Lifeways & Herbal School
Homesteading & ReWilding Apprenticeship
Application Form
Please fill out – in its entirety – and return to mail@animacenter.org
A 1 to 3 Month Long Wilderness Residency Program At Anima Botanical & Wildlife Sanctuary
Homesteading & ReWilding Apprenticeships Include:
• Residence in a most special and wild place, the Anima Sanctuary, most likely a camping space
with group use of a riverside cabin, or lodging in a cabin in some cases... with half of each day
discretionary so you can take walks, write or work on personal projects
• Assisting with food gathering and meal preparation, eating whole and often wild foods
• 12 hours or more per week of hands-on instruction and guidance, primarily from Anima
cofounder and homestead coordinator Loba, with the possibility of occasional counsel and
instruction from Kiva Rose or Jesse Wolf
• 4 hours or more per day of learning and practicing as you help, taking care of whatever needs
to be done to make this rewilded lifestyle work... sometimes guided, sometimes not
Because we are too busy with projects to provide much casual social interaction, we will be
looking to take on no less than 2 Apprentices at a time, with an upper limit of 4
What You Will Learn:
• Food gathering and preservation skills: harvesting wild plants, canning, preserving with salt,
oil, vinegar, pressure canning, processing wild meat (somewhat seasonally dependent)
• Fire and firewood skills: building and tending fires, fire safety, the uses of different kinds of
wood, gathering wood, kindling and tinder, wood chopping
• Trail building/maintenance, water collection and conservation
• Backwoods Cooking and Feasting: enjoying wonderful and often wild meals, cooking on a
wood stove, cooking over a campfire, using a solar oven, using a smoker and more
• The concepts and means for rewilding your lives when you are away from here... and more!
...and, depending on gender, interests and needs,
Other Possible (& Optional) Activities Include:
• Sweat lodge construction
• Participation in a Medicine Sweat or Burden Basket work
• Freeing Our Voices: developing resonance, letting go of self-judgment, voicing anger, grief
and joy, listening for melodies, singing with the canyon, letting a place sing through us
• Wild Art: drawing and painting out in nature, using natural materials to make art, honoring
the land with earthen altars, creative journaling
• Honoring our bodies/The Magic of the Mundane: rhythms of the day, tending to our needs,
self-love, developing our core strength & flexibility, water medicine, belly breathing, inhabiting
our senses, Practices for Presence, finding beauty and pleasure in “ordinary” moments
• Other Important Personal Work: dealing with expectations, obligations and response-abilities,
recognizing and letting go of unhealthy dynamics, habits and patterns, engaging our
challenges, honoring ourselves, cherishing solitude, embracing our calling or purpose, and
recognizing, utilizing and sharing our gifts
• Medicine Stories: using story as medicine in daily life, seeing ourselves as the hero (or
antihero!) in our own worthy story, living and sharing from that place
Note that herbal instruction is explicitly not offered at this point,
though Kiva hopes to eventually be able to accommodate herbal Apprentices here.
Homestead Apprentice Requirements
• A strong desire for a wilder, more intensely experienced life, for a deeper connection to
nature, or for the homesteading skills and knowledge to live an extreme rural lifestyle if you
ever choose to or have to
• A solid commitment of preferably no less than 1 month, for a period of no more than 3
months in succession. We would occasionally make exceptions for highly motivated
individuals already quite knowledgeable about many of the things we teach, who were mainly
looking for a place to practice and enrich their skills
• An intense desire to learn, and to make real what you learn every day
• Being open and not resistant to instruction, and sincerely grateful for what is given
• A willingness to put a lot of effort into every task and project, making even rest and recreation
deliberate and focused
• An ability and willingness to do sometimes difficult physical work, such as splitting and
carrying wood
• Being satisfied working in small groups and alone, and able to enjoy and benefit from solitude
• Eating a partially paleo diet if sharing meals, either omnivorous or flesh friendly (vegan and
vegetarian welcome if taking care of all your own food needs)
• Being non-politically-correct! And not fanatic purists of any kind!
• A $400-$600 per month sliding-scale donation, or other arrangements as needed
You can make your first donation when you send this completed application in, either by
clicking on any of the PayPal buttons on the Anima website and including a note as to which
course you are applying for, or else by sending a check or money order made out to:
Gretchen Geggis (Loba)
Box 688, Reserve, NM 87830
Insert your answers to the following questions directly on this document, then return.
All information is strictly confidential, and our mailing lists will not be sold at any time.
Questions:
Full Name_____________
Address________________
Email_____________________
Phone (optional)_________________
Your Job/Avocation/Purpose_____________________
How did you first hear about us?______________________
Birth Date: __________
Marital Status: __________________
Gender: __________________
Children at Home? _______________
Are You Applying By Yourself, or as a couple or group?_______________
Approximate length of time on the land that you wish to commit to:____________
Approximate Dates you would most like: ______________
2nd Choice:__________
3rd Choice:__________
Amount you are sending or committing to send per month ($400 to $600 sliding scale,
depending on your income and ability to pay, and by your degree of appreciation for this
opportunity):____________
Briefly describe yourself at this point in your life:_____________
Illnesses, handicaps or health considerations?____________________
Omnivore, Vegetarian, Vegan, or special dietary healthy needs or considerations?__________
Have you ever lived or camped primitively for any amount of time? Describe:___________
What qualities or characteristics do you have, that you think will make it possible for you to
commit to, complete, and benefit from an apprenticeship here?___________
What characteristics, needs or fears do you have that might make a resident apprenticeship
especially difficult or challenging for you?_________
Depending on the number of apprentices here, you may find you have a lot less social
interaction at the sanctuary and a lot more time with yourself, how do you feel about that?_____
What would your plan be, for how to best use your discretionary time each day?___________
Are you capable of and comfortable with physical work?___________
Can you camp, or do you need a cabin for sleeping?_____________
Do you take directions well?____________
Can you enthusiastically apply yourself to tasks when alone or unsupervised?___________
Do you consider yourself easily offended? Anti-hunting? Serious gender issues?___________
Do you have issues with the idea of serving people, a cause, purpose or place?____________
Describe the things you would most like to change or further in your life ______________
What do you believe might be your most meaningful purpose or most insistent calling?_______
What are you most excited to learn or gain from this apprenticeship?_____________
How would you plan to put your learning to use in your life away from the sanctuary?________
Please remember that this Apprenticeship in only available to a select few, for select periods,
and it should not be taken as personal criticism if we are unable to accommodate you at this
time.
When you have answered all of the question above, please return this doc as an attachment to an email,
sent to us at:
mail@AnimaCenter.org