August 18th – 31st 2012 PDC in Austin, Texas!

This certified Permaculture Design Course is a mind expanding and paradigm shifting experience you won’t want to miss. Participants have the opportunity to co-create designs for urban and suburban environments and learn about natural building and community cultivation strategies applicable to life anywhere on the planet.

Teaching in the Food Forest

Taught by Community Cultivators’ founders, Theron Beaudreau and Chowgene Koay, this 72 hour Permaculture Design Course will be held in Cedar Creek, just 15 minutes from Austin, at Awesome Hollow, home of the amazing Creation Flame. In 2011 Creation Flame was the first to successfully replicate an open source Compressed Earth Brick machine designed by the Open Source Ecology project. This bourgeoning permaculture site is an ideal space to discover new knowledge and skills in permaculture design.

The course will cover every major topic in Bill Mollison’s “Permaculture: a Designers Manual” and will also be packed full of rich, practical examples of permaculture design through Theron’s direct experience learning from permaculture professionals, biologists and community organizers from around the world!

Some of the subjects students can expect to learn about:

1. Philosophies and Ethics of permaculture
2. Permaculture Design Principles
3. Patterns in Nature – how they apply to design
4. Methods of Design – turning damaged landscapes into productive, healthy landscapes
5. Climatic Factors – how to design within your climate where ever you are
6. Trees and Forest Systems – how to mimic nature in your design
7. Water – catchment, usage, importance and conservation
8. Soil – minerals, microorganisms, erosion prevention and soil creation
9. Earthworks – shaping the land to achieve our design goals
10. Aquaculture – fish and water plant production
11. Natural Building – cob, adobe, compressed earth and more!
12. Community Cultivating – strategies for community development
13. Urban Design Systems – designing for density
14. Animal System – understanding the role livestock plays in design

Giving PresentationsMany other topics will be explored as well and students are encouraged to share and exchange any relevant knowledge and skills they have. The course is designed to be interactive and inspirational to provide the best possible environment for all levels of students.

This Permaculture Design Course runs over a jam packed two weeks from August 18th – August 31st(Graduation Ceremony, Potluck & Party!) To receive a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC), participants are required to attend all two weeks of exciting hands-on and classroom learning. This $50 deposit reserves your place in the August 18th PDC. Full course costs of $475 are due upon the first day of the course.

Your experience will begin Saturday morning at 8am on the 18th of August. Each day starts at 8am with an hour of hands-on farm experience (learn how to care for chickens, milk pigmy goats, and take part in the community experience). From 9 to 9:30am there is a short review of the previous days’ lessons and at 9:30am the first session begins. Each day there are a total of four 1.5 hour sessions separated by a 30 minute breaks and a 1.5 hour lunch. Lunch break starts at 1pm and runs until 2:30 for the start of the afternoon sessions. The day ends at 6pm with the occasional, and optional, evening session from 7:30 to 9pm. Friday, August 24th is your day off… even if you are too excited to stop! You’ll have to direct the energy toward your own garden!

A light breakfast and lunch is being provided by one of our generous course participants. The cost of this service has not been factored into the price of the course and donations (money, food and kindness) are encouraged and appreciated.

Limited camping is available for the cost of $10 additional per night. Please notify us in advance if you intend to camp to insure that space is available.

Our gracious friends at Vajra Azaya, a non-profit that sponsors intentional communities, is offering a single scholarship for the cost of the course ($475). To apply for this scholarship, submit a letter showcasing your volunteer service in community cultivation to info@vajraazaya.org

REGISTRATION CLOSED

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About the course facilitators:

Theron Beaudreau:
A student of life, adventure and permaculture, Theron has spent the last year traveling through Australia and Southeast Asia to learn and apply Permaculture in a diversity of climates and environments. His dedication toward the regeneration of eco-systems and reintegration of individuals with their communities shows in everything he does.

Growing up in rural North Idaho, much of Theron’s childhood revolved around snow capped mountains, abundant wildlife and dense natural forests. That chapter of life would later be juxtaposed with the dense urban environment of Houston, Texas. After relocating to Austin, Theron sat on the board of directors for Wheatsville Co-op and helped to co-found Community Cultivators, which has since expanded into three major U.S. cities. These experiences have given Theron a unique lens on to the world which he shares through permaculture education and application.

Chowgene Koay:
An active gardener and educator at East Ft Worth Montessori Academy, Chowgene grew up in the suburban area of Arlington, Texas for the majority of his life in a family of doctors and nurses. Curious about the medical field, he journeyed to Austin, Tx to study Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas. He boldly aspired to make a cure for cancer. As his studies progressed, he became exhausted by the degree program and ventured into gardening to ease his mind and cultivate an area that he was truly interested in. This endeavor led him to Sunshine Community Gardens were he met Theron Beaudreau, learned about permaculture and food forestry, and from that point on Chow has continued learning and gardening with nature. Although he’s not practicing medicine or making drugs, his quest to cure human ailments and diseases has led him to the right job, gardening.

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(Many thanks to Creation FlameVajra AzayaCommunity CultivatorsThe Food is Free ProjectWheatsville Co-op and all the other individuals and organizations that have contributed to making this event possible!)

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