About Our Farm
Organic garden, sculpture park, wildlife refuge, sustainable community project, spiritual retreat on 175 rolling acres. To see details and arts activities on the farm please visit our website. Length of stay preferred is 1-4 weeks -but negotiable. If you have no previous wwoofing reviews, ask a couple of people who know you to send me a quick email saying what a cool person you are.
Accommodations include an Airstream trailer, barn, cottage, house, or camping. Total WWOOFers we can take at any one time 2-4 (over 21). Organic garden plus lots of arts-related activities, including trail clearing, art making, orchard planting, green building (completing cob sauna, sculpture sites).
Expectations of work negotiable – typically 25-30 hrs/wk. Nearby Cannon County Arts Center (2 miles), Drive-In Movie Theater! Music City USA, aka Nashville (50 miles) Transportation not available. Languages spoken include English, French, some German, poco Italiano. Currently no accommodation available for kids. No pets – we are also a Wildlife Refuge). Veggie food only, shared cooking.
Artists, artisans, gardeners, landscape designers, natural builders, enthusiasts of all sorts welcome.
Fall 2016: We especially need help with
- a) work in the organic garden – planting, weeding, tidying/mending raised beds and greenhouse, composting;
- b) cutting new trails;
- c) various outdoor projects – benches, completing cob meditation chapel, make Japanese tea-house, blaze meditation trails, renovate art gallery in the barn, spiral stone earth work, renovating major earth-art piece buried by weeds;
- d) converting a yellow school bus into a kids playspace;
- e) art program development, wildlife/ botanical photo/audio inventory, website development;
- f) film-making (Yellow Bird and the art-making here deserve treatments like Andy Goldsworthy’s Rivers and Tides), collecting visual and sound images.
- g) general maintenance
Rules & Criteria
- Length of Visit
1-2 Weeks, 3 Weeks, 1 Month
- Number of Visitors
4 max
- Farm Type
Garden, Homestead, Permaculture, Vegetables
- Diet
Vegetarian friendly
- Lodging
Camper/RV, Bedroom in house, Separate structure, Tent camping
- Languages Other Than English
French, German
Recent reviews from Other WWOOFers:
“Woofing here is like putting on your faded, worn in, just perfect blue jeans, and going out to enjoy a beautiful day in a spectacular Tennessee holler. Your work is more personal than most farms because you’re frequently rehabbing or improving or creating art pieces. I did carpentry in the basement, construction in the meditation structure, mowed lawns around the main house, other stuff too. I had time for a Summer Solstice party, rowing in the pond, riding the atv’s on numerous trails, and interesting talks with the host David. I found plenty to eat in the kitchen and the garden is overflowing with produce. Lodging was superb and the other woofers fun. Next time we’ll go to the drive in and return to Rock Island state park.”
July 2016
“My first WWOOFing experience was a beautiful one at Yellow Bird. David’s home and land are stunning and he is a gracious and entertaining host. You won’t be bored here as David always has a crafty idea in the works, from building to sculpting to gardening, there is something for every dreamer here. During my short 2.5 weeks at yellow bird, I painted several outdoor pieces- bench, flag, garden art, and David even let me do an installation in an old building structure on the property which I turned into a playhouse! The goats are fun to observe and Socks and Carly (goat dog and barn cat) are great companions out in the field! I hope to visit again soon and make additions to the playhouse. If you’re looking for a relaxing yet mentally stimulating oasis of art and philosophy to explore, definitely check out yellow bird. Shoutout to Marmalad and Wednesday (the host cats)”
May 2016
“What can I say about Yellow Bird and David? 200 words are not enough. During my stay there, I’ve gotten to know a genuine individual that is easy-going, soft, and brilliant. I was able to absorb so much beauty on his farm while I had several tasks going on (e.g. cleaning/tidying spaces, handcrafting bamboo brushes, restoring school bus, and the biggest of them all- painting a 15-foot totem pole *you cannot miss it as you drive into Yellow Bird; please make sure you observe it*). David allows my sister and me a lot of privacy and independence*especially. The attractions around his farm were mind blowing and beautiful. You will get the freedom to cook whatever you want – and eat comfortably. David makes this killer “secret soup.” And partnered with me in my journey with bread making. Wifi and Netflix are bonuses. This is a different kind of farm though; there are no crops and hard core farming chores but a transcendental kind of set of activities/chores. I’ll be back.”
December 2015
“A 2am Googling search landed me at Yellow Bird. One of the most gorgeous places I have ever seen. I like to refer to Yellow Bird as an Art Farm and at Yellow Bird I grew art. Contributing to ongoing project and learning about the space, I began to feel invested, I wanted badly to interact more intimately with its inhabitants. No, not David, the animals. The animals and art coexist in this magical place. Within my first moments of arriving, the beefaloes (David’s neighbors, so technically they were trespassing) were admiring one of David’s land art sculptures. I was amazed by how they were purposefully circling the art, as if they are humans at a gallery. This idea stuck with me and on my last day at Yellow Bird I self-curated an art opening of some of my prints for the animals only (documented on my website: http://www.rebeccaforstater.com/without-human.html). Using the land, the animals, and the art, everything Yellow Bird is appeared to me before my camera: a conversation between the three.”
Rebecca Forstater – November 2012
Ancient website with nice comments: http://wwoofyellowbird.blogspot.com/l
Search for Yellow Bird on WWOOF-US.
