May 14, 15 & 16, 2010
Edible Landscapes (1732 Pell Road, Roberts Creek)
New farmers are still seeking bushland to cultivate, without having any real experience in clearing land or making design decisions. This weekend offers basic skills often overlooked but necessary. Take the time to learn some unspoken laws, have some fun with rocket stoves, network with others, meet mentors and to Unhook with Peter Light.

Friday, May 14 – BUSH FARM

6:30 – 8:30 pm - Creating Dimension lumber with the Mini Mill with Rob Corlett
It is hugely satisfying to create a stack of lumber from logs on your own property. Rob will show you finished products from his mill, and how to analyse a log for best use. He will guide you through safe use of the mill, proper stacking techniques and maintenance of the mill and chain saw. $25

Saturday, May 15

Woodlot Selection with Rob Corlett (9:30 – 11:00 am)
Someday we will have to make decisions on how to “manage” a small woodlot for maximum yield. Rob will talk to us about light, spacing, disease, preservation of wildlife trees, watching property margins, and how to fall small trees so that we end up with the best spacing for firewood. $25

Post Setting with Rolef Ohlroggen (11:15 am – 12:30 pm)
Whether keeping food competitors out or keeping animals in, we need fences. Many skills get learned the hard way. Most of us will inherit old fences or want to set new ones, and the proper setting of a post is an important art in the skill set of bush living. Rolef will show us how to interpret failure of old posts, how to choose new ones for the job, how to set in soil, how to save an old post using metal spikes. $25.

A Farm is Born with Robin Wheeler (1:30 -  3:00 pm)
From logged forest to planet-friendly multiuse property, Robin will describe the steps she took to map the big picture - decide on a well type, position sheds, create fencing, bring in “recycled” housing and begin the gardens – all part time and on a shoe-string.  $25

3:30 – 5:30  - TBA

Shared dinner – contribute, or help clean up (6:00 pm onwards)

Sunday, May 16

Creating a Bush Market Farm with Alain Bergeron (9:30 – 11:00 am)
Off site – directions provided on registration.
Alain bought cleared land in the forest and spent months gathering seaweed, coffee grounds and leaves to improve the soil. He dug an irrigation pond, rigged up a propane shower and raised his family in a bus while building up his market farm that now produces hundreds of pounds of food a year.   $25

Rocket Stove Workshop ~ build your own camp stove! With Nadi Fleschhut (11:30 am to 1:00 pm)
Understanding the basics of fuel-efficient, low-emission stove design.
In this workshop we will explore the basic concepts of fuel-efficient stove design by building a zero-cost wood burning portable camping stove made from recycled cans.  We will study the “rocket elbow” design of Dr. Larry Winiarski, and learn about the main principles that all rocket stoves employ to create the best circumstances for a high-efficiency wood burn that minimizes pollution and increases heat transfer.  I’ll also introduce the concept of the “hay-box” as a complementary tool to minimize energy use by allowing the food to ‘cook itself’. You will go home from this workshop with your own little camp stove with which to impress your friends, and a good introduction to the concepts of fuel-efficiency. Please bring work gloves (as we’ll be working with snips and tin cans), tin snips if you have them, a notebook, and your joy of learning J

How to Unhook with Peter Light (1:30 to 3:30) (off site – 2692 Highway 101)
How to stop doing what you don't want to be doing and start doing what you do what to be doing. A discussion group tailored to the needs of each participant exploring what it means to disengage from the dominate paradigm traps of the mother culture by turning on, tuning in, and dropping out.  Based on the life experience of the instructor and feed-back from course members. Oriented around permaculture.

Site Tour (4:00 - 6:00 pm)
A tour of the instructors developing permaculture, showing, step by step. how he is reclaiming two and a half acres of blackberry with no machinery and no digging; developing and executing a permaculture design; and planting and tending it, all with a minimum of labour and a maximum of enjoyment.  But one does have to work!  We're not kidding around here!  And as spring rockets into growth, ten and twelve hour days were the rewarding price of self-sufficiency and freedom, month after month, It is how one lives a day if one is a permaculture homesteader.  Now, at 67, the instructor is trying to get it down to 2-8 hours a day. Sliding scale - $30 - $45.

A prerequisite for each of the above two courses is to read the segment of the instructor's autobiographical sketch to be found at http://slas.ca/peter-light/

Cook-out around the doorstep firecircle (6:30 to 7:00 pm)

Firecircle hang-out (7:30 onward)
Soup, beer and wine provided by the instructor.