elpel (author of several books including “Botany in a Day”), Dave Hunter (the global expert on native pollinators), Zach Weiss (expert in Sepp Holzer style earthworks) … maybe about 40 more people …

Some people come for just a week, but we encourage people to stay for months or even years. One person learned round wood timber framing here, and after a year, took on a leadership role in building a full greenhouse that was so amazing that we put a movie out called “Devious Experiments on Truly Passive Greenhouse” showing off his excellent new skills! We even had an expert timber framer come here to evaluate his work – A+!

We have acres of hugelkultur – our favorite way to garden. And we do a lot of “forage gardening” where we plant food “in the wild” so we can harvest it later. We grow a lot of fruit trees from seed. And we now have more sunchokes and walking onions than we could ever possibly eat.

Some of the interesting things here now that have been built (or improved) by boots:

natural building

– log structures (wofati)
– tipi
– earthen floors
– dry stack walls and steps
– willow feeders (places for people to poop)
– junkpole fence
– cob
– slip straw
– berm shed
– truly passive greenhouse
– timber framing
– natural cooling structures
– skiddable structures
– mycelium insulation
– pure wood creations (no metal fasteners or glue) (picnic table, log stairs, etc)

alternative energy

– rocket mass heaters
– rocket ovens
– rocket water heaters
– rocket kilns
– solar ovens
– rocket cooktop

growing food

– hugelkultur
– polyculture
– fruit trees from seed
– I hope you like sunchokes
– I hope you like walking onions
– forage gardening
– more perennials
– sepp holzer grain

food preservation and cooking

– giant solar food dehydrators
– canning
– pressure canning
– haybox cooker

Tobacco and drug free. Just not into that stuff.

Educational Opportunities: Permaculture, Natural Building and SKIP - Skills to Inherit Property

Skills Desired: No experience necessary.

Meals: Organic staple foods are provided.

Stipend: There are 12 ways to earn income on the side, the most popular of which is posting pictures to our website.

Housing: Yes

Preferred method of Contact: email