Living Skills School Year-long Programs
Essentials Program
160 hours; $1400;
February-October;
first session starts February 2012
In this program you will be introduced to the skills integral to living an earth based life. You will leave the course with a greater understanding of how to provide for the basic needs of you and your friends and family. You will also receive a certificate for Applied Homesteading Essentials (165 hours).
Application
Schedule
| February 24-26 | Planning for Abundance | intro to permaculture, knife sharpening, knife sheath making, garden planning, communication skills, fruit tree pruning, human nutrition |
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| March 10-11 | Preparing the Soil, Substrate, and Trees | seed starting, edible mushroom cultivation, garden bed preparation, composting, spoon carving |
| April 13-15 | Wild Foods and Medicine Hike | tarps and knots, debris shelters, wild food and medicine identification, botany, wild foods cookery, safe wild water identification and use |
| May 4-6 | Manifesting Through Our Hands | basic building skills, garden planting, primitive building |
| June | Gathering the Skills | Firefly Gathering (optional) |
| July 13-15 (3 days) | Retooling and Fire: Edges and tools of the Homestead: Use and Maintenance | intro to flint-knapping, knives, scythes, hatchets, cross-cut saws, chainsaws, bow drill fire by friction, flint and steel fire-making |
| August 16-19 | Building our Skills | natural building workshop |
| September 8-9 | Preserving the Abundance | canning, food processing, seed saving, soil enrichment, water in the landscape |
| October 5-7 | The Cycles of Life | berry and tree planting, directional felling, humane slaughtering and butchering, bone tool making |
Some of our instructors:
Natalie Bogwalker practices and shares skills she consideres vital to humanity’s future. She lives in a lovely, growing homestead nestled deep in community with Kaleb, Juliet, and others in Barnardsville, NC. She spends her time harvesting of the wild, building, planting, putting up food, growing, and teaching. She is the founder and director of Wild Abundance and the Firefly Gathering. She has taught and given talks at schools, universities, and gatherings all over the country. She holds a B.S. in ecological agriculture.
Juliet Blankespoor has been sharing her love of plants by teaching about medicinal herbs and botany for over 18 years. She owns the Chestnut Herb Nursery, specializing in medicinal and native plants, and is the director and primary instructor of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine. Juliet’s education includes a B.S. in Botany and over 1200 hours of training in herbal programs throughout the US. Her passion is everything green; botany, plant identification, ethical wildcrafting, wild foods, medicine making and herbal medicine.
Chuck Marsh is a co-founder and co-designer of Earthaven Ecovillage, near Black Mountain,NC. There he lives off the grid, cultivates abundance, and serves future generations as a permaculture nurseryman with Useful Plants Nursery. Chuck has been teaching and practicing permaculture for 20 years.
Alex Kilgore has been learning, practicing, and teaching primitive and traditional living skills since 1995. Alex lives in a straw bale house that he built on his off-grid homestead in the Blue Ridge mountains. He is a jack of all trades specializing in carpentry and off-grid living.
Kaleb Wallace is cofounder of the Firefly Gathering. He masterfully shares knowledge on human nutrition, fermentation, and primitive skills. He lives in the mountains in Barnardsville, NC.
Click here to download the Essential Program promotional poster.
