Summer 2025: Gumboot Bootcamp
A deep-dive into building resilience at the person, place and community level
Gumboot Bootcamp provides an holistic, hands-on introduction to regenerative living for anyone interested in building a lifeboat – a place-based resilience network.
Lifeboat Builders stay at the Farmastery for 10 days and experience what it’s like to live, work, and commune in an intentional, expansive, and (hopefully) transformative way.
Stepping outside each morning, I was greeted by an orchestra of bird song and the scent of evergreens, soil, and mist. Carrying my container of chicken feed, I slowly made my way towards the lightening sky, unhurriedly walking the path that leads to the coop. I heard excited clucks of 10 hens increase in volume as they registered my approach. This was just one of many daily rituals that felt ‘right.’
Learn skills for building your own lifeboat
If you’re deeply concerned about the state of the world and how we’re going to get through the times to come, you’re not alone. Gumboot Bootcamp offers an immersive experience in building what comes next, equipping you with skills, tools and ideas that you can implement in your home community.
I plugged into the Lifeboat Academy in ways that nurtured my interests and gifts. With the support and mentorship, I learned a treasure trove of skills that I’m now applying in multiple communities where I live. I’m growing more food in my backyard than I ever have, and I feel more confident and impactful as a facilitator.
Choose from one of four Bootcamps
This season, we’re offering four opportunities to join a Gumboot Bootcamp.
You’ll come together with fellow Lifeboat Builders for a collaborative experience to jumpstart your lifeboat-building journey. The Farmastery offers a mix of indoor and outdoor accommodations, community dinners, dynamic hands-on projects, and group circles for mindfulness and reflection.
In between the chores were wonderful moments of conversation, learning, reflecting, and growing. The joy of a companiable silence as the fire crackles in the wood stove is like a balm. The other Lifeboat Builders have lived, read, and experienced a lot. I learned so much from them in such a short time. They live what they say – kindness, curiosity, compassion, experimentation. Do not skip circle time!!
Gumboot Bootcamp 2025 Dates:
June 13 – 22
July 18 – 27
Aug 15 – 24
Sept 19 – 28
Sign Up
Each Bootcamp is open to a maximum of 10 lifeboat builders. We encourage you to gather some friends together to do it with you. The 10-day immersion is a collective, collaborative experience, and more people means more diversity of interests, skills and perspectives.
Pay-It-Forward
Gumboot Bootcamp is currently offered in exchange for your whole-hearted participation and input. After your experience, we’ll ask for constructive feedback and a testimonial, if you’d like to give one. We’ll also ask you what the experience would be worth to you in dollars.
If you’d like to and are able, you can pay-it-forward to help make Gumboot Bootcamp available to others in the future. Your financial support enables us to keep the lights on, continue to improve Farmastery infrastructure and provide this essential learning experience to others.