The AUGUST INTENSIVE Natural Building Skills Class

Six fabulous folks joined in during this Week-long Intensive Program ~ August 8 – 14th !  What a rich, productive and fun time we had. Hands-on activities included: base and finish plasters on the Hobbit Sauna and on an experimental strawbale, Cob Brick-making, Cob on the Garden Wall, Thatch demo on a small frame, Stone Wall construction on the Kid’s Cottage,

Round pole harvesting, repair of the Earth Oven Roof Frame, charred the post bottoms, and repaired a wheelbarrow ! Other experiments with notching and reading round logs. Presentation on Rocket Stove, and fired 2 of them up plus other presentations on foundations, framing, site, strawbale construction. Videos: Mud, Hands, a House. Building for a Small Planet, Ben Law: Round Pole & Thatching (English and Danish style). We attended the Permaculture Meetup on Suburban Farming.

Harvested & ate Shiitake Mushrooms from inoculated logs. Some folks learned whittling skills and made small projects… and lots of great food was created and shared.. After the class, Worktrader Aaron helped on a bunch of projects: clearing & adding compost to the Greenhouse, fixing the ventilation for the Red Shed,installed new stovepipes in the Strawbale Studio, fixed a bunch of wheelbarrows and much more. He & Micah finished framing the Cob Garden Wall of the Hobbit Sauna and things are looking great and moving along!!

South Michigan Permaculture MIXER & Agro-Forestry Workshop ~ May 23 & 24

Plantings on the Pipeline. Permaculture Mixer May 23, 2015. Photo by Inira

Thank you everyone who made it out! What a wonderful way to spend an early summer day! Over 80 people came together and planted more than 200 trees on Saturday!  The South Michigan (SoMI) Perma-Mixer is an annual event to bring together permaculturists from across the region to share skills, knowledge and other resources.

Permi-participants installed an Agro-Forestry project on the Enbridge Pipeline that goes through the land ~ as a work project during the event !  Trees and bushes included Hazel Nut, Black Locust, Chestnut, Willow, Flowering Plum, Service Berry, and more. The plants will provide many services, such as coppicing for fences, basket, building….rot-resistant locust posts for building… fruits for humans and animals …a living shelter of willow….and abundant flowers for all those incredible POLLINATORS,

Potluck Lunch at the Perma-Mixer

The Mixer brought together awesome souls from the region and as far as Kalamazoo….to network, teach skills, share food, and contribute to the land, and the future.    Classes included a wide variety of skills and information !

Folks were also able to barter their goods: hand-carved spoons, propogated plants, etc, and share their projects, flyers, business cards.  Local Economy !

Many folks went out to dinner together, some returning for a bonfire and camping….and the Agro-Forestry Workshop held the next day ! Concepts ranged from the deep history of this region … to “scales of permanence” ~ a guide to making decisions about co-creating with the land to create productive and regenerating gardens and forests.  Awesome teachers, Bryan Mets, Mark Angelini, Trevor Neuman and Jared Bogdonov-Hanna lead the way.

Included was a design and planting session of a Forest Garden by the Earth Oven area with Jared and Bryan, Fruit Tree Grafting demo with Trevor and a BioChar demo with Mark ~ pictured below, plus a miscellaneous headstand emerging from the exuberance of the day.

    

 

Truly a wonderful weekend.

Foraged Brunch at the Strawbale Studio

The Foraged Brunch on May 17 was a very full and fun time.  Funfulling? Fullfunning?

We explored the lawns and gardens finding and tasting ox eye daisy, dandelion, curly dock, stinging nettle, perennial lovage, wild chives, violet leaves and flowers, and such.  We made up a wonderful salad from them, using honey mustard dressing, which really tastes great with the flavor of the greens.    Then we cooked up an omelet on the outdoor Rocket Stove Cooker ! The eggs from neighbor Dave & Dorindas eggs (from “the girls”, as they put it. )were combined with the the Morel and Dyrad’s Saddle and Shiitake mushrooms we found that day…along with many of the greens.  OH YEAH!  Good eating!  Good time.

See the 2 minute video created by Intern Justin Holmes:

Foraged Brunch at Strawbale Studio May 17, 2014

 

LTU Tour 6-8-2014

LTU students entering the Strawbale Studio

Rocket Stove Mass Heater

Outdoor Rocket Stove Cooker !

Students from Lawrence Institute of Technology visited the Strawbale Studio to see examples of natural building for their Ecological Issues Class, taught by Will Allen. Will, his wife Nancy and 6 students spent several hours touring and discussing how these building practices reflect ecological integrity.  The Rocket Stove Outdoor Cooker turned out to be of special interest to the group, some of whom wanted to go back home and build one !