In the teaching space
Our largest course to date, we had the privilege of having 12 wonderful people stay and learn about Permaculture with us. Most arrived the Saturday afternoon prior to the course start, so they could set up camp and get acquainted with their surroundings and their temporary home for 2 weeks.
Even though the composting toilets may have been daunting for some, they all took it in their stride and helped emptying the toilets every few days. We gave them all the responsibility of tidying up their communal and teaching area and the bathrooms and toilets. Dishes were done by them as well, and they needed to light the fires to have hot water for their showers and for washing dishes.
Turning the 18 day hot compost during the PDC course
Wood was chopped, composting toilets emptied, 18 day hot compost pile turned, an urban permaculture property visited, a farm tour on our property was included and examples of theoretical knowledge shown to students. On the last day we had a great time listening to and seeing other peoples talents, and we had some great comments from the students, including a wonderful poem (see student feedback page).
An urban permaculture example at Tim Lang’s property in Cooran
We did learn that we need a larger teaching space, which we are in the process of preparing now. We will have to approach our catering a bit different as well, which we are working on at the moment too. I am sure that our needs will keep changing as we go, so we need to stay flexible with our approach.
We very much enjoyed having such a great group of people staying and learning with us on the property, and we wish them all the best with their future permaculture endeavours. We are looking forward to our next PDC, which starts 19 August!
Group photo on the last day!
©2012 Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast – Permaculture Design Certificate, Permaculture Design Course
Author: Zaia Kendall
Zaia grew up in a family of musicians in Holland, and has a background in top sport (snow skiing) and web development and design. She co-founded the PRI Luganville and PRI Sunshine Coast Inc (now PermEco Inc.) with Tom, and runs the “invisible structures”, like finances, business administration, website design and maintenance, writes articles and records and edits videos. She assists Tom in running the Kendall Permaculture Farm and supervising other volunteers. She is an active member of several musical projects and bands, involved in community music and runs percussion and marimba workshops, is the percussion leader for the Woodford Folk Festival People’s Orchestra and composes as well as plays music. She is passionate about community music and loves seeing people discover that they can play!