Austin Celtic Festival 2011

Cat Dancing Creations set up a booth at the Austin Celtic Festival last weekend. There were a lot of people out both days for the music and events. Business was only so - so. We had plenty of lookers, but not too many people seemed to be buying anything. Cat finally put out her Tarot Reading sign on Sunday and that brought in enough money to make it almost worthwhile.
The music was great, though. I particularly enjoyed Ed Miller and The Silver Thistle pipe band. 
It was cloudy and windy all weekend.
In the pic above you can see our booth.

As well as a really alert young man behind my right elbow.
Not mentioning any names.

One of our new pieces we featured for the Celtic Festival. 
A triskelion from three woods. It's a new design and pretty cool!


This weekend we're setting up at the Vortex Theater on Manor Rd. in Austin for the East Austin Studio Tour. See you there!

Upcoming Permaculture Classes in Austin!

Classes are currently forming for two upcoming Permaculture Design Certificate courses in Spring of 2012. Sign up now, they fill fast!

2 Upcoming classes:

Spring Weekend Permaculture Design Course with Dick Pierce.

Held in Austin, Tx. Location to be announced. 10 Saturdays- Jan. 28 - Apr 7.

The cost of this Permaculture course is $600.

Reserve your space now with a NON-REFUNDABLE deposit of $120. The deposit can be paid to your registrar, William Seward,  (512) 468-7835 (raincrow_permaculture@yahoo.com ) or see the PayPal button in the sidebar. Be sure to indicate which class you are registering for, and include your name, email, and phone number.

The balance of $480 is to  be paid to Dick Pierce on or before the first day of class.

Winter/Spring 2012 Saturdays Course dates and topics:

Jan 28: Basics 1
Feb 4: Basics 2
Feb 11: Soil & Water
Feb 18: Building & Energy
Feb 25: Urban Permaculture; Gardens
Mar 3: Design Basics
Mar 17: Rural - Farm & Ranch NOTE: no class Mar 10)
Mar 24: Design Workshop
Mar 31: Design Workshop
Apr 7: Design Presentations/Wrap-Up

Date & Location TBD: Graduation Potluck & Celebration

This course includes classroom instruction, hands-on projects (including your site design project), presentations by guest instructors, and field trips. 

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
Dick Pierce is a permaculture teacher and designer with many years of experience in central Texas and New England. He has studied permaculture design with Bill Mollison, Geoff Lawton, and Patricia Allison. Dick’s experience includes working on farms, working with Native American tribes across the US, and running a greenbuilding program for young people at American Youthworks, a nonprofit high school in Austin. He also helped launch the popular “Citizen Gardener” program, aimed at promoting food self-sufficiency in Austin through gardening. Dick was born and raised in New England but has called Central Texas home for over a decade.

Spring Intensive Permaculture Design Course with Kirby Fry.

This two week intensive course will begin at 9am, on Saturday, April 21, 2012 and conclude at 5pm, Friday, May 4, 2012.  It will be held about 40 miles east of Austin, at 1483 CR 311, McDade, Texas 78650.  There will be some camping/overnight space available (please let us know, in advance, so that we can make sure we are able to accommodate you).  Basic meals will be provided daily (bringing something extra to contribute to the group is encouraged, but not required).

The cost of this Permaculture Intensive is $600. Reserve your space now with a NON-REFUNDABLE deposit of $120. The deposit can be paid to William Seward,  (512) 468-7835. (raincrow_permaculture@yahoo.com ) Or, use the PayPal button on the sidebar of this blog. Be sure to indicate which class you are registering for, and include your name, email, and phone number.

The balance of $480 to be paid to Kirby Fry on the first day of class.

CURRICULUM As taught by Kirby Fry (see bio, below):

Day 1 (April 21, 2012): Introduction of teachers and students, definitions of Permaculture and sustainability, state of the world, ethics, principles, zones, sector analysis.

Day 2 (April 22, 2012/Earth Day): The function of design, methodologies of design, patterns, observation exercise, the soil food web, the function of forests, the function of prairies.

Day 3 (April 23, 2012): Annual gardening, perennial gardening, food forests.

Day 4 (April 24, 2012): The bio-regions of Texas, ecological restoration.

Day 5 (April 25, 2012): Grazing systems, introduction to design projects.

Day 6 (April 26, 2012): Earthworks, aquaculture, aquaponics.

Day 7 (April 27, 2012): Design strategies for Central Texas prairies.

Day 8 (April 28, 2012): Tour / Work Day.

Day 9 (April 29, 2012): Day of rest.

Day 10 (April 30, 2012): Green building, natural building.

Day 11 (May 1, 2012/May Day): Rain water harvesting, grey and black water harvesting.

Day 12 (May 2, 2012): Strategies for sustainable job creation and local activism, in class design project time

Day 13 (May 3, 2012): Invisible Structures, career opportunities, in class design project time.

Day 14 (May 4, 2012): Design presentations, Permaculture design course certificates awarded.

Teacher Bio: Kirby Fry studied conventional agriculture and forestry at Texas A&M and has nearly 20 years of expertise behind him in the fields of natural building, rainwater collection systems, and passive solar cooling systems, among other things.  He studied with Bill Mollison (co-founder of Permaculture) and Scott Pitman (founder of The Permaculture Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico).

Citizen Gardener

Not a class by the Austin Permaculture Guild, but brought to you by the Sustanable Food Center and taught by Dick Pierce. (See above for bio.)

Austin Spring planting. Learn what you need to go home and DO IT- locate, build, plant, harvest.

Hands-on classes over two Saturday mornings and one Wednesday evening. Mid Jan - March.)

For details: sustainablefoodcenter.org

Here are the links for further information.

Austin Permaculture Guild website  (classes, news, other vital information, more links)

http://www.austinperm.com/

The Austin Permaculture Guild group on Yahoo!   (discussion, conversation, what's happening.)
austinperm-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Citizen Gardener  (great local class for Austin area gardeners.)
www.sustainablefoodcenter.org

Upcoming Permaculture Class in Austin!

The Austin Permaculture Guild is now accepting registrations for its Fall/Winter 2011 Permaculture Design Certificate Course, which starts September 24 and runs for 10 Saturdays. To register and reserve your space right now for the Fall course send me an email, or simply visit the Austin Permaculture Guild Website. The class will take place at 5604 Manor Rd., headquarters of Third Coast Activist. 
 

The Avatar Course

As I said in an earlier post, I was in the Avatar course all last week. Actually I started a couple of days late, and I didn't graduate till Monday evening. So now, I am an Avatar! It was pretty awesome. I must say I will probably be assimilating what I've learned for some time to come. 

These days, if you mention Avatar, of course, most people think about the movie. (Truly awesome movie, too!) A few do recognize the concept from studies of Hindu and a few other religions. The course has little to do with either. I will only touch on a few of my overall thoughts on it here. You can go on to check out www.theavatarcourse.com if you wish to know more.

Simple idea, really, with far-reaching goals. The idea, to bring about an enlightened planetary civilization one person at a time, not by telling anyone WHAT to think, but rather cleaning out the cobwebs so they CAN think for themselves, meanwhile achieving true compassion for fellow beings. There is nothing exclusionary either, no "us or them" thinking. We're all on this planet together.

Each one of us sees "reality" through our own set of filtered lenses. Filters not all of our own choosing, but picked up rather willy-nilly from unbelievably random sources in our past. The Avatar course, starting with Part 1, Resurfacing, gives us the tools to decide for ourselves which beliefs are useful and which aren't. I'm not talking about particularly religious beliefs here, but diverse "lessons" we may have taught ourselves, or had imposed on us, for whatever reason in the past, and that may no longer be valid. The idea is to use the tools to sort them out, keep useful ones, clear out the rest.

There are no religious doctrines involved, no judgments levied, no right and wrong. Find out what is in there, and make your own decision what you want to keep. We all have things in our mental attics that are unbelievably trivial that continue to shape our lives today. Some beliefs served a solid purpose at one time, and no longer do, but they are still locked up in there. Others, like the weird smell of Aunt Gertie's hash, linger with no purpose, other than to give us heartburn.

Ever clean out your sock drawer? Get rid of all those un-matched, ragged, or out of style socks? How about cleaning out old programs, swap files, other detritus, out of your computer? All of that makes it more efficient, doesn't it? Defrag your mind? Yeah, kind of like that.

I took Part One, Resurfacing, last year. My partner, Cat Dancing, took the full course and went on to become an Avatar Master. That is the course I intend to follow as well, now that I have the rest of the basic course, (parts 2 and 3) behind me. We are heading out to Florida in a few weeks to do just that.

I believe it is well worth doing. Check out the website and see for yourself. There are free intro classes in most cities. See the site to locate a local master and intro. If you are here in Central Texas, let me know and Cat can talk to you.