Don’t know how your year is going, but it’s been a little busy around here and things keep changing. We had this website hacked and they put up some very interesting (not!) porn. I hope no one was too taken aback. The class is coming together quite nicely and there may be room for several more folks. Getting your friends or family to come is a fine way to spread Permaculture and enrich your own experience, plus we’ll make you a deal.

If last year’s course is any indication, we’re doing really good things for ourselves, the land and the community. Morning circles often included more than 35 people and yoga to wake up for was a new experience to some of us. Beautiful time of year in an increasingly beautiful and bountiful place.

Scott Pittman will not be able to teach this year as scheduled, but Gary and Kirby and Markus, Howie, Don, myself and others will be carrying the torch with several choice morsels of enlightenment thrown in for your amusement and edification.

The dates that seem to work out best for most folks run a little later than originally scheduled. We begin on Sat, Oct 24th and end on Thurs, Nov 5, similar to our very first class, right thru the Halloween weekend. We’re planning to be at the F’burg Energy Round-up Sept 26-27 and there’s a Bioregional Campout in So Austin with Dick Pierce’s Permaculture Basics rounding out a busy weekend.

We’ll be doing the class in the Pavilion, eating in the Staff Kitchen and camping near enough to hear the bell, either backstage or close by in the campground. Expect the best weather, but prepare for all kinds, even cold. Need to know food preference/avoidance.

This is an exceptional class and a marvelous experience. It always gets exciting when the class begins to come together. Thanks for being here and I’ll be back in touch with more details, curriculum notes and a weather report (haha). Scroll down for registration.

SeeYaSoon feel free to call Namaste’ Rico

Rick Wright, Ranch Manager
Quiet Valley Ranch
3876 Medina Hwy
Kerrville TX 78028
c) 830/377-3253
http://www.kerrvillefolkfestival.com
http://www.kerrmaculture.org/
http://www.myspace.com/quietvalley
http://www.myspace.com/tribalstompaustin

Mark your calendars! We’re having the 6th annual PcDC at Quiet Valley Ranch on Oct 17-29, 2009. There is a slight possibility that we could have it a week later on Oct 24 - Nov 5, depending on teacher availability. Folks are already signing up and we will have a booth at the Kerrville Folk Festival to sign up, also.

My friends,

I hope you are all well after the hurricane. We got no rain nor wind at the Ranch.

I want to remind you about our fifth intensive Permaculture Design Certification course at QVR, October 17 – 30. We hosted the Natural Building Colloquium at the Ranch last Fall with several hundred participants creating several excellent new structures and demonstrating many proven techniques. These examples add an entirely new dimension to an already exceptional and potentially life changing experience.

Kirby Fry and Gary Freeborg will be the primary teachers, ably assisted by Jenny, Braids, Rick, Howie and others. 72 hours of classroom instruction with evening discussions, videos, site visits and awesome food. If you have a project in mind, bring it or join others and learn system approach to sustainability. Check out Kerrmaculture and call Jenny for details. 512-619-5363 Early sign-up savings apply until October 1. http://www.kerrmaculture.org/

This weekend: Join us on the shores of beautiful Lake Nasworthy in San Angelo, Texas September 20th & 21st for our seasonal gathering encompassing sterling presentations, dazzling discussions, high energy exchanges, musical adventures, fantastic food feasts and communing with the land. Announcing the (last days of) Summer 2008 BioRegional and Sustainable Living Congress and Campout.
http://picasaweb.google.com/larkinrf/SanAngeloCampus02

Next weekend: 9th Annual Renewable Energy Roundup & Green Living Fair
September 26-28, 2008 Fredericksburg, Texas http://theroundup.org/index.php

October 2-5: Southwest Regional Folk Alliance – Austin
http://swrfa.com/2008/

October 11: KerrStaff Retreat @ QVR
www.kerrstaff.org

Permaculture Design Course in Austin - 10 selected weekends Sept 27-Nov 22
Other classes and events throughout the year
Austin Permaculture Guild - 512-619-5363
www.permie.us/

Get Real! Get Sustainable! Have fun doing it!

SeeYaSoon Rick (Vote early!) 830/377-3253
(you may have to cut/paste links)

Come join us at the Quiet Valley Ranch in Kerrville, TX, for our fifth Permaculture Design Course. The dates are October 17 through 30, 2008.

Last October-November, the Quiet Valley Ranch hosted a Natural Building Colloquium with over 300 participants! It was like having an advanced, hands-on Permaculture course times ten. Over 30 heavy hitters (authors, activists, consultants, builders, movers and shakers in the sustainability movement) gave presentations and demonstrations. Fall is a great time of year in central Texas, and the Quiet Valley Ranch is a magical place for sustainability-minded folks to gather and renew our collective soul.

We now have five major natural building projects and several greenbuilding projects on site, demonstrating an array of techniques and materials from cob ovens to timberframe, straw bale to living roofs, adobe to earthen plaster. These structures, combined with the permaculture projects undertaken by Festival volunteers and permaculture classes in the past five years (including a hillside organic garden, large-scale composting, and rainwater catchment), make the Ranch a very educational as well as beautiful place. Our ability to spread the word through the Kerrville Folk Festival and the Kerrville Wine and Music Festival adds to the appeal of the Quiet Valley Ranch as a venue for permaculture education.

We are now busy organizing our upcoming Permaculture Design course, an intensive that will take place October 17 - 30, 2008. Our roster of past teachers and projects is remarkable, and we are currently in the process of assembling another “star cast” of instructors and guest speakers. We will publish this information as it becomes available. For now, you can find out what our classes typically cover by scrolling down this page to “Kerrmaculture III Announcement,” and downloading the file titled “2004 Permaculture Design Course Details.” This will give you a good idea of the course content (though the order of topics may differ).

Tuition for the 13-day intensive is $900, which includes camping and all meals. The price comes in at under $70 a day — an excellent value for the opportunity to acquire skills that will change your life (and help change the world), and to form potentially lifelong friendships and business connections.

(NOTE to the Folkfest Community: Generous discounts available for Ranch residents, and for Festival volunteers willing to serve on the Kerrmaculture crew and dedicate extra time to permaculture projects on the Ranch.)

Registration is being handled by a Festival volunteer and permaculture course graduate, Jenny Nazak of the Austin Permaculture Guild; please call her at 512-619-5363 or email austinperm@permie.us if you have questions or would like to sign up.

We look forward to seeing you this October.

Quiet Valley Ranch will host the Natural Building Colloquium from October 19 - 28, 2007.

Austin’s Sustainable Building Coalition and other Texas natural building leaders will work with colloquium participants to improve facilities used by Kerrville Folk Festival artists, staff and visitors. “We’re looking forward to offering hands-on natural building seminars in this wide open setting, and hosting talks from leading natural building architects, builders, experts and teachers,” says Kindra Welch, co-organizer of this event. “Right now, we’re asking everyone to save the date.”

Check links for more information and the website.