Straw Bale course at Pine Ridge

Sustainable architect Howard Switzer and Permaculture designer Katey Culver of Ecoville Architects will teach a straw bale course at Pine Ridge Lakota reservation from July 30, 31, and Aug 1, 2010.  Learn how to build with straw and finish the structure with earth. You will learn all aspects of putting up sturdy straw bale walls and finishing them, including foundation, attachment to the roof, etc, and we will complete a good portion of one or more walls during the course.

We will be building a large workshop facility at OLCERI, the sustainability school located on an 8000 acre ranch on the reservation.  It will be a multi-use facility for classrooms, workshop, equipment storage and possibly student housing.  This project will greatly enhance our ability to deliver courses and also to execute ongoing projects like building high efficiency stoves/heaters (which can save lives on Pine Ridge).  It will also serve as a demonstration straw bale building for additional projects at Pine Ridge.

Experience the unique environment of historical Pine Ridge (home of Wounded Knee and many other historical sites), and interact with the culture. Contribute to a worthy heart project while learning to build your own straw bale home.

Students may stay after the class (and are encouraged) to continue to work on the building, and we are also looking for interns/apprentices who can continue to work on it until it is finished.  We are targeting to complete it this summer!  Tribal members will attend the course on scholarship – your course fees help make this happen.

At Pine Ridge, people die every winter inside their homes because of exposure to the weather – many of the homes are not weatherized and are poorly constructed.  It is estimated that up to 60% of homes in Pine Ridge have black mold.  Straw bale is a very viable option for people to build healthy, safe and resilient homes. This class is the first in a series of natural building classes for Pine Ridge and is part of an overall program to make sustainable housing available more broadly on the rez.

Price is $275 before July 18, $325 after. Very limited discounts available – inquire early! You can pay via the PayPal button on the right hand side of the page. Please indicate the funds are for the straw bale course. We will acknowledge your payment via email and send an info sheet about the reservation, directions, etc. Please register early as that helps us focus on the planning of infrastructure!

Camping and healthy meals are included in the price. Vegetarian or vegan available. If you have special dietary needs, let us know, but be prepared to bring your own food as well. Bring snacks, as there are no nearby stores – the ranch is fairly remote. Camping is primitive, we have room for RVs but no hookups. There are tipis and geodesic dome available on first come, first served basis. Electricity for phone charging, etc, will be available. Phone service is Alltel and Verizon and Verizon cards will pick up Internet – other services can be gotten a few miles from the ranch, and you will be able to use one of our phones at the ranch if needed.

You can fly into Rapid City and we will pick you up and take you back, for shared price of gas or rental van. Course starts at noon on 30 July and ends at 5 PM on 1 Aug. If flying or driving, you can arrive the day before and leave the day after. Driving directions will be sent to you once you register. The ranch is approximately 20 miles outside of the town of Pine Ridge on the Lakota reservation.

If you have any questions, please contact: cory@permacultureguild.us

Bio for instructors:

Ecoville ArchiTechs is comprised of architect Howard Switzer and Permaculture designer Katey Culver.  An architectural design firm formed in 1996, Ecoville ArchiTechs focuses on natural building techniques including passive solar, straw bale and earthen construction methods with a Permaculture design foundation.

Howard Switzer has been designing environmentally friendly buildings for more than 40 years.  Living on The Farm in Summertown TN during the seventies he developed passive solar technologies for energy efficient homes.   In 1994 he started designing straw bale homes and teaching straw bale construction. A social activist as well, Howard presents on many aspects of healthy living including sound finances, community development and alternative energy applications.

After 20 years as an environmental activist Katey came to Permaculture as a natural outgrowth of her previous work.  “Saying ‘Don’t do that’ wasn’t changing the paradigm and through Permaculture I found the joy of ‘Yes’.  I no longer focus on the problem and instead focus on the options for healing.”   Katey’s Permaculture work is also expressed through their site Song to Gaia Gardens, where she tends a forest garden and teaches workshops on various Permaculture and natural building techniques.

Katey and Howard first partnered up doing political satire skits for local peace group fundraisers.  They soon discovered they had the same desire to implement this style of education – music, storytelling and theater to their social change work of natural building and community revitalization.  The result was the formation of Ecoville ArchiTechs

Together they have designed and/or facilitated wall raisings for more than 40 straw bale buildings throughout the Southeast US and Montana.  They teach workshops to construction crews and owner-builders on straw bale installation and natural plaster application.  They also present these concepts to professional organizations and the public.  Through their entertaining style they have inspired hundreds of people from around the world to take regenerative action to create their place.  Natural Building Instructors who have seen these presentations have commented that Ecoville ArchiTechs natural building slide shows are among the best they’ve ever seen.

Currently Katey and Howard live/work in a solar-powered straw bale home on 65 rural acres in Tennessee practicing their craft along with some dogs, cats, pigs and chickens.

Apprenticeship opportunities at Pine Ridge, Summer 2010

We will be completing several permaculture projects at Pine Ridge this summer and we are accepting apprentices and volunteers to assist.

These projects are part of the Oglala-Lakota Cultural and Economic Revitilization Initiative on an 8000 acre cattle ranch on the reservation.  The ranch is the home of a school of sustainability and will become a model for regenerative permaculture practices with indigenous and cultural elements.  We would like to complete a number of key projects this summer which will contribute to economic revitilization of the reservation as well as sustainable self-sufficiency.

The projects we seek assistance for are as follows:

Kitchen Garden:  We have created a kitchen garden for the ranch this year and need help expanding and maintaining it over the summer.

Food Forest:  We will be planting at least one food forest on the ranch this summer – if we get enough volunteers we will also plant one in the canyons of the Tribal Lands which will become a community/tribal food forest.

Agroforestry and holistic range management: Apprentices will have an opportunity to be exposed to these practices as they are implemented from an indigenous perspective on the ranch.  This is part of a beginning farmer/rancher program on the rez that includes microlending of cattle from OLCERI, and the formation of a cooperative to ensure the cows can be sold at the most advantageous prices and that the farmer/ranchers will be successful.

Returning from herding cattle

Student learns to use a bobcat

Wind Power:  We will be completing installation of wind turbine/battery system to put the ranch fully off the grid electrically.  OLCERI has helped create wind power for the tribal radio station and plans to export this know how to others on the rez.

Keyline design:  The ranch includes a 3000 acre watershed that lends itself very well to capturing water high on the land and thereby recharging the ground water supply and regenerating the landscape. We hope to do broadscale work this summer to start this process, which will lead to a program of large scale land regeneration across the reservation.

Straw bale building:  We will be building a straw bale workshop/classroom on the ranch which will allow us to expand our educational programs and also create new economic opportunities.  Housing is a major issue on the rez – every year people die because of weather exposure in substandard housing, and we want to create a well built demonstration straw bale building so that this know-how can be exported.

There are many other smaller projects on the ranch. Apprentices will have an opportunity to experience the workings of a cattle ranch and also interact with the Lakota way of life via this active extended family.  There will be opportunities to participate in local workshops on indigenous crafts and skills such as bow making, leatherwork, etc.

Grant writing:  We are seeking grant writers who can assist us to create grants that can fund materials, equipment, etc, for future projects.

Marketing:  We are seeking assistance to market our courses outside the rez. We pay a 10% share on any students registered as a result of your efforts.  Course fees are a major way we fund the expansion of our programs into the rez, so please help!  We do not have the time we would like to thoroughly market these courses because we are very busy focused on the logistics of pulling as much energy as we can toward the rez programs out of these classes.  Please let others know about what we are doing, ok?

Camera person and sound person:  We would like to document the activities of this project this summer and are looking for people who can help us do so with quality video.  This is historic, and should make a quite interesting story.

There is no charge for apprenticing or camping, but you will need to cover your own food expenses.  Those who already have skill sets related to the needs of these projects will be considered first, but all are encouraged to apply.

Please send inquiries to cory@permacultureguild.us.  Include your skills and resources, and why you are interested in apprenticing at OLCERI ranch.

Bagging dirt for root cellar freezer insulation

Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation PDC

72-hour Permaculture Design Certification Course will give you the tools to…

• Create sustainable food systems in any environment
• Practice water catchment and harvesting
• Work with built environments
• Build healthy communities
• Share your knowledge to create urban farms, aid in rural areas and more

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Location:

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Take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn these essential skills in a Native American environment. The Oglala Lakota tribe has a rich history. The Pine Ridge reservation is home to Wounded Knee and other key historical sites. Additional workshops and field trips will be offered by tribal members on sustainable technologies, tribal history and native practices.

The course will be held on a beautiful 8000 acre ranch located in the reservation which includes historical sites, tribal lands and a variety of ecosystems.  The ranch has  a number of self-sufficiency projects ongoing including biodiesel, wind power, solar (made on the rez), building high efficiency stoves, sustainable timber work, etc. Planned for this summer are straw bale building, food forestry, broadscale prairie rehab including keyline and more.

Housing will include tipis, and traditional Lakota and indigenous techniques will be included in the instruction.  There will be ample opportunity to interact with and experience Lakota culture on the reservation and also opportunities to apprentice and intern for those who are interested – please inquire about our internship program!

Come one or two days early to explore life on the ranch and reservation.

This course is likely to fill to capacity so please consider registering early. Please pay with pay pal (button to the right) or if via check, contact cory@permacultureguild.us for address.

College credits will be available for this course.  Details will be provided on our site as soon as we have a course number.

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Instructors:

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Main instructor: Warren Brush, Certified Permaculture Designer and Educator throughout North America, India and West Africa, founder of True Nature Design, and co-founder of Quail Springs Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm and Trees for Children. For more than 20 years, Warren has enlightened thousands of people on their discovery of sustainable living and respect for land and communities.

He teaches courses including: Permaculture Certification, Rainwater Harvesting Systems, Ferro-Cement Tank Building, Compost Toilet Systems, Greywater Solutions, Water for Every Farm, Drought Proofing, Cultural Mentoring, Introduction to Permaculture Systems, Corporation Sole Formation, Various Origins Skills, Food Forestry, among other offerings.

Learn more about Warren Brush organizations and programs:

Quail Springs Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm, www.quailsprings.org, a 450-acre arid land Permaculture demonstration and educational center located in the southern California mountains.

Trees for Children, www.treesforchildren.org, is an organization that teaches youth how to plant trees in ways that contribute to their community’s resilience and stability. It also raises funds for tree planting projects.

Mentoring for Peace, www.mentoring4peace.com, is a research project that is discovering the nature of how to mentor our children to be peacemakers with broad concentric rings of influence.

True Nature Design, www.truenaturedesign.net, is Warren’s Permaculture design and education company

Wilderness Youth Project, www.wyp.org, a youth centered organization that mentors youth in learning nature observation and origins skills.

Assistant instructor:   Cory Brennan is a certified permaculture instructor and designer who is focused on permaculture work in high poverty areas.  Work includes the Olceri project at Pine Ridge, a course taught in Little Haiti, Miami, work with a food forest at Crenshaw High in S. Central Los Angeles, and permaculture relief corp work in Haiti after the recent earthquake.  She founded createclearwater.com, dedicated to forming regenerative community, and is currently working on establishing Create Los Angeles, a similar project.  Her passions are food forestry, creating community and financial permaculture.

This course is being delivered in coordination with Olceri, a Lakota project to create sustainable, self-sufficient systems as a demonstration and educational site at Pine Ridge reservation.
For more information

Early registration with deposit to secure a place in the course is advised as enrollment is limited and the course is expected to fill quickly.

Early Bird discounts for payment in full by July 1, 2010. Early Bird price:  $1,250

NOTE: Early Bird price has been extended to July 18, to encourage early enrollment! We have much to accomplish this summer and we’d like to complete course registration so we can focus fully on the projects on the rez.

Regular registration $400 deposit to secure your space with balance due by July 20, 2010.

Full price is $1350.

All available scholarships and work study will be offered to Lakota on the reservation so we will be unable to offer those to people attending the course from outside the rez.

We offer an affliate program for those who assist us to register people for any of our courses, which offers 10% of the course fee in cash or 15% off the price of tuition.

Price is $100 less for couples, and those who are already certified via a previous permaculture design course.

Edible Forest Gardens at Pine Ridge

Sept 6-Sept 12, 2010

This forest workshop is offered in an indigenous setting on the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation in South Dakota. Our workshop has a strong hands on component. We will be designing and planting a food forest on a sustainable homestead site on the reservation that will provide food for a Lakota family.

During the workshop, you will learn how to install a beautiful forest garden in your yard that mimics that natural ecologies of the forest and provides for human needs. Enjoy abundant, healthy, fresh food harvested from your yard almost year round (with root cellar and cold frames at Pine Ridge).  We can grow an abundance of food through observing natural systems and applying these patterns to our gardens.

You will camp out at the homestead site, experience living on the reservation, and have opportunities to interact with the Lakota community.

You will learn:

* How to prepare soil so that it increases in fertility
* How to choose plants for your forest garden
* How to keep plants healthy and productive organically and with minimal work
* How to design your garden so that it flourishes and maintains its health
* How to get a good yield in the first year and increase your yield into the future.

Cost is $520, which includes camping, meals, and a teeshirt from the Lakota community. This helps funds Lakota participation and two permaculture projects in the community.

Be sure to bring clothing for warm and cool weather as it is variable in Sept.

Instructors are:

Marisha Auerbach

herbnwisdom.com

Cory Brennan

permacultureguild.us