PERMACULTURE COURSE IS FULL

We reached more than enough participants for this next Permaculture Course next March, from the 20th till the 28th... I´m still waiting for some confirmations, but I think we have reached the limit...
So, I´m thinking about the possibility to make A SECOND ONE THIS YEAR, either FROM THE 17th till the 25th OF APRIL, or else from the 21st to the 29th OF AUGUST.

IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED LET ME KNOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO I CAN DECIDE IF WE GO FOR IT OR NOT... WE NEED AT LEAST 8 PARTICIPANTS IN ONE OF THIS 2 OPTIONS OF DATES (end of APRIL, or end of AUGUST)...THE SAME PRICE AS THIS ONE, 180E...

PEACE

I´m really glad with this, first of all cuz most of the participants this time will be portuguese :-)

Weather conditions at the moment...

we had snow here... :-) ... check out for the pictures here ... and here if you wanna see the flood that came after the snow melted and the rain poured :-) ...
Oh my... what a wheather !!! Beautiful though...

NEW PERMACULTURE COURSE COMING SOON...

Next SPRING we'll be running another PERMACULTURE COURSE here at the MOUNT OF OAKS... 

As last year, it will be taught by Lesley Martin who is a fantastic person and teacher in my opinion, and I’m sure all the ones who did the last year´s course can say the same...

It is going to take place from the 20th to the 28th of MARCH 2010, and it’s gonna cost 180E

If by any chance you’d like to offer more, know that all the money will revert to pay the teacher, the food expenses of the course and all the extras will be for our future building projects...this land is still in a pioneering stage and we buy all things we need mainly with charitable donations...

this course will be given in english, unless we have a volunteer to do a simultaneous translation into portuguese or another language...

Now, WHAT SHOULD YOU EXPECT OF THE COURSE :

It includes lectures, field trips, hands-on projects, camping and meals. The course will be conducted in the internationally accepted manner, so all graduates earn a Permaculture Design Certificate for completing the 72-hour course which includes : Intro, Fundamentals, Field Trips, Design Workshop (the attendants will be put into groups and each presents their own design project in the final day)... All students are required to be present for the full 9 days if they wish to receive the certificate.

The course will consist of a broad range of topics applicable to life anywhere on this planet, yet will be tailored to the needs of the students present as well as the location at hand. Participants will help to co-create the design of food forests, permaculture-style gardens, natural buildings, water catchment and irrigation systems, work with swales and dams, etc...

Permaculture courses are fairly standardized as far as content. We will cover every major topic . So quickly what that includes is the following:

1. Philosophies and Ethics underlying permaculture.

2. Basic permaculture principals and help shape things in general

3. Patterns in Nature, and how to use that in design

4. Methods of design. How to go from a damaged piece of land to having and idea for how to move forward with it.

5. Climactic factors. We will cover all the major climates and how to work with them.

6. Trees, forests, and why we want to mimic their systems.

7. Water: catchment, usage, importance, and conservation

8. Soil, minerals, microorganisms, building new soil, and preventing erosion

9. Earthworks: How to shape the land to help it achieve the goals we are aiming for.

10. Aquaculture

11. Natural Building

12. Alternative systems: community living, and other ways of choosing to live differently that works well for people and the planet.

Each of these categories has subcategories and the teacher also has their own additions and certain topics that are stressed over others.

You can also check here for the last year’s report...


WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTED TO BRING ?

-tent or if you have, your own mobile home 
-your daily care personal stuff (biodegradable as much as possible)
-a flash light (the moon will be growing as it will be full on the 29th, but still, it’s always handy)
-a cup/mug (we might not have enough here for everyone)
-we do have plates, forks and knives, but if you prefer to bring your own that’s up to you...
-sleeping bag and mat or whatever you wanna sleep with...
-some hard surface for you to write on... We don’t have a conventional classroom...
-if you have your favourite kind of chair or stool, do bring it...the ones we’ve got might not be the most comfortable ones 
-Some warm clothes...the nights can be chilly...but the days  are usually warm and sunny (I do hope so)...
-If you play any instruments and would like to bring it for the fire circle in the evenings, do bring them along...
-Joy, Love , open heart, laughter, your own knowledge, etc...all the good in you!!! The not so good stuff comes along too, but we all have it anyway, so hopefully we’ll all be gracious 
-you can pay the 180E as you arrive, but if you have the chance to give it in advance one week before (all of it or a part), that would help with the shopping we need to do before everyone comes...

WHAT DOES THE LAND PROVIDE ?

-A camping area
-A shit pit and or a dry compost toilet (if we get it ready on time) ... With toilet paper or water as you prefer...
-Drinking spring water and food (mainly vegetarian)...LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY RESTRICTIONS ON YOUR DIET...
-I do hope to have a better shower system then...but we do have a way to shower or bathe...

I guess that’s all the information I’ve got... If you have any questions, do ask ...

DON’T FORGET TO PASS IT ON TO YOUR CONTACTS OF PEOPLE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED...

...a comment from one of the last year´s attendants :

“What an absolutely brilliant course it was.. I am still digesting everything Lesley taught us. And thank you so much for hosting us all, and for this write-up!
I look forward to seeing the fruits of her teaching in the years to come - when we are all working on established permaculture projects of our own!” Hannah xx


PEACE FOR ALL

P.S- I'm thinking of not having more then 15 attendants, so if you're interested get in touch as soon as you can...I already have 4 people interested and I only mailed the invitation a couple of days ago...

MORE VIDEOS ON THE OLIVE HARVEST...

here's a little tour to see what we've been doing...

Sieglinde cleaning the olives from the leaves...

How to know how much salt goes in the olives after they are sweetened in water...

Emma and Sieglinde packing the olives to take to the press...

at the press...

This press in Sobral do Campo works 24 hours a day during this season... there's literally tons of olives to press at this time...

And finally...our olive oil in the land...click here to watch so I don't need to upload it again, and also find out how you can get some of this amazing 100% organic olive oil and support us at the same time...

OLIVE HARVEST FINALLY DONE...

Finally we end up picking up all the olives to take to the press... we got 120L out of 910Kg...good deal !!!

I'll just post some pictures and videos for you to watch as there's not much more to say...
...and excuse the poor quality of my camera ...

You can also check here for more on the olive harvest...


Sieglinde defeated her fear of heights picking some olives on the ladder...even on a rainy day...

And here enjoying her stuffed bread...Hmmm, it was delicious...she has been our cook since she came, more than a month ago...this day it was rainy, so she spent the whole day making all sorts of bread... I'm going to miss her...not only for the amazing food she makes, but because she's a wonderful person to be around...she would love to live here one day...but she has children and grandchildren to come and she wants to be close... she had to leave us today...

 
Take a look at the amazing and beautiful work that Sieglinde and Elena did on our prayer shelter...

I was simply amazed with such love and dedication...they did it on the week I was away for my birthday...what a lovely gesture from both of them...thank you "abuelitas"... 

Now some videos...some are a bit long, but it's cool because it explains all the process both for olive oil making and also what is the process to actually eat the olives...

If you want to have a detailed explanation on how the olives are pressed, you can also go here  to this post I wrote 2 years ago on the same press in Sobral do Campo...
o.k,here we go with the videos...my last tree to harvest...

O.k, I guess this can't hold any more videos, so I might need to post them in separate posts...but not today as it's getting dark already, and I'm freezing here outside the village Hall in Póvoa de Atalaia...

( here I have a plug and wireless... very useful)
I hope you enjoyed it !!! I actually like this video stuff...I guess I got it from the winter ´s blog...

well, soon more...I hope...

OLIVE HARVEST IS ON THE WAY...

the land has been blessed with lots of rain these days
And the olives are getting ready...
I still don't know when the press is going to open to take the olives, but people are saying the harvest will be sooner rather than later this year...
So, we'll appreciate help for the harvest... Possibly from the 19TH until the 26TH of October

...in a few weeks... but I'll confirm it as soon as I find out about the press...
I might start next week to harvest some to preserve...

Let me know if you are willing to come and help and share with others who might enjoy it too !

Be Peaceful...

working hard this week...but satisfying

I've been enjoying building a roof for the washing dishes station... something I wanted to do almost a year ago, but that´s how things go here...slow and steady...Tim and his group came from Scotland to build the floor and we were supposed to finish it...but it never happened until now, mainly because people wanted to do many other things, and the one who said he could be in charge of it, never really did...

That happens here... I really want to focus this winter to finish all the things we have started since I moved here... making things nice and a bit less temporary...

I´m relying on donations and I'm really thankful for one I already got to buy building materials... that´s going to be a great help!!!

I want to start at the main center of activity, and I really want to work on the basics : the kitchen, the bath-house, compost toilet and the prayer shelter...

I started to put the 2 posts at the back that were missing...the Scottish group forgot about that... Oops! they were supposed to be inside the concrete floor, so I had to make a stone pile around it to secure it well ... That was hard work... carrying lots of stones and making cement (I don´t like the material, but for the purpose, it was the best option, and I also didn´t have to buy it as there were some left over...

Then  I made  the wood structure that needed to be strong to hold the roof... I used some eucalyptus and Mimosa that was already dried and was the straightest I found...

I needed flat wood, so I used some nice pine boards and beams that David left here...he made a "5 star" floor under an almost rotting yurt...what happened was that David left, the yurt end up rotting and almost falling apart, until others who stayed here last winter nicely took it away and piled the wood to prevent more damage from the rain... 

It was still left under the rain and sun and David or Lyna were not planning to get it back, so I thought the best would be to use it... (not everything that people leave behind is useless )

I took all the nails away, chose the best ones, carry them down,

measured them and

cut them all the size I needed... 

thank God for Japanese technology...as Ricardo told me, they are years ahead of us...he left this saw here when he came for the prayer week...thanks Ricardo...it's really great !

 


The hardest work was done, preparing the materials... now the fun part began... laying board by board...

I haven't finished and I'm taking a day off today...

On monday I'll have to buy some battens ("ripas" in portuguese) to support the clay tiles...

I'll let you know next time how it all ended... I hope it´s nice and secure ... It's the first time I've done something like this... but hey, we can learn so much just by trying and doing it... And I do love carpentry!