Press Release
School of Integrated Living
School of Integrated Living (SOIL) will be hosting a series of classes at Earthaven Ecovillage this summer. Called the Building Resiliency Series the 4 day-long education seminars will be held at the a 20-year old intentional community an hour outside of Asheville, North Carolina.
SOIL is wanting all who want to participate to come and not let money be a deterrent. Sliding scale $40-80.
Contact NikiAnne at 828-664-0268 or nikianne@schoolofintegratedliving.org with any questions or to register.
Course descriptions:
We’ll explore the practical implementations in the following ways:
July 18 : Food Production and Natural Buildings Tour
July 25 : Renewable Energy: Now and the Future
August 1 : Economics for Human Settlements
August 8 : Sustainability and CommunityThe instructors have decades of experience in sustainable living and regenerative system both at the “classroom laboratory” that is Earthaven Ecovillage and beyond. Our dynamic team of instructors include Diana Leafe Christian, Lee Walker Warren, Chris Farmer, and more.
The series is highly informative and thought-provoking for both those who are just beginning an exploration into the variety of options and the potential pitfalls of living a sustainable and regenerative life, as well as those who have been on this journey for years.
The series will include tours, demonstrations, panel discussions, lecture, question & answer, and more.
Participants are welcome to stay for a community potluck and grill-out on Friday evening as well as spend the night in the campground and even take a general tour of Earthaven on Saturday morning (2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month only). Camping and Tour are additional costs to this series. Check out the Earthaven website at www.earthaven.org to register for tours or camping.
Sliding Scale: $40-80 per class, or $200-400 for the series. Space is limited, enroll soon.
SOIL wants to make this series available to all that are interested. Please don’t let finances get in the way of you taking advantage of this unique experience.
July 18 : Organic Food Production and Natural Buildings Tour
Earthaven and the Taylor Creek Watershed are home to a variety of natural building styles and techniques. Come take a tour of some of the community’s buildings and learn about how these techniques were employed. Design strategies featured include: timber frame, stud frame, cob, straw-bale, earthship, use of passive solar design, radiant floor heating, recycled insulation, roof-water catchment, and photovoltaic power systems. We will discuss the lessons learned, and pros and cons of each.
Alongside the buildings we will also tour of some of Earthaven’s farms and gardens and will observe and discuss different models and approaches to growing organic food on family and homesteading scales. Topics explored throughout the day are: composting, humaure, animal husbandry, and a variety of other cutting-edge small-scale land stewardship techniques, such as the use of bio-char, rotational cover crops, and rotational grazing.
July 25 : Renewable Energy: Now and the Future
Chris Farmer, natural builder and off-the grid utility designer/consultant, will give us an introduction to the core concepts of electricity and how it pertains to us, whether we live on the grid or off. He will discuss the history of electricity, the background of where modern electricity comes from, how it gets used and how our lives are dependent on it, as well as the issues surrounding both grid tie and off-grid renewable energy systems. We will then tour Earthaven to see off-grid renewable systems in practice, including radiant floor heating, the use of hot water diversions and a wood-fired boiler. In the afternoon, we will delve further into this topic by discussing energy alternatives that are possible solutions to the world’s impending energy crisis. Farmer will give an overview of what he refers to as Sunlit Synergy – the possible beneficial synergistic interactions between wood gasification, wood distillation, alcohol fuel production, biogas digestion, and vermicomposting. There will also be a demonstration of biochar, the use of charcoal as a fertilizer, which liberates large amounts of energy in its production.
August 1 : Economics for Human Settlements
During the morning, Diana Leafe Christian, ecovillage design educator and author of Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities, will talk about creating a village scale economy- how Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland has done it and how Earthaven and neighbors in the Taylor Creek Watershed are beginning to do the same. The afternoon will feature a panel of small-business owners from and around Earthaven, with an emphasis on how they sustain and support these businesses and themselves, lessons learned, trials and errors, and will be available for Q and A. This day is dedicated to an exploration of how to integrate economics into having a sustainable life, whether in a rural or urban setting, and how to embrace economics on a local scale.
August 8 : Sustainability and Community
The morning features Lee Walker Warren, homesteader, teacher, and co-founder of Imani Farm at Earthaven Ecovillage, speaking about the Three-Legged Stool of Sustainability. In this talk, Lee discusses the social, environmental and economic factors necessary for sustainable and alternative projects to succeed. The afternoon will consist of a talk and interactive discussion with Diana Leafe Christian on Three Aspects of a Healthy, Thriving Community, and How to Recognize and Prevent “Structural Conflict”.
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