- Date: 29 – 31 May 2014
- Location: Australia
- Language:
- English
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The School of Self-Sufficiency (May Workshop Weekend)
Communal Camp-out, Learn new skills and get amongst nature for the weekend.
This is a unique program that allows participants to learn 8 new skills over one weekend from a variety of self-sufficiency categories whilst camping out and experiencing community living at one of our farm or outback locations. We invite eight great teachers to come along and pass on their specialty skills and/or knowledge in a two hour session each. Some classes will be very high energy, hands-on and practical and others will be at a slow pace, relaxed and engaging, and there will also be plenty of time for socialise and have a great time with the other participants.
This month……
– Bee Keeping
– Earthships
– Seed Saving
– Home-Brew Ginger Beer
– DIY Bio-Fuels
– Tea Ceremonies
– Making Rag Quilts
– Natural Teaching and Learning
Date: 30th May – 2nd June (All workshops will be held on the Sat-Sun. Friday and Monday are optional for people who want to come and relax on the property, set-up camp early etc.)
Facilitator: Kate Marsh, founder of Creative Collectives
Cost: $150 including 3 nights camping onsite and attendance to all 8 workshops. Kids under 12 free.
Early Bird Tickets: $130.00 – ends 12th May.
Where: Creative Collectives HQ, Lara, Victoria (45mins from Melbourne, 20mins from Geelong. Public transport available on the Geelong V-Line train)
1. Bee Keeping with Michael O’Connell
Home Bee Keeping is becoming increasingly important as bees are suffering all around the world, which has a huge impact on our ecosystem. This workshop will not only providing you with a greater understanding of bees and their important role in the environment, you will also learn how to keep bees at home and get hands-on experience in preparing frames and extracting honey.
2. Earthship principles and Design with Rachel Goldlust
Earthships are a great sustainable housing design established by the eccentric garbage warrior, Michael Reynolds in the US. In the past few years a few amazing Australians have been overseas to study at his academy in Taos, New Mexico and brought back the amazing design style to our shores. One of these awesome individuals is Rachel Goldlust, who will be joining us in May to teach you the ins and outs of this design style.
Rachel also has a background in town planning, environmental education and is a founding member of Earthship Australia, a team of sustainable builders who are activating the movement in Australia.
“At first I just thought Earthships were cool because they looked like no other building I’d seen before; crazy organic shapes and bottled led lighting, more like an artwork than a building. Then I learnt the theory behind them whilst helping build one and realised that it’s the design principles and the overall building efficiency that makes the special.” (Kate Marsh, CC)
3. Seed Saving with Jo Hammond – ‘Save the best eat the rest’
Self-sufficiency is all about providing for yourself, and home-grown food in a major part of this. Learning to garden efficiently can save you huge amounts of money and provides not only healthy edibles but also a great sense of achievement and pride. Each years crops can provide the seeds required for the following year and a garden can be almost self-sustaining with a little knowledge in seed-saving.
Jo will take us through the basic methods of identification, collection, extraction, storage and use of seeds. She will also discuss the importance of seed saving from a grassroots point of view – growing and saving open pollinated seeds and securing our food sources from commercial impacts.
Workshop4. Brewing Ginger Beer with Jo Hammond
We’ve been experimenting with plenty of fermentation recipes this year and absolutely loving it – the flavours are amazing and the health benefits are even better. Now it’s time to learn a tasty fermented beverage – Home Made Ginger Beer.
Ginger beer has only a short list of ingredients, but a very long list of instruction, which can turn people of at first. Doing a hands-on workshop will get you over the hump and have you inspired to brew at home within 2 hours. Once you know the basics, it’s easy.
5. Bio-Fuels with Jason Brooker
Imagine if you could run your car on a a super cheap source of fuel…like used oil from the local fish and chip shop. Well, YOU CAN, and Jason is going to show us how. He will take us through the process of how he converted his diesel vehicle to run on bio-fuel and how he collects and processes the free fuel.
Vegetable and animal fats and oils are triglycerides, containing glycerine. The biodiesel process turns the oils and fats into esters, separating out the glycerine. The glycerine sinks to the bottom and the biodiesel floats to the top and can be syphoned off. The process is called transesterification, a method that substitutes alcohol for the glycerine in a chemical reaction, using a catalyst. It’s a difficult process to learn from reading manuals and this workshop will give you the understanding and confidence to start making your own.
6. Tea Ceremonies with Sarah Cowell from Teasense.
People. Tea. Connection. Senses. Stillness. Presence. Meaning.
“For me, tea is both a sensory experience and something you develop a ‘sense’ or feel for if you listen. It becomes a quiet, personal relationship between you, the leaves and the teapot. A shared understanding.”
Like commonsense, over time, you can develop your own ‘teasense’
Sarah is madly passionate about tea, connection and sharing. Three years ago she realised her calling is to share the beauty of specialty tea and to enable people to experience how wonderful the world of tea is. She strongly believes that tea has so much to offer; to touch hearts, to inspire, to nourish and delight.
Each year Sarah travels to the source; spending time on tea farms, absorbing tea wisdom from tea masters and finding inspiration in the tea cultures of China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Returning to Australia brimming with tea leaves and ideas, she creates intimate sessions weaving tea tasting and learning through stories from the tea fields.
7. Making Rag Quilts with Paisley from Pixie in the Park
Making a Rag Quilts is an excellent way to learn the basics of sewing, use up scraps or recycle second-hand materials and create quick warm quilts ready for winter. Paisley has been a seamstress for 8 years and runs her own ethical fashion business, she is passionate about self-sufficient living and excited to play her part in the skill-sharing movement.
8. Natural Teaching and Learning with Danella Connors
This is a workshop called ‘Making Tracks’…..it will be an introduction to a new way of teaching and learning and will deepen your capacity for working organically with people, which is an essential skill for community living.
Interconnection and interdependence are key – the learning is experienctial and natural and the processes are organic and responsive.
We start with ourselves and find all we need in the moment and in relationship. The matters at heart for those gathered on the day are our curriculum. Through feeling, intuition, keen observation, deep listening we learn to make our own unique tracks for learning.
“I have many years experience with infants and adults in diverse settings from grass roots and community to institutions and organisations. I have a passion for natural learning, a formal background in education and many years in shamanic training where I learnt through experience about interconnectedness. I believe absolutely we are our own and each others best educators.” Danella Connors.
Applies to all ages and all fields of learning.
For more information, please visit the event website.
