[Lapg] The Farm's Ecovillage Training Center Tennessee Permaculture and Natural Building Courses 2005

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

Post-Petroleum: Permaculture and Natural Building

Natural Building and Permaculture
2-week Intensive Course


March 19-April 2, 2005
with Albert Bates, Matt English, Goodheart Brown, Scott Horton, Adam 
Turtle, Murad Al Khufash, Katey Culver and Howard Switzer

Global production of petroleum per capita peaked in the 1970s. From here 
on, we need to how to live with less, and yet our profligate lifestyles are 
still expanding, still straining the web of nature. This workshop combines 
-the first half of the Permaculture Design Course with introduction to 
straw, cob, wood and other natural building materials. Participants will 
learn ecology, energy and resource conservation, social and community 
skills, and the economics of environmental sustainability. Field trips will 
include visits to a bamboo nursery and local permaculture sites.

$1200 for two weeks ($2400 for couples), or $100 per day ($175/day for 
couples), with meals & lodging.

The second half of the Permaculture Design Course is offered July 22-30.

Mud and stone. Turf and timber. Build with straw, cob, wood and other 
natural materials. Albert Bates is author of ten books on energy, 
environment and law and two films on ecovillages, and currently serves as 
advisor to the Global Ecovillage Network. He has studied natural buildings 
with master craftspersons on 6 continents and has built many innovative 
buildings at The Farm and elsewhere. Howard Switzer is an architect (and 
country music singer) who has studied with Ianto Evans, Sun Ray Kelley, and 
many other natural builders, and has designed and worked on scores of straw 
homes and other structures in Tennessee and the Southeast. Albert and 
Howard's friendly style and understanding of the subject make them an 
enjoyable and engaging instructor team. For this 2-week course in 2005 they 
will join with many guest instructors to combine our Permaculture 
Fundamentals curriculum with our acclaimed natural building immersion course.

$1200 for two weeks, or take it a day at a time: $100 per day or $175/day 
for couples, meals and lodging included.

Ecological design and natural building topics:

Growing Food with Minimal Labor

Natural wall systems

Foundations and drainage

Passive solar design

Alternative Money Systems

Hybrid natural building design

Agroforestry

Roofing and water collection


Specific building systems to be covered will be:

Cob for building and special applications

Rammed earthbags, earthship tires, and Cinva-ram brick

Adobe, fidobe, papercrete and other hybrid mud techniques

Natural paints and plasters

Wattle and daub, pacarcilla, pacarilla, zacatlantiloli

Dry stack and mortared fieldstone

Vaults, apses, domes

Rubble trench foundations, drainage, and pest-proofing

Strawbale construction

Living roofs and thatch

Through hands-on sessions each day, students will gain practical experience 
in integrating a number of simple and valuable technologies into 
appropriate working solutions for any situation

For more information, please write or call:
Ecovillage Training Center
PO Box 90, Summertown, TN 38483-0090 USA
ecovillage at thefarm.org
Telephone +01-931-964-4474
Fax +01-931-964-2200.


The Farm's Ecovillage Training Center (and its partner programs abroad) 
present a series of intensive courses:

http://www.thefarm.org/etc/courses.html
March 7 – April 8, 2005
April 24 – May 27, 2005
June 1 – June 29, 2005
July 10 – Aug 5, 2005
Sept 2 – Sept 29, 2005
Ecovillage Apprenticeships

Summertown, TN, The Farm community. Apprenticeship program in organic food 
production, natural building and permaculture. $300 per week program 
includes board and lodging, participation in all courses, and training in 
organic gardening from seed through harvest, natural buildings of all 
types, and the fundamentals of permaculture and ecovillage design. This 
year we will be continuing work on our 11,000 sq.ft. constructed wetlands, 
our cob visitors center, our cob, strawbale and earthbag sauna roundhouse, 
unique "hipitats" and compost toilets, our 3-story mud brick office 
building, and many other interesting projects within the Farm community. 
Participants will learn ecology, energy and resource conservation, social 
and community skills, and the economics of sustainability. Field trips may 
include canoe trips on the Buffalo River, the Hohenwald Elephant Sanctuary, 
and visits to a bamboo nursery, the Amish community, and local permaculture 
sites. Students who would like college credit for this course may register 
through their university. Guest instructors include Matt and Jennifer 
English from Grey Bear Lodge, Adam and Sue Turtle of Earth Advocates 
Research Center; Murad Al Kufash from Marda Permaculture Center in 
Palestine, UN Architect of the Year Greg Ramsey; Valerie Seitz of the Delft 
(Holland) School of Environmental Design, Alejandra Liora Adler, Scott 
Horton, Sizwe Herring; Francesco Casini; author and editor of Communities 
Magazine Diana Christian; Ed Eaton of Our Sun Solar; and natural builders 
Howard and Katey Culver. Se habla español.

Shiitake Mushroom Growing Basics

March 12, 2005
October 29, 2005


Summertown, TN, The Farm community. How to grow shiitake mushrooms and make 
money doing it. Half-day course begins with brunch: 10 am to 3 pm. Will 
Bates and Frank Michael, $50.


March 19-April 2, 2005 Post-Petroleum: Permaculture and Natural Building 
with Katey Culver and Howard Switzer

Global production of petroleum per capita peaked in the 1970s. From here 
on, we need to how to live with less, and yet our profligate lifestyles are 
still expanding, still straining the web of nature. This workshop combines
the first half of the Permaculture Design Course with introduction to 
straw, cob, wood and other natural building materials. Participants will 
learn ecology, energy and resource conservation, social and community 
skills, and the economics of environmental sustainability. Field trips will 
include visits to a bamboo nursery and local permaculture sites. Howard 
Switzer, Katey Culver, Valerie Seitz, Matthew English, Scott Horton, Adam 
Turtle, Murad Al Khufash and guests. $1200 for two weeks, $100 per day or 
$175/day for couples, with meals & lodging. The second half of the 
Permaculture Design Course is offered July 22-30.

Solar Installation with Ed Eaton
May 4-7, 2005 at The Farm in Summertown TN
Dec 5-9, 2005 in Punta Gorda Town, Belize
Become a solar installer with this week-long course from Ed Eaton of Our 
Sun Solar, one of the foremost solar installation companies in the world. 
In the US course $490 includes food and lodging or $350 if you just want 
the instruction without accomodations. In our Belize classes, the course 
includes final banquet and overnight stay in Mayan or Garifuna village for 
$400, with separate lodging booked to suit your comfort needs.

May 20-23, 2005 Mud Brick

For international development workers and others interested. How to use an 
CINVA ram to make bricks: adobe, fidobe, supercob, papercrete with Matthew 
English. $195 incl meals & lodging.

June 17-19, 2005 Bamboo Cultivation and Construction

How to grow bamboo for fun and profit. Joinery and design with bamboo 
artisan Matthew English and landscaper Will Bates, includes visit to local 
nurseries. $195 includes meals and lodging.


July 22-30, 2005 Ecovillage Design and Permaculture Practicum

Requirements for certification for the full permaculture design course are 
met by completing this second module. Many instructors, ourselves included, 
have found it useful to break the course into two, more easily assimilated, 
sections. The first section, which is primarily theory and involves a lot 
of classroom time, is called Permaculture Fundamentals. We offer this in 
March with our Natural Building Immersion. The second, 8 days, involves 
Sustainable Village Design with Greg Ramsey:
site selection, master planning and pattern design for ecovillage; 
consensus and conflict resolution, financial aspects, work issues, best 
practices. Participants will join the final part of our permaculture course 
to learn ecology, energy and resource conservation, social and community 
skills, and the economics of sustainability. Diana Christian, Gwynelle 
Dismukes, Greg Ramsey, Scott Horton and guests. $800.

September 9-18, 2005

Natural Building Immersion including Dry Composting Toilets

Unparalleled nine day intensive with instruction in straw, cob, wood and 
other natural materials. Wattle and daub, fidobe, earthbags, earthships, 
traditional Mexican styles, bamboo, slipclay, domes and arches, earthen 
floors, earth plasters and alis, passive solar, foundations and drainage, 
living roofs and thatch. Get the in-depth experience. Participants will 
learn energy and resource conservation and the economics of sustainability. 
Field trips may include visits to a bamboo nursery and local permaculture 
sites. Students who would like college credit for this course may register 
through their university. This year we are adding extensive sections on 
traditional Mexican styles for reed thatch, zacatlanloli, slipform 
claystraw, and adobe-making. Instructors: Architect and builders Howard 
Switzer, Katey Culver, Matt English, Adam Turtle, Francesco Casini and 
guests. $800 for 9 days, or $100 per day or $175/day for couples, meals and 
lodging included. Se habla español. Daily workplan will be updated on our 
page until September.

About Our Courses

To make the transition toward a sustainable society it is imperative that 
we take responsibility for our own lives and meet our basic needs for food, 
shelter, energy, gainful employment, and supportive community. The purpose 
of our courses is to offer you practical training in ecological design 
principles so that you can begin the application of these skills within 
your own home grounds, workplace, and local community.

We also focus on building the support systems, networks, and alliances we 
all need in our work of remaking our culture. We strive to create a balance 
between classroom time, hands-on experiential learning, and personal 
empowerment work. Our courses will be useful for people with varying levels 
of experience, from backyard gardeners to design and educational 
professionals.

At the ETC we are creating a holistic, comprehensivist, "total immersion 
school," co-evolving creative designs that move us toward sustainability. 
All projects and buildings on site provides a walk-thru visit to the 
future. You can walk through our strawbale cabin, dome, organic gardens, 
and soon-to-be-completed cob Visitors Center (the largest cob structure in 
North America, the first east of the Mississippi) and wetlands filtration 
system. We have a large creek flowing through the Center and the headwaters 
of the Swan watershed are located on the property as well. Over 1000 acres 
of The Farm are designated as wilderness preserve.

The Inn is an old Farm house that has been recently renovated and expanded. 
The house was originally constructed by members of the Farm in the late 
70's out of completely recycled materials. Our renovations have included 
three dormitories, two solar showers, rainwater collection, solar 
electricity, and wastewater recycling. We just added a 2-story greenhouse 
with a third story observation deck.

About Our Instructors


Albert Bates is author of ten books on energy, environment and law, and two 
films on ecovillages, and currently serves as President of the Global 
Ecovillage Network. He has lectured and universities and government 
agencies and worked on natural buildings, village infrastructure, and 
permaculture landscapes on 6 continents.

Ed Eaton has been doing professional solar electric installations for 30 
years, and is a co-founder of Solar Energy International (www.solarenergy.com).

Andrew Goodheart Brown is a well-versed, highly skilled and inspirational 
biologist. If he is not here teaching he may be off counting whales in New 
Zealand or working in firetowers in Alaska. His wife is Chiwa, a well-known 
ceramic artist in Asheville, NC.


.
Murad Al Khufash was a founding director of the Marda Permaculture Centre 
in Nablus, Palestine, and developed the heirloom seed collection project 
there. He now works for the Palestinian-Isaeli Peace thru Permaculture 
Project. www.thefarm.org/permaculture/

Greg Ramsey, a principal of Village Habitat Design, comes from a 30 year 
family tradition of conservation planning. He is last year's recipient of 
the United Nations World Habitat Award and the American Institute of 
Architects 2001 National Award for Sustainability Design. An American, he 
spent the first 13 years of his life in France where his father, professor 
of architecture at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris, taught sustainable 
design and construction. You can view some of their recent projects at 
www.VillageHabitat.com. He likes projects which redevelop "brownfields;" 
old industrial sites of the type that litter the outskirts of St. 
Petersburg, Warsaw, and Bucharest. He lives in one such old brownfields 
site in Atlanta, which now grows bamboo, apples, and squash where there 
used to be a railroad cinderyard.

Diana Leafe Christian is author of Creating a Life Together: Practical 
Tools to Grow an Ecovillage or Intentional Community, editor of Communities 
Magazine and lives in Earthaven Ecovillage.


Valerie Seitz, and urban designer, architect, researcher, and teacher on 
topics of sustainable settlements and building, is on the Faculty of 
Architecture, Dept of Sustainable Technology and Design, Delft University 
of Technology. She has lived in and designed experimental communities in 
The Netherlands and works for the DIOC, the Delft Ecological City program 
of the School of Architecture.


Francesco Casini is a Italian master mason who works equally well in stone, 
brick, tile, plasters, and monolithic cement forms. One of The Farm's 
original founders, he is today a treasured artisan, musician and philosopher.

Scott Horton has taught Permaculture in his native California under the 
auspices of the Permaculture Institute of Northern California, as well as 
in Oregon and Mexico. In 2001 he founded La Semilla Besada, a Permaculture 
site in Northern New Mexico he plans to develop into a retreat and teaching 
center. An eco-artist, Scott is a 2003-2004 Artist-in-Residence at Caldera 
Art & Ecology Center in Central Oregon, where he is creating the Centers 
first site-specific and environmental art works.


Matt English is a holistic artisan and yoga teacher who has studied bamboo 
construction techniques in China, the Philippines and USA.

Jennifer English is a yoga instructor/herbologist/cook/gardener. She will 
be leading our apprentices in the gardens and greenhouses.

Bernice Davidson is a nationally-known artist (professor of art at a local 
college), and a resident of The Farm, who will be showing us techniques for 
sculpting and furniture-making using tile and other ceramic forms.

Gwynelle Dismukes is a professional trainer and facilitator in the field of 
conflict transformation. She has designed and directed victim-offender 
reconciliation programs, police domestic intervention training, village 
stakeholder consensus processes and much more.

Katey Culver Switzer has been a life-long activist with a focus on ecology 
and natural systems. She owns a local recycled paper supply co. She has 
been teaching about, designing and building natural buildings since 1996.

Howard Switzer is an architect with more than 30 years experience in 
building solar homes and working with natural, ecological, and recycled 
materials and construction techniques. He has studied with many other 
natural builders. His architecture firm designs and builds many straw and 
native material structures for residential and business clients in the 
Southeastern US.


Adam Turtle is a bamboo nurseryman with 20 years experience in fine 
furniture making and joinery. He and his wife Sue publish the Temperate 
Bamboo Quarterly from the nearby Earth Advocates Research Center.


Class size limited so early registration is recommended.
Fee & Enrollment Prices include tuition, lodging, and vegetarian meals. 
Please send a (non-refundable) deposit to reserve your space. Substantial 
discounts may apply for advance registration. Balance is due at 
registration. Credit card users may register by phone. Shuttle service is 
available upon request from the Nashville Airport for $40 or less per trip 
depending on the number of people sharing the shuttle van.

Accommodations:
Bunk houses and tent sites are available for the entire course. There are 
showers and bathrooms nearby. Bedding is provided. A limited number of 
private rooms are available at typically $30 per night. Wheelchair access 
provided. Language translation services can be arranged. Bring rain gear, 
swim gear, comfortable walking shoes, flashlight and towels.

For more information, please write or call:
Ecovillage Training Center
PO Box 90, Summertown, TN 38483-0090 USA
ecovillage at thefarm.org
Telephone +01-931-964-4474
Fax +01-931-964-2200