TO REGISTER: Call Melissa at 828-669-7632
or email: melissathurmond@gmail.com

Permaculture a design system, available to anyone,
offering the possibility of disengaging from
consumer culture using solutions which emulate
natural patterns. combining ancient wisdoms with scientific
knowledge to form a set of ethics and principles
for creating sustainable culture. An ecologically
balanced lifestyle and a worldwide movement
with over half a million Design Course graduates.

* Patricia Allison is a member of Earthaven
Ecovillage, a Permaculture-based intentional
community in NC, where she continues to
learn and to practice what she preaches.
She has taught Permaculture Design Courses
since 1994.
More info at www.patriciaallison.net

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

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)

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.

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.

We are offering the fourth intensive Permaculture Design Certification Course at Quiet Valley Ranch, home of the Kerrville Folk Festival. We have developed our own brand of Permaculture in the Texas Hill Country and call it Kerrmaculture.

We will review and expand the Master Site Plan for the Ranch with design emphasis on surveying and drafting, erosion control and soil building, rainwater catchment, shade and edible landscaping, waste management, green building, and creating a non-profit. We will visit several mature Permaculture sites in the hill country and study the efforts already made on the ranch by the Kerrmaculture Krew of the Festival. By the conclusion of the course, you will be able to take any piece of property, rural or urban, and apply a system approach to designing and building a sustainable and green future. With our hands-on advance you will be able to integrate Pc into your life, wherever you are.

If you are available at this most beautiful time of the year and committed to the concepts of sustainable living, please call or e-mail now. We have a flexible payment structure to accommodate many situations. Please call if you have any questions, interest or intentions.

Visit our EVENTS/CLASSES page for more information.

The organizers of the course have again asked Scott Pittman, the premier expert on drylands Permaculture on the planet, to be the primary teacher in the next course of the Kerrmaculture Series. He will be joined by several well-known local Permaculture designers, instructors and consultants. This course is the most affordable certification course available and the only intensive Permaculture training available in Texas for the past three years.

For more information download the full course details and registration form:

2004 Permaculture Design Course Details

2004 Permaculture Design Course Registration Form

Or visit our EVENTS/CLASSES page.

What is the Millenium Ecosystem Assesment?

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is designed to meet the needs of decision-makers and the public for scientific information concerning the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being, and options for responding to those changes. The MA focuses on ecosystem services (the benefits people obtain from ecosystems, like food, water, and climate regulation), how changes in these services have affected human well-being and how such changes may affect people in the future. It also focuses on the responses that might be adopted at local, national, or global scales to improve ecosystem management and contribute to human well-being and alleviate poverty.

Thats all. See what scientists think about your future on the planet.