Hohenwald Design

We are starting our Ecovillage Design Course, a 10 day residential intensive course that gives individuals and communities the tools to start an ecovillage, and design it from the ground up, or retrofit an existing community. First we are focusing on mapping community structures and creating agreements to empower a group of people to become a community as taught by author and educator Diana Lief Christain. Then we will be desinging a vision for a beautiful post petroluim version of our local county seat, Hohenwald, TN. Greg Ramsey, a renowned archetect will be leading us through the process of design. We are weaving the archetectural elements and human elements of a succesful ecovillage design together with the ethics and principles of Permaculture and applying them to the design of Hohenwald.
Hohenwald is getting a lot of postive attention...Sometimes I blink and wonder if this is allreally happening to this small southern town in the poorest county in Tennessee. In addition to the Ecovillage Design Course, our partner and ally in regenerative designa nd education, The Center For Holistic Ecology (CHE), has been running a local sustainable development program through a USDA grant, and we are collaborating with CHE, Solari and Gaia University, to run a cutting edge Financial Permaculture Workshop. This workshop is going to provide the tools needed to actualize the designs and visions of a sustainable Hohenwald. Who knows, maybe some of the designs we draw up over the next two weeks will come true!

Web 2.0

Albert, Cord, Doug, Jessi and I are geeking out getting our blogs up to snuff for web 2.0
que vive web 2.0 y la revolucion de informacion democratica!
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Advanced Permaculture

A lot of energy has been swirling around The Farm ecovillage of late. Brainstorms leave showers of inspiration and aha moments strike like lightning. The cause of this inspirational weather?
Permaculture.
We have an upcoming Ecovillage Design course, the second part of our Permaculture Design Certification process...and on top of that We are launching two new advanced permaculture design courses.
both courses are being produced in partnership with a wide array of amazing individuals and are covering some of the most pertinent topics, and offering some of the most amazing solutions for the world today.
Earthworks for water catchment, soil erosion and clear cut remediation offers us a hands on glimpse into how to create lush green forest out of a wasteland of desertification caused by clear cutting. For an idea about the impact of earthworks (keyline systems and swales) on a dry climte check out this video
Forest Gardening and old orchard remediation will give us a chance to delve into food forestry: a retirement plan for seven generations. Forest gardening and restoring orchards into productive multi yield oasis can provide food, fuel and fodder for a sustainable future. check out this video on one of the original temperate forest gardens
Financial Permaculture: crafting regenerative business is in the design phase, and is generating excitement as it proves to be the interesting intersection of cutting edge needs to ground capital into regenerative shared enterprise on a bioregional level. For more infor on the ideas and participants in this design check out Solari, Center for Holistic Ecology, and Gaia University
All three of these courses are sending a spark of hope and creativity up my spine as I work hard to research and organizing the things that will be needed to provide education that is grounded in action learning (learning by doing).
It looks like its going to be an amazing summer and outstanding fall....MORE TO COME!