Past Events

February 22 - March 8, 2009

Sahale Learning Center, Belfair, Washington
Tahuya River Valley, Southwest Kitsap Peninsula

A Two-Week, Residential Permaculture Design Course

Instructed by:

• Michael Pilarski - Friends of the Trees Society
• Laura Sweany - Terra Flora Farm

• Larry Korn - Mu Landscaping Company
• Marisha Auerbach - Herb'n Wisdom
• Jenny Pell – Wilder Institute
• Albert Postema – Earthwise Excavation
• John Henrickson – Wild Thyme Farm
• John Hoff – Goodenough Community

Tuition includes instruction, delicious, mostly organic meals, materials, and permaculture design certificate. Graduates are entitled to use the term "Permaculture" in pursuit of livelihood and for educational purposes

Accomodations:

• Tenting or RV - $210
• Shared room - $350 (comfortable, warm, dry, 2- to 4-person bedrooms)
• Private room - $450

Course is limited to 30 participants.

Contact:
Laura Sweany
13425 43rd Ave. S., Tukwila, WA 98168.
206-369-7590 cell
lauraflora@msn.com
http://www.friendsofthetrees.net
http://www.goodenough.org

poster

Trackers NW Permaculture Design Course
http://www.trackersnw.com/portland-wilderness-skills.php

Our Permaculture Principle: Our permaculture courses run on student collaboration with the instructors in question-led discussions, scenario-based design and facilitated long-term projects.

We include and hands-on "take homes" that you make and keep (potential projects: pocket rocket stove, compost tea, grafted fruit tree, mushroom cultivation + more). We cover applications for diverse climates and lifestyles, from intentional eco villager to rural homesteader to the urban rewild nomad.

4 month Permaculture Design Course

This course place at our 400 acre wildlife refuge and cabin just outside of Sandy, OR. It features a pioneer fruit Orchard with 130 year old trees and 2.8 acres of land dedicated to the design and restoration aspect of this course. While in class and during breaks, you find yourself on the edge of the Bull Run Wilderness with the chance to wander one of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth.

Permaculture Principles in action: A team of expert instructors stack functions through collaborating with students on relevant hands-on "take homes" and design projects that amplify each day's focused lecture material. A curriculum designed from patterns to details, following the natural succession of basic survival to sustainable sustenance and long term regenerative sustainability. Afternoon sessions progress to Professional Design Specifications. The course utilizes a daily framework of retrospective meetings & brief check-ins for students and instructors to creatively use and respond to change, apply self-regulation and accept feedback. And through the specialty hunter-gatherer awareness of TrackersNW we learn the full value of zone 5 and how to fully live with the wild and natural world.

Schedule

• February 24
• March 3
• March 10
• March 31
• April 7
• April 21
• April 28, 29, 30 Overnights
• May 5
• May 12
• May 19
• May 26, 27, 28 Overnights

Cost $950

At Raw Vegan Source, in Redmond, WA
6 Weekend Intensives, March - August 2009

Instructors: Jenny Pell, Marisha Auerbach & many guests

Join us one weekend each month for 6 months and learn:

• Permaculture design principles and methodologies
• Reading landscapes, mapping, and site analysis
• Patterns in nature
• Plant propogation and seed saving
• Raw food and nutrition
• Six months of garden planning, management, and harvest
• Perennial polycultures, edible landscapes, and food forests
• Alternative technologies
• Water catchment, pond building, and aquaculture
• Whole systems theory and Ecoliteracy
• Herbs and medicinal plants
• Natural building, passive and active solar designs
• Urban permaculture strategies, and more...

Cost: $1,150 - $950 sliding scale; discounted price includes work-trade

72-hour design certification course features delicious raw lunches, optional Friday night lecture series, & extra monthly hands-on workshops at Seattle Tilth Association.

For complete details and to register please contact Christy Nieto:
permaculture@earthlink.net (360) 820-8586 http://www.permaculturenow.com

flyer

March 27, 7:00pm - 9:00pm at The Good Shepherd Center 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle, WA $10-$7 suggested donation

Permaculture is an exploration of sustainable human settlements. We look at how humans can work with nature to meet our needs and those of other beings on this planet. Please join us to learn about permaculture and how to apply permaculture principles in your life.

Slideshow & Discussion

For more information, contact: Jenny Pell (206) 949-0496, jennypell@gmail.com or Marisha Auerbach (360) 273-7117, queenbee@herbnwisdom.com

April 24, 7:00pm - 9:00pm at The Good Shepherd Center 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle, WA $10-$7 suggested donation

Permaculture design offers strategies for energy efficient planning. The permaculture zone concept means that we place the elements in our lives that are used the most in close proximity to where they will be used. This saves time and energy. This workshop will offer an in-depth look at how we map the different zones and use them in the design process.

Slides, lecture, and mapping exercises.

For more information, contact: Jenny Pell (206) 949-0496, jennypell@gmail.com or Marisha Auerbach (360) 273-7117, queenbee@herbnwisdom.com

May 29, 7:00pm - 9:00pm at The Good Shepherd Center 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle, WA $10-$7 suggested donation

This evening will focus on enhancing sustainability in urban areas. We will discuss strategies for neighborhood food production, conservation techniques, skill-building, and community self-reliance. Slides, lecture, and lively discussion.

For more information, contact: Jenny Pell (206) 949-0496, jennypell@gmail.com or Marisha Auerbach (360) 273-7117, queenbee@herbnwisdom.com

June 26, 7:00pm - 9:00pm at The Good Shepherd Center 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle, WA $10-$7 suggested donation

Take a tour of fascinating projects from Cascadia to DC, India to Europe, Africa to New Zealand, Vietnam to Nicaragua and learn how to get networked to these permaculture people and places! Take a tour of beautiful homesteads, farms, community projects and city neighborhoods around the globe that will inspire and welcome you!Slides, discussion.

For more information, contact: Jenny Pell (206) 949-0496, jennypell@gmail.com or Marisha Auerbach (360) 273-7117, queenbee@herbnwisdom.com

July 24, 7:00pm - 9:00pm at The Good Shepherd Center 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle, WA $10-$7 suggested donation

How can we invite you into your own backyard? This evening, we will offer you design techniques for creating a space for your enjoyment, that expands your time outside, while adding beauty and biodiversity into the landscape. We will discuss permaculture ideas to create a place to meditate, share meals, play music, practice yoga, play games, or watch butterflies and hummingbirds.

For more information, contact: Jenny Pell (206) 949-0496, mailto:jennypell@gmail.com or Marisha Auerbach (360) 273-7117, mailto:queenbee@herbnwisdom.com

August 21, 7:00pm - 9:00pm at The Good Shepherd Center 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle, WA $10-$7 suggested donation

Tonight, we will offer ideas for turning the inside of your house into a more energy-efficient, delicious, and abundant place including: passive solar designs, pantries, solar clothes dryers, sprouts, oyster mushrooms, candles, and the community dinner table. Slideshow, lecture, discussion.

For more information, contact: Jenny Pell (206) 949-0496, mailto:jennypell@gmail.com or Marisha Auerbach (360) 273-7117, mailto:queenbee@herbnwisdom.com

Friday, January 15
6:30 to 8:30
Olympia, WA, Traditions Cafe
300 5th Ave SW
Olympia, WA
$10 - $7, sliding scale

How many kinds of nature spirits and fairies are there? What do they do? How can we communicate with them? Why would we want to? These are some of the questions we will explore. Michael is the founder of the Fairy & Human Relations Congress which has been held in Washington and Oregon annually for the past 9 years. The Congress brings together some of the world's leading fairy communicators. He is the compiler of the "Collected Fairy Manuscripts of Daphne Charters" and has lectured widely on the topic of fairies. No need to register, but an email that you are coming is appreciated.

For more information or to register, contact: Marisha Auerbach, (360) 273-7117, or mailto:queenbee@herbnwisdom.com

Monday, January 18
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Procession Studio
311 1/2 Capitol Way N, enter from alley
Olympia WA

$60-$40 sliding scale

The workshop will cover some of the most useful Northwest medicinals such as cascara, devil's club, oregon-grape, lomatium, usnea, osha, and yew, as well as lesser-known ones. We will have fresh and dry botanicals to examine. We will look at these plants in the contexts of sustainable wildcrafting, ethnobotany, ethnoecology, traditional and modern uses, and their uses in ecological restoration and permaculture systems. The workshop will touch on using native medicinal plants in urban, suburban and farm landscapes for production of food, fiber, fuel, and crafts as well as medicine and how these native medicinals can be planted for ecological functions such as windbreaks, sound buffers, erosion control, shade, water retention, etc. We will explore how to bring more wild habitats and native plants into human landscapes in a way that improves the quality of life for people as well as native flora and fauna. A win/win situation. The role of yards, alleyways, forest gardens, riparian zones, farmland, etc. We will look at a range of native medicinals which can be grown at the home scale, at the farm crop scale, for ecosystem restoration and for creating wildcrafting opportunities.

For more information or to register, contact: Marisha Auerbach, (360) 273-7117, or mailto:queenbee@herbnwisdom.com

Tuesday, January 19
9:00 am – 6:00 pm
$75 (limited to 16 participants). Registrants will be sent maps to the workshop location.
Bring a lunch. Please try to carpool. Let us know if you want, or can offer, a ride.

This workshop will be held at Wild Thyme Farm near Oakville. The farm is near the Chehalis River floodplain and contains a wide diversity of habitats including forests, pastures, gardens, forest gardens, riparian areas and agroforestry plantings. We will do hands-on wildcrafting and processing of a number of medicinal plants. Devil's club root and rootbark, Oregon-grape root, cottonwood buds, Usnea lichen, lungwort lichen, butterbur root, cascara bark, dandelion root and licorice fern are some of the things we will be looking for. We will discuss other medicinal and useful plants we come across. Information will be wide ranging including sustainability, ecology, ethics, uses, optimum harvesting times, harvesting tools, processing and propagation. Mostly we will be in the wild - experiential. The information is applicable to western Washington in general.

For more information or to register, contact: Marisha Auerbach, (360) 273-7117, or mailto:queenbee@herbnwisdom.com

Tonight, Marisha Auerbach will introduce us to Permaculture. Permaculture offers simple strategies to reduce your expenses, save energy, and enrich your life locally through connection with natural principles. Nature provides a grand blueprint of how interconnected systems work together efficiently. We will look at the systems that we use in our lives and how they are affected by fluctuations globally. We will identify solutions that can be applied on the small scale to enrich our lives.

Tonight, Marisha Auerbach will introduce us to Permaculture. Permaculture offers simple strategies to reduce your expenses, save energy, and enrich your life locally through connection with natural principles. Nature provides a grand blueprint of how interconnected systems work together efficiently. We will look at the systems that we use in our lives and how they are affected by fluctuations globally. We will identify solutions that can be applied on the small scale to enrich our lives.