Work (volunteer) Camp opportunity and Sites for Hip Camping
Here are photos and videos of the RV site that can be used as a Work Camping site for our summer volunteer work campers or may be available for a Hip Camp RV site. The RV site is in our alpaca pasture. Please see our information below if you are interested in our Work Camp site or to Camp on our land.
The majority of our land can be used as Hip Camp camp site. We can help you choose a great spot in our pastures, with animals, or without. You decide your experience.
Hi – Gaia’s Way at Hawkridge Farm is located in midwestern NY, in the small town of South New Berlin. We are 15 minutes from Norwich NY, which houses the Lowes, Walmart, the hospital, and a couple small restaurants. We are an hour from larger towns, such as Syracuse, Binghamton, and Albany. We are 3 1/2 hours from Niagara Falls. This part of NY is mostly farming communities with many local, state and national parks. You can fish for salmon, hike/bike for hours, hang out with the locals at one of the great homemade ice cream shops, or just sit at your camper and enjoy the quiet sunrises and sunsets.
We are a lesbian couple who work with folks who have trauma. Nancy and Jennie are both therapists, and Jennie is also a college professor working in the SUNY college prison system. We utilize the farm and critters to help trauma survivors feel safe, comfortable with themselves, and in their surroundings. We teach Yoga, Krav Maga, and Safety groups. Our chicken eggs go to local food pantries, as well as our garden vegetables.
There are many tasks that need completed during the summer months. Our farm manager will work along side you and she is a great resource. We have crafts that need to be made and sold at the local flea markets, an aquaponics system needs to be completed and up and running by the end of the summer. Animals always need friendly attention, eggs need to be picked, washed and given to local pantries. All the box gardens need to be tended, grasses and fields mowed with our 4 wheeler and brush hog, dirt and stone need to be moved around with the skid steer, carpentry jobs, and lots of other farm type chores. We do not expect anyone to know how to use our tools and equipment, just a desire to learn.
We are looking forward to having volunteer work camper(s) to help out around the farm this summer. You can arrive in May and should probably pull out by November 1st because of the cold winds and snow that will begin at that time. You would be looking at 20 hours of volunteering with no monetary exchange. We have a 45 ft x 12 ft level stone camper space. There is a water hook up and a 50 amp electric service. There is NO sewer hookup, BUT you can pull your honey pot over to our house septic and dump when needed. There is a really nice picnic table and chairs, a fenced yard for your dogs (2 are allowed, but negotiable), a grill, a fire ring, and parking. You can have pets, but they MUST stay in the fenced area or you can run them in our lower property. Our dogs are all Maremmas and while very nice to humans, they see other animals as predators. Our dogs are working, please be respectful of this rule. I would not want your dog hurt. Prior to putting your dogs outside, you may have to shoo the chickens away. They free range over our whole farm. If you go to our website, you will see the drone movie which shows some of our farm, our house, barns, and your site. Of course the camper will not be there when you arrive.
Our hope is that you will have an open heart to folks who are healing. We always need help running groups. We will have children, volunteers, grandkids, veterans and other survivors in and out of the farm all summer, so being kind and understanding is very important. We want folks who are not judgmental or opinionated. We enjoy kindness, peacefulness, and giving personalities. We do require a Federal Sexual Offender check completed prior to starting, so if you would be unable to clear the check, please do not apply.
You can learn about farm work, tools, gardening, teamwork, and comradery. However, you can learn a lot about yourself here at Gaia’s Way if interested. You have an opportunity to sit quietly and just listen to nature and see all the stars from one spot. Watch how wounded folks can learn how to laugh and see the appreciation when you drop off eggs at a shelter or food pantry. That is what we have to offer – no monetary compensation, but lots of the good stuff!
Here is my contact information:
Nancy Wiley
236 Sunset Drive South New Berlin, NY 13843 (this is a new build – Google Land has not caught up to us yet)
774 – 269 – 5915
gaiasway.hawkridge@gmail.com
Gaias Way 