12+ site in and around Asheville

http://www.ashevillage.org

Tuition $1,850

ONLY 6 SEATS AVAILABLE. Inquire soon. Starts in August.

THIS PERMACULTURE APPRENTICESHIP offers a group of six participants the 72-hour Permaculture Design Certification 1 day per week, ENHANCED by field work 2 days per week at a variety of nurseries, edible parks, community gardens, and urban homesteads in the Asheville area.

DATES: August 10 – October 28, 2010, Tuesdays thru Thursdays; 10am-6pm.
LOCATION: 12+ sites in Asheville, NC
SPONSOR: The Ashevillage Institute

LEARN
• Become a Certified Permaculture Designer.
• Connect with veteran Permaculture practitioners.
• Get a broad sampling of local Permaculture hot spots.
• Explore your internal landscapes through Nature Connection, Yoga, and Meditation.
• Gain relevant field experience in: organic food production, soil building, nursery production, backyard chickens, aquaculture, fermentation, wild-crafting, edible forest gardening, rainwater catchment, grafting, primitive skills, natural building, and more.

SCHEDULE
• Tuesdays: Permaculture Design Certification class
• Wednesdays: Hands-on projects at the Ashevillage Institute
• Thursdays: Field work at 12 sites within the Asheville area
• Plus: 4-8 hours per week of extracurricular & homework

SPONSOR
The Ashevillage Institute is an eco-urban education center that promotes sustainable solutions in action. Ashevillage sponsors educational programs and is developing a demonstration site on a one-acre site. In the works are two naturally retrofitted houses; a 30,000 gallon, four-pond recirculating aquaculture system with seven kinds of fish and aquaponic greenhouse; integrated chicken coop; earthworks and hard-scaping for maximum water retention; chickens, bees, vermiculture and mushroom production; edible and medicinal landscape; and outdoor and indoor meeting space. The site is situated next to downtown Asheville, NC.

FACILITATORS
Brandy Hall is the main facilitator for the Permaculture Apprenticeship. She is the Site & Program Manager for the Ashevillage Institute. Brandy holds an MA in Contemplative Education and brings forth a love of nature and design to her work with Shades of Green, Inc, a small design/education firm. The apprenticeship will be enhanced by more than 12 guest teachers and site hosts including the bioregion’s premiere Permaculture practitioners who have a collective of over 200 years of experience!

FEE*
12-day Permaculture Design Certification: $1,200
24 days of site visits, field work & materials: $650
Food and lodging not included
TOTAL: $1,850
*10% of fee supports Kleiwerks International.

ACCOMMODATIONS
Housing is not included, although three spots are available for women at the Ashevillage Institute site for $250/month. Inquire within.

REGISTRATION & PAYMENT
• To register for the Permaculture Apprenticeship, send a $650 non-refundable deposit to: Ashevillage Institute, 80 Buchanan Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801. Please include your full name, phone, email, and address.
• The remainder of your payment ($1,200) is due by July 28th.
• All payments are NON-REFUNDABLE.

PAYMENT PLANS & WORK TRADES
Payment plans and minimal work trades are available; inquire within.

INFORMATION
For more details contact Brandy Hall at brandy@ashevillage.org or call 434.284.3057.

Salt Spring Island, BC Canada

Instructor Clifton Schooley

http://rammedearth.info/cliftons-rammed-earth-blog/rammed-earth-workshopstraining/

This is a 6 day hands on course that teaches the basics of rammed earth construction for landscaping or non-insulated walls.In our workshop you will be shown exactly how to efficiently form and ram a wall from professionals. This course is actually real work, it involves forming up for walls and then shoveling and ramming the material in the forms, then removing the forms the next day and feeling the satisfaction of creating an object of beauty. We will be building a 1′ thick wall that is 50′ long and varies from 8-13′ in height. Also covered will be: material selection, mixing and curing procedures etc.

Oxford, Michigan

Instructor Deanne Bednar

http://www.strawbale.pbworks.com

See Early-Bird Discounts

Get hands-on experiences you can apply to your home or future natural building projects! Help sculpt such things as a bench, tree sculpture & niche. Includes a deep understanding of using earth as a aesthetic & practical medium. $25 saves your place.

Aprovecho, Cottage Grove, OR

Instructor Sukita Reay Crimmel

http://www.sukita.com

Tuition 450

What the training will include: preparing the space, tool use, mixing, and application techniques for both base floor and finish floor, burnishing, finishing and doing repairs. There will be lots of hands on time. Participants will receive a completion certificate, which will count towards becoming a certified Claylin installer and a manual.

July 12 – Fall 2010

Clemson, SC

Instructor Matthew Nistico

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=119976998037835

July 12 – Fall 2010: NATURAL BUILDING/STRAW BALE APPRENTICESHIP

Location: Clemson, South Carolina
Instructor: Matthew Nistico
Paid stipend of $200/week

I have room for several apprentices who are serious about learning and practicing straw bale, cob, and natural plastering techniques in the context of a real job setting.

The owner-builder, Matthew Nistico, has designed the home and site and thus far seen the project successfully through 2/3 of construction, together with input and occasional consultation from some of the best natural builders in the east. I will be teaching all of the techniques associated with bale wall assembly, including stacking, retying, shaping, external pinning, and prepping bales for plaster, mixing cob, cob chinking and sculpting, window and door details, mixing lime plaster, and applying lime plasters by hand over straw and wood lathe. There may be opportunities for learning both lime and earthen finish plastering techniques by trowel, concrete staining, tile work, and some basic framing as well.

You will be working with the owner-builder, my carpenter, and local building team 40 hours/week on the completion of a lime-plastered, post-&-beam, straw bale homestead. The foundation, exterior walls, and roof are mostly complete, and the structure is dried in, yet most phases of construction are still visible, from finished exterior plaster to yet-to-be-framed interior walls. We will be employing an innovative “split-bale” method to create nine-inch-thick, straw bale, interior partition walls, which will then be finished and plastered along with the inside surfaces of the exterior walls. As such, much of the work (but not all) will be indoors.

This project incorporates other green features, such as passive solar design, extensive use of salvaged and reclaimed building materials, passive cooling and ventilation strategies (as opposed to air conditioning), extensive daylighting, active solar hot water, and rain water harvesting.

There will be primitive accommodations for apprentices to live on site, sleeping in their own tent, and sharing an outdoor shower and portable toilet. The owner-builder also lives on site, and apprentices may have occasional access to indoor shower and limited cooking facilities. There is also an option of inexpensive, extended-stay motel accommodations 5 minutes away. This is a relatively secluded and private, partially-wooded property located on a quiet country road at the edge of a small university town, set in rural South Carolina in the foothills of the Appalachians. The site is located 45 minutes from the city of Greenville, and 2 hours from both Asheville, NC, and Atlanta, GA.

The apprenticeship includes a $200/week paid stipend. Apprentices are expected to be strong workers committed to learning about natural, innovative, and low-impact building techniques. This will be an on-the-job learning experience, working approximately 40 hours per week for the duration of the apprenticeship. Lengths of apprenticeship are negotiable.

Please contact Matthew Nistico at elessarrex@hotmail.com to set up a telephone interview.

Salt Spring Island BC

Instructor Robert Laporte

http://www.econest.com

Tuition: contact Robert[at]econest.com

The EcoNest Apprenticeship Program is for candidates with a keen vocational interest in ecological building. Select apprentices are mentored while working alongside highly skilled professional builders.