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FAQs About Classes
Our classes open for registration at different times of year. If the class you are interested in is not currently open, you can get on the waitlist. Do this on the class page and you’ll be notified as soon as it opens. We offer the best deal (often including special discounts) and early registration opportunities to folks on our waitlists, so be sure to sign up for any and all classes you’re interested in!
Once a class is open for registration, you’ll be able to click through to a simple form and share your information, choose your price on the sliding scale, opt for a single payment or payment plan, and sign up for the class. We process payments through PayPal, but you do not need a PayPal account to register and pay in full. If you are setting up a payment plan, a PayPal account is required.
Most of our classes fill quickly, some within several hours of opening registration. With this in mind, we strongly encourage you to get on the waitlist for whatever classes you’re interested in. After you’ve signed up for the waitlist, you’ll receive an email confirming your address. If you don’t see this, check promotions or spam, then move the email to your inbox and/or put admin@wildabundance.net on your “safe senders” list. Once you’re on the waitlist, keep your eyes out for emails from us about registration opening. We usually give a heads-up a few days in advance, so you can be ready to sign up once a class is open.
Absolutely not! We strive to make our classes accessible to people of many backgrounds. The majority of our classes don’t require any previous experience or skills (the one notable exception is our Advanced Women’s Carpentry Class, which requires the Basics class as a prerequisite).
It’s important to note, however, that our mountain campus is unconventional, and may not be accessible to all bodies. Visit this page to learn more about our campus to see if you’ll be comfortable here. A few key features to note: we have an outdoor shower and (permitted) outhouse instead of a traditional bathroom. The ground here is uneven and you may have to traverse rough steps and mild hills to access the outhouse and other facilities. Our online classes are an option for anyone who cannot travel, wishes to learn from home, or is not comfortable navigating the campus.
We’re all about building community, but that doesn’t mean that you have to be super social or extroverted to participate in our classes. In fact, we believe that resilient communities need all kinds of people in order to thrive, and there’s not just one way to show up in a group.
If you’re more introverted, you’ll have a chance to take space during breaks and after class, and won’t be pressured to participate in group activities. During our programs we host opening and closing circles, along with Q&A sessions where everyone is invited to speak up, share about their experience, and bring their voice to the group. All of this is optional! We also have a question board where folks can simply write what’s on their mind if they don’t feel drawn to speaking in groups.
In order to keep our spaces orderly, and help students feel grounded and connected, we invite folks to sign up for small chores around campus during classes. These usually take about 5 minutes to complete, so there is still plenty of time to prepare food, take a walk, etc. outside of class time.
For those who are more outgoing, there are ample opportunities to chat and connect with fellow students who are also wanting that.
Students 16 years and up are welcome to register for adult classes with parent consent. For younger teenagers, we are open to their participation with a parent accompanying them on a case-by-case basis. In this case, both the parent and the younger teenager would need to register separately. If they have a deep interest in the subject and a high level of intellectual and social maturity, it will probably work well for them to attend a class. Safety is our greatest concern and we require that minors are able to be aware of their safety and the safety of those around them, especially when it comes to building classes.
Depending on the class, you may be able to bring your younger child with you. We don’t allow any small children at our building classes. Generally, we like to encourage children to engage with the subjects that we teach about. If you’re wanting or needing to bring a small child to class, please check in with yourself about whether your child could be involved in the class or is self-directed enough to find something to do while you are in class. Parents are responsible for taking their child aside if they are distracting the class.
Please check in ahead of time with our administrative assistant about whether it is appropriate to bring your child to a specific class. If minors participate in the class (not just come and play on the side), their registration costs the same as adult registration. Please email admin@wildabundance.net for more information.
You can log-in to the online classroom by clicking here. We recommend bookmarking this page for ease of access.
You can reset your password by following this link and clicking “Forgot Password”. We recommend bookmarking this page for ease of access.
FAQs About Our Campus
The person that runs our tours is currently on maternity leave and won’t be running tours again until April 2026.
We would love to offer you a tour of our campus. To arrange one, please send an email to admin@wildabundance.net with the subject line TOUR. We charge $40 an hour for a tour for 1 to 2 people, and $10 for each additional guest. Tours will be available most Mondays – Wednesdays from 10:00-12:30 and sometimes arrangements can be made to host tours outside those designated hours, just ask. In general tours are not available Thursdays – Sundays because we have limited parking and those are often class days.
No. We do not allow dogs on the property unless they are service dogs. If you have a service dog and would like to bring them with you to class, please let us know in advance at admin@wildabundance.net and we can discuss if it will work for a particular class.
Not unless you really want to. You will have access to a lovely and well-equipped outdoor kitchen with running water, a fridge, a stove, and an oven.
Yes, but they are exclusively for people who stay on campus. If you are commuting, please pack your food in a cooler or lunchbox.
If you stay on site at our Paint Fork Campus, there are two refrigerators that are shared by everyone who stays here; this can be up to 24 people at a time, so please be mindful when you shop, or bring an extra cooler with you if you like to have a lot of fresh food. At our Sanford Way Campus, there is only one refrigerator, so, again, please bring a cooler if you think you will need the extra space. We have places to store coolers at both campuses and there is a gas station ½ mile down the road that sells ice.
You are welcome to bring a companion along to stay with you, with several important considerations:
We charge $15/night for anyone staying on campus who is not in a class. Payment must be made at least two weeks prior to class and must be cleared with Parham, our Director of Student Services. You can contact her at admin@wildabundance.net to make arrangements. Arriving without payment or bringing an extra guest without requesting a spot incurs a $50 fee.
Parking is limited at our campus, so each student is only allowed one vehicle. This means your companion must ride with you; you cannot bring an extra car for a non-student. Your companion must also share your tent site, glamping tent, or cottage room; we do not have extra spaces for your guest.
Anyone who is not a student is not allowed in class spaces, the outdoor kitchen, or outdoor shower during class times, from 9:30am-6:00pm each day. This is especially important for classes that are gender specific. You and your companion are welcome to cook together in the outdoor kitchen before and after class hours.
Finally, some parts of the campus are not open for wandering around. There are several private residences here and it can be disruptive for random folks to enter those spaces. If you bring a companion, they should plan to explore the national forest, downtown Asheville, or whatever other local attractions interest them during class time.
FAQs About Students and Instructors
Wild Abundance prides itself on welcoming students from many different ages and backgrounds. Our students’ have ranged in age from 16 to 73. We enjoy the intergenerational flavor of our classes, and find that it enriches everyone’s experiences to have age diversity within the group.
Our core staff and instructors have various racial identities, though they primarily identify as white. Our students are of many diverse racial identities and backgrounds. Even so, most of our classes tend to have a majority of white participants. We have successfully run all BIPOC classes, with the support of BRIOXY, and are very open to partnering with other organizations to make this learning environment possible.
We believe that it’s important to learn and practice skills with groups of people of various identities and backgrounds. And, we see and understand that very real barriers exist for some folks to participate in hands-on and earth-based skills. We actively prioritize collaborating with and hiring instructors of color, and our scholarship and other outreach programs focus on students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Additionally, we are engaged in an ongoing process of equity and inclusion work throughout our organization, and offer support for students, instructors, and others who may experience racialized trauma in our spaces.
We do this with the help of a racial equity consultant who identifies as a Black woman, and is available on-call. When you register for a class you will receive more information about how to engage with this support system, should you need it.
Our core staff identify as mostly cis-gendered, and are mostly women. Our instructors and students encompass a wide range of gender identity and sexual orientation. We often have some non-binary and/or LGBTQ2+ students in each class.
We believe it’s important to learn and practice skills with groups of people of various identities and backgrounds. And, we see and understand that very real barriers exist for some folks to participate in hands-on and earth-based skills. We are committed to an ongoing, emergent process of equity and inclusion work in our organization, and strive to create a safer environment for all gender and sexual identities.
FAQs About Travel
Most of our classes are held onsite at one of our Wild Abundance campuses near Asheville, NC. Others (like our Timber Framing Workshop) are held at similarly beautiful locations nearby. Some of our classes will take field trips to other locations in the area. Our online classes are available to anyone with an internet connection.
The Wild Abundance home campuses are located about 25 minutes north of downtown Asheville, off the Barnardsville/Jupiter exit off of I-26 (Exit 15). You will receive detailed directions to our location after you register for a class.
You can fly into either the Asheville Regional Airport (AVL), the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP), or the Charlotte International Airport (CLT). We are located about 40 minutes from the Asheville Airport, about 1.5 hours from GSP, and about 2.5 hours from CLT. Sometimes flights into CLT are much more affordable, but not always. AVL is a very mellow, small airport with fewer flights per day. It’s possible to Uber from AVL to our campus, while GSP and CLT require more expensive transportation.
There are several options available for lodging during your class. Local students often commute from home, some students enjoy staying on our beautiful campus, and others choose to stay in hotels or AirBnBs.
Please see our Accommodations & Lodging page for more detailed information.
FAQs About Money
You can find prices for our individual classes at the bottom of each class page, when those classes are open for registration. We offer sliding scale pricing and/or partial scholarships as a way to make our classes more affordable to more people. The sliding scale is a simple tiered pricing system that allows people to choose the price they are able to pay, within a specified range. We ask that folks with a household income of $115K+ pay on the upper end of the sliding scale, and that others locate themselves on the scale using this as a reference. This system allows folks of different financial means to be able to pay proportionally similar amounts for our classes. If you don’t see pricing on a particular class page, sign up for the waitlist and you’ll be notified when that class opens for enrollment.
We feel passionately about offering educational opportunities to everyone who is interested in learning. It’s also important to us to provide fair compensation to our instructors and staff. We try to accommodate those with fewer financial resources by offering sliding scale pricing, payment plan options, and scholarship opportunities. If you have questions that aren’t answered on our website, please contact us at admin@wildabundance.net.
We offer full refunds up to two weeks after purchase. After that, we offer partial refunds prior to the start date of your class that are more generous the more advanced notice you give us.
Please visit this page for detailed information on our refund policy and class cancellations.
Wild Abundance reserves the right to cancel a class for any reason, including but not limited to insufficient enrollment, natural disasters, and other circumstances beyond our control. If Wild Abundance cancels a class for any reason other than a natural disaster, all payments will be fully refunded. In the event of a natural disaster or other ‘acts of god,’ transfers to a future course will be provided.
FAQs About Other Things
We are committed to an ongoing process of equity and inclusion in our classes. We ask everyone to share their pronouns in our opening circles so that staff, instructors, and participants can refer to each other in ways that respect identities and are not dependent on assumptions.
Here’s more on the importance of correct pronouns from MyPronouns.org:
“Often, people make assumptions about the gender of another person based on the person’s appearance or name. These assumptions aren’t always correct, and the act of making an assumption (even if correct) sends a potentially harmful message — that people have to look a certain way to demonstrate the gender that they are or are not.
Using someone’s correct personal pronouns is a way to respect them and create an inclusive environment, just as using a person’s name can be a way to respect them. Just as it can be offensive or even harassing to make up a nickname for someone and call them that nickname against their will, it can be offensive or harassing to guess at someone’s pronouns and refer to them using those pronouns if that is not how that person wants to be known.”
Essentially, these classes are open to all folks who are not cis-men (what does cis-gendered mean?). One of the intentions of our women-only classes is to provide a safer learning space for folks who have been challenged in gaining access to skills because of their gender identity.
If you are trans, non-binary, or gender non-conforming, you are welcome to take these classes, but keep in mind it’s likely that the majority of the students will be cis-women. We ask all students to share their preferred pronouns before and during class, in hopes that everyone will be accurately addressed and acknowledged.
If you still don’t feel clear about whether or not our women-only classes are right for you, please reach out for any clarification or support. We are open to your feedback and are in process with continually deepening our equity and inclusion practices. You can also submit totally anonymous feedback here. Email Parham (she/they) at admin@wildabundance.net with your questions or non-anonymous feedback.
Depending on your particular physical and mental capabilities, our classes may or may not be accessible to you. Our campus and learning spaces are built into a mountain hillside, so we cannot provide flat or paved paths for access. Additionally, some of our classes (especially our building classes) involve physical dexterity, and include loud noises and fast-moving tools. Our online classes are a great option if you are unable to move about comfortably on our campus, or may feel overwhelmed in a group setting. If you have particular concerns about accessibility, please reach out to admin@wildabundance.net and we will be honest about what the class entails and if we think it will work for you.
We are not accepting volunteers at this time. If you’d like to get involved, the best way is to take a class. Occasionally, we invite local folks to come help out at work parties. If this interests you, definitely get on the mailing list to stay up to date on public events and volunteer opportunities. If you have very specialized skills like photography, graphic design, carpentry, etc. and would like to barter for a class, please reach out to admin@wildabundance.net to see if we can arrange something.
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