?Permaculture Design Certification Course?

Hi Kathy, and I hear you loud and clear. I’m a fan of the weekends format myself, heck, if I wanted to be one of the instructors I could only participate in a weekend format due to my own job.

A group of folks are working hard to build the Permaculture community here in Syracuse – there has been little activity and even less organizing around Permaculture here in the past, and we want to see it flourish.

For now we have been holding small workshops and related events (Such as the intro permaculture potluck and hugelkultur bed workshop this fall), and there will be a series of workshops in the spring, tentatively:

* FEB 20 – Herbal Medicine
* APRIL 2 – Build an Herb Spiral
* APRIL 9 – Rain Barrel Workshop
* APRIL 16 – Perennial Permaculture Planting
* APRIL 23 – Urban Plant Walk
* MAY 7 – Build with Earth

and we will be carrying on the discussion and development of trying to hold a full PDC sometime in the future. We set the stage back in March with the Upstate NY Permaculture Gathering here in Syracuse, and the creation of the Guild and network you are getting this message through, and we intend to keep the momentum rolling. Find more at the Guild website, and please consider joining the Guild site so that we can continue to build a critical mass. We need to know there are enough people out there to support a full course, and that we have the social capitol to move it forward, before we actual plan and schedule one.

Go to: http://www.meetup.com/Permaculture-and-Urban-Homesteading/

Best ~Frank

On Dec 14, 10:51 am, “Kathleen Partridge” wrote:
> If I might chime in here…
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> I’m located right outside Utica and have also been waiting (lurking) and > hoping for a PDC to be offered closer to home – approximately 50 mile > radius, which for me would include the Syracuse area. I would like to see > PDC’s become more widely available and in a format that accommodates us > middle-aged folks with jobs and responsibilities. Right now, everything I > see involves hours of traveling (big carbon foot-print) and some sort of > two-week communal camping adventure geared for 20-somethings. I realize the > camping aspect helps get these nature-deficit kids back in touch with > nature’s cycles, fosters community, etc. – plus they have no money – but > some of us old fogies actually are not so deprived, having been raised > before the age of electronic amusements that killed whole generations’ > awareness of the natural world.
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> Of note is the fact I now see lots of Priuses on the road and they’re all > driven by middle-aged folks. So there are more than a few of us boomers that > are aware of our collective social and environmental predicaments, but so > far we seem not to be the “target market” of permaculture, at least in the > US. I get the feeling it’s different overseas, however.
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> Anyway, this is not meant as a criticism of any of the PDC’s mentioned, just > an expression of my personal frustration at not being able to find a PDC > offering that will work for me. If anyone hears of anything here in the more > immediate Syracuse-Utica area, please post and let us all know. >
> Thanks.
>
> -Kathy
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