Internship 1:
Orono Transitional Landscape Internship
Live-in, low rent permaculture. $300/week rent
May 31-Aug 31
Contact: William Giordano on first class.
Faculty sponsor: Prof. Joline Blais
This internship is a living/learning opportunity that focuses on training and experience. Live and work in your own garden in Orono, and assist in the development of a home-scale edible landscape, in exchange for reduced rent. food harvest and permaculture training in a shared household.
The home, on the south edge of campus, is a transitional edible landscape and includes fruit/berries/nuts, medicinal herbs, kitchen herbs, annual and perennial vegetables, a greenhouse, cold frames and an ebible plant/tree nursery. Interest for summer interns could include engaging any of these areas. Opportunities for permaculture design training and certification available via summer projects/classes. Internships involve 1 day per week in the garden and grounds.
- Live on site for $300/month, and work 8-10 hours/week.
- Laundry/dishwasher on-site. eat-in kitchen, dining room, finished basement, 2 bathrooms.
- 3 Rooms available. 1/8 mile from campus and 1/2 mile from downtown Orono.
- Mature highbush blueberries in July/August
- Pick salad greens from outside the front door daily
- Learn/assist in caring for edible tree crops (plums, pears, apples, butternuts, hazelnuts etc)
- Learn/assist in growing herbal medicines
- Make far less trips to the grocery store
- Help establish a lively evening bonfire/music scene for summer fun
- Connect with Lucerne Lakeside permaculture side for exchanges, swimming, boating, camping
Seeking:
- Garden skills of any kind, or willingness to learn quickly
- Ability to make clear observations and record findings
- Research skills for connecting available models to actual gardens
- Ability to work well on team and on own
- Holistic/Systems thinking an asset, seeing patterns and whole picture as well as local details
- Design & digital skills helpful for documenting (photography, video, web skills)
Internship 2:
Native/PermaCulture
Lakeside forest permaculture
One day/week, $50/week stipend
May 31-Aug 31
Contact/Faculty sponsor: Prof. Joline Blais
This internship is for a Native American student interested in learning more about your own culture’s gardening methods and permaculture gardening and how to weave the two together. The Internship will involve one day gardening in Dedham, Maine (4-5 hours in the garden, 1-2 hours on the lake–swimming, canoeing, etc), as well as researching your own garden traditions and finding out how to integrate the two together. When Europeans came to this continent they often clear cut forest and planted their own crops. This form of gardening is about making peace in the plant kingdom–learning about polycultures that integrate European and Native types of edible and medicinal plants.
You will also learn about local native plants, especially weeds (which are highly nutritious and healing to earth and body), mushroom, insects, local fauna, medicine and ceremony. The intent is for you to act as an ambassador between cultures, brining the best from both worlds across the cultural divide and into the earth where we all are related. We will document and catalogue this research using digital photography, video, and web skills, as well as writing about our experiences. Our goal is to create enough interest to apply for grants for future funding for ongoing research. Must be motivated, hard-working, enjoy outdoors, enjoy talking to elders, and willing to learn and integrate skills in digital culture, permaculture and Native Culture. Child care possible for young parents interested in this opportunity.
- Lucern, Maine, on the edge of Phillips lake
- One day/week, $50/day
Seeking:
- Eagerness to conduct research in field and in culture
- Keen observation skills of natural and cultural phenomena
- Interest in digital skills
- Connect with LongGreenHouse site in Orono for more urban permaculture options
Fall 2010-Spring 2011 Internships
Fall internships will pick up on the work of both internships, and involve students in UMaine degree/for credit courses. All Students living at LongGreenHouse are required to link at least one of their courses with LongGreenHouse work, whether as a capstone project, a course research project, or an independent study project.
At the 2010 ESTIA conference “Ecovillages Redefined” on 22 October, Still Water’s Joline Blais gave a presentation on the Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage and conducted a discussion on the role ecovillages might play in a sustainable future.
Still Water Co-Director Joline Blais plants the seeds of sustainable gardening at the 
On 2 May 2010, Joline Blais gives a Permaculture walkthrough and workshop for University of Maine students at the 
Archimedes was wrong: the tool most people use to move the earth is the mattock. Although often overshadowed by its big brother, the pickaxe, the mattock works on a human rather than industrial scale.
